However, among all the Sovereigns, there were two whom Locke excluded from that list.
The first was naturally his old rival, Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff.
The second was Orloff's light-element Sovereign clone, Augusta.
Locke could not guarantee that if Loran ever fell into the hands of those two, they wouldn't take the risk and make a move against his child.
Thus, the first-place Locke investigated was naturally the Celestial Realm.
His soul power spread out, and in an instant, the entire Celestial Realm was encompassed by it.
With the strength of Locke's soul, and with him deliberately concealing it, even the five Fate Sovereigns, including Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff himself, failed to notice anything.
Not sensing Loran's aura, Locke didn't remain in the Celestial Realm. The next moment, he appeared in the Light Divine Plane.
Just as before, Locke first spread his soul throughout the entire Light Divine Plane. After failing to sense Loran's soul aura, he immediately switched to another plane.
After searching four or five Divine Planes, Locke finally discovered his son's aura within the Life Realm.
After more than ten trillion years, Loran was no longer the eleven- or twelve-year-old child Locke remembered.
Now, he appeared to be a young man of around twenty years old. From his appearance, traces of both Locke and Lilia could vaguely be seen.
Of course, what piqued Locke's curiosity was that Loran wasn't alone.
Beside him was a woman who was extremely intimate with him.
Seeing this scene, how could Locke fail to understand?
"Heh, I was wondering why Loran hadn't returned to the Netherworld for several trillion years. So, he's grown up already..."
Shaking his head, after understanding Loran's current situation, Locke had no intention of revealing himself.
Clearly, in Loran's current state, his heart was entirely occupied by that woman. Even if Locke appeared, it was unlikely he could change Loran's mind.
He chose not to disturb him.
After Teresia became a Sovereign, Dunnington was once again the only remaining Paragon.
There were two or three others who had obtained the title of "Suspected Paragon," but it seemed that only the people of their own planes acknowledged them.
The only person recognized as a Suspected Paragon by all Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes remained Loran.
After all, under everyone's witness, Loran had actually fought against a true Paragon. Although he was somewhat inferior, he had not been completely powerless.
As for the two or three who appeared later, they had neither received recognition from the Sovereigns nor fought against actual Paragons. They had only displayed overwhelming power in battles against other Prefects and were acknowledged by the experts of their own planes.
Overall, so long as Sovereigns didn't intervene, Loran was basically invincible.
As for Sovereigns?
Locke smiled slightly.
Although the Sovereigns of the Life Realm could not detect Locke's soul power, Locke's soul clearly sensed the six Sovereigns within the Life Realm.
Beside Loran, there was constantly a Sovereign's divine sense watching over him.
If Locke wasn't mistaken, that divine sense belonged to Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya.
Clearly, Wawaya had already recognized Loran and thus had spread her divine sense around him to keep watch at all times.
Unlike the Sovereigns of other elements, who each had their own factions—
the Life Sovereigns held Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya in extremely high regard.
Aside from Lilia's Lesser Sovereign clone, which remained immobile atop Mount Abyssal, the other five Life Sovereigns sincerely supported Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya.
The other Life Sovereigns had certainly already noticed Wawaya's concern for Loran. Even after Wawaya withdrew her divine sense, those Sovereigns would continue looking after him.
Quietly returning to the Netherworld, Locke did not tell Death Chief Sovereign that Loran had already grown up.
He wanted to see when Loran would bring that girl home.
At that time, what expression would appear on Lilia's face?
"In the blink of an eye, it seems I'm about to become a grandfather..."
Looking at the familiar Water Mansion, Locke sighed emotionally.
When cultivating, even a trillion years didn't feel particularly long.
But when not cultivating, even ten thousand years seemed to last forever.
Shaking his head, Locke stopped thinking about it and resumed absorbing divine beast blood essence.
Over these past ten trillion years, Locke had never once stopped improving his bloodline.
Every slight increase in bloodline purity strengthened his body a little further.
Now, his body's toughness exceeded even that of a Sovereign artifact by half a level.
According to Locke's own estimation, perhaps only Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff, after bringing his Samsara Golden Body to perfection more than a thousand calendrical cycles later, could compare to him physically.
Of course, the increase in bodily strength was merely a side benefit for Locke.
Unlike Law cultivation—
when absorbing the blood essence of divine beasts possessing spatial innate divine abilities, no matter how slight the improvement was, Locke could clearly sense the strengthening of his bloodline and the increase in his control over spatial power.
It was like accumulating experience points while playing a game. The feeling of gradually completing his bloodline and slowly improving himself was intoxicating.
Other Sovereigns felt there was no further progress to be made and became bored.
But to Locke, there were still far too many things left to cultivate.
Spatial Laws, water-space fused Laws, water-fate fused Laws, the Samsara Laws above the Edicts, the evolution of his Emperor Jiang bloodline...
Among these, cultivation of the Spatial Laws remained the highest priority.
Compared to the Spatial Laws, everything else had to give way. There was no room for negotiation.
Therefore, among Locke's three bodies, his original body—which possessed the highest affinity for space—was responsible for Spatial Law cultivation.
In addition, because his original body was the Emperor Jiang divine beast, only it could continue evolving his bloodline.
Fortunately, this did not conflict much with Spatial Law cultivation.
His water divine clone was primarily responsible for water-space fused Laws.
His Fate Sovereign clone mainly cultivated water-fate fused Laws, as well as the Samsara Laws above the Edicts of Fate.
It was only because his water-fate fusion had reached a bottleneck that Locke wasn't devoting much effort to it at present.
With his two divine clones and original body, the three of them perfectly divided all these cultivation paths.
If Locke needed to cultivate even one more thing—or if he lacked one divine clone—he would feel unable to keep up.
As things stood now, he felt everything was just right.
...
Time passed unnoticed during cultivation.
On this day, a gentle divine sense spread into the Netherworld and awakened Locke from his secluded training.
It was Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya's divine sense!
After listening to the information contained within Wawaya's message, Locke was somewhat curious, but he still ended this round of cultivation.
Taking a single step, he appeared within Death Chief Sovereign's palace.
"Locke, you've come."
Locke's ghostlike movements might be frightening to others.
But to Death Chief Sovereign, they were nothing unusual.
On one hand, Lilia simply found it difficult to guard against Locke.
On the other hand, within the Netherworld, possessing the "Heart of the Netherworld" allowed Lilia to sense Locke's location.
As long as Locke remained within the Netherworld, his movements were traceable to Death Chief Sovereign.
In fact, if she utilized the Heart of the Netherworld and mobilized the power of the entire Netherworld, she could even directly interfere with Locke and prevent him from using Spatial Transfer freely.
"Mm. Since this is Wawaya's first time convening a Sovereign Assembly, if we don't attend, it might deal quite a blow to her authority."
The four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts and Locke all possessed the authority to convene Sovereign Assemblies.
Up until now, only five Sovereign Assemblies had been held.
The first Sovereign Assembly had been convened by Death Chief Sovereign.
The reason was naturally the information spread by Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff.
It was at that meeting that Death Chief Sovereign established the Sovereign Pact and personally annihilated Hurley, the Lightning Chief Sovereign, who had gained an additional Sovereign clone after killing the Lesser Earth Sovereign.
The second Sovereign Assembly had also been called by Death Chief Sovereign.
It established Locke's strength and status.
The third Sovereign Assembly had been hosted by Destruction Chief Sovereign Wordred, mainly to resolve the conflict between Ceres under Locke and Sovereign Snowfall.
The fourth Sovereign Assembly had been convened by Locke. During that meeting, he clarified the responsibilities of the Sovereigns.
The fifth Sovereign Assembly had been called by Death Chief Sovereign, during which she announced the existence of the Overgod Missions.
Among the Four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, only Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya and Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had never convened a Sovereign Assembly.
This time, Wawaya's divine sense announcing the sixth Sovereign Assembly would also be her first time hosting one.
Given the relationship between Death Chief Sovereign and Life Chief Sovereign, neither Locke nor Lilia could possibly embarrass Wawaya.
"Mm. After all, it's Wawaya who's calling it."
Locke nodded toward Death Chief Sovereign.
If Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had convened an assembly and the matter had nothing to do with him, Locke might not even bother moving.
"Then let's go."
Since Locke had emerged from seclusion, Death Chief Sovereign wasted no time. She directly tore open space, and together with Locke stepped into the spatial turbulence.
Since the assembly had been called by Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya, the gathering point naturally lay within the spatial turbulence surrounding the Life Realm.
Although the Netherworld and Life Realm were the farthest apart, with the strength of Locke and Death Chief Sovereign, only a few Sovereigns had arrived before them.
"Lord Locke."
"Lord Death Chief Sovereign."
After nodding to the Sovereigns who greeted them, Locke and Death Chief Sovereign tacitly moved to one side.
This Sovereign Assembly's protagonist was Life Chief Sovereign Wawaya. Neither of them intended to steal her spotlight.
A dozen breaths later, all the Sovereigns had arrived.
Locke's Fate Sovereign clone also merged back into his body.
(End of Chapter)
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