Beyond that, some Highgods blessed with extraordinarily favorable conditions possessed strength far exceeding that of ordinary Highgods—ten times greater, or even a hundred times greater.
For example, certain Highgods whose physical bodies surpassed even Highgod artifacts, nearly rivaling divine sparks themselves. Even without fusing any profound mysteries of the laws, the sheer force of their physical attacks could exceed that of ordinary Highgods by dozens of times.
Another example would be super divine beasts endowed with terrifying innate divine abilities.
Under such overwhelming innate talents, even Highgods were nothing more than slightly larger ants in their presence.
In Hell, there were only one hundred and eight Prefecture Lords.
Although the overall strength of the living beings in Hell had yet to reach the level it would attain after more than a thousand ages, the pinnacle among them was already no weaker than five-star devils of that distant era.
As for the very top tier, some might not even be inferior to the Prefecture Lords of a thousand ages later.
After all, a genius is called a genius precisely because they can accomplish what others cannot.
From a certain perspective, Locke could also be considered a "genius."
A genius of the soul.
If Locke wished to reach the Amethyst Thorn Mountain Range, then YeMu Prefecture was a place he had no choice but to pass through.
If he were to offend the Prefecture Lord of YeMu Prefecture because of these two individuals, it would absolutely not be a good thing for him.
However…
Locke also knew very well that gods who could brazenly resort to robbery like these two— even if they truly were soldiers of YeMu Prefecture—were not people he intended to let live.
After all, who knew how they would frame him once they returned?
And if resentment lingered in their hearts and they sought out even stronger Highgods for revenge, how was he supposed to deal with that?
Rather than leaving behind such future trouble, it was better to kill them outright and settle everything once and for all.
That way, if he were ever to face retaliation in the future, it would at least be justified—and he would not feel wronged by it.
With that thought, Locke no longer hesitated.
A fierce glint flashed through his eyes, and the ice swords filling the sky instantly disintegrated.
Seeing the ice swords that had caused them so much trouble vanish the two god prefectural soldiers felt their hearts loosen.
It seemed their lives had been spared.
They exchanged a glance, suppressing the indignation in their hearts.
Once they returned to Ye Mu Prefecture, they would have plenty of ways to exact revenge.
Yet just as the two of them began preparing to unbind their spatial rings, they suddenly felt a mass of white mist appear around them…
After dispersing the ice swords, Locke extended his hand. A cloud of white mist instantly enveloped the two gods before him.
Then, Locke clenched his fingers.
Without even a muffled groan, the two figures within the mist were reduced to blackened charcoal, falling from the fog as lifeless husks.
"Oversteaming Kill." (T/N: it seems the move is basically Pakura's Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder (灼遁・過蒸殺, Shakuton: Kajōsatsu) from Naruto)
This technique was one Locke had created by fusing the Ice Edge profound mystery with the Illusionary Fog profound mystery of the Water Laws.
Unlike most people of the Coiling Dragon universe, who understood Ice Edge primarily as a means to enhance the offensive power of ice-element attacks, Locke's comprehension of Ice Sharpness focused far more on a single aspect—
Temperature.
Whether it was the frigid burst unleashed the instant a blade of cold struck its target, or techniques created through fusion with the Mist Illusion profound mystery, Locke's development of Ice Edge always revolved around temperature.
"Oversteaming Kill" drew inspiration from a certain tale of inter-village warfare. By combining the extreme low temperatures of Ice Edge with the Illusionary Fog profound mystery, it forcibly vaporized the moisture within a living being's body, drawing it out as mist—making the victim appear as though they had been burned by flames, reduced to blackened charcoal.
This was currently Locke's strongest technique, one capable of matching the attacks of a Highgod.
Against this move, the two gods had not even the slightest ability to resist and were instantly annihilated.
Locke stepped forward, intending to collect the spatial rings from their bodies.
But at that moment, a streak of blue light shot out from one of the charred corpses, transforming into the appearance of one of the gods.
Only now, the aura he radiated was merely that of the Saint realm.
Clearly, this fellow—just like Locke—had hidden his Saint-level true body within his divine clone.
With the divine clone destroyed, his Saint-level original body could only stare at Locke in sheer terror.
"P-please spare me! As long as you don't kill me, I swear to the Sovereigns that I will serve you for the rest of my life—!"
The Saint-level original body of the god was deathly pale as he knelt before Locke, begging for mercy.
"Sorry. Compared to now, I still prefer the arrogant and overbearing version of you from earlier."
With no surprise at all, facing nothing more than a Saint-level body, Locke merely willed it—and frost slowly crept over the man's body.
Crack… crack…
Bang—
Ignoring the man as he shattered into icy fragments, Locke swept out his divine sense. Seven or eight spatial rings floated up from the ground.
Bright red blood seeped easily into the rings.
After checking them one by one, Locke shook his head.
Although these two gods were prefectural soldiers of YeMu Prefecture, what they contributed was not even as useful as the spoils from the very first god level bandit Locke had encountered.
Still, while there was no Amethyst crystal, there was no shortage of inkstone. Combined, the two gods' spatial rings contained a total of one hundred and seventy thousand inkstones.
After gathering his spoils, Locke slowly rose into the sky.
The other god—who had stopped ten li away once the battle began—fled at top speed the moment he saw Locke kill the two gods, not daring to approach any closer.
"YeMu Prefecture… should be in this direction, right?"
After confirming the direction, Locke flew toward Ye Mu Prefecture.
With his current strength, already comparable to that of a Highgod, he no longer feared encountering bandits.
If anything, he rather hoped to run into some blind fools—so that the resources in his possession might grow even more.
Perhaps because Locke was flying alone so openly and brazenly, many bandits suspected he was bait. During the entire journey to Ye Mu Prefecture, not a single bandit appeared.
Which made sense.
Most bandit groups were led by Gods.
They could easily prey upon Demigods, but without at least three Gods working together, it was extremely difficult to successfully rob a God.
When strength and speed were roughly equal, a God would rather burn through massive amounts of divine power to regenerate their divine body and tank attacks while escaping. Bandits almost never managed to catch them.
Unless they had absolute confidence in their own strength, bandits rarely targeted Gods.
Failing the robbery and ending up drawing trouble upon themselves—only to be forced to flee their original territory—was simply not worth it.
Three years later, Locke finally entered the domain of YeMu Prefecture.
From time to time, he could even spot metal lifeforms flying through the skies.
(End of Chapter)
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