The road ahead

"Big brother."

Azure Dragon Leiding opened his mouth and finally said it, looking at Rhodes and calling him big brother.

"Big brother."

"Big brother."

"Big brother."

Seeing that their own big brother had called him big brother, Nimo, Laius, and Bowen followed suit.

After they called him big brother, silence settled over them once more.

"Second brother."

Once again, Azure Dragon was the first to speak.

"Second brother." "Second brother." "Second brother."

"Good!" "Good!"

Rhodes and Pash spoke at the same time.

"This is a happy day. We brothers and sister need to get thoroughly drunk! Come on, let's drink every last drop of big brother's treasured wine today!" Pash was delighted. There had originally been only him and Rhodes, but unexpectedly, he now had three more younger brothers and a younger sister, all of them among the world's finest Divine Beasts.

Their future achievements certainly would not be insignificant. As for the Sovereigns above Highgods, Rhodes had not told Pash about them. After all, Rhodes still did not know whether Hongmeng had noticed him, or whether he already had. Revealing too much would only change the future even more. What if there ended up being no Sovereigns?

Rhodes had also discussed their attitude toward the Four Divine Beasts with Pash: focus on befriending them, and do not fall out with them unless there was absolutely no other choice. Unexpectedly, the four had given them a pleasant surprise.

But when the four called Rhodes and Pash their brothers, the Overgod had not intervened to crush Rhodes to death, so he no longer had anything to fear. As for the Light Sovereign daring to touch his brothers in the future, would it not suffice to kill Orloff and Augusta together before any sign of that appeared?

There would be trouble, but he could simply eliminate it at its source. If he happened to develop a Fate Divine Clone, then if Orloff could become the second Sovereign of that Edict, so could he, Rhodes.

The six flew toward the tallest peak in the Skyrite Mountains, which was also where the Four Divine Beasts had been born.

Bowen controlled the Earth Element, and a round table appeared with a wave of his hand. After Rhodes and Pash sat down, Leiding and the others took their seats as well.

Rhodes took out most of the various fine wines in his interspatial ring.

"Sorry for the trouble, Fifth Sister, but could you roast the Divine Beasts in this interspatial ring with your Sparrow Flame? We can eat as we drink."

Pash looked at Vermilion Bird, an interspatial ring appearing in his hand.

"You're too polite, second brother."

Rhodes could not help marveling. Although the Four Divine Beasts were indeed extraordinarily proud, once they acknowledged you, they truly treated you as a friend. Otherwise, they would not have helped Zijing kill some unnamed Elemental Sovereign in the future timeline.

At that thought, Rhodes paused. When the Four Divine Beasts Clan was being hunted down, Zijing had not helped them much, but she had probably played a part in the entire clan ultimately retreating into the Infernal Realm.

As for helping the Four Divine Beasts Clan stand against the Light Sovereign, Zijing had probably never considered it.

"Sigh."

Recalling the change in Lei Jialie's eyes at the very last moment when he and Pash left the Amethyst Alliance, Rhodes did not know what to say. After all, they had been friends for several hundred years.

Forget it. I'll lend him a hand in the future if I can. If I can't, there's nothing I can do. Some people simply like to overthink things.

Rhodes sighed inwardly and looked at the five seated around him, the five future Sovereigns.

The beginnings of the greatest power, which would dominate for countless billions of years, had emerged!

Drinking fine wine and eating roasted Divine Beast meat, they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Although the Four Divine Beasts had been born a thousand years ago, no one had taught them before, so their progress in comprehending the Profound Mysteries had been slow. There were also few resources in the Skyrite Mountains.

None of the nearby deity-level beings had come to claim this mountain range, leaving the four with practically no combat experience. This time, within Rhodes's De's Tribulation Thunder Prison, they had made up for that weakness.

Their bodies had also been strengthened. Their gains could be described as tremendous.

