The only requirement they had for Loran was this:
Without their permission, he was not allowed to leave the Netherworld.
For the God-level Loran back then, this wasn't a requirement at all.
After all, he hadn't even fully experienced the vastness of the Netherworld. Why would he run off to another plane?
However, as Loran's strength increased and he came into contact with higher-level experts, he gradually pieced together his and his parents' true identities from what others told him.
He was the child of two Sovereigns. To celebrate his birth, Sovereign Locke had specifically manifested his grace across the skies of the Netherworld for a full hundred years.
The first plane Loran's Water divine clone visited after leaving the Netherworld wasn't the Wind Divine Plane, but the Infernal Realm, another Higher Plane like the Netherworld.
It was there that he met Reynold and learned from him of his father's interest in Teresia. Only then did Loran travel from the Infernal Realm to the Wind Divine Plane.
He simply wanted to see what kind of person this "genius" his father paid attention to really was.
"A genius?"
Upon hearing Loran's form of address, the intercepted Teresia became displeased.
What was a genius?
It was a title used by experts for those who had yet to mature.
When uttered by the powerful, the word itself carried a derogatory tone.
Because such an attitude was simply too pretentious—the lofty manner clearly showed that the speaker didn't view the other party as an equal, but rather looked down upon them as a junior or a weakling.
Teresia believed that within the Wind Divine Plane, he could at least barely be considered an "expert."
After all, if he wished, he could advance at any time and become a Seven-Star Windhunter.
"And who are you?"
"Forget it. I have no interest in learning your name."
"After all, a deity soaring through the heavens has no need to know the names of ants on the ground that raise their legs in an attempt to obstruct its advance."
Annoyed by Loran's tone, Teresia naturally didn't indulge him and immediately mocked him.
At the same time, a circle of azure divine power gathered in Teresia's hand and condensed into a spear of wind.
Although he was displeased with Loran, Teresia knew that anyone who dared appear directly before him and speak as though he didn't take him seriously was either a fool or a truly supreme expert.
Therefore, he attacked with his full power right from the start.
"Wind God's Spear!"
Whoosh!
The Wind God's Spear in Teresia's hand shot forth, piercing through fear itself and tearing a spatial rift dozens of meters long through the Wind Divine Plane before hurtling toward Loran.
"Oh?"
Seeing that Teresia actually dared attack him, Loran chuckled and extended his right hand.
Crash...
The sound of ocean waves seemed to ring out.
A blue vortex appeared before Loran's right hand.
The moment Teresia's Wind God's Spear touched the blue vortex, it was instantly shredded apart by the rapidly rotating current.
The dozens-of-meters-long spatial tear was swiftly smoothed over by the blue vortex, making it seem as though even the spatial rift itself had been swallowed.
"How is that possible?"
Seeing his strongest attack so easily destroyed, Teresia's expression changed.
After all these years of effort, Teresia had absolute confidence that this move, Wind God's Spear, posed a significant threat even to Seven-Star Fiends.
Yet now, it had collapsed so effortlessly.
Clearly, the childlike figure before him was actually a Prefect-level expert.
Although Teresia aspired to become a Paragon and had always advanced toward that goal—
He also knew that reaching the Paragon realm wasn't easy.
Throughout countless years, innumerable experts had emerged across the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes.
But in the end, only Dunnington had become a Paragon.
If he failed to achieve that realm, then he himself would merely become one among countless Prefect-level experts.
Previously, those targeting him had only been Six-Star and Seven-Star Windhunters.
And now, he was already facing a Prefect?
A trace of anger flashed through Teresia's heart.
He still hadn't found the point of compatibility for his seventh Profound Mystery.
If he advanced to Highgod now, his strength would rise to the level of a Seven-Star Windhunter.
He also had confidence that within a thousand years of becoming a Highgod, he could find the compatibility point for the seventh Wind Laws Profound Mystery, and within ten thousand years completely fuse seven Wind Laws Profound Mysteries to become a Prefect-level expert.
However, when it came to the fusion of the final two Wind Laws Profound Mysteries, even with all his arrogance, he felt the chances of becoming a Paragon would become pitifully low.
"Not bad."
Just as Teresia was wrestling with whether he should break through to Highgod, Loran dispersed the vortex before him and praised Teresia.
"To possess such strength while still a God, Teresia, you've earned my recognition."
"After all, even I wasn't much stronger than this when I was at the God stage."
Powerful as Loran was, when he had been a God, he had only fused four Water Laws Profound Mysteries.
