Desterie appeared inside the Plane Teleportation Array. He had planned to activate Strong Luck only after confirming whether the Black Pearl was a Supreme God Token, but luck had already revealed itself at the very start of his journey.
Hearing his words, the soldiers fell silent at once. They all understood that another super-strong expert had come to tour the various divine realms.
Desterie roughly gauged the direction of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, then shot straight into the sky and headed for it. Scanning the continent with his divine sense was certainly convenient, but it might also alarm other Sovereigns. Besides, Sovereigns were far faster than Highgods, so catching up with the group transporting the goods would take him only a moment.
"A Sovereign! That's a Sovereign!" The soldiers cried out at his astonishing speed.
Before long, near Youlan Prefecture, Desterie spotted a group led by a member of the Four Divine Beasts Clan. The others were fawning over him, exchanging sycophantic pleasantries.
They couldn't sense a Sovereign's divine sense, and continued chatting and laughing in high spirits.
But Desterie couldn't see any sign of cargo on them. That wasn't surprising. With something as illogical as Spatial Rings around, no one would use a "carriage" to haul things.
Desterie's thoughts stirred. To avoid alerting them, he sent his consciousness back to the enormous Sovereign's face projected in Heaven, which he had left active, and asked, "Bolin, do you have portraits of the people transporting the goods?"
Soul auras were the most reliable way to identify someone, but they were difficult to imitate, so for now he would have to rely on portraits.
At his words, Bolin quickly summoned the Hell-side liaison officer who had been waiting outside. The man was a Water Laws Highgod. As soon as he saw the Sovereign, he dropped to his knees in a panic. Only after Bolin prompted him did he manage to recall the details, then hurriedly used divine power to reproduce the group's appearance. The Water Elemental and Mist Illusion profundities of the Water Laws were exceptionally well suited to this sort of thing.
The portraits matched the group he had just seen. Desterie descended slowly from the sky, like a mountain sinking down, and appeared before them in person.
When the Four Divine Beasts Clan member saw Desterie blocking their way, he was about to berate him. But in an instant, a terrifying power washed over him, making his soul tremble and robbing him of his courage.
"A Sovereign?!" he cried in horror. Everyone behind him was startled as well. As a member of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, he had once been fortunate enough to see a Sovereign's projection, and the feeling now was exactly the same.
Desterie remained expressionless. He had no intention of being polite and went straight to the accusation. "You stole the Heaven and Earth Exotic Item I had my eye on. Hand over all your Spatial Rings and remove their owner bindings. Otherwise, none of you will leave alive!"
"Lord Sovereign, we didn't..." one of the group tried to argue, but Desterie shot him a cold look, and he immediately collapsed.
A Sovereign's Will could not be defied!
"Hand over your Spatial Rings while I'm still being patient. Otherwise, I can kill you and search for them at my leisure!" Desterie said impassively. He swept his gaze over the group, then fixed it on the Four Divine Beasts Clan member leading them. "You first. Don't try anything clever, or you'll die. Even the Four Divine Beasts won't be able to protect you!"
He hadn't attacked them outright because one of them might have a Divine Clone elsewhere. If so, the Spatial Ring could prove impossible to open, which would be awkward.
The leader trembled with fear, but quickly removed the Spatial Ring from his hand. After breaking the owner binding, he offered it up with both hands. He knew only that the higher-ups in his clan were collecting Heaven and Earth Exotic Items. He had no idea that one of those higher-ups was as high-ranking as the Four Divine Beasts' ancestors. Faced with a Sovereign, he didn't dare hesitate.
Just as he let out a sigh of relief, Desterie added coldly, "If I find out you haven't handed over your real Spatial Rings, and the one you gave me is full of scrap metal, don't blame me for slaughtering you all!"
As the others gathered and handed over their Spatial Rings, Desterie first checked the one he had received from the leader.
It was nearly empty, containing only five or six Heaven and Earth Exotic Items. But among them was a familiar red wooden box. Desterie opened it with his consciousness and found a Black Pearl—the very same one he had seen in a Foresight vision hundreds of thousands of years ago.
"So it really is!" Desterie was overjoyed. He took out the Black Pearl and struck it with all his might using the Seven Star Sword, the Offensive Sovereign Artifact he had just finished nurturing.
Crack! As expected, the Black Pearl was completely unharmed. But to his surprise, the moment it was struck, it unleashed a terrifying force of destruction. The backlash was so powerful that it snapped the Sovereign Artifact Seven Star Sword in two...
Desterie didn't care that the Sovereign Artifact he had just nurtured was destroyed. On the contrary, the Black Pearl's astonishing performance left him certain beyond doubt that it was a Supreme God Token!
The Supreme God Token of Life, the Red Diamond Crystal, could kill enemies and protect the soul. But the Supreme God Token of Destruction was even more terrifying—its counterattack could destroy a Sovereign Artifact. Desterie thought with delight.
The next moment, Desterie immediately put the Black Pearl into his own Spatial Ring.
"Desterie, what are you doing?" a roar rang out through divine sense, brimming with fury.
The voice was deafening and familiar: it belonged to White Tiger Sovereign Us. Desterie could also sense the old tiger and his brothers racing over from the Tianji Mountain Range. It wouldn't take long for them to reach him from Youlan Prefecture.
Leiding's voice rang out the next moment, too. "Desterie, put that thing down!"
They had just received Gaislesen's report: one of their clan members had said that his Divine Clone, which was collecting Heaven and Earth Exotic Items elsewhere, had been intercepted outside their home by an unfamiliar Sovereign. They had immediately sensed trouble and spread out their divine senses. That was when they saw Desterie put away the Termination Bead.
With the Supreme God Mirror in their possession, they knew what all three Supreme God Tokens looked like.
They never expected the Token to arrive right at their doorstep, only to be snatched away. That was why they roared in incandescent fury.
Was Desterie specifically out to antagonize the Four Divine Beasts?
Stealing a Mid-level Sovereign Spark from them hadn't been enough. Now he was after a Supreme God Token, too!
"Desterie, what are you doing here? And Leiding, what's going on with you all?" The Four Divine Beasts' earthshaking commotion naturally alerted Blood Peak Sovereign Pash.
But to Pash, both sides were Overlords. He didn't dare interfere or ask too many questions. After weighing the situation, he spread his divine sense across all of Hell.
If a battle between Overlords broke out on Blood Peak Continent, he wouldn't be able to stop it. He had to get someone capable of keeping them in check to step in!
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