Hoss, Recovering and Regrouping

"Should I go ask Father?"

As soon as Gaiselesen said this, the entire Azure Dragon Hall fell silent.

The few who had been arguing just moments ago immediately shut their mouths and pretended to be mute, not saying another word.

There was no helping it. Outside, they were the mighty patriarchs of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, and everyone had to show them some respect.

But in front of the four Sovereigns, they were merely children and juniors. They wouldn't dare show the slightest disrespect.

Though they all called them Father and Mother, their relationships with the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns weren't particularly close.

The way Gaiselesen and the other three interacted with the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns was more like the relationship between an emperor and a crown prince. They were more sovereign and subject than father and son.

There was affection between them, but little of the closeness and warmth of ordinary family ties. Instead, there was a sense of distance: the Sovereigns stood high above, and the Highgods regarded them with awe.

The relationship between Hanjin and Augusta in the Augusta Clan was much the same.

Raystine and the Bauhinia Sovereign were completely different.

The Bauhinia Sovereign never put on airs as a Sovereign in front of her son. She acted just like an ordinary mother, calling him Jingjing at every turn.

Raystine had the temperament of a child, too. He was casual in everything he did, and he wasn't afraid of his mother.

On the contrary, whenever the Bauhinia Sovereign called him Jingjing, he would blush and loudly protest. It did no good, but their relationship lacked the feeling of a Sovereign standing above everyone else, as well as the awe a god felt toward a Sovereign.

Raystine's relationship with his own Chief God's Envoy was completely different, too. As a Chief God's Envoy, Leihong was technically the Sovereign's subordinate, and that made him Raystine's subordinate as well.

But Raystine had never treated Leihong as a subordinate. In his eyes, Leihong was his good brother, a brother who would share life and death with him.

Leihong had called Raystine "Young Master" for many years, but his feelings for him were genuine brotherly affection.

To put it bluntly, even if the Bauhinia Sovereign fell one day and someone tried to kill Raystine, Leihong would undoubtedly do everything in his power to help him.

The Chief God's Envoys of the Four Divine Beasts Clan were completely different. There was only self-interest between them and Gaiselesen and the others, no affection.

That was why, after the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns fell, none of their Chief God's Envoys helped the clan. They all ran away instead.

That was one reason the Eight Great Clans had been able to suppress the Four Divine Beasts Clan. Without their Chief God's Envoys, the clan's five Asuras were no match for the eight Asuras of the opposing clans.

Sovereigns generally didn't interfere in battles between gods. So, over the years, Gaiselesen and the others had handled almost everything concerning the Four Divine Beasts Clan across the various planes.

The Four Divine Beast Sovereigns replenished their supply of Sovereign's Might only once every trillion years or so. At other times, scarcely anyone in the entire clan ever got to see their ancestors.

The second and third generations from the clan's early days might have been fortunate enough to meet them. That was how Emmanuel had come to know about the Azure Dragon Ring.

Of course, Gaiselesen and the others had magic diagrams they could use to summon a Sovereign, but they had never used them in all these years.

After all, they had never encountered anyone worth using them on.

"That's true. We should discuss this with Father and the others."

After a long silence, the Black Tortoise Clan Leader nodded and spoke.

"The Augusta Clan is a Sovereign clan, after all. I agree we should ask Mother and the others."

The Vermilion Bird Patriarch nodded as well, expressing agreement.

The other two didn't object, tacitly agreeing.

"Then I'll contact Father."

Gaiselesen looked around. Seeing no one object, he turned and walked into the secret chamber.

"Phew!"

After taking a deep breath, Gaiselesen lit the diagram. A surge of Sovereign's Might instantly gathered, and a figure slowly appeared.

"Father!"

Gaiselesen immediately bowed, his voice respectful.

"What happened?"

The Azure Dragon Sovereign, Reding, asked in an even tone.

"It's like this, Father. The Augusta Clan..."

Gaiselesen spoke quickly, explaining the whole matter as concisely as he could.

"Oh? The Augusta Clan?"

Reding furrowed his brow slightly and fell silent for a moment.

Gaiselesen didn't dare make a sound. He simply waited quietly for an answer.

"Let this matter end here. As long as that Barbary doesn't leave the Radiant Plane, leave him alone."

