At the Heavenly Wind Tribe, the two chiefs, Tianfeng and Lieshan, landed and respectfully saluted Leijia.
Chief Lieshan flipped his hand and produced a spatial ring whose blood binding had been lifted. Inside were the Divine Sparks, divine artifacts, and all the accumulated wealth of the eight Highgods who had fallen from the two great tribes.
Leijia took the spatial ring and swept it with his divine sense. He took out the few Heaven and Earth Wonders inside, then tossed the ring to Chief Tianfeng. "Find a few people willing to refine the High Godheads inside, and have them refine every one. Give out all the divine artifacts as rewards."
Refining a Divine Spark was equivalent to cutting off one's path to further growth, but not every God Level expert could break through to become a Highgod. The few High Godheads Leijia disdained were enough to make countless Midgods flock to them.
With that, Leijia turned to Chief Lieshan. "Go inform the other tribes. I've decided to unite the twelve tribes and form an alliance."
Chief Lieshan nodded, then said hesitantly, "My lord, the smaller tribes may submit, but I'm afraid the larger ones won't obey so readily."
Although Leijia spoke of an alliance, Chief Lieshan understood that an alliance needed a leader to issue orders. If Leijia didn't want to be that leader, wouldn't going to the trouble of uniting the twelve tribes be a pointless exercise?
As for Chief Lieshan's concerns, Leijia said calmly, "That's not for you to worry about. Just pass the message along. As for those who refuse, I'll make them agree."
Leijia's words put Chief Lieshan's mind at ease. Having witnessed Leijia's strength, he had no doubt that Leijia could bring the twelve tribes under his control.
Infernal Realm, Zijing Continent.
In the Amethyst Mountains, White Tiger Laius looked at the towering peak ahead, his face full of delight, and let out a wild roar.
After thousands of years, they had finally reached the Amethyst Mountains.
It wasn't just Laius. Black Tortoise Bowen, Vermilion Bird Nemo, Pash, and even Redding felt a weight lift from their shoulders at the sight of the Amethyst Mountains.
After thousands of years of travel and a crossing of the Star Mist Sea, they had finally reached this continent at the northernmost edge of the Infernal Realm.
White mist shrouded the entire mountain range like a maiden's white gauze skirt, concealing it in a hazy veil through which it appeared and vanished.
Under the light, parts of the mountains were barely visible through the endless white mist, but any attempt to look more closely revealed nothing clear.
Redding said to the others beside him, "Let's go. No more wasting time. Let's get inside."
With that, Redding flew toward the Mist Sea first, and the others followed him.
As he passed into the vast white mist, Redding immediately found his vision obstructed. Visibility was extremely low, and a constant whistling wind sounded in his ears.
Redding clearly remembered that the Amethyst Mountains were the birthplace of the Amethyst Sovereign. The vast quantities of Amethyst hidden within the Mist Sea were excellent for repairing and strengthening the soul.
Over the years, Redding had clearly felt his progress in fusing the Profound Mysteries of the Laws slow considerably. One reason was that he had already begun fusing a fifth Profound Mystery.
The farther he progressed, the slower the fusion became. The other reason was that Redding's soul was insufficient.
Besides Redding's Water Element Divine Clone, his Lightning Element and Life Element Divine Clones had become Leijia and gone to the Life Divine Realm.
Including his Saint Domain True Body, Redding had four Divine Clones in all.
Splitting his soul four ways had made it much weaker than those of others at his level. If he hadn't found quite a few soul-strengthening wonders in the Star Mist Sea over the years, his progress in fusing Profound Mysteries would probably have been even slower.
But Heaven and Earth Wonders were limited, after all, and couldn't strengthen his soul as quickly as the vast quantities of Amethyst in the Amethyst Mountains.
As the Mist Sea gradually swallowed them, Laius shouted to Redding, "Big brother, haven't you found any Amethyst yet? This mist is getting thicker, and there's a sound wave constantly attacking our souls."
Except for Pash, everyone there had chosen External Godhood. The splitting of their souls put them at a considerable disadvantage when resisting the sound waves in the white mist.
"Don't talk. Stay close to me." Redding didn't answer Laius directly, instead pushing straight into the depths of the Mist Sea.
Redding knew that although Amethyst occasionally drifted out of the Mist Sea, the amount was a mere drop in the bucket compared with what lay inside the white mist. Besides, whether one could collect any depended on luck.
Inside the Mist Sea was different. As long as they found a source from which Amethyst spewed, they could grab it by the handful.
Behind him, Laius, Nemo, Bowen, and Pash followed Redding without hesitation.
Years of habit had formed a conviction in their minds that Redding's choices were always right and that they only needed to stay close to him.
They flew quickly, and after a dozen or so minutes, the Mist Sea was still hazy, but the buzzing in their minds had mostly faded.
As they ventured deeper into the Mist Sea, Redding felt the gravity around them grow considerably stronger.
As expected of the Amethyst Divine Beast's lair. An ordinary Highgod probably wouldn't be able to fly very fast under this gravity, Redding thought.
The closer they got to the heart of the Amethyst Mountains, the stronger the gravity became. After flying for three days, even Redding felt it affecting him slightly.
Even so, they continued flying toward the heart of the Amethyst Mountains.
The Amethyst Mountains were vast. As the future home of a Sovereign, they would take Redding and the others at least several years to cross, even if they flew at full speed.
Moreover, when leaving the Mist Sea, they would encounter a buzzing even stronger than the one they had faced on entering it.
Redding wasn't too worried about breaking through the Mist Sea of the Amethyst Mountains. Linley had managed to leave the mountains with a black stone given to him by the Zijing Sovereign. As Linley's ancestor, wouldn't Redding be a laughingstock if he were trapped by a mere Mist Sea in the Amethyst Mountains?
Given their current strength, the Mist Sea couldn't affect them much. The only thing that frustrated Redding was that the vast white mist blocked their vision, so they didn't dare split up to search for Amethyst, greatly slowing their progress.
A month later, Redding and the other four stopped before a massive pit.
Around the pit, scattered Amethyst had piled up into little mountains.
Laius swallowed. "Th-this is all Amethyst? There's far too much!"
Pash, standing beside him, said, "So much Amethyst. No wonder Big Brother Redding insisted on coming in to find the pit."
During the days they had spent searching for an Amethyst mine, Redding and the others had picked up and absorbed several thousand pieces, but compared with the amount before them, that was a mere drop in the bucket.
No, it didn't even amount to that.
Vermilion Bird Nemo's breathing grew rapid. Black Tortoise Bowen said nothing, simply rushing forward and frantically stuffing Amethyst into his spatial ring.
Seeing the way his brothers were acting, Redding laughingly scolded them for being hopeless. Then he walked over to a towering pile of Amethyst and began absorbing the energy it contained to strengthen his soul.