If Locke managed to obtain two Sovereign sparks, both of his Sovereign divine clones would gain six additional portions of willpower, raising his strength to a level approaching that of an Overlord.
"For now, I need to rebuild an organization that can gather intelligence for me."
Locke glanced at Oakes, who stood respectfully before him, and lowered his head in thought.
At present, when using fused divine power, Oakes' wind divine clone could reach roughly Five-Star Fiend strength. But in Locke's eyes, that was still far too weak.
Ryan, however, was different.
After hearing that Ryan had spent nearly a thousand years in seclusion, Locke guessed that Ryan had already fully fused three Profound Mysteries.
Combined with the physical strength of a special lifeform, Ryan's combat power had reached the peak of Six-Star Fiends, allowing him to rival Seven-Star Fiends for short periods.
In the current era—aside from those Sovereign Emissaries who possessed Sovereign artifacts—Ryan could already be considered among the strongest experts in Hell.
With that thought, Locke took out a violet crystal.
He refined the soul power inside it, embedded a message within, then sealed it with willpower, restricting it so that only Ryan's soul aura could unlock the contents.
Afterward, he handed the crystal to Oakes.
"Oakes, I have a task for you."
"I need you to secretly deliver this violet crystal to someone."
After leaving Locke's training chamber, Oakes still felt somewhat dazed.
They had all speculated about Lord Locke's true identity before.
But now that the truth was confirmed, Oakes still felt as though he were dreaming.
This was Lord Locke—the man who single-handedly founded Fiend Castle, reopened the path of cultivation for Hell's Highgods, and was revered by all as the "Legendary Shura."
And he, Oakes, had been chosen by such a figure for training.
Thinking about it, Oakes even felt grateful toward the person who had once attacked him with a soul strike.
If that attack hadn't nearly destroyed his soul…
Locke wouldn't have saved him.
And he wouldn't have undergone soul mutation under Locke's guidance.
However—
Oakes glanced at the spatial ring on his finger.
Lord Locke had said this item must be secretly delivered to Ryan, without raising suspicion.
That wouldn't be easy.
Because of the Sovereign projection incident, everyone now knew that Ryan was carrying something Locke had entrusted to him—something meant to be delivered personally to Muya Sovereign.
In other words, Ryan was currently under heavy scrutiny.
Some of that attention likely came from Sovereigns themselves.
Under such circumstances, secretly handing Ryan this violet crystal would be extremely difficult.
Still…
This was the first task Locke had entrusted to him.
If it were too easy, how could it count as a test?
Fortunately, Locke had not imposed a strict deadline.
Oakes could simply wait until Ryan completed his current mission and returned—then deliver the crystal afterward.
The Netherworld – Undead Sacred Mountain
The moment Locke stepped out of the interplanar teleportation array, the sight of the gleaming white bone cliffs told him immediately where he was.
This was the Undead Sacred Mountain, one of the most famous locations in the Netherworld.
After sweeping his gaze across the surroundings, Locke didn't bother speaking to the Sovereign army stationed there.
In an instant, he transformed into a streak of light and vanished into the sky.
"So strong!"
"That lord's power rivals even our captain!"
The soldiers guarding the teleportation array stared after Locke in awe.
Their voices were filled with admiration and longing.
"All right, stop gawking," one soldier said.
"Work hard at your cultivation."
"Maybe one day you'll reach that level too."
The sky of the Netherworld was very different from Hell's.
Hell's sky carried a faint black-red hue, subtly stirring violent impulses.
The Netherworld's sky, however, was tinged with a dusky violet-gray—noble, mysterious, and steeped in a quiet, solemn stillness.
Locke spread out his divine sense, searching for a suitable place to lie low for the time being.
He didn't know how long remained before the First Sovereign War.
But if he wanted a Sovereign spark, he would have to take the risk.
His Destiny divine clone and Saint-level true body in Hell would handle intelligence gathering.
As for his water divine clone, its main role now was to hide… and study the Sovereign blood essence of the Four Divine Beasts.
Soon, Locke found a suitable location.
About fifteen minutes later, Locke arrived above a cold lake roughly a kilometer across.
Thick white mist drifted over the water's surface, and a faint layer of frost shimmered atop the lake.
"Perfect."
Locke nodded in satisfaction.
Landing lightly upon the lake, he willed the waters to move.
The lake suddenly surged upward in reverse flow.
At the center of the lake, the water gathered and condensed into a palace of flowing water.
From its entrance, streams of water stretched outward, forming winding floating bridges under Locke's divine power.
