"You want to challenge me?"
Hearing Nanessa's words, Beirut was surprised.
If it had been any other Paragon, they would have known the gap between a Paragon and a Sovereign and would never have entertained the thought of challenging one.
However, if it was a Paragon from Chief Sovereign Locke's Mount Nether lineage wishing to challenge a Sovereign, that was perfectly normal.
After all, everyone in the world knew that the Paragons who cultivated on Mount Nether possessed a cultivation method that allowed them to advance beyond the Paragon realm and reach the level of a Sovereign.
For a Paragon cultivating on Mount Nether to want to know how far they still were from the Sovereign realm before reaching it themselves was hardly surprising.
"Why? Is that not allowed?"
Perhaps hearing the surprise in Beirut's voice, Nanessa raised an eyebrow and asked in return.
"No, no, no..."
Seeing her reaction, Beirut hurriedly waved his hands.
"To be honest, although I'm not a Paragon myself, I'm also extremely interested in the cultivation path beyond the Paragon realm."
"Being able to spar with Lady Nanessa would be my honor."
Beirut wasn't lying.
There wasn't a single person in this world who wasn't curious about what cultivation beyond the Paragon realm looked like.
Unfortunately, anyone who wasn't a Paragon couldn't even come into contact with the Higher Laws.
Even if they knew that cultivation after becoming a Paragon involved the Laws of Space, the Laws of Time, or the Laws of Reincarnation, they still wouldn't understand any of it.
Trying to explain the Higher Laws to someone who wasn't a Paragon was no different from explaining the Profound Mysteries of the Laws to someone who hadn't even reached the Saint-level.
They could know the concepts...
But they couldn't gain any insight from them.
Of course, this wasn't absolute.
For example, just as the Death Chief Sovereign Lilia's Water divine clone had gained an epiphany after witnessing Locke's cultivation method and comprehended a trace of the Laws of Space...
There were also exceptional geniuses who could comprehend fragments of the Profound Mysteries of the Laws even before reaching the Saint-level.
However, at most...
They could only grasp a superficial understanding.
"Please!"
Since Beirut had agreed, Nanessa wasted no more words.
Lightning flashed.
In an instant, her figure appeared directly before Beirut as the lightning spear in her hand thrust straight toward him.
Boom!
A streak of violet lightning flashed through the air.
Immediately, a spatial tear thousands of meters long appeared above the Forest of Darkness.
If allowed to continue expanding, that single spatial tear might have destroyed half of the entire Forest of Darkness.
However...
Before the tear could spread, a transparent ripple swept across the Forest of Darkness.
Instantly...
Not only did the thousand-meter-long spatial tear become blurry, but even the figures of Beirut and Nanessa seemed to blur for a moment.
The next instant...
The spatial tear erupted.
Its terrifying suction seemed capable of swallowing the entire Yulan Plane.
Yet despite the enormous range of the tear—which covered almost half of the Forest of Darkness—and despite its terrifying destructive power...
It caused no damage whatsoever to the Forest of Darkness.
More than five thousand years ago, countless experts had fought over the Sovereign sparks left behind by the fallen Four Divine Beast Sovereigns, destroying eighty percent of the Yulan Plane's continents.
Afterward...
Chief Sovereign Locke had used his supreme power to create another plane connected to the Yulan Plane, one whose stability rivaled that of the Four Higher Planes.
Whenever an attack exceeding the power of an ordinary Highgod was unleashed within the Yulan Plane...
All combatants would automatically be transferred into the plane created by Chief Sovereign Locke.
The figures that remained in the Yulan Plane were merely projections of the battle taking place within that higher plane.
No matter how earth-shattering the battle became inside that new plane...
Not even a blade of grass within the Yulan Plane itself would be affected.
Even before the thousand-meter-long spatial tear erupted...
Beirut's figure had already disappeared from Nanessa's sight.
Although Nanessa was a Lightning Paragon, and like those of the Light and Wind elements specialized in speed...
Her current speed was still far too slow before Beirut.
The violet lightning pursued the cyan wind.
Wherever the two passed, enormous spatial tears continuously appeared.
Unfortunately...
No matter how much the lightning increased its speed, it couldn't touch even a corner of the gentle breeze.
Beirut wasn't a Paragon.
He was a Lesser Sovereign, possessing four portions of Paragon-level Will.
With the enhancement provided by that Will, a Lesser Sovereign's speed was a thousand times greater than that of a Paragon.
An ordinary Lesser Sovereign could reach five hundred thousand kilometers per second.
As the Wind Lesser Sovereign, Beirut could reach six hundred thousand kilometers per second.
