This was because Locke had never regarded the fusion of the Water Laws and Fate Edicts as his true foundation.
Whether or not he refined a Water Sovereign spark to increase his strength had absolutely no effect on Locke's cultivation.
The focus of Locke's cultivation had always been in service to the Spatial Laws.
After all, even if Locke completely fused the Water Laws and Fate Edicts, it would merely allow him to become invincible among the Sovereigns of the Coiling Dragon universe.
No matter how arrogant Locke was, he did not believe that merely completely fusing two sets of Laws and Profound Mysteries would allow him to reach the level of the Overgods, who had become incarnations of the rules themselves and existed everywhere.
Moreover, each of the Four Overgods could carry a portion of Hongmeng's consciousness when descending. The strength they could display was simply beyond Locke's imagination.
However, Locke had never intended to destroy the rules of the Coiling Dragon universe, and naturally would not draw the hostility of the Four Overgods of the Edicts.
Ever since becoming a Paragon, Locke had never abandoned his desire to transcend the Coiling Dragon universe.
After tens of millions of years of preparation, Locke's successful creation of the Dijiang bloodline could be considered the first step upon his path of transcendence.
Afterward, he would comprehend the Spatial Laws and integrate his own Spatial Laws into the "Dijiang bloodline," using them to nourish the growth of his divine beast bloodline in return.
In the past, Locke had once said that the limit of bodily strength within the Coiling Dragon universe was the level of a Sovereign artifact.
But now, Locke wanted to challenge the limits of the Coiling Dragon universe.
Back when he was merely at the divine beast stage, the strength of his body had already reached the level of a Sovereign artifact.
Then after he nurtured his bloodline to the "Godking" level and became a spatial-attributed "supreme divine beast," would the strength of his body perhaps reach the level of an "Overgod artifact"?
Cultivation was the transformation of the body, Laws, and soul.
If even one of these three could be cultivated to the point of surviving within the Hongmeng Space, then one could be considered to have reached the "other shore."
As for bodily cultivation, to achieve a level capable of surviving within the Hongmeng Space, at minimum one's body had to reach the level of a "Hongmeng spiritual treasure," namely, a Hongmeng body.
This was because only by containing Hongmeng energy would one not be dissolved by the Hongmeng Space.
Likewise, the soul also had to reach the level of a Hongmeng soul in order to survive within the Hongmeng Space.
However, in order for the body and soul to reach the level of a Hongmeng body and Hongmeng soul, one had to possess "Hongmeng energy."
Yet within the Coiling Dragon universe, Hongmeng energy simply did not exist.
Unless one fused the four elemental Laws of earth, wind, water, and fire, thereby combining the four types of Sovereign power into Hongmeng energy.
This was something Locke could not achieve no matter what.
Even if he could use magic formations to fuse Hongmeng energy, because his soul was not a four-way soul mutation of earth, wind, water, and fire, he fundamentally would not be able to control Hongmeng energy. Most likely, the instant this fused Hongmeng energy appeared, it would completely dissolve everything around it before eventually dispersing back into the four elemental Laws.
The Laws were also one of the paths Locke had chosen.
Of course, Locke also knew that Spatial Laws alone were still insufficient to support his transcendence beyond the Coiling Dragon universe.
Not to mention transcendence—even purely in terms of strength, even if he completely comprehended the Spatial Laws and reached the "Godking" level equivalent to the Four Overgods, he still would not be a match for the Four Overgods under Hongmeng's control.
Indeed, in terms of rank, Godkings truly stood on the same level as the Overgods.
However, among Godkings, there were ordinary Godkings, Godkings who comprehended Time Acceleration, and invincible Godkings who comprehended Time Stop.
Locke suspected that at minimum, he would have to reach the level of an "invincible Godking" in order to rival the Overgods.
And within the main universe of the Hongmeng universe, not to mention Godkings—even Celestials who had completely comprehended the Temporal Laws still could not achieve transcendence beyond the universe.
Locke felt that if one wished to cultivate the Laws to the point of surviving within the Hongmeng Space, then one absolutely had to completely fuse the Temporal Laws and Spatial Laws into the supreme "Space-Time Laws."
The Space-Time Laws were also among the most fundamental Laws composing the universe.
If one could completely fuse the Temporal Laws and Spatial Laws into Space-Time Laws, then the strength of the space-time barrier would not be inferior to the cosmic membrane itself.
Hongmeng energy could not dissolve the cosmic membrane, and naturally it likewise could not dissolve the space-time barrier.
At that time, it would be when Locke broke free of the Coiling Dragon universe, entered the Hongmeng Space, and became a Hongmeng Controller.
…
"Found it. It's here!"
Within the spatial turbulence, Locke moved at astonishing speed.
Only when Locke suddenly discovered that the triangular arrow formed from the gray mist inside the pearl in his hand had shifted direction did he slow down, using the changing direction of the triangular arrow to search one material plane after another within the nearby spatial turbulence.
With the guidance of the triangular arrow, Locke expended little effort and quickly found the material plane indicated by it.
"So, the Blackstone Garment is within this plane?"
Locke spread out his divine sense and swiftly comprehended the situation of this material plane.
