Wind Divine Plane.
After becoming a Paragon, Theresia felt that he had already reached the end of the road.
Every Law of Wind had already been cultivated to its limit by him.
With no further motivation to advance, Theresia began indulging himself in the scenery of mountains and rivers, wandering through the various Divine Planes and Higher Planes.
Occasionally, Theresia would return to his native material plane and visit the familiar people there.
But unfortunately, after a million years had passed, everything and everyone he once knew had changed beyond recognition. Theresia could no longer find even the slightest feeling of nostalgia.
One day, Theresia suddenly remembered that Loran had once mentioned that his father had always been cultivating.
"What exactly is Lord Locke cultivating?"
After recalling those words, Theresia couldn't help but wonder.
Having become a Paragon himself, Theresia knew that he had already reached the limit of the path of the Laws.
As a Water Paragon Sovereign, Lord Locke should be the same as him.
Even if Lord Locke possessed other divine clones, after becoming a Paragon, Theresia understood that although Paragons and non-Paragons seemed separated by only a tiny step, the actual difference between them was like heaven and earth.
If one could not become a Paragon, no amount of cultivation would allow one to successfully take that final step.
Every being who became a Paragon possessed an enormous amount of luck.
Even now, if Theresia were forced to recultivate the Laws of Wind from the beginning, at most he could only guarantee reaching the limit of six fused Profound Mysteries. He could not guarantee that he would become a Paragon a second time.
Under such circumstances, what exactly was Lord Locke cultivating?
Carrying such doubts in his heart, Theresia arrived in the Netherworld.
This time, relying on the Paragon's Will, Theresia directly passed through the three layers of mist surrounding Mount Nether and arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Looking up at Mount Nether, which was enveloped by chains of lightning, Theresia hesitated.
Logically speaking, after arriving here, he should simply wait for the Sovereign's summons.
However, Theresia also knew from Loran's words that Lord Locke spent most of his time cultivating and rarely paid attention to what happened around Mount Nether.
After all, the three layers of mist had already blocked nearly all beings who wished to seek an audience with the Sovereign.
And Paragons like himself—over countless years, only two had been born.
Under such circumstances, it was only normal for Lord Locke not to pay much attention to affairs at the foot of Mount Nether.
But Theresia also didn't want to wait hundreds of thousands or even millions of years before obtaining an audience with Lord Locke.
Thus, Theresia directly walked toward the chains of lightning.
Crackle!
As Theresia approached the lightning chains, they immediately erupted with tremendous power, forming powerful bolts of lightning that struck toward him.
Facing these attacks, Theresia didn't dare be careless and directly used his Will to defend himself.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The violent lightning struck Theresia's body, exploding into vast nets of lightning.
"Hmph—"
These chains of lightning were a Sovereign artifact forged by the Death Chief Sovereign. After she had fused it together with her Sovereign Palace, the thunder pearls within could absorb the Death Chief Sovereign's Sovereign power and unleash attacks far beyond the level of gods.
Even though Theresia was a Paragon and possessed the protection of Will, he still let out a muffled groan under the assault of the lightning chains.
Fortunately, these chains merely served as a defensive barrier. After Theresia passed through them, they ceased attacking, causing him to relax slightly.
"As expected, even Paragons are still far too inferior compared to Sovereigns."
Turning around to look at the lightning chains, a trace of unwillingness rose within Theresia's heart.
As fellow Paragons, Theresia and Dunnington naturally had interactions with one another.
From Dunnington, Theresia had learned that after becoming a Paragon, he had once sparred with a Sovereign.
According to Dunnington, that Sovereign had used merely one ten-thousandth of the power an ordinary Sovereign possessed and had shattered Dunnington's body, leaving only his head intact.
Previously, Theresia had only treated those words as interesting conversation.
But now, after personally experiencing the attack of Mount Nether's lightning chains, Theresia understood Dunnington's feelings much more deeply.
This lightning barrier was merely the power of a Sovereign artifact casually created by a Sovereign to prevent gods from disturbing them, yet it had nearly pierced the defense provided by his Will.
From this alone, it could be seen that although Paragons were invincible among gods, before Sovereigns, they were merely slightly larger ants.
Looking up toward the mountain slope shrouded in white mist, Theresia only hoped that he could obtain from Sovereign Locke the secret to continuing cultivation after reaching the Paragon realm.
Otherwise, he truly didn't know what sort of expression he should wear when facing the other Sovereigns in the future.
From the perspective of Law comprehension, the many Sovereigns were certainly not Paragons.
