After giving Rockpeak some instructions regarding what to pay attention to when searching for powerful experts, Locke dismissed him and allowed him to leave.
After Rockpeak departed, Locke lightly tapped his index finger rhythmically against the table as he lowered his head in thought.
As Locke's strength increased, the speed at which the "Dijiang" bloodline refined spatial innate bloodlines also gradually increased.
One hundred thousand drops of spatial divine beast blood essence sounded like a lot, but at most, it could only support Locke's cultivation for ten million years.
There were quite a few divine beasts within the Coiling Dragon universe.
But the number of divine beasts possessing spatial innate divine abilities was not large.
With each harvest every ten million years, if luck was good, Locke could obtain one or two drops.
If luck was poor, perhaps seven or eight harvests would only yield a single drop.
Before collecting the earth, fire, and wind Paragon Laws, the blood essence of spatial divine beasts was directly tied to Locke's cultivation progress.
All this time, Locke's cultivation progress had remained at a relatively rapid pace.
If his cultivation progress stagnated, Locke was not certain whether he would still be able to maintain his current aggressive and enterprising mindset.
And if he wanted to maintain his current cultivation speed, his cultivation resources had to keep up.
In that case…
Thinking this, Locke made a decision in his heart.
Locke stood up, leaving behind his water divine clone to preside over the Water Manor, while his original body stepped forward and entered the spatial turbulence.
While all the Sovereigns constantly monitored the movements within the spatial turbulence, only Locke's original body, due to cultivating the spatial Laws, could perfectly merge into the spatial turbulence and avoid detection by the Sovereigns' divine senses.
Furthermore, Locke's original body's speed within the spatial turbulence was something no Sovereign could compare to.
This was true teleportation.
Having comprehended thirty percent of the spatial Laws, Locke took a single step and directly appeared within the spatial turbulence surrounding the Infernal Realm.
Merging with space itself and without alarming any Sovereign within the Infernal Realm, Locke's figure appeared inside the Infernal Realm.
"After so many years, I've returned to the Infernal Realm once more."
Looking at the familiar scenery of the Infernal Realm, Locke sighed emotionally.
The Infernal Realm was the plane Locke had understood the best during his early years.
After all, among the experiences of the protagonist written by the Creator who created the Hongmeng universe, the events within the Infernal Realm had been especially captivating.
That was also the reason why, when Locke decided to leave the material plane, the first place he wished to go was the Infernal Realm.
Later on, Locke had successfully relied upon his understanding of the Infernal Realm to intercept part of "destiny," allowing both his Edicts of Fate and Laws of Water to successively reach the Paragon level.
Unfortunately, because the tiger skin he had borrowed became too large, after becoming a Paragon, Locke had no choice but to flee the Infernal Realm.
Yet it was precisely because Locke left the Infernal Realm that he encountered the Death Chief Sovereign and gradually reached his current level step by step.
Because he did not wish to expose himself, Locke directly shrouded himself with Flower in the Mirror, Moon on the Water.
To the perceptions of others, Locke was merely one of the countless elemental particles between heaven and earth.
Maintaining this state, Locke traveled throughout the Infernal Realm, releasing his soul power and collecting information from across the Infernal Realm.
"After three trillion years, although the Four Divine Beasts clan still hasn't spread beyond the Infernal Realm, traces of the Four Divine Beasts clan can already be found throughout most regions of the Infernal Realm…"
Ten years later, after circling the Infernal Realm once, Locke stopped atop the dragon head of the Azure Dragon Mountains within the Skyrite Mountains.
Three trillion years had already passed since the establishment of the Four Divine Beasts clan.
Although powerful experts above the Saint-level found it difficult to produce descendants, over the course of three trillion years, the size of the Four Divine Beasts clan had still multiplied several times over.
Because of the expansion of the clan's influence, the clan's Ancestral Baptism was now held once every thousand years.
The reason Locke had chosen to come to the Skyrite Mountains at this time was precisely because this year happened to be the year of the Four Divine Beasts clan's Ancestral Baptism.
Under the effects of Flower in the Mirror, Moon on the Water, let alone the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns not paying much attention to the Ancestral Baptism, even if the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns personally arrived, it would still be impossible for them to discover Locke's traces.
After all, after Locke used Flower in the Mirror, Moon on the Water to help the Death Chief Sovereign recultivate the Edicts of Death and strip away the influence of faith energy from her, his mastery over Flower in the Mirror, Moon on the Water had risen by another huge step.
Although he was still one step away from deceiving the entire universe—
Aside from the Laws of the universe themselves, Locke could already deceive the seven elemental Laws and the four Supreme Edicts.
Unless one possessed an innate divine ability capable of seeing through falsehoods alongside the Laws of the universe themselves, then within the entire Coiling Dragon universe, aside from the Death Chief Sovereign, who possessed the Heart of the Netherworld and could notice something wrong with Locke while within the Netherworld, no one else could perceive through Locke's Flower in the Mirror, Moon on the Water.
The Four Divine Beasts clan's Ancestral Baptism was a magical formation researched by the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns. It diluted their divine beast blood essence so that descendants carrying their bloodline could absorb it.
As long as one possessed the bloodline of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns, before reaching adulthood, they would have one opportunity to enter the Dragonization Pool and absorb the divine beast blood essence of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns.
