"Puah—"
As he was sent flying backward at high speed, Loran spat out a mouthful of blood.
Although divine spark defensive equipment possessed hardness comparable to Sovereign artifacts, because it had not been tempered by Sovereign power, its functions were not as comprehensive as true Sovereign artifacts.
Teresia's attacks indeed had not reached the level necessary to break through the divine spark defensive equipment, but the residual force that passed through it could still inflict some damage upon Loran.
"So, this is the power of a Paragon..."
Divine power circulated, and the slight discomfort in his body vanished instantly.
Feeling Teresia's overwhelming strength, Loran tightened his grip on his spear.
Too powerful!
Whether it was defense, offense, or speed, Teresia suppressed him in every aspect, without the slightest weakness.
However, such a battle also ignited a passion within Loran that rarely surfaced.
"Hahahaha!"
"That's it, Teresia! Attacks like these are useless against me!"
"Give me even greater pressure!"
Loran roared, stopping his retreating body before charging toward Teresia once more.
"Whoosh!"
Loran's spear danced, producing countless spear flowers that bombarded Teresia.
Teresia raised his hand to block them, but to his surprise, he failed.
It was as though, in his perception, those attacks were still some distance away from him, but in reality, those spear flowers had already struck his body.
"Boom boom boom boom boom..."
In an instant, dozens—hundreds—of spear images slammed into Teresia.
Although they failed to break through the defense reinforced by his Willpower, they still forced him backward for some distance.
"This is..."
Seeing this scene, Teresia suddenly recalled the first time he had accompanied Loran to meet Lord Locke.
Because he had said something disrespectful back then, Loran had punched him in the eye.
At that time, the Sovereign power within his body had yet to dissipate, but even so, he had failed to detect Loran's attack at all.
Now, Loran's attacks felt strikingly similar to that incident.
The similarity was that Teresia once again failed to evade Loran's attacks.
The difference was that his current strength had already reached the Paragon level, and Loran's attacks were unable to break through his defenses or actually injure him.
But what shocked Teresia was that he couldn't dodge Loran's attacks!
"Hahaha, surprised?"
Seeing Teresia's expression, Loran rubbed his nose.
"Teresia, although I'm not a Paragon, I inherited part of my father's bloodline. I can barely be considered the descendant of a divine beast."
"And my father is the world's only spatial divine beast, the Dijiang."
"Although the purity of my bloodline isn't enough for me to use an innate divine ability, I can still utilize some of the spatial power contained within my bloodline."
"If you hadn't already become a Paragon, then with that attack earlier, I definitely could've pierced a hundred holes through your body."
"A spatial divine beast..."
Teresia suddenly understood.
"So, the attacks you used before contained the power of space?"
"No wonder my sense of distance felt off."
"Come on, Teresia!"
Loran pointed his spear at Teresia.
"Although my raw power is far inferior to yours, defeating me for real won't be that easy!"
Loran knew his own limits.
His attacks earlier had indeed struck Teresia, but they hadn't even broken through Teresia's defenses.
Without being able to penetrate his defenses or inflict damage, victory was impossible.
What Loran wanted now was to rely on the spatial power he could wield as the descendant of a spatial divine beast and maintain an undefeated position.
He was the number one Water Laws expert!
How could he possibly lose to the number one Wind Laws expert?
"Haah!"
"Boom boom boom boom boom..."
...
The gods who had followed Loran and Teresia out of the city soon arrived near the battlefield by following the disturbances.
Looking at the sky ahead, which was crisscrossed with countless spatial cracks, none of them dared to approach any further.
Without question, the two fighting ahead were definitely Prefect-level experts—or perhaps beings that surpassed Prefects.
If they got any closer, merely the aftermath of the battle would be enough to kill them.
"That's Lord Teresia!"
"What?"
"It's really Lord Teresia?"
Soon, as more and more people from the city arrived to watch the battle, some experts quickly recognized one of the combatants.
Teresia.
In recent years, he had become an extremely famous figure in the Wind Divine Plane.
No, it would be more accurate to say throughout the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
After all, he was another confirmed invincible Paragon following Lord Dannie.
"So, it's Lord Teresia. No wonder their battle is producing such terrifying disturbances."
"Who is the lord fighting Lord Teresia?"
After recognizing Teresia, many people took out recording crystals and began recording the battle ahead.
