"Hu..."
A strand of a divine beast's innate bloodline was drawn into Locke's body.
Under Locke's control, this strand of bloodline, which contained a connection to the Spatial Laws, was directly guided into his heart.
"Roar!"
After this strand of bloodline entered Locke's heart, the blood within his heart surged and rapidly transformed into a crimson creature resembling a yellow sack, with six legs and four wings. Opening its great mouth, it swallowed the strand of bloodline whole.
Dijiang!
This six-legged, four-winged creature was none other than the manifestation of Locke's most important heart-blood.
After devouring that strand of innate bloodline, the Dijiang bloodline dispersed and merged back into Locke's heart. Following the rhythm of the heartbeat, it purified Locke's bloodline, gradually increasing both his body's strength and his affinity with the Spatial Laws.
When he had completely refined that strand of innate bloodline, Locke opened his eyes, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.
Over these years, Locke had refined into his body the blood essence of more than one hundred thousand additional divine beasts possessing innate spatial abilities.
Through his own affinity with the Edicts of Space, Locke had once again made considerable progress in his comprehension of the Spatial Laws.
At present, Locke's understanding of the Spatial Laws had reached thirty-seven percent.
Although it still couldn't compare to his level of comprehension when he had used the complete Water Laws, it remained within the range he could accept.
Suddenly, Locke felt his bloodline pulse slightly.
After sensing it carefully, Locke was instantly overjoyed.
The next moment, his figure disappeared from the Water Estate and appeared within the Death Chief Sovereign's palace.
"Lilia, did you feel it?"
Seated upon her throne, the Death Chief Sovereign raised an eyebrow.
"Isn't that obvious?"
"This little fellow is inside my body. Naturally, I sensed him before you did."
"Hehehe..."
Locke chuckled foolishly, offering no argument over who had sensed it first.
The Death Chief Sovereign rolled her eyes at him, gently stroking her abdomen, a maternal smile on her face.
It truly hadn't been easy.
Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign had long ago decided to have a child together.
Yet it had taken nearly five trillion years before they finally sensed the successful conception of a descendant carrying both of their bloodlines.
This alone showed how difficult it was for powerful beings to produce offspring.
Within the Coiling Dragon Universe, the stronger a lifeform was, the more difficult it became for them to have descendants.
Many beings spent their entire lives without producing any direct descendants.
This was also one of the reasons why families rarely became major powers in the Divine Planes and Higher Planes.
And once a family truly rose to prominence, it inevitably became one of the great powers of its plane.
Just look at the Magrida Clan.
With only a single Sovereign Emissary, two Seven-Star Fiend Grand Elders, more than thirty Six-Star Fiends, and several hundred Five-Star Fiends, it had become the number one clan of the Fire Divine Plane.
From this alone, one could see just how special the Four Divine Beasts clan truly was.
In other planes, a clan possessing strength comparable to a single prefecture could become the foremost family.
Yet after reproducing for five trillion years, the Four Divine Beasts clan had grown so powerful that in all Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes, they suppressed the so-called "number one clans" of each plane to the point they could barely breathe.
Some Saint-level members of the Four Divine Beasts clan had even begun venturing into the endless Material Planes.
With their strength, it was nearly impossible for them to obtain opportunities to continue their bloodlines within the Divine Planes and Higher Planes.
Only by entering Material Planes and relying on their Saint-level strength could they establish new clans there.
Then, once their descendants grew up, they would send them to the Infernal Realm to receive the clan's bloodline baptism, contributing their own share to the Four Divine Beasts clan.
Of course, those Four Divine Beasts Clan Saints who could travel to Material Planes were not ordinary individuals.
After all, the resources required to travel from a Divine Plane or Higher Plane to a Material Plane were not something ordinary people could afford.
Only Saints with powerful backgrounds could receive inkstones from their elders and make the journey.
It was precisely because every thousand years there were many Four Divine Beasts clan members arriving in the Infernal Realm from Material Planes that the clan's population had spread throughout all Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes in only five trillion years.
Furthermore, every plane had either a clan leader or an emissary possessing a Sovereign artifact overseeing it, suppressing all the so-called "number one clans" of the various Divine and Higher Planes.
One of Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign was the only spatial divine beast in the Coiling Dragon Universe—Dijiang.
The other was the first lifeform of the Netherworld and a plant-type special lifeform.
In terms of strength, both were Sovereigns, and among the strongest Sovereigns at that.
Even when paired with other lifeforms, the chances of either producing descendants were extremely low.
The odds were even lower when they paired with each other.
Fortunately, Locke deeply understood that given enough time, probability would eventually become certainty.
Thus, when it came to having children, Locke had always been even more confident than the Death Chief Sovereign.
Sure enough, after only five trillion years, Locke sensed the aura of his own bloodline within the Death Chief Sovereign's womb.
