Book 20, The Crown’s Riddle – Chapter 6, Overgod Artifact
“Father!” Linley stepped into the room.
Hogg, currently reading a book, lifted his head. Seeing Linley, he couldn’t help but smile. “Linley, I heard you were in closed-door training. What, did you make a breakthrough?”
“Right.” Linley nodded, then sat down to the side. “Father, in two days, I plan to head to the Divine Light Plane to go visit the Chief Sovereign of Light. I want to see if there is any hope of finding mother and letting her regain her freedom.”
“Huh?” Hogg’s hands trembled. The book fell to the table as he stared at Linley, stunned. “Linley, you are going to the Divine Light Realm? But...last time, didn’t you tell me that in the Planar Wars, you killed members of the Augusta clan? Isn’t the Chief Sovereign of Light the ancestor of the Augusta clan? For you to go will be very dangerous.” Hogg was frantic.
Hogg knew about virtually all of Linley’s experiences over the years.
“Father, don’t worry. The Chief Sovereign of Light has 182 children, and that’s just in the second generation. The one I killed was a third generation member. The Augusta clan has more than a thousand individuals in the second and third generations. The Chief Sovereign of Light won’t care about it.” Linley was absolutely certain about this.
If the Chief Sovereign of Light cared, Reisgem wouldn’t have dared to have organized them to attack.
“But he is still a Chief Sovereign. It would be utter simplicity for him to kill you.” Hogg was very worried.
“Precisely because he is a Chief Sovereign, he wouldn’t lower himself to kill me.” Linley said comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Father! The Chief Sovereign of Light and I don’t have a grudge against each other. If he wants to kill me, he has plenty of methods to do so. But he’s done nothing!”
“Didn’t you say that there is no hope?” Hogg asked.
“I said the chances were very low.” Linley laughed bitterly. “But if I don’t at least try, I can’t be sure. If I give it a try, I might be successful. Sovereigns wish for Paragons to be their Emissaries. Perhaps, given my status, there’s a slight sliver of a chance that the Chief Sovereign of Light would restore my mother to freedom.”
“A slight sliver of a chance...” Hogg nodded slightly
Hogg looked at Linley, then said solemnly, “Linley, you are no longer a child. You have your own ideas and thoughts about what to do...but as your father, I must warn you that if this will be dangerous, you had best not go! I admittedly don’t know much about Sovereigns and Paragons, and thus can’t say much on that subject. I’ll let you make your own decisions. But safety first! You and Wharton...the two of you are just as important as your mother to me.”
“Right.” Hearing this, Linley felt...as though he were a child again, listening to his father instruct him.
Linley’s decision was to go find Patriarch Gislason the next day.
Within the hall.
“What?” Gislason, who had just sat down, couldn’t help but stand in shock. “Linley, you say you are going to go to the Divine Light Plane to visit the Chief Sovereign?”
“Right.” Linley laughed calmly. “I’m just coming to let you know that this trip of mine will take at least ten years and perhaps up to a hundred. All I can do is to go beg the Chief Sovereign of Light.”
Gislason hesitated, then said, “Linley, based on what I learned from Father in the past, the Chief Sovereign of Light isn’t a very amiable person. The Chief Sovereign of Light is extremely arrogant, and extremely domineering. If you go beg him...the chance for success truly is very low. In addition, I’m worried that if you say a single word not to his liking, he will kill you.”
“Arrogant and domineering?” Linley frowned.
Gislason nodded. “Right. The countless planes of the universe have a total of eleven Chief Sovereigns. The strongest are, of course, the Chief Sovereigns of the four Edicts! As for the other seven, the Chief Sovereign of Light is the strongest.”
Linley understood. The Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts were indeed mighty.
But he hadn’t expected...that of the Chief Sovereigns of the seven Elemental Laws, the Chief Sovereign of Light was the mightiest.
“Why is the Chief Sovereign of Light more powerful than the other Elemental Chief Sovereigns?” Linley asked, puzzled.
Gislason was the son of the Azure Dragon, after all. He knew many secrets. He laughed and said, “This involves a certain treasure...an Overgod artifact!”
“Overgod artifact?” Linley’s eyes instantly lit up.
Just from the term alone, Linley understood what it represented. Divine artifacts. Sovereign artifacts. Overgod artifacts! Clearly, there were three levels of artifacts.
