Vice City Lord Ryan's divine power was as heavy and immovable as a mountain. At a glance, anyone could tell—it was Earth-element divine power.
Moreover, judging from the fluctuations of his divine power, its intensity was three times greater than that of an ordinary Highgod.
In other words, purely in terms of divine power alone, Vice City Lord Ryan already surpassed an average Highgod by a factor of three!
No wonder the other Vice City Lord of Rockpeak City had been so easily defeated by him.
Divine power intensity was closely tied to the strength of a god's soul.
Only a powerful soul could plunge deeper into the Sea of Divine Power and draw forth greater strength.
As a rule, those with stronger divine power were rarely weak in combat.
With triple the divine power, combined with the heightened perception brought by a powerful soul, Ryan's true combat strength was at least four times that of Vice City Lord Evan.
Boom!
Standing opposite Ryan, Locke finally unleashed his own presence.
At that moment, the level of his divine power was fully revealed.
"…Am I mistaken?"
"Why does that lord's divine aura still feel like a God's?"
"Yeah… although the intensity is terrifying—at least five times mine—it really is God-level divine power."
As more Gods confirmed it among themselves, confusion spread through the crowd.
Five times the divine power of a God was indeed outstanding among Gods—easily top-tier.
But even so, in front of a Highgod, that should amount to nothing more than a slightly sturdier ant.
So, what, exactly, gave this Lord Locke the confidence to stand against a Highgod?
Was he the heir of some ancient great clan, misled by overindulgent Highgod bodyguards who dared not fight seriously—thus giving him the illusion that Highgods were nothing special?
For a time, speculation about Locke's identity intensified.
After all, four hundred and ninety million inkstones were not something just anyone could casually produce.
At the very least, only a great clan with hundreds of millions of years of inheritance could afford to let a junior carry that much wealth.
Even then, it would likely be limited to one or two core heirs.
Others might be richer than independent cultivators—but not to such an absurd degree.
Boom!
To be fair, Ryan was being quite "sportsmanlike."
Locke was a God. Even though he had fused his comprehension of the Laws with his divine domain—making it far stronger than an ordinary God's domain—it still wasn't enough to fully negate the suppression of a Highgod's divine domain.
During their brief exchange earlier in Rockpeak City, Locke's strength had clearly been suppressed by ten percent under Ryan's domain.
But now, Ryan did not activate his divine domain to suppress Locke.
Instead, he attacked head-on.
Although Hell was one of the Four Supreme Planes and its spatial stability exceeded that of material planes by hundreds of times—
That stability was still not absolute in the face of a Highgod.
As Ryan's fist—condensed from dense Earth-element divine power—shot forward, the surrounding space shattered, tearing open black spatial rifts.
"So terrifying!"
"This is a Highgod's attack—he can even tear apart Hell's space!"
Facing the incoming blow riddled with spatial rifts, Locke showed no fear.
Spatial rifts?
It wasn't as if he couldn't produce them himself.
Attacks that tore space apart certainly looked powerful, but a portion of their force was inevitably swallowed by spatial turbulence, weakening the attack itself.
Of course, since such attacks also carried the destructive nature of spatial rifts, they were essentially a trade—sacrificing part of one's power to gain another form of damage.
They couldn't be called strictly weaker.
Even so, from this alone, Locke could tell that Ryan's control over his own power was far inferior to his.
"!"
Locke calmly thrust out a palm.
In that instant, the four Law Mysteries, fused to their absolute limit, converged in his palm and blasted forward.
Boom!
Without any visible trajectory, his newly developed move Heaven-Piercing Across a Thousand Miles appeared directly in front of Ryan's fist projection—
And shattered it on the spot.
The terrifying force punched a spatial void over ten centimeters wide straight through the air.
"Hiss—!"
A violent gale erupted as the void formed, generating a massive suction force that threatened to drag everything nearby into it.
The planes of the Coiling Dragon Universe all existed within endless spatial turbulence.
Once a plane's space was pierced, the turbulence beyond would exert overwhelming suction, devouring everything nearby.
However, due to Hongmeng's will, spatial laws could not exist within subordinate universes.
As a result, even spatial rifts could be repaired as long as sufficient energy filled them.
After swallowing vast amounts of ambient energy, the spatial void slowly shrank—until it finally vanished.
"This…"
That single strike left everyone, including Ryan himself, utterly stunned.
Ryan had known that Locke's strength far exceeded that of an ordinary God.
Whether it was the testimony of the two Demigod city guards—who claimed Locke had slain six Gods in a single blow—or Locke's calm demeanor when facing him alone—
All of it pointed to one conclusion:
Though Locke stood at the God realm, his true strength was absolutely on par with a Highgod.
As for the spectators, their emotions had been whipped back and forth in just a few short minutes.
At first, learning that Locke was going to fight Vice City Lord Ryan, they had naturally categorized him as a Highgod.
Then, when the battle began and Locke revealed himself to be only a God, contempt arose.
They assumed he was the heir of some ancient clan, deluded by sycophantic Highgod protectors into thinking Highgods were nothing special.
Now?
The harder they had looked down on him earlier, the harder reality slapped them in the face.
In Hell, only Highgod-level attacks could break space.
Ryan's opening strike had torn open over ten spatial rifts, proving his overwhelming strength.
Yet compared to the spatial void Locke had just created, those rifts paled in comparison.
From sheer destructive power alone, the difference was obvious.
Spatial rifts were terrifyingly sharp to Gods—mid-grade defensive artifacts were useless against them.
Being grazed by one would result in severe injury, if not death.
But to Highgods, spatial rifts—while dangerous—were manageable.
After all, they could create such rifts themselves.
Because spatial laws did not exist in the Coiling Dragon Universe, spatial rifts could be erased with sufficient energy.
As long as a Highgod filled the rift with divine power before it fully released its cutting force, the danger could be neutralized.
But that only applied to small rifts.
A spatial void like the one Locke had created was a different matter entirely.
A rift was space being torn.
A void was space being punched clean through.
In terms of destructive potential, a spatial void was at least ten times more dangerous than a rift.
A Demigod caught in one could be dragged straight into spatial turbulence and erased entirely.
Even a Highgod, if struck head-on, would suffer severe damage—losing part of their divine body before the void's power could be neutralized.
With just this single move, Locke had demonstrated power far beyond that of ordinary Highgods.
"Is… is that guy really a God?"
"Are you stupid, or do you think he is?"
"With power like that, there's no way he's just a God."
"He must be hiding his realm…"
The spectator stands erupted with speculation.
Soon, some so-called "clever" individuals stepped forward, forcefully offering explanations that many eagerly accepted.
But among the Gods, a few eyes shone with a different light.
If Locke wasn't hiding his realm—
Did that mean a God could truly become this powerful?
Based on Little White's earlier display of nearly five hundred million inkstones, everyone agreed that Locke must be backed by a great clan with an inheritance spanning hundreds of millions of years.
Such ancient clans possessing methods to strengthen their core heirs was hardly surprising.
Still—
No God in living memory had ever reached Locke's level.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to crown him the strongest God in existence.
"Are you… really a God?"
Even Ryan himself was starting to question reality.
The power of that spatial void had left his heart pounding.
At this point, how could he possibly regard Locke as an ordinary God?
Black armor materialized across Ryan's body, and a massive horse-cleaving blade appeared in his hand.
This was Ryan's own Highgod artifact.
Without a doubt, Ryan had now revealed his true peak combat state.
(End of Chapter)
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