Chapter 85: Domineering Death Sovereign

Heavenly Realm, the Holy Origin Mountains at the very center of the Holy Origin Continent:

Here clouds and mist swirl, spanning a radius of a million li; no god‑level being can approach. Once entered, no matter how straight one moves forward, one will eventually exit from another direction.

At the central peak of the range lies an elegant courtyard, where a white‑haired youth sits. Suddenly, he looks up and sees two people ahead.

"We have met, Overseer," the white‑haired youth says, rising and bowing, then looks to the elder's companion: "Huai Yate?"

Huai Yate smiles: "Magnus, it's been several trillion years."

Fate Overseer Ao Fu chuckles: "Magnus, I invited Huai Yate. Several members of the Four Beast families have been poisoned by Shawn's soul poison and cannot be cured, so I brought them here. Huai Yate happens to be in Hell, and he is also a Great Perfection of the Life Rule, so we are studying together."

"Understood, Overseer," Magnus nods.

He also knows that a Great Perfection of the Life Rule is no weaker than the Fate Rule in soul research; in fact, the Life Rule is even slightly stronger when it comes to saving lives.

Huai Yate looks at Magnus and asks, "Magnus, may I be bold and ask: when you were struck by Shawn's soul poison, what was the experience deep within your soul? This is important."

"Well, it's like this," Magnus admits, embarrassed, but to counter Shawn's move he must reveal some information.

After all, he is the only person ever hit by Shawn's poison.

Ao Fu shows no reaction; he already knew. After Huai Yate finishes, he exclaims in surprise, "Even when you block with all your strength, you can't stop that trace of soul poison. It seems other Great Perfections can't block it either; if they truly clash with him, their souls will inevitably be wounded."

"Right. It can't kill us, but it can affect us enough. Even if I hadn't been exiled, I'd probably still lose to him later," Magnus sighs. "Unless we also create a Soul Defense Main Artifact."

"There's no targeted method, so that's all we can do," Huai Yate agrees.

Shawn's Death Poison, however potent, is wielded by a Great Perfection; it would be useless against a Soul Defense Main Artifact;

But if a group of Great Perfections, fearing Shawn, choose to obtain a Soul Defense Main Artifact, they have already lost; even many Asuras disdain such an artifact.

Magnus looks again at the unconscious figures on the ground and says, "Perhaps they can help us."

Ao Fu smiles and says, "Not necessarily. The poison in those people differs from yours and is far weaker. Because they are ordinary high‑rank gods' souls and have existed longer, Shawn's soul poison has fused with theirs, making it hard to purge without harming them."

"That's also a profound soul achievement," Magnus says, immediately projecting his divine sense to investigate, "Shawn's research in this area truly surpasses mine."

"But wasn't he just a Great Perfection? How can his soul research be so advanced?" Huai Yate asks, puzzled.

"I don't know. When you get a chance, ask him. You hold no grudge against him," Magnus shakes his head.

Decades later, on a divine plane beside the Underworld:

The Death Overseer is engulfed in flames; a surge of bizarre, dim soul energy seems to warp the space, then shoots straight into the body of a withered‑faced elder standing nearby.

The withered‑faced elder keeps his eyes closed, then shakes his head: "No. Though you both lack willpower prowess, this technique's power still falls far short of Shawn's."

The Death Overseer sighs: "It seems the gap between mystic profundity and soul research is real; the same technique differs by more than a hundredfold in power."

Over these decades, the Death Overseer has studied Shawn's unique soul‑poison refining method, yet he still cannot forge a soul poison as terrifying as Shawn's.

Having no other way, he must use Shawn's refined soul poison and apply his own mystic profundity, but even then the power remains far below Shawn's.

The withered‑faced elder continues: "If this technique is wielded by your divine avatar, at most it would cause a slight soul discomfort for an ordinary Great Perfection—won't harm them, let alone have long‑term effects."

"So even if I achieve Great Perfection, I still can't match Shawn's power?" the Death Overseer murmurs.

The withered‑faced elder smiles: "That's normal. Even among Great Perfections, each focuses on different fields. Shawn excels at crafting soul poison, so even if another Great Perfection of the Death Rule emerges in the world, they may still fall short of him in this regard."

The mystic profundity of Great Perfection is the same, yet each person's specialty differs. For example, under the Earth Law, if there are several Great Perfections, some may excel in strength, some in defense, others in gravitational space.

