Chapter 1: Father and Son
Hogg’s eyes grew moist. He trembled with excitement, carefully studying the young man before him who felt so familiar and dear.
He looked at those eyebrows, those eyes, that nose…
They matched the image of Linley from his youth in his memories.
“Linley, is it really, really you?” Hogg’s voice choked up, his eyes reddening.
“It’s me, Father. It really is me!” Linley said urgently, eager to prove himself. “Father, do you remember that time in the ancestral hall of the old estate, when you had me pay respects to the past ancestors of the Baruch clan? Do you remember testing my Dragonblood Warrior bloodline? And… I told you, I had three good brothers at the Magical Academy, and two of them are here too!”
Linley quickly pointed toward Yale in the distance. “Look, that’s Yale of the Dawson Conglomerate, and over there, that’s George of the Yulan Empire!”
“And me!” Bebe also darted over, staring at Hogg. “Uncle Hogg, do you remember me? I’m that little Shadowmouse.” As he spoke, Bebe shifted his form, transforming into the shape of a black Shadowmouse, standing on Linley’s shoulder, still speaking human words. “Back then, Boss adopted me!”
Hogg nodded repeatedly.
“Father, and also, the Coiling Dragon Ring! You know about this, right?” Linley extended his finger.
As Hogg listened, he wept tears of joy. “Right, right!” He couldn’t help but pull Linley into an embrace, patting him heavily on the back several times. “Haha, it really is you. Linley, wonderful, haha, truly wonderful.” Hogg was so excited his words became jumbled. After dying and becoming an undead, enduring over two thousand years of undead existence, suddenly regaining his memories and being brought here…
His son appearing before him out of nowhere.
How could he not be excited, not overjoyed?
“Father, come, let’s not stay outside. Let’s go to the courtyard and talk slowly.” Linley dried his tears and immediately took his father’s hand, flying toward the rear courtyard of the Netherworld Hotel.
Being able to see his father again—the joy of this reunion even surpassed the excitement Linley felt from his soul’s transformation. In a daze, Linley felt as if he had returned to his childhood, being taught cultural knowledge by his father. When he did poorly, his palms would be struck. Back then, it hurt, but now recalling it, it felt so warm.
His father’s death back then had plunged Linley into a dark, frenzied state, willing to die himself just to take revenge.
And now…
Everything was fine!
The group all sat down around two tables. Hogg’s mind was still full of confusion as he looked at Linley and asked, “Linley, what exactly is going on? I was just a Saint-level Black Knight. How did I suddenly regain my memories? And how was I brought here? And I get to see you?”
Hogg had never heard of an undead regaining its memories.
“Boss asked a Sovereign to do it,” Bebe said with a grin.
“Haha,” Dixie beside him exclaimed in admiration. “Uncle Hogg, over these two thousand years, Linley is no longer just the talented student from the Magical Academy. He has become a peak-level expert in the higher planes like the Netherworld and the Infernal Realm. He asked a Sovereign to restore everyone’s memories and had the Sovereign arrange for people to bring everyone here to gather. I, Yale, George, and the others were all brought here by Seven Star Fiend-level experts.”
“Asked a Sovereign to do it? And arranged for people to bring everyone?”
Hogg couldn’t help but look at his son before him. Back in the Yulan Continent, Hogg knew his son had potential, but back then, he only thought Linley would one day become a powerful magician, perhaps even reclaim the family heirloom. But… asking a Sovereign to handle matters? Just thinking about it made Hogg dizzy.
“Linley, how did you…?” Hogg didn’t know what to ask.
Ask about his son’s strength? Ask what his son had done all these years?
“Boss is a Paragon Highgod,” Bebe said proudly. Yale and the others had also learned this news over the years.
“What does Paragon mean?” Hogg asked back.
Bebe was momentarily at a loss.
Back then, Yale and Bebe’s parents also didn’t understand the meaning of Paragon until it was explained. Now, Bebe’s mother, the woman in purple robes, laughed and said, “Hogg, a Paragon Highgod means… among gods, your son is already an invincible existence! Even Sovereigns eagerly invite him to be their Emissary.”
“An invincible existence among gods?” Hogg blinked, staring blankly at Linley before him. Hogg felt that everything he had heard and seen since meeting Linley was like a dream.
Hogg’s reaction was within everyone’s expectations. Back when Yale, George, and the others had questioned Linley’s abilities, after getting the full story, they too had been stunned for a long time. Everyone knew how many gods there were in the Netherworld and the Infernal Realm—countless, measured in trillions.
Across countless planes, among countless gods, standing at the true pinnacle of the pyramid! How terrifying was that?
Hogg had spent over two thousand years in the Necropolis of the Gods, so his mental fortitude was much stronger. He finally came to his senses, his eyes lighting up as he asked urgently, “Linley, what about your mother’s revenge? That Duke Patterson of the Fenlai Kingdom back then… did you manage to take revenge?”
“He’s dead. I killed him with my own hands,” Linley said solemnly.
“And the mastermind behind him? Did you find out?” Hogg asked urgently.
Back then, Hogg had also discovered that there was someone behind Duke Patterson, but before he could investigate further, Patterson sent people to hunt him down, and he ended up dead.
“I found out. The mastermind behind him was King Clay of the Fenlai Kingdom,” Linley nodded. “Later, in Hess City, I killed Clay!”
“King Clay?” Hogg was startled.
“Although I killed Clay, the matter wasn’t over. Mother was originally presented by Clay to the Radiant Church. And the Radiant Church killed my mother, offering her soul to the Radiant Sovereign,” Linley said in a low voice. He harbored great resentment toward the Radiant Church. Delin Cowart could also be considered to have died at the hands of the Radiant Church.
