After refining Sovereign sparks, however, neither of Linley's other two divine clones managed to reach the Paragon level.
There was no doubt that, in terms of cultivation talent, Linley simply couldn't compare to Chief Sovereign Locke.
Of course, part of the reason might have been that Linley had cultivated for too short a time and had yet to fully exhaust his potential.
Even so, from this alone, Chief Sovereign of Fate Orloff could already see the difference between Chief Sovereign Locke and Chief Sovereign Linley.
Chief Sovereign Locke always planned before acting, left nothing to chance, and gave others an unfathomable feeling.
Although Chief Sovereign Locke rarely made a move, no one had ever doubted the heights he would ultimately reach.
Even back when Chief Sovereign Locke had opened a miniature plane outside the Yulan Plane, one whose spatial stability was no weaker than a Higher Plane, allowing Deities to battle within it and demonstrating Overgod-level power, the Sovereigns hadn't been shocked after seeing it.
Instead, they had merely sighed in realization.
"As expected. Chief Sovereign Locke has already reached the Overgod realm."
As for Linley...
He was still too young.
After using the power of faith, it would be nearly impossible for him to become a Paragon in the future.
However...
The image of the Death Chief Sovereign suddenly flashed through Orloff's mind, making him less certain.
Among the Four Rule Chief Sovereigns, the Death Chief Sovereign had not originally been a Paragon of the Death Edicts.
The reason her strength hadn't fallen behind the other three Paragon Rule Chief Sovereigns was mainly because she possessed the Netherworld's supreme treasure—the Heart of the Netherworld—allowing her to draw upon the power of the entire Netherworld.
Even outside the Netherworld, the Heart of the Netherworld could amplify the Death Chief Sovereign's strength by a hundredfold.
Combined with the Will granted by her Netherworld Sovereign clone, her strength exceeded that of the other three Rule Chief Sovereigns by another tenfold.
Only after Chief Sovereign of Fate Orloff created the Samsara Golden Body, a technique capable of strengthening the body to the level of a Sovereign artifact, had his strength finally caught up with hers.
But no one had expected that before completing her first Overgod Mission, the Death Chief Sovereign would undergo an enormous breakthrough, becoming a Paragon of the Death Edicts.
Her strength increased another hundredfold, completely surpassing all the other Rule Chief Sovereigns by an entire level.
Every Sovereign could guess that the Death Chief Sovereign's eventual breakthrough to the Paragon level had an enormous connection to Chief Sovereign Locke.
Later, when the members of Locke's faction all managed to become Paragons, the Sovereigns became even more convinced of this.
Even Orloff wasn't certain whether what Chief Sovereign Locke could accomplish, Linley might also be capable of accomplishing.
However...
Regardless of whether Linley could eventually achieve such a feat, Orloff was absolutely certain that the current Linley could not.
There was no complicated reason.
Quite simply...
He hadn't had enough time.
In Orloff's opinion, even if Linley had already achieved some accomplishments in fusing the Profound Mysteries of different Laws, he still hadn't surpassed the limits of a Paragon.
And without exceeding that limit, any increase in strength would be insignificant.
The future Chief Sovereign Linley might very well become stronger than him.
But the current Linley...
Was still nothing more than a little shrimp in Chief Sovereign Orloff's eyes.
Therefore, Orloff paid no attention whatsoever to Linley's bold declaration.
After all...
Discovering Bresle had merely been an accident.
The Bula Clan was a unique race within the Magic Universe, its rarity comparable to that of divine beasts.
Whenever a new Bula clansman was born, it required the previous Bula clansman to willingly sacrifice their own life in order to give birth to the next generation.
Apart from that, just like divine beasts, the Laws of the Magic Universe could naturally give birth to new members of the Bula Clan.
But this was similar to divine beasts as well.
There might be countless divine beasts throughout the universe, yet among divine beasts of the same species, the more powerful they were, the more unique they became.
Take the Four Divine Beasts, for example.
From the birth of the Magic Universe until now—a span of more than fourteen hundred eras, with each era lasting six quadrillion years—not a second Four Divine Beast had ever appeared.
Only because Beirut's luck had been extraordinarily good, benefiting from riding upon Linley's "fortune," had the heavens produced a second Godeater Rat within just a few eras.
