After all, under the effects of faith power, the Netherworld Sovereign had now comprehended the Edicts of Life to the level of an Asura Prefecture Lord.
When the Netherworld Fruit Tree bore fruit again, the Netherworld Fruits would be powerful enough to allow any expert who had not become a Deity through refining a divine spark to, in a short period of time, reach the level of an Asura Prefecture Lord with five fused profound mysteries.
This was the capital that allowed the Death Sovereign to be so willful.
When she chose subordinates, raw strength was not the most important thing.
The only thing that mattered was whether they caught her eye.
If they were weak, one Netherworld Fruit could turn them into a supreme expert.
But if she didn't like them, then she truly didn't like them.
Why would she keep someone in front of her only to annoy herself?
"Liliya, I know you hate trouble, but you could always summon Christina here and let her handle selecting talented people to join the Sovereign Army."
Seeing Liliya's resistance to the idea, Locke patiently explained,
"Liliya, everything in this world exists for a reason."
"The Sovereign Army is a Sovereign's private military force, assisting the Sovereigns in maintaining order across the Divine Planes and Higher Planes."
"But beyond that, I think it should serve an even greater purpose."
"In material planes, armies exist for war."
"In the same way, Sovereign Armies must also exist for war."
"Just like the wars between the Divine Planes before this—if a Sovereign didn't have a Sovereign Army under their command, they wouldn't even qualify to step onto the board."
"The stronger the Sovereign Army, the better."
"Perhaps in the future, it might bring you even greater benefits."
"All right then, I'll listen to you."
"I'll summon Christina right away."
After being persuaded by Locke, the Death Sovereign finally decided to follow his advice and let Christina assemble the strongest possible Sovereign Army for her.
Previously, Locke had once considered delaying his own ascension to Sovereignhood and instead using his three Paragon clones to safeguard the Death Sovereign.
However, the Planar Battlefield only opened once every one trillion years, and achieving ten consecutive victories would mean a span of ten trillion years.
Now that he had received divine beast blood essence from both the Life Divine Plane and the Netherworld from the Death Sovereign, Locke felt that there was no way he would need to wait ten trillion years before completing the creation of the Dijiang Bloodline.
He had a premonition—
The moment he fully completed the Dijiang Bloodline and became a super divine beast, he would immediately break through and become the first, and possibly only, Demigod of Spatial Law in the entire Coiling Dragon universe.
Spatial energy, in the main universe of the Hongmeng Cosmos, was a power only Deities could control and wield.
Translated into the Coiling Dragon universe, that corresponded to the level of a Lesser Sovereign.
And it was precisely because he understood this that Locke had dared to let his water-element divine clone directly confront Bloodridge Sovereign Pash.
Yet, in all the years since that meeting, not a single word had leaked out from Pash.
Because of that, the Death Sovereign was more than happy to play blind and keep Locke's existence hidden.
After all, while Locke currently possessed enough power to threaten Lesser Sovereigns, that threat depended far too heavily on the Four Divine Beasts' Sovereign blood essence.
If the Four Divine Beasts ever learned that Locke had used their blood essence to deduce the secrets of their fused innate divine ability, then the moment the agreed one hundred million years with Sovereign Redding expired, they would likely stop at nothing to erase him.
Because if Locke, a Paragon, could use their blood essence to replicate that fused ability, then what was to stop other Sovereigns from doing the same?
A mere Paragon could already use that move to stand among Sovereigns.
Then if other Sovereigns mastered it—
Wouldn't Lesser Sovereigns be able to kill Law Sovereigns just as the Four Divine Beasts had?
Would Intermediate Sovereigns rival Rule Sovereigns?
Would Law Sovereigns be able to kill Rule Sovereigns?
The moment such thoughts arose, the Four Divine Beasts would face utter catastrophe.
The Sovereigns below them would want their blood to uncover the secret of the fused ability.
The Sovereigns above them would want that blood too, while also fearing that others might obtain it.
So, what was the best solution?
Kill the Four Divine Beasts once and for all.
And as the first person to successfully analyze their fused innate divine ability, Locke himself would become the target of countless Sovereigns, all pressuring him to hand over every secret he knew.
Of course, that was only in theory.
Even if things were exposed, neither Locke nor the Death Sovereign would truly be afraid.
Locke still possessed a Fate Sovereign spark.
If things ever truly came to that point, he would immediately refine it and become a Fate Sovereign.
A Paragon Lesser Fate Sovereign was already comparable to an Intermediate Sovereign.
Locke's soul mutation, combined with the fusion of dual Sovereign's Might, could boost his strength by another tenfold.
And the fused innate divine ability of the Four Divine Beasts?
Below the Rule Sovereign level, whoever came would die.
As for Rule Sovereigns—
That was still beyond the current Locke.
Even over a thousand cycles later, when Destruction Sovereign Wordred used the ultimate move, he had deduced from the Four Divine Beasts' blood essence—Temporal Chaos—he still failed to defeat Fate Sovereign Orloff barehanded.
From that, it was clear that the Four Divine Beasts' fused ability was nowhere near as overwhelming at the Rule Sovereign level as one might imagine.