This was a battle involving a Paragon-level expert. Selling the recording later would bring in a fortune.
However, everyone's attention soon shifted to Teresia's opponent.
Teresia's status as a Wind Laws Paragon had already been confirmed by countless experts who had fought him.
Then, was the person currently fighting Lord Teresia also a Paragon?
Judging from the battle itself, Lord Teresia had firmly suppressed his opponent. Every attack from Lord Teresia sent the other party flying.
But his opponent wasn't easy to deal with either.
His spearsmanship had reached a divine level, appearing and disappearing unpredictably. Even Lord Teresia was occasionally forced backward by the opponent's spear.
Those observing the battle weren't only gods.
The four Wind Sovereigns had also spread out their divine senses to watch this rare pinnacle battle between god-level experts.
"So, it's Teresia. I knew long ago that he possessed the talent to become a Paragon. I didn't expect that after such a short period of time, he would already succeed."
"Who is that little fellow?"
"There's no fluctuation of Willpower around him, yet he can fight Teresia to this extent..."
"Hm? That divine power isn't right. It's fused divine power. Is this little fellow a soul mutate?"
"And those artifacts on him—what's going on?"
"They aren't Sovereign artifacts, but they aren't far from them either."
"And I can't understand his spear techniques?"
"How exactly is he managing to hit Teresia?"
The more the four Wind Sovereigns watched, the more extraordinary they found Loran to be.
Whether it was his fused divine power, his weapons, or the spear techniques that could strike Teresia, each of them astonished the Sovereigns.
Immediately, all four Sovereigns began making plans.
Teresia was a Paragon. They could naturally tell.
Willpower could not be faked.
They had no confidence in recruiting a Paragon as their Sovereign Emissary.
Paragons were pioneers who had brought their Laws to the absolute limit. They looked down upon all non-Paragons.
None of them wished to recruit an emissary who looked down on them and embarrassed them.
But Teresia's opponent was different.
Since he wasn't a Paragon, no matter how strong he was, he was still merely an ant in the eyes of a Sovereign.
Recruiting a powerful Sovereign Emissary whose strength approached that of a Paragon would be an enormous gain.
After all, Sovereigns could not interfere in matters concerning gods. If they had a super expert capable of suppressing all god-level beings beneath them, many things would become much easier.
At worst, such an expert could secure victory in the once-per-trillion-years Planar War.
However, very soon, the calculations in the hearts of these four Sovereigns shattered completely after hearing the discussions below.
"That's right, I know who he is!"
"The one fighting Lord Teresia is the expert from the Netherworld—'Crown Prince' Loran!"
"Crown Prince Loran?"
"That's right, Crown Prince Loran."
"It's said that Lord Loran is the son of Lord Locke and the Death Sovereign, and is deeply doted upon by both Sovereigns. When he was born, Lord Locke even hung congratulatory words across the skies of the Netherworld for a hundred years."
"Because he is so beloved, the creatures of the Netherworld regard Lord Loran as the 'Crown Prince' of the Netherworld, meaning the most noble existence beneath the Sovereigns."
"I had heard before that Lord Loran was very powerful, but I never imagined he could actually contend against a Paragon."
"Then is Lord Loran a Paragon as well?"
"I don't know."
The god speaking shook his head.
"How could a small figure like me know that much?"
"But seeing Lord Loran fight Lord Teresia like this, I suspect Lord Loran has probably become a Paragon too?"
"A suspected Paragon?"
"Eh? You're right. 'Suspected Paragon' sounds perfect."
Upon hearing the term, everyone's eyes immediately lit up.
Lord Teresia's status as a Paragon had been acknowledged by nearly all the Prefects throughout the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
As for Lord Loran, he only possessed considerable prestige within the Netherworld and had not become famous through strength.
But this battle against Lord Teresia had allowed everyone present to witness the terrifying strength of a Sovereign's child.
Judging from the battle between Lord Loran and Lord Teresia, Lord Loran was far stronger than ordinary Prefects, yet still somewhat inferior to Lord Teresia.
However, the difference wasn't so great that he lacked the ability to fight back.
(End of Chapter)
⭐ Enjoying the story?
You can read ahead and support the translations by joining my Patreon! Your support helps me update faster and take on more projects. Thank you for reading!
Read up to 50 chapters ahead!
patreon.com/AminaSims
Next Bonus Chapter at 2800 Powerstones