"Should I join this Sovereign Army as well… and learn that mysterious power?"
As he watched the Sovereign soldiers drilling some kind of formation, that thought suddenly flashed through Celes's mind.
On the path of fusing Profound Mysteries, Celes felt that he had likely already reached his own limit.
Just look at Mila.
In a mere hundred thousand years or so, she had already completed the fusion of four Profound Mysteries of the Laws of Earth, becoming a Seven-Star Fiend–level powerhouse, her strength more than ten times greater than his.
And now, she had even found the point of compatibility for the fifth Profound Mystery.
Meanwhile, in all these hundred thousand years, Celes had yet to even find the fusion point for his fourth Profound Mystery.
If he wanted to become stronger, then perhaps…
the only path left was to join this Sovereign Army and learn the power wielded by that Five-Star Fiend.
With that thought in mind, Celes slowly walked toward the group of Sovereign soldiers currently in training.
As he watched them rapidly shift positions in the air, Celes suddenly realized that every soldier's placement seemed to follow some deeper principle.
Through the arrangement of their positions, it was as if a vast force from heaven and earth was being channeled onto them.
At the same time, the soldiers' auras felt unified, as though they were a single entity.
Under the leadership of the Five-Star Fiend at the front, every strike drew upon part of the soldiers' collective power, concentrating it into a single point of explosive force.
Perhaps only experts at the Asura Prefect level could truly face a legion like this head-on.
If only he could learn such an ability as well…
The thought made Celes's blood boil.
But after watching for a while, he gradually calmed himself down.
Sovereign armies were not free of ugliness.
He had already suffered bitterly in his last Sovereign Army, and he had no desire to repeat the same mistake.
Rather than joining now, with no one to rely on, it would be better to wait until Mila's strength advanced again.
By now, Celes had more or less begun to see Mila as his pillar of support.
Even within a Sovereign Army, if he had an Asura-level expert backing him, anyone who wanted to target him would have to think twice.
With that in mind, Celes retreated to the edge of the mist and waited for Mila to emerge.
Ever since breaking through to the Seven-Star Fiend level, Mila had been able to remain within the mist longer and longer each time.
Back when she had been a Six-Star Fiend, she would lose her sense of direction after only five or six meters.
At a distance of one hundred meters, her five senses would begin to fade.
Within five hundred meters, all five senses would be completely gone, and in the end she would stagger out of the mist like a walking corpse.
But after reaching Seven-Star Fiend level, Mila could maintain her sense of direction for the first hundred meters.
Only after passing five hundred meters would her senses begin to dull.
And only beyond one thousand meters would they vanish entirely.
Half a day later, Mila's figure finally appeared from within the mist.
The moment she stepped out, her soul instantly regained control over her body.
Without the slightest hesitation, Mila immediately sat down cross-legged and began cultivating.
Meanwhile, Celes moved to stand guard beside her, ensuring that no one would interrupt her training.
Only after a long while did Mila finally open her eyes, ending this round of cultivation.
"Well?"
Seeing that Mila had awakened, Celes hurriedly asked.
"The effects are getting worse and worse."
Shaking her head, Mila said, "It's true that when the five senses return, the soul's perception of the Profound Mysteries becomes incredibly clear for that single instant."
"But because so much soul energy is consumed inside the mist, if you fail to seize that flash of inspiration in that moment, then you gain almost nothing."
"There's no need to rush."
Celes comforted her. "When it comes to fusing Profound Mysteries, the greatest bottlenecks are always the compatibility point and the final complete fusion."
"You haven't even reached the bottleneck for fusing the fifth Profound Mystery yet. Whether you seize that spark or not isn't all that important."
Mila said nothing.
Celes was right.
Even if she managed to grasp that flash of inspiration now, at most it would only speed up the rate of fusion.
It wouldn't allow her to immediately complete the fusion of five Profound Mysteries.
But still…
Mila raised her head and looked toward Netherworld Mountain, towering into the clouds over three thousand meters away.
A faint sense of frustration welled up in her heart.
Teacher Locke was clearly on that mountain ahead.
The distance between them was less than eighty thousand meters.
And yet, for more than a hundred thousand years, this single curtain of mist had blocked her path.
The distance between herself and Teacher Locke had not shortened by even the slightest amount.
"Oh, right, Mila."
"I've decided to join that Sovereign Army."
