At this moment, Locke truly felt that living off someone else really was sweet.
Although the blood essences only came from the Life Divine Plane and the Netherworld, the amount gathered by the Netherworld's Sovereign Army was no less than everything Locke had collected over the previous two million years.
After all, while Locke had supported various factions across the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes to collect divine beast blood essence, those forces had always been limited by their own strength and influence. Even being able to gather most of the blood essence from a single continent was already considered remarkable.
But the several interspatial rings now in Locke's hands contained the blood essence of divine beasts and unique lifeforms from nearly two entire Higher Planes.
With these, both his cultivation and his understanding of the laws of the universe would undoubtedly advance by a huge margin.
Seeing the smile on Locke's face, Liliya's eyes curved into a smile as well.
She liked seeing Locke like this.
"Hmm?"
On this day, Locke suddenly sensed several familiar auras.
His divine sense spread out, and in an instant, he drew the group into the Water Estate.
"Lord Locke."
Ryan, Rockpeak, and the others immediately dropped to one knee on the floating bridge and bowed.
"Ryan, Rockpeak, what brings you here?"
"It's like this, Lord Locke."
"We heard that the war between the Divine Planes has ended, so we wish to return to the Infernal Realm…"
Although the Netherworld and the Infernal Realm were both Higher Planes, Ryan and the others had their foundations and subordinates in the Infernal Realm.
Now that the planar war had ended, they naturally wanted to return and continue their development there.
And the reason they had come to seek out Locke was equally obvious.
They were worried that when they returned to the Infernal Realm, Pash would settle the score over the matter of killing his Sovereign soldiers.
Even though Ryan and the others didn't say it outright, there was no way Locke wouldn't understand.
"I see."
Locke nodded.
Then a streak of blue light separated from his body, taking the form of a blue-haired, blue-robed Locke.
This was his water divine clone.
"Then let's go."
"I'll accompany you this time."
"No matter what, Little White is still my magical beast."
"That fellow dared punish Little White without my permission. He should pay a price for that."
"Yes, Lord Locke."
The moment they heard that Locke's clone would personally return with them to the Infernal Realm, Ryan and the others were overjoyed.
With Lord Locke personally stepping in, there was no longer any need to worry about their safety.
And perhaps, they might even be able to continue developing in the Infernal Realm under the identity of Lord Locke's emissaries.
"Oh? Not bad luck at all."
The moment he emerged from the planar teleportation array at Ironblade Gorge, Locke looked mildly surprised.
The teleportation array there happened to be located on the Bloodridge Continent.
"Ryan, Rockpeak, take Ismail and the others to the Violetthorn Continent first."
"I'm going to have a little chat with the Bloodridge Sovereign."
With that, Locke vanished from before them.
Ryan and the others could only sigh helplessly.
They had wanted to spend a little more time with Lord Locke and perhaps ask about his future plans.
But now Locke was going to see the Bloodridge Sovereign.
Would they fight?
A battle between Sovereigns…
How different would that be from battles between Deities?
Of course, this was merely a passing thought.
If they were actually asked to watch a Sovereign battle up close, none of them would agree.
After all, an enraged Sovereign could annihilate countless Deities with a mere thought.
Locke's soul power spread out.
Under the amplification of Sovereign power, while it still hadn't reached the level of a true Sovereign—instantly covering the entire Infernal Realm—covering half of Bloodridge Continent was no problem at all.
With the boost of Sovereign power, Locke used Water Movement several times in succession, crossing most of Bloodridge Continent and arriving outside Pash's Sovereign palace.
At this point, Locke's travel speed using Water Movement was even faster than a Sovereign's normal flight speed, nearly comparable to the speed at which Sovereigns traveled through spatial turbulence.
"Who's there?!"
The might of a Sovereign was terrifying.
A mere fluctuation in elemental movement was instantly detected by Pash.
His divine sense immediately spread out and locked onto Locke outside his palace.
"You?"
The moment he saw Locke, Bloodridge Sovereign Pash was instantly enraged.
Humiliation and killing intent surged into his heart.
Back then, the Sovereigns of the Infernal Realm had believed Locke to be the divine clone of some Intermediate Sovereign from another Divine Plane.
But during the first Sovereign Assembly held by the Death Sovereign, none of the Sovereigns present had possessed the same soul aura as Locke.
At that moment, they all realized—
they had been deceived.
Before that, they had thought that willpower was something exclusive to Sovereigns.
