"Lilia, you also know that the Spatial Laws I cultivate are extremely dependent on Paragon Laws."
"Right now, I've already completely comprehended all the Spatial Laws that can be touched through the Water Paragon Laws and Wind Paragon Laws in my possession."
"Without Earth Paragon Laws and Fire Paragon Laws, my progress in comprehending the Spatial Laws has become abnormally slow."
"Over these several tens of trillions of years, I've only comprehended another seven percent of the Spatial Laws, bringing my mastery to sixty-four percent."
Like all other Laws, the Spatial Laws naturally had bottlenecks as well.
Every ten percent was a bottleneck.
With the assistance of Paragon Laws, such bottlenecks weren't bottlenecks at all for Locke.
After all, while comprehending the first fifty percent of the Spatial Laws, Locke had never encountered any difficulties.
However, after losing the support of additional Paragon Laws, Locke had relied on the spatial power within his bloodline to reverse-engineer the Spatial Laws. Yet between fifty-nine percent and sixty percent, he had been blocked by that bottleneck for more than ten trillion years.
Over the last several trillion years, Locke could also sense that his speed in comprehending the Spatial Laws through his bloodline had become slower and slower.
In addition, the Sovereign blood essence of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns had become less and less effective in improving his own Emperor Jiang bloodline.
Locke estimated that the Spatial Laws contained within his bloodline had already reached at least eighty percent.
As for the remaining twenty percent, he could only hope that Yanfeng would gather some divine beast blood essences possessing spatial innate divine abilities that Locke had never absorbed before to slowly make up the difference.
Or perhaps, once his own comprehension of the Spatial Laws surpassed the Spatial Laws contained within his bloodline, he could integrate his understanding back into his bloodline and allow it to undergo another transformation.
"If that's the case, Locke, then even if your original body only uses the Spatial Laws, you already possess strength surpassing ordinary Law Chief Sovereigns."
"And when combined with your Sovereign artifact-level body and the might of fused Sovereign power, it's not as though you have no chance against the other three Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts."
Comprehending ten percent of the Spatial Laws was enough to become a Lower Heavenly Deity comparable to a Lesser Sovereign.
Thirty percent made one a Middle Heavenly Deity comparable to an Intermediate Sovereign.
Fifty percent made one an Upper Heavenly Deity comparable to a Chief Sovereign.
Sixty percent of the Spatial Laws made one ten times stronger than ordinary Law Chief Sovereigns.
"And your water divine clone, regardless of whether it uses the fused Water-Fate Laws or the fused Water-Space Laws, isn't weaker than the Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts."
"As for your Fate Chief Sovereign clone, even though I received the Will from ten consecutive victories in the Planar Battlefield, I can still feel that outside the Netherworld, I'm slightly inferior to you."
"You're already this powerful, so why are you still so anxious about cultivation?"
Locke froze.
That's right.
Through Death Chief Sovereign's words, Locke once again realized how powerful he currently was.
His two divine clones and original body all possessed strength on par with the Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts.
Not to mention now—even more than a thousand kalpas later, when Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff obtained the complete set of three Overgod artifacts, he still wouldn't pose any threat to the current Locke.
Then why was Locke still so anxious?
After remaining silent for a long time, Locke suddenly smiled at Lilia.
"Lilia, I like cultivation."
"I like this feeling of becoming stronger little by little."
"And also, I want to see what lies beyond this world."
"Beyond the world?"
Lilia looked at Locke in surprise, unable to understand what he was talking about.
To the Sovereigns, although the magical universe was vast and boundless, given enough time, they could still explore its boundaries.
Those were the true edges of the world.
Seeing that Lilia didn't quite understand, Locke pulled her down to sit beside him and began explaining.
"Lilia, you know that I came from a material plane."
"After entering the Higher Planes, and later becoming a Sovereign and stepping into the spatial turbulence, I developed a hypothesis."
"Within the endless spatial turbulence, countless material planes are nurtured."
"The Four Overgods created the Four Higher Planes, while the forty-nine elemental Sovereigns joined forces to create the Seven Divine Planes."
"Ordinary people know nothing of the existence of countless other material planes, and lifeforms below the Sovereign level can only live within their own planes, unable to witness the splendor of the spatial turbulence."
"So tell me, could it be that the universe we live in now was also created by beings stronger than the Overgods?"
"Because of insufficient strength, even Paragons can only tear open space and exile enemies into the spatial turbulence, but they themselves cannot survive within it."
"I've been wondering whether our universe itself is like one of those planes floating within the spatial turbulence."
"And whether we are no different from the lifeforms inside those planes."
"So, I want to go beyond the universe and take a look."
"Just as there are countless material planes, Divine Planes, and Higher Planes within the spatial turbulence, are there perhaps other universes beyond ours?"
As she listened to Locke's words, Death Chief Sovereign's mind nearly shut down.
These were things she had never considered before.
But following Locke's explanation step by step, even Death Chief Sovereign found herself beginning to believe that their universe might indeed not be the only one.
Then what exactly existed outside the universe?
Thinking about how her divine sense could cover an entire Higher Plane with a single thought, and then imagining beings outside the universe possessing enough power to observe even her, Death Chief Sovereign Lilia suddenly felt fear arise within her heart.
"Wait, wait, wait..."
Death Chief Sovereign shook her head, doing her best to suppress the fear inside her.
Just as she herself merely observed lifeforms in the material planes and even in the Divine Planes and Higher Planes without directly interfering with their destinies—
Much less personally killing them.
Unless she herself was offended.
And if she encountered particularly interesting lifeforms, she might pay them special attention, but she still wouldn't personally act against them.
With that thought, Death Chief Sovereign Lilia gradually calmed down.
In her view, if there truly were more powerful existences outside the universe capable of observing the entire universe with a single thought, then perhaps Locke was precisely that interesting lifeform in Their eyes—the one trying to break free from the cage.
Death Chief Sovereign didn't know whether that was a good thing.
Thunder and rain are both divine grace.
In the eyes of higher lifeforms, they themselves were little different from ants.
"Locke, I think you should reconsider."
After a long while, Death Chief Sovereign slowly exhaled and spoke solemnly.
"I don't deny your speculation. We know absolutely nothing about what lies outside."
"But one thing is certain."
"The world beyond the universe must be countless times more dangerous than the universe itself."
"Don't worry, Lilia."
"I understand that."
Gently patting Death Chief Sovereign's hand, Locke knew that his words had dealt quite a shock to her.
However, this was the pursuit of his entire life. He would never abandon his dream of transcending the Coiling Dragon universe.
If there had been no opportunity, Locke would have chosen to lie flat and enjoy the loneliness of invincibility within the magical universe.
But since there was even the slightest possibility of transcending the magical universe, if he didn't make an effort, he would be betraying his journey as a transmigrator.
"Using the Higher Planes as an example, Six-Star Fiends can tear through space, Paragons can rely on Will to resist the attacks of the spatial turbulence, and Sovereigns can move freely within it..."
"Before leaving the universe, what I need to do first is reach a level where I can tear apart the space of the universe itself."
"After that, I must cultivate to the point where I can withstand the destruction or erosion of whatever unknown energies exist outside the universe."
"Only then will I truly take the step of leaving."
"Hu..."
Hearing Locke's plans, Death Chief Sovereign Lilia finally relaxed.
Putting everything else aside, just comparing the destructive capabilities and mobility of Six-Star Fiends, Paragons, and Sovereigns in relation to planes and the spatial turbulence, and then comparing that to tearing apart the universe, resisting energies outside the universe, and traveling beyond it—
Death Chief Sovereign knew that Locke still had a sense of proportion.
And from this, she could also see that Locke already had a clear plan for his future path.
What she could do was probably nothing more than support him.
As for tearing apart the universe, Death Chief Sovereign felt that even if she completely comprehended every higher-level Law that could be reached through the Death Edicts, she still wouldn't be able to accomplish such a feat.
"Since you've already made your plans, then I won't say anything more."
"But Locke, transcending the universe is no ordinary matter. You don't need to force yourself this hard."
"Mm. Don't worry, Lilia. I know my limits."
After comforting Lilia and putting her mind at ease, Locke resumed his cultivation.
However, thanks to Lilia's earlier advice, Locke no longer felt as anxious as before.
Although lacking the Earth Paragon Laws and Fire Paragon Laws caused his progress in the Spatial Laws to become countless times slower, through analyzing the spatial power within his own bloodline, his understanding of the Spatial Laws still steadily increased.
Although the Sovereign blood essence of the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns no longer produced much effect for Locke, he had never once missed the Four Divine Beast Clan's ancestral baptism ceremonies.
In fact, he had secretly accelerated the collection of Sovereign blood essence.
Through Locke's covert actions, over all these years, the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns' blood essences in his possession had each accumulated into blood pools three meters on each side inside separate interspatial rings.
At first, the higher-ups of the Four Divine Beast Clan were delighted by the increased consumption of Sovereign blood essence during the ancestral baptisms, believing that these descendants who absorbed more of their ancestors' blood would grow into pillars of the clan.
However, after countless years passed, the amount of Sovereign blood essence consumed during the ceremonies never decreased, yet among the clan members who had participated in the ancestral baptisms, very few truly grew into outstanding talents.
(End of Chapter)
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