"Father!" Lin Lei stepped into the room.
Hogg, who had been reading a book, looked up and broke into a smile at the sight of Lin Lei. "Lin Lei, I heard you went into closed-door cultivation. What, did you break through?"
"Mm." Lin Lei nodded and sat down nearby. "Father, I plan to set off for the Divine World of Light in a couple of days, to pay my respects to the Light Sovereign and see if there's any hope of finding Mother and restoring her freedom."
"What?" Hogg's hand trembled, and the book slipped from his fingers onto the table. He stared at Lin Lei in shock. "Lin Lei, you want to go to the Divine World of Light? But—didn't you tell me before about what happened at the Planar Battlefield? You killed people from the Augusta family, and the Light Sovereign is the ancestor of the Augusta family, isn't he? Going there would be extremely dangerous!" Hogg grew anxious.
Over these years, he had come to learn almost everything about what Lin Lei had been through.
"Father, don't worry. The Light Sovereign has 182 children—and that's only the second generation. The one we killed was third generation. The Augusta family's second and third generation members combined number over a thousand. The Light Sovereign wouldn't care about something like this." Lin Lei was completely certain.
If the Light Sovereign had cared, Lei Sijing wouldn't have let everyone kill them so freely.
"But he's still a Sovereign. Killing you would be effortless," Hogg said, deeply worried.
"Precisely because he's a Sovereign, he won't lower himself to kill me," Lin Lei reassured him. "Don't worry, Father. The Light Sovereign and I don't have any major grudge. If he'd wanted to kill me, he could have done it a hundred different ways. But he hasn't made a move!"
"Didn't you say there was no hope?" Hogg countered.
"I said the chances are very slim," Lin Lei replied with a bitter smile. "But if I don't try, there's definitely no hope. If I try, there might still be a chance. The Chief Gods want those who have reached Perfect Completion to become their emissaries. Perhaps, given my status, there's a sliver of hope that the Light Sovereign will restore my mother's freedom."
"A sliver of hope..." Hogg nodded slightly.
He looked at Lin Lei and said solemnly, "Lin Lei, you're not a child anymore. You can make your own decisions... But as your father, I must warn you—if there's any danger, you'd best not go! I'm not familiar with the matters of Chief Gods and Perfect Completion, so I can't say much. You decide for yourself. Safety first! You and Wotton, my two children, along with your mother—you're all equally important to me."
"Mm." Listening to these words, Lin Lei felt... as if he were a youth once more, hearing his father's parting admonitions.
The day after Lin Lei made his decision, he went to find Patriarch Gaisslisen.
In the hall.
"What?" Gaisslisen, who had just sat down, shot to his feet in surprise. "Lin Lei, you're saying you want to go to the Divine World of Light to see the Light Sovereign?"
"That's right." Lin Lei smiled calmly. "I came to let you know—this trip could take as little as ten years or as long as a hundred. This is a matter I can only bring before the Light Sovereign."
Gaisslisen hesitated. "Lin Lei, from what my father told me back then, the Light Sovereign isn't someone who's easy to talk to. He's extremely proud and overbearing. If you go begging him... the chances are truly slim. And I worry that a single wrong word could lead him to kill you."
"Proud? Overbearing?" Lin Lei frowned.
Gaisslisen nodded. "Yes. Across all the infinite planes, there are eleven Sovereigns. The strongest, of course, are the four Rule Sovereigns! And among the seven Law Sovereigns, the strongest is the Light Sovereign."
Lin Lei understood that the Sovereigns of the four Great Rules were the most powerful.
But he hadn't expected that among the Sovereigns of the seven Elemental Laws, the Light Sovereign would be the strongest.
"Why is the Light Sovereign stronger than the other Elemental Law Sovereigns?" Lin Lei asked, puzzled.
Gaisslisen, after all, was the son of the Azure Dragon and knew many secrets. He smiled and said, "This involves a type of treasure—Supreme Divine Artifacts!"
"Supreme Divine Artifacts?" Lin Lei's eyes lit up instantly.
From the name alone, he understood the implications. Divine Artifacts—Chief God Artifacts—Supreme Divine Artifacts! Clearly three tiers.
"Supreme Divine Artifacts were created by the Supreme Gods! Since there are only four Supreme Gods—the Life Supreme God, the Destruction Supreme God, the Death Supreme God, and the Fate Supreme God—Supreme Divine Artifacts come in only these four types. The four most powerful Chief Gods—the Destruction Sovereign, the Death Sovereign, the Fate Sovereign, and the Life Sovereign—each possess a Supreme Divine Artifact. That's why they're the strongest among the Sovereigns!"
Lin Lei nodded slightly.
No wonder those four Sovereigns were the strongest. It was all because of Supreme Divine Artifacts.
"Among the eleven Sovereigns... a total of five possess Supreme Divine Artifacts. Besides the four I just mentioned, there's also the Light Sovereign! Although the Light Sovereign has a Supreme Divine Artifact, its attributes don't match, so he can't unleash its full power. That's why he's weaker than the four Rule Sovereigns but stronger than the other six Law Sovereigns!"
Lin Lei marveled to himself.
Supreme Divine Artifacts truly were terrifying. There were only four Supreme Gods, and they were manifestations of the four Great Rules. The Light Sovereign naturally couldn't obtain a Supreme Divine Artifact with matching attributes, so it was only natural he fell short of the four Rule Sovereigns.
"How did Supreme Divine Artifacts come to appear in the world and end up in the hands of these five Sovereigns?" Lin Lei asked.
"I don't know," Gaisslisen said, shaking his head. "That was an incredibly long time ago. Not just me—even my father and his generation don't know the details. The Light Sovereign may be proud and overbearing, but he has the power to back it up. After all, he possesses a Supreme Divine Artifact!"
"A Supreme Divine Artifacts..." Lin Lei sighed. "Hasn't another one appeared in all these years?"
"No. If one had, don't you think the Sovereigns and Chief Gods would have fought madly over it? The Light Sovereign has one, and the other six Elemental Sovereigns don't. I imagine those six have always been resentful about it—and if they had the chance, they'd never let it go." Gaisslisen smiled.
Lin Lei couldn't help but laugh. "Supreme Divine Artifacts—I don't even know what they look like. Even if one ended up in our hands, we probably wouldn't recognize it."
"Supreme Divine Artifacts can only be wielded by those who've reached the Chief God level. They'd be useless in our hands and would only bring about our deaths," Gaisslisen said, then changed the subject. "Let's not talk about Supreme Divine Artifacts—they're too far beyond our reach. Lin Lei, you say you want to go to the Divine World of Light, but I still advise you not to. Really, it would be best not to go!"