After all, nobody was blind.
Every single one of Lord Loran's attacks landed on Lord Teresia's body and forced Lord Teresia backward.
To call Lord Loran a Paragon based on such strength still felt somewhat inappropriate.
But calling Lord Loran a "suspected Paragon" sounded much more natural and was easier for everyone to accept.
"So, this little fellow is actually the child of Lord Locke and Lady Death Chief Sovereign?"
The Sovereigns' divine senses had already spread over here, so naturally, the conversations of the nearby gods couldn't escape their notice.
"Hm, perhaps only Lord Locke could teach and raise such an expert..."
"A suspected Paragon..."
The Sovereigns clearly accepted the explanation given by these gods as well.
Loran's strength had obviously surpassed ordinary Prefects by a huge margin.
Yet he still had some distance remaining before reaching the level of a true Paragon.
"Suspected Paragon" was indeed a fitting title.
"What a pity..."
The four Sovereigns sighed.
Since he was Lord Locke's son, how lacking in judgment would they have to be to think of recruiting Lord Locke's child as a Sovereign Emissary?
Perhaps the moment they made such an offer, Lord Locke would appear at their doorstep the next instant.
No, Lord Locke probably wouldn't do something like blocking someone's door.
But Lady Death Chief Sovereign definitely would.
These Sovereigns still hadn't forgotten how Blood Peak Sovereign Pash of the Infernal Realm had somehow offended Lady Death Chief Sovereign in the past and been beaten until his face resembled a pigs by her after she stormed into the Infernal Realm.
Because Lady Death Chief Sovereign had neither intended to kill him nor actually killed Blood Peak Sovereign Pash, this incident had not violated the Sovereign Pact established by the Death Chief Sovereign.
The battle between Loran and Teresia continued for three full days.
During this time, Teresia had always held the advantage, but he was unable to completely defeat Loran.
There was no helping it.
With material attacks, Teresia couldn't break through Loran's divine spark defensive equipment.
As for soul attacks, there was even less need to mention them. The soul-protecting Sovereign artifact bestowed upon Loran by Locke had even caused Teresia to suffer a considerable backlash.
Of course, if Teresia had truly wanted to, he could have relied on his superior speed to banish Loran into spatial turbulence.
But this battle between them had merely been a friendly spar, not a fight to the death.
Furthermore, Loran had two Sovereigns standing behind him. No matter how foolish Teresia might be, he would never do something like banishing Loran.
After the battle ended, both Loran and Teresia departed.
However, recordings of their battle spread to the other Divine Planes and Higher Planes.
As the first Paragon whose battle scenes had ever been recorded, the images of Teresia and Loran's battle were sold at extremely high prices, yet this still couldn't stop those who wished to witness the elegance of a Paragon.
For all god-level experts who cultivated Laws and Edicts, Paragons represented their dreams and the ultimate goal pursued by all living beings.
Naturally, they themselves had no hope of reaching the Paragon realm in this lifetime.
But that didn't stop them from admiring those who had already attained it.
Sovereigns were hard to judge, but among god-level beings, the only confirmed Paragons were Dunnington and Teresia.
As for Dunnington, after moving into the Sea of Chaos, he had almost never appeared again.
Now that so many people had recorded Teresia's battle scenes, who wouldn't want to watch them?
The only difference was that wealthy people could watch them multiple times, or even pay enormous prices to obtain rights to duplicate the recordings.
Those without money would simply pool their resources together and watch once.
Teresia's strength did not disappoint everyone.
The power displayed in every movement, surpassing Prefects by hundreds and thousands of times, left people utterly entranced.
Likewise, Lord Teresia's opponent, Lord Loran, also possessed astonishing strength.
"Suspected Paragon" became everyone's recognition of Lord Loran's power.
And because of this, an entirely new realm was inserted between Prefects, Sovereign Emissaries, and Paragons.
Suspected Paragons.
They were far stronger than Sovereign Emissaries possessing Sovereign artifacts, yet seemed somewhat inferior to true Paragons.
...
"Suspected Paragon?"
Although Locke's original body had entered seclusion to comprehend spatial Laws, his Water divine clone and his Fate Sovereign clone remained idle.
His Fate Sovereign clone sat within the Water Divine Plane. After spreading out his divine sense, he quickly learned the origin of this title.
"Hahaha, I never expected the originator of the term 'suspected Paragon' to actually be An'an."
However—
After laughing, Locke still shook his head regretfully.
A suspected Paragon was ultimately only "suspected."
He wasn't truly a Paragon.
Although An'an's current strength was already sufficient to preserve his own life before a Paragon—even in the worst case, he would merely be exiled into spatial turbulence.
As far as the safety of Loran's Water divine clone was concerned, Locke no longer needed to worry.
However, Locke could still sense the pressure weighing upon Loran.
As the child of Sovereigns, Loran was undoubtedly extremely outstanding.
