From this perspective, it seemed as though he had unintentionally owed Orloff a favor.
However, Locke had no intention of acknowledging this favor.
After all, if the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, learned that the spatial vortex within the spatial turbulence had been created by Locke himself, Locke absolutely did not believe Orloff would still have stopped the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, from destroying the vortex.
"My apologies, Lord Orloff."
"I have no interest whatsoever in the so-called unknown creature within the spatial vortex, so I will not compete for Lord Orloff's treasure."
The spatial vortex and the final spatial collapse had all been created by Locke himself. Whether or not there was any unknown creature inside, would Locke not know?
Thus, Locke directly rejected the Chief Sovereign of Fate's proposal.
"Lord Orloff, the reason I came for Argenis is firstly because, as the former Sovereign Emissary of the late Nine Nether Sovereign, after the Nine Nether Sovereign's fall, he led the soldiers of the Nine Nether Army to become the strongest plundering force within the Nethersea of the Netherworld, tarnishing the reputation of Sovereign Emissaries and the dignity of Sovereigns."
"Therefore, I have come to strip Argenis of his status as a 'Sovereign Emissary' and reclaim the Sovereign artifact bestowed upon him by the Nine Nether Sovereign."
Before Locke's voice in the pavilion had even faded and before the Chief Sovereign of Fate could respond, Argenis immediately dropped to his knees toward the pavilion.
"Lord Locke, please hear my explanation. My becoming a pirate was born of unavoidable hardship."
"Back then, after returning to the Netherworld from the Life Realm, because I was unable to contact Lord Nine Nether Sovereign, many of the forces I had previously suppressed launched attacks against us."
"In order to lead everyone to survive, I had no choice but to lead the soldiers of the army in plundering supplies."
"As for the title of Sovereign Emissary and the Sovereign artifact previously bestowed upon me by Lord Nine Nether…"
Argenis retrieved a crescent-bladed halberd from within his body, canceled its blood bond, and raised it high above his head.
"Lord Locke, this is the Sovereign artifact bestowed upon me by the Nine Nether Sovereign when I served as his Sovereign Emissary."
"Argenis knows he is no longer worthy of wielding this Sovereign artifact. I ask Lord Locke to reclaim it."
Within the pavilion, Locke looked toward the Chief Sovereign of Fate.
At this moment, even Orloff's expression stiffened slightly.
When two Sovereigns conversed, they did not care whether nearby Deities overheard their exchange.
This was because, in the eyes of Sovereigns, any Deity unrelated to them was merely an ant.
Sovereigns did not concern themselves with ants.
But if an ant suddenly jumped out and interrupted them, then even to Sovereigns, it became irritating.
At this moment, both Locke and the Chief Sovereign of Fate felt exactly that way.
However, compared to Locke, Orloff's situation was far more awkward.
After all, