Such a Heavy Treasure

"Heh, it's been years, you've changed your look," Desterie said, forcing himself to remain calm.

"I put in a lot of hard work, is it really just a change of look?" Dalayer blinked and said, "I was always hesitant, afraid to go to the Celestial Realm to find you. I never expected that you would actually remember me. I'm so happy you could come."

Desterie gave an awkward laugh and quickly cut to the chase, "Dalayer, the truth is, I didn't come here without a reason."

Dalayer said quite happily, "Having a reason is fine too. I was only afraid that you wouldn't come to find me even if you had a reason, afraid that you had truly forgotten me."

Desterie finally couldn't hold it in anymore. After taking a deep breath, he shouted, "Dalayer, what are you doing? You weren't like this before!"

Dalayer also dropped her delicate expression and retorted with a pout, "So what if I was different before? You were still avoiding me!"

Hearing Dalayer's tone return to normal, Desterie let out a long sigh of relief and said directly, "Stop acting so coy and affected in the future; it's uncomfortable. Dalayer, I want your soul-defending Sovereign artifact. I can trade a material-attacking Sovereign artifact for it!"

Dalayer froze, staring quietly at Desterie.

Seeing this, Desterie assumed Dalayer felt he was asking for too much. After all, for a Shura of the Earth Laws who wasn't skilled in soul defense, the value of a soul-defending Sovereign artifact was far greater than a material-attacking one. He added, "If you feel it's a loss, I can add ten drops of Sovereign's Might for you. Or, ten drops of Sovereign's Might in exchange for borrowing the Sovereign artifact for ten thousand years."

Dalayer then smiled knowingly, "If you want it, I'll give it to you. You don't need to trade anything for it."

As she spoke, she took the pendant off her neck, removed her soul imprint, and handed it to Desterie.

The Sovereign artifact had come so easily that Desterie was caught off guard. Seeing Desterie's reaction, Dalayer pulled his hand over and shoved the pendant into his palm.

"You're just giving me a Sovereign artifact like this? You are an ancient being who has lived since the birth of the Divine Planes; why are you so indifferent to your own strength and life?" Even though it was just the weight of a pendant, Desterie felt it was heavy in his hand.

Dalayer smiled brilliantly, "Living for too long makes a long life a form of torture. After countless years of loneliness and solitude, meeting you made me realize that as long as I can fulfill your wishes, anything is fine."

As she spoke, she looked at the soul-defending Sovereign artifact pendant, "I was born shortly after the Divine Planes were created. After millions of years of cultivation, I became an expert in the Earth Laws and was later scouted by the Sovereign Komodo to become his Sovereign Envoy.

"It's a pity that this Sovereign, who had a very good personality, later died in a conflict between Sovereigns. Fortunately, my soul defense and material defense were both very strong, so no one dared to covet this pendant—except for you!"

Desterie suddenly felt a bit moved, "That Sovereign Komodo has been dead for countless years, yet you still remember him."

"I remember!" Dalayer stared at Desterie and answered decisively, "I often think of him, though I've recalled those memories a bit less in recent years."

Desterie looked at Dalayer and was silent for a moment, "You must know that I am the Prefecture Lord of Jinyang Prefecture in the Celestial Realm. I apologize; as an old friend, I never invited you to visit. Now, I sincerely invite you to come."

Dalayer turned her head to hide the corners of her mouth, which she couldn't stop from curling upward.

Not long after, the experts of the Earth Laws who had come to Xuanjin Mountain to cultivate the "Gravity" profound mystery were astonished to find that this place, which had been heavy for countless years, had lost its unique properties. Many left in disappointment, though a few insisted on staying, waiting for the gravity to return.

This was because they had learned that the situation where the gravity of Xuanjin Mountain became normal had happened once before, tens of millions of years ago, only to return to its original state later—the time it occurred was exactly when Dalayer and Desterie were traveling and adventuring together.

Clearly, this time, the gravity would not return.

On the way back to the Celestial Realm while piloting his metal lifeform, Desterie dripped his blood to bind the soul-defending Sovereign artifact. Instantly, a transparent film, softer yet tougher than his original defensive barrier, rose around his soul space. From then on, unless a Sovereign personally intervened, Desterie would no longer have to worry about his life.

Correspondingly, Desterie took out a soul-defending artifact he had refined long ago and helped Dalayer successfully refine it.

In this Panlong world, where artifacts, Sovereign artifacts, Supreme artifacts, Godsparks, Sovereign sparks, and spatial rings could generally be bound by dripping blood, soul-defending artifacts were a "clear stream" that required the help of the creator to be refined and used.

Just like that, a hundred years passed in the blink of an eye during their journey.

Upon returning to the Celestial Realm, Desterie did not immediately return to Jinyang Prefecture on the Kalin Continent. Instead, he headed to the Angnak Continent to find Croken, the Prefecture Lord of Tianluo Prefecture, whom he had seen in his "premonition" vision.

He had known this Prefecture Lord before, but they were not close. He intended to get better acquainted before the start of the Plane Wars to gain as much of an advantage as possible at the critical moment.

For Dalayer, it didn't matter where they went, as long as she could travel with Desterie.

Unfortunately, not everyone would wait for him at a golden mountain for thousands of years. By the time Desterie crossed the continent and traveled to Tianluo Prefecture, this Prefecture Lord had already gone out on a journey.

But it didn't matter; in the Panlong world, immortality was easy to obtain, and the one thing gods never lacked was time.

The Celestial Realm had only three teleportation arrays: one on the Kalin Continent, one on the Angnak Continent, and the last on the Gufu Continent. Experts from other continents or seas who wanted to leave the Celestial Realm had to cross the ocean to reach these three continents.

Although Tianluo Prefecture was located on the Angnak Continent, it was at the opposite end of the continent from the plane teleportation array, making it quite time-consuming to traverse.

It wasn't until ten thousand years later that this Prefecture Lord returned from his travels and warmly received Desterie and his companion.

"I have been very rude, Prefecture Lord Desterie. I didn't know a distinguished guest was visiting, and I kept you waiting for so long. I wonder what exactly could have made the two of you stay here for so long?" The Prefecture Lord of Tianluo, Croken, was very enthusiastic and also quite curious.

Although they were both Prefecture Lords and both Sovereign Envoys, Croken knew he was by no means a match for Desterie. If they were to clash, defeat or even death would be no surprise, so he was extremely polite.

Furthermore, although he hadn't heard the name of the female companion beside Desterie, judging by her aura, she was no ordinary person either.

Desterie naturally had his speech prepared and smiled, "I came here this time to see how much you know about the Plane Wars, Prefecture Lord Croken?"