"Father!"
Loran respectfully bowed to Locke.
"Enough."
Locke waved his hand.
"Although your soul realm has improved considerably, it also caused you to miss the opportunity to absorb enough spatial elements to condense Spatial divine power while the Laws of the Universe were descending."
"In other words, right now, you merely possess the realm of the Spatial Laws, but you are a Lower Deity without Spatial divine power."
"Spatial elements are everywhere within the spatial turbulence."
"But refining them into Spatial divine power comparable to Sovereign power is something you must accomplish yourself."
"Only after you've condensed Spatial divine power can your original body truly possess the strength of a Sovereign."
"Before you've refined enough Spatial divine power, don't announce to the outside world that you've already attained the strength of a Lesser Sovereign."
"Yes, Father."
After listening to Locke's words, Loran wore a bitter expression, but he could only agree.
As a Water Paragon, Loran's marriage to the Water Chief Sovereign, Levlenxia, had naturally received the blessings of many Sovereigns.
Even setting aside the fact that Loran was Chief Sovereign Locke's son, none of the Sovereigns felt that Loran was unworthy of Levlenxia.
The Sovereigns had merely been fortunate enough to obtain Sovereign sparks.
Paragons, on the other hand, had reached the absolute limit of a Law, standing at the very pinnacle of a particular Law or Edict.
Sovereigns were common.
Paragons were not.
Among the more than sixty Sovereigns today, aside from Levlenxia, not a single Sovereign had a Paragon spouse.
Well, of course, Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign had to be excluded from that count.
Although the Sovereigns claimed to treat Paragons as "equals," the enormous disparity in strength between Sovereigns and Paragons made that so-called equality seem more like a form of "charity" from the perspective of the Paragons.
Yet the Sovereigns themselves remained unaware of it.
Or perhaps they were aware.
To the Sovereigns, such a condescending attitude simply felt natural.
What could the Paragons do even if they were dissatisfied?
When strength was unequal, so-called equality was nothing more than empty words.
Even among Sovereigns there existed the unequal hierarchy of Lesser Sovereigns, Intermediate Sovereigns, Law Chief Sovereigns, and Edict Chief Sovereigns.
How much more so between Sovereigns and those beneath them?
Loran was Chief Sovereign Locke's son, and at the same time, a Paragon.
That alone was enough to make the Sovereigns truly regard him as an equal.
Now, after finally comprehending ten percent of the Spatial Laws and reaching the level of a Lesser Sovereign, he had been ordered by his father not to reveal it until he had refined a sufficient quantity of Spatial divine power...
Naturally, what troubled Loran was the refinement of Spatial divine power.
Having cultivated all the way to Paragon, Loran naturally understood the difference between absorbing divine power while the Laws of the Universe descended and absorbing it on one's own afterward.
The two weren't even on the same level.
It could be said that the divine power absorbed during those few breaths while the Laws of the Universe descended would require at least ten thousand years for a deity to gather through ordinary cultivation.
As for Spatial divine power...
When Loran had reached the bottleneck of the Spatial Laws over a thousand kalpas ago, he had asked Locke about it.
At that time, seeing that Loran's comprehension of the Spatial Laws had already reached such a level and might break through before long, Locke had explained various matters concerning Lower Deities to him.
Among them was the fact that although the Magical Universe possessed no Spatial divine power, fortunately, it contained an immense quantity of spatial elements.
The spatial turbulence—
A place regarded by all beings beneath the Sovereign level as the most dangerous location imaginable—
In Father Locke's words, however, was the exclusive "Spatial Supreme Plane" of Lower Deities.
Unlike the Divine Planes and the Higher Planes, the spatial elements within the spatial turbulence existed in a perpetually "chaotic" and "disordered" state.
It was precisely because of this chaotic nature of the spatial elements that the spatial turbulence came into existence, granting it overwhelming destructive power against all beings below the Paragon level.
For a newly advanced Lower Deity like Loran, absorbing these chaotic spatial elements and refining them into Spatial divine power was by no means an easy task.
The difficulty of refining Spatial divine power was likely thousands of times greater than ordinary deities absorbing divine power from the elemental oceans.
But no matter how difficult it was, Loran had no choice but to do it.
He had already waited more than sixty quadrillion years.
Would he really care about another few tens of thousands—or even tens of millions—of years spent refining Spatial divine power?
Glancing at his mother, who had entered a state of enlightenment, Loran wisely took Levlenxia by the hand and quietly moved to the other side of the Life Tree, where he sat down cross-legged and extended his soul power into the spatial turbulence.
He was certain that if his actions interrupted Mother—the Death Chief Sovereign's—moment of enlightenment, Father would absolutely show him no mercy.
It probably wouldn't kill him.
But Loran felt that the punishment would likely be worse than death.
When Loran extended his soul power into the spatial turbulence, only then did he realize just how tremendous this breakthrough truly was.
Those chaotic, disordered spatial elements within the spatial turbulence came completely under his control through his soul power.
