In the end, Locke's sixth Profound Mystery had only been completed thanks to the first wave of faith power gathered when Fiend Castle successfully spread throughout Hell.
Locke didn't know what the faith power collected by other Sovereigns looked like, nor how much they had accumulated over the years.
But at the moment Fiend Castle fully covered Hell, Locke had clearly felt it.
It was as though he himself had been submerged beneath an ocean of faith power.
Under the impact of that immense tide—and with Locke using the Water Laws to simulate their interaction with other Profound Mysteries—he finally broke through the final barrier.
All six Profound Mysteries fused perfectly.
His Water Laws became completely unified, flowing as a single whole.
Only at that stage did the power of the Laws reach a level capable of rivaling the Edicts.
Before reaching perfection, the Profound Mysteries of the Laws were fragmented—split into six or even nine distinct aspects.
The Edicts, however, had always been complete and unified.
Thus, at the same level, Edict-based deities were generally stronger than Law-based deities.
But once a Law practitioner fused all their Profound Mysteries into a perfect unity, then perfected Laws and perfected Edicts stood on the same starting line once again.
The so-called invincible Paragon—whether a Law Paragon or an Edict Paragon—possessed essentially the same level of strength.
Over a thousand epochs later, the reason the Four Edict Overlords surpassed the other elemental Overlords wasn't because the Edicts were inherently stronger.
Rather, it was because three of the Four Edict Overlords had reached Paragon level, while the fourth possessed a treasure whose enhancement rivaled that of Paragon willpower.
Furthermore, the bodies of those four Overlords were all at the level of Sovereign artifacts, granting them another tenfold amplification.
Meanwhile, none of the elemental Overlords had reached Paragon level.
The result?
Each of the Four Edict Overlords possessed a thousand times the strength of an ordinary elemental Overlord.
At the present time, Locke believed the era initially belonged to the Death Sovereign.
With the Heart of the Netherworld, she could harness the power of the entire Netherworld. Within that plane, she could practically fight all the other Sovereigns alone.
If the other three Edict Overlords hadn't yet reached Paragon level, they wouldn't stand a chance against her.
However, now that the Seven Divine Planes had already been established, perhaps the era of the Four Edict Overlords was about to begin.
Locke remembered something the Death Sovereign once said.
Ten million years after the creation of heaven and earth, the Destruction Overlord Utrede had fought the Fate Overlord Orloff.
In that battle, both displayed the strength of Edict Paragons.
The phrase "creation of heaven and earth" likely referred to the creation of the Seven Divine Planes, not the birth of the Coiling Dragon universe itself.
After all, the Death Sovereign was the first lifeform born in the Netherworld—perhaps even the first life in the entire universe—and favored by Hongmeng himself.
Among the Four Higher Planes, only the Netherworld possessed a treasure like the Heart of the Netherworld, capable of mobilizing the entire plane's power.
The other three Higher Planes had nothing comparable.
That alone revealed Hongmeng's bias.
Still, the term "creation of heaven and earth" must have come from witnessing the birth of the Divine Planes firsthand.
Otherwise, how could the Death Sovereign—who originated in the Netherworld—have such a concept?
Seeing the red-haired girl fall into sudden enlightenment, Locke acted.
With a thought, dense mist immediately spread around the cold lake.
This fog contained the Profound Mystery "Illusionary Fog", along with Locke's deep mastery of the soul.
Any creature entering the mist would have its senses distorted and unknowingly wander back out.
Sudden enlightenment was an opportunity rarely granted in a lifetime.
Many beings never experienced it even once.
But anyone who did would see their understanding of the Laws and cultivation leap forward dramatically.
Even if they never entered such a state again, their cultivation speed would increase enormously until reaching a certain limit.
Their talent and comprehension would also improve.
In a sense, if a Sovereign spark was the greatest opportunity in the Coiling Dragon universe, then sudden enlightenment was second only to it.
Even over a thousand epochs later, countless supreme experts remained stuck one step away from fully fusing all their Profound Mysteries.
All they lacked… was that single moment of enlightenment.
After setting up the mist barrier, Locke quietly retreated into the palace, careful not to disturb the girl's opportunity.
In a transcendent world, interrupting someone's path of cultivation was a grudge equal to—or even greater than—killing one's father or stealing one's spouse.
Although Locke wasn't afraid of making enemies, he had no intention of ruining someone else's fortune for no reason.
