"Oh, right, Liliya."
"When the time comes, I'll use the Floating Shadow Technique to record the entire battle with the Sovereign."
"So don't personally go to the Celestial Realm, and don't spread your divine sense there either."
As if he already knew what Liliya's Sovereign clone would do, Locke spoke these words in advance.
"Huh? Why not?"
Sure enough, the moment she heard this, Liliya immediately became unhappy.
"Liliya, I only want the Fate Sovereign spark as a safeguard for myself."
"If nothing unexpected happens, and no one discovers that I killed a Sovereign, then for quite some time, I may not even refine the Fate Sovereign spark and become a Fate Sovereign."
As someone who knew just how terrifyingly powerful the future Fate Sovereign Orloff would become, Locke naturally also wanted to help Liliya grow stronger.
Thus, once the Four Overgods established the Planar Battlefield, Locke intended to secure the first ten-win streak for the Netherworld, allowing the Death Sovereign to gain yet another strand of willpower.
In that way, with the Death Sovereign strengthened and the Fate Sovereign weakened, the gap between them would narrow considerably.
Additionally, Locke also intended to intercept the fifth Overgod Mission.
Barring accidents, the first four Overgod Missions would undoubtedly fall into the hands of the Four Rule Sovereigns.
And the Death Sovereign would definitely be the first to complete one.
If he could secure for her another material defense Overgod artifact, then even if Orloff comprehended Transcending Reincarnation, he still wouldn't be able to kill the Death Sovereign.
"I still have other plans."
"But if you personally go to the Celestial Realm, or spread your divine sense there, then the Sovereigns of the Celestial Realm will immediately investigate the slightest disturbance."
"If that happens, after killing the Fate Sovereign, I'll be forced to immediately refine the Sovereign spark."
"For me, that would do more harm than good."
"All right…"
Hearing Locke say this, Liliya could only let out a helpless sigh.
If it concerned only herself, the Death Sovereign wouldn't care in the slightest what the other Sovereigns thought.
Even if she personally killed a Fate Sovereign and handed the Sovereign spark to Locke, none of them would dare say anything.
But since it involved Locke's future plans, she had no choice but to suppress her curiosity.
"Then Locke, you absolutely must remember to record it with the Floating Shadow Technique."
"I will. Don't worry."
Locke nodded.
Then, a figure with blue hair and blue robes appeared beside him.
"Liliya, this time, when I go to the Celestial Realm to hunt a Sovereign, I'll be taking my original body and my Fate divine clone."
"My Water divine clone will remain here."
"That way, I'll still have one final safeguard."
Although Locke had over ninety percent confidence that he could successfully kill a Fate Sovereign and seize a Fate Sovereign spark—
there was always the chance of the unexpected.
So in the end, Locke still chose to leave his Water divine clone in the Netherworld.
That way, even if something happened to both his original body and Fate clone, he would still have a Water Paragon divine clone capable of turning the tables.
By then, the Sovereign spark Locke would set his sights on would no longer be an ordinary Water Sovereign spark—
but a Water Chief Sovereign spark.
Of course, if it truly came to that, even if Locke gained strength comparable to the Rule Sovereigns, he would lose all hope of transcending the Panlong Universe.
"I understand."
Liliya nodded.
As long as one of Locke's divine clones remained in the Netherworld, no one could harm him.
That was what she, the supreme ruler of the Netherworld, had said.
"Whoosh—"
Locke's body dispersed into countless droplets of water essence before reforming several hundred li away.
Although he had left his Water divine clone behind in the Netherworld, as a soul-mutated being, Locke's other divine clones could still use the Laws of Water.
This Water Movement Technique had now been brought by Locke to an even higher level.
Its speed was so great that, within the range of his divine sense, it was almost equivalent to teleportation.
Moreover, after tempering his soul into a Soul Golden Core, the range of his soul force had already exceeded the range of ordinary divine sense by more than ten times.
It could be said that Locke's speed while traveling with Water Movement was not much inferior to that of a Sovereign.
More importantly—
unlike the grand and conspicuous flight methods of Sovereigns, Locke's Water Movement was utterly silent.
Even a Sovereign could not lock onto where Locke would appear next.
After all, once he completely concealed his soul force, even a Sovereign's divine sense could not detect his soul aura.
In less than half a day, Locke had already traveled from Mount Nether to the Mountain of the Dead.
"My lord, are you traveling to the Life Divine Plane?"
When the soldiers guarding the Netherworld's interplanar teleportation array saw Locke appear instantly upon the platform, they were immediately startled and hurriedly bowed respectfully.
As soldiers of a Sovereign Legion, they could lord themselves over most gods.
But they did not dare offend truly powerful experts.
More than a million years of planar warfare had long since taught them reality.
To an extent, they represented the face of their Sovereign.
Others gave them respect because of that.
But someone at Locke's level—
even if he slaughtered every single one of them, the Sovereign would still treat him courteously and attempt to recruit his loyalty.
Their deaths meant nothing.
There would always be more people eager to join the Sovereign Legion.
"I'm not going to the Life Divine Plane."
"I'm heading to the Celestial Realm."
After stating his destination, Locke handed over the inkstones.
"Can you make it quick? I'm in a bit of a hurry."
"Yes, my lord. Please wait a moment. We'll activate the array immediately."
The soldier dared not delay.
After placing the inkstones around the teleportation array, he activated it.
"Buzz—"
White light enveloped Locke.
A powerful spatial pressure descended upon him.
For anyone below the Saint level, this degree of pressure would be enough to crush them instantly.
Only Saints and above, who had grasped a trace of the Laws or Edicts, could withstand it.
Ordinarily, this level of pressure was utterly negligible to Locke.
However, at the moment the spatial pressure descended upon him, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
He no longer used Laws or Edicts to resist it.
