The Sovereign of the Netherworld

The enormous face smiled and asked, "Which of you has experience recording battle merits?"

"The aftermath of the Sovereign's attack just struck this place, and all living beings here have died. So whoever has experience with this, take over the job for now, until the Yangu Army arrives."

A hand immediately shot up. Desterie looked over and saw that it belonged to a Nine Nether Lord.

"Lord Sovereign, billions of years ago, I once served as a battle merit recorder."

"Hahahaha, good! I'll leave the recording of battle merits to you!" Desterie's voice rang out like thunder. A drop of Fate Sovereign Power appeared before the Nine Nether Lord. "This will be your reward! Dalayer, go ahead and register your battle merits so you can exchange them for Sovereign Artifacts!"

The commanders and soldiers who hadn't raised their hands immediately regretted it. They'd get a drop of Sovereign's Might just for recording battle merits. Why hadn't they volunteered?

Dalayer quickly came to her senses and took out a Spatial Ring, from which she produced more than twenty golden Commander Badges.

"How can there be so many?" Everyone who saw them began to whisper among themselves. This meant that at least twenty commanders had been killed. They weren't cabbages—they were commanders!

There weren't many commanders in a Plane War to begin with. Most people were lucky just to survive, and killing one or two enemy commanders was already an impressive feat.

The experts who sensed that Dalayer had an unusual relationship with the Sovereign began to wonder how much the Sovereign had favored her while she collected the Commander Badges.

"Hmm, I'll record the three extra badges as a credit. Dalayer, you can exchange them for two Sovereign Artifacts. How about a Material Attack Sovereign Artifact and a Material Defense Sovereign Artifact?" Desterie was equally surprised to see twenty-three Commander Badges. He clearly remembered giving Dalayer only five before.

Though he was surprised, he still made the choice for her directly. The borrowed Soul Defense Sovereign Artifact was damaged, but once it was repaired, he could return it to Dalayer.

The key was that he had only just become a Sovereign and had no spare Sovereign Artifacts of his own. He was practically penniless. The two he planned to bestow on Dalayer were the very ones he had used before.

"I'll do as you say, Lord Sovereign!" Dalayer no longer cared which Sovereign Artifacts she received. She was simply happy for Desterie.

After removing the ownership bindings on the only two undamaged Sovereign Artifacts he had and bestowing them on Dalayer, Desterie's enormous Sovereign face said, "Register your battle merits first. This is still the Netherworld, after all. A Netherworld Sovereign will come shortly to oversee the exchange of your merits."

With that, the enormous face dispersed, reverting to Sovereign's Might. It swept Dalayer along and arrived outside Yangu Mountain.

At the same time, Desterie's divine sense spread across the entire Netherworld. Bypassing Nether Mountain, he found the other Netherworld Sovereigns.

"Haha, Lord Desterie, what can we do for you?" a light, lilting voice rang out.

"Lord Desterie, have the Overlords gone back?" another voice asked, heavy and deep.

At the same time, a private message came through divine sense. "Lord Desterie, I'm the Canglan Sovereign, residing on Canglan Island. The first one to speak to you was Diting, an Intermediate Sovereign of the Netherworld. The one who spoke after her was the Lianhuo Sovereign, also an Intermediate Sovereign. You're always welcome to visit Canglan Island, sir."

Desterie smiled faintly. It seemed everyone was being very friendly toward him, a new Intermediate Sovereign at the Overlord rank. That warmth probably didn't extend to the Sovereigns of the Heavenly Realm, though.

"Lord Orloff has already returned to the Heavenly Realm. Lady Lilith and Lady Vivian had something to discuss, so they've gone back to Nether Mountain as well. I contacted you all mainly to ask you to come to Yangu Mountain and distribute Sovereign Artifacts. As you know, I'm the Fate Sovereign, so it wouldn't be very appropriate for me to oversee the exchange of battle merits and hand out Sovereign Artifacts in the Netherworld. Besides, I've only just become a Sovereign, and I really don't have any spare Sovereign Artifacts," Desterie explained.

"In that case, I'll come over," the light voice replied. It was the Diting Sovereign.

Diting also sent him a private message through divine sense. "Lord Desterie, Lord Orloff came in with such ferocity just now that we didn't dare show ourselves. But now, naturally, it's up to us Netherworld Sovereigns to carry out our duties. Please wait a moment, too. I'll give you some Sovereign Artifacts and Death Sovereign Power. They may come in handy when you recruit Sovereign Emissaries."

Diting's voice was exceptionally pleasant. She was a female Sovereign.

Hearing this, Desterie didn't wait. Instead, he said, "Diting Sovereign, I won't wait around. I just rescued Iluka, and you know that every extra minute he spends in a Supreme Plane puts him in danger. I'll take him back to the Material Plane first. We can talk another time."

Orloff's nature made it unlikely he'd come back after leaving, but Augusta might not simply stand by.

Besides, Desterie's true strength was currently only on par with that of an ordinary Intermediate Sovereign. He didn't want to face another Intermediate Sovereign whose strength might be formidable all by himself.

From their exchange just now, and the positions the Netherworld Sovereigns had taken in the Spatial Turbulence, Desterie could infer that Diting was the second-strongest Death Sovereign. In the Spatial Turbulence, Lilith had stood at the front of the Death Sovereigns, with a female Sovereign right behind her. There were only two female Death Sovereigns.

Hearing this, Diting quickly said, "Sovereigns generally can't enter a Material Plane. Otherwise, the Overgod will kill them. Did you know that, Lord Desterie?"

Diting had actually kindly reminded him, so Desterie smiled and said, "I was born in the Mulan Material Plane, so I can return there."

Diting laughed. "It must be wonderful to be a Sovereign born in a Material Plane. You're right—Iluka has done us a great service this time. In that case, I'll have my Sovereign Emissary deliver the things I mentioned to the Mulan Material Plane."

After a few more brief exchanges, Desterie had a very favorable impression of Diting.

In truth, Desterie did intend to send Iluka back to the Material Plane right away. But whatever the circumstances, Desterie himself needed to return there, and taking Iluka was a very good excuse.

The Nine Nether was deep within the Nether Sea region of the Netherworld, so Desterie swept up Iluka and Dalayer and transformed into a streak of pure white light, speeding toward the Nether Sea Teleportation Array.

"That light is moving so fast—it must be a Sovereign again!" The streak of light cut across the sky, and the other lords of the Nine Nether and the Asura experts all watched it and sighed.

Below the Sovereigns, everyone was an ant.

When he reached the Nether Sea Teleportation Array, Desterie took out the Sovereign Token Lilith had given him when he was her Sovereign Emissary, held it up before the soldiers guarding the array, and said coldly, "Mulan Material Plane!"