Time slowly passed.
Locke brewed tea as he waited, his astonishment growing.
The gains from enlightenment often depended on how long the state lasted.
Take Linley, the protagonist of this universe.
Before reaching the sixth rank, Linley had been talented—but his limit would likely have been that of an ordinary God.
But after experiencing three days and three nights of enlightenment, carving the sculpture Awakening from the Dream and becoming a master sculptor, the world looked entirely different in his eyes.
Any craft, once perfected, could deepen one's understanding of the universe.
A sculpting grandmaster could almost be considered someone who had achieved "sculpting perfection."
Of course, Linley's greatest opportunity ultimately came from the Blackstone given by the Violet Thorn Sovereign.
Without it, he would never have become a four-element soul mutant, nor eventually the second Hongmeng Controller.
The red-haired girl had now been in enlightenment for half a day.
Locke wondered what level she would reach once she awakened.
"It's done!"
As the five Profound Mysteries of the Water Laws fully fused, a glimmer of joy flashed in Liliya's eyes.
Looking up, she noticed the mist surrounding the cold lake.
Feeling the subtle interference with her soul, she immediately realized it was the work of the Water-type super expert inside the palace.
Such a person exists in this world?
After her immense improvement in the Water Laws, Liliya looked again at the floating bridges and palace before her.
Now she understood even more.
The person inside… has probably fused all six Profound Mysteries of the Water Laws.
As a fellow practitioner of the Water Laws, she knew how difficult that was.
She considered herself extremely talented.
Even with the help of external treasures, she had only fused four Profound Mysteries before today.
Using a special artifact, she had discovered that a powerful expert had arrived in the Netherworld.
After witnessing his techniques, she had sensed an opportunity and sent her Water divine clone here.
Sure enough—
Observing the structure up close allowed her to grasp that final key insight and fuse five Profound Mysteries.
At that moment, the mist on the floating bridge dissipated.
The shore behind her and the palace ahead were revealed.
Locke had sensed her awakening and removed the fog from the bridge.
It was, essentially, an invitation.
If she followed the bridge into the palace, she would be considered a visiting guest.
Meeting by chance could be a pleasant diversion during Locke's cultivation.
If she chose to leave instead, Locke wouldn't mind.
All cultivators followed the instinct to seek fortune and avoid danger.
Locke himself did the same.
When he had been weak, he avoided interacting with people far stronger than himself.
Perhaps this was a universal trait among transmigrators.
A kind of paranoia.
They strove to grow stronger at all costs—until they no longer feared being harmed.
Only then would the condition ease.
Now that Locke was a dual-element Paragon, aside from Sovereigns, there was nothing in the Seven Divine Planes or Four Higher Planes that could truly threaten him.
The mist surrounding the cold lake, however, remained.
The girl's appearance had reminded him of something important.
He wasn't afraid of being ambushed.
But if someone interrupted him while he was comprehending space laws, the loss would be irreparable.
Even killing the intruder a thousand times wouldn't make up for it.
After all, Locke possessed only twenty drops of Sovereign blood essence from each of the Four Divine Beasts.
Every drop used was one less remaining.
And there was no reasonable way for him to ask the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns for more.
What—wait over a thousand epochs and scavenge some from Bebe's grandfather, Beirut, after the Four Divine Beasts died?
Even then, extracting every drop of blood from their corpses would only produce about 120 drops in total.
Thus, ensuring each drop produced maximum—or even greater—value was crucial.
Which was why the mist barrier around the lake was necessary.
Although Liliya knew the person inside the palace was a Water-type super expert, she didn't retreat as Locke had predicted.
Instead, she followed the bridge and entered the palace.
As she drew closer, she realized something remarkable.
The water forming the palace wasn't static.
It flowed continuously in a perfectly ordered cycle, as though the structure itself were alive.
"Oh? Little girl, you're quite bold."
Seeing the red-haired girl enter, Locke smiled faintly.
"I thought you'd be frightened and run far away from here."
"Oh?" Liliya tilted her head. "That's an interesting thing to say. Why would I run away?"
"Is this place some sort of dangerous forbidden land?"
Looking up, she saw Locke.
Blue hair.
Blue robes.
He sat leisurely at a small square table, calmly drinking tea.
The scene felt strangely familiar to her.
As though she had seen something like this… somewhere before.
(End of Chapter)
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