"Heh, still trying to play dumb with me?"
Lilia rolled her eyes at Locke, folding her arms beneath her chest and lifting her chin.
"My Sovereign body just received a message."
"It said almost exactly what you told me over a hundred thousand years ago—that if a Sovereign with a divine clone refines another Sovereign spark, they'll gain an additional portion of willpower and their strength will increase nearly tenfold."
"And from the way the message was delivered, I caught a trace of the Edict of Fate."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Don't tell me this wasn't your doing?"
Locke froze for a moment.
Then he shook his head.
"Lilia, this time, you really guessed wrong."
"Yes, I do intend to spread that information and trigger a war among the Sovereigns…"
"But only after I've made complete preparations."
"And even then, I would only release it after successfully killing a Sovereign."
"That way, once the waters are muddied, the Sovereigns would focus on protecting themselves instead of looking for me."
"Right now, I haven't even decided which Sovereign to hunt."
"So why would I spread the rumor now?"
He spread his hands helplessly.
"Now all the Sovereigns are hiding. How am I supposed to kill any of them?"
"Oh…"
Lilia blinked, instantly realizing the flaw in her assumption.
Of course.
With Locke's intelligence, he would never do something so reckless.
Then who—
besides him—
would spread such a rumor and deliberately sow distrust among the Sovereigns?
Her brows rose sharply.
"That bastard…"
A flicker of irritation appeared in her eyes.
"Then Locke, do you know who did it?"
The moment the words left her mouth, she almost regretted asking.
After all, Locke had spent nearly all his time on Mount Nether, and most of that was devoted to cultivation.
How could he possibly know?
Yet to her surprise—
Locke nodded.
"I do have a few guesses."
"First, you said you sensed a trace of the Edict of Fate in the message."
"That means the one who delivered it must be a Sovereign of Fate."
"And their mastery of the Edict of Fate must be extremely high to transmit a message so silently to every Sovereign."
He paused.
"My estimate is… this Sovereign has already reached Paragon in the Edict of Fate."
"Paragon?"
Lilia's eyes widened.
No one understood the gap between Paragon and non-Paragon better than she did.
Even among Sovereigns of the same rank, a Paragon Sovereign was over a hundred times stronger—enough to rival the next rank.
Locke nodded.
"Yes."
"My Fate divine clone is also a Paragon."
"So, I know—only a Paragon could accomplish this."
"Wait, wait, wait—"
Lilia raised both hands, feeling like her brain was about to burn out.
"Locke…"
She stared at him.
"Did you just say your Fate divine clone is also a Paragon?"
"You have two Paragon divine clones?"
Locke scratched his head awkwardly.
"…I never told you?"
Lilia gave him a deadpan stare.
"When exactly did you ever tell me that?"
"Haha… hahaha…"
Locke laughed dryly.
"Sorry. I forgot."
"It didn't really feel like something important."
Lilia pressed a hand to her forehead.
Not important?
Did this man even hear himself?
Dual Paragon.
Across the countless trillions of gods in the Universe, how many Paragons even existed?
And this man—
standing right in front of her—
had two.
Yet he casually called it not important.
If those words ever got out, the resentment of all creation might literally curse him into eternal singleness.
After taking several deep breaths, she finally calmed herself.
"Fine."
"Continue."
"Alright."
Locke nodded.
"Once the Edict of Fate reaches Paragon, one can consume divine power to achieve things that would otherwise be impossible."
"For example, if I wanted every Sovereign to know that rumor…"
"I could use Fate to ensure the message appears somewhere each of them is guaranteed to see."
"This is the Fate Edict's Great Prophecy Art."
"And since this person delivered it directly into your mind…"
"Then they must be a Sovereign."
"And a Paragon Sovereign at that."
"Stop!"
Lilia abruptly cut him off.
"We'll come back to that."
"Right now, what I want to know is—"
She leaned forward.
"Do you have any other Paragon divine clones?"