Nanessa was a Lightning Paragon.
At her maximum speed, she could reach one million meters per second.
Compared to a Sovereign whose speed was measured in hundreds of millions of meters...
The gap truly approached a thousandfold.
It was precisely because of such an overwhelming difference in speed that Paragons seemed so powerless before Sovereigns.
If a Sovereign wished to kill a Paragon...
They could take the Paragon's life in an instant.
"So the gap between a Paragon and a Sovereign really is this great..."
As she continued her pursuit, this thought flashed through Nanessa's mind.
And this was only a comparison of speed.
The enhancement provided by Will affected every aspect of one's strength.
Speed.
Power.
Defense.
Although a Paragon also possessed a single portion of Will, even after using Sovereign's Might, there still remained a thousandfold gap between them and a true Sovereign.
"In that case..."
"Let's try that."
With a thought, Nanessa immediately activated the Laws of Time she had comprehended.
"Time Acceleration!"
Whoosh!
Instantly, the flow of time around Nanessa accelerated tenfold.
To the outside world, it appeared as though the speed at which she pursued Beirut suddenly increased by ten times.
Clearly...
Nanessa's comprehension of the Laws of Time extended far beyond just this.
She had already been a Paragon for more than eight hundred calendrical eras.
During such a vast span of time, Locke's three direct descendants—Will, Grant, and Rena—had all successively reached the Sovereign realm.
How could Nanessa possibly have remained stagnant?
Although the profundity of the Laws of Time meant that, while still only a Paragon and lacking the Laws of Space as a foundation, she couldn't progress very deeply into the Laws of Time...
She had nevertheless developed her own unique strengths in terms of breadth.
She pointed the lightning spear in her hand toward Beirut and shouted softly,
"Time Deceleration!"
Invisible fluctuations of the Laws of Time spread outward.
Instantly, Beirut's speed dropped by a factor of ten.
Originally, the speed difference between them had been nearly a thousandfold.
After Nanessa accelerated herself by ten times while simultaneously slowing Beirut by ten times...
The gap between them had shrunk to only a few times.
"This..."
"The Azure Dragon Sovereign's innate divine ability?"
Feeling the flow of time around himself slow, Beirut was startled.
He had witnessed this exact phenomenon before...
On the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
However, he quickly came back to his senses.
"No..."
"This isn't the Azure Dragon Sovereign's innate divine ability..."
"There isn't an Azure Dragon phantom behind Nanessa..."
"Furthermore..."
"Although my flow of time has slowed, it's nowhere near the extent experienced by the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta when struck by the Azure Dragon Sovereign's innate divine ability."
Beirut estimated that the Azure Dragon Sovereign Redding's innate divine ability, Dragon Roar, slowed the surrounding flow of time by roughly a thousandfold.
By comparison...
The effect currently acting upon him merely slowed his personal flow of time by tenfold.
Whoosh!
While Beirut was still analyzing the difference between the change in his flow of time and the Azure Dragon Sovereign's innate divine ability...
Nanessa's attack had already arrived.
Among Paragons and Sovereigns, once the speed difference narrowed to only several times...
It was already close enough for both sides to be considered within the same general tier and capable of exchanging blows.
Because Beirut had been momentarily distracted...
Nanessa naturally seized the initiative.
Clang!
Beirut casually flicked a finger.
The incoming shadow of Nanessa's lightning spear shattered instantly.
Feeling the force transmitted through his fingertip, Beirut inwardly relaxed.
It seemed Nanessa's cultivation was still incomplete.
At present...
Thanks to that ability resembling the Azure Dragon Sovereign's innate divine ability, Nanessa's speed had almost reached the same level as a Sovereign.
However...
In terms of attack and defense...
She remained at the Paragon level.
From Beirut's perspective...
Nanessa was undoubtedly invincible among all Paragons.
Although he didn't know whether there were other Paragons on Mount Nether...
Judging solely from Nanessa's current performance, Beirut believed that she deserved the title of the strongest expert beneath the Sovereigns.
So this was the caliber of a Paragon from Mount Nether...
After the lightning spear and Beirut's finger exchanged several more collisions...
Nanessa was ultimately the first to withdraw.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing her stop, Beirut's figure solidified before her as he asked curiously.
"I'm done."
"It's pointless."
Putting away her lightning spear, Nanessa shook her head.
"After fighting you, I now have a fairly clear understanding of where I stand."
"I'm still far from being able to compare with a Sovereign..."
"Lady Nanessa, there's no need to belittle yourself."
Beirut smiled.
"In my opinion, your strength is already not far from the Sovereign realm."
Those words weren't empty flattery.
In Beirut's view...
Nanessa had already reached a level nearly comparable to a Sovereign in terms of speed.
As long as she could make up for her shortcomings in attack and defense...
Who could say she wasn't already a Sovereign?
Wasn't that exactly how the Sovereigns of Locke's lineage had done it?
None of them had refined Sovereign sparks.
Instead, by relying on strength comparable to true Sovereigns, they had entered the ranks of the Sovereigns.
No...
More accurately...
It was the Sovereigns themselves who had begged the experts of Locke's lineage to join the "Sovereign" camp.
Certainly...
Very few living beings within this universe could ever reach the Paragon realm.
But remember...
Paragons were merely rare, not nonexistent.
Within the Coiling Dragon Universe, time held little meaning for either Sovereigns or Paragons.
Given a sufficiently long timeline...
The appearance of ten or even a hundred Paragons was entirely foreseeable.
If Locke's lineage had refused to join the Sovereigns and instead established an entirely new faction...
Then one could easily imagine that nearly every Paragon would seek to join them.
If among one hundred Paragons, even only ten eventually cultivated to the Sovereign realm...
Then Locke's lineage would inevitably grow into a force capable of rivaling—or even surpassing—the seventy-seven Sovereigns.
Of course...
This was merely the speculation of the other Sovereigns, who understood nothing about the Laws of Space or the Laws of Time.
In reality...
A single-element Earth, Wind, Water, or Fire Paragon could comprehend at most twenty-five percent of the Laws of Space.
If they couldn't fuse the Laws of Space with their own elemental Laws...
Their upper limit would only be slightly below that of an Intermediate Sovereign.
However...
If they successfully fused the Laws of Space with their own elemental Laws into an "X-Space Laws" system, then with the support of perfected elemental Laws and their portion of Will...
Matching a Chief Sovereign would pose little difficulty.
At present...
Among the Sovereigns of Locke's lineage, only Loran had reached that stage.
Veer and Grant had already reached the limits of their potential.
Rena likewise had every hope of reaching Loran's level.
In fact...
Rena also possessed remarkable talent in fusing the Wind Laws and the Edicts of Fate.
Given enough time...
She might even surpass Loran.
"You're too kind, Lord Beirut."
Nanessa shook her head.
Now that she understood the gap between herself and a Sovereign, she had also begun addressing Beirut as "Lord" out of respect.
"Lord Locke once said that with my current strength, I still cannot bear the burden of the Laws of Time required for me to become a Heavenly Deity."
Within Locke's lineage, those who reached the Sovereign level without refining a Sovereign spark were all referred to as Heavenly Deities.
Of course...
This was merely an internal title used within Locke's lineage.
To outsiders, they were still collectively referred to as Sovereigns.
"Lord Beirut, I apologize for my earlier offense."
"I've already been away from that person for quite some time."
"I must return to continue protecting the individual Lord Locke entrusted to me."
"So, I'll take my leave for now."
After giving Beirut a slight bow, Nanessa instantly withdrew from the battle plane.
Returning to the Yulan Plane, she didn't linger within the Forest of Darkness.
Transforming into a streak of lightning, she flew toward the Kingdom of Finlay.
"Heavenly Deities?"
"The Laws of Time?"
After Nanessa departed, Beirut stroked his little mustache thoughtfully.
"Could it be..."
"The reason the members of Locke's lineage can cultivate from the Paragon realm all the way to the Sovereign realm is because they've cultivated either the Laws of Time... or the Laws of Space?"
Recalling Chief Sovereign Locke's unfathomable abilities...
Beirut was already eighty percent convinced of his speculation.
Whether it was pulling a Sovereign out of a Material Plane...
Or transporting him from the distant Netherworld to the Yulan Plane...
Neither was something an ordinary Sovereign could accomplish.
The only possible explanation was that Chief Sovereign Locke had cultivated the Laws of Space to an unimaginably profound level.
Only then could he perform such feats that filled even Sovereigns with awe.
Since the birth of this universe...
All living beings had only ever been able to cultivate the Seven Elemental Laws and the Four Edicts.
The Sovereigns themselves were no exception.
There were seventy-seven Sovereigns in total, with seven belonging to each element.
However...
That didn't mean the Laws of Space and the Laws of Time didn't exist within this universe.
Many divine beasts possessed innate divine abilities related to space or time.
It was simply that...
Only divine beasts could access the Laws of Space and the Laws of Time through their innate divine abilities.
Without an innate divine ability...
It was impossible to come into contact with either the Laws of Space or the Laws of Time.
(End of Chapter)
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