In the end, the higher-ups of the Four Divine Beast Clan had no choice but to conclude that there was some problem with the ancestral baptism magic formation, resulting in an excessively high conversion loss rate for the Sovereign blood essence.
Because the ancestral baptism magic formation had been established by the four Sovereign ancestors themselves, claiming that the formation had problems was equivalent to questioning the abilities of the four Sovereign ancestors.
That would be an enormous act of disrespect toward the four Sovereign ancestors.
Thus, the clan's higher-ups tacitly agreed not to investigate the matter any further.
A bit more Sovereign blood essence being consumed was just more being consumed...
In any case, the four Sovereign ancestors were all very generous. Every time, they bestowed enough Sovereign blood essence and Sovereign power.
As for why so much Sovereign blood essence had been consumed without producing even one outstanding descendant worth mentioning...
Then they would simply bestow more Sovereign power upon the younger generation.
With the amplification provided by Sovereign power, who would still dare to say that the members of the Four Divine Beast Clan were weak?
The power of time always caused people to overlook it without realizing it.
Eventually, Locke became like everyone else and stopped counting years. Instead, he measured time by how many times the Planar Battlefield had opened.
It even gave him the feeling that one Planar War was equivalent to one year.
During these years, Loran brought Levlenxia to visit Mount Nether.
Locke still remembered how, when Levlenxia first learned that he and the Death Chief Sovereign were Loran's parents, she had been completely stunned.
She had never imagined that she would become the daughter-in-law of Chief Sovereign Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign.
By that calculation, she herself could be considered part of the second generation of Sovereigns.
As for the young girl Levlenxia, the Death Chief Sovereign was also extremely satisfied with her and acknowledged her as her daughter-in-law.
From then on, aside from the Life Realm, Death Chief Sovereign Lilia would frequently visit the Water Divine Plane to see her son and daughter-in-law.
After the Sovereigns learned that Levlenxia was married to the son of Sovereign Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign, they treated her with the utmost respect.
It couldn't be helped. These Sovereigns also wanted to attach themselves to Sovereign Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign.
However, aside from the Death Sovereigns of the Netherworld, the Death Chief Sovereign accepted no other Sovereigns into her service.
Sovereign Locke was even more unconventional.
Over all these years, apart from Teresia, the Wind Paragon Lesser Sovereign, who had openly declared herself to be under Sovereign Locke, no other Sovereign had received Sovereign Locke's acknowledgment.
Now that they finally had a way to draw closer to Sovereign Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign, how could they not carefully cultivate the relationship?
Even if they couldn't truly join the service of Lord Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign, after becoming familiar with Water Chief Sovereign Levlenxia, it wasn't impossible to pay some price in exchange for having her pass on a message to Lord Locke or the Death Chief Sovereign.
...
Netherworld, inside the Water Estate halfway up Mount Nether.
With his eyes closed, Locke immersed his consciousness within his own bloodline, engraving the Spatial Laws he had comprehended into it.
The Planar Wars of the magical universe had already occurred more than six thousand times.
In other words, Locke's age had surpassed one kalpa.
After such a long time, he still had not witnessed the birth of either a Fire Paragon or an Earth Paragon.
He had even personally stepped in many times to guide some lifeforms he thought highly of.
Unfortunately, all of them ultimately stopped outside the threshold of becoming Paragons.
Eventually, Locke completely abandoned such efforts and devoted all of his energy to comprehending the Spatial Laws and developing his bloodline power.
His Water Laws and Fate Edicts had also been completely fused together.
This achievement caused the Will within the soul of Locke's original body to differ from that of a Lesser Sovereign by only a single Paragon Will.
As a result, Locke's overall strength once again increased tremendously.
In fact, Locke felt that with his current strength, he could fight Death Chief Sovereign Lilia even within the Netherworld.
Of course, all of that was merely secondary to Locke.
He knew that although the fused Water-Fate Laws and Will allowed him to become a super expert surpassing other Sovereigns within the magical universe—
They could not become the foundation for his transcendence.
Will was a form of world authority bestowed upon lifeforms by the magical universe.
Such power allowed Sovereigns to display strength comparable to Heavenly Deities of the primary universe while within the magical universe.
But once they left the magical universe, something like Will would become rootless duckweed, bursting like bubbles with a single poke.
Moreover, if one wanted to escape the magical universe, the simplest first step was to pierce through the membrane of the universe itself.
How could the power of the magical universe itself possibly harm the magical universe?
To damage the space of the magical universe, one had to use a power greater than the magical universe itself.
The Space-Time Laws were the power Locke pursued in order to break through the space of the magical universe.
Over sixty trillion years, relying on his analysis of his own bloodline power, Locke had completely comprehended eighty-five percent of the Spatial Laws.