Among the many children of Sovereigns, none could compare to him.
But with both parents being Paragons while he himself remained stuck at the final barrier, even Loran felt too ashamed to return and face Locke and the Death Chief Sovereign.
Over these years, Loran had wandered across the Seven Divine Planes and Four Higher Planes in hopes of breaking through that final heavenly barrier.
Yet after several hundred thousand years, aside from solidifying his title as a "suspected Paragon," he had made no further breakthroughs.
Even after seeking out Dunnington and fighting him once, Loran still failed to obtain any inspiration regarding the final barrier.
Seeing his child suffering so much, Locke naturally wished to help him.
But when it came to helping Loran become a Paragon, Locke had truly done everything he could.
"Forget it..."
"I'll continue thinking about what method might allow An'an to experience another flash of inspiration..."
On the path of Law fusion, Loran had already stepped half a foot into the most critical stage.
All he needed was one more moment of enlightenment. Perhaps then he would become a Paragon.
"Hm... should I let An'an learn ice sculpting?"
"Linley achieved enlightenment through becoming a master woodcarver. An'an might similarly achieve enlightenment through ice sculpting..."
Thinking this, Locke stroked his chin and nodded secretly.
This idea actually seemed feasible.
In that case, before teaching An'an ice sculpting, he should first try it himself!
With a wave of his hand, a fist-sized block of ice appeared in Locke's hand.
Blue light condensed around his right hand, forming a carving knife as he began making fine scraping sounds against the ice.
With Locke's current soul power, he no longer needed any model.
With a single thought, the figure of the Death Chief Sovereign appeared within his mind.
And his astonishing bodily control made his hands unbelievably steady.
If he intended to carve one micrometer, he absolutely wouldn't stop at only 0.8 micrometers.
In less than ten minutes, an ice sculpture of the Death Chief Sovereign seated upon her throne appeared in Locke's hand.
"Not bad, not bad."
"It seems I actually have some talent after all..."
Looking at the ice sculpture in his hand, Locke smiled.
But immediately afterward, his smile faded slightly.
From an external perspective, this sculpture indeed looked exactly like Death Chief Sovereign Lilia.
However, it lacked the aura and spirit unique to Lilia.
To use the words of sculptors, the craftsmanship was too obvious.
The form resembled her, but the spirit did not.
"Hm, let me think. What method should I use to give this thing some spirit?"
Looking at the sculpture in his hand, Locke sank into thought.
Spirit was one of those mysterious things.
Yet if one looked at it another way, it wasn't mysterious at all.
If Locke wished, he could directly attach an illusion to the sculpture, allowing everyone who looked at it to feel the oppressive presence of the Death Chief Sovereign.
Then this sculpture would naturally possess "spirit."
But doing so would violate Locke's original intention in having Loran learn ice sculpting.
The "spirit" possessed by a master sculptor represented the ultimate expression of craftsmanship.
It was through skill that emotion was conveyed, thereby granting spirit to the sculpture itself.
Only by reaching this pinnacle of skill could Loran's spirituality become maximally active, enabling him to finally step across the last half-step.
After all, unlike those Prefects who had been trapped at the final thread of Law fusion and had no future ahead of them, Loran had twice received the greatest possible baptism from complete Water Laws.
Within the fusion of six Profound Mysteries, he had pried open a gap from ninety-nine percent completion and reached the level of ninety-nine point five percent.
If Loran could master some skill to the level of a true master, then his trailing foot would certainly step into the Paragon realm.
Over the following period, Locke began practicing ice sculpting.
This time, he no longer used divine sense, nor did he deliberately recall the appearance of Death Chief Sovereign Lilia.
Instead, he focused solely on using ordinary craftsmanship to endow his sculptures with Lilia's spirit.
One year, two years...
Ten years, twenty years...
Without realizing it, Locke became immersed in this state of sculpting.
A hundred years later, Locke carved the final stroke upon the sculpture in his hand.
In an instant, an imposing aura erupted from the palm-sized sculpture.
It felt as though the Death Chief Sovereign ice sculpture in Locke's hand had transformed into some powerful treasure.
Ordinary gods, under such pressure, would probably be unable to stand and would only be able to kneel in submission.
"Success!"
Looking at the ice sculpture radiating overwhelming majesty, a satisfied smile appeared on Locke's face.
How could he not be satisfied?
This method of stimulating spirituality through ice sculpting had originally been something Locke had devised for Loran's final breakthrough.
Yet during these hundred years of practice, Locke himself had become deeply immersed in the process.
At the instant he completed this sculpture, the fusion between his Water Laws and Fate Edicts unexpectedly achieved another breakthrough.
At present, five Water Profound Mysteries had completely fused with the Fate Edicts, causing Locke's strength to rise another thousandfold.
Following the Death Chief Sovereign's attainment of Paragon, Locke's power had once again caught up to hers.
(End of Chapter)
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