Birth of a New Prefect, the Indecisive Emmanuel

"Crack!"

High in the void, the translucent pale-green spear, wrapped in the power of a Sovereign, condensed into a single point and accurately pierced through the blade of Alfred's battle saber. Deflected by the saber's resistance, it grazed his head and plunged into his chest, instantly tearing a massive hole through him.

"This lunatic!"

Feeling the blood flowing from his chest, Alfred couldn't help but curse inwardly. His movements remained swift; his long whip instantly elongated, wrapping around the green spear in the blink of an eye. At the same time, he surged his own Sovereign's power, flinging the spear away in the opposite direction.

The use of Sovereign's power is not rigid. Sovereign's power channeled within the body can be applied to the entire physique to enhance defense, recovery, and speed. Simultaneously, it can be infused into a Sovereign artifact to boost attack power and speed.

Of course, there is a more extreme method of infusing Sovereign's power into an artifact: injecting a massive amount of it into the weapon and hurling it. This allows for an attack speed and power that makes it extremely difficult for an opponent to dodge.

However, this method of application drastically accelerates the consumption of Sovereign's power. Once it is exhausted, the opponent can launch a counter-kill. Therefore, except for the few who are not lacking in Sovereign's power, most people do not use it this way.

Faced with Ren's fighting style, Alfred found it somewhat incomprehensible and could only curse Ren as a madman in his heart.

Ren naturally knew that using Sovereign's power this way would accelerate its consumption. During the battle between Linley and the Eight Great Clans, Elder Chabu of the Edric Clan had used a similar method, mobilizing all his Sovereign's power to execute a binding technique to temporarily suppress Pusiluo. However, his Sovereign's power was quickly depleted, and he was killed by Pusiluo with a single strike from a Sovereign artifact.

Ren knew that after such a strike, he had to kill Alfred as quickly as possible; otherwise, his own Sovereign's power would be exhausted immediately, and Alfred, who still possessed Sovereign's power, would be able to counter-kill him instantly. Therefore, he did not pause for even a second. The moment the spear was thrown, a pale-green longsword appeared in his hand.

Although the spear had been thrown far away by Alfred using his Sovereign's power, a master could recall a soul-bound artifact with a single thought. However, the suppression from the Sovereign's power meant it would take a moment to return. Ren naturally wouldn't wait idly and instead drew another weapon.

"Dimension—Break!"

Pale-green airflow merged into the interior of the longsword. The sword trembled slightly, emitting a strange, resonant sound that spread outward as Ren's figure gradually closed in on Alfred.

"If I can't dodge, then I'll fight to the death!"

Alfred gritted his teeth. His long whip rotated at high speed, carrying blue lightning that instantly formed into a purple electric serpent, which he thrust back toward Ren.

"Swish!"

The green longsword slashed through the void, slicing the electric serpent in two as if it were tofu. Its speed undiminished, it reached the center of Alfred's brow in the blink of an eye.

"You..."

Alfred subconsciously wanted to say something, but it came to an abrupt end. A bursting sound rang out, and a godspark and a spatial ring fell, which Ren immediately collected.

After the sound of air being torn apart, the green spear flew back into Ren's other hand, and the green halo on his body dissipated the next moment. His water-elemental Sovereign's power was exhausted.

"Drip!"

Ren extended a finger, and a drop of blood fell into the spatial ring before sliding off. Clearly, Alfred still had other divine clones outside.

"So he really does have other divine clones? In that case, I'll post a bounty mission at the Fiend Castle and arrange for the prefecture guards to take action."

After taking Alfred's spatial ring, Ren did not linger and transformed into a streak of light, flying toward Liang'an City.

As Ren departed, the million spectators at the scene erupted into a frenzy.

"My god, I actually witnessed the birth of a new Prefecture Lord. I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"The Liang'an Prefecture Lord has changed. Lord Ren—no, Prefecture Lord Ren is truly too strong. I wonder when my attacks will ever reach even one-tenth of his."

"One-tenth? Keep dreaming. With your ability, it's impossible even if you cultivate for another million years."

Having witnessed a spectacular battle, most of the audience was in high spirits, discussing the event fervently. However, not everyone shared this mood. Among the crowd, the bald elder Emmanuel clearly did not look pleased; he left the scene with his men, his face dark and gloomy.

"Should I report to the clan that Ren has offended the Four Divine Beasts Clan?"

Emmanuel's brain began to race, weighing the consequences. From his current perspective, he wished he could kill Ren immediately, but the strength Ren had displayed left him unable to make a decision.

Given the combat power Ren showed in killing the Liang'an Prefecture Lord Alfred, it was absolutely impossible for Emmanuel to defeat him on his own. Therefore, to kill Ren, there were only two paths for him. The first was to report directly to the clan, claiming that Ren had spoken disrespectfully and insulted the Four Divine Beasts Clan. The clan would surely send someone to kill him; an Asura was not enough to make the clan hesitate.

However, this posed a problem for him personally: he would be unable to explain why, if Ren had insulted the clan, he himself had not taken action to kill him.

The Patriarch and the Great Elder valued the dignity of the clan above all else. If Ren insulted the clan and you went to kill him, only to be killed in return, the clan would avenge you and remember your contribution, treating your remaining clones well.

But if he knew Ren had insulted the clan and yet failed to act, in the eyes of the Patriarch and the Great Elder, he would have brought shame upon the Four Divine Beasts Clan. Their clansmen could die, but they could not lose their dignity; this had been the bottom line of the Four Divine Beasts Clan for countless years.

Emmanuel knew that although he was the grandson of the Great Elder, the Great Elder's character would never allow him any leniency. In that case, he would likely face a severe punishment, such as being ordered back to the Heavenly Sacrifice Mountain Range to go into seclusion, forbidden from leaving until he made a breakthrough, even if it took hundreds of millions of years. He naturally did not want to be imprisoned.

The other method was to bypass the Patriarch and the Great Elder and hire someone to kill Ren without the clan's knowledge. Within the Four Divine Beasts Clan, besides the children of the Sovereigns like the Patriarch and the Great Elder, there were several honorary elders at the Asura level, all of whom were envoys of the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns.

As envoys of the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns, they were all empowered by Sovereign artifacts, but they possessed little Sovereign's power. Conversely, the elders of the Four Divine Beasts Clan possessed Sovereign's power. This gave rise to a cooperative mechanism: when elders of the Four Divine Beasts Clan encountered enemies they could not resolve, they could use Sovereign's power as payment to hire these honorary elders for help.

Millions of years ago, while traveling, Emmanuel had encountered a Seven-Star Demon who had "offended" him. The man was extremely skilled in speed, and even after Emmanuel used Sovereign's power, the man had escaped. Gritting his teeth, he had used a drop of Sovereign's power to hire Copperfield, an honorary elder of the Azure Dragon Clan, to take action, successfully killing the person who had "offended" him.

But this time, Emmanuel was hesitant about whether to ask Copperfield for help. He certainly didn't worry that Copperfield would lose, as Copperfield possessed an offensive Sovereign artifact; he was only worried that Ren might still have Sovereign's power.

If that were the case, hiring Copperfield would cost him a drop of Sovereign's power as payment. Between the drop of Sovereign's power used to fight Ren and the payment, he would have to part with two drops of Sovereign's power just to vent his anger by killing Ren. He was reluctant to do so and remained indecisive.