In terms of Laws, he was the one standing ahead of them, someone whose accomplishments they should admire.
But in terms of strength, Sovereigns were far beyond Paragons.
This simply wasn't fair!
If he had been born during the era when Sovereign sparks first appeared, Theresia believed that with his Paragon-level strength, he certainly could have become one of the Sovereigns.
Yet now, because he had been born too late and had failed to obtain a Sovereign spark, he had permanently lost the possibility of becoming a Sovereign.
Theresia felt deeply wronged.
However, among all these Sovereigns, Theresia felt no jealousy toward Lord Locke.
After all, Sovereign Locke himself was also a Paragon.
That was precisely why Theresia had come seeking Locke after finding no path forward.
Lord Locke had become a Paragon five trillion years earlier than he had, and yet he was still continuing to cultivate. Perhaps he had already discovered the path beyond Paragon.
At the very least, even if it wasn't a path beyond Paragon, whatever Lord Locke was cultivating would surely benefit him if he could learn even a small part of it.
Perhaps his strength might even improve considerably because of it.
With such thoughts in mind, Theresia walked toward the mountainside of Mount Nether.
Whoosh!
When Theresia reached halfway up the mountain, a cold-looking man dressed in a golden robe suddenly appeared before him.
Bowing slightly toward Theresia, the man in gold said,
"Lord Theresia, my Sovereign invites you."
"Oh?"
Theresia raised his head and looked toward this Highgod magical beast blocking his path.
"Perfect. I also came this time to seek Lord Locke's guidance. Please lead the way."
The last time Theresia had come to Mount Nether with Loran, he had never encountered this Highgod magical beast.
This, Theresia could understand.
Loran was the child of Sovereign Locke himself. With Lord Loran personally leading the way, there was naturally no need for the attendants serving the Sovereign to appear.
This time, however, Theresia had entered Mount Nether on his own. It was only natural for the Sovereign to notice and send a subordinate to receive him.
Although Sovereigns possessed overwhelming strength over Paragons, they still respected the accomplishments Paragons had achieved in the path of Laws and were willing to treat them as equals.
"Ah, my apologies, Lord Theresia. The Sovereign I serve is not Lord Locke."
Hearing Theresia's words, the golden-robed man revealed an unhappy expression.
This cold man in gold was naturally Gold, the accompanying magical beast of the Netherworld Sovereign.
In Gold's eyes, Sovereign Locke was merely a latecomer to Mount Nether. His own Sovereign and the Death Chief Sovereign were the closest friends.
Of course, Gold also knew that as an accompanying magical beast who had once stolen and eaten one of his Sovereign's Netherfruits, he had no qualifications to interfere in matters between Sovereigns.
However, having a guest invited by his Sovereign mistake the Netherworld Sovereign for Sovereign Locke was a great disrespect toward his master.
If Theresia hadn't been a Paragon, Gold might have attacked him immediately.
"Not Sovereign Locke?"
Upon hearing this, Theresia froze.
Mount Nether housed not only Sovereign Locke, but also Sovereign Locke's wife.
However, based on the information available to him, Theresia only knew that Lord Locke's wife was a Death Sovereign. He didn't know her name.
In Theresia's mind, perhaps Lord Locke was cultivating this time, and therefore the person receiving him had become Lord Locke's wife—the Death Sovereign.
"My apologies. I was discourteous."
Immediately, Theresia apologized to Gold.
"Please guide the way."
Since she was Lord Locke's wife, Theresia naturally dared not show any disrespect.
Seeing Theresia apologize, Gold's expression improved considerably.
"Please follow me."
Following behind Gold, Theresia discovered that they were heading in the exact opposite direction from Lord Locke's residence.
Although he was curious why Sovereign Locke and the Death Sovereign did not live together, he was merely a Paragon. Prying into the affairs of Sovereigns might bring disaster upon himself.
Filled with confusion, Theresia eventually arrived before an incomparably enormous Netherfruit Tree.
Its trunk had a diameter exceeding one hundred meters.
Its canopy stretched over ten thousand meters.
Although it stood only halfway up Mount Nether, this Netherfruit Tree didn't appear much shorter than Mount Nether itself.
"Sovereign, Lord Theresia has arrived."
Gold bowed toward the Netherfruit Tree.
"This is the Death Sovereign?"
Looking at the gigantic tree, a trace of doubt arose in Theresia's heart.
After Gold spoke, human facial features suddenly appeared upon the trunk of the enormous Netherfruit Tree.
At the same time, all living beings nearby could sense a gentle aura emanating from the immense tree.
(End of Chapter)
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