The crystal ball's light pulsed urgently, but the situation wasn't yet critical. Otherwise, Desterie would have immediately ignited the Sovereign Scroll and summoned a projection of the Sovereign.
Desterie shook his head and put off continuing his search for the Supreme God Token. Meeting with the Sovereign had to come first.
The Netherworld was where countless undead gathered. Across the endless planes, all undead below the divine level reincarnated here and underwent a brutal process of devouring one another. Only a tiny fraction survived, and fewer still became gods and recovered their memories.
Of course, the Undead Realm was only the tip of the iceberg. The Netherworld also had vast stretches of land and the deep, shadowy Nether Sea.
Standing on the Teleportation Array at the Undead Holy Mountain, Desterie recalled his first visit there years ago.
After a brief moment of reminiscence, he took control of a Phoenix-shaped Metal Lifeform. Amid the guards' astonished, envious looks, Desterie left at great speed and headed for Nether Mountain.
After several decades on the road, Desterie finally reached the foot of Nether Mountain.
The Sovereign lived on the mountain, but there was no need to climb it to meet her.
He walked straight into the Nether Hotel. A broad lawn stretched out in front of the hotel, with a lake at its center. A pretty, red-haired girl was quietly fishing there. Sensing Desterie's arrival, she opened her eyes. "Desterie, you're a little late."
"Mm. I was on the Yete Continent, and I had to cross the continent before I could travel between planes, so it took me a while."
The woman before him was the Sovereign of Death whom Desterie served, and the strongest of the Death Sovereigns.
But she enjoyed playing at being an ordinary person at the Nether Hotel, so she forbade anyone who knew her identity from revealing or displaying it there. Anyone who interfered with her fun would suffer soul torture at best, or have their soul scattered on the spot at worst. That was why Desterie could "speak to her as an equal."
People were constantly passing the hotel entrance. Unless they communicated by voice transmission, they had to "encrypt" their conversation.
The Sovereign of Death flicked her fishing rod, and the empty hook reeled back in. She stood and turned around with a smile. "How boring. You were more interesting when you first saw one of my other clones."
Desterie smiled. That other clone had been one of the Sovereign of Death's clones, so of course he had known the pretty, red-haired girl's identity from the start. Good thing I'm a good actor, or I wouldn't have gotten things done back then.
"That's right. I struggled through all those trials back then. Thanks to your help, even though I couldn't bring my parents back, I at least saved my younger brother and niece."
Back then, Desterie had only just become an Asura when he ventured into the Netherworld and challenged Nether Mountain. He'd successfully obtained a Nether Fruit, become the Sovereign of Death's emissary, and pleaded with her to help resurrect his family.
Unfortunately, by the time he'd left the Material Plane and become an Asura, more than ten thousand years had passed. Only those two undead were still alive. The souls of most of his other relatives had already dissipated.
"How are they doing now?" the Sovereign of Death asked casually.
"They didn't have much talent. After I used a lot of resources to help them barely reach Saint-level, I gave them a set of Godheads to refine. My younger brother took a Nether Fruit, too, and became quite powerful. By now, he should be enjoying a comfortable life on the Material Plane." Desterie recalled the past. Seeing that the Sovereign of Death wasn't interested in the details, he asked, "May I ask what you have planned for me?"
"You gave a Nether Fruit to a Highgod who refined a Godhead?" A glint flashed in the Sovereign of Death's eyes. But after a brief note of surprise, she got straight to the point. "Do you know that a new Plane War will begin in three hundred thousand years?"
A Plane War? The moment Desterie heard those words, he understood.
He was only thirty million years old and had never experienced the Plane War that took place once every trillion years. So he'd never considered that the Sovereign might have called him here because of the Plane War.
But why would a Sovereign specifically order her emissaries to fight? Unless it was connected to a Ten-Win Streak.
If this was a battle that counted toward a "Ten-Win Streak," then the Plane War was no place to be. That terrifying "meat grinder" of a battlefield was rumored to be dangerous even for Paragons. But as the Sovereign's emissary, if he refused the Sovereign of Death, he would probably be killed on the spot.
Anyone who wasn't a Paragon had no right to bargain with a Sovereign.
"I've only just heard about it from you. What do you have planned?" Though he'd guessed what the Sovereign of Death had in mind, Desterie still followed her lead and asked.
"I want you to take part in this Plane War, the one between the Netherworld and the Heavenly Realm. Of course, you won't be the only one. All of them will take part. Winning would be best, but a draw is acceptable. You absolutely must not lose. Do you understand?" the pretty, red-haired girl said, each word deliberate.
"I understand." Desterie gave a self-mocking smile inwardly. "If we lose, even if I'm lucky enough to survive, I probably won't be able to remain a Sovereign's emissary."
At the same time, Desterie resolved to complete the Supreme God Mission as soon as possible, so he could escape this helpless position where his fate was in someone else's hands.
Still, the Netherworld and the Heavenly Realm... A draw was acceptable... That meant the Sovereign of Death would be satisfied as long as the Heavenly Realm didn't win.
Could this be the Heavenly Realm's first Ten-Win Streak? If so, this was extremely dangerous. After all, according to the fate of the Coiling Dragon World, the Heavenly Realm's first Ten-Win Streak was all but certain.
In other words, fighting on behalf of the Netherworld would be even more dangerous.
The Sovereign of Death looked pleased. She casually took out a bottle and handed it to Desterie. "This is your reward. If you complete the mission, I'll find a way to help you make up for your lack of strength. If I remember correctly, you still don't have a Defensive Divine Artifact."
Desterie nodded. He indeed didn't have a Soul Defense Sovereign Artifact, and the Companion White Jade was still dormant. His soul defense was currently a weak point. As for the Material Defense Sovereign Artifact he'd found, he had no intention of telling the Sovereign of Death about it yet.
The Sovereign of Death's meaning was simple and clear. If Desterie didn't earn enough battle achievements in the Plane War, she would find a way to help him make up the difference so he could obtain a Defensive Divine Artifact.
He sent a small amount of divine sense into the jade bottle and found it was filled to the brim with Sovereign Power of Destruction. She'd chosen Sovereign Power that matched his affinity and given it to him. It seemed the Sovereign of Death had put some thought into this.
The more thought she put into it, the less he dared to let his guard down.
After saying goodbye to the Sovereign of Death, Desterie immediately set off for Demon Castle and began his search for the Black Pearl.
A hundred thousand years passed in the blink of an eye. Desterie personally searched every Supreme Plane and divine plane, but ultimately came up empty-handed.
But on that day, the Companion White Jade began to shine brightly once more.
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