Spatial turbulence was a dangerous existence to the living beings of the Coiling Dragon Universe.
Only Sovereigns could rely on their powerful willpower to move and survive within the spatial turbulence.
However, even Sovereigns did not like remaining within the spatial turbulence for extended periods of time.
Unless they were traveling or attending a Sovereign meeting, Sovereigns would only rarely enter the spatial turbulence.
Otherwise, most Sovereigns stayed within the Divine Planes or the Higher Planes.
Locke's original body, however, was different.
This was the first time Locke had entered the spatial turbulence after becoming a lower Deity.
The endless spatial power within the spatial turbulence made Locke feel that this place was his true home—his true domain.
With merely a thought from Locke, the spatial power within a certain range of the spatial turbulence would follow his will and provide a certain degree of enhancement to him.
Moreover, under Locke's intentional concealment, even though he moved through the spatial turbulence at incredible speed, he did not stir the slightest spatial ripple.
Those Sovereigns who spread their divine sense into the spatial turbulence were completely unable to discover Locke teleporting through it.
In merely a few breaths, Locke had already borrowed the spatial power within the spatial turbulence to arrive at the spatial turbulence surrounding the Water Divine Plane.
With a slight movement of his fingertip, and likewise without producing the slightest spatial fluctuation, Locke tore open the space of the Water Divine Plane and entered it.
Taking a single step into the Sovereign Palace of his Fate Sovereign true body, the two Lockes exchanged a sigh before Locke's Fate Sovereign true body merged into his original body.
This was also one of the rare moments over these tens of millions of years where Locke's original body and his two divine clones had reunited within the original body.
Seated upon a throne condensed from white mist, Locke closed his eyes and began organizing the gains from this experience.
That was right. Although he had been helping the Chief Sovereign of Death reconstruct her Death Edicts cultivation, during that process Locke had also sensed progress in his illusion techniques.
Among them, the most obvious improvement was his advancement in deceiving living beings.
Using faith power to assist cultivation would produce resistance toward the fusion of Laws and the comprehension of Edicts.
Under such circumstances, no matter how much faith power one possessed, it would fundamentally be unable to help a living being break through the final bottleneck.
The many Sovereigns were all trapped at this very step.
Of course, even if one had not used faith power to assist cultivation, relying on faith power during the final step still did not guarantee that one would become a Paragon.
It could be said that if a Sovereign had not used Sovereign power to assist cultivation, but then used faith power during the final breakthrough attempt and still failed, then he was no different from those Sovereigns who had cultivated with faith power from the beginning.
After all, faith power merely gave living beings an additional sliver of possibility to become a Paragon. It was not a guaranteed success.
Rather, that sliver of possibility might not even reach one in ten thousand.
Yet it was precisely this one-in-ten-thousand possibility that caused many Sovereigns to regret their past actions.
Previously, the Chief Sovereign of Death had been one of those regretful Sovereigns.
But now, Locke had used his Mirror Flowers, Water Moon ability to give the Chief Sovereign of Death memories of independently recultivating the Death Edicts, overwriting the memories of her previously using faith power to cultivate the Death Edicts.
This was an ultimate illusion technique that Locke had cast solely upon the Chief Sovereign of Death.
But judging from the final result, to a certain extent, this also counted as Locke deceiving the "time" of the Chief Sovereign of Death's cultivation—deceiving the heavens themselves.
"Deceiving living beings is simpler than deceiving the heavens…"
Locke recalled inwardly the process through which he had deceived the Chief Sovereign of Death.
Before this, in order to maximize the chances of success, Locke had even arranged magical formations within the Chief Sovereign Palace to interfere with the sensing of the Laws of the world.
But from how events later unfolded, those magical formations that interfered with the Laws of the world had been completely useless.
Instead, after Locke completed the overwrite of the Chief Sovereign of Death's cultivation memories, this world itself had already acknowledged the Chief Sovereign of Death's cultivation achievements, allowing the Death Edicts within her soul that had been contaminated by faith power to be easily stripped away by Locke.
Clearly, in certain aspects, the priority of living beings was higher than that of the heavens.
Likewise, this reconstruction of the Chief Sovereign of Death's Death Edicts cultivation had also allowed Locke to see even more possibilities for himself.
Slowly opening his palm, a mass of gray aura rolled within Locke's hand.
This was unmistakably Death Edicts.
One had to understand that Locke himself only possessed affinity for the water Laws and the Fate Edicts. His affinity for space had only appeared later after he created the bloodline of the divine beast "Dijiang" and fused it into himself.
But now, Locke had actually used Death Edicts.
This clearly violated the rules of the Coiling Dragon Universe.
"As expected, my idea was correct."
Seeing that his actions had not triggered the descent of an Overgod, a smile appeared at the corner of Locke's mouth.
