As far as Locke knew, it would be more than five thousand years after Beirut created the first generation of the Four Ultimate Warriors that the true protagonist of Coiling Dragon—Linley Baruch—would be born.
Since Beirut had not yet begun using the Four Divine Beasts' Sovereign blood essence to fuse with other lifeforms and create the Four Ultimate Warriors, Locke no longer had any concerns.
With a thought, spatial ripples spread across the giant hands that cradled the Yulan Plane.
In only a few breaths, Locke opened another plane outside the surface plane of the Yulan Continent, overlaying the Yulan Plane.
The purpose of this new plane was to draw in any beings whose battles erupted with power beyond that of Highgods, allowing them to fight within this separate plane instead, preventing further destruction to the Yulan Continent and keeping the Yulan Plane from collapsing.
The spatial stability of the plane Locke created was in no way inferior to that of the Four Higher Planes.
This wasn't because Locke was incapable of creating a stronger plane.
There was simply no need.
Even the Four Overgods of the Magic Universe, despite acting under Hongmeng's supervision, possessed power only comparable to Invincible Godkings in the main universe who had comprehended Time Stop.
Locke, however, had already completely comprehended the Laws of Time, making him a Celestial Exalt one level above the Four Overgods.
Even within Hongmeng's main universe, Locke would be considered among the very strongest experts.
However, despite having fully comprehended the Laws of Time, Locke could still sense that within the Magic Universe, the use of "Time Reversal" was heavily restricted.
After all, the Magic Universe was merely a subsidiary universe.
To preserve the stability of the Magic Universe, Hongmeng had concealed the Laws of Time and the Laws of Space, cutting off any possibility for the beings of the Magic Universe to cultivate either Law.
If Locke overused Time Reversal within the Magic Universe, it would place an enormous burden upon the universe itself and might even damage the operating principles of the Magic Universe.
Before Locke revealed the possibility that he might one day become a Hongmeng lifeform, Hongmeng certainly wouldn't show any mercy toward someone who disrupted the rules of the Magic Universe.
After completing the creation of the new plane, the two gigantic spatial hands surrounding the Yulan Plane gradually dissipated, restoring calm to the spatial turbulence.
However...
The impact of Locke's intervention upon the Sovereigns had only just begun to spread.
...
Within the August Garden of Orloff, the Fate Chief Sovereign, in the Celestial Realm...
One divine spark after another fell to the ground.
The owners of these divine sparks were naturally the soldiers of Orloff's Sovereign Army who normally stood guard throughout Augusta Garden.
They were Orloff's closest personal guards.
However...
Just moments earlier, when Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff's emotions had surged violently, his Will erupted uncontrollably.
These Sovereign Army soldiers possessed neither soul-protecting divine artifacts nor Paragon-level souls.
Furthermore, they had been standing close to Orloff.
None of them survived.
Every last one of them perished.
Orloff paid no attention whatsoever to the deaths of those soldiers.
His mind remained completely occupied by what Chief Sovereign Locke had accomplished in the Yulan Plane.
"Boom!"
After a long while, Orloff struck out with a single palm.
The space of the Celestial Realm was instantly torn open, leaving behind a three-meter-wide hole in space.
Beyond the opening...
The dazzling spatial turbulence surged like an endless sea, erasing everything it touched.
Orloff extended his hand into the spatial turbulence.
Even without using his Will...
The torrents of spatial turbulence failed to leave the slightest mark upon his hand.
Ever since creating the Samsara Golden Body, Orloff's body had reached the durability of a Sovereign artifact.
Furthermore...
Over the years, Orloff had made further breakthroughs in researching the Samsara Golden Body.
His physical body was now four or five times tougher than an ordinary Sovereign artifact.
It could be said that...
Aside from Locke...
Orloff's physical body was four or five times stronger than those of the other three Rule Chief Sovereigns.
As far as strength was concerned, Orloff believed that neither the Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya nor the Destruction Chief Sovereign Wordred could match him.
Even the Death Chief Sovereign Lilia would be unable to do anything to him once he equipped his full set of three Overgod artifacts.
In Orloff's eyes...
The only person who might truly threaten him...
Was Locke alone.
Why was Orloff so eager to obtain the Four Divine Beasts' Sovereign blood essence?
Precisely because he wished to possess a technique capable of threatening Chief Sovereign Locke after Locke completed his breakthrough.