Pash told the Four Divine Beasts about what he and Rhodes had seen and heard while traveling across the Amethyst Continent, vividly describing the experts who currently stood at the pinnacle of the Infernal Realm.

The four, who had never interacted with outsiders, learned of the wonders of the Infernal Realm, and each grew eager to venture out into it. Then they heard Pash describe the brutality of the Amethyst Alliance's war against the Demon Alliance, where even Highgods fell one after another, while untold numbers of Midgods and Lowgods died. They all inwardly clicked their tongues, their restless hearts cooling once more.

When they heard that Rhodes could force back even an expert like the Demon King, they grew thrilled to have acknowledged such a big brother. Images of dominating the Infernal Realm seemed ready to surface in their minds at any moment.

The four gazed at Rhodes with even greater fervor. Rhodes simply watched Pash tell the four youngsters about their experiences over the years, only occasionally adding a few words. Most of the time, he just listened and drank.

Rhodes spent most of his time considering his path ahead. His Lightning Divine Clone's comprehension of the Profound Mysteries had reached a temporary bottleneck, while his Wind Divine Clone's strength was undergoing a period of rapid growth.

Then there was the path the Four Divine Beasts should take next. Should they hold back their advancement, or should he help them develop their ultimate Fusion Innate Divine Ability as quickly as possible? Rhodes could not quite make up his mind. Holding back would certainly bring endless benefits later, but as for developing that ultimate technique, they would simply become invincible!

Let the four rest for a few decades, develop their ultimate fused divine ability as quickly as possible, then urge them to become Highgods before discussing anything else. As Midgods, the four are still too fragile and could easily be killed in a surprise attack. Once they've rested, I'll discuss it with them, Rhodes thought to himself.

Rhodes also wanted to see just how powerful Dislocated Space-Time really was, the technique Watrod had developed in the original story and Orloff had later perfected and strengthened, which could be called the "strongest ultimate technique in the universe."

With the four involved personally explaining their fused divine ability, and the Four Divine Beasts right beside him, he would only need to ask for a little blood essence now and then without harming them. Could he develop the technique, Dislocated Space-Time, before even ten thousand years had passed since the world's creation?

Even if he lacked the Magic Array used to stabilize the technique in the original story, since no one had begun studying Magic Arrays yet.

He could still seek out a Magic Array genius in the future to research the technique. Increasing his strength was the right path.

Otherwise, Rhodes could simply have killed the Four Divine Beasts or enslaved them. After all, once the Overgod appeared, all sorts of contracts had appeared as well.

As for why he had not enslaved the four, Rhodes had considered that for a long time before finally deciding that if they knew what was good for them, he would let it go. If they did not, he would deal with that later!

At most, he would help neither side and let events follow the original story's course. The four would slowly develop, ultimately obtain four Sovereign Sparks, dominate until tens of thousands of years before the protagonist's birth, then die and deliver a grand gift to Bebe.

But since Azure Dragon and the others were so accommodating, Rhodes wanted to try another approach and see whether he could change the Four Divine Beasts' fate, give Bebe a different grand gift, and ultimately see whether Linley's fate could remain unpredictable when he was born.

Or he could simply become that old mentor himself. Once Linley transcended, surely he would lend him a hand?

Five years passed in the blink of an eye over a single feast. One could only marvel at how little time was worth.

After pondering for so long without sorting out his thoughts, Rhodes decided to stop considering it for now and take things one step at a time. He was no prodigy, after all. How could he calculate everything so precisely?

He watched Pash repeatedly exchange blows with the four. Over these five years, they had sparred from time to time, helping the Four Divine Beasts adapt to their Midgod strength as quickly as possible while also satisfying Pash's itch for a fight, achieving several things at once.

PS: Thanks to everyone who voted and bookmarked! Those of you with votes, please send the author some more recommendation votes and monthly votes! If you haven't invested yet, you can do that too. Over the last few days, I've finally shaken off the effects of the October 1 holiday, and my daily routine has started returning to normal. I'll try to resume two updates a day starting this weekend.