Water Element Turmoil

Water Element Turmoil

The second Saint-level magical beast was a unicorn with talents in the Thunder and Light Elements. Faced with Lincoln's threats and inducements, it readily agreed.

But when Lincoln offered it a choice of rewards, it chose the God Spark without hesitation. No amount of persuasion could change its mind.

"Walter, are you really willing to become an Highgod who can never improve?" Azure Sparrow asked Walter on the way back.

"Azure Sparrow, you're still too young to understand what it's like to cultivate no matter how hard you try and still make no progress—to feel despair over your own talent." The unicorn Walter recalled those days with great pain. "I had the bloodline of a Saint-level magical beast, so I reached the Saint-level as an adult, before I was even a hundred. But now, I've been at the Saint-level Limit for almost twenty thousand years. Before Lord Lincoln came to find me today, I was debating whether to go to the Heavenly Realm. I hoped I might change my fate and finally make progress there. If he'd come just a little later, I really would have left!"

Twenty thousand years without making progress—Azure Sparrow couldn't imagine it. It was only a hundred and fifty years old, at most.

"Everyone makes their own choices." Lincoln sat on Walter's back with his eyes closed, resting. "Walter, even if you went to the Heavenly Realm and were lucky enough to become a god, so what? You'd have no idea how many tens of thousands of years it might take to become an ordinary Highgod. Refining a God Spark means you can't improve, but for you, its potential may well exceed what you could achieve by becoming a god on your own. Besides, there's a much greater chance you wouldn't survive a single day in the Heavenly Realm."

"The Supreme Plane and the Divine Planes are all places filled with slaughter. You need to become at least a Low-God before you have even a little bit of human dignity."

Six years later, in Soto City, a little boy rode on the neck of a tall man, shouting over and over, "Giddy-up! Giddy-up! Uncle Walter, can we go faster?" A colorful chicken followed beside them, flying slowly at a low altitude.

"Daniel, if you want to go faster, hold on tight!" Walter said. He bent his legs slightly, then sprang forward like a bolt of thunder, raising a huge cloud of dust and leaving the colorful chicken gaping as it got a faceful of it.

"Walter! The master told us to keep an eye on the young master, and all he knows how to do is curry favor with him. He takes the young master running all over the place every day!" It hurriedly beat its wings and chased after them.

The two people and one bird were six-year-old Daniel, Walter, who had refined a Thunder Element Low-God God Spark, and Azure Sparrow, who was still at the Saint-level. Azure Sparrow wasn't very big to begin with and had only disguised itself as a colorful pheasant. It was far less conspicuous than a peacock. Their destination was the Solotoni Warrior Academy, where Daniel would find many brothers and friends and eventually grow into an adult.

By Rainbow Lake, Lincoln watched Daniel leave and, still not reassured, kept an eye on him with his Divine Sense. Then he shifted his attention to his Chief God clone.

In Hell, at the Plane Teleportation Array on Mirror Moon Cliff, a flash of light appeared, and Lincoln's Darkness Element clone emerged from the array. He looked around briefly and smiled. "Mirror Moon Cliff again. It seems I'm destined to keep coming here."

His Divine Sense instantly swept toward Blue Prefecture on Blood Peak Continent. "Hmm, they're not here?"

Lincoln had come to find the Four Divine Beasts, but he wasn't surprised they weren't there. He extended his Divine Sense again, covering all of Hell. At once, every Chief God living in Hell was alarmed.

"Lincoln, what are you doing in Hell?" Uterede's voice sounded from deep within the Sea of Chaos.

Lincoln sensed that nearly twenty Chief Gods had been drawn by the stimulation of his Divine Sense. He straightened up and said, "Lord Uterede, I came to find Leiding and the others. There are some things I'd like to ask them about, but I just discovered they aren't in Hell."

"Well, look who it is, Lincoln. It's rare to see you leave your place. Don't stay cooped up in the Material Plane all the time. Come chat in the Star Fog Sea sometime." Uterede said nothing more; it was Xingyi who spoke.

"Lord Lincoln, Leiding and the other three should all be in the Water Divine Plane. They've spent most of the past few hundred thousand years there!" Pashi's voice rang out. As a Chief God of Blood Peak Continent, he knew more about the Four Divine Beasts' movements.

"Thank you, Pashi," Lincoln said. "Lord Xingyi, I have something important to discuss with the Four Divine Beasts. I'll visit you another time."

After their Divine Sense exchange, Lincoln displayed his Main God Token and entered the teleportation array again. "Water Divine Plane!"

One of the three major islands in the Water Divine Plane, Ten Thousand Waves Island was surrounded by storms year-round, making it extremely difficult to travel there. Yet one of the Water Divine Plane's three teleportation arrays was located on the island, so large numbers of travelers were often stranded there.

Lincoln emerged from the teleportation array once more and sent his Divine Sense toward Tianqing Island. It was the Azure Dragon Clan's base in the Water Divine Plane. But as he extended his Divine Sense, he discovered that the Water Divine Plane's Chief God group chat was already open.

"Leiding, you've gone too far! I've put up with you all this time, but now your Four Divine Beasts Clan has actually plotted to kill my Sovereign Envoy over a Mid-God—and even subjected him to the utmost humiliation. You've shown no regard at all for me, the Water Chief Sovereign!" Valeria's clear voice rang out, filled with immense fury.

A Sovereign Envoy's death meant little to a Chief God; they could simply find another. But humiliating a Sovereign Envoy amounted to a provocation. After all, unlike the soldiers and Legion Commanders of a Chief God's army, Sovereign Envoys were powerful individuals personally chosen by a Chief God. To some extent, they represented the Chief God's standing.

"It was just a Sovereign Envoy. You're making too much of it, Valeria," Nimo said in his usual fiery voice. "My juniors only had a personal dispute with him. It wasn't an act of disrespect toward you, Lord Chief Sovereign."

"That's right, Lord Valeria. There's no need to bring a matter involving a few insignificant Deity-level youngsters up to our level," White Tiger Ersi added.

Valeria was furious, but the other Chief Gods of the Water Divine Plane didn't dare to speak up. They couldn't afford to offend either side.

"What's going on, Lady Lucy?" Lincoln asked through his Divine Sense, turning to one of the Water Element Mid-God Chief Gods. He found her with another Water Element Low-Sovereign, Wot.

"Why are you here, Mr. Lincoln? It's just a bit of friction between the Four Divine Beasts Clan and the Valeria Clan. The Chief Sovereign is angry and is demanding an explanation from the Four Divine Beasts," Lucy explained.

"The Four Divine Beasts Clan has been far too domineering in recent years. My Sovereign Envoys and Legion Commanders have complained about them several times. I hear they've been expanding constantly in the Earth, Wind, and Fire Divine Planes, showing no regard for the other Chief Gods. But this time they've gone too far. They deliberately humiliated and killed a Sovereign Envoy the Chief Sovereign valued highly. She's reached the end of her patience," Wot added.