"Boom!"
"Pfft!"
Within the Ancient Garden, Augusta's body slammed into one of the pavilion's pillars, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.
Orloff expressionlessly approached Augusta, grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him into the air. Augusta had no choice but to grab Orloff's wrist with both hands to prevent Orloff from actually crushing him to death.
"How foolish..."
"They're merely a few dozen angels at the Seven-Star Fiend level and one angel at the Asura Prefect level. You actually can't bear to give them up?"
"If you truly can't bear to part with them, you could have simply made those angels commit suicide, leaving only Linley's mother behind. Then, after Linley's mother regained her freedom, you could release your ownership of the Angel Reincarnation Pool and establish the connection again."
"Afterward, you could put the Angel Hearts of those dead angels back into the Angel Reincarnation Pool and revive them. In that case, what would you have lost?"
Angels were "weapons" belonging to the Light Sovereigns.
Compared with divine-level lifeforms, angels did not have divine sparks.
However, they possessed something similar to a divine spark: an "Angel Heart."
The souls of the angels were stored within their "Angel Hearts."
Even if an angel died, as long as their "Angel Heart" remained, they could be placed back into the Angel Reincarnation Pool and revived.
Indeed, for the Light Sovereigns to grant an angel freedom, they had to release their ownership of the Angel Reincarnation Pool. Once they did so, all the angels born from that Angel Reincarnation Pool would gain their freedom.
But if they followed the method Orloff had described to free a single angel, it would merely require one additional procedure. There would fundamentally be no loss.
Even Orloff, who was almost devoid of emotion, was now angered by Augusta to the point that he wanted to kill him.
Not long ago, Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had taken the lead in mediating between Linley and Augusta over the matter of Lina.
However, what Orloff had not expected was that after negotiating with Linley and agreeing on a price of twenty drops of the blood essence of each of the Four Divine Beasts Sovereigns in exchange for Light Chief Sovereign Augusta agreeing to restore Chief Sovereign Linley's mother Lina's freedom, Light Chief Sovereign Augusta had actually played a trick.
Angels were born by placing pure souls into the Angel Reincarnation Pool.
Rather than saying that the angels were controlled by the Light Chief Sovereign, it would be more accurate to say that the angels were controlled by the Angel Reincarnation Pool.
And the Angel Reincarnation Pool was controlled by the Light Sovereigns. Thus, the angels were indirectly controlled by the Light Sovereigns as well.
If a Light Sovereign wanted to grant the angels freedom, he had to release his ownership of the Angel Reincarnation Pool.
What Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had not expected was that Light Chief Sovereign Augusta had readily agreed to return Linley's mother Lina her freedom.
But when it came time to actually carry it out, Light Chief Sovereign Augusta had not released his connection to the Angel Reincarnation Pool. Instead, he had staged a scene in which he appeared to suffer severe injuries, then deceived Linley by telling him that he had already released his soul control over Lina.
"Augusta, do you even know that Linley is someone Chief Sovereign Locke values highly, and that he has explicitly said Linley possesses the potential to grow to his level?"
"While I have been doing everything possible on my end to avoid forming any cause and effect with him, you went ahead and turned a conflict that could originally have been peacefully resolved into a mortal feud."
"Do you really want to die?"
"Or is your hatred for me already greater than your fear of me?"
At that time, Orloff himself had been shocked by Augusta's actions.
Although Orloff and Augusta were the same person, their consciousnesses were relatively independent.
Their memories were connected, but neither side could prevent the other from making a particular choice.
In fact, there was no need to prevent it.
Because no matter what choice was made, it was still "his own" choice. They merely needed to continue down that path.
Precisely because of this, Orloff felt that he had been stabbed in the back by Augusta.
When Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had failed to immediately speak up and stop Augusta, Orloff already knew that he and Chief Sovereign Linley would inevitably have a life-and-death battle in the near future.
When that battle began would depend on when Chief Sovereign Linley learned the secret of the angels.
By then, the two sides would essentially be locked in a fight to the death.
Although Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff had previously had the thought of killing Linley after seeing the Sovereign's Emissary of the Bula Race under Linley's command, the emergence of Chief Sovereign Locke had caused Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff to decide to distance himself from Linley.
Indeed, when Chief Sovereign Locke had saved Linley from the Destruction Overgod, he had said that he would only intervene once.
But did Orloff dare to gamble on that?
He believed that Chief Sovereign Locke would keep his word, but what if he didn't?
