Chapter 582 — The Gaze of the Four Transcendent Saints
The Beast-Taming Craftsman Page 4 of 6
By now, the Short-Legged Cat, Turtle, and the others had already drawn the attention of the Four Holy Clans.
The reason was simple: they cultivated the power of the Four Holy faith, and they were not members of the Four Holy Clans!
Moreover, the Short-Legged Cat's fighting style—and that Transcendent Holy Beast—resembled the guardian holy beasts that had once appeared in the Four Holy Ruins far too closely. Even their appearances were somewhat alike.
And after investigation, the most crucial key point lay with the Mystic Mechanism Hierarch's beast tamer: Shi Jin!
Shi Jin had also appeared in the Four Holy Ruins, an archaeologist praised even by Zijian, and the Mystic Mechanism Hierarch was his beast... so these few prodigies of the Four Holy Clans had a bold conjecture.
This Shi Jin had obtained unknown benefits in the Four Holy Ruins—for instance, the Mystic Mechanism Hierarch had inherited the guardian holy beast legacy of the Four Holy Ruins. They even suspected that the Transcendent Holy Beast was also Shi Jin's beast.
The limit of what they could imagine was that Shi Jin had secretly obtained benefits from the Four Holy Ruins. As for the notion that Shi Jin had been the one controlling the Four Holy Ruins at the time—they didn't dare even think it, because it was too absurd.
After all, even Zijian had failed to crack the Four Holy Ruins. What right did Shi Jin, a man never heard of before, have to do so?
The Four Holy Clans had already begun investigating the matter...
One of the Four Holy Clans: the Black Tortoise Clan!
In the Black Tortoise Clan there was an old turtle of the Time-Accumulation lineage, master of divination, who had reached the realm of the Perfect God.
Recently, the clan had called upon it to divine one thing: the origins of that turtle-snake hybrid Black Tortoise evolver, the Transcendent Holy Beast, in the Apotheosis War—and whether there was any hope of drawing it into the Black Tortoise Clan.
After long effort of time-accumulation, it finally divined a trace of something—but one look sent the old turtle's shell nearly bursting. Panicked, it rushed to find the Black Tortoise Clan's patriarch, a Black Tortoise evolver of the Super God level!
"Elder Ancestor, Elder Ancestor, disaster is upon us!!!"
The old turtle came in a fluster before the supreme mystic realm where the head of the family dwelled, and paid his respects.
"What is it?" The supreme mystic realm opened, and an aged voice issued forth.
"It concerns the Xuanyuan Sect—forgive the intrusion. Recently, the clan requested that I divine the circumstances of a rising star of great potential, a Xuanwu evolutioner."
"Mm." The Xuanwu Supremegod nodded.
"The result—the result was that I divined something truly terrifying. I saw a vision of the future: a human beastmaster, accompanied by one Azure Dragon, one White Tiger, one Vermilion Bird, and one Xuanwu, will carry off the Relic of the Four Saints Era!!"
"What??" From the unseen Xuanwu Supremegod came a voice of disbelief.
"You mean to say that the Relic of the Four Saints Era will one day be deciphered and taken away, and that the one who takes it is connected to the transcendent holy beasts you foresaw?"
"Exactly! The law of my divination skill is this: either the divination fails and nothing can be divined at all, or the vision that comes through will come to pass one hundred percent. So what I divined... may well be real. The Relic of the Four Saints Era is about to be deciphered!"
"I see..." The Xuanwu Supremegod nodded and said, "Do not breathe a word of this to anyone. You may withdraw."
"Yes!" The old diviner turtle took his leave.
After the old diviner turtle had gone, the Xuanwu Supremegod brooded for a very, very long while.
It too possessed a means of divining fortune and misfortune through turtle shells.
After a moment, it produced a turtle shell.
Upon the shell, two words surfaced: "Great Misfortune."
At this, the Xuanwu Supremegod's pupils contracted.
After a long while, having weighed the matter thoroughly, it put away the shell and took out three command tokens. As the tokens were offered up, three figures spontaneously materialized before it.
A dragon-shaped phantom, a bird-shaped phantom, and a tiger-shaped phantom.
"Old Turtle, why have you summoned us?" the dragon-shaped phantom spoke.
"My three old friends..." the Xuanwu Supremegod said genially. "I wonder if you still remember the Relic of the Four Saints."
The Azure Dragon Supremegod, the Vermilion Bird Supremegod, and the White Tiger Supremegod started. "That era relic, you mean..."
Of course they remembered. What a pity—they could not decipher this era relic either, nor could they disregard the rules to carry off that power of faith which made even their mouths water.
Still, though they could not take it, the loss of that bit of faith power would hardly affect them. As Supremegod-tier beings, they had long since established their own divine kingdoms; they had faith power enough.
Over time, the Four Saints Supremegods had handed the relic over to their clans, in cooperation with the Archaeology Association, to manage—to cultivate the clans' strength and rear believers. As for themselves, they could not be bothered to waste time and energy studying and deciphering it according to the relic's rules and mechanisms; the efficiency was too low, and they were better off simply cultivating on their own.
"Yes. Just now, I obtained a definitive divination: in the future, this Relic of the Four Saints will be deciphered and taken away by a human beastmaster bearing the four holy beasts..."
The Xuanwu Supremegod said slowly.
"Of course, the Relic of the Four Saints is a masterless thing—whoever has the ability to take it, that is their own skill. But..." The Xuanwu Supremegod's voice grew grave. "You all know how vast and pure the era faith power contained within the relic is. It is useless to us, mere icing on the cake—but with this relic, there is still a chance of rearing several invincible Four Saints beasts with the potential to step into Supremegod tier."
"Having said this much, I believe you all understand what it signifies."
The other three Four Saints Supremegods knew perfectly well what this old turtle meant!
In truth, they did not much care whether the relic's faith power belonged to them; they would not have minded it being divided evenly among all Four Saints evolutioners. But if that faith power all fell into one person's hands, then there would be a very great problem.
Every Four Saints evolutioner was, in essence, a competitor.
The reason the four Supremegod-tier Four Saints had established clans was in fact to keep every Four Saints evolutioner under their watchful eyes, to keep their growth controllable—lest they threaten their own standing and compete with them for the greatest share of faith power.
However much faith power the Relic of the Four Saints held, so long as it was divided evenly among a host of Four Saints evolutioners, that host could pose them no threat.
But if it all fell into one person's hands, then, as the Xuanwu Supremegod had said, that person would have the potential to grow to Supremegod tier—and then, on one Realm King Star, two Supremegod-tier Azure Dragons, two Supremegod-tier Vermilion Birds… the problem would be exceedingly grave.
The Vermilion Bird Supremegod said, "Old Turtle, are you certain?"
If it was true, they absolutely could not let that person take the Relic of the Four Saints smoothly. The best solution was to bring that person into the Vermilion Bird clan and have them serve it.
"I am essentially certain," said the Xuanwu Supremegod.
At its words, a flicker of killing intent passed through the Azure Dragon Supremegod's eyes. It would absolutely not permit another Azure Dragon evolutioner to challenge its position. "Do you know who the other party is?"