"Isn't that only natural?"
"A difference of just one star in Fiend rank means a tenfold gap in strength."
"Between the weakest Five-Star Fiend and the strongest Five-Star Fiend, the difference is at least eight or nine times…"
"Just look at the attacks Lord Locke unleashed after using his artifact—how many blows do you think Lord Ryan could actually withstand?"
"If you ask me, Lord Locke's strength is actually underestimated. In reality, he's probably more than ten times stronger than Vice City Lord Ryan."
"Don't forget—under Lord Locke's soul attacks, Vice City Lord Ryan had absolutely no resistance."
"That's true…"
Hearing this, those who had personally witnessed the battle between Locke and Ryan nodded in agreement.
Before Lord Locke had even used an offensive artifact, Lord Ryan had already been suppressed, forced to rely solely on his Highgod speed to barely keep up in battle.
Yet once Lord Locke unleashed his soul attacks, Lord Ryan immediately abandoned all resistance, allowing Lord Locke to strike freely.
With just a single blow, Lord Ryan's Highgod defensive artifact had been shattered.
And the moment Lord Locke revealed his offensive artifact, Lord Ryan had decisively conceded.
From this alone, saying that Lord Locke was more than ten times stronger than Lord Ryan was hardly an exaggeration.
Still—
Even someone as terrifying as Lord Locke was evaluated as only a Five-Star Fiend?
"Honestly, I can't even imagine how powerful Six-Star Fiends, Seven-Star Fiends, or even those above them—the Shura-level experts—must be."
"Hahaha! If you want to see for yourself, why not join the Fiend Castle and become a Fiend?"
At this moment, a God suddenly spoke up.
"We may not know about others, but right now, we're the closest people to Lord Locke."
"With the strength Lord Locke has already displayed, once he breaks through to Highgod, he'll have at least Six-Star Fiend combat power."
No one refuted this.
Simply the increase in divine power from God to Highgod would boost Lord Locke's strength by a full tenfold.
As a Five-Star Fiend now, Lord Locke would naturally reach Six-Star Fiend level at the bare minimum upon advancing.
But no one believed that this was his limit.
Given Lord Locke's ambition, it was clear that he was aiming for Seven-Star Fiend—perhaps even Shura-level.
No one believed a mere Highgod bottleneck could restrain someone like him.
More likely, Lord Locke was deliberately remaining at God level because he was pursuing something far greater.
So, what secrets did the God realm hold, secrets so profound that even Lord Locke was willing to linger there?
Those who could become gods were no fools.
Very quickly, everyone realized that the God realm must contain mysteries they themselves had yet to grasp.
If they could glimpse even a fraction of this secret from Lord Locke—
Could they, too, rival Highgods while still being Gods?
"I've decided! I'm joining the Fiend Castle and becoming a Fiend!"
Someone made up their mind and rushed toward the Fiend assessment registration area.
"I'm going too!"
In an instant, the number of applicants surged.
Fortunately, whether it was Lord Locke, City Lord Rockpeak, or Vice City Lord Ryan, all were top-tier experts. Order was maintained, and chaos never erupted.
At the highest floor of the Fiend Castle, Locke looked down at the orderly scene below and smiled in satisfaction.
As expected, once the Fiend Castle was firmly established and recognized by the gods of Rockpeak City, Locke could clearly feel his Fate Law beginning to loosen.
After confirming that the Fiend Castle was operating smoothly, Locke wasted no time and immersed his Saint-level true body into cultivating the Fate Law.
Humm—
A few minutes later, the laws of heaven and earth descended, condensing his understanding of Fate into a divine spark that hovered above his head.
"Mmm…"
Having already endured soul division once before, Locke still let out a low groan.
Soon after, a white-haired, white-robed divine body appeared before him.
Through the connection of the Fate divine spark, the soul of Locke's Fate god clone entered the Elemental Plane and plunged into the sea of divine power, absorbing Fate divine energy.
Even after being split in half, Locke's soul strength far surpassed that of ordinary Demigods.
Without the slightest resistance, his soul dove to over ninety meters deep.
