Linley revealed that when he first arrived, Elder Emanuel was the elder who took him for his ancestral baptism, during which the Elder managed to recognise the Azure Dragon ring Linley wore on his finger – the Soul-protecting Sovereign Artifact that once belonged to the Azure Dragon ancestor himself.
Wanting it for himself, he tried to pressure Linley in private to hand it over as a mere Full God, like Linley, was wholly undeserving of it, even if his bloodline surpassed that of a first-generation descendant.
As one would expect, Linley immediately rejected, but not because he cared that much about the ring. No, if he was being honest, although it was practically priceless, he felt that the ring should really go to one of the first or second-generation descendants, seeing how they were the genuine children and grandchildren of the true owner of the artefact. Plus, his wife's grandmother was the current Lesser Sovereign of Water – getting a new Sovereign Artifact of Water was far from impossible.
The true reason he was so reluctant to give up this ring was because Doehring Cowart – the man Linley saw as a grandfather, the man who taught Linley magic, the man who practically raised Linley – was still soul-bound to the ring.
Although Linley had long since surpassed Doehring Cowart's level back before he died and, as such, had nothing to teach him much in terms of the Laws, that didn't mean the elderly spirit had become useless to Linley.
In fact, that couldn't have been any further from the truth. After realising that he couldn't help Linley with his training anymore, he became more of a sounding board for Linley.
Whenever Linley was going through a difficult period in his life, it was Doehring who would help him through. It could be said that Doehring Cowart had the biggest part to play in Linley becoming the man he was today. There was absolutely no way Linley could give up the ring if it meant giving up his grandfather.
In the end, Forhan challenged Linley to a battle of life and death, not knowing that not only was Linley was following the path of a supreme genius, but he had travelled quite some way already.
The challenge ended just as quickly as it began. Linley dominated the fight in a way that Forhan could never have seen coming.
After realising that Linley wasn't just some potential genius with an incredibly pure bloodline but was also a supreme genius stronger than him, he immediately begged for his life, but Linley refused to spare him.
Unfortunately, before he could finish the Elder, Gisalson appeared and put a stop to the fight, reminding everyone that they were in a state of war – now wasn't the time for infighting.
As reluctant as he was, there was nothing he could do. Gisalson was far stronger than him back then. Plus, he didn't want to make an enemy of the clan just yet.
Thankfully, although Gisalson and Gaia – the original Azure Dragon's children – were able to recognise their father's ring with just a glance, neither had any desire to take it from Linley. In fact, even if Linley didn't already have it, after he revealed his talent, they would've found a way to get him one – he was simply too important to the Clan's future.
Unfortunately, not everyone saw it like that. Elder Emanuel and his father – Elder Forhan – both couldn't stand the sight of Linley. In part, due to the jealousy, they felt over his talent and the way he was welcomed into the clan, but mostly because of the fact that he was officially made the owner of the ring and was acknowledged by the rest of the clan's upper echelon.
During Linley's time in the clan, he had been subtly targeted by their underhanded methods at varying points in time. Still, never like this. Even Linley couldn't help but doubt himself.
The following day, Linley led Alyssa and the rest of Ace's group – including Beirut, Garott, and Shinji – to the White Tiger's Clan Hall.
These days, due to the gradual weakening of the bloodlines of the Four Divine Beasts Clan, the only people of the upper echelon present would be the Elder chosen to oversee the baptism but today was different.
After the battle yesterday, the whole Four Divine Beasts Clan were overwhelmed by feelings of anticipation – Alyssa's performance yesterday was too shocking.
Although she couldn't compare to Linley, she was definitely an incredible talent. One that would inevitably bolster their Four Divine Beasts Clan even further in the future, and unlike Olivier and Yunaia, she was a legitimate descendant of the Four Divine Beasts Clan.
Still, when Linley led his party over, Alyssa's presence was instantly ignored, as were Linley, Ace, and Killian.
After the deaths of the four ancestors, the Four Divine Beasts Clan were surrounded by their enemies and forced to retreat into the Infernal Realm. Even so, their enemies refused to let them go.