“Overgod artifacts are created by the Overgods themselves! Because there are only four Overgods, the Overgods of Fate, Destruction, Death, and Life, there are also only four kinds of Overgod artifacts. The four most powerful Sovereigns are the Chief Sovereigns of Destruction, Death, Fate, and Life. They all have Overgod artifacts. This is why they are the most powerful Chief Sovereigns!”
Linley nodded slightly.
No wonder those four Chief Sovereigns were powerful. So it was because they had Overgod artifacts.
“Eleven Chief Sovereigns...five of them have Overgod artifacts. Aside from the four Chief Sovereigns I just mentioned, the last one is the Chief Sovereign of Light! Although the Chief Sovereign of Light has an Overgod artifact, it isn’t a match for him, and so he’s unable to use all of its power. Thus, he is weaker than the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, but more powerful than the other six Chief Sovereigns of the Laws!”
Linley sighed to himself.
The power of Overgod artifacts must truly be tremendous. There were only four Overgods to begin with, and they were the personifications of the Edicts to begin with. It was only natural that the Chief Sovereign of Light wouldn’t be suited to handling an Overgod artifact. It was only reasonable that he would thus be weaker than the four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.
“Overgod artifacts...where do they come from, and how did these five Chief Sovereigns acquire them?” Linley asked.
“I’m uncertain.” Gislason shook his head. “This happened long, long ago. Even my father and the other three didn’t know the details, much less me. The Chief Sovereign of Light’s is arrogant and domineering, but he has the power to be domineering. After all, he has an Overgod artifact!”
“Overgod artifact...” Linley let out a sigh. “Can it be that despite the passage of so many years, there hasn’t been a second Overgod artifact?”
“No. If there was one, wouldn’t the Chief Sovereigns and Sovereigns go wild over it and fight for it? The Chief Sovereign of Light has one, but the Chief Sovereigns of the other six elements do not. I imagine that in their hearts, those six Chief Sovereigns of the Laws feel very unhappy about this. If they had any chance to acquire one, would they give it up?” Gislason laughed as he spoke.
Linley couldn’t help but laugh. “I wonder what an Overgod artifact looks like. I probably wouldn’t recognize one even if I saw one.”
“Overgod artifacts? Only someone at the level of a Sovereign can make use of them. There’s no point in us acquiring them; in fact, acquiring them would only invite disaster upon ourselves.” Gislason changed the topic. “Enough about Overgod artifacts. That’s a very distant topic. Linley, you say that you wish to go to the Divine Light Plane, but I urge you not to go. Truly, don’t go!”
Linley chuckled. “He might be powerful, but he is still a Sovereign. Would he lower himself to act against me?”
Gislason let out a low sigh, then suddenly spoke through divine sense. “Linley, I will tell you a secret.”
Linley was stunned!
The two were chatting in the hall, but Gislason actually used divine sense to speak? Could the secretly be so great?
“Patriarch, what is the secret?” Linley was puzzled.
“Linley.” Gislason’s expression was solemn. “I’ve always suspected something about the deaths of the four ancestors of our clan!”
“Suspected something?” Linley didn’t understand.
“I suspect...that the killer was the Chief Sovereign of Light!” Gislason sent.
Linley was badly shocked. Gislason continued to speak through divine sense. “Although the four ancestors of our clan were merely Lesser Sovereigns, their innate divine abilities were very strange; their four divine abilities could actually combine into one, with their four types of divine ability energy able to fuse as well and result in an exceedingly powerful supreme technique. Even High Sovereigns such as the Chief Sovereigns were quite apprehensive.”
Combine four innate divine abilities into one?
Linley knew that the divine abilities of the Four Divine Beasts clan were rather unusual, but he had no way of understanding what they would be like when used by the four ancestors. There was one thing he did know; without question, it would have been far more powerful than when Linley and his peers used them. After all, Linley and the others only carried the lineage of the divine beasts in their veins; they weren’t true divine beasts.
“You say...that you suspect the killer was the Chief Sovereign of Light? Why would it be him?” Linley asked.
“First of all, very few people were capable of killing the four ancestors! The four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts...the Chief Sovereign of Fate doesn’t get involved in worldly affairs. The Chief Sovereign of Destruction was on excellent terms with our ancestors. The Chief Sovereign of Death...as long as someone doesn’t offend her, she wouldn’t do anything to them. The Chief Sovereign of Life is said to be quite kind-hearted and rarely kills mortals, much less Sovereigns. In addition, our four ancestors didn’t have any conflicts or opposing interests with the Chief Sovereign of Life. Thus...the only one left is the Chief Sovereign of Light!” Gislason sent mentally.