The rule system lacks a precise mystic profundity, but it does have biases. Among the Asuras of the Death Rule, some specialize in soul attacks, some in soul defense, others in material attacks, or, like Shawn, in toxin‑making and soul‑confusion.

"It seems improving strength is truly difficult," the Death Overseer sighs, conceding that she must abandon this hope.

Using Shawn's refined soul poison is indeed slightly stronger than the one she crafts herself, but for a peer Overseer it makes little difference, far inferior to her innate divine abilities.

The Underworld Sovereign laughs: "Few in the world can match an Overseer's strength."

"There's still a considerable gap compared to those two," the Death Overseer shakes her head.

The Underworld Sovereign says nothing more; he naturally knows who those two are.

Shawn remains beside them, accompanying the two sovereigns. As he expected, without the aid of a soul bead, his soul poison, when wielded by others, will not be absurdly powerful.

The Death Overseer looks at Shawn again and smiles, "Shawn, though it didn't succeed, I still thank you."

"You're too kind, Overseer," Shawn says with a smile.

He actually hopes the Death Overseer's power becomes stronger, since he will need to rely on her in the future.

But on the surface, the other three are Great Perfections: Utreed is a Super Beast Great Perfection, Ao Fu is even more god‑defying, and as for Life Overseer Viviya, the original text only says she is a Great Perfection—her race is unknown—but even as a common being her strength should still surpass the Death Overseer's.

In other words, among the four great Overseers, Death is the weakest.

He has offended the Light Overseer, who is backed by Fate Overseer Ao Fu; this problem is hard to solve unless he also hunts the Light or Life deity.

Unlike hunting Theresia with Lin Lei, that case involved genuine hatred. If he kills other sovereigns without cause, after the first success he would be blocked and then face a siege by the four rule Overseers.

Thus, before the final step, he doesn't want to take such a risk.

The Death Overseer asks again, "Shawn, may I ask: what are the raw materials for your soul poison? Is it refined from your own soul power?"

"Not entirely. I'm still gathering some extremely toxic celestial artifacts or special plant‑spirit beings," Shawn replies.

His soul‑seed ability is far from its limit, so on the divine plane many seven‑star and six‑star demons continuously collect useful items for him, even posting quests through the Demon Castle; aside from this, everything else is normal, and even the sovereigns can't tell they've been soul‑seeded.

Periodically, these beings gather the supplies and a single individual delivers them to Shawn.

The Death Overseer nods: "These are indeed usable, but the innate toxins aren't very strong. If you can locate some highly toxic divine beasts, the potency might increase."

"I've thought about that too, but finding such beasts is difficult," Shawn replies. "Divine beasts are scarce in the world, and those attuned to soul‑poison talent are even fewer; moreover, the beasts must match my requirements;

and even with my eyes and divine sense I can't identify them unless they reveal a talent‑based divine art or some ultimate move to me; in all these years I've never encountered such beasts."

Even a Great Perfection finds this difficult; a single person's strength is limited, unless a major force is mobilized. Yet if we only look at it from the Great Perfection's angle, raising the toxicity of soul poison just a little seems unnecessary;

When my divine avatar can openly appear on the divine plane in the future, it may become much easier and worthwhile, since a sovereign's power is limitless.

The Death Overseer nods: "That's fine. I can help you find such beasts, but I need you to agree to a condition."

"What condition?" Shawn says, knowing there's no free lunch.

But that's okay; forming a profit alliance with anyone requires many trades, and they're all beneficial.

The Death Overseer says, "I hope you can devise a system whereby other masters of the Death Rule can use your soul poison to enhance their soul attacks."

"Let others use my soul poison?" Shawn says uneasily, "Overseer, that's hard for me to research; it requires your long‑term cooperation."

Upon hearing the request, Xiao En immediately knew the Death Overlord's aim was to have his Great Perfection study a method that could boost her attack power;

But even as a Great Perfection, it is hard for him to achieve this, at most he can research it together.

The Death Overlord laughed: "That's naturally not a problem; after all I live on Nether Mountain, so if you need anything coordinated just find me. However I'm rather lazy and don't like to think; from now on I'll cooperate with you, and you just have to act."

"Fine." Xiao En could only agree;

Having the Great Perfection of Death Rules study the strongest ultimate move, then enhancing his own strength, the Overlord is being overbearing;

But that's also because his relationship with the Overlord is good, they're "friends"; otherwise other Overlords wouldn't work.

