However, as the Sovereigns continued watching the battle between Sovereign Locke and the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, puzzled expressions began appearing on their faces one after another.
According to their previous speculation, after refining a Water Sovereign spark, Sovereign Locke's current strength should be roughly comparable to that of the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred.
In that case, the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff—who had once fought Wordred to a standstill—should have quickly stabilized himself and engaged Sovereign Locke in a fierce battle.
But to everyone's surprise, throughout the battle that followed, Orloff was injured in every single clash. As time passed, it even began to look as though the Chief Sovereign of Fate might actually be killed by Sovereign Locke.
What was going on?
The Intermediate Sovereigns and Lesser Sovereigns could not understand what they were seeing, but the Laws Chief Sovereigns were able to discern much more.
First of all, what shocked everyone the most was the strength of the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff.
Based on everyone's understanding of Orloff, they had believed he was merely a hundred times stronger than the Laws Chief Sovereigns.
But from the strength Orloff was displaying now, how could the difference between them be only a hundredfold?
It was at least a thousandfold!
This meant that even though the Chief Sovereign of Fate's body strength had not reached the level of a Sovereign artifact, his true power was not inferior to that of the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, in the slightest.
And yet, despite possessing such overwhelming strength, the Chief Sovereign of Fate was still being forced into a disadvantageous position by Sovereign Locke, suffering heavy injuries continuously. Judging from the situation, if the battle continued, he might truly be killed by Sovereign Locke.
That was terrifying.
Within the Infernal Realm, the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, had an extremely ugly expression on his face.
He had been played!
The strength currently displayed by the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, was absolutely not beneath his own.
Yet back when Wordred had fought Orloff, Orloff had merely relied on exquisite techniques to maintain long-range combat, refusing to allow Wordred to approach and exploit the advantage of his Sovereign artifact-level body. That was how he had managed to fight Wordred to a draw.
Now it seemed that even back then, the Chief Sovereign of Fate had already intentionally hidden his true strength.
As for why Orloff would hide his strength?
Did that even need guessing?
When a divine clone refined a Sovereign spark, the Sovereign clone would gain an additional portion of Will.
In other words, the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, possessed another Sovereign clone!
Only…
Wordred spread out his divine sense. At present, the soul auras of all the Sovereigns were different from Orloff's.
Unless the Chief Sovereign of Fate possessed some method of altering soul auras, then the only possibility was that during the first Sovereign War, Orloff had secretly hunted down a Sovereign with the same elemental affinity as one of his divine clones, allowing that divine clone to secretly refine the Sovereign spark and then hide within his home material plane.
Even with the strength the Chief Sovereign of Fate possessed, he was still being beaten into such a miserable state by Sovereign Locke. From this alone, the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, understood that Sovereign Locke's current power had absolutely reached the same level as the Chief Sovereign of Death.
Only a tenfold difference in strength could allow someone to injure Orloff with a single strike.
In other words, Sovereign Locke's power increase after refining a Sovereign spark had not merely been a hundredfold.
It had been a thousandfold.
A thousandfold increase in power.
The Chief Sovereign of Destruction's pupils contracted sharply. Very quickly, he realized that Sovereign Locke must have achieved another breakthrough in the fusion of different Laws and Profound Mysteries to possess such terrifying strength.
Even Wordred himself was shocked by this conclusion.
Back then, under the proposal of the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, they had formed an alliance to prevent Sovereign Locke from refining additional Water Sovereign sparks, precisely because they did not want Sovereign Locke to so easily reach their level.
But who could have imagined that perhaps the Water Sovereign sparks had never been placed in Sovereign Locke's eyes to begin with?
From beginning to end, Sovereign Locke's attention had been focused solely on the fusion of the Laws of Water and the Edicts of Fate.
Previously, they had all thought that Locke had encountered a bottleneck in fused Laws, and perhaps would never make another breakthrough in that area again.
Who could have imagined that after merely several tens of millions of years, Sovereign Locke would achieve another breakthrough in fused Laws, with his strength already surpassing theirs?
At this point, even the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, no longer dared assert whether Sovereign Locke might continue advancing further in the fusion of different Laws in the future.
Watching the increasingly battered Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, Wordred's expression shifted repeatedly. In the end, he still sent a message toward the Life Realm before tearing open space and entering the spatial turbulence.
Within the Life Realm, the Chief Sovereign of Life, Wawaya, let out a sigh.
She had known it.
Sovereign Locke must have already achieved a breakthrough in fused Laws back during his wedding with big sister.
But she never could have imagined that in such a short amount of time, Sovereign Locke would actually end up fighting the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff.
Just now, the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, had sent her a divine-sense transmission, asking her to appear alongside him and preserve the life of the Chief Sovereign of Fate.
And the Chief Sovereign of Life, Wawaya, also felt that Wordred's reasoning made sense.
The Four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts all possessed strength hundreds or thousands of times greater than that of the Laws Chief Sovereigns. This established the Four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts as supreme existences among the Sovereigns.
If the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, were killed by Locke, then things would still be acceptable if the next Fate Chief Sovereign happened to be a Paragon, allowing the supreme status of the Four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts to remain intact.