Unable to find the compatibility point for the fifth Profound Mystery for a long time, he had decisively advanced to Highgod. Only then did he successfully discover the compatibility point and perfectly fuse the fifth Water Laws Profound Mystery, granting him his current strength.
But Teresia clearly had no intention of advancing to Highgod.
In other words, he intended to fuse one or perhaps two more Wind Laws Profound Mysteries before breaking through.
How great must one's desire to become a Paragon be to accomplish such a thing?
At the very least, Loran himself hadn't managed it.
Thus, he truly admired Teresia.
"As expected of someone Father... someone favored by a Sovereign..."
"Hm?"
Loran's voice wasn't loud.
But for Deities, at such a distance, Teresia could hear him clearly.
"This person bears no hostility toward me?"
"And he just said that I'm someone favored by a Sovereign?"
"Which Sovereign has taken notice of me?"
"Could this person be that Sovereign's Emissary?"
Though doubts still remained in his heart, Teresia at least relaxed.
Unless absolutely necessary, he truly didn't want to break through to Highgod right now.
Too many people had been trapped forever at the final step to becoming a Paragon.
Teresia didn't want to spend endless years regretting that he had broken through too early.
"May I ask who Your Excellency is?"
Now that he knew Loran was a Prefect-level super expert, Teresia's expression gained a trace of respect.
Such an expert indeed possessed the qualifications to look down upon him and call him a genius.
"Me?"
Loran pointed at himself and laughed.
"I don't have much fame in the Wind Divine Plane. Even if I told you my name, you wouldn't recognize it."
Teresia understood.
It seemed this youth with the appearance of a teenager was an expert from another plane.
"Perhaps we didn't know each other before, but don't we know each other now?"
"Hm, that makes sense."
Loran nodded.
After learning of his father's interest in Teresia, he had indeed come intending to get acquainted with him.
"My name is Loran. I'm from the Netherworld."
"Loran from the Netherworld?"
Upon hearing the name, Teresia immediately searched his memories.
Across the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes, many clans and organizations spanned multiple planes.
These forces transmitted information about experts throughout the various planes, allowing people to know of powerful individuals elsewhere without ever leaving their own planes.
Among them, there were over two thousand Prefect-level experts.
These experts were either Prefects of the Divine and Higher Planes or Commanders of Purgatory, Nine Nether Lords, and others qualified to participate in the Planar Wars.
Anyone whose reputation spread to other planes was no ordinary individual.
Yet among these two thousand-plus Prefect-level experts, Teresia found no information regarding Loran.
Clearly, although he possessed Prefect-level strength, Loran was neither one of the eighty-one Prefects of the Netherworld nor one of the Nine Nether Lords of the Nether Sea.
Nevertheless, Teresia still felt that the name Loran sounded familiar.
Suddenly, as though he remembered something, he abruptly raised his head.
"You said your name is Loran?"
"Yep."
"From the Netherworld?"
"That's right."
"You're Sovereign Locke's son?"
"Huh? You know that too?"
Recognized so easily, Loran was somewhat surprised.
"I thought that using my real name outside the Netherworld would prevent people from connecting me to Father. I didn't expect you to see through it anyway."
"Hahahaha!"
Teresia's eyes lit up.
He flashed before Little Black and stared at Loran with burning eyes.
"Lord Loran, the marriage decree and congratulatory proclamation that Sovereign Locke projected across the skies of the Netherworld allowed countless Water Laws experts to advance further in their cultivation."
"All Water Laws experts said that within those words, they could perceive every transformation of the Water Laws."
"Because of that, everyone firmly believes that Lord Locke is a Water Paragon."
"Earlier, you said I was favored by a Sovereign. Then may I ask—is it Lord Locke who has taken notice of me?"
"Uh..."
Faced with Teresia's blazing gaze, Loran was clearly somewhat unaccustomed to it.
After all, in the Netherworld, nearly every expert knew he was Sovereign Locke's son and didn't dare show him the slightest disrespect.
Someone like Teresia, who directly asked about Locke the moment they met, simply didn't exist.
Still, Loran could understand Teresia's fanaticism.
From the very beginning of his cultivation, Loran had walked the path of fusing Laws Profound Mysteries.
He himself had advanced to God only after completely fusing two Profound Mysteries.
At the time, Loran had been very puzzled.
The fusion of Laws Profound Mysteries didn't seem nearly as difficult as the legends claimed.
Why was it that so many people couldn't accomplish it?
(End of Chapter)
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