Undercurrents Between Main Gods

"Patriarch, I know my request is excessive. After all, if you shelter us, you will likely clash with the Four Divine Beasts Clan."

Barbary saw Hanjin fall into deep thought and continued, feeling slightly anxious:

"Although you certainly do not fear the Four Divine Beasts Clan, you surely do not wish to make them your enemy for no reason."

"In exchange, I am willing to offer all of my clan's wealth, and every powerhouse in my clan at the Seven-Star Fiend level or above, including myself, is willing to swear an oath of allegiance to the Augusta Clan before the Supreme God!"

"Oh? Patriarch Barbary, you speak too heavily."

Hanjin looked at Barbary with some surprise; he had not expected Barbary to be so decisive, even willing to swear a Supreme God oath.

A Supreme God oath is something no one can violate, not even a Sovereign. This is the true truth of the Coiling Dragon universe, the supreme rule.

"Barbary only asks that the Patriarch save my clan's life. From now on, I am willing to serve you as a loyal dog and horse."

Barbary gritted his teeth and knelt down with a thud.

An Asura-level powerhouse usually only kneels when a Sovereign descends; otherwise, they would not kneel even when facing a Grand Perfection.

This time, Barbary had staked everything he had—his dignity, his wealth, and his future—just to beg for a path of survival for his clan.

"This, there is no need for this, really no need."

Hanjin was also startled and immediately helped Barbary up, while simultaneously beginning to think.

"How about this, Patriarch Barbary, stay here for now. I still need to discuss this matter with my clansmen."

Hanjin's brain worked at high speed as he pulled Barbary up and spoke.

"Yes, you are right. I was too impatient. I will stay here temporarily and wait for your answer, Patriarch."

Barbary did not continue to kneel but stood up immediately. He knew that in some matters, showing one's attitude was enough; one could not force the issue.

After Barbary left, Hanjin sat alone in the great hall, lost in thought.

The so-called discussion with his clansmen was naturally just an excuse. He was fully capable of making this decision on his own; it was merely a matter of saying one word.

In great clans like theirs, the power of the patriarch is usually immense. When the Sovereign does not speak, the patriarch can almost decide everything with a single word.

In the Four Divine Beasts Clan, even if the elders of the Azure Dragon clan passed a resolution, the patriarch Gaiselesen could veto it with a single word; only the Great Elder Gaia could persuade him otherwise.

When Linley and Emmanuel fought their life-and-death battle, Gaiselesen directly overturned the decision passed by the council of elders. If it hadn't been during the period of war with the Eight Great Clans, Linley might have been executed for defying him.

This is the absolute authority that belongs to a patriarch.

Of course, authority also requires strength to support it. Later, when Linley achieved Grand Perfection, even if the four patriarchs acted together, they could not order Linley to do anything.

By comparison, the Four Divine Beasts Clan had four patriarchs, and real matters still required the four of them to decide together.

It was just that Gaiselesen was the nominal eldest brother, and most things were still decided by him.

Actually, from Hanjin's personal perspective, he did not want to take on this matter. While there were benefits for the clan, they did not outweigh the trouble it would bring.

For many years, although there had been constant conflicts between their Augusta Clan and the Four Divine Beasts Clan, most of the time they had kept to their own affairs.

Their main forces were in the Radiant Plane, while the main forces of the Four Divine Beasts Clan were in other planes; neither side would deliberately target the other.

In a sense, this had already become a tacit understanding between the two sides.

It was not worth having a direct conflict with them just for the sake of one Barbary.

However, Hanjin remembered that several hundred million years ago, his father, the Chief Sovereign of Light, had personally sought him out and entrusted him with a task.

The content of the task was to trigger a conflict with the Four Divine Beasts Clan without leaving the Radiant Plane, if possible, but not to initiate it themselves.

It would be best to let the Four Divine Beasts Clan come to provoke them, and then kill some of their people.

When he first received this order, Hanjin's first reaction was confusion.

Ever since the Four Divine Beasts Clan had clashed with them once, they had only kept a small portion of their clansmen in the Radiant Plane, and they never caused trouble with them on a daily basis.

Since their own clan was always developing in the Radiant Plane and the Four Divine Beasts Clan did not participate in the Plane Wars, this task was somewhat difficult to complete.

Moreover, what was the purpose of this task? Hanjin was confused for a time.

Fortunately, the Chief Sovereign of Light did not demand that it must be completed, only saying to do his best.

He hadn't seen an opportunity in all these years, and Hanjin had almost forgotten about it, but today, he had the thought of giving it a try.

"There are undercurrents among the Sovereigns as well."

Hanjin rubbed his temples, took a deep breath, and muttered softly.

Although his father had not explicitly stated the reason for doing this, he knew it must be a plan targeting the Sovereigns of the Four Divine Beasts Clan.

Even if his father, the Chief Sovereign of Light, had not told him the reason, he could probably guess some of it.

His father was likely planning to make a move against the Sovereigns of the Four Divine Beasts Clan and kill them.

When he reached this conclusion, Hanjin was startled, then forced himself to forget about it and never mentioned it to anyone.

As the most outstanding son of the Chief Sovereign of Light, he also had some understanding of the secrets among the Sovereigns.