Yet now...
Judging from the strength Locke had displayed during this appearance...
Even if Orloff completely deciphered the Four Divine Beasts' fused innate divine ability...
It would make virtually no difference against Chief Sovereign Locke.
Unless...
He could create an even more powerful ultimate technique based upon the Four Divine Beasts' fused innate divine ability.
"Boom!"
Orloff's Will erupted.
Sovereign power gathered around him like a flowing river.
Then...
Centered upon Orloff's palm...
A miniature plane began taking shape.
As Orloff continuously poured the river of Sovereign power surrounding him into the tiny plane within his palm...
The plane rapidly expanded.
Its spatial stability also gradually increased.
However...
Once the plane's spatial stability reached a certain level...
No matter what Orloff did...
It refused to improve any further.
If anyone had been able to observe that plane...
They would have discovered that the spatial stability of the Divine Plane Orloff had created already surpassed that of an ordinary Material Plane by a considerable margin.
Of course...
It was still nowhere near the level of a true Divine Plane.
"Sigh..."
With a soft sigh...
Orloff dispersed both his Sovereign power and his Will.
The incomplete Divine Plane he had yet to fully create immediately collapsed beneath the endless erosion of the spatial turbulence and was destroyed.
They had both created planes.
Chief Sovereign Locke had casually created one whose spatial stability rivaled that of the Four Higher Planes.
Meanwhile...
The best Orloff could produce was merely a plane slightly sturdier than a Material Plane.
The gap between them...
Could not even be compared.
Chief Sovereign Locke was the blazing sun.
He himself...
Was merely the light of a firefly.
Even so...
Such a disparity did not plunge Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff into despair.
There was still...
Hope.
...
"Gaia, run!"
Within the Yulan Plane...
A Seven Star Fiend roared furiously before surging forward, divine power erupting as he charged directly toward a group of Deities.
The moment he approached...
The expressions of the three Asura Prefect-level experts nearby changed dramatically, and they immediately attacked him.
This fellow...
Was planning to self-destruct!
Even more terrifying...
A faint halo of Sovereign power still shimmered around his body.
When the attacks of the three Asura Prefect-level experts struck him...
They inflicted almost no damage.
They merely dimmed the halo of Sovereign power surrounding him a little further.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Finally...
Just before the Sovereign power was completely exhausted...
The Seven Star Fiend's body exploded violently.
"Frarino!"
Seeing her husband self-destruct, Gaia was overwhelmed with grief and fury.
Even so...
She did not dare waste the precious time Frarino had purchased with his life.
Although Gaia possessed a material-defense Sovereign artifact, making it impossible for these Asura Prefect-level experts to injure her...
There were no weaklings among Asura Prefects.
Against one opponent...
Two...
Even three...
Gaia could rely upon the overwhelming defense of her material-defense Sovereign artifact to defeat them.
But once the number of opponents surrounding her rose to five or six...
They could continuously tear open spatial rifts around her before ultimately knocking her into the spatial turbulence and banishing her.
In the past...
Gaia had never feared becoming trapped within the spatial turbulence.
Her father and three uncles could always enter the spatial turbulence, find her, and bring her back to the Infernal Realm.
But now...
That was impossible.
Her father and three uncles had all perished.
The Four Divine Beasts Clan no longer possessed the protection of Sovereigns.
Once Gaia was trapped within the spatial turbulence...
No Sovereign would come to rescue her.
Without hesitation...
Her figure transformed into a streak of blue light as she fled into the distance.
As the eldest princess most favored by the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns...
The first half of Gaia's life had been extraordinarily happy.
But...
Everything changed after news of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' deaths spread.
As one of the Four Divine Beasts Clan's few Asura Prefect-level experts...
It was as though Gaia had matured overnight.
Together with her husband Frarino...
She devoted herself entirely to ensuring the survival of the Four Divine Beasts Clan.
This time...
After the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' remains were discovered within the Yulan Plane...
Both Gaia and Frarino had been selected to enter the Yulan Plane on behalf of the clan.
Besides Gaia...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan had also sent Gislason, Patriarch of the Azure Dragon Clan, and Fedman, Patriarch of the Black Tortoise Clan.
As for Gess, Patriarch of the White Tiger Clan...
Tia, Patriarch of the Vermilion Bird Clan...