Instead, he allowed the spatial power generated by the teleportation array to invade his body.
"Buzz—"
White light flashed.
The teleportation array at the Mountain of the Dead returned to calm.
Only when it was activated again later did the soldiers discover that the previous transmission had consumed dozens of times more energy than normal.
It felt as if they had transported divine experts to material planes more than ten times in succession.
The powerful spatial energy that invaded Locke's body immediately resonated with the spatial bloodline within him.
Under that connection, the eleventh divine beast gifted bloodline within him—one that possessed an innate spatial divine ability—rapidly fused into his own bloodline.
When the white light faded, Locke opened his eyes.
After casually orienting himself, he transformed into a streak of white light and instantly vanished from the area around the teleportation array.
After spreading out his divine sense and confirming there were no living beings nearby, his body dissolved into water essence and reformed atop a mountain peak.
Only then did he begin examining the changes in his body.
Under the pressure of the array's spatial force, the eleventh divine beast bloodline within him had now completely fused into his body.
As a result, his bloodline's sensitivity to space had grown even clearer.
But more importantly—
under the infusion of that planar spatial force, his bloodline had unexpectedly produced a strand of spatial energy.
Though extremely weak—
this was still spatial energy.
In the Panlong Universe, both the Laws of Time and the Laws of Space had been concealed by Hongmeng.
Thus, no lifeform in this universe could naturally comprehend them.
Even Locke had only been able to grasp a trace of the Laws of Space through divine beast essence blood and innate divine abilities after becoming a Water Paragon.
Yet even then, although he had comprehended the Laws of Space, he had not been able to cultivate corresponding spatial energy.
The relationship between the Laws of Space and spatial energy was the same as that between the Laws of Water and Water divine power.
Only Water divine power could fully unleash the might of the Laws of Water.
That was the fundamental reason why using same-element Sovereign power could amplify one's strength by several hundred times, while different-element Sovereign power only amplified it a hundredfold.
Likewise—
if one wished to fully unleash the might of the Laws of Space, one absolutely had to possess spatial energy.
But in a universe where even the Laws of Time and Space were hidden, where could spatial essence even be found?
This time, by sheer coincidence, a strand of spatial energy had merged into his bloodline during teleportation.
For Locke, this was a stroke of fortune no less significant than obtaining a Sovereign spark.
Carefully nurturing this strand of spatial energy within his bloodline, Locke cautiously wrapped it with willpower to prevent it from dissipating.
Then he took out a drop of bright-red divine beast essence blood from his interspatial ring.
He had just been about to absorb it—
but after glancing at the bloodline wrapped in willpower, he shook his head and put it away.
Next, he would be fighting a Sovereign.
After obtaining the Fate Sovereign spark, he would then test whether this strand of spatial energy would grow stronger alongside the strengthening of his gifted spatial bloodline.
After confirming the direction, Locke's figure merged into the surrounding water essence and rapidly headed toward the Sovereign's location.
The Celestial Realm possessed six interplanar teleportation arrays.
Of the four Lowgod Fate Sovereigns Liliya had marked, two resided on continents that housed teleportation arrays.
Locke's luck was excellent.
This time, the teleportation array he arrived through happened to be located on White Feather Continent.
White Feather Continent was named for a species of plant whose leaves resembled white feathers.
These White Feather Trees were considered rather valuable treasures.
The Sovereign Locke had chosen as his target resided within the mountain range containing the greatest concentration of White Feather Trees.
That place was known as—
White Feather Forest.
A gentle breeze swept through the air.
On the snow-white branches, countless feather-like leaves drifted freely.
Viewed from above, it resembled waves of white rolling endlessly like an ocean.
Even simply gazing upon it could calm one's spirit.
Locke did not dare underestimate a Sovereign in the slightest.
Although he possessed the fused innate divine ability of the Four Divine Beasts as his trump card—
that still required an opportunity to strike.
If the Sovereign sensed the slightest anomaly and tore open space to enter the spatial turbulence before the space-time freeze took effect, then Locke would be in grave danger.
With the enhancement of willpower, a Sovereign's attack speed, frequency, and strength were all far beyond his own.
At that point, even with a defensive innate divine ability capable of blocking a Sovereign's attack, he would not be able to last long.
Thus, after arriving at White Feather Forest, Locke used Mirror Flower, Water Moon to disguise himself as one of the world's natural water elements.
The principle behind Water Movement was to merge his body into water essence and use the natural connections between water elements to travel within the range of his divine sense.
Now, Locke merged himself into the natural water essence of the world and used Mirror Flower, Water Moon to make the water element he occupied indistinguishable from the surrounding ones.
Even a Sovereign's divine sense would be unable to detect him.
Under such circumstances, Locke slowly passed through the White Feather Legion stationed around the forest and entered the White Feather Sovereign's palace.
Unlike the Death Sovereign's palace, which exuded noble elegance, the White Feather Sovereign's palace—being that of a Fate Sovereign—leaned more toward majestic grandeur.
Not seeing the White Feather Sovereign inside, Locke was not surprised.
Sovereign palaces were merely structures used to receive subordinates and display majesty.
That did not mean a Sovereign actually lived there.
Especially during the recent period when any stronger Sovereign might attempt an assassination, no Sovereign would be foolish enough to remain in their palace as a fixed target.
Even cunning rabbits knew to have three burrows.
Sovereigns certainly had far more than three.
However, after the Death Sovereign established the Sovereign ranking system and Sovereign Pact, their sense of crisis had eased considerably.
Fearing that the Sovereign might detect his divine sense or soul force, Locke could only rely on his eyes to search for White Feather Sovereign's location.
Fortunately, among the information Liliya had transmitted was the exact place where White Feather Sovereign had been when her divine sense swept the area.
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