Reding spoke in a grave voice. Then, as Gaiselesen stared in astonishment, he vanished.

"What?"

Gaiselesen didn't understand the order, but he didn't dare disobey his father. He could only smile wryly. Calming the clan members would be extremely difficult now.

"Well, Big Brother? What did Father say?" Gaia was the first to ask when Gaiselesen came out.

"Alas! Father said to let this matter end here and not pursue it any further."

Gaiselesen glanced at his younger siblings and answered with a slight sigh.

"What? But why?" the Black Tortoise Clan Leader couldn't help asking.

"I don't know. But since it's Father's order, we just have to follow it!"

Gaiselesen composed himself and spoke bluntly.

"Fine, but calming the clan members will be difficult," the Vermilion Bird Patriarch said unwillingly, wiping his forehead.

"Do your best to calm the ordinary clan members. As for the elders, if necessary, tell them it was the ancestors' decision."

Gaiselesen fell silent for a moment before issuing his instructions.

Meanwhile, deep in a secluded space in Hell, Reding's true body slowly opened its eyes.

"Big Brother, what happened?" Moni, the Vermilion Bird, immediately asked with concern.

"It's about the Augusta Clan."

Reding nodded and briefly explained the situation without hiding anything.

"Big Brother, do you think Augusta secretly gave the order?" Bowen, the Black Tortoise, immediately realized what Reding's decision implied and asked.

"It's only a suspicion. After all, there are plenty of people who want us dead."

Reding's face darkened.

Outsiders thought the Four Divine Beasts Clan was incredibly powerful and arrogant, as if they were a pack of mindless fools. In a way, that wasn't wrong.

But the Four Divine Beasts were Sovereigns who had lived for countless years. How could they truly be fools?

Their personalities were indeed forceful and overbearing, but part of the reason they acted that way was that they did so deliberately.

Others didn't know their own circumstances, but they did. The four of them were said to rival the Sovereigns.

That was a recognition of their strength, but it also constrained their actions.

They couldn't violate the rules laid down by the Four Rule Sovereigns. They couldn't kill Lower Sovereigns or Mid-level Sovereigns; they could only fight the Sovereigns.

That meant the only way they could obtain new Sovereign Sparks was to go after the Sovereigns.

But Sovereigns weren't easy to kill. As the eleven strongest people in the entire world, none of them were simple opponents.

Over countless years, many Sovereigns had fallen in battles between Sovereigns, and three Sovereigns had fallen as well.

After so many battles, which of the Sovereigns still alive didn't have a trump card of their own?

Their ultimate techniques could kill Sovereigns, but they weren't all-powerful. They took a great deal of energy to use, and their targets could dodge them.

If they really fought a Sovereign head-on, they had no guarantee they could kill one.

On the contrary, the Sovereigns had their eyes on the four of them.

As the only super divine beasts in the world capable of using their Fusion Innate Divine Ability, they had bloodlines that many Sovereigns coveted.

Both the Destruction Sovereign and the Fate Sovereign had likely coveted their bloodlines for a long time.

Given the chance, they probably wouldn't hesitate to kill them and seize their Sovereign Sparks and blood essence for research.

The Destruction Sovereign, however, wouldn't strike first, for the sake of maintaining the balance among the Four Rule Sovereigns.

The Fate Sovereign wouldn't deliberately target them, given his temperament. But the Chief Sovereign of Light, Augusta, was different.

Everyone knew that Augusta was Oufu's close friend. He had once called in a favor from Oufu, using the Twelve-Winged Angel, and obtained a Supreme Artifact.

Augusta certainly wouldn't mind killing them and giving their blood essence to Oufu. Oufu wouldn't take the initiative to kill them, but after they died, he wouldn't mind taking their blood essence.

The Life Sovereign, who had a gentle temperament, and the Death Sovereign, who couldn't sit still long enough to conduct research, were far less interested in them.

"Forget it. Don't dwell on it. Focus on your cultivation."

Reding sighed, feeling a headache coming on.

All these years, they had been cautious and never dared to split up, for fear of being picked off one by one.

They had been trying to break through to Paragon in order to escape their predicament.

But that Paragon breakthrough seemed impossibly far away. Super divine beasts were inherently limited, and the only super divine beast who had reached Paragon so far was the Destruction Sovereign.