As a lifeform born from both a divine beast and a special lifeform, both Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign understood that their child's gestation period would likely be far longer than either of them had imagined.
During this period, the two of them virtually ignored all matters among the Sovereigns and focused entirely on nurturing their child.
Ten million years later, accompanied by a newborn cry, the Laws of the Universe descended within the Death Chief Sovereign's palace.
Outside the descending Laws, Locke held the somewhat weakened Death Chief Sovereign in his arms as they looked at the lifeform enveloped by the Laws.
"Born a Deity. It seems our child's talent is quite good."
"Hmph, and who do you think his mother is?"
The Death Chief Sovereign raised an eyebrow proudly.
"I was born a Deity myself. This child takes after me."
"Unlike you. It took you more than a hundred years to become a Deity. If that level of talent had been placed in the Netherworld, you probably would've been stepped on before you even grew up."
"Yes, yes, yes. It's all thanks to Lady Lilia that our child possesses such incredible talent."
Locke chuckled inwardly.
He hadn't expected the Death Chief Sovereign to be competitive even about their child's talent.
Still, the fact that his child had been born a Deity allowed Locke to breathe a sigh of relief.
Neither the current Locke nor the Death Chief Sovereign was human.
However, both in his previous life and in this one, Locke had always lived in human form.
Even after arriving in the Higher Planes, nearly every lifeform he encountered also existed in human form.
If his child had been unable to transform into human shape like Dylin's children, and had instead been born as a pure "Dijiang beast" or a plant lifeform, Locke suspected he would have felt somewhat uncomfortable.
Looking up at the divine spark being formed by the Laws of the Universe, Locke nodded slightly.
Both he and the Death Chief Sovereign possessed Water affinity.
Thus, their child naturally possessed Water affinity as well.
Within Locke's soul vision, he saw the Laws of the Universe transform into a blade and slice through his child's soul.
In the next instant, half of his child's soul merged into the divine spark.
Under the operation of the Laws of the Universe, it absorbed vast amounts of Water divine power and formed a divine body.
It was a fair-skinned, rosy-cheeked chubby boy with short, pudgy arms and legs.
Judging by his size, he looked roughly like an ordinary human child of two or three years old.
After the Laws of the Universe dispersed, the divine spark merged back into his original body, causing his original body to transform into human form as well.
"Father! Mother!"
After opening his eyes, the chubby boy unsteadily flew toward Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign.
"Ah, ah, ah, Little Loran, Mother is here..."
Upon hearing the little boy's call, the Death Chief Sovereign immediately discarded her previous weak appearance.
With a flash, she appeared before him and pulled him into her embrace.
"This little fellow..."
Seeing this, Locke shook his head with a smile.
Loran.
This was the name Locke had chosen for his child.
The Death Chief Sovereign had approved of it as well.
Both of them hoped their child would live safely and peacefully, free from calamity and misfortune.
Although Loran had only been born today, he had been nurtured within the Death Chief Sovereign's womb for ten million years.
Moreover, his consciousness had existed for over a hundred years.
Because he had already developed consciousness while still within her womb, Loran understood how to become a Deity outside the womb the moment he was born.
While the Death Chief Sovereign and Loran were affectionately interacting, Locke felt a slight sense of regret.
Although Loran was the child of both himself and the Death Chief Sovereign, his bloodline had not reached the level of a divine beast.
Loran's true form was that of a young Dijiang beast.
A true Dijiang divine beast—Locke's current true form—was a divine bird with six legs and four wings.
Loran, however, possessed only two legs and two wings.
Furthermore, Locke's true form was crimson-red, while Loran's was gray-green.
Clearly, the fusion of Locke's Dijiang bloodline and the Death Chief Sovereign's bloodline had granted Loran the body of a divine beast and the characteristics of a plant-type special lifeform.
Even if Loran could not eventually elevate his bloodline into that of a divine beast, he would still be an extraordinarily unique special lifeform.
The strength of his body might even reach the level of a Sovereign artifact.
"Father, hug me."
After leaving the Death Chief Sovereign's embrace, Loran had clearly adapted to flying.
After steadily arriving before Locke, he spread his arms wide and asked to be carried.
"Alright, alright, alright. Father will carry you."
The moment he heard his son's request, Locke beamed with delight and lifted Loran into his arms.
After playing with him for a while, Locke looked up at the Death Chief Sovereign.
"Lilia, I'd like to return to the Frostsnow Plane for a trip and take Little Loran to meet his grandparents."
The Death Chief Sovereign was briefly stunned before smiling.
"Then I'll go with you."
"Now that I think about it, we've been married for so long, yet I've never visited your parents. That really isn't proper."
As Locke's closest companion, how could the Death Chief Sovereign not know that Locke's parents had long since passed away?
(End of Chapter)
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