"Locke?"
Seeing Locke appear before her, a trace of delight flashed through the Death Chief Sovereain's eyes.
"Locke, it seems your power has improved quite a bit again."
"If it weren't for the Heart of the Netherworld, I wouldn't even have known you had returned."
"Mm, this time, my cultivation gains were indeed quite substantial."
Locke smiled, then shook his head.
"However, the accumulation I've built up over all these years has also been almost completely exhausted."
"If I want to maintain this kind of cultivation speed in the future, I'm afraid it'll be difficult."
As a lower-tier Law beneath the spatial Laws, the Laws of Water contained twenty-five percent of the spatial Laws.
Over these three trillion years, within the spatial turbulence, Locke had completely comprehended the twenty-five percent of the spatial Laws contained within the Paragon-level Laws of Water.
Combined with the fragmented portions of spatial Laws he had comprehended before, Locke's current understanding of the spatial Laws had already reached thirty-one percent.
In other words, Locke's original body's base strength had now reached the level of an Intermediate Deity.
Placed within the Coiling Dragon universe, that corresponded to an Intermediate Sovereign.
Combined with the willpower within his soul and the strength of his Sovereign artifact-level body, the strength of Locke's original body was in no way inferior to that of a Laws Chief Sovereign.
In other words, all three of Locke's bodies now possessed strength above that of the Laws Chief Sovereigns.
However, just as Locke had told the Death Chief Sovereign, the accumulation from his water-style Paragon had now been completely exhausted.
Unless Locke cultivated the earth, wind, and fire Laws to the Paragon level as well, only then could he continue comprehending more spatial Laws through those three Paragon Laws.
"Heh. If you said that in front of the other Sovereigns, even knowing they aren't your match, they'd probably still want to beat you up."
The corners of the Death Chief Sovereign's lips curved slightly upward.
The other Sovereigns had already reached their own limits.
If they wanted to improve their strength, they could only hope to complete an Overgod mission, or rely on the divine-level lifeforms of their plane performing well in the Planar Battlefield and achieving ten consecutive victories.
But what about Locke?
Not only had his strength not yet reached its limit, he could still continue cultivating and breaking through.
Moreover, what Locke had said was merely that maintaining this kind of cultivation speed in the future would be difficult.
Difficult—not impossible.
And what kind of cultivation speed did Locke currently possess?
In merely three trillion years, he had advanced from the level of a Intermediate Sovereign to the level of a Laws Chief Sovereign.
An increase in strength of nearly a hundredfold—equivalent to other Sovereigns obtaining two portions of Paragon-level willpower.
"It's fine. Even if they all attacked together, they still wouldn't be able to beat me."
Faced with the Death Chief Sovereign's teasing, Locke merely smiled indifferently.
Indeed, over these three trillion years, it wasn't only Locke's original body that had advanced tremendously.
His Fate Sovereign true body had already brought the fifth Profound Mystery of the Laws of Water to the critical point of fusion with the Edicts of Fate. Although the increase in strength had not reached the thousandfold amplification of complete fusion, it had still increased the strength of Locke's non-Sovereign true body by seven or eight times.
Compared to how the Destruction Chief Sovereign had only increased the power of his innate divine ability threefold over more than a thousand Coiling Dragon eras, the difference was immeasurable.
As for Locke's water divine clone, its improvement was even greater.
The Laws of Water and the spatial Laws had already fused by thirty percent, causing Locke's "water-space" fused Laws to completely surpass his "water-fate" fused Laws.
It was only because the water divine clone lacked a Sovereign spark that its strength had not surpassed the Fate Sovereign true body. Otherwise, Locke's water divine clone would certainly have exceeded the Fate Sovereign true body in strength.
After ending his cultivation within the spatial turbulence, Locke did not remain long within the Death Chief Sovereign's palace. Ten years later, he returned to the Water Manor halfway up the mountain.
After entering the Water Manor, Locke's water divine clone transformed into a streak of blue light and merged into Locke's original body.
At the same time, several interspatial rings appeared in Locke's hand.
Up until now, the spatial Laws revealed by the Laws of the universe when Locke became a Deity, as well as the spatial Laws touched upon by the water-style Paragon Laws, had already all been completely comprehended by Locke.
If he wished to comprehend even more spatial Laws, it would no longer be such an easy matter.
But why had Locke still told the Death Chief Sovereign that future cultivation would merely become difficult, rather than impossible?
The fundamental reason naturally lay in the interspatial rings he had taken from the water divine clone.
Over these three trillion years, Locke's original body had cultivated within the spatial turbulence.
However, Rockpeak, who had taken over Oakes' work and specialized in collecting natural treasures, divine beast blood essence, and special lifeform blood essence for Locke, had been sending those items to Mount Nether once every ten million years.
Three trillion years—how much divine beast blood essence was that?
Even if divine beasts and special lifeforms possessing spatial innate divine abilities were extremely rare, Locke estimated that even if only three drops of divine beast blood essence possessing spatial innate divine abilities could be collected every hundred million years, he would still be able to筛选 out at least a hundred thousand drops from the stockpile accumulated over these three trillion years.
As long as enough spatial innate bloodlines were fused into his "Dijiang" bloodline, Locke could naturally continue comprehending more spatial Laws by excavating the spatial Laws fused within his bloodline, thereby increasing his strength.