Linley frowned.
“The Chief Sovereign of Light has an Overgod artifact. He has enough power to resist the combined innate divine ability of the four ancestors.” Gislason’s eyes held anger and hatred within them. Although there were eleven Chief Sovereigns, since the other six didn’t have Overgod artifacts, there was no way they would be able to kill the four ancestors when they were fighting together.”
“Did he have conflicting interests with our four ancestors?” Linley asked mentally.
“Not a conflicting interest per se, but...back then, our Four Divine Beasts clan was spread throughout the planes of the universe. We were extremely powerful, and there were quite a few people who believed that our Four Divine Beasts clan was the number one clan of the planes of the universe. But the Augusta clan...there were also many who believed that they were the number one clan. If there was a conflict...I imagine the only conflict was one of conflicting reputations.” Gislason couldn’t find anything else either.
After all, the four ancestors wouldn’t have gone out of their way to go offend the Chief Sovereign of Light either.
“Fighting over the title of the ‘number one clan’? That can’t be right.” Linley couldn’t believe it. “The so-called struggle over the title of ‘number one clan’ was a reputational struggle. The Chief Sovereign of Light would kill our four ancestors because of it? This reason doesn’t make much sense.”
“I...I’m not sure either. But logically speaking, he’s the only possible culprit.” Gislason clearly also felt that his reason wasn’t very convincing. “Linley, if he really was the one who killed them, then he definitely has malicious feelings towards the Four Divine Beasts clan. He didn’t kill us because he didn’t care about us, but now that you are a Paragon...I’m afraid that he would...”
“Patriarch, he might very well be the killer, but he also might not be.” Linley sent. “Also, you said that the other Chief Sovereigns wouldn’t be able to kill the four ancestors when they joined forces. But what if they were killed one by one? If someone truly intended to kill them, it’s possible that they didn’t give our four ancestors a chance to join forces.”
Gislason was startled. He immediately sent back, “The four ancestors were extremely close to each other. They rarely separated.”
“Rarely separated? That doesn’t mean they were always together.” Linley sent back. “Don’t worry, Patriarch. Even if the Chief Sovereign of Light was the killer, would he act against me, a Deity? Even if he was nervous, he wouldn’t be nervous of me, a Paragon. After all, a Paragon is still just a Deity.”
Gislason, hearing this, let out a bitter laugh. “Linley, it seems you have set your mind on going.”
“Right. If I don’t make the trip, I won’t be satisfied.” Linley nodded.
After all, this involved his mother!
Both he and Wharton wanted to meet the mother who had given birth to them! As for his father, his father had always been thinking about his mother.
“If you want to go, you should at least let Lord Beirut know. Lord Beirut is on fairly close terms with the Bloodridge Sovereign, and he knows many things. It would be good for you to ask him his opinion.” Gislason didn’t want Linley to go, but clearly, he wasn’t able to convince Linley. All he could do was entrust his hopes to Beirut.
Linley, upon hearing this, had to admit that this was a good idea.
“Then, Patriarch, please help me make some inquiries. I know that our clan should have a method to communicate with Lord Beirut, right?” Linley laughed.
“Right. In the past, my clone was there. However, now that the crisis is over, my clone has returned. Still, we still have intelligence agents there.” Gislason nodded. “I will make the arrangements. I imagine that in a little while, Beirut’s response will arrive.”
Linley nodded slightly. He couldn’t go wrong listening to Beirut.
“Then I’ll go back now.” Linley laughed. He planned to leave tomorrow.
“Patriarch.” Right at this moment, a guard from outside the door ran in.
Linley and Gislason both turned to look. The guard bowed, then reported, “Patriarch, Elder Linley, someone has arrived asking to meet with Elder Linley.” Gislason frowned. “Ordinary guests can be instructed to leave.” Very many people wished to meet with Linley.
Linley wouldn’t meet with any commander-level experts, but Gislason would.
For those who were too weak, however, they would be refused entry outside the mountain.
“But, Patriarch, this person says that he is Linley’s old friend. His name is...Olivier!” The guard said hurriedly.
“Olivier?” Linley was rather surprised. “Come, I’ll go with you.”