Even if it amplified Locke's power by ten thousand times, it would still only place him at the level of an ordinary Rule Sovereign.
If any of the four Rule Sovereigns possessed an ultimate move that could boost their own strength by ten times or more, Locke would still be forced to kneel.
The current situation suited him just fine.
After great chaos always comes great order.
That saying held true even in the Divine Planes and Higher Planes.
The planar war had ended.
The war among the Sovereigns had also ended.
The generation of Deities that had suffered through the war now began to enjoy the peace that followed.
This time, Locke didn't even need to issue orders.
Oakes, together with his son Figueroa, once again set out on a journey across the other ten planes.
The war that had lasted over two million years had destroyed some of the factions Locke had once brought under his banner to gather divine beast blood essence, while others had been severely weakened.
Because of this, Oakes had no choice but to seek out new factions to continue collecting blood essence for Lord Locke.
Among them were:
the Boleyn Clan in the Celestial Realmthe Edrick Clan in the Life Divine Planethe Wynna Clan in the Wind Divine Planethe Saint-Nar Clan in the Light Divine Planethe Barbary Clan in the Water Divine Planethe Ashcroft Clan in the Dark Divine Planethe Dane Clan in the Lightning Divine Plane
Having learned from the lessons of two million years ago, Oakes believed that if they wanted a stable long-term supply of divine beast blood essence, they absolutely had to find factions with Asura-level experts at their core.
At the same time, they had to be bloodline-based clans.
Only with Asura-level powerhouses and blood-related family members working together could a faction endure across endless ages.
Otherwise, they would end up like the non-bloodline factions from two million years ago—scattering and fleeing when disaster struck, only to be wiped out by the Sovereign war.
While Oakes was busy finding new factions across the planes, Ryan and the others were rebuilding their own power in the Infernal Realm.
Their former foundation there had already collapsed after Ryan and the others fled to the Netherworld, having gone more than a million years without any powerhouse to hold the line.
Fortunately, Ryan possessed peak Seven-Star Fiend strength, and with support from Rockpeak, Clifford, Lima Gis, and Ishmael, four Six-Star Fiends, he quickly rose to become the lord of a great city.
During this time, one of Bloodridge Sovereign Pash's emissaries, Reinales, had—under Pash's subtle instructions—provided them with considerable support.
This spared Ryan and the others no small amount of trouble.
After all, Reinales had displayed Asura Prefecture Lord–level strength during the war between the Infernal Realm and the Celestial Realm.
More importantly, he was Bloodridge Sovereign Pash's emissary.
Thus, Ryan's rise in the Infernal Realm met with almost no resistance.
When Oakes returned to the Netherworld and came to Mount Nether to report all the factions he had recruited over the years, even Locke was left stunned.
Just listen to those names.
Boleyn.
Edric.
Venna.
Chanel.
Barbary.
Ashcroft.
Dean.
And now Reinales had joined on his own initiative.
The Eight Great Clans that would one day besiege the Four Divine Beast Clan…
were actually forces under his command?
"Heh… heh…"
"Oakes, you've done well."
Though inwardly Locke had countless complaints and felt the absurdity of fate, in the end he still nodded in praise.
At his current level of strength, Locke naturally had no reason to fear the Four Divine Beasts.
Still, he couldn't help but marvel at the strange workings of fate.
These Eight Great Clans had originally been gathered by Oakes to help collect divine beast blood essence for him.
But across the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes, just how many divine beasts were there to provide such blood?
The moment members of the Four Divine Beast Clan appeared in the sights of these eight clans, Locke simply did not believe they would remain unmoved.
Even if they weren't true divine beasts, direct blood descendants of divine beasts could still yield traces of divine beast blood essence.
With enough numbers, the final amount refined would naturally be substantial.
And the Four Divine Beast Clan, as the foremost clan across all the planes, possessed an enormous number of descendants.
That gave the Eight Great Clans a tremendous opportunity.
In a single instant, Locke's Fate divine clone saw through the entire grudge between the Eight Great Clans and the Four Divine Beast Clan.
Of course, by this alone, the Eight Great Clans might still have been destroyed.
But what if, before the Four Divine Beast Clan rose to prominence, the clan leaders of the eight clans had already increased their strength through dealings with Locke and eventually caught the attention of Sovereigns, becoming their emissaries?
Then no matter how powerful the Four Divine Beast Clan was, it would have been impossible for them to annihilate the clans of eight Sovereign emissaries in one stroke.
That was precisely why the enmity between the Four Divine Beast Clan and the Eight Great Clans had lasted for so many years.
After Oakes left, Locke did not dwell too much on the matter.
No matter how many years this world continued to develop, it would never change the most fundamental law:
strength reigns supreme.
Just as when he first established the Fiend Castle, he had once worried about it being coveted by other Sovereigns—
Now, even the Four Divine Beasts barely registered in his eyes.
Only the four Rule Sovereigns were worthy of a second glance.
As strength increased, many of the things that currently troubled him would one day amount to nothing.
The only true path was the improvement of one's own strength.
Strength was king.
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