In another universe created by the same Creator God, this belonged to the "bloodline cultivation system."
This was another cultivation system entirely different from the cultivation of Laws. By adding new spatial "innate bloodlines" into his "Dijiang bloodline" and then excavating the power within his own bloodline, Locke had effectively pioneered a new cultivation system for divine beasts and special lifeforms within this universe.
However, the Coiling Dragon universe was merely a subsidiary universe. Its upper limit was far too low.
The "bloodline cultivation system" created by Locke, which excavated the power within one's own bloodline, could at most allow a person to comprehend the Laws contained within their bloodline and further stimulate the power of that bloodline.
In terms of Laws, Highgod was already the limit. Fusion of Profound Mysteries still had to be completed personally.
As for the body, perhaps it could somewhat increase the bodily strength of ordinary divine beasts.
But without the necessary potential, it still could not raise the bodily strength of divine beasts and special lifeforms to the level of a Sovereign artifact.
Over the following period of time, Locke seemed to return to the days of his earliest cultivation.
Analyzing divine beast blood essence and uncovering more secrets of the universe.
Refining the blood essence of divine beasts possessing spatial innate divine abilities, then fusing the extracted "innate bloodlines" into himself.
Every additional innate bloodline he fused caused the concentration of the Dijiang bloodline within Locke's body to increase somewhat.
The spatial Laws contained within the bloodline also increased correspondingly.
As the concentration of his bloodline increased, Locke's bodily strength also slowly improved.
...
"Lord Locke, this is the divine beast blood essence and natural treasures collected over the past ten million years."
Within the Water Manor, Rockpeak respectfully handed two interspatial rings to Locke.
"Not bad, Rockpeak. You've worked hard."
After taking the interspatial rings from Rockpeak, Locke spoke to him.
Locke was still very satisfied with Rockpeak's efforts over these three trillion years.
After all, if Rockpeak had not continuously delivered these blood essences over the past three trillion years, how could Locke's cultivation have progressed to its current level?
"Not at all. Being able to serve Lord Locke is our honor."
Faced with Locke's praise, Rockpeak quickly bowed modestly.
Seeing Rockpeak's reaction, Locke sighed inwardly.
Unlike Ryan, who had entered the Sovereign Army—
Because the matter of Locke collecting divine beast blood essence could not be exposed, Rockpeak naturally could not enjoy the glory of being protected by a Sovereign like Ryan did.
Among experts at the Prefect level, although Rockpeak relied upon the Edicts of Destruction and his bodily strength to avoid being at the bottom, he also could not be considered especially powerful.
Of course, a person's strength was not determined solely by their base power.
In battles of life and death, possessing powerful trump cards was what truly mattered.
Over these three trillion years, Rockpeak had encountered danger several times, and each time had only escaped by relying on Sovereign power.
Thus, among Oakes, Ryan, and Rockpeak, Rockpeak was the one most reliant upon Sovereign power.
Under such circumstances, over these three trillion years, Rockpeak had gradually undergone certain changes unconsciously.
Naturally, Locke sensed the change in Rockpeak's attitude toward him. He had tried to change it as well, but Rockpeak was like Runtu from Locke's memories. Once he had bent his back, he could never straighten it again.
"Rockpeak, after you return this time, also help me collect information regarding powerful experts appearing within the seven Divine Planes and four Higher Planes."
Although Locke still possessed a surplus of Sovereign blood essence, he had already begun paving the road for his future cultivation.
The Paragons from his memories had never clearly stated what era they belonged to.
In order to avoid missing the Paragon Laws of these people, Locke naturally needed to pay attention to them before they reached the Paragon level.
Within the Netherworld and the Water Divine Plane, Locke had clones present. He only needed to spread out his divine sense during breaks in cultivation to learn which newly rising experts had appeared within those two planes.
But for the other nine planes, Locke's reach was somewhat insufficient.
At such a time, it was naturally the moment for Rockpeak and the Eight Great Clans to prove their worth.
If they could deliver information about those future Paragons to Locke before they had fully risen, then Locke could decide, based on their elemental affinity, whether to merely secretly record their Paragon Laws, or personally appear and recruit them as Sovereign Emissaries before they became Paragons.
At present, both of Locke's clones had already reached the level of Edicts Chief Sovereigns.
According to the Sovereign Pact, an Edicts Chief Sovereign possessed eight Sovereign Emissary slots.
In other words, Locke now possessed sixteen Sovereign Emissary slots.
After using one on Oakes, there were still fifteen remaining.
As for Locke's original body, he had no intention of exposing the secret that his original body also possessed Chief Sovereign-level strength.
After all, merely his water divine clone and Fate Sovereign true body were already the strongest Sovereigns aside from the Sovereign of Death. No other Sovereign could possibly force out the true strength of Locke's original body.
There were only so many Paragons in existence. Even if Locke recruited all of them under his command, he still would not run out of slots.
(End of Chapter)
⭐ Enjoying the story?
You can read ahead and support the translations by joining my Patreon! Your support helps me update faster and take on more projects. Thank you for reading!
Read up to 50 chapters ahead!
patreon.com/AminaSims
Next Bonus Chapter at 2400 Powerstones