His control over the spatial elements was almost comparable to the amplification provided by Will.
After organizing the chaotic spatial elements, Loran guided them into his body through his soul power, compressing and refining them into Spatial divine power.
Although this speed was somewhat slower than absorbing ordinary divine power, it was far easier than Loran had anticipated.
For the first time, his greatly strengthened soul allowed him to experience the tremendous advantage that a powerful soul possessed when refining divine power.
At most, within a hundred thousand years, Loran felt confident that he could refine enough Spatial divine power to satisfy Father and officially become a new Sovereign.
...
The conversation between Locke and Loran had not been hidden from the Life Chief Sovereign, Wawaya.
In Loran's opinion, since Father had already allowed his godmother to listen to the discussion, there was naturally no need to conceal matters concerning the higher Laws from her.
As expected, although the Life Chief Sovereign was inwardly astonished that Chief Sovereign Locke had mastered a Law capable of allowing other living beings to cultivate to the Sovereign level, she was also extremely excited.
If she could cultivate such a Law herself...
How much stronger could she ultimately become?
Thinking this, the Life Chief Sovereign, Wawaya, slowly let out a breath.
Everything would have to wait until her elder sister completed this session of cultivation.
The things that little Loran could understand, Wawaya naturally understood as well.
A breakthrough during cultivation...
Was an accident, fortune, coincidence, and miracle all at once!
Aside from Chief Sovereign Locke, no one in this world could guarantee that if they started cultivating again, they would once more be able to reach the Paragon realm.
Wawaya could tell that, just like Loran before her, this sudden enlightenment of her elder sister represented a breakthrough through a tremendous bottleneck.
If that fleeting flash of inspiration were missed, she might remain trapped at this bottleneck for countless years afterward.
At the very least, during Wawaya's more than sixty quadrillion years of experience, she had witnessed countless individuals who had fused six Profound Mysteries until they were only a thread away from becoming Paragons.
Not a single one had ultimately broken through that final barrier.
If her own interference were to cause her elder sister's breakthrough to fail...
Thinking of this, Wawaya carefully moved away, making every effort not to produce even the slightest sound.
Only after she had put sufficient distance between herself and her elder sister did she quietly stand to one side.
Locke was very pleased with the awareness shown by both Loran and the Life Chief Sovereign, Wawaya.
Unlike the Spatial Laws, which he had already fully comprehended...
Locke had only comprehended fifty percent of the Laws of Reincarnation through the fusion of the Paragon Edicts of Fate and the Paragon Edicts of Death.
Under such circumstances, he was unable to tailor his explanations to the tendencies of Lilia's flashes of inspiration the way he could with the Spatial Laws for Loran.
Thus, although Locke devoted far more attention to the Death Chief Sovereign than he had to Loran, Lilia's progress in breaking through within the Laws of Reincarnation remained slower than Loran's.
Fortunately, Locke had completely mastered the portion of the Laws of Reincarnation founded upon the Edicts of Death.
Because of that, his guidance toward the Death Chief Sovereign remained smooth and effective.
Under Locke's careful guidance, ten years later, the flashes of inspiration within the Death Chief Sovereign's soul had finally accumulated enough nourishment before erupting all at once.
"Buzz—"
The Laws of the Universe descended.
This time, Locke did not alter the surrounding space around the Death Chief Sovereign.
As a result, including Locke himself, the Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya, Loran, and Levlenxia—all four of them came under the influence of the Laws of the Universe.
This wasn't Locke's first time standing within the area covered by the Laws of the Universe.
But it was the first time since advancing to the Godking realm that he had personally been enveloped by them.
During Loran's breakthrough, Locke had distorted the surrounding space.
Although Loran had appeared to remain within Locke's palm, the surrounding space had actually been stretched by Locke until it was as vast as mountain ranges.
Thus, the Laws of the Universe that descended then had never actually reached Locke himself.
This time, however, Locke was standing directly beside the Death Chief Sovereign.
Naturally, he too fell within the range of the Laws of the Universe.
He tested things slightly.
Immediately, the space around Locke emitted a series of crack... crack... sounds as it fractured.
That sound caused the Life Chief Sovereign's heart to skip a beat.
The Laws of the Universe were the greatest power within this universe.
More than a thousand kalpas later, when Linley Baruch—the true protagonist—was pursued by the Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff and was about to be struck down by Orloff's ultimate technique, Transcending Samsara, Linley comprehended the secret of fusing the earth, wind, water, and fire Laws from within that very attack.
At that critical moment, it was precisely because the Laws of the Universe descended that Orloff's ultimate technique, Transcending Samsara, was frozen in place by the Laws of the Universe, preventing it from reaching Linley.
After the Laws of the Universe dispersed, Linley had already completed the fusion of the four elemental Laws.
The Hongmeng energy produced by the fusion of the four elemental Sovereign powers tempered his body into a Hongmeng Body.
With a single sword strike, he shattered the space of the Magical Universe itself, destroying nearly one-tenth of the entire universe.
(End of Chapter)
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