Snatching Food from the Tiger's Mouth

Desterie's figure materialized within the planar teleportation array. He had intended to activate his Strong Luck only after confirming whether the Black Pearl was indeed a Supreme God Token, but it seemed his good fortune was already manifesting at the very start of his operation.

The soldiers fell silent the moment they heard his words—they all understood that this was yet another super-expert traveling through the various divine planes.

Desterie roughly gauged the direction of the Four Divine Beasts Clan and immediately shot into the sky, heading straight toward them. While covering a continent with divine sense was a convenient way to find someone, it was also likely to disturb other Sovereigns. Regardless, a Sovereign's speed was far superior to that of a Highgod; catching up to the transport team would only take a moment.

"A Sovereign! It's a Sovereign!" The soldiers exclaimed in shock upon witnessing such terrifying speed.

Not long after, very close to Youlan Prefecture, Desterie discovered a small group led by members of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, with others fawning over them and engaging in sycophantic chatter.

They could not perceive a Sovereign's divine sense and continued to chat and laugh in high spirits.

However, Desterie did not detect any trace of cargo on them. This was not strange; with illogical items like interspatial rings in existence, no one would use a "carriage" to haul goods.

Desterie's heart stirred. To avoid alerting the enemy, he returned his consciousness to the giant Sovereign face he had projected in the Heavenly Realm—which he had never canceled—and asked, "Bolin, do you have a portrait of the people transporting it?"

In truth, soul aura was the most accurate method, but aura was difficult to simulate, so he had to rely on portraits for the time being.

Upon hearing this, Bolin hurriedly called in the liaison officer from the Hell side who had been waiting outside; he was a Highgod of the Water Laws. When this Highgod saw the Sovereign, he knelt down in a panic. Under Bolin's prompting, he nervously recalled the details and hurriedly used divine power to simulate the appearances of the individuals—the "Water Element" and "Mist Illusion" mysteries of the Water Laws were highly adept at such things.

Seeing the portraits, they indeed matched the group he had just seen. Thus, Desterie descended slowly from mid-air like a falling mountain, manifesting his true body directly in front of them.

The Four Divine Beasts Clan member saw Desterie blocking their path and was just about to bark a reprimand when he suddenly felt a terrifying pressure that made his soul tremble, causing him to lose his courage instantly.

"A Sovereign?!" he said in terror, and 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 projection, and the feeling then had been exactly the same as it was now.

Desterie remained expressionless. Not intending to waste words, he immediately leveled an accusation: "You snatched the Heaven and Earth Exotic Item I had my eye on? Hand over all your interspatial rings and remove your soul imprints, or none of you will leave here alive!"

"Sovereign, we didn't..." one of the team members tried to argue, but Desterie shot him a glare, and he immediately collapsed to the ground, unable to rise.

The will of a Sovereign could not be defied!

"While I still have patience, hand over the interspatial rings. Otherwise, even if I kill you all, I can still search for it slowly!" Desterie said expressionlessly. After scanning the group, he fixed his gaze on the leading member of the Four Divine Beasts Clan. "Start with you. Remember, don't play any tricks, or you will only have a dead end. Even the Four Divine Beasts won't be able to protect you!"

The reason he didn't just kill them outright was the fear that they might have divine clones elsewhere; it would be embarrassing if he couldn't open the interspatial rings later.

The leader was trembling, yet he quickly removed the interspatial ring from his hand, removed his soul imprint, and held it up with both hands. He only knew that the clan's higher-ups were collecting Heaven and Earth Exotic Items, but he did not know that these "higher-ups" reached all the way to the ancestors of the Four Divine Beasts. Therefore, facing a Sovereign, he dared not show the slightest hesitation.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Desterie added coldly, "If I discover that you haven't handed over the real interspatial ring, or that the ring you gave me contains nothing but a pile of junk, don't blame me for starting a massacre!"

After Desterie spoke, while the others were collecting and handing over their rings, he prioritized checking the ring that had belonged to the leader.

It was empty, containing only five or six Heaven and Earth Exotic Items, but among them was a very familiar red wooden box. Desterie opened it with his consciousness and saw that it was indeed a black pearl—exactly the same as the one he had seen in his Foresight vision hundreds of thousands of years ago.

"It really is it!" Desterie was overjoyed. He took the black pearl out and struck it with his full strength using the Seven Star Sword, the attack-type Sovereign Artifact he had just nurtured.

"Bang—" Just as expected, the black pearl remained completely undamaged. However, what he didn't expect was that the moment the black pearl was attacked, it rebounded with a terrifying power of destruction. Under the backlash of this force, the Seven Star Sword actually shattered...

Desterie did not feel pained by the destruction of the newly nurtured Sovereign Artifact; instead, because of the black pearl's extraordinary performance, he was now absolutely certain that this was a Supreme God Token!

He hadn't expected that while the Supreme God of Life token, the Red Diamond Crystal, could defeat enemies and protect the soul, this Supreme God of Destruction token was even more terrifying—its counter-attack force was enough to destroy a Sovereign Artifact, Desterie thought joyfully.

The next second, Desterie immediately stored the black pearl into his own interspatial ring.

"Desterie, what are you doing!" A roar of divine sense rang out directly, filled with monstrous rage.

The voice was deafening and not unfamiliar; it came from the White Tiger Sovereign, Ers. Furthermore, Desterie could feel that this tiger and his brothers were rushing over from the Tianji Mountain Range. With the distance being merely the size of Youlan Prefecture, it wouldn't take long for them to catch up.

Leiding's voice also rang out the next second: "Desterie, put that thing down!"

They had just received a report from Gaislesen that a clan member's divine clone, who was out collecting Heaven and Earth Exotic Items, had been intercepted by a strange Sovereign right at their doorstep. They immediately felt that something was wrong and expanded their divine sense, only to see the moment Desterie put away the Termination Bead.

With the Supreme God Mirror in hand, they were also well aware of the appearance of the three Supreme God Tokens.

They never expected that the token would be delivered to their doorstep only to be intercepted by someone else, hence the uncontrollable, furious roar.

Was this Desterie specifically trying to go against their Four Divine Beasts?

It wasn't enough that he had stolen an Intermediate Sovereign spark; now he was even snatching the Supreme God Token!

"Desterie, why have you come? And Leiding, you all... what is going on?" The earth-shattering commotion caused by the Four Divine Beasts naturally alerted the Blood Peak Sovereign, Pash.

However, for Pash, both sides were at the Overlord level; he dared not interfere nor ask too deeply. Thus, after weighing his options, he covered the entirety of Hell with his divine sense.

If a war between Overlords were to break out on the Blood Peak Continent, he wouldn't be able to stop it. He had to find someone who could keep them in check!