At the edge of a forest, ten Highgods from the Black Tortoise clan were on patrol. Suddenly, a wisp of white mist drifted past. The ten of them felt their souls momentarily stall, though they quickly recovered.
"What's going on?" The captain leading the group quickly turned around. "Did you all feel a brief dizziness?"
"I felt it too. Me too." Several team members instantly dropped into battle formations.
As Highgods, their souls were immensely powerful, and they could detect even the slightest anomaly—let alone an incident where ten Highgods simultaneously experienced a problem.
"Captain, could it be because we're so close to Netherworld Mountain?" a team member suggested. "I've heard the mist on Netherworld Mountain affects the soul. Maybe some of that mist drifted down the mountain."
"Netherworld Mountain?" The captain turned to look at the towering peak in the distance. Wisps of purple, gray, and white mists swirled around its summit. Recalling the mist from just moments ago, it certainly had been white.
"If it wasn't Netherworld Mountain, then whatever could instantly affect all ten of us without being detected could probably kill us in an instant as well," the same team member analyzed further. "It shouldn't be an enemy of ours."
After listening, the captain looked around again. After waiting quite a while without any movement, he said, "Alright then. It probably really was just the mountain mist drifting down. Everyone relax a bit. In this Netherworld, there probably aren't many brainless fools courting death by daring to move against our Four Divine Beasts clan."
"The captain is right," another person laughed loudly. "Have you heard? One of the daughters of the Prefecture Lord of Tianbo Prefecture caught the eye of a Six-star Fiend from the Azure Dragon clan, and he snatched her away right outside the city! When the Prefecture Lord went over to demand her back, he still had to act all humble and low-key. In the end, an elder had to step in before they released her. But, well, everyone already knows what must have happened."
"Haha, being favored by our Four Divine Beasts clan is their good fortune." The others chimed in, discussing it loudly.
Down below the ten people, inside the forest, Shawn's aura had merged completely with a tree. Unless someone was a supreme expert in soul arts, it would be utterly impossible to discover him.
As a supreme expert in the Rules of Life, as long as plants existed nearby, he could merge his aura with them. This ability rivaled the concealment capabilities of the Laws of Darkness, though it required the presence of living flora, making its conditions slightly stricter than the Laws of Darkness.
When the group above finally moved on, Shawn emerged from the tree.
"These people from the Four Divine Beasts clan—most of them have Divine Clones or a Sanctuary primary body outside. It's truly troublesome," Shawn let out a deep breath. "After probing six teams of ten, I finally found someone with only a single Divine Clone. My objective is finally achieved."
Given Shawn's current Soul Seed ability under the Rules of Death, he could easily plant a Soul Seed in a Seven-star Fiend, or even in dozens or hundreds of ordinary Highgods without any problem.
However, a Soul Seed could only control the specific Divine Clone right in front of him; Divine Clones located elsewhere would instantly realize that their connection had been severed. Anyone with a bit of knowledge would know it was either a Soul Seed or a soul-enslavement technique. Therefore, if he wanted to quietly plant a Soul Seed in someone without outsiders finding out, he could only test them step by step.
Using a special Soul Poison, he would instantly stun a team of Highgods, and then Shawn would use blinding speed to enslave and search the memories of all ten. He wouldn't check for any other information—only whether they had other Divine Clones.
It wasn't until he ambushed the sixth team that he finally found an earth-attribute Highgod who possessed only a single Divine Clone. This person's previous Divine Clone had been killed during a Fiend mission, and the current form was their Sanctuary primary body after refining a godspark.
Several days later, at the edge of a cliff:
"Master, these are the intelligence files on all the god-level experts from the Four Divine Beasts clan who have come here this time, including their numbers and each person's rank." A Black Tortoise clansman who had been enslaved by a Soul Seed knelt before Shawn and handed over a book.
Shawn used divine power to draw the book over. Sweeping it with his divine sense, he learned all the details, then smiled and said, "Very well, you may return. Act as if everything is completely normal in all other respects."
"Yes." The Black Tortoise clansman accepted the order and left.
Shawn then looked down at the intelligence in his hands, his voice turning cold: "One Sovereign Envoy, six Seven-star Fiends, and nearly a hundred Six-star Fiends. What a massive display of wealth and power."
Not only that, but even more experts were rushing over from other planes. Even the Highgod who had received the Soul Seed didn't know the exact details. It seemed that to deal with him—a formidable foe who had just become a Sovereign Envoy—the Four Divine Beasts clan was sparing no expense.
"It looks like I have to strike first. Otherwise, the longer I wait, the greater their numbers will grow, and I can't just avoid the fight," Shawn ultimately decided. He had to launch a preemptive ambush.
Running away was simple; the Netherworld was infinitely vast. If he didn't enter a city, finding someone was terribly difficult. Unless a Sovereign stepped in, even Paragons would be helpless. But he couldn't run right now.
For one thing, the Sovereign of Death was likely watching the show, and he couldn't afford to look too cowardly. For another, if he spent the rest of his life being hunted, having to act cautiously every time he entered a city, it would become endlessly annoying. Furthermore, countless billions of years stretched ahead in the future, and over such a long span, he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't truly end up surrounded—especially since the opposing side possessed multiple Sovereign Envoys.
Instead of all that, it was better to slaughter a batch of them fiercely right now. Since they were already locked in a life-or-death feud, as long as he didn't kill a Sovereign's descendants, everything would be fine.
Over the next month, with the cooperation of his inside man, Shawn smoothly planted Soul Seeds in a dozen more god-level guard squads from the Four Divine Beasts clan—each consisting of members with only a single Divine Clone—before returning to the Netherworld Hotel.
The Sovereign of Death looked at the approaching Shawn and asked with a faint smile, "Judging by your actions earlier, you've planted Soul Seeds in quite a few people, haven't you?"
Shawn replied, "Yes, Sovereign. But I can only launch sneak attacks on those guard squad members in the fringe areas. They're all ordinary Highgods. As for the experts gathered in the center, I have no way to sneak in and make a move."
His three-realm fused divine power allowed him to approach some powerful experts without being discovered, but he had to rein in his aura with all his might. The moment he made a move, exposure would be inevitable.
"They have quite a few experts. I can tell you that other experts have already rushed over from various parts of the Netherworld," the Sovereign of Death added. "Furthermore, they've stationed several people at the entrance of Netherworld Mountain, presumably intending to lie in wait for you to come out. If I hadn't called you out earlier, you really might have been targeted by them."
"Thank you for your help, Sovereign." Shawn replied.
If not for his soul mutation and the Sovereign's advance warning, if he had come down from Netherworld Mountain, been targeted, and then ambushed, he truly would have been in mortal danger.
The Sovereign of Death said, "There's no need for thanks. Knowing that this is my territory, the Four Divine Beasts clan still dares to pull this. Naturally, I also hope to see you wipe them out."
"Understood," Shawn said.
Sovereigns generally wouldn't make a move against god-level individuals unless directly offended; the Four Divine Beasts clan knew this, which was why they were so arrogant.
Yet, in Shawn's view, even if Sovereigns didn't intervene, this kind of approach was simply idiotic. Only a bunch of fools like the Four Divine Beasts clan could pull off something like this.
The Sovereign of Death continued, "What do you plan to do next? I'm a bit curious. There are too many experts over there; you shouldn't be able to fight them off."
"Me alone isn't enough, so I wanted to ask the Sovereign to lend me some people," Shawn asked cautiously.