"Splash, splash~~" The vast ocean rippled gently.
Lin Lei looked up, his gaze sweeping over Augustus and Diya. Both the Light Sovereign 'Augustus' and the Wind Sovereign 'Diya' regarded him with no goodwill. Lin Lei scoffed inwardly: "Hmph, this Augustus probably still harbors killing intent toward me. After that battle just now, Diya is most likely hostile toward me too. Diya can be ignored for now, but as for Augustus... I'll let him have his freedom a while longer. Once the other Sovereigns leave, I'll kill him!"
With the other Sovereigns present, they wouldn't simply stand by and watch him kill Augustus.
He had waited several thousand years already — what were a few moments more?
"Lin Lei, Belute." At that moment, the Amethyst Sovereign and the Blood Peak Sovereign flew over, greeting them with smiles.
"Lin Lei, you really do know how to stir up trouble," the Blood Peak Sovereign transmitted with a smile. "It hasn't been that long, and you've already killed Tessius."
"Killed and done. But Lin Lei, facing the interrogation of all these Sovereigns, you should have your reasons prepared, right?" The Amethyst Sovereign looked at Lin Lei.
Lin Lei nodded with a smile.
"In a moment, we'll also need to trouble the two of you," Belute transmitted with a smile.
"We can't do much either. It all depends on the four Law Sovereigns. The one beside you — that's the 'Greenfire' you mentioned to me last time, isn't it?" The Blood Peak Sovereign also looked toward Greenfire. "Greenfire, I'm Pash."
"Mr. Pash," Greenfire said deferentially.
How could over sixty Gods possibly gather like this ordinarily? At this moment, the Gods were chatting animatedly among themselves.
"Enough. We should discuss Lin Lei's matter, shouldn't we?" An icy voice drifted down from high above. The speaker was the Destruction Sovereign.
The moment the Destruction Sovereign spoke, all discussion around them immediately fell silent.
"Everyone," Belute quickly said, smiling, "please come down and take a seat. We can discuss Lin Lei and Tessius after that."
As he spoke, "hiss hiss~~" the metal life form's vast ship hull began to transform. Chairs rose up one by one from the spacious deck — sixty-five in total, arranged in a massive circle. Since they formed a circle, there was no distinction of higher or lower seats.
"Everyone, sit down." The red-haired, fair-skinned young woman in a violet robe issued her command coldly.
The Death Sovereign had spoken. Instantly, the sixty-plus Gods descended from the sky one after another, or walked over from other parts of the hull to their chairs. Everyone casually picked seats and sat down. Lin Lei, Belute, and Greenfire sat together, side by side.
"The four Law Sovereigns!" Lin Lei's gaze swept over those four.
The four Law Sovereigns sat together, adjacent to one another.
"All three of them are here — quite the coincidence. Once the four Law Sovereigns leave, I'll kill all three of them at once." Augustus glanced at Lin Lei and the other two, thinking to himself.
Just then, a gentle voice rang out: "Everyone, while the four Supreme Gods do not prohibit us from killing one another, refining a Sovereign spark grants an additional portion of Will of Sovereignty. If killing were unrestricted, lower-level and mid-level Sovereigns would never know peace. Therefore, I and the other three Law Sovereigns established an agreement long ago."
"If a Sovereign of lower rank does not provoke a Sovereign of higher rank, the higher-ranked Sovereign shall not wantonly slaughter the lower-ranked one. Any violator shall be hunted down by the four of us together!"
"Only Sovereigns of equal rank may engage in battle with one another."
The speaker was the Life Sovereign, dressed in a long, emerald-green robe. Her voice was gentle, and even as she spoke of this agreement, it rang like the tinkling of a mountain spring, soothing the heart.
The sea breeze blew across them, yet the ship floating upon the ocean remained perfectly steady. The other Gods aboard listened quietly.
"And today, Lin Lei has killed the lower-level Wind Sovereign 'Tessius'." The Life Sovereign's gaze swept toward Lin Lei, and her tone abruptly shifted. "However, Lin Lei is also merely a lower-level Sovereign..."
Hearing this, Lin Lei couldn't help but feel a surge of joy. It seemed the Life Sovereign was speaking on his behalf.
"My Lady." A voice suddenly cut in.
"Hm?" The Life Sovereign's warm gaze fell upon the speaker. It was the Wind Sovereign 'Diya'.
Diya's golden pupils fixed on the Life Sovereign, and he said respectfully: "According to the agreement from long ago, the assessment of a person's rank and strength is not determined simply as lower, mid, or upper — it depends on true combat ability. The Four Divine Beasts, for example, each individually could only be considered lower-level Sovereigns. Yet their group was classified as 'Sovereign-level' because of their overwhelming strength!"
When powerhouses fought, joining forces did little. Four lower-level Sovereigns working together still couldn't defeat a single mid-level Sovereign.
But the Four Divine Beasts were clearly different. That was precisely why the original agreement specifically stipulated that a group like the Four Divine Beasts would be classified as Sovereign-level.
"And this Lin Lei, in terms of strength..." The Wind Sovereign 'Diya' smiled self-deprecatingly. "I won't mind if you all laugh. Not long ago, I attempted to capture Lin Lei so that the four of you could interrogate him. But after he refined a Wind Sovereign spark, I gave it everything I had, and I couldn't even lay a finger on him."
"Impossible!!!"
An eruption of shocked voices rippled through the crowd.
The Gods who had come from other planes all knew that Lin Lei had killed Tessius, but they had no idea about the battle between Lin Lei and the Wind Sovereign Diya.
This was because when Diya had sent word through the Wind Sovereigns, his battle with Lin Lei hadn't yet begun!
"Even if Lin Lei refined an additional Sovereign spark, he would only gain one more portion of Will of Sovereignty. How could he possibly rival you, Diya?"
"The gap between a lower-level Sovereign and an upper-level Sovereign is enormous!"
A chorus of disbelief rose from the gathered Gods. They simply could not accept this.
A mid-level Sovereign was already nearly a hundred times stronger than a lower-level Sovereign — a difference of two portions of Will of Sovereignty. The gap between an upper-level Sovereign and a lower-level Sovereign was even greater.