Chapter 97 97: Choice

"…Sigh."

As the wondrous state from moments ago faded away, Locke let out a quiet breath.

He knew he had just given up an opportunity to multiply his strength a hundredfold.

The next time he might enter a state where a breakthrough was possible at any moment—no one could say when that would be.

Or whether he would ever have such a chance again.

And yet, Locke did not regret his decision.

He had always drawn a clear line between the present and the future.

Had he chosen to break through just now, then for ten thousand—perhaps even a hundred thousand—years, he would undoubtedly have been the brightest star in all of Hell.

The strength of a Six-Star Fiend was considered formidable even in the Hell of a thousand-plus epoch later, let alone in the present era.

With the power he would have gained, challenging a Prefecture Lord and seizing control of one of Hell's one hundred and eight prefectures would not have been difficult at all.

And once he advanced to Highgod, his strength would climb even further—reaching the level of a Seven-Star Fiend, a truly glorious position.

But… what then?

The difficulty of further Law fusion would be enough to trap him for countless epochs.

Perhaps, after hundreds of millions of years of stagnation, he might even choose some crooked path—pursuing Sovereign artifacts or fragments of Sovereign power, abandoning Law fusion altogether…

A future whose limits were visible at a glance—

that kind of despair was enough to drive anyone mad.

It was precisely because he still harbored even a sliver of hope for his future that Locke had resisted the temptation of an immediate hundredfold surge in power and withdrawn from that profound state.

Of course, he couldn't deny that he felt a trace of regret.

If, along his journey, he had stripped and absorbed some soul fragments containing the Wave and Circular Softness profundities—bringing those two Water Laws to an introductory level—then in that earlier wondrous state, might he have pushed the Water Laws all the way to Paragon?

Shaking his head, Locke slowly calmed the agitation in his heart.

Cultivation… was not merely about increasing strength.

It was also about tempering one's state of mind.

At this moment, Locke gained a new understanding of cultivation.

Closing his eyes, he no longer focused on Law comprehension, but instead polished his mentality.

Just as when he had first become divine and refused to refine Soul Gold Pearls—leaving his soul purer than before—this refinement of his temperament once again elevated the purity of his soul.

He didn't know what ultimate changes soul purity would bring him in the future.

But right now, he could already feel its benefits.

Unstained by dust.

Of course, not dust in the literal sense—

but dust within the mind.

The soul was an exceedingly mysterious existence.

Even Hongmeng, creator of the Hongmeng Universe itself, regarded the souls born within his creation as something unfathomable.

Through the Hongmeng Golden Register, Hongmeng could see the fate of every being in the universe—save those whose destinies were undefined.

And yet, he himself could not create a soul identical to that of a living being.

Take Linley of the Coiling Dragon universe, for example—

even after becoming a controller of Hongmeng, the deceased Doehring Cowart could never be brought back.

After sensing the emotional power born of the soul, Locke now perceived something else emerging from within his purified soul—

Chaotic thoughts.

The moment he allowed his soul to brush against these thoughts—repelled and cast out by his own soul—Locke immediately understood what they were.

"Take a break."

"I'm already so strong—what's wrong with enjoying myself a little?"

"I really want to find a girlfriend."

"Kill, kill, kill—anyone who disobeys me should be wiped out."

These were fantasies or desires that had arisen at various moments within Locke's soul.

From the instant they were born, they accumulated silently within him.

When a particular desire piled up to a certain degree, it would surface from his subconscious and take command of his actions.

The thought of "taking a break" had once been the most prevalent among them.

For decades, it had guided his behavior—leading him to accept Little White as a pet and even grow too lazy to walk, preferring instead to ride on its back.

Now, however, as the purity of his soul increased, these unnecessary thoughts were automatically expelled—

prevented from becoming dust that could taint his soul.

Of course, Locke understood that even a pure soul had its limits.

If he lacked self-discipline—if chaotic thoughts arose faster than his soul could expel them—then one day, his soul would inevitably be covered in dust once more, no longer pristine.

"Originally, Bodhi has no tree,

Nor is the bright mirror a stand.

Since all is empty from the beginning,

Where could dust alight?"

At this moment, a Buddhist verse from his past life surfaced in Locke's mind.

He felt that his current state matched it perfectly.

Opening his eyes, Locke found his mind completely restored to clarity.

And with four Law profundities now standing just a step away from full fusion, his strength had advanced yet again.

If previously—when three Laws were nearly fully fused—Locke possessed power comparable to a Four-Star Fiend, then now, even among Four-Star Fiends, he could no longer be considered weak.

"Perhaps… once I develop a technique that can fully unleash the might of all four Law profundities, my strength will rise even further…"

"But for now, this is enough."

His soul power spread outward, and in an instant, Locke sensed the white-robed youth kneeling outside the cultivation chamber.

"That's… Little White?"

"He's already become a Demigod?"

"Well, that makes sense. After all these years, it's more than enough time for him to fully refine that divine spark."

"I just wonder—without the aid of heavenly laws—how much divine power he's managed to accumulate."

The speed at which divine power was absorbed depended on both a god's soul strength and their compatibility with the divine spark.

The stronger the soul, and the closer its resonance with the spark, the faster divine power could be drawn in.

Locke's soul strength, even among the Seven Divine Planes and the Four Higher Planes, was far from weak.

And once he reached Highgod—after his soul underwent another tempering by heavenly laws—then unless his opponent was a soul mutate, there would be very few who could rival him in soul strength.

For a self-cultivated god, the soul and divine spark were perfectly aligned.

In terms of divine power absorption, Locke's advantages were essentially fully stacked.

And yet—even with all of that—it still took Locke at least thirty years to absorb enough divine power to completely restore his divine body once.

(End of Chapter)

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