Within this material plane, the strongest expert was the Plane Overseer, at the God level.
In addition, there were three Demigods and eighty-seven Saint-level experts. Within the material plane, they were only considered middle-to-lower tier powers.
However, what disappointed Locke was that his divine sense still failed to locate the Blackstone Garment.
This was also within Locke's expectations.
After all, even when the Soul-Extinguishing Pearl and Bloodshadowflame were placed directly before him, his divine sense had failed to sense their existence. Naturally, the Blackstone Garment would be no exception.
This trip, Locke merely intended to locate the position of the Blackstone Garment.
As for how to search for the Blackstone Garment within this plane, that would depend on the Deities under his command.
After all, if even such matters required Locke personally sending out elemental clones to search, then what use would his Sovereign Emissaries and Sovereign Army soldiers have?
…
"Lilia, I found the final Overgod talisman!"
Within the Netherworld, Locke's figure flashed as he appeared before the Chief Sovereign of Death's Sovereign Palace and stepped inside.
"So quickly?"
The Chief Sovereign of Death was astonished.
Although the Chief Sovereign of Death had never doubted Locke's ability to find the third Overgod talisman, Bloodshadowflame had only just been obtained not long ago. Yet Locke had already located the whereabouts of the third Overgod talisman, leaving even the Chief Sovereign of Death amazed by Locke's methods.
"Yes. Through the connection between the Soul-Extinguishing Pearl and Bloodshadowflame, I have already locked onto the plane where the Blackstone Garment is located."
"But unfortunately, just like the Soul-Extinguishing Pearl and Bloodshadowflame, divine sense cannot sense the existence of the Blackstone Garment, so we can only send people into that plane to search for it."
"That's simple."
The Chief Sovereign of Death said, "Coincidentally, I haven't issued a Sovereign mission in quite some time. Next, I'll release the search for the Blackstone Garment as a Sovereign mission."
"That works too."
Hearing the Chief Sovereign of Death's words, Locke nodded and informed her of the name of the material plane where the Blackstone Garment was located.
"My Fate Sovereign true body is currently outside that material plane within the spatial turbulence. Once Christina and Mira find the Blackstone Garment, I'll directly bring them back from the spatial turbulence."
"Mm."
…
"Oh? They've already arrived?"
Within the spatial turbulence, Locke's divine sense suddenly sensed several familiar auras appearing within the material plane located inside the spatial turbulence where he currently was.
They were the two Sovereign Emissaries under the Chief Sovereign of Death—Christina and Mira Locke.
Together with them were another seven or eight people.
However, what surprised Locke was that among these eight people, aside from experts from the Chief Sovereign of Death's Netherworld Army, there were actually also two captains from his own army.
The Fourth Battalion captain—Figroa, Oakes's son.
And the Fifth Battalion captain—Celes.
Locke knew that during the time Celes and Mira had traveled together through the Infernal Realm searching for him, the two had become fairly close. Since Mira currently had a mission while his own Sovereign Army had none, it was not strange for him to come assist Mira.
But what was Figroa doing here?
When had he started mixing around with people from the Netherworld Army?
After observing for a while and seeing both Figroa and Celes hovering around Mira while mocking each other from time to time, Locke suddenly understood.
So, both Figroa and Celes were interested in Mira…
(T/N: I guess it's normal since they're all immortal but godamn Celes! You're a couple billion years older than her)
Shaking his head, Locke stopped paying attention.
Although Locke was both Mira's ancestor and teacher, he would not interfere in Mira's romantic life.
No matter who Mira ultimately ended up with, Locke would bless her.
With a casual wave, Locke tore open a spatial rift and tossed the pearl capable of sensing the Blackstone Garment through the spatial crack, while simultaneously transmitting a message to Christina explaining the pearl's function.
Afterward, Locke no longer paid any attention to the matter.
With that pearl, if Christina and the other eight still could not locate the Blackstone Garment within a single material plane, then they would truly be too useless.
…
"It's complete!"
Within the Netherworld, inside the Water Manor of Mount Netherworld, a streak of dark black radiance suddenly flashed across the black spear floating before Locke's original body, causing the spear to appear perfectly unified and emit a powerful aura.
At the spear tip, merely standing upright, its own sharpness pierced open a spatial crack several inches long in the space directly before it.
When using fused Sovereign power to temper the divine spark essence and fuse it together, Locke had essentially also been using fused Sovereign power to temper this divine spark weapon further.
Now, all the divine spark essence had already been fused into a single whole by Locke.
At the same time, after being tempered by Locke's three-way fused Sovereign power of space, water, and fate, the divine spark weapon had finally been completely refined by Locke into a divine spark Sovereign artifact.
In terms of power, it would absolutely surpass all existing Sovereign artifacts possessed by the current Sovereigns.
For other Sovereigns' Sovereign artifacts, a tenfold difference in strength would allow them to be damaged, while a hundredfold difference in strength would shatter the opponent's Sovereign artifact in a single blow.
But Locke's divine spark Sovereign artifact spear had been tempered by three-way fused Sovereign power. Even a hundredfold difference in strength would be incapable of destroying it.
(End of Chapter)
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