As Locke stepped onto one of the bridges, ripples spread beneath his feet.
Combined with the drifting mist, the scene resembled something from a celestial realm.
Splash!
Locke's actions disturbed the creatures beneath the lake.
A massive serpent—over a meter thick and dozens of meters long—burst from the water and lunged toward him with its jaws wide open.
A cold wind blew past.
The portion of the serpent above the surface instantly froze into ice.
In the blink of an eye, the lunging serpent became a curved ice sculpture suspended in midair.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It seemed Locke had stirred up a nest.
More than a dozen serpents of various sizes shot out of the lake and attacked him.
Locke merely glanced at them.
"Not bad, not bad."
"Earlier I thought a lone water palace looked a little dull."
"Now these ice sculptures improve the scenery."
Ignoring the chaos behind him, Locke calmly walked across the floating bridge and entered the palace.
Inside, he took out a droplet of crimson blood radiating immense pressure.
This was the Sovereign blood essence of the Black Tortoise among the Four Divine Beasts.
Normally, as a Water Paragon, Locke would benefit more from studying the Azure Dragon Sovereign Redding's blood essence, since it corresponded to the Water Laws.
But Locke's Water Laws had already reached Great Perfection.
His purpose in studying the Four Divine Beasts' blood essence was primarily to analyze their innate divine abilities.
In the Coiling Dragon universe, which was created by Hongmeng as a subsidiary universe stabilizing the main cosmos, the world itself wasn't particularly strong.
To prevent the universe from being destroyed, Hongmeng had concealed the Laws of Time and Space, preventing living beings from comprehending them directly.
Only divine beasts' innate abilities could touch the origins of time and space.
Locke, a long-time fan of IET's cosmology, understood the structure well.
The seven elemental laws—earth, wind, water, fire, light, darkness, and lightning— could be considered lower forms of the space-time laws.
Earth, wind, water, and fire related more closely to space.
Light, darkness, and lightning were more closely tied to time.
Since Locke was now a Water Paragon, he wanted to study the Black Tortoise Sovereign's innate ability "Tortoise Roar" to see whether he could use Water Laws to touch upon space laws.
Among the Four Divine Beasts, the innate abilities of the White Tiger and Black Tortoise both involved space.
But they differed in nature.
The White Tiger's ability "Tiger Roar" shattered space.
The Black Tortoise's "Tortoise Roar" instead froze space.
In Locke's view, if he could grasp even a fragment of the principles behind spatial freezing, he might develop a technique capable of freezing space itself.
At that moment, Locke once again marveled at the power of willpower.
Just like Sovereign's Power, once Sovereign blood essence began dissipating, it normally could not be restored.
But under Locke's willpower, the droplet remained completely controlled.
Next, Locke infused his soul power into the droplet and began comprehending the mysteries of the Black Tortoise's innate ability.
"Rooooar—!"
As Locke's soul merged with the blood essence, he felt as though he had become a divine beast Black Tortoise.
Raising his head, he let out a deafening roar toward the heavens.
In that roar, Locke suddenly felt absolute control over the space before him.
"Spatial Freeze!"
In an instant, the space ahead fell completely still.
It felt as though that portion of space had been severed from the outside world, immobilized by an absolute law.
At that moment, countless realizations flashed through Locke's mind.
Huge quantities of faith power burned away, assisting Locke in remaining within that mysterious state and rapidly comprehending the profound truths connected to space.
Muya Continent – Coldwind Mountains
"Please inform your commander," Ryan said respectfully, cupping his hands before a soldier of the Muya Legion.
"I am Ryan, a Five-Star Fiend of Fiend Castle. I have come under Lord Locke's orders to seek an audience with Muya Sovereign."
By now, Ryan had already learned about Little White secretly taking the Sovereign's Power.
But he didn't care much.
After all, Locke had long ago given him a drop of Sovereign's Power.
For now, completing Locke's task was more important.
From Xiao Bai's fate—being personally executed by a Sovereign—it was clear that Locke had connections with the Sovereigns Ryan didn't fully understand.
Unfortunately, the residence of a Sovereign was not something ordinary people knew.
So, after arriving on Muya Continent, Ryan went directly to the Muya Legion, asking them where Muya Sovereign resided.
Fortunately, because of the earlier Sovereign projection incident, most people in Hell already knew Ryan was delivering something from Locke to Muya Sovereign.
The Muya Legion soldiers naturally knew as well.
After passing the message up through several layers of command, they finally told Ryan the location of Muya Sovereign's residence.
"All right," the soldier replied.
"Please wait a moment."
(End of Chapter)
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