"I didn't expect Beirut to have already been born..."
After confirming Beirut's identity, Locke found himself feeling a bit more expectant.
Although the true protagonist, Linley, would be born during the era when the Planar Battlefield had already been fought over more than nine million times, that didn't mean Beirut had also been born during that same period.
As the very first native divine beast of the Yulan Continent, Beirut had likewise been nurtured by the Yulan Continent itself. His birth could not have been much later than the birth of the Yulan Continent as a Material Plane.
Of course, Locke also knew that the Yulan Plane wasn't yet called the Yulan Plane.
Only countless years later, after the Yulan Empire unified it, would the name "Yulan Plane" become established.
Thinking about it, it made perfect sense.
Given Beirut's strength, he was destined to enjoy tremendous prestige throughout the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
Yet after the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns were killed, when Beirut became the Prefect of Indigo Prefecture to protect the Four Divine Beasts clan, the Eight Great Clans still dared to make a move against him. Only after Beirut effortlessly defeated them did they accept mediation and move the battlefield outside the Skyrite Mountains.
The only possible explanation was that Beirut had stopped wandering the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes during the long years afterward, causing members of the Eight Great Clans to know very little about him.
As for the clan leaders who did know of Beirut's existence, they believed that since they possessed Sovereign artifacts, although one of them alone might not be Beirut's match, the eight of them together would at least have a chance.
Unfortunately...
In the end, Beirut still taught them a harsh lesson.
"The Eight Great Clans..."
Ever since Locke had completely comprehended the Laws of Space and become a Godking, his need for the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns' blood essence had decreased drastically.
As a result, he had long since stopped taking advantage of the Four Divine Beasts clan's Ancestral Baptism.
Only Azure Dragon Sovereign Redding's sovereign blood essence could still provide some assistance in Locke's cultivation.
After all, the Azure Dragon divine beast's innate divine ability, Dragon Roar, contained a trace of the profundity of Time Deceleration.
After comprehending Time Acceleration through the Paragon Lightning Laws obtained from Ninisha, Locke's cultivation of Time Deceleration had likewise progressed smoothly with the aid of large amounts of Azure Dragon Sovereign Redding's blood essence.
As long as Locke could obtain a Paragon Darkness Laws, he felt it wouldn't take long before he could comprehend Time Stop and become an Invincible Godking.
At that point, Locke would truly reach—or even surpass—the level of the Four Overgods of the Magical Universe.
Of course, although Locke himself now required far less of the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns' blood essence, the blood essence remained second only to Locke's own blood in effectiveness for the cultivation of Loran, Veer, Grant, and the others.
Thus, more than a thousand yans ago, responsibility for maintaining contact with the Eight Great Clans had already been handed over to subordinates under Loran and the others.
Taking advantage of conflicts within the Divine Planes, the Eight Great Clans secretly collected the corpses of Four Divine Beasts clan members, refined the blood essence within their bodies, and traded it to Loran in exchange for benefits.
Locke could already predict that the moment the Four Divine Beasts clan discovered this operation, an irreconcilable war would inevitably erupt between them and the Eight Great Clans.
The "destiny" of the Four Divine Beasts clan and the Eight Great Clans had begun developing in the same direction as Locke remembered.
Perhaps only the hatred born from their near annihilation in the future would cause the Eight Great Clans, after the Four Divine Beasts clan had declined, to cast everything else aside and pursue them all the way to the Infernal Realm in an attempt to exterminate them completely.
More than a thousand cycles ago, Locke had once considered making use of Beirut.
According to Beirut's "destiny" in the Magical Universe, he would eventually obtain the corpses of the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns and thereby become the Wind-style Lesser Sovereign.
Back then, Locke hadn't held particularly high hopes that Loran would truly become a Paragon.
In Locke's original plan, if Loran failed to reach Paragon, then after Beirut obtained the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns' Sovereign sparks, Locke would pay whatever price was necessary to trade Beirut for a Water-style Lesser Sovereign spark, allowing Loran to become a Sovereign.
But now...
Locke's son Loran, grandson Veer, and great-grandson Grant had all successfully become Paragons.
Furthermore, each had attained considerable accomplishments in cultivating the higher Law of Space, reaching Sovereign-level power, earning the recognition of the other Sovereigns, and receiving the status of Sovereigns.
In truth, once Loran, Veer, and Grant all possessed Sovereign-level strength, it was no longer a matter of the three of them needing the Sovereigns' recognition to become Sovereigns.