Seeing Mila like this, Celes suddenly changed his mind.
Earlier, his plan had been to wait until Mila became an Asura Prefect–level expert before joining, so that Mila could serve as his backing outside the Sovereign Army.
But now, seeing the look on her face, he felt that perhaps he could do something for her instead.
Celes remembered what Oakes, the commander of this Sovereign Army, had once said—
that anyone who defeated him and became the new commander would gain the right to freely audience the Sovereign and receive a Sovereign artifact.
That meant the army commander was qualified to enter Netherworld Mountain and meet the Sovereign.
Celes figured that after joining the Sovereign Army, he wouldn't need to defeat Commander Oakes.
He only needed to gain an audience with him.
Then, the next time Oakes went to see the Sovereign, he could ask him to pass a message to Locke, who resided within Netherworld Mountain.
That shouldn't be a problem.
After all, Oakes might be the commander of the Sovereign Army, but Locke was someone who lived on the same mountain as the Sovereign herself.
In terms of status, Locke ought to rank even above Oakes.
Surely Commander Oakes wouldn't refuse.
"Oh?"
Mila naturally had no idea what Celes was really thinking.
Still, she knew well how resistant he had been to Sovereign armies before.
"Senior Celes, weren't you the one who hated Sovereign armies the most? Why do you suddenly want to join now?"
"I can't help it. I feel like I've already reached my limit."
Sitting down casually beside Mila, Celes said, "In all these hundred thousand years, I still haven't found the compatibility point for the fourth Profound Mystery of Water. If I rely solely on the path of fusion, this might be as far as I ever go."
"But the combat style of that Sovereign Army…"
"It might let me open up an entirely different path—one that could take me beyond the limits I could never reach through fusion alone."
"So, I want to give it a try."
"I see…"
Hearing this, Mila understood that Celes had already made up his mind.
She had also watched that day's combat training by the Sovereign Army.
She had to admit, the way that Five-Star Fiend unified his soldiers through that mysterious method, granting both himself and the army overwhelming amplification, had truly opened her eyes.
But Mila had also seen the limitations of that approach.
Under that strange method, that Five-Star Fiend indeed possessed the power of a Seven-Star Fiend, perhaps even beyond.
However, that style of combat was heavily dependent on both the number and strength of the soldiers under his command.
If his soldiers had not all been Highgods, but instead merely Demigods or Gods, then the strength he could exert might only amount to Six-Star or Seven-Star Fiend level at best.
Furthermore, if he were traveling alone, without enough soldiers at his side, the enhancement he could obtain would be pitifully small.
In the end, this was a style of warfare that only a major superpower could truly utilize.
A smaller force could never gather enough divine-level experts to raise one person's strength to that extent.
Still, Celes wasn't wrong.
On the path of fusing Profound Mysteries, he had already come to the end.
All of his previous fusions had been completed through the use of faith energy.
Now that he no longer had a source of faith energy—
or rather, now that he was not a Sovereign—
it was virtually impossible for him to gather enough to continue.
Even if he returned to a Material Plane and forced every living being there to worship him, it would likely take epochs before he could collect enough faith energy to break through.
After all, ninety-nine percent of all faith energy in the Material Planes was now absorbed by the Sovereign sparks.
The divine-level experts within those planes could receive less than one percent.
And beyond that, such actions might breed resentment among the plane's inhabitants.
If any of those who came to hate Celes later left the Material Plane and eventually grew strong enough to crush him, it wasn't impossible that someone might use a Planar Teleportation Array to return and kill him, ending his rule entirely.
Seen in that light, joining this Sovereign Army and learning the ability to unify the power of his soldiers really was a viable path to strengthening himself.
After all, Sovereign Army battles were large-scale legion wars.
As long as Celes could display the corresponding strength, he would naturally receive status and authority to match.
The example of that Five-Star Fiend battalion commander had already proven as much.
"Since you've already made your decision, then I wish you success."
Mila rose to her feet and smiled at Celes.
"And when are you planning to head over to the Sovereign Army? I'll go with you."
"That way, the people in the Sovereign Army will know that Senior Celes has someone like me—a junior from the same Material Plane—standing behind him."
"Hahaha, then I'd be more than happy to accept."
Celes naturally understood that Mila's offer was a way of backing him up, so that once he entered the Sovereign Army, no one would mistake him for some rootless wanderer and bully him.
(End of Chapter)
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