After spending some time with the Death Sovereign, Locke once again entered secluded cultivation.
Now that he had found a material capable of carrying profound mysteries, the weapon he had envisioned could finally be said to have truly taken its first step.
Looking at the divine spark in his hand, Locke clenched it tightly in his palm.
It wouldn't budge.
This was a divine spark—a substance whose hardness rivaled that of a Sovereign artifact.
At present, the willpower of Locke's original body was only about fifty percent stronger than that of a Paragon.
With that level of strength, crushing a divine spark barehanded was simply impossible.
A pale blue glow emerged within Locke's palm. The moment the power of fused Laws manifested, cracking sounds immediately rang out from his hand.
Once he had tested the divine spark's endurance limit, Locke rubbed his hands together.
What remained in his palm was nothing more than black crystalline powder.
Even divine sparks, despite being capable of carrying profound mysteries, were not so easily forged into weapons.
Bebe—no, Beirut—was a Godeater Rat, a divine beast possessing the innate divine ability "Godeater." He could consume divine sparks, refine their essence to strengthen his body, and even condense that essence into the form of weapons.
Over these tens of millions of years, Locke had also obtained the blood of countless divine beasts and analyzed most of their innate abilities.
But Beirut was the first Godeater Rat born into existence.
Which meant that if Locke wanted an ability similar to Beirut's method of extracting divine spark essence, he would have to wait at least another thousand epochs.
As such, Locke could only resort to a far more crude approach.
His divine sense swept across the powdered divine spark.
Very quickly, he selected several grains from the black powder.
The force Locke had used to destroy the divine spark had been uniform throughout.
Which meant these few grains—those containing the richest aura of Laws within his divine sense—were the true essence of the divine spark.
From then on, Locke repeated the same process over and over.
Every divine spark crushed into powder yielded only two or three grains of refined essence.
These particles were divided into three groups.
One group consisted entirely of Water-element divine spark essence.
Another consisted entirely of Fate-element divine spark essence.
The final group was made up of equal portions of Water and Fate divine spark essence.
This work alone consumed nearly a thousand years.
There was no helping it. Since he lacked a direct extraction method like "Godeater," Locke could only rely on this clumsy method to gather divine spark essence.
Fortunately, Locke had already reached the Sovereign level. In addition, he possessed a sizable Sovereign army, and the Death Sovereign had also supported him extensively.
Only because of all this had he managed to gather such a quantity of divine spark essence.
Had Locke merely been a divine-level expert—even if he were a dual-element Paragon—his inability to damage divine sparks would have made this idea impossible to execute.
Unlike now, where sheer power alone allowed him to grind divine sparks down and refine their essence.
Of course, Locke's method was undoubtedly thousands of times less efficient than Beirut's.
But with a sufficient supply of divine sparks, the overall speed was actually not much slower than Beirut's method of refinement.
It might even be slightly faster.
After clearing out three empty interspatial rings and storing away two piles of divine spark essence, Locke focused all of his attention on the remaining pile of Water-style essence.
Now, what he needed to consider was how to forge these divine spark essences into a weapon.
Most divine-level experts forged weapons by using divine power to shape ores into the forms they desired, then tempering them with divine power until they became divine artifacts.
But the hardness of divine sparks meant that divine power simply could not reshape them.
Fortunately, Locke was no longer merely a god.
He was a Sovereign capable of using Sovereign power.
With a thought, Fate Sovereign power from his Fate Sovereign clone flowed into Locke's original body.
The next moment, white Fate Sovereign power enveloped the pile of Water divine spark essence beneath the amplification of his willpower.
Under the effects of Sovereign power and willpower, the pile of divine spark essence gradually condensed into the shape of a spear.
Only after beginning the tempering process did Locke realize just how slow Sovereign power was at refining divine sparks.
Unlike ordinary ores, divine sparks possessed hardness comparable to Sovereign artifacts. Even Sovereign power struggled to alter their nature.
Especially since the spear Locke was currently forging used only the purest essence refined from divine sparks.
At his current refining speed, merely fusing the outer layer of particles together and properly shaping the spear would require at least ten thousand years.
And if he wished to completely refine every particle within the spear so that it became a true unified whole, the process would likely need to be measured in hundreds of thousands of years.
Compared to the tens of millions of years spent gathering materials, this was already quite fast.
But to Locke, it was still too slow.
After all, during those millions of years of collecting materials, it had mostly been his subordinates doing the work while he cultivated.
Now, however, Locke had to devote his full attention to tempering the weapon.
