Augusta felt as though he had missed out on a great deal.
"If I'd known, I never should have gone into seclusion to cultivate!"
Augusta regretted it in silence. He hadn't even reached Paragon—what had been the point of going into seclusion?
And now look what had happened. He hadn't been around when the Four Divine Beasts Clan and the Augusta Clan clashed.
If he hadn't gone into seclusion and had secretly instructed Hanjin and the others to kill a few more people, the conflict might have escalated.
If they had managed to kill Gaiselesen and the others, Reding and his brothers would surely have come charging over to settle the score, no matter the cost.
Then he would have had the chance to kill the four foolish beasts himself and take their Sovereign Sparks and essence blood.
He had missed his chance this time. He had no idea when he'd get another opportunity to kill them.
Augusta was starting to get a headache. He was always looking for an opportunity to take those fellows out.
However, Reding and the other three were almost always in Hell. If Augusta went there to fight them, he couldn't possibly avoid Utrede.
If he made his move in front of Utrede, there was no telling whether Utrede would interfere. Even if he didn't stop Augusta, he wouldn't stand by and let him take the Four Divine Beasts Essence Blood.
Utrede had coveted the Four Divine Beasts for a long time, too. The only reason he hadn't made a move was that he lacked a suitable pretext.
If he acted outright, Oufu and Thanatos certainly wouldn't sit back and do nothing.
"That fellow Oufu, honestly..."
Thinking of Utrede made Augusta resent Oufu even more.
Oufu already had three Supreme Artifacts, yet he still refused to reveal them.
Oufu had said that although they were now invincible, Transcendence of Reincarnation was still incomplete. He didn't yet have a way to kill the other Chief Sovereigns of the laws outright. If he exposed himself now, he would never be able to study in peace again.
If he revealed himself, Utrede and the other two would surely join forces. They couldn't hurt Oufu, but they would have no trouble protecting themselves.
Augusta understood that, but he really didn't like how things were now. Utrede and the other two were all lording it over him, and even Hullei was only paying him lip service.
Sometimes, Augusta even thought he might as well reveal everything. The deed was done, after all; Oufu would just have to accept it.
But after thinking it over for a long time, he ultimately abandoned the idea. Although they were one person, Oufu would never allow anyone to interfere with his efforts to break free of this world—not even Augusta.
Though the two were essentially one and the same, given the Bula Clan's nature, it was reasonable to treat them as two separate people.
Augusta only wanted to live freely, according to his own wishes. Oufu, on the other hand, had no such concerns. All he wanted was to make sure this world could never restrain him again.
Augusta had thought of many ways to help. After all, Oufu's growing stronger would benefit him, too. But Augusta wasn't good at research and couldn't offer any help.
All he could do was consider other methods. The Four Divine Beasts were the target he had set his sights on.
The world was truly wondrous. It had given birth to a super divine beast capable of fusing Innate Divine Abilities. He couldn't imagine how powerful the Four Divine Beasts would be if they were all Sovereigns.
If he could fully understand the bloodlines of the Four Divine Beasts, perhaps he could perfect the ultimate technique, Transcendence of Reincarnation.
But Oufu didn't want to reveal himself, and Augusta had no way to avoid Utrede and the others while making his move. So the matter could only be put off.
"Those crawling little worms are cautious, all right."
Augusta cursed them silently, but there was nothing he could do.
He truly hadn't expected the Four Divine Beasts Clan to choose to endure this time.
Judging by how they had acted in the past, the family members themselves couldn't possibly have made that decision. Most likely, Reding and the others had given the order.
"Fine. I missed this opportunity. I'll just keep looking for a chance later."
Augusta rubbed his temples and sighed helplessly.
In the end, he would have to keep waiting for the right moment. Time was endless, after all. Waiting another few trillion years wouldn't matter.
Augusta hadn't done anything, but he had no idea that the Radiant Plane had been anything but peaceful during this time.
In the Radiant Plane's Macallan Prefecture, Prefect Prequeil sat at the head of the room, glaring down at those below with displeasure.
Below him, a trembling figure knelt on the floor, barely daring to breathe.
It was none other than Balseze, the third patrolman under Prequeil.
Balseze was usually a lofty figure, but in front of the Prefect, he didn't dare show the slightest disrespect.
"Can you repeat what you just said?"
Prequeil's tone was very calm, as if he felt nothing at all.
But Balseze was even more frightened. As Prequeil's subordinate for many years, he knew very well that his lord was on the verge of flying into a rage.
"My lord, over the past few hundred thousand years, the faith we oversee has declined noticeably. It's fallen from half at the start to less than thirty percent now."
Balseze was terrified, but he didn't dare conceal anything. He immediately reported the facts.