But just when it looked like they were destined to be massacred down to their last member, Beirut appeared and singlehandedly forced the Eight Great Clans to retreat.
It was he who gave them Skyrite Mountains, an extremely large territory that fell under his jurisdiction as Lord Prefect of the Indigo Prefecture. He declared that although he wouldn't get involved in the conflicts that may arise outside of the Skyrite Mountains, no battles between the two sides could take place inside the new domain of the Four Divine Beasts Clan. Because of that, the Four Divine Beasts Clan were able to find a steady foothold in their time of need; as such, Beirut was considered their largest benefactor of recent times.
Still, even Beirut's presence was overshadowed once the older generations laid eyes on Garott.
Whether it was the first, second, third, or even fourth generations, they all knew that the greatest prospect and strongest warrior of their clan was Garott. Unfortunately, they had learnt that he had been sealed by their enemies in the Celestial Realm.
In the past, they had sent parties to try and break the seal. Unfortunately, the seal was too powerful for them to break with brute force and too complicated to undo. They had even used a sizeable part of their reserves to invite several formations experts to try their luck, but without fail, each of them told them that it was uncrackable – the only way for Garott to escape was for him to break through and become a paragon.
So their surprise, hope, and anticipation could be understood. The current Black Tortoise Branch was led by Eleri and Oloris Boleyn – Garott's younger twin siblings. Both were extremely powerful commander-level experts who were the most upset by their older brother being sealed. So it should come as no surprise that the moment they saw him, both siblings seemed to forget their standings as they threw themselves into their older brother's arms.
It was only when he reminded his younger siblings that they weren't alone that they embarrassedly retracted their arms, still unable to leave his side, as though they were scared he would suddenly disappear again.
Gisalson was the next to greet Garott – unable to hide the light in his eyes.
When they were younger, Gisalson never liked Garott. Not only had he inherited his mother's Apex Divine Bloodline in its entirety, but Garott never put the needs of the clan first like a man of his talent and ability should. Instead, he would spend most of his time wandering around the various planes like a nomad, only returning on very rare instances. Had he not done so, their enemies never would've gotten the chance to seal him, and, by extension, the Eight Great Clans never would've dared to act so rampantly.
It had to be remembered that as a true Apex Divine Beast, the moment he became a High God, Garott could be considered almost invincible, even amongst commanders, especially when taking his Divine Ability into account.
Still, after so many years fighting a losing war, Gisalson had forgotten his dislike for the man. Instead, he just wanted Garott to hurry up and return so they could finally put an end to this war.
The first thing to come out of his mouth after greeting the prodigal son was to ask how he managed to escape the seal. At the same time, his and the eyes of just about all the other descendants old enough to recognise Garott lit up with hope.
Garott smiled helplessly, understanding what they were really asking. Still, he told them the truth, that he escaped because a member of Ace's group, who was an extremely talented formations expert, managed to undo the seal.
Hearing that, their eyes dimmed considerably as they realised that Garott hadn't broken free because he had become a paragon. Still, they were all aware of how impressive such a feat was. As such, the position Ace and his group held in their eyes elevated even more than before, but before they could say anything to thank the Golden Sun Pirates and cosy up to them even more, Garott smirked as he raised a hand.
It was such a casual act, but the effects were anything but. All the descendants of the Four Divine Beasts Clan watched in complete disbelief as their clan halls were disfigured and reconstructed in less than a second.
It had to be understood that as the greatest experts of the laws of Earth, it was the Black Tortoise Branch that had been the ones to construct all four of the clan branches main buildings, but to make it as awe-inspiring as they were, it took many of them working together at once.
Not even Eleri and Oloris together – two commanders who had completely fused five of the six profound mysteries of the Earth – would be capable of doing what their older brother had done with anywhere near as much ease.
Between that and the overwhelming power radiated by Garott as he smiled proudly at them, told them everything they needed to know – Garott had become a paragon!
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