After becoming the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff had eliminated every Bula clansman he discovered in order to conceal the relationship between himself and the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta.
As a result, throughout the entire Magic Universe, apart from Chief Sovereign Orloff and the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta, no one else knew of the existence of the Bula Clan.
Yet even Orloff hadn't expected that a new Bula clansman had been born.
Not only that...
This Bula clansman had actually grown to the level of a Seven-Star Fiend and even become a Sovereign Emissary under the newly ascended Rule Chief Sovereign, Linley.
What Orloff was considering now was whether Linley had already learned the Bula Clan's secret from Bresle.
If Linley knew...
Should he silence Linley?
After all, even if Linley didn't immediately connect the secret to him, sooner or later Linley would notice something unusual about the relationship between himself and Augusta.
When that happened...
However, judging from the current situation, Linley didn't seem to know what made Bresle special.
Thinking about it, that made sense.
For Bresle to have cultivated all the way to the level of a Seven-Star Fiend, he couldn't possibly be foolish enough to reveal his greatest secret.
Otherwise...
...
"So this is the universe Father created?"
Before the final Planar War began within the spatial turbulence, Locke's entire family had already entered the miniature prototype universe he had created.
Although it was only a prototype universe, Locke had still created a continent within it to serve as everyone's foothold.
Lilia, Loran, Ver, Grant, Rena, and the others who entered the prototype universe were all Paragons and had each attained some accomplishments in either the Law of Space or the Law of Samsara.
However, with their current strength, they could hardly be considered top-tier experts within Locke's universe.
"This is merely the prototype of a universe."
White light gathered together before finally condensing into Locke's figure, appearing before Lilia and the others.
After all, this universe was only a prototype that Locke had created.
It was far from capable of supporting the entry of Locke himself, whose cultivation had already surpassed the Heavenly Exalt realm.
Otherwise, the prototype universe would be crushed beneath his very existence.
Therefore, Locke could only manipulate the Laws of this universe to condense a Law avatar.
"The Magic Universe is simply too small."
"Your souls can only sense a handful of Laws."
"But within the universe I have created, no such restriction exists."
"Everyone may possess differing affinities toward certain Laws, but unlike the Magic Universe, you won't need a Law affinity in order to cultivate them."
"Furthermore, there's no need to undergo soul mutation before fusing different Laws."
"Or rather..."
"In this universe, everyone is equivalent to a soul mutant from the Magic Universe."
"And not just that."
"They're all complete multi-element soul mutants."
"By remaining within this prototype universe, the Laws here will gradually nourish and repair your souls."
"Only after your souls have been fully restored will I feel comfortable bringing you into my true universe."
"So..."
"Take advantage of this opportunity."
"See whether you can comprehend more Laws, or take another step forward on the path of the Profound Mysteries."
The universe had not yet completed its evolution.
Countless Laws intertwined with one another, making this the very best period for living beings to comprehend them.
Once the universe finished evolving and the Laws became hidden, comprehending them would become far more difficult.
After hearing Locke's explanation, all five of them—including the Death Chief Sovereign—had their eyes light up.
No cultivator was unwilling to become stronger.
Yet with their natural talents, they had already reached the end of the road within the Magic Universe, aside from continuing to fuse Laws.
Now, within the prototype universe Locke had created, they could undergo a second period of growth.
Who wouldn't be delighted?
Especially Veer and Grant.
Within the Magic Universe, they had already reached their limits.
Their progress in the Law of Space had long since stagnated.
But after entering this prototype universe, both of them could clearly sense that they needed only a little more time to completely comprehend the twenty-five percent of the Law of Space accessible to them, greatly increasing their strength.
As for Lilia, Loran, and Rena, who had already fully comprehended every portion of the higher Laws currently available to them...
They would have to wait until their souls were further perfected before they could continue comprehending new portions of the higher Laws.
Of course, that didn't mean those three had nothing to cultivate during this period.
Lilia's Water Laws and Life Laws...
Loran's Death Edicts...
Rena's Fate Edicts and Lightning Laws...
None of these had yet reached the Paragon level.
While waiting for their souls to improve, they could cultivate these other Laws and use this opportunity to bring all of them to the Paragon realm.
Furthermore, both Loran and Rena could continue advancing along the path of Law fusion.