Precisely because of this, Orloff had wanted Light Chief Sovereign Augusta to reconcile with Linley.
That would resolve Augusta's life-and-death crisis and, in turn, prevent himself from forming any further cause and effect with Chief Sovereign Linley.
Unfortunately...
"Wait, wait..."
"Orloff, listen to my explanation..."
"Cough, cough..."
Augusta's face flushed red as he hurriedly spoke, wanting to find some reason or excuse to avoid Orloff's punishment.
However, Orloff and Augusta were one entity. If they were willing, they could synchronize their memories with each other.
Normally, because of the differences in their personalities, they strongly rejected the other's memories.
Now, Orloff was synchronizing his memories with Augusta's.
From Augusta's memories, Orloff could sense that Augusta had not thought that far at all.
He had merely acted on a whim at the time. He had been annoyed by Linley and wanted to disgust him a little.
At the same time, placing one of his own chess pieces beside Linley would also allow him to monitor Linley's movements more closely.
Well, at the very least, he could learn the movements of one of Linley's clones.
Heh...
Simply because he had been displeased for a moment, Augusta had completely shattered Orloff's plans.
"It seems I've given you too much freedom during this period, to the point that you've forgotten that between the two of us, I am the one in control."
"Now, let me remind you."
"No, Orloff..."
"Wait, don't..."
Amid Augusta's terrified screams, his body transformed into a streak of white light and merged into Fate Chief Sovereign Orloff's body.
After absorbing Augusta into his body, Orloff paid him no attention. Instead, he began considering whether he should find an opportunity to eliminate Linley.
The grudge had already been formed, and because of Augusta, the two sides had already reached a situation where they would fight to the death.
Orloff was uncertain whether Chief Sovereign Locke would intervene if he attacked Linley.
But he understood even more clearly that once Linley grew to Chief Sovereign Locke's level, he would have absolutely no power to resist.
Only while Linley's strength was still inferior to his could he resolve Linley once and for all.
...
Rumble—
Within the Hongmeng Universe, after saving Linley, Locke no longer paid much attention to the affairs of the Magicr Universe.
In any case, no matter what happened in the Magicr Universe, his Water divine clone was stationed there. The Locke lineage could not possibly encounter any danger.
During these tens of thousands of years, Locke had not left his own universe. Instead, he had merged his mind with the universe and comprehended the mysteries of the universe's evolution.
Although this universe had been opened up by Locke, and the foundational Laws at the bottom level of the universe had also been established by Locke, the other Laws that evolved from those foundational Laws had been evolved by the universe itself.
Locke could merge with the universe and use these derivative Laws in his identity as the "Lord of the Universe," but if he did not understand these derivative Laws himself, then even if they were employed by Locke, he could not display their abilities to their fullest extent.
Understanding these derivative Laws did not increase Locke's strength by much.
However, understanding the mysteries of the universe's derivative Laws greatly increased Locke's foundation.
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine...
The universe Locke had opened up used Qian, Kun, Xun, Gen, Zhen, Kan, Dui, and Li—the Eight Trigrams—as the foundation of the universe. The stability of this universe far exceeded that of the universes opened by Hongmeng.
The universes Hongmeng had opened were based on the "Four Symbols" for the subsidiary universes, while the main universe was merely opened based on the "Five Elements."
With a difference of one level, the stability of the universe and the ultimate realm of experts it could accommodate were naturally stronger as well.
Within the subsidiary universes, the strongest were the Overgods, who were comparable to God Kings.
Within Hongmeng's main universe, the strongest expert it could accommodate was a "Heavenly Exalted," a realm one level higher than a God King.
According to this calculation, Locke's "Luomeng Universe" could accommodate experts three realms above the "Heavenly Exalted" level.
Those who completely comprehended the Laws of Space became God Kings.
Those who completely comprehended the Laws of Time became Heavenly Exalted.
Above the Heavenly Exalted level was the fusion of the Laws of Time and Space into the "Law of Time and Space," forging the Body of Time and Space.
Experts at this stage could enter the Hongmeng Space. After absorbing Hongmeng Spiritual Energy, they could transform it into a "Hongmeng Body" of the same level.
Both could be called "Hongmeng lifeforms."
Going further, lifeforms who attained the Dao through time and space could use the Law of Time and Space as their foundation to evolve a universe.
Hongmeng lifeforms who attained the Dao through Hongmeng Spiritual Energy could likewise open up a universe based on their understanding of Hongmeng Spiritual Energy, becoming the master of a realm and controlling the fate of countless living beings.
