Chapter 1306: Spoils of Battle

Aldrian grabbed the swordsman's head, preventing him from collapsing from his kneeling position. The swordsman's robe was tattered, and his wounds were clearly visible. His face was also bloodied, with blood flowing from his nose, lips, forehead, and scalp.

With his powerful body, he should have possessed tremendous regenerative abilities that allowed his wounds to heal rapidly.

But within those wounds lingered remnants of death laws, corroding even the regenerative ability and resilient body of a god.

The swordmaster was still conscious, but one of his eyes was shut as blood flowed down from his forehead and over it.

His other eye remained open, staring at Aldrian with a trembling gaze. It was as though he still couldn't believe it, unable to accept that he had been defeated in the end.

Aldrian himself was still in perfect condition. There wasn't a single wound on his body, nor was there even a stain on his robe. His expression showed no trace of exhaustion, as though what he had just done was nothing significant.

Not far from them, the assassin's body already lay cold, with a red sword created from Aldrian's energy embedded in his forehead. The assassin had also lost his right hand, and his daggers were scattered near him.

A woman's body was a kilometre away, her body split vertically into two.

With this battle, Avergis had already lost three Divine Realm cultivators and would soon lose another one. This battle marked the first time Aldrian had killed Avergis' Divine Realm followers.

'He must be fuming right now. Avergis, I want to see your face right now,' Aldrian thought as he calmly continued looking at the swordsman.

"Who are you...How could Tarius have someone like you? How could you have never appeared before?" the swordsman asked in a weak voice.

He felt incredibly weak. His divine sphere was also badly damaged and even stained with death laws. He could no longer gather his power or even circulate his divine energy. That also prevented him from breaking the seal on his true cultivation, ultimately severing any chance of escape.

At this moment, he was at the most vulnerable point of his life as a god.

Aldrian did not say anything and pondered for a moment. He weighed whether he should keep this man alive to search for information.

As a God Sovereign cultivator, he must possess a great deal of valuable information regarding the higher heavens, especially about Avergis.

With his extensive memories, it would take some time to go through everything, which made Aldrian consider keeping him alive for a while.

He believed that, as a God Sovereign cultivator, this man would not have many restrictions within his mind directly connected to Avergis like the system inside Randolf.

Because of that, he thought he could try to extract a great deal of information from him.

After pondering for a moment, Aldrian decided to keep him alive.

Aldrian then examined the swordmaster's divine soul for anything that Avergis could use to track him or protect him. After finding nothing suspicious, he used the power of his domain to envelop the divine soul with a combination of death laws and illusion techniques.

For a god like this, he could not simply knock him unconscious and be done with it.

This was a God Sovereign with countless tricks. There was no telling what kind of abilities he might still possess if Aldrian merely left him unconscious in the dungeon beneath his palace.

This man might even choose to commit suicide the moment he was left alone for a moment.

Aldrian wanted to make sure that he would not only remain unconscious but also be completely incapable of doing anything until every piece of information had been extracted from him.

Among the many techniques Aldrian had created, one of them was what he called Primordial Nightmare, a technique designed to shatter the minds of any living being.

The illusion would force any being to confront their most primal fear, magnifying it countless times over. It drew out the deepest fear hidden within every soul.

No matter how much a being tried to overcome their fear, or even if they had become so accustomed to it that they no longer feared it, they would still be affected by this technique.

For someone like the swordsman, who was a god, it was enough to keep him occupied fighting this nightmare so that he could not do anything while under custody.

He was a powerful god who, in Aldrian's opinion, possessed enough mental strength and willpower that he would not easily succumb to the illusion.

The moment Aldrian successfully cast Primordial Nightmare, the swordmaster's eyes slowly turned dull.

'Shit, he put me under an illusion! He directly cast it into my soul! This is bad! The combination of the death laws and illusion laws is creating a terrifying illusion that will affect my soul in the long run!' the swordmaster thought in panic.

The swordmaster could naturally sense that Aldrian had cast the illusion technique directly into his soul. His knowledge was vast enough to understand what Aldrian was trying to do, and he could also tell what kinds of laws were imbued within the illusion.