At depths beyond one hundred meters lay God-level divine power.
Although Locke felt he still had strength to spare, when his soul reached the hundred-meter threshold, another limitation became apparent—
The restriction of the Demigod divine spark.
A Demigod divine spark could only draw upon Demigod divine power.
No matter how deep Locke's soul descended, the power he absorbed remained Demigod-level.
Understanding this, Locke sighed softly.
It seemed that even after becoming a Highgod, no matter how deep his soul could dive, he would still be unable to absorb Sovereign power due to the limitation of his divine spark.
Shaking his head, Locke dismissed the thought and began absorbing Fate divine power at the ninety-meter depth.
When the heavenly laws receded, Locke opened his eyes.
His Fate god clone was far stronger than when he had first achieved godhood.
Leaving aside laws and profundities, the sheer divine power alone was already nine times that of ordinary Demigods.
In terms of raw combat power, since Laws were inherently half a tier stronger than elemental profundities, Locke's Fate god clone—despite being only a Demigod—was already comparable to an average God.
With a wave of his hand, nearly a hundred amethyst crystals appeared before him.
Soul-fire blazed as Locke refined the soul energy within them, restoring the damage from soul division.
To his surprise, his Fate god clone needed only fifty amethysts to fully recover.
His Saint-level true body, however, required sixty.
This delighted Locke.
Logically, both souls had been split evenly—yet his true body's soul required more to recover.
Clearly, after being tempered by the laws of heaven and earth, the quality of his true soul now exceeded that of his god clone by roughly twenty percent.
Locke then reabsorbed his Fate god clone, unifying the souls and synchronizing their quality.
Once complete, he separated his Water god clone, assigning it to oversee external reconnaissance around Rockpeak City and the deployment of Fiend assessments.
At the same time, he notified the two High-Rank Fiends—City Lord Rockpeak and Vice City Lord Ryan—to alternate in leading Fiend assessments.
"Lord Locke."
At the top floor of the Fiend Castle, Little White gently knocked on the cultivation chamber door.
"City Lord Rockpeak and Vice City Lord Ryan have arrived."
No longer the youth he once was, Little White now bore the appearance of a young man.
Under Locke's guidance, he had become a Highgod.
Though only a Highgod through divine spark refinement, he still ranked among the top ten experts of Rockpeak City.
Over the past ten years, the Fiend Castle had driven explosive growth throughout Rockpeak City.
At present, the Fiend Castle possessed:
10 Fiends of Three-Star or higher
Over 2,000 Two-Star Fiends
More than 10,000 One-Star Fiends
And this was with Fiend assessments held only once per year.
Had they been held more frequently, the numbers would have been ten times higher.
"Mm. Let them in."
"Lord Locke."
Rockpeak and Ryan entered the cultivation chamber, greeting Locke before sitting across from him.
"Rockpeak, Ryan—how has your cultivation progressed?"
Ten years earlier, after joining the Fiend Castle, Locke had revealed the secret of Profundity Fusion to them.
At the time, both had been utterly stunned.
They had never imagined that elemental profundities were not isolated, but could be fused together.
Matching the number of fused profundities to the Fiend star rankings, they realized—
For Highgods, each additional fused profundity meant a full star increase in combat power.
A tenfold boost.
For the past ten years, aside from leading annual Fiend assessments, both had devoted themselves entirely to profundity fusion.
"I'm sorry, Lord Locke. I've disappointed you."
"In these ten years, I haven't felt any significant progress."
Rockpeak shook his head.
"That's perfectly normal," Locke reassured him.
"Rockpeak, what you cultivate is the Law of Destruction."
"I understand elemental profundities well—fusion is the future path for elemental Highgods."
"But Laws are different. A Law is a complete whole."
"Reaching Highgod only means you've comprehended roughly forty percent of the Destruction Law."
"To progress further, you must grasp more of the Law itself."
"The difficulty of advancing Laws beyond this point is comparable to profundity fusion."
"So, ten years without progress is nothing unusual."
(End of Chapter)
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