"Hm?"
The man in white turned around at once. A trace of confusion flashed in his eyes as he looked at Montero, and for a moment, he didn't react.
It wasn't that Montero's words were hard to understand. It was just that the brief sentence contained so much information that Han Jin found it hard to believe.
But Han Jin was the clan leader, after all. He came to his senses a moment later and said, "Tell me exactly what happened."
"Yes, Clan Leader." Montero quickly gathered his thoughts and explained the whole incident in detail.
Han Jin listened closely, his gaze fixed on Montero, his expression never changing. Only after Montero finished did he speak slowly.
"Montero, stay in Liang'an Prefecture for now. If Mr. Ren hasn't left, look for an opportunity to visit him and try to improve your relationship a little. Remember, do not offend him under any circumstances!"
"Yes, Clan Leader." Montero nodded. That had been his plan all along.
The Augusta Clan received the news first, since Montero's clone was at the clan. The second to hear about it was Blood Peak Sovereign Pash.
On an island in the middle of a lake in the Lianyun Mountain Range, Blood Peak Continent.
"What? Ren is a Paragon? And he's the Sovereign of Death's emissary? Reding and the other three got humiliated?" The red-haired man sprang to his feet, flinging the chess piece in his hand to the ground. He stared at the green-haired man across from him, completely dumbfounded.
"Yeah. You should've seen what happened. Mm, this tea is good." Bifu Sovereign Lester lifted his teacup and took a quiet sip.
Pash fell silent. After a long while, he finally said, "Reding and the others must be furious."
"Of course. But in the end, Reding didn't dare say much." Lester replied calmly.
"Those four are always so overbearing. At last, they've gotten a taste of their own medicine." Pash shook his head and slowly sat down. With a wave of his right hand, Divine Power surged, and a neatly arranged set of chess pieces appeared on the board again.
Bifu Sovereign Lester gave Pash a somewhat helpless look, then picked up a chess piece and made the first move.
Blood Peak Sovereign Pash smiled faintly as he chatted and began their game with easy composure. But he wasn't as calm inside as he appeared; he even felt a little satisfaction, though he didn't show it.
To outsiders, Blood Peak Sovereign Pash seemed like a good-natured man who rarely lost his temper. He was mild-mannered and never fought or competed over anything, so he got along well with many Sovereigns. Destruction Overlord, Xing Yi, Zijing, Lester, and Theresia were all among them.
But Pash had lived for countless billions of years, and he was a lofty Sovereign. How could he truly be a simple, honest man? As the ruler of Blood Peak Continent, he was constantly constrained by the Four Divine Beasts because they lived on his territory. Given how domineering they were, how could he have no thoughts about it at all?
Pash simply understood how to conduct himself. With the Four Divine Beasts on Blood Peak Continent, he never clashed with them. Whether it was a Supreme Artifact or some other Heaven and Earth Treasure, he neither fought for it nor picked a quarrel with any Sovereign.
Pash had lived through the chaotic era of the Sovereigns. Back then, there were no agreements among them, and Sovereigns had fallen—even Overlords had met their end. He knew full well that the agreements among Sovereigns weren't all-powerful. As a Low-Sovereign, he only needed to mind his own affairs.
As long as he didn't try to seize a Supreme God Token, like Theresia, or offend an Overlord with a foul mouth, like Bote'er, he would be safe. Even if the Overlords changed, nothing would happen to him.
Though Pash felt a little curiosity—and satisfaction—about what had happened to Reding and the other three, he soon put it out of his mind and focused on the chess game before him.
The news of Ren and the Four Divine Beasts Clan spread like a bomb, setting the entire Divine Plane abuzz.
At the summit of Wind God Mountain in the Wind Divine Plane, inside the Venna Clan's blue hall.
"Hahaha! Wonderful! Just wonderful! The Four Divine Beasts Clan finally got what was coming to them!"
Venna burst into laughter, his white eyebrows curving downward in a comical way. He didn't care in the least. He just wanted to let his feelings out.
Not long ago, the Four Divine Beasts Clan had come to his door and forced him to hand over his own son. For the sake of the clan, Venna had gritted his teeth and agreed, though his heart had bled. His hatred for the Four Divine Beasts Clan had reached its peak.
But Venna hadn't expected that, only a few years later, the Four Divine Beasts Clan would get its comeuppance. They had offended a Paragon High-God, and dozens of their Seven-Star Demons and several Asuras had been slaughtered. The Sovereigns' children had been badly injured. Venna felt as if he'd finally been able to let out a pent-up breath, and he was immensely satisfied.
"A Paragon... An invincible Paragon. If only someone from my Venna Clan could become a Paragon. Then how could we have ended up like this?"
As he laughed, Venna's expression faded. He rubbed his temples and sighed, muttering bitterly.
He knew very well that a Paragon could change the clan's predicament. But becoming a Paragon was no easy feat. The more powerful someone was, the more clearly they understood how difficult it was. Venna was an Asura himself; how could he not know?
"Forget it, forget it. I'd better tell the clan members to keep a low profile for a while."
After a long silence, Venna made his decision. The Four Divine Beasts Clan had just suffered a major blow, and no one knew whether they would lie low for a while or take out their anger on others in retaliation.
The same scene played out across the various planes. The Bolin Clan in Heaven, the Edric Clan in the Life Divine Plane, the Ashcroft Clan in the Netherworld... After privately laughing their heads off, each clan urged its members to tread carefully and keep a low profile.
The Reynalds Clan in Hell was especially cautious. Since it was closest to the Four Divine Beasts Clan, Rernas simply ordered his clan members to stay in the city for the next million years unless there was a special reason to leave, lest they run into the Four Divine Beasts Clan in a bad mood and become targets of their wrath.
Ren could guess some of the world's reaction, but he didn't care. The moment he became a Paragon, a day like this was inevitable.
At that moment, Ren finally took out the Spatial Ring belonging to Alfred, the former Prefect of Liang'an, which he'd casually put away earlier.
When Emmanuel and Conofier first came to see him, Ren had already found it strange. The Four Divine Beasts Clan might be domineering, but there was no reason for them to help Alfred for no reason. Unless he could offer Emmanuel something tempting.
But Alfred was no longer the Prefect at the time, and he'd lost his strongest Divine Clone. What could he possibly offer to sway an elder born into the Four Divine Beasts Clan?
"What exactly is in this Spatial Ring?"
As Ren pondered, he dripped blood onto the ring to make it recognize him as its master, then sent his Divine Sense inside to investigate. A moment later, a look of shock appeared in his previously calm eyes.
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