And Blue, the Azure Dragon Clan elder...
The three Asura Prefect-level experts remained behind to guard the Skyrite Mountains.
Among the remaining Seven Star Fiends and Six Star Fiend elder-level experts...
Gislason also brought more than three hundred with him.
Each of these three hundred-plus elders possessed no fewer than ten drops of Sovereign power.
For a short period...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan effectively possessed over three hundred Asura Prefect-level combatants.
According to Gislason's estimation...
As long as they displayed their strength once after entering the Yulan Plane...
The other Asura Prefect-level experts would never dare confront the Four Divine Beasts Clan head-on.
After all...
Although around twelve to thirteen hundred Asura Prefects had entered the Yulan Continent to compete for the Sovereign sparks...
Once the Four Divine Beasts Clan members activated Sovereign power...
They alone would account for roughly a quarter of that number.
After entering the Yulan Plane and successfully intimidating the gathered experts...
Gislason divided the Four Divine Beasts Clan into three groups.
Gislason...
Fedman...
And Gaia...
The three Asura Prefect-level experts possessing Sovereign artifacts each led a force of over one hundred clansmen to search throughout the Yulan Plane for the remains of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns.
Perhaps because no one wished to see a second generation of Four Divine Beast Sovereigns emerge...
Ever since Gislason's group split apart...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan had continuously become the target of every other expert.
They were constantly ambushed by other Asura Prefect-level experts.
In only a few short decades...
Once their stores of Sovereign power were exhausted...
The Four Divine Beasts Clan members began falling one after another.
This time...
While Gaia was pursued by five Asura Prefects...
Every clan elder accompanying her, together with her husband Frarino, perished.
Only Gaia herself managed to escape.
"Should we chase her?"
Once the thunderous explosions subsided...
The five Asura Prefects once again appeared in the sky.
At this moment...
The defensive divine artifacts on all five had been completely destroyed.
Their bodies were covered in numerous wounds.
Frarino's self-destruction after using Sovereign power was no weaker than the self-destruction of a true Asura Prefect.
It was only because the five of them were all powerful experts...
That none of them had died in the explosion.
Even so...
Restoring their divine bodies had consumed most of the divine power they had stored.
"No."
One of the five shook his head.
"Gaia possesses a material-defense Sovereign artifact. Unless we banish her into the spatial turbulence, we simply can't injure her."
"Besides..."
"We've been fighting for quite a while."
"Gislason and Fedman have probably already received word."
"If we continue pursuing her..."
"We might end up being killed by them instead."
The other four all nodded in agreement.
"Indeed."
"The Azure Dragon Clan's innate divine ability is simply too terrifying."
"If we face an Azure Dragon expert and can't defeat them..."
"We won't even be able to escape."
"Besides..."
"Fedman's attack Sovereign artifact..."
"If we encounter him..."
"He could probably kill us instantly."
Clearly...
These five Asura Prefect-level experts who had ambushed Gaia understood the Four Divine Beasts Clan's experts extremely well.
In terms of strength...
Gaia and Fedman were roughly equals.
If they truly fought...
Gaia could even rely upon the overwhelming defense of her material-defense Sovereign artifact to completely ignore the attacks of Fedman's attack Sovereign artifact while focusing entirely on offense, allowing her to gain the upper hand.
Yet...
These five would rather gang up on Gaia than challenge Fedman.
This alone demonstrated that among Asura Prefect-level experts...
The deterrent power of an attack Sovereign artifact was considerably greater than that of a material-defense Sovereign artifact.
There was no helping it.
Possessing an attack Sovereign artifact elevated an Asura Prefect's offensive power to an astonishing level.
In battles between opponents of equal rank...
Anyone lacking a material-defense Sovereign artifact would almost certainly be killed instantly if struck by an attack Sovereign artifact.
A material-defense Sovereign artifact, meanwhile...
Raised one's defense to the absolute limit.
Even a Paragon...
Could not break through the protection of a material-defense Sovereign artifact.
Whether one prioritized offense or defense ultimately depended upon personal choice.
However...
To everyone else...
Sovereign Emissaries possessing attack Sovereign artifacts were unquestionably the more frightening opponents.
After all...
Someone with a material-defense Sovereign artifact did not necessarily possess overwhelming attack power.
But someone wielding an attack Sovereign artifact...
Absolutely did.
(End of Chapter)
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