Rather, the Sovereigns needed to incorporate the three of them into the "Sovereign" system in order to preserve the supreme status of Sovereigns.
Otherwise, the existence of "Deities" who weren't Sovereigns yet possessed Sovereign-level power would inevitably shake the prestige of the Sovereigns in the hearts of all living beings throughout the universe.
That was by no means a good thing for the Sovereigns.
Of course, since Loran, Veer, and Grant hadn't become Sovereigns by refining Sovereign sparks, although they enjoyed the status and authority of Sovereigns, they were not required to fulfill the mandatory duties imposed upon Sovereigns.
For that very reason, Loran, Veer, and Grant had all built their Sovereign Palaces upon Necropolis Mountain rather than taking up residence within their corresponding Divine Planes.
Casting aside his thoughts regarding Beirut and the Eight Great Clans, Locke no longer continued paying attention to Beirut.
The Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns were still alive and well.
It wasn't yet Beirut's time to step onto the Sovereign stage.
Of course, even after Beirut became a Sovereign, Locke's attention wouldn't truly be on him.
After all, Beirut didn't possess the potential to become a Paragon, and the Sovereign spark he would obtain in the future wasn't anything precious to Locke.
In other words, Locke's interest in Beirut lay more in Beirut's home plane...
Waiting for Linley's birth.
However, in order not to interfere with Linley's destiny, Locke had no intention of making contact with Linley until after Linley completed his four-element soul mutation.
...
After sending his water divine clone to secretly protect Rena, Locke transmitted a message to Lilia with his divine sense before stepping into the spatial turbulence.
Taking a single step, Locke crossed countless planes and arrived at the most desolate edge of the Magical Universe.
After becoming a Godking, Locke's understanding of the Magical Universe had become even more thorough.
The space within the Magical Universe was layered upon layer.
The Material Planes, the prison planes attached to them, the Divine Planes, the Higher Planes, along with the spaces connected to the spatial turbulence, all belonged to the shallow layers of space.
As long as one's strength reached a certain level, one could tear open the outermost layer of space and enter the spatial turbulence.
Whether one could withstand the power of the spatial turbulence was another matter entirely.
The deep layers of space, however, were places that living beings of the Magical Universe could never reach, no matter what.
For example...
The Elemental Planes.
Even Sovereigns could only project their souls into the Elemental Planes through their Sovereign sparks.
They could not tear through space and physically enter the Elemental Planes.
In fact, apart from using divine sparks or Sovereign sparks, neither Deities nor Sovereigns could even perceive the existence of the Elemental Planes through their own senses.
Locke, however, was different.
He had completely comprehended the Laws of Space and had even come into contact with the source of the Magical Universe's Space Laws.
All he needed to do was merge with that source, and he would become the strongest Overgod, equal to—or even surpassing—the Four Overgods.
However, for the sake of a broader future, Locke naturally had no intention of merging with the source of the Magical Universe's Space Laws.
Upon arriving at the barren edge of the Magical Universe, Locke casually slashed his hand through space.
Immediately, an incomparably dense aura of elemental essence poured out from the spatial crack.
Fortunately, the place Locke had chosen lay at the very edge of the Magical Universe.
Under normal circumstances, the Sovereigns' divine senses simply couldn't extend this far.
Otherwise, if the Sovereigns witnessed what Locke was doing, they would probably be frightened out of their wits.
Although the spatial crack was less than ten feet long, the aura leaking from it was enough to greatly increase the elemental density around Locke.
Fortunately, this was the spatial turbulence.
The escaping elemental energy was quickly swept away by the turbulent currents, eventually enriching who knew which plane.
The space connected to the crack Locke had opened was precisely the deep layer of space within the Magical Universe—
The Elemental Plane.
The Elemental Plane could also be called the Origin Plane of the Magical Universe.
Taking a single step forward, Locke's figure vanished from the spatial turbulence and entered the Elemental Plane.
This wasn't the first time Locke had entered the Elemental Plane.
Yet every single time he came here, he was awed by the miracle of this universe.
The Elemental Plane was filled with incomparably dense elemental energy of every type.
At the highest reaches of the sky, the various elements intertwined like streams of light, radiating dazzling brilliance.
Below that floated vast layers of elemental mist, where the various elemental energies gradually became more distinct from one another.
At the very bottom lay oceans of divine power so dense that they had become tangible seas.