After recording Dunnington's Paragon-level Death Edicts, and after accompanying the Chief Sovereign of Death through several million years of Death Edicts cultivation within her soul, if Locke possessed affinity for Death, the current Locke could almost directly enter the level of a Death Highgod, reaching the stage of comprehending ninety-nine percent of the Death Edicts.
However, even without affinity for Death, Locke could still use his illusion techniques to turn his understanding of the Death Edicts from falsehood into reality, allowing this world to manifest his understanding through the Death Edicts.
After all, the Death Edicts Locke had recorded from Dunnington were genuinely complete Paragon-level Death Edicts.
Locke had an intense feeling in his heart.
Whether it was the seven elemental Laws of earth, wind, water, fire, light, darkness, and lightning—or the four Edicts of Life, Death, Destruction, and Fate—if he could gather all eleven Paragon-level Laws and Edicts, it would absolutely have an enormous effect on his future cultivation.
There was no need to mention the seven elemental Laws of earth, wind, water, fire, light, darkness, and lightning. They were subordinate Laws beneath the Laws of time and space.
As for the four Edicts of Life, Fate, Destruction, and Death, they were certainly subordinate Laws beneath some supreme Law equivalent to time and space—or perhaps even above time and space, on the same level as fused spacetime Laws.
It was simply that the current Locke had yet to determine what the superior Law above those four Edicts actually was.
But merely thinking about it made it obvious that besides the fundamental spacetime Laws, a complete universe would inevitably require one among Creation, Karma, Reincarnation, or Yin and Yang in order for living beings within the universe to undergo cycles of birth and death.
If it were within the primary universe, then all four of these supreme Laws would certainly exist.
But within the Coiling Dragon Universe, perhaps only one of them existed.
In other words, within the Coiling Dragon Universe, the Four Edicts were very likely subordinate Laws beneath one of those four supreme Laws.
By fusing spacetime Laws, Locke could enter the Hongmeng Space without dying.
If he could then also comprehend the superior Law above the Four Edicts, then Locke himself might one day open a universe comparable to the Coiling Dragon Universe through his own power, reaching a level comparable to a second-level Hongmeng Controller.
"Let me think…"
"At present, I already possess the water Paragon Laws and the Fate and Death Paragon Edicts."
"There are still six elemental Paragon Laws and two Paragon Edicts left to collect."
"Lightning Paragon Nanessa, fire Paragon Ballmer or Bluefire, wind Paragon Bayer or Teresia, light Paragon Clementine…"
"Among the seven elemental Paragons, only the earth Paragon and darkness Paragon are missing."
"Among the four Edicts Paragons, only the Life Paragon and Destruction Paragon are missing…"
Locke rubbed his forehead, feeling that this was somewhat troublesome.
Even after more than a thousand cylindrical cycles, the recorded number of Paragons did not exceed the count of both hands.
Searching through all the memories in his mind, Locke could only identify four elemental Laws experts from whom he could record complete Paragon Laws.
As for the Edicts system, there were none.
It was almost as though the only Life Paragon was Wawaya, and the only Destruction Paragon was Wordred.
If Locke wished to use Mirror Flowers, Water Moon to record complete Paragon Laws, he had to do so at the moment one broke through to Paragon and triggered the descent of the Laws of the world.
In other words, if Locke wished to complete the achievement he envisioned, he would still need to create four additional Paragons.
But was that even possible?
If becoming a Paragon were so easy, then the number of Paragons would not be less than half the number of existing Sovereigns.
"What a headache…"
But no matter how difficult it seemed, Locke had no intention of giving up.
Only that which was cultivated step by step formed one's firmest foundation—the ladder toward reaching higher realms.
If possible, Locke wished to complete the creation of a universe through his own power rather than leaving behind a soul imprint upon the Hongmeng Golden List to become a Hongmeng Controller.
Certainly, Hongmeng Controllers were the strongest beings within the Hongmeng Universe.
But cultivation had no limits, and Locke also wished to climb toward the realm above Hongmeng Controllers.
Just like within the Coiling Dragon Universe, Paragon represented the ultimate limit that living beings could reach through cultivation.
But now, Locke had already forcibly broken through that limit.
Setting aside the amplification brought by a Sovereign spark, Locke's fused water-fate Laws already allowed him to step into the realm of Laws Chief Sovereigns.
Moreover, this was still not Locke's limit.
Raising his head to glance in the direction of the Netherworld, Locke shook his head.
Lilia had not come searching for him. It seemed that her memories still had not recovered.
Since that was the case, he would first cultivate within the Water Divine Plane.
Once Lilia's original memories awakened, he would return to the Netherworld.
…
"Just who exactly was that fellow?"
During this period of time, the Chief Sovereign of Death had remained constantly fused with the Heart of the Netherworld in order to prevent another incident like last time, where someone infiltrated her Chief Sovereign Palace without being discovered.
It was precisely because she remained fused with the Heart of the Netherworld that the Chief Sovereign of Death's current consciousness firmly suppressed her previous memories, preventing them from recovering for a long time.
(End of Chapter)
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