Hoss had no idea how much of an impact he had inadvertently made on the Divine Planes.

Even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared. In the end, the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns and the Four Divine Beasts Clan had made their own choices.

At that moment, Hoss was cultivating in seclusion in his room.

The Federation had halted its expansion for the time being and begun to recover. Hoss had also put his research on hold and was focusing on refining a Midgod spark.

Hoss had hesitated for a long time over whether to refine a divine spark.

Originally, he had two plans. One was to use mathematics and logic as a foundation, invest more in computers, and see if he could learn to fuse profound mysteries and break through to Midgodhood on his own.

Gods who refined divine sparks couldn't break through because their souls were incompatible with their divine sparks, preventing them from continuing to comprehend the laws' profound mysteries. That was something he couldn't change.

The other plan was to refine a divine spark to break through, then thoroughly study the nature of the soul after reaching Highgodhood and find a way to make his soul compatible with a divine spark, so he could refine a Sovereign Spark.

As long as his soul could become compatible with a divine spark, he could refine a Sovereign Spark. It wouldn't matter whether he had broken through to Highgodhood on his own.

Hoss had agonized over it for a long time, but in the end, he decided to refine a divine spark. There was only one reason: either way, he would need to study the soul in depth.

The soul was the foundation of the Coiling Dragon Universe. As long as the soul survived, the death of the physical body wasn't really death. Only the scattering of the soul was true death, and not even a controller could save someone then.

The study of the soul was far more complicated than the study of matter, fields, or even space.

Hoss truly wasn't confident he could succeed. In his estimation, if he chose the first method, billions of years might pass and he could still be a Lowgod, unable to break through.

Being a Lowgod for billions of years in a world like this was obviously unwise. The Coiling Dragon Universe was full of dangers.

So, after thinking it over for a long time, he decided to first follow the rules of this universe and refine a divine spark. He would look for another way once he became a Highgod.

Even the weakest Highgod in the Coiling Dragon Universe had the strength of a Three-Star Fiend. In a Divine Plane, that was enough to offer at least a measure of self-protection.

Besides, Hoss knew he wouldn't be an ordinary Highgod. As the Interstellar Battle Armor continued to improve, he was confident he could establish himself and secure a place in the Divine Planes.

At the same time, Adkins and Pusiluo also began cultivating in seclusion.

The battle had made them feel a certain sense of crisis, and they were eager to improve their strength.

Lowgods were barely adequate for a Material Plane, but across the countless planes, they were far too weak.

Neither of them was the sort to admit defeat. The battle had put pressure on both of them, so they resolved to break through as soon as possible.

Their potential far exceeded what they had shown so far. They had the talent to become Seven-Star Fiends, even Asuras.

As for the Federation, under Hoss's orders, it temporarily halted its expeditions and focused on consolidating the few thousand Material Planes it already controlled.

After all, they had just killed members of the Four Divine Beasts Clan in the Gorbachev Plane. Perhaps someone from the clan would be sent to investigate. Even if it was unlikely, Hoss didn't want to take the chance.

So, the Federation temporarily halted its expansion for the next hundred thousand years. Once the commotion had mostly died down, they would reconnect to that plane and continue expanding.

With the Federation leadership's orders, the atmosphere throughout the Federation became a little more relaxed.

At the same time, the divine sparks they had previously reaped began to be used by a group of loyal subordinates. These subordinates formed a dedicated inspection corps, which made regular rounds between the various planes to ensure stability and the continued development of technology.

Before anyone knew it, a hundred thousand years had passed. The Federation had gone through countless generations, with the old giving way to the new.

Anyone below Saint Realm had a lifespan of only a few hundred years. In a hundred thousand years, two hundred generations had come and gone.

Only the researchers at Saint Realm and above remained unchanged, carrying on as before.

Over the years, the basic sciences had made some progress. Resources limited their pace, but at least they were moving forward.

In Federation Year 103,563, the Laws of the World descended, and Adkins finally broke through, becoming a Midgod of the Light Element.

"Nicely done, Adkins."

When Adkins came down, Hoss looked at him and nodded.

"I was still a little slower than you and Pusiluo, sir."

Adkins rubbed his hands together as he spoke.