Hogg frowned, a hint of murderous intent flickering in his eyes as he murmured, “The Radiant Church?”
“Later, I uprooted the Radiant Church completely,” Linley continued.
Hogg stared blankly at his son. The Radiant Church in the Yulan Continent was a behemoth. But then Hogg quickly understood. Since Linley had reached such a peak, it wasn’t impossible that he had destroyed the Radiant Church back then.
“All resolved!” Hogg let out a long sigh of relief, then shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh. “I was too stubborn. Over two thousand years, I still couldn’t let it go. But what use is thinking about it? Lena has long been dead.”
“Father, Mother isn’t truly dead,” Linley said instead.
“Huh?” Hogg’s eyes instantly lit up, his whole being suddenly brimming with vitality, his gaze full of hope as he looked at Linley.
Linley nodded seriously. “Father, back then, Mother was killed, and her soul was offered to the Radiant Sovereign. Now, she should have become an angel in the Radiant God Realm! But angels formed through reincarnation are absolutely loyal to the Radiant Sovereigns… To make Mother regain her autonomy and let her live with us, that’s very difficult.”
“You… even you can’t do it?” Hogg asked urgently.
In Hogg’s mind at this moment, his son was the peak of all gods, with even Sovereigns vying to invite him as an Emissary. With such status, Hogg thought making an angel regain autonomy should be easy.
“I’m not confident,” Linley shook his head.
Bebe beside him also grimaced. “Even the Sovereign of Death said that even if she personally went to find the Radiant Sovereign, there’s no guarantee. If the Sovereign of Death can’t do it… if Boss goes, the chances of success are very, very low.” Even Bebe had no confidence in Linley now.
Linley himself felt some guilt and unwillingness.
“Haha, forget it.” Hogg let out a long sigh and laughed. “Linley, the fact that we, father and son, can meet again is already something to thank the heavens for. To be reunited with your mother—that’s simply a luxury. Don’t overthink it and trouble yourself.”
“Father…” Linley looked at his father in surprise.
From the suicide note his father had left behind back then, Linley could understand his father’s feelings for his mother—he was willing to die for her. How could he just give up like this?
“Don’t think too much. How can everything in the world go as we wish?” Hogg said with a light laugh.
That day, Hogg, Linley, Yale, and George talked enthusiastically about various matters from their hometown of the Yulan Continent. Later, Hogg talked about his life in the Necropolis of the Gods, and Linley recounted his experiences over the past three thousand years. Hogg truly understood Linley’s growth process. He worried about the dangers Linley had faced time and again, but at the same time, a sense of pride welled up in his heart.
In front of the Netherworld Hotel, Linley and his group were preparing to leave.
“Wait a moment. I’ll be right back,” Linley said to his father and the others before walking toward the lake beside the grassy area in front of the Netherworld Hotel. By the curve of the lake, a red-haired, pretty girl was fishing with great interest. Others might not know the red-haired girl’s true identity, but Linley did.
It was the Sovereign of Death, who enjoyed watching Netherworld experts enter Nether Mountain to die for the Netherworld Fruit.
Holding her fishing rod, the red-haired girl turned her head and glanced at Linley. “What, leaving?”
Linley sensed a distortion in the surrounding space. The Sovereign of Death had already isolated the area, preventing their conversation from leaking out. Linley inwardly marveled at the Sovereign’s terrifying power and replied, “Yes, Sovereign. The six people I came to pick up have all been brought here. Thank you for your hospitality over these days.”
The red-haired girl smiled faintly, revealing her sparkling white teeth. “When I first saw you, you were still a little fellow barely reaching the threshold of a Lord. In the blink of an eye, you’ve become a Paragon.”
“Sovereign, there’s one thing I’d like to ask for your help with,” Linley said, hesitating slightly before continuing.
“You really have a lot of requests. Go ahead.” Over the years, Linley had often seen the Sovereign of Death at the Netherworld Hotel, and their relationship had improved considerably.
“Sovereign, I want to find a Seven Star Fiend expert named Odin. Do you have any way to do that?” Linley asked hopefully. Over this period, Yale had been wanting to take revenge on Odin. But the Netherworld was boundless. Even with Linley’s strength, finding Odin was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
“Find a Seven Star Fiend expert? Odin?” The red-haired girl frowned slightly and snorted. “You really think I’m omnipotent. This so-called Odin of yours—I don’t even know his soul aura. You just tell me a name—how am I supposed to find him? Unless he once became an undead. Then I could search through the Netherworld Heart. Otherwise, it’s impossible.”
Linley could only smile awkwardly.
Just knowing a name was indeed hard to search for. That was precisely why Linley was troubling the Sovereign of Death. Linley had thought he could rely on the Netherworld Heart to search, but from what she said, only those who had become undead could be found through the Netherworld Heart.
“Finding someone isn’t difficult for someone of your status now,” the red-haired girl said with a light laugh. “Just go to any Fiend Castle and issue a mission to find a Seven Star Fiend named Odin. With you, Linley, issuing the mission, I’m sure some Lords and Prefects will be eager to take it on.”
Linley’s great name—perhaps ordinary Highgods knew little of it, but Prefects and Lords would likely have all heard of him within a thousand years.
The red-haired girl then turned her head back and continued fishing. “Alright, you can go now!”
“Thank you, Sovereign.” Linley gave a slight bow, then turned and left.
“Let’s go. First, to the Necropolis of the Gods!” Linley smiled at his father and the others, then released a massive metallic lifeform that hovered in midair. The group immediately flew into the metallic lifeform. With a flash, it left a streak of light in the sky and vanished into the upper air.