Locke felt that he was currently at this stage.
Above this was the opening of a complete main universe, refining the Essence of Xuanhuang born within the main universe and cultivating the Indestructible Xuanhuang Body.
This was Hongmeng's current realm.
At the same time, this was also the limit of the realm of lifeforms that Locke's Luomeng Universe could accommodate.
At this moment, after completely comprehending the evolution of the universe, Locke felt that if he were to open up another universe from scratch, he would definitely be able to reach the level of the "Nine Palaces."
According to Locke's calculations, the Hongmeng Space was probably a universe at the "Nine Palaces" level.
The strength of the lifeforms it could accommodate was even one level higher than the "Xuanhuang Realm."
That would be the true limit of the Hongmeng Space.
Only after surpassing the "Xuanhuang Realm" could one be considered to possess the qualifications to transcend the Hongmeng Space.
"Buzz—"
After more than thirty thousand years, Locke's universe had completed its final evolution.
At the instant Locke's universe completed its final evolution, Locke suddenly felt a tremor.
It was as though some existence beyond his imagination had suddenly noticed him and cast its gaze upon him.
Under this gaze, the universe Locke had opened up seemed to have no secrets at all, as everything was seen through at a glance.
It was only at this moment that Locke sensed that this gaze was not focused on him, but on the universe he had opened up.
Locke felt that this Law was like the Edicts of Heaven and Earth that had suddenly appeared when he became a God in the Magicr Universe, testing whether he had already fulfilled the qualifications to become a mature existence.
If he had, the Laws he had comprehended would condense into a divine spark that was one hundred percent compatible with his soul, allowing him to ascend to the Saint-level.
This gaze was the same. It was testing whether this perfected universe had already reached the qualifications of a "perfect universe."
"The Supreme Law. This is the Supreme Law descending from a dimension at a level even higher than the Hongmeng Space!"
Locke's mind trembled.
Although Locke had speculated from the beginning that there should be an even higher-level space above the Hongmeng Space, this had only been his speculation.
There was fundamentally no information about a higher level in Hongmeng's knowledge.
And after that, Tomato had not continued describing the Hongmeng Space, as though the Hongmeng Space were the highest-level space.
Now, at the instant his universe had finished gestating, Locke had already discovered that there truly was an even higher-level existence above the Hongmeng Space.
This thing that Locke had perceived as a "gaze" was a "Law" from a higher level.
Perhaps it should be called the "Supreme Law."
The formation of every universe had to undergo an inspection by this Law.
Only after passing the inspection of the Supreme Law would a universe possess the possibility of giving birth to life.
If it failed to pass the inspection of the Supreme Law, then that universe would not be considered a perfected universe and could not give birth to life.
At this moment, Locke also understood why Hongmeng did not know about the Supreme Law, while he himself could sense it.
The universe Hongmeng had opened up had been created by him through his absolute control over Hongmeng Spiritual Energy as the Hongmeng Controller, using Hongmeng Spiritual Energy to evolve the Four Symbols and Five Elements.
After successfully opening up the universe, Hongmeng had not merged his mind with the universe he had created to comprehend the evolution of the Laws of the universe. Thus, at the instant the universe was completely perfected, Hongmeng naturally could not sense the Supreme Law's inspection of the universe.
Locke was different.
He had remained within his own universe all along, merging his mind with the universe, and ultimately sensing the existence of the Supreme Law through the universe.
This Supreme Law was not the Supreme Law of the Magicr Universe, but a Law from a higher level and a higher dimension.
After passing the inspection of the Supreme Law, this Supreme Law revealed its true form within Locke's universe.
It was the Essence of Xuanhuang!
At this instant, Locke understood.
No wonder the Xuanhuang Body was so much stronger than the Hongmeng Body, completely unlike something that was merely one level apart.
It turned out that the Essence of Xuanhuang was actually formed from the Supreme Law.
It was like casting a strand of controllable Hongmeng Spiritual Energy into the Magicr Universe, allowing the lifeforms of the Magicr Universe to absorb it and gain a strand of the characteristics of a Hongmeng lifeform.
⭐ Enjoying the story?
You can read ahead and support the translations by joining my Patreon! Your support helps me update faster and take on more projects. Thank you for reading!
This story has been completed on Patreon
patreon.com/AminaSims
Next Bonus Chapter at 4300 Powerstones