Perhaps by the time they left this place, their strength would have caught up to—or even surpassed—that of the current Death Chief Sovereign.
As for the Death Chief Sovereign herself...
Once her soul had been completely perfected, she too would effectively become a soul mutant within the Magic Universe and could begin fusing the Profound Mysteries of different Laws.
Soon, Lilia, Loran, Veer, Grant, and Rena each found a place within the prototype universe and entered secluded cultivation.
Seeing his wife and descendants begin cultivating, Locke dispersed his Law avatar within the prototype universe.
During this period, Loran's wife, Levlenxia, also came to the Netherworld.
Unlike the other Sovereigns, Levlenxia tore open a spatial rift directly from the spatial turbulence and entered the Netherworld.
Ordinarily, according to the rules among the Sovereigns, a Sovereign of one element wishing to enter another Divine Plane or Higher Plane had to travel through a planar teleportation array.
Otherwise, forcibly tearing through the spatial turbulence into another Divine Plane or Higher Plane would be regarded as a provocation against that plane's Chief Sovereign.
However, as the Water Chief Sovereign, there were only three people in the Netherworld stronger than Levlenxia—
Locke, Lilia, and Loran.
Unfortunately for the rules, those three happened to be her father-in-law, mother-in-law, and husband.
One could say the Netherworld was effectively her husband's family home.
Who there would possibly attack her?
Unable to find Loran on Mount Abyssal, Levlenxia naturally came to the Sovereign Palace to pay her respects to Locke.
During their conversation, Locke naturally informed her that Loran and the others had already entered the prototype universe.
Although Levlenxia was also considered part of the Locke family, her cultivation talent wasn't particularly outstanding.
Before becoming a Sovereign, she hadn't fused even a single Profound Mystery of the Water Laws.
Thus, when considering which family members to bring into the new universe, Locke hadn't included Levlenxia.
Within the Magic Universe, Levlenxia belonged among the absolute peak experts.
However, with her talent, after entering Locke's new universe and losing the Will granted by her Sovereign spark, she wouldn't even survive the Third Tribulation.
If Levlenxia were to perish within the Luomeng Universe, how could Locke possibly explain it to his son Loran?
In fact, separating Loran from Levlenxia also served as motivation for Loran.
After entering the new universe, if Loran wished to reunite with Levlenxia without relying on Locke's help...
He would have to break beyond the Heavenly Exalt realm himself and become a Hongmeng Lifeform.
Actually, in Locke's opinion, Loran's talent wasn't much inferior to Rena's.
In fact, because Loran was Locke's own son, the concentration of his divine beast bloodline had reached nearly one-third of Locke's.
If Loran chose to fully develop his bloodline, he might well reach the Heavenly Exalt realm.
However, advancing beyond Heavenly Exalt to become a Hongmeng Lifeform would be far more difficult for him than for others.
Still...
It wasn't impossible.
In Locke's eyes, among his entire family, those with the greatest hope of reaching the Heavenly Exalt realm were Rena and Loran.
The two of them also possessed a slight chance of becoming Hongmeng Lifeforms.
Although Lilia was currently the strongest, if one excluded the Will granted by her Sovereign spark and the amplification provided by the Heart of the Netherworld, she was still somewhat inferior to Loran and Rena in terms of innate talent.
Fortunately, with Locke present, Lilia's status and strength within his new universe would remain no lower than what they were in the Magic Universe.
After learning that the rest of Locke's family had entered the prototype universe, Levlenxia didn't insist on joining them.
In her view, Father surely had his own reasons for making these arrangements.
Thus, after asking Locke about his attitude toward this Planar War, Levlenxia took Loran's Sovereign Army back to the Water Divine Plane.
When the final Planar War began, Levlenxia nodded slightly toward Linley, Beirut, Bluefire, and Teresia.
Clearly, she had already recognized which Sovereigns had sent these reinforcement armies to support the Water Divine Plane.
Levlenxia wasn't surprised that the Sovereigns of the Yulan faction had come to aid her.
After all, although the grudge between the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta and the Yulan faction had been temporarily suppressed through the intervention of Chief Sovereign of Fate Orloff...
The Sovereigns of the Yulan faction would never stand by and watch the Light Chief Sovereign Augusta grow even stronger once again.
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