Thus, the Destruction Sovereigns had believed that anyone possessing willpower had to be a Sovereign's clone.
It was only after the Death Sovereign revealed the existence of the Paragon realm that they realized Locke was not a Sovereign clone at all—
but a water-element Paragon.
The thought of all their earlier assumptions—
and the fact that even when his soldiers had been killed by Locke's subordinates, he had held back, waiting for Locke to give him an explanation—
instantly caused Pash's killing intent to explode.
His willpower crashed directly toward Locke, intending to kill him on the spot.
BOOM!
The moment he sensed Pash's killing intent, Locke's heart jumped.
Looks like it wasn't just he who had a grudge against Pash.
This bastard clearly held just as much resentment toward him.
Trying to kill him the moment they met.
With a thought, Locke instantly activated his illusion technique.
"Mirror Flower, Water Moon!"
BOOM—
The Locke standing before the palace seemed to suffer an irresistible blow and instantly disintegrated into dust.
"Hmph."
Sensing Locke's soul aura vanish, Pash snorted coldly, feeling much more satisfied.
"Just a mere insect—"
"Oh? And what's wrong with an insect?"
"How is this possible?!"
Pash's expression changed drastically.
Locke was standing before him once again.
He had clearly just killed him outside the palace.
Then who was this Locke?
BOOM!
Pash struck out with his palm.
The vast willpower completely sealed the space before him, allowing the full destructive force of the attack to erupt in that confined region.
Without the slightest surprise, this Locke was instantly blown apart into a cloud of blood mist.
But the moment Pash withdrew his hand, he saw Locke appear before him again, completely unharmed.
"Who exactly are you?"
After two consecutive attacks had failed to kill Locke, Pash's vigilance toward him rose to the extreme.
"Who am I?"
Locke tilted his head as if puzzled.
"Didn't you just say it yourself?"
"I'm merely a slightly larger insect."
"But, Bloodridge Sovereign…"
"You've already attacked this slightly larger insect twice."
"Wouldn't you say I should return the favor twice as well?"
As he spoke, Locke stepped forward.
In that instant, the phantoms of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise suddenly appeared around him.
The space within a hundred meters froze instantly.
Even Pash, under this overwhelming spatial pressure, could do nothing but remain frozen in place, his face filled with terror as he watched Locke approach step by step.
"This… this is the trump card that let the Four Divine Beasts rank among Chief Sovereigns and even slay one?"
The moment he saw the four divine beast phantoms, the fear in Pash's eyes deepened.
Even if he had never known the secret behind the Four Divine Beasts' fusion innate ability, the instant he saw those phantoms around Locke, he understood.
This time, he had run into someone truly dangerous.
The Four Divine Beasts had relied on this move to slay the Water Chief Sovereign while only being Lesser Sovereigns themselves.
And while Locke was not a Sovereign, with this move…
killing him did not seem impossible.
Am I going to die?
Standing before Pash, Locke looked down at the fear in his eyes.
He was very satisfied with the result.
At present, Mirror Flower, Water Moon had become his greatest technique for dealing with Sovereigns.
Because Locke had personally used this move to kill a Lesser Fate Sovereign before, recreating its might through the illusion allowed him to perfectly replicate the earlier pressure.
Especially now that he had gained some understanding of the Laws of Space, combining that with spatial suppression made even someone as strong as Pash believe the surrounding space had been completely frozen.
However, only the first half of the move was truly threatening to Sovereigns.
The latter half—
the soul attack formed by the fusion of the four divine beast phantoms—
could not actually kill a Sovereign with the soul power of this water divine clone.
If he truly used that latter soul attack and failed even to break through Pash's soul-protecting Sovereign artifact, allowing Pash to realize it was only an illusion…
then this move would essentially become useless.
Of course, not being able to kill a Sovereign didn't mean Locke had no means of dealing with one.
"Eye of Hell — Eighteen Levels of Hell!"
Through his gaze, Locke instantly unleashed his strongest soul attack upon Pash.
Unlike Mirror Flower, Water Moon, which specialized in deception, the true essence of Eye of Hell — Eighteen Levels of Hell was shared soul sensation.
This was an illusion Locke had personally experienced.
Every sensation he had suffered within it—
every trace of agony—
was fully transferred to the target.
The victim would suffer exactly the same torment Locke once had.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHHH—!"
A shrill, miserable scream erupted from Pash's mouth.
The torture and agony he would have endured over billions of years within the eighteen levels of hell exploded all at once—
compressed into the span of three seconds.
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