But if the new Fate Chief Sovereign were not a Paragon of the Edicts, then the new Fate Chief Sovereign might not even be a match for some Laws Chief Sovereigns, damaging the prestige of the Edicts Chief Sovereigns.
Furthermore, Sovereign Locke had now displayed power fully comparable to that of an Edicts Chief Sovereign. If the three remaining Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts did not unite and instead allowed the Chief Sovereign of Death and Sovereign Locke to dominate alone, that would not be a good thing for the overall balance among the Sovereigns.
The Chief Sovereigns of Life, Destruction, and Death—the first lives born within the Higher Realms—would never allow their sense of the bigger picture to become distorted.
More than a thousand Cycles later, when the Chief Sovereign of Fate Orloff's Sovereign clone, Augusta, was slain by Linley, causing Orloff's evil side to return to his main body…
At that time, the Chief Sovereign of Death had pleaded with Linley that, if possible, he absolutely had to stop the Chief Sovereign of Fate.
After all, without his evil side, Orloff merely pursued ways to strengthen himself.
But once Orloff regained the malicious nature possessed by Augusta, he would absolutely become the nightmare of the entire Coiling Dragon Universe, plunging the universe into chaos.
And now, the same situation was unfolding once more.
Only this time, everyone's positions had changed.
Locke had become the person whom the Chief Sovereigns of Destruction and Life guarded against.
Under such circumstances, even though the Chief Sovereign of Life, Wawaya, trusted Locke, it was impossible for her not to make some preparations.
The balance of the universe was the most important thing.
Thinking this, Wawaya also tore open a spatial crack in the Life Realm and entered the spatial turbulence.
Naturally, the actions of the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, and the Chief Sovereign of Life, Wawaya, could not escape the notice of the Sovereigns whose divine senses were spread throughout the spatial turbulence.
Within the Netherworld, Locke and the Chief Sovereign of Death naturally also discovered the movements of these two Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.
Seeing their actions, the Chief Sovereign of Death felt both gratified and helpless.
What gratified her was that the Chief Sovereigns of Destruction and Life had never changed. Everyone still wished for the universe to maintain balance and stability, and none of them wished for turmoil to arise.
What left her helpless was that because Locke was with her, she knew that Locke had always abided by the rules he himself established. He had even actively protected those rules, never once thinking of breaking them.
Faced with the subtle suppression from the other three Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, Locke had shown no dissatisfaction. Instead, when the Water Divine Plane had been on the verge of collapse, he had stepped forward to stabilize the situation and even volunteered to temporarily assume the position of Water Chief Sovereign.
This time, because of Bloodshadow Flame, Locke had revealed even greater power. She truly did not know what actions the other three Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts might take afterward.
The Chief Sovereign of Death was not worried about Locke. What worried her was that the other three might break certain rules.
As the person who understood Locke best, the Chief Sovereign of Death knew that Locke liked stability.
As long as everyone followed the rules and targeted or restricted Locke within those rules, Locke was willing to abide by them as well.
But if the other side stopped following the rules, Locke would likewise no longer bind himself to them.
Right now, it was the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, who had attacked Locke first. The Chief Sovereign of Death worried that if the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, and the Chief Sovereign of Life, Wawaya, intervened unfairly, Locke would directly attack them as well.
Immediately, the Chief Sovereign of Death stood up from beside Locke.
"Locke, handle Orloff however you see fit. As for Wordred and Wawaya, I'll stop them."
With that, the Chief Sovereign of Death prepared to tear open space and enter the spatial turbulence to intercept the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, and the Chief Sovereign of Life, Wawaya.
"No need, Lilia."
Just as the Chief Sovereign of Death tore open a spatial crack and prepared to enter the spatial turbulence, Locke casually waved his hand and smoothed the crack shut, preventing her from entering the spatial turbulence.
As a Lower Deity of Space, Locke's use of spatial Laws was far gentler than the crude method the Chief Sovereign of Death used by relying on Will to forcibly tear open space.
"But…"
The Chief Sovereign of Death opened her mouth, wanting to say something.
"Trust me, Lilia."
Lightly patting the back of the Chief Sovereign of Death's hand, Locke comforted her. "Under the current circumstances, if you enter the battle, then it will truly mean we've completely fallen out with the other three Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts."
"I also want to see what Wordred and Wawaya intend to say."
The Chief Sovereign of Death sighed softly.
She knew that perhaps this time, the choices made by the Chief Sovereigns of Destruction and Life would determine how Locke treated them in the future.
Hopefully Wordred and Wawaya would not do anything foolish.
As fellow first lives born within the Higher Realms, during this period of time, the Chief Sovereign of Death truly regarded Wordred and Wawaya as younger siblings.
If Wordred and Wawaya truly fell out with Locke, then the Chief Sovereign of Death, caught in the middle, would also feel terrible.
Previously, although Locke had been targeted by the Chief Sovereigns of Destruction and Life, both Locke and the Chief Sovereign of Death had treated their methods as little more than a joke.
(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 1800 Powerstones