Every Deity could connect their soul to the Elemental Plane through their divine spark and draw divine power from those oceans.
Since Locke could tear open the space leading to the Elemental Plane and enter it directly, it meant that if he wished, he could gather enormous quantities of divine power and Sovereign power in an instant.
However, Locke had naturally not entered the Elemental Plane merely to collect divine power or Sovereign power.
Without the slightest attachment to the oceans of elemental power, Locke shot directly toward the highest region of the Elemental Plane.
Within the Elemental Plane, the closer one was to the divine power oceans, the more clearly separated the elemental energies became.
Each ocean of elemental divine power could almost be considered an independent plane.
Conversely, the higher one ascended into the sky, the more chaotic the elements became, existing in a mixed and fused state.
Especially at the very highest point, the lights of countless elements continuously intertwined, fused, separated...
This was the miracle of the universe.
It was also Locke's primary reason for coming to the Elemental Plane.
A few breaths later, Locke stopped high above the Elemental Plane and spread out his soul power.
Soon, the fusion of the various elemental energies throughout the Elemental Plane appeared clearly within his soul, granting him even deeper insight into fusion Laws.
This was another path toward transcendence that Locke had conceived after reaching a bottleneck in his Time Laws cultivation.
The Laws of Space were the higher Law corresponding to the four elemental Laws of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.
Since Locke had already completely comprehended the Laws of Space...
Could he, through the Laws of Space, reverse the process and master the corresponding lower Laws?
He didn't need to completely master the Laws of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.
He only needed to completely comprehend a single Profound Mystery from each of Earth, Wind, and Fire.
After all, Linley had only fused one Profound Mystery from each of the four elemental Laws of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water before successfully combining the four types of Sovereign power into Hongmeng energy, strengthening his body into a Hongmeng Body.
If Locke could likewise master the fusion of the Profound Mysteries of the four elemental Laws...
Could he also create Hongmeng energy?
It was precisely because of this thought that ever since discovering the Elemental Plane, Locke would come here whenever he had the time to study the fusion between the various elements and Edicts.
Of course, his greatest focus remained the fusion of the four elemental Laws of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water.
Unfortunately, the fusion of elements at the highest level of the Elemental Plane was inherently highly random.
Perhaps tens of millions of years might pass without Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water converging even once.
Even when those four elements did happen to meet, they might not fuse together simultaneously.
Instead, they might simply merge in pairs before colliding...
Now that Beirut had appeared, Locke had begun to feel a slight sense of urgency.
The Hongmeng Golden List contained only four positions for First-Class Hongmeng Controllers.
Less than two epochs after Linley became the second Hongmeng Controller, the third Hongmeng Controller was born within the Linmeng Universe.
At that point, only one First-Class Hongmeng Controller position remained.
The primary universe of a Second-Class Hongmeng Controller was only about the size of a subsidiary universe belonging to a First-Class Hongmeng Controller.
Its volume was merely one percent that of a First-Class Hongmeng Controller's primary universe.
In terms of strength, a First-Class Hongmeng Controller was simply incomparable to a Second-Class Hongmeng Controller.
The Xuanhuang energy generated during the creation of a First-Class Hongmeng Controller's universe could allow that Controller to cultivate an even more powerful Xuanhuang Body beyond the Hongmeng Body.
As for the Xuanhuang energy produced by a Second-Class Hongmeng Controller's universe...
It amounted to less than one percent of what a First-Class Hongmeng Controller received.
That tiny amount of Xuanhuang energy probably wasn't even enough for a Second-Class Hongmeng Controller to complete cultivation of a Xuanhuang Body.
As for Third-Class Hongmeng Controllers...
They were weaker still.
Perhaps the Xuanhuang energy generated from creating a universe would only be enough to refine a single powerful weapon.
Since Locke sought transcendence, he naturally coveted one of the four seats reserved for First-Class Hongmeng Controllers.
If, after gaining such an enormous head start, he ultimately obtained only a Second-Class—or even Third-Class—Hongmeng Controller position...
Then after entering Hongmeng Space, Locke probably wouldn't even wish to leave his name upon the Hongmeng Golden List and become subject to the authority of higher-ranked Hongmeng Controllers.
Locke believed that once he fused the Laws of Time and the Laws of Space into the Laws of Space-Time, he might already possess the ability to create a universe without relying on the Hongmeng Golden List.
At that point, leaving his name on the Hongmeng Golden List would become nothing more than an optional choice.
...
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