"Someone's coming."
Descending from the sky, Redding and Bowen walked over to where Laius and the others were cultivating.
Redding raised a hand to stop Bowen from removing the barrier and waking Laius and the others. "There's no need," he said evenly. "The visitor probably means no harm. Come on, let's go meet this friend together."
Hearing Redding's words, Bowen relaxed the tense muscles in his arms slightly and followed Redding as he flew toward the visitor.
As they flew, Redding watched the figure ahead gradually come into focus and thought with some feeling, The profound mysteries of the Laws of Fate really are unfathomable.
Yes, Redding had told Bowen the visitor meant no harm because of a warning from his Fate Divine Clone.
Even Redding had not expected his Fate Element Divine Clone to have such an ability. In his memories of his previous life, the Fate Element seemed to have an ability similar to making one's words become reality, but he had not expected it to have something like a warning ability as well.
Besides the warning from his Fate Divine Clone, it was Redding's own strength that gave him the confidence to take Bowen with him.
The Amethyst Mountains, where Redding and the others were staying, were the birthplace of Sovereign Zijing, so their visitor was very likely to be her.
With the strength of Redding's Water Element Divine Clone, he could escape unscathed even if he faced Uhtred head-on.
As the first life-form in the Infernal Realm, Uhtred's strength was definitely among the highest in the realm.
No matter how strong the life-forms of the Infernal Realm were, at most they would be on Uhtred's level. With the strength of his Water Element Divine Clone, Redding was not worried in the slightest.
The figure in the distance drew closer, and Redding could now see the visitor's appearance clearly.
He had short brown hair and wore a short-sleeved shirt the same color as his hair, leaving his muscular arms exposed.
The visitor was not Sovereign Zijing, as Redding had expected, but a male God Level expert.
Upon seeing Redding and Bowen beside him, the God Level expert slowed his approach. Smiling, he said, "You two, my name is Leiyuan. Where did you come from to reach the Amethyst Mountains?"
Hearing Leiyuan's gentle tone, Redding felt that he did not seem to mean much harm and took up the conversation.
More than ten minutes later, Leiyuan let out a long breath and said with some feeling, "You came here from another continent, crossing the ocean?"
"Zijing and I have been on this continent since we were born. We've never left it."
As they spoke, Redding and his companions stirred a longing in Leiyuan for the world beyond the Zijing Continent.
"Amethyst?" Redding paused, a vague guess forming in his mind.
Leiyuan smiled. "Zijing is my wife. We're both Amethyst Divine Beasts..."
Only after Leiyuan explained did Redding and Bowen learn that there were two Amethyst Divine Beasts in all.
Redding thought, No wonder Sovereign Zijing's son Leisjing is an Amethyst Divine Beast. Presumably, only when both parents are Amethyst Divine Beasts is it possible for a true divine beast to be born.
Super divine beasts were extremely rare, and generally each was unique in the world. There was only one Azure Dragon and one Black Kun, for example, and even their offspring possessed only a portion of their bloodline.
For a second one to appear through a reversion to the ancestral bloodline, as with the God-Eater Rats, was an immensely difficult thing.
But on the Zijing Continent of the future, Sovereign Zijing was the only Sovereign-level expert, and the only Amethyst Divine Beasts were Sovereign Zijing and Leisjing. There was no sign of Leiyuan, so presumably he had fallen over the long years.
Several months later, in the Amethyst pit.
Leiyuan gripped a dark-golden staff and spun it with his hand. The staff instantly became a blur of afterimages, blocking the space before him like a shield.
Opposite Leiyuan, Redding held a deep-blue flexible sword and lowered his stance slightly, like a crouching cheetah.
The two exchanged over a hundred blows with their weapons, and spatial rifts were faintly visible amid the violent shock waves of their battle.
"Hahaha!" Leiyuan laughed aloud and hurled his staff fiercely at Redding.
Then, with a furious roar, Leiyuan sprouted densely packed spikes from his back. Amethyst-like crystals emerged across his skin, and his aura was as deep as an abyss. There were exactly 108 barbs on his back, no more and no fewer.
In an instant, Leiyuan transformed into his true form as an Amethyst Divine Beast.
"Come on!" Redding laughed, a powerful Dragon Roar rumbling from his chest.
A pair of pointed horns emerged from Redding's forehead, azure scales sprouted along his arms like bamboo shoots in spring, and a thick dragon tail pushed out from the end of his spine.
A super divine beast, the Azure Dragon!
In an instant, Redding switched to his Saint Domain True Body, unleashing a powerful pressure toward Leiyuan that was no weaker than the Amethyst Divine Beast's.
Redding swung his claw, its body as hard as a Highgod Artifact, and struck the staff Leiyuan had thrown.
Clang!
The staff rang out with a piercing metallic sound. Under the tremendous force of Redding's claw, it was sent flying, crashing into a pile of Amethyst nearby and instantly reducing more than ten thousand pieces to powder.
Roar!
As the staff hit the ground, a fierce gust swept toward Redding's face. The Amethyst Divine Beast's fist hurtled precisely toward him.
"Come on!"
Facing Leiyuan's attack, Redding neither dodged nor retreated. A trace of fighting spirit flashed in his eyes.
With a fierce roar, Redding raised his claw to meet Leiyuan's fist. At the same time, he lashed his dragon tail at Leiyuan's head from an extremely tricky angle.
Leiyuan, too, made no attempt to evade Redding's attack.
As super divine beasts, both had bodies as hard as Highgod Artifacts. Neither used combat techniques or unleashed the profound mysteries of the Laws. Relying on the hardness of their bodies, they fought like wild beasts, each blow striking flesh.
The savage, brutal way they fought left the distant spectators dumbfounded.
Several thousand meters away, Laius and Pash stood side by side. Beside Laius, Black Tortoise Bowen watched Redding and Leiyuan fight without a word.
On the other side, Nemo, her hair tied in a ponytail, stood with her arms folded. Beside her stood a beautiful woman in a long purple dress.
Nemo turned to the woman. "Zijing, you Amethyst Divine Beasts have rather tough divine bodies."
Everyone present except Pash was a super divine beast, but each kind had different strengths.
Among the Four Divine Beasts, for instance, Bowen had the toughest divine body, Nemo was most skilled with the soul, Laius had the strongest material attacks, and Redding was the strongest overall, a veritable miniature all-rounder.
Compared with the Amethyst Divine Beasts, the other three of the Four Divine Beasts besides Redding all seemed to have visible shortcomings.
Amethyst Divine Beasts had extremely powerful souls. Although their divine bodies in their normal state were not as terrifyingly tough as a Black Tortoise's, they did not fall behind in the slightest when trading blows with Redding.
As for their souls, the Amethyst Mountains produced abundant Amethyst that restored souls. Born in the Amethyst Mountains, Amethyst Divine Beasts had souls that far surpassed those of ordinary divine beasts.
Their ultimate move, Blackstone Space, was exceptionally powerful. The defense of their Innate Divine Ability, Amethyst Barrier, was not as strong as Bowen's, but it was still exceptional.
Taken as a whole, an Amethyst Divine Beast might not match one of the Four Divine Beasts in any single aspect, but it had virtually no shortcomings. In a one-on-one fight, the Four Divine Beasts might even be at a slight disadvantage.