He struggled to keep himself from being affected by it, but his vision and all of his senses were slowly pulled into the darkness of the nightmare. A feeling of dread gradually crept into his mind and heart.

'No... no... I have to hold on! I need to stay conscious! Don't let the illusion consume me!'

He continued trying to resist the illusion, but unfortunately for him, his consciousness was still dragged into the endless darkness.

He had already lost control of his physical body, which became completely limp. His eyes looked lifeless, and his breathing became quiet and erratic.

Aldrian released his grip on the swordmaster's head, and before his body could touch the ground, it had already disappeared.

Aldrian then looked around to observe his surroundings. There was nothing that caught his attention.

Only destruction and two corpses that he did not care about.

He then looked at the sword used by the swordmaster and the daggers. The sword lay right beside him, while the daggers rested near the assassin's corpse. They had been trembling continuously since earlier, as though reacting to their masters' fate.

Aldrian picked up the sword, and at that moment its trembling grew even more intense. It immediately tried to kill him by injecting a massive amount of divine energy into his body in an attempt to make him burst apart. The sword also made sure Aldrian could not release his grip, binding his hand with its own energy.

"You bastard! What did you do to my master? You'll regret messing with us! You'll die a horrible death!" the sword shouted inside Aldrian's mind.

Aldrian smirked. He couldn't help but find the sword's attempt to kill him rather amusing.

If it had been someone else, the sword might have succeeded. The overwhelming amount of divine energy it injected could have caused their body to explode from within.

But him—especially in this avatar's body and within his own domain?

The sword's efforts were utterly futile. His body continued absorbing the foreign energy like a bottomless abyss.

The golden energy within him automatically converted everything that entered his body into golden energy.

It brought him neither benefit nor harm. His energy was simply doing what it always did, ensuring that his entire being remained pure with golden energy.

Inside his domain, his energy reservoir was as vast as an entire heaven. An artifact like this sword would have to inject an amount of energy far greater than the energy contained within an entire heaven to kill him, something that was simply impossible.

Aldrian then picked up one of the daggers, and it reacted in exactly the same way.

"Don't think you'll be able to live comfortably after killing my master! My master's faction will surely hunt you down! You'll regret this!" the dagger shouted inside Aldrian's mind.

Aldrian ignored their curses and merely commented.

"Quite a fine sword and pair of daggers. I'll be keeping you from now on."

He then teleported them into his treasure vault in the First Heaven.

The two Divine-grade artifacts disappeared and reappeared inside one of Aldrian's treasure vaults.

"Damnit! How dare he ignore us! I'll make sure to kill—"

The sword abruptly stopped speaking the moment it saw its surroundings. The sword and the daggers also stopped trembling.

"Where the hell did these two artifacts come from? How did these two juniors suddenly appear here?"

"These motherfuckers carry the invaders' energy! They were our enemies!"

"Relax, would you? If they appeared here, then His Majesty must have personally sent them. He must have his own reasons."

"It must be one of the Great Emperor's abilities. He personally sent these artifacts here. This is the first time His Majesty has sent new artifacts here. But I have to say, they're quite decent in my opinion."

"Well, His Majesty must have thought they were useful, so he brought them here. Don't be too hard on the newcomers, guys."

"Decent? Who the fuck called them decent just now? I'd call them trash! Something that belongs buried in a pile of garbage! It must be His Majesty's compassion that kept him from destroying them!"

The newcomer sword and daggers discovered that they had appeared in the midst of countless artifacts, many of which were of the same grade as themselves.

There were even many whose grades surpassed Divine grade.

For the first time in their existence, the two artifacts couldn't help but feel fear.

Who exactly was the man who had brought them here? How could he possess so many treasures that even gods in the Ninth Heaven would fight to the death just to obtain them?

Especially those whose grades exceeded Divine grade.

The sword and the daggers did not dare utter a single word.

Before the countless ancient artifacts gathered in this vault, they truly were nothing more than juniors standing before their elders.