After that, once the path of analyzing his bloodline reached its limit, Locke instead slowly perfected the three Profound Mysteries of "Spatial Shift," "Spatial Lock," and "Spatial Shatter" through his own understanding of the Spatial Laws.
In the end, he brought his comprehension of the Spatial Laws to ninety-nine percent. He was only one step away from achieving Spatial Paragon and reaching the Godking realm equivalent to the Overgods.
Even Locke himself had no idea how long it would take to break through that final step.
Thus, during the following years, Locke continuously engraved the Spatial Laws he had comprehended into his bloodline, gradually purifying and advancing his Emperor Jiang bloodline.
After all these years of effort, the spatial power contained within Locke's bloodline had gradually caught up with the level of Laws he had comprehended, causing the toughness of his body to surpass the level of a Sovereign artifact.
"Just a little more..."
Using the secret technique for developing bloodline power, Locke compared the Spatial Laws he had comprehended one by one with the Spatial Laws contained within his bloodline.
Whether it was his understanding of the Spatial Laws or the Spatial Laws within his bloodline, both were only a hair's breadth away from perfection and advancement to a higher level.
By comparing the two in this manner, perhaps he could draw inferences from one to the other and ultimately break through the final shackles, becoming a Spatial Paragon.
"Alas..."
After a long while, Locke opened his eyes and let out a sigh.
"Failed again?"
A cold voice entered Locke's ears, easing his gloomy mood considerably.
"Mm. It seems that I still lack an opportunity to cultivate the Spatial Laws to the level of Paragon."
"An opportunity?"
Upon hearing this, Death Chief Sovereign suddenly seemed to remember something.
She then extended her right hand, and a purple seal appeared in her palm.
"Locke, try this and see whether it can help you."
"This is... the Heart of the Netherworld?"
Although it was his first time seeing the seal, Locke immediately recognized what it was.
"That's right. This is the Heart of the Netherworld."
Death Chief Sovereign nodded.
"This thing was born together with me and can be considered my companion treasure."
"Back then, after refining it, my mind merged with the Netherworld, allowing me to experience once how the Netherworld was created."
"Now, I have already removed my ownership from it. If you refine it, perhaps while experiencing the creation of the Netherworld, you may be able to perfect your Spatial Laws."
The Heart of the Netherworld was the Death Chief Sovereign's most important possession.
Yet at this moment, she simply held this precious treasure in her hand and offered it to Locke.
"Very well. Then I'll give it a try."
Locke took a deep breath and no longer hesitated.
He cut his fingertip with his nail, forced out a drop of golden blood, and let it fall onto the purple seal in Death Chief Sovereign's palm.
Buzz!
As Locke's blood fused into the Heart of the Netherworld, his consciousness was instantly drawn inside.
Then, Locke felt as though he had become the Netherworld itself.
A great existence had used some profound method to create him into a powerful plane. After discovering that he seemed to possess a vague consciousness, that great existence refined him into a seal and tossed him to the first lifeform born within that plane...
To be honest, if he hadn't personally fused with the Heart of the Netherworld, Locke would never have imagined that the so-called Heart of the Netherworld was actually the plane consciousness of the Netherworld.
When Hongmeng used the power of the Four Overgods of the Edicts to create the Four Higher Planes, somehow a vague world consciousness had actually been born within a plane like the Netherworld.
Unfortunately, a plane was ultimately only a plane. It had not reached the level of a true world and was incapable of nurturing that consciousness to completion.
In order to prevent the Netherworld's consciousness from dissipating, Hongmeng personally intervened and used some Hongmeng spiritual energy to refine a seal to preserve the Netherworld's consciousness.
Refining the Heart of the Netherworld was equivalent to refining the consciousness of the Netherworld itself. Naturally, one could then utilize the power of the entire Netherworld in battle.
Although he had learned the true origin of the Heart of the Netherworld, Locke paid no attention to experiencing the Netherworld's power.
Instead, he repeatedly immersed his consciousness into the evolution of the Netherworld.
During the evolution of the plane, Locke experienced the various transformations of the Spatial Laws with a clarity he had never possessed before.
Only now did he realize just how shallow his understanding of space had been.
At the same time, he finally understood why, despite feeling that he had already comprehended ninety-nine percent of the Spatial Laws, he had remained stuck outside the realm of Spatial Paragon.
Spatial Shift, Spatial Lock, and Spatial Shatter were the three most important Profound Mysteries of the Spatial Laws.
Almost every other aspect of the Spatial Laws could be categorized under these three Profound Mysteries.
However, a truly perfected Law was not divided into parts.
Rather, it was perfectly whole and inseparable.
This was true for both Locke's Water Paragon Laws and his Fate Paragon Edicts.
(End of Chapter)
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