Although he did not know the detailed content of the agreement between the Sovereigns, he knew that the Four Rule Sovereigns were the true masters of this world.

Although his father, the Chief Sovereign of Light, was powerful, he was still far inferior compared to the Four Rule Sovereigns and had to abide by the rules set by them.

Although the Chief Sovereign of Light did not fear the Sovereigns of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, if he were to fight them without any reason, it might attract the attention of the Four Rule Sovereigns.

For this reason, his father intended to exploit the conflict between the Four Divine Beasts Clan and the Augusta Clan. The best outcome would be to provoke Gaiselesen into charging directly into the Radiant Plane, after which he would arrange for people to kill Gaiselesen.

When that happened, the Azure Dragon Sovereign would certainly seek revenge, and his father could step in to stop it, making a battle between the two sides inevitable.

In this way, his father would occupy the moral high ground; since the Four Divine Beasts Clan struck first, they would not have violated any rules.

At the same time, if the Sovereigns of the Four Divine Beasts left Hell, they could avoid the interference of the Destruction Sovereign and successfully obtain the Sovereign Spark.

Thinking of this, Hanjin made up his mind. Tomorrow, he would announce that Bru was joining the Augusta Clan as an honorary elder, and his clansmen would be incorporated into the clan as peripheral disciples.

Afterward, he would publicly declare that no one was allowed to lay a hand on them. Although he wouldn't name the Four Divine Beasts Clan directly, he believed that given their clan's temperament, they would never be able to swallow this insult.

Thus, the next day, at the Augusta Clan assembly, Hanjin issued a patriarch's order, announcing Bru as an honorary elder of the clan.

Bru also kept his word, swearing an oath of eternal loyalty to Patriarch Hanjin in front of everyone in the name of the Supreme God.

This news spread rapidly throughout the Radiant Plane, and some well-informed major clans immediately realized that trouble was brewing.

Fifteen years later, news regarding Bru reached Hell, and the entire Four Divine Beasts Clan in the Skyrite Mountains was instantly filled with righteous indignation.

Elder after elder rushed to find the patriarchs, clamoring to go to war with the Augusta Clan and fight until the bitter end.

Even a few conservative elders with mild temperaments submitted requests to the patriarchs to join the battle.

This left the four patriarchs with splitting headaches; for the first time, these radical-leaning leaders felt that the elders were being far too impulsive.

Although Gaiselesen and the other three were usually overbearing and undeniably radical themselves.

But at the same time, as patriarchs, they bore heavy responsibilities and knew that when facing truly major events, one had to remain calm first.

Consequently, they could only pacify their clansmen, telling them not to be agitated and promising that the clan would certainly not let the matter rest, before sending them away to wait.

However, some elders were very dissatisfied with this answer.

In the Azure Dragon Hall, Gaiselesen sat at the head of the table, looking at the figure below with some anger.

"Bru, do you intend to disobey me?"

Gaiselesen's tone was low, suppressing his fury.

The person below defying him was the clan elder, Bru.

This Elder Bru was a genius of the clan, one of the few with the potential to become an Asura in the future. Had it been any ordinary elder, Gaiselesen would have kicked them out long ago.

"Patriarch, Bru would not dare; Bru only acts for the glory of the clan."

Though Bru said he didn't dare, he still answered stubbornly.

"Bru, it is not that we fear the Augusta Clan, but this matter is of such great importance that we must be fully prepared."

Gaiselesen felt somewhat helpless and could only continue to persuade him.

This fellow Bru valued clan glory far too much, and since he wasn't a patriarch, he couldn't grasp the weight of responsibility, often acting very willfully.

"Big Brother, we are here!"

Following a crisp voice, Gaia walked in with the other three patriarchs.

"Great Elder, three patriarchs."

Bru did not dare to be presumptuous anymore and hurriedly bowed.

"That's enough, Bru. You may leave first; we have matters to discuss."

Gaia glanced at Bru and directly ordered him to leave.

"Yes, Bru takes his leave."

Bru responded, not daring to linger, and quickly retreated from the Azure Dragon Hall.

"Big Brother, quite a few elders have come to find us during this period. The entire clan is now filled with righteous indignation."

The Vermilion Bird Patriarch sat down and spoke first.

"Indeed, the clansmen's emotions are running very high, and it's becoming difficult to suppress. If this continues, someone might secretly go there to kill."

The Xuanwu Patriarch sat on the other side and spoke up as well.

"However, do we really want to go to war with the Augusta Clan?"

Only the White Tiger Patriarch hesitated slightly, speaking in a low voice.

"War is war, are we afraid of them? They actually dared to harbor the Barbary Clan; they clearly don't hold our Four Divine Beasts Clan in any regard."

The Xuanwu Patriarch slammed the table in anger to refute him.

"It's not that I'm afraid of them, I'm just worried about the heavy casualties!"

The White Tiger Patriarch instantly retorted.

"Enough, both of you stop."

Seeing this, Gaiselesen scolded them, cutting them off, and then continued:

"The key to this matter is not whether we go to war, but whether the Sovereigns will be affected. Of course, we aren't afraid of them, but the Augusta Clan is a Sovereign clan after all. A full-scale war might trigger conflicts between the Sovereigns. Perhaps I should go and ask Father for instructions."