The trial of the Supreme God of Destruction had begun. A total of thirty-six soul mutates flew into the Amethyst Mountains.
That's right—thirty-six individuals.
There were actually thirty-six soul mutates who possessed Destruction God clones.
In truth, the majority of these thirty-six had been forcefully elevated to Highgod rank by the various Sovereigns, essentially having their growth forcibly accelerated.
Take the Chief Destruction Sovereign for example.
Relying on his subordinate Dennington, a peak expert who had mastered the Edicts of Death to perfection, he had forcibly pushed all of his soul mutate subordinates to the Highgod level using soul fragments.
But such artificially elevated Highgod soul mutates only had five-star Fiend-level strength at best. They barely understood their Profound Mysteries—only enough to ascend higher with no deep insights or soul nourishment.
Most crucially, they had not fused with any profound mysteries. Their future potential was bleak.
But Uhtred didn't care. As long as one of his subordinates became a Supreme Overgod, he would consider it a victory.
Within the twelve castles, the Sovereigns of every element were watching the developments within the mountain range.
Once the thirty-six soul mutates entered the mist, they were separated from one another.
Deep within the Amethyst Mountains, Ignis stared into the boundless fog. He tried to spread out his divine sense, but found he could only perceive a radius of one meter around him.
As for his eyes—they could see nothing but a sea of white mist.
Even though he couldn't see anything, Ignis remained utterly fearless. After all, he was a being whose strength rivaled even full mastery.
Ignis immediately unleashed his divine power and began flying in a chosen direction.
The first trial was very simple—just fly out of the fog.
The trick was, this fog was filled with countless amethyst beasts.
Ignis hadn't flown far when he suddenly noticed a glowing dot appear.
While he was still wondering what it was, an Amethyst beast abruptly entered the range of his divine sense.
The ambush was too close— Ignis had no time to dodge.
Fortunately, he possessed a Sovereign artifact.
As a divine-level powerhouse who had existed since the birth of Heaven and Earth, Ignis had long since gathered a full set of three Sovereign artifacts from across the planes.
With just a single blow, he sliced the amethyst beast cleanly in two.
After it was slain, the beast's body vanished into thin air—leaving behind only a single round pearl.
Had this pearl not dropped within one meter of Ignis, he might not have even noticed it.
Picking up the pearl, Ignis was curious—what exactly was this?
The gray orb had a faint dark red glow inside it.
Well-traveled as he was, Ignis immediately thought of a figure who had risen to prominence in the last million years—Bebe's grandfather, Beirut.
The material of this orb seemed very similar to the Divine Spark weapons forged by Beirut.
It appeared to be a type of Divine Spark essence.
Within the Divine Spark essence, the auras of Destruction and Fire intertwined, seemingly merged into one.
Ignis wasn't sure why an amethyst beast would contain Divine Spark essence, but he figured it must be part of the trial and stored it in his interspatial ring.
This Divine Spark essence was, of course, Sadius' handiwork.
He had previously instructed Beirut and Bebe to refine a massive amount of Divine Spark essence.
Then he handed them over to Reisgem.
Reisgem, in turn, distributed them to all the amethyst beasts, commanding them to swallow the essence.
Once these beasts were slain, their energy would return to Reisgem's territory.
As for the Divine Spark essences—they would naturally remain.
Since the purpose was to select a Supreme Overgod, Sadius naturally had to give them an opportunity.
How many suitable Divine Spark essences each participant could obtain depended on how many amethyst beasts they could kill within the mist.
All thirty-six soul mutates had encountered amethyst beasts.
But among them, two individuals stood out.
While most were ambushed, these two were greeted by the beasts as though they were welcoming their masters.
These two were Lyle and Diana.
The reason was simple.
They had already become amethyst Divine Beasts.
"My lord, don't you think this trial is a bit biased?" Zijing remarked as he looked at the scene, noticing the stark difference in treatment.
Whenever an amethyst beast encountered Lyle or Diana, it would even voluntarily spit out Divine Spark essence.
"This first trial won't affect Lyle and Diana at all. They've already refined a massive amount of amethyst origin energy. These Divine Spark essences are useless to them. They only need to safely exit the mist."
Zijing inwardly rejoiced—fortunately, he had secured two soul mutates ahead of time and gained a major advantage.
"Still, escaping the fog is no simple task. I've altered the gravitational field within the Amethyst Mountains. The fog is like a maze. Even if the exit is one meter away, they might not be able to find it."
On the screen, the soul mutates wandered aimlessly through the mist, repeatedly encountering amethyst beasts.
Of course, the maze Sadius had created did have patterns—it just depended on whether they could decipher them.
Within one of the castles te, all the Sovereigns of Fate were gathered.
Orloff was watching the soul mutates he had brought.
Originally, he had formed soul contracts with several of them, hoping to offer guidance via the soul link from outside.
Yet he soon discovered—he couldn't contact them at all.
In fact, most Sovereigns had formed contracts with their soul mutates.
In the Coiling Dragon universe, master-servant contracts were part of the laws. Even if the contracted being became a Sovereign—or even a Supreme Overgod—they still had to obey the contract. Betrayal was impossible.
The only Overgod who this rule did not apply to was Sadius as he could of course dissolve the contract at any time. After all, he is the embodiment of aether, slightly outside the bounds of the universal rules but still within the bounds of hongmeng's rules.
This was why the Sovereigns paid so much attention to the Supreme Overgod trial.
Even if they themselves failed to become a Supreme Overgod, if their contracted Divine Beast succeeded, they would also rise with the tide. That was the assumption at least.
Of course, not all of the thirty-six soul mutates were Divine Beasts.
Some were humans.
Even if a master-servant contract couldn't be signed, a mutual contract was still highly valuable.
Orloff continued watching the scene.
He noticed that every slain amethyst beast left behind a bead.
Having done extensive research, he naturally knew—these were Divine Spark essences refined by Beirut.
"What exactly is the purpose of these Divine Spark essences?"
His gaze swept across all participants—then paused.
He had spotted Lyle and Diana.
He remembered these two young soul mutates, as they had been brought by Sovereign Zijing.
Every time they encountered an amethyst beast, the beast voluntarily offered up Divine Spark essence.
It seemed, however, that neither of them understood the essence's purpose—they just stored them away in their interspatial rings.
But what intrigued Orloff more was their other actions.
They would occasionally take out a piece of amethyst crystal to refine, absorbing the soul energy within—then strangely discarding the energy before refining another.
Orloff didn't believe they were simply wasting resources—there must be something deeper going on.
He took out a piece of amethyst crystal from his own interspatial ring and began refining it.
But…he noticed nothing unusual at all.