The moment he became distracted and returned to cultivating fused Laws, all progress in refining would collapse.
For Locke, even going ten thousand years without cultivation felt unbearable.
Let alone several hundred thousand years.
"So slow…"
Locke sighed softly.
Then, with a thought, a fist-sized sphere of Water Sovereign power was drawn into his body through divine sense.
Under the effect of his willpower, the Water Sovereign power quickly fused with the Fate Sovereign power inside him, becoming a pale blue fused Water-Fate Sovereign power.
The fusion of dual-element Sovereign power increased the strength of his Sovereign power tenfold.
Likewise, under the terrifying might of fused Sovereign power, the countless divine spark particles forming the black spear before him slowly began melting into liquid and merging together.
Using fused Sovereign power to shape divine spark essence increased the speed tenfold.
At this rate, Locke would need no more than two hundred thousand years to fully forge the divine spark spear.
The only issue was that his supply of Water Sovereign power likely wouldn't last that long.
After all, Locke was currently a Fate Sovereign and could absorb vast amounts of Fate Sovereign power through his Fate Sovereign spark.
But his Water divine clone did not possess a Sovereign spark from which to absorb Water Sovereign power.
The Sovereign power he was currently using was what remained from the amount he had requested from the Azure Dragon Sovereign, Redding.
With a thought, Locke sent a divine sense message to Lilia.
The next second, Lilia tore through the space of the Netherworld and headed toward the Water Divine Plane.
...
"Hm?"
The instant the Death Sovereign moved, the other three Chief Sovereigns immediately sensed it.
Without the slightest hesitation, the Destruction Sovereign, Wordred, and the Fate Sovereign, Orloff, tore through the spatial barriers of the Infernal Realm and the Celestial Realm, flying toward the Water Divine Plane.
Within the Life Divine Realm, the Life Sovereign, Viviya, let out a sigh.
Yet she also refused to isolate herself from the other Rule Sovereigns. After tearing open the spatial barrier of the Life Divine Realm, she headed toward the Netherworld as well.
In the past, the three Rule Sovereigns had only needed to keep an eye on Sovereign Locke.
But after the Death Sovereign married Locke, she too had been placed on their watchlist.
After all, the Death Sovereign's interests were now aligned with Locke's.
If Locke ever attempted to seize Water Sovereign sparks, the Death Sovereign would absolutely stand at his side.
Now that the Death Sovereign was heading toward the Water Divine Plane, Wordred and Orloff both moved to intercept her, fearing she might suddenly attack the two Low Sovereigns residing there.
The simultaneous departure of all four Rule Sovereigns immediately alarmed the remaining Sovereigns.
"Is something major happening again?"
For a time, the Sovereigns who had enjoyed peace for tens of millions of years all spread their divine senses into the spatial turbulence.
Among them, the two Low Sovereigns of the Water Divine Plane were completely bewildered.
They had merely been calmly regulating the chaotic Laws within the Divine Plane when, in the blink of an eye, three Rule Sovereigns appeared at their doorstep.
"What are you trying to do, Death Sovereign?"
Outside the spatial turbulence surrounding the Water Divine Plane, the Destruction Sovereign Wordred and the Fate Sovereign Orloff blocked the Death Sovereign's path.
A black Sovereign spear appeared in Wordred's hand as he spoke in a deep voice.
"Oh?"
"Wordred, after all these years, your courage seems to have grown quite a bit."
"You actually dare point a weapon at me now?"
The Death Sovereign halted, her icy gaze settling upon the Destruction Sovereign.
"And besides, what exactly I intend to do—what business is that of yours?"
Faced with her questioning, Wordred fell silent.
Indeed, in terms of status, they were all Rule Sovereigns, existing on the same level.
And in terms of strength, the Death Sovereign surpassed them by a margin.
It was one thing if she chose not to concern herself with them. But for them to attempt to restrict her?
The truth was simply that they could accept the existence of someone who had always been stronger than them from the very beginning.
What they could not accept was someone who had originally been weaker surpassing them so easily and becoming a new threat standing above them.
"Death Sovereign."
Wordred remained silent, but the Fate Sovereign Orloff was different.
Thus, facing the Death Sovereign's questioning, Orloff spoke.
"The Destruction Sovereign and I are not here to interfere with you."
"Oh?"
"You're standing directly in front of me, blocking my path, and you still call that not interfering?"
The Death Sovereign sneered.
With a flick of her hand, a purple whip appeared in her grasp with a crackling sound, shattering the surrounding space.
(End of Chapter)
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