He knew what would happen if he reported the truth, but he also knew the consequences he would face if he dared hide it and was found out.
"Don't tell me you learned about this and came here just to inform me!"
Prequeil sprang to his feet, looking as if he might send his old subordinate to his death at any moment.
"No, my lord. I immediately sent people to inspect the subordinate Material Planes. We found that the Radiant Churches on many of them had been destroyed by a force called the Interstellar Federation."
Balseze wiped away his sweat and answered at once.
He had been baffled by the matter. He had verified it again and again before finally confirming that the Interstellar Federation had destroyed the Radiant Churches.
He was completely bewildered. In the past, their rivals for faith had always been the Dark Church or some other church.
What was this Interstellar Federation? There was no Interstellar Sovereign attribute. What was the point of targeting the Radiant Church?
Balseze had thought about it for a long time and still couldn't figure it out. In the end, he had simply reported it.
"The Interstellar Federation? What's that?"
Prequeil furrowed his brow. He had never heard of the name. It had never appeared before.
"This subordinate doesn't know, either. I sent some people to investigate below, but the people we captured only knew that this force called the Interstellar Federation had appeared out of nowhere, then occupied the entire plane and destroyed both the Radiant Church and the Dark Church."
"The people we sent didn't catch any of the Interstellar Federation's core members. It was as if they could see the future: whenever our people arrived, they were already gone."
"As for where the Interstellar Federation came from or who founded it, we haven't found out."
Cold sweat beaded on Balseze's forehead as he answered through gritted teeth.
"Useless!" Prequeil cursed without holding back.
"This subordinate deserves to die!" Balseze felt aggrieved, but he didn't dare say so. He could only bow his head and admit fault.
In truth, Balseze was in a difficult position. He had taken a group of men from the Chief Sovereign's army and sent them to the Material Planes that had fallen out of control.
Without exception, those teams never even saw the enemy.
The so-called Interstellar Federation's higher-ups seemed to know the future. Once the teams arrived, they were all gone. They captured some people who were still there and questioned them, only to discover those people had still been there not long before.
It was as if someone had placed eyes beside the teleportation array. The moment they arrived on a plane, everyone had run off, leaving behind a group of people who knew nothing.
Balseze couldn't understand how those people had managed it. The sequence of events should have been that his men had just descended onto the Material Plane.
The Interstellar Federation's higher-ups had noticed them immediately, then used some unknown method to escape together.
He didn't know how they had been detected or what method they had used to escape. He couldn't even begin to guess. He had never seen a divine-level detection radar and didn't know what a space portal was.
As far as he knew, only a Sovereign could detect their army the moment the teleportation array activated. And only a Sovereign could take those gods away through the Spatial Turbulence.
Balseze's reasoning wasn't exactly wrong. It was just limited by what he knew.
The Federation had naturally made thorough preparations to keep its secrets.
First, every plane was divided into two groups: members of the Federation's headquarters and local members.
Only headquarters members knew the core secrets. The local members knew only that the Federation was a powerful force; they knew nothing about its origins.
An emergency teleportation array was set up on every plane. If danger arose, headquarters members could return immediately.
As for the local members, they knew too little about the Federation to provide any useful information.
At the same time, the Federation had installed a monitoring system beside every spatial teleportation array. As soon as anyone from a Divine Plane appeared, it would sound an alarm.
The Federation's people would flee at once, leaving nothing behind.
As a result, after the Chief Sovereign's soldiers arrived on the Material Planes, all they could find were locals who knew the Federation's name and nothing else.
"Tell me the details of the situation."
Prequeil fell silent for a long while, then took a deep breath and asked.
He was angry, but the matter still had to be dealt with. Whatever happened, he first needed to understand the situation and consider how to resolve it.
As for this useless subordinate, he could decide whether to kill him after the matter was settled.
"Yes, my lord. The details are as follows..."
Balseze relaxed a little and immediately began giving a detailed explanation.
He knew that since his lord hadn't killed him on the spot, he still had some use.
As long as he was useful, he had a chance to make amends and avoid execution.
"You bastard! You dare lie to me!" After hearing Balseze's detailed report, Prequeil's first thought was that the fool was playing him.
What kind of nonsense was this? They had detected his army immediately and fled at once.
Where could they flee to? Without using a teleportation array, the only way off a Material Plane was through the Spatial Turbulence—and only Sovereigns could move through it.
Besides, there were Highgods in the Chief Sovereign's army. How could the enemy detect them without the Highgods noticing?
This bastard had made up such a story to make him think a Sovereign was involved and shift the blame away from himself?
How many lives did he think he had, to dare use a Sovereign to deceive him?