Locke gave a bitter smile.
"Lilia, even if you think highly of me, that's going too far."
"I only have two divine clones, plus my Saint-level original body."
As he spoke, blue and white lights flashed from him.
Two figures materialized at his side.
One—
blue hair, blue robes.
The other—
white hair, white robes.
As the clones separated, Locke's original body's hair returned to black.
"There."
He gestured helplessly.
"That's all of me."
The three Lockes simultaneously shrugged.
Lilia looked at the trio before her, and a faint smile flickered in her eyes.
Then she nodded.
"Good."
"You pass."
She tilted her head.
"Other than that, is there anything else you've been hiding from me?"
Locke paused.
Then touched his chin.
"…Quite a bit, actually."
The moment he said that, Lilia immediately realized she had stepped into something much deeper.
A trace of regret surfaced in her heart.
But before she could retract the question—
Locke began thinking seriously.
"Well… let me see…"
He had already learned one of Lilia's greatest secrets—the Twin Netherworld Fruit Tree.
In comparison, revealing some of his own didn't seem like much.
Besides—
sharing secrets was often how two people grew closer.
"Does soul mutation count?"
"Soul mutation?"
Lilia blinked.
"What's that?"
"There's the joy of hearing more of his secrets," she thought, "and yet… why does it always feel like I know so little compared to him?"
It was as if—
other than being stronger—
she knew almost nothing.
Locke explained calmly:
"Soul mutation is a beneficial mutation that occurs when the soul suffers severe damage and recovers."
"The most basic effect is the ability to fuse two kinds of divine power."
"That increases one's strength tenfold."
As he spoke, he withdrew his two clones back into himself.
Blue Water divine power formed in one hand.
White Fate divine power formed in the other.
Then—
he brought them together.
The two streams merged into a sky-blue fusion power.
Its aura instantly surged by ten times.
Lilia's pupils contracted.
"This…"
Locke's divine power was already at the peak of god-level strength—ninefold Highgod power.
After fusion—
it became eighty-one times stronger than ordinary Highgod divine power.
That level was nearly comparable to the boost from another Sovereign's Sovereign power.
"And that's not the strongest part."
"The true strength of soul mutation…"
"Is the fusion of different Laws."
"Fusing two different systems is equivalent to fusing four profound mysteries of the same Law."
"Right now, I've already completely fused two Water profound mysteries with the Edict of Fate."
"In terms of power, that's comparable to six fused mysteries of a normal Law."
He smiled faintly.
"In other words, if the heavens granted my Saint body willpower…"
"Even my original body would be equivalent to a Paragon."
Naturally—
Locke omitted the existence of his soul golden core.
Even Paragons with willpower, in his eyes, likely couldn't withstand a soul attack from a golden-core-level soul.
Lilia stared at him as if looking at a monster.
Three bodies…
all effectively equivalent to Paragon.
Was this still even human?
"Enough, enough."
She waved both hands hurriedly.
"If you keep talking, I might get so ashamed that I jump straight into the lake and drown myself."
Locke laughed.
"It's not that exaggerated."
But inwardly—
he couldn't help smiling.
In his impression, the Death Sovereign of a thousand-plus cycles later was a pure chaos gremlin.
She built the Nether Hotel at the foot of Mount Nether just to watch gods slaughter and betray each other for Netherworld Fruits.
Then she would reveal herself at the end just to enjoy their reactions.
But the Lilia before him—
showed so many more expressions.
More warmth.
More vulnerability.
"You say that," Locke said with a smile,
"but I'm actually jealous of your luck."
"Lilia, you should know…"
"In this world, luck is also a kind of strength."
He spoke almost absently, continuing the thought.
"The family you're born into."
"Take you—you were the first lifeform born in the Netherworld."
"You were divine from birth."
"But someone like me…"
He looked out across the water.
"Born in a material plane…"
"started life as nothing more than an ant struggling to survive."
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