For example, in the original work Bai E has a technique that lets ten‑thousand divine avatars simultaneously unleash Wind Space, creating a terrifying binding force; the wind‑type Overlord Di Ya obviously wouldn't have that move.

The Death Overlord added: "I know you aren't lacking Divine Power, but I'll still give you more, or if you need to revive someone from the material plane you can also ask me; you know the ability of my Underworld Heart."

"Not for now," Xiao En shook his head.

Actually, after achieving Great Perfection he also approached the Death Overlord to inquire about his parents, because as far back as his memories go he was an orphan;

The Death Overlord's investigation yielded no parents; according to the Overlord, either the parents' souls were scattered, or he was a naturally born being, like some divine beasts and the like.

At that moment the Nether Divine suddenly said: "Overlord, speaking of divine beasts born with lethal poison, what do you think of the Nether Scorpion?"

"Nether Scorpion?" the Death Overlord's face changed slightly upon hearing it, then he nodded: "The Nether Scorpion is indeed suitable; their race is naturally endowed with terrifying soul poison."

"Nether Scorpion? I think I've heard of that kind of divine beast as well," Xiao En asked calmly.

This was the third time he had heard of the Nether Scorpion; the first was from the memory left by Divine Father Fei Si Te, whose true form is a Nether Scorpion; the second was Bu Wei Te's subordinate contract beast Hai Yin Xi, whose true form is also a Nether Scorpion; now this is the third.

The Death Overlord explained: "The Nether Scorpion is a very special divine beast; there are quite a few of them, naturally adept at Death Rules and Dark Laws;

An individual is much like an ordinary divine beast, its body slightly stronger than common races, its innate divine abilities average, nothing special;

But one thing: this race can devour each other; the more they devour, the stronger both their physical robustness and innate divine power become, and the Nether Scorpion's innate divine ability is a poisonous soul attack that inflicts immense pain on those hit."

"Indeed marvelous, I didn't expect such a divine beast to exist between heaven and earth," Xiao En asked calmly, "Since devouring its kind can make it stronger, have there ever been such a super divine beast?"

"Ha ha, that's a good question," the Death Overlord laughed happily. "In theory, if the Nether Scorpion race keeps devouring, a super divine beast would be born, but in reality it's impossible. I know a Nether Scorpion that spent an incalculable number of trillions of years searching for its kind to devour, yet it still couldn't reach the super divine beast level; at best it's comparable to a Purple Crystal divine beast, maybe a bit stronger, but still short of a super divine beast, close though."

"That's still very strong," Xiao En nodded.

Super divine beasts belong to the Heaven‑Defying tier; the number of such beasts between heaven and earth is probably comparable to that of Great Perfections;

Below super divine beasts, divine beasts are also divided into many ranks; the Purple Crystal divine beast is the strongest among those below super divine beasts; ordinary divine beasts are trash, perhaps their innate divine abilities become insignificant once they reach the Upper Divine level.

It seems that Divine Father Fei Si Te spent countless trillions of years, yet didn't become a super divine beast; perhaps he was just a bit short, but that gap is huge.

The Death Overlord added: "However, these Nether Scorpions are hard to find; they look no different from normal races, and without using their innate divine abilities you can't tell. As long as members of the same race are in close proximity, a desire to devour arises, and they won't stop until none remain."

Xiao En asked curiously, "Can this divine beast race be cultivated?"

The Death Overlord shook his head: "It's not possible; this race has no offspring, they're naturally born. Otherwise the Nether Scorpion I know would have already reproduced itself."

"Then we can only search for them slowly," Xiao En replied.

The Death Overlord sighed: "Indeed, it'll take some effort; I'll send people to look for them."

Xiao En smiled again: "Time is infinite; no rush for now."

Anyway, it's just a word from the Death Overlord; countless Divine soldiers would run themselves ragged.

As for time, it holds no meaning for a Divine or a Great Perfection; the Panlong World is not like mortal Zhetian, where the ultimate enemy of life is time. Here, if one wishes to lie flat, it's absolutely the most suitable place.

Moreover, his Divine avatar still holds a fair amount of Fei Si Te's essence blood from back then; perhaps he can also research something.

The awkward part is that his potential enemy is Ao Gu Si Ta, who now possesses the supreme soul‑defense artifact.

But if he can strengthen his body by researching the Nether Scorpion, that's also good; a bit higher physical attack and defense is better than none, and the soul attack becomes stronger. Besides Ao Fu and Ao Gu Si Ta, it's also a deterrent to other Divines.

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(End of chapter)