Within the blood pools used for the Four Divine Beasts clan's Ancestral Baptism, Locke's soul power enveloped all four blood pools.
Whenever members of the Four Divine Beasts clan underwent the Ancestral Baptism, Locke's soul power collected the drifting Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' blood essence that escaped above the pools.
Like Sovereign power, divine beast blood essence needed to reach the quantity of a "drop" in order to remain stable in the outside world without dissipating.
However, under Locke's powerful soul power, those wisps of Four Divine Beast Sovereign blood essence obediently swirled around Locke.
Almost every hundred thousand years, after a hundred Ancestral Baptisms, Locke could refine one drop each of divine beast blood essence from the blood aura above the pools.
"The members of the Four Divine Beasts clan are still too few."
Although Locke was now able to obtain a sufficient source of Four Divine Beast Sovereign blood essence through the Four Divine Beasts clan's Ancestral Baptism, Locke would never complain about having too much Four Divine Beast Sovereign blood essence.
After all, after completely comprehending the spatial Laws, if he wanted to comprehend the temporal Laws, the divine beast blood essence of the Azure Dragon Sovereign Redding was an indispensable item.
Over the years, the amount of divine beast blood essence Locke had collected was immeasurable.
However, among divine beasts possessing temporal innate divine abilities, only the Azure Dragon Sovereign Redding existed.
"Forget it. In any case, the Four Divine Beasts clan will eventually become the undisputed number one clan across the seven Divine Planes and four Higher Planes."
"In that case, let me give you all a great gift!"
Having made his decision, Locke no longer hesitated. He arrived at the place where the Four Divine Beasts clan stored the bloodline stones containing the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' blood essence and extended his hand toward the bloodline stones.
Strands of lust energy were attached by Locke onto the bloodline stones.
When the Four Divine Beasts clan next began the Ancestral Baptism, those clan members absorbing the Sovereign blood essence would also absorb these strands of lust energy into their bodies.
One could imagine that after this batch of bloodline stones was fully consumed, the population of the Four Divine Beasts clan would definitely experience another explosive increase.
As long as enough members of the Four Divine Beasts clan participated in the Ancestral Baptism, the Four Divine Beasts clan would be forced to produce more bloodline stones containing the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' blood essence.
Then Locke's speed in stealing the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' blood essence would increase severalfold.
...
Under Locke's secret manipulation, the following trillion years became a trillion years of rapid expansion for the Four Divine Beasts clan.
During this trillion-year period, no matter how powerful the genius or how legendary the figure, all eventually had to yield before the Four Divine Beasts clan.
The Infernal Realm was no longer enough to contain the Four Divine Beasts clan.
Within the seven Divine Planes and the other three Higher Planes, traces of Four Divine Beasts clan members began appearing everywhere.
Even Locke himself felt surprised by the Four Divine Beasts clan's rapid expansion.
The lust energy Locke had left within the bloodline stones simply could not have produced such an effect.
However, that trace of lust energy from Locke had served as the spark that ignited the flames of indulgence among the Four Divine Beasts clan's descendants.
At first, the upper echelons of the clan still sternly lectured those indulgent descendants, rebuking them as the disgrace of the Four Divine Beasts clan.
But when, after ten thousand years, the descendants of those descendants began springing up like bamboo shoots after rain, and even several geniuses emerged among them, the attitudes of the upper echelons changed drastically.
It didn't matter if you were a disgrace—go out and indulge yourselves. Indulge as much as you want. The clan would support you.
The only requirement was that they bring more descendants to the Four Divine Beasts clan.
The more clan members there were, the more geniuses would appear.
Once those geniuses grew up, they would become experts of the Four Divine Beasts clan and serve as its foundation.
Under such an atmosphere, how could those clan members lacking cultivation talent not desperately devote themselves to producing children?
As long as they could produce a genius, the rewards granted by the clan would be enough for them to fuse with divine sparks and become Highgods.
Thus, over this trillion-year period, the number of Four Divine Beasts clan members exploded like a volcanic eruption.
Benefiting from the explosive increase in Four Divine Beasts clan members, Locke profited immensely from every Ancestral Baptism.
Every three Ancestral Baptisms, Locke could collect one drop each of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' blood essence.
The reason Locke could collect them so quickly was inseparable from the members of the Four Divine Beasts clan.
The divine beast blood essence of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns contained far too much energy, while these third- and fourth-generation descendants could absorb only a tiny amount. Most of the blood essence dissipated outward and was collected by Locke.
It could be said that Locke allowing the Four Divine Beasts clan to ascend to the position of the number one clan ahead of time had also allowed himself to obtain even better divine beast blood essence.
This wave was a win-win.
Only, including the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns themselves, no one knew that the spark behind the Four Divine Beasts clan's frenzied expansion was merely several wisps of lust energy Locke had fused into the clan's Ancestral Baptism.
...
"Lord Locke, this is this cycle's divine beast blood essence and natural treasures."
Ten million years later, Rockpeak once again appeared at Mount Nether within the Netherworld and respectfully handed an interspatial ring to Locke.
"Mm."
After receiving the interspatial ring, Locke did not speak. He merely looked toward Rockpeak.
Compared to ten million years ago, Locke could tell that Rockpeak's spirit seemed to have completely vanished.
Under Locke's gaze, large drops of sweat dripped from Rockpeak's forehead as he lowered his body even further.
"Rockpeak, don't you have anything you want to say to me?"
(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