In the next moment, Locke's soul flames roared to life as he began forging a soul defense artifact for his Saint Domain true body.
Compared to his water-element divine clone, Locke placed far greater importance on his original body.
True, at present, his water-element divine clone was his strongest incarnation.
But if he wished to secure a broader future, his true body had to be protected above all else.
As long as his Saint Domain body still existed, Locke could continue attempting to comprehend the Four Great Rules.
With the Saint Domain body as his foundation, whether it was comprehending Law profundities or fusing them together, he enjoyed a dual-layer advantage.
More importantly, even if his strongest divine clone were to fall in the future, he could still recover his strength by refining a divine spark.
But if his Saint Domain true body were to perish…
Locke felt that his potential in the Coiling Dragon universe would become painfully limited—its ceiling visible at a glance.
For that reason, when forging this soul defense artifact, Locke was clearly far more meticulous than before.
Yet just as he prepared to convert soul power into emotional energy, a sudden thought struck him.
In the Coiling Dragon universe, nearly all soul defense artifacts followed the same pattern—
constructing a defensive barrier outside the soul.
But aside from building a soul shield, was there really no other way to defend?
In the physical world, one could defend against attacks either by blocking or by dodging.
In the realm of the soul, however, since a god's soul resided within the divine spark and could not move, the soul effectively became a fixed target.
Thus, when crafting soul defense artifacts, everyone built defensive barriers around this immobile target.
However—
What Locke excelled at most was deception.
A trace of amusement curled at the corner of his lips.
Next, Locke transformed the soul power from the remaining four hundred Amethysts into an emotional-energy barrier.
As for the soul power contained in the remaining eighty-seven Amethysts, he evolved it into nine "mirror images" of his soul.
The aura of these mirrors was indistinguishable from Locke's own soul aura.
However, since they were simulated using the soul power from Amethysts, they had no actual connection to Locke's true soul.
Even if all of them were destroyed, Locke himself would suffer no harm.
These nine soul mirrors surrounded Locke's true soul, acting as the visible "targets" exposed to the outside.
In other words—
If an enemy launched a soul attack against Locke's Saint Domain body, the attack would first strike these unprotected soul mirrors.
As long as the nine mirrors had not all been destroyed, Locke's true soul would never be directly hit.
And even if all nine mirrors were shattered, the enemy would still have to break through the emotional-energy barrier condensed from the soul power of four hundred Amethysts.
After fusing this layered defense—surrounded by nine soul mirrors—into a new Amethyst ring, Locke quickly refined it.
"…Perfect."
The profound sense of reassurance rising from the depths of his soul made Locke feel that his current state was exceptionally good.
"Although I've already accomplished the main goal of this seclusion…"
"The cultivation chamber's formations are still active. Leaving now feels like a waste."
"I might as well take advantage of this state and try to find the point of convergence between the essence of water Law and the other three Law profundities."
With that thought, Locke closed his eyes and merged his soul with heaven and earth, entering the state of Unity of Heaven and Man.
In an instant, his soul plunged into the ocean of Law profundities…
How vast was heaven and earth?
Every time Locke entered this state of unity, he couldn't help but marvel at his own insignificance.
Indeed, in this universe, once a being fully comprehended a Law profundity, that comprehension would be condensed by the laws of heaven and earth into a divine spark, bestowed upon them.
But this also meant that divine beings could no longer fuse with the universe through a Law profundity they had already fully mastered.
In a sense, a fully comprehended Law profundity became a different kind of "heaven" from that of the universe itself.
Two different "heavens" could not merge.
Thus, if divine beings wished to re-enter the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, they could only do so through Law profundities they had not yet fully comprehended.
Within this state, Locke could clearly sense just how vast the gap was between the Law profundities he had mastered and those inherent to heaven and earth.
The Law profundities comprehended by living beings were never static.
But how they changed—and how they were applied—depended entirely on the individual.
For beings who ascended by refining divine sparks, their Law profundities were like stagnant pools—unchanging and rigid.
Those who cultivated their way to godhood, however, could control the flow, scale, and direction of that "water," utterly surpassing the former in flexibility.
Fusion of Law profundities took this a step further—
allowing gods to control not only the flow, but also its form, transforming it between solid, liquid, and gaseous states.
Every such advancement elevated a god's mastery of the Laws to a new level.
Yet Locke was certain that even Paragons could not rival the evolution of Law profundities within heaven and earth itself.
Because heaven and earth did not possess merely a single set of Laws.
Although the foundation of the Coiling Dragon universe lay in the four elemental Laws—earth, wind, water, and fire—
once the universe had fully evolved, the three derivative Laws and the four Rules began to evolve on their own, far more profoundly than any being's personal comprehension.
All of I Eat Tomatoes' works followed a consistent underlying framework.
Locke was a devoted reader of Tomato's novels and had read his other works as well.
In Swallowed Star, earth, wind, water, and fire were subordinate rules of space.
Light, darkness, and lightning were subordinate rules of time.
From a cosmological perspective, Coiling Dragon and Swallowed Star shared remarkable similarities.
However, since the Coiling Dragon universe was merely a subsidiary universe, lacking the stability of a primary universe, Hongmeng did not permit beings within it to comprehend the Laws of Space or Time.
At most, only supreme divine beasts could, through their innate talents, touch upon the barest fragments of those Laws.
The Great Dao is fifty; Heaven evolves forty-nine.
Though there was no explicit "Great Dao" in this universe, the Law profundities of heaven and earth were indeed in constant evolution.
This time, guided by an inexplicable inspiration, as Locke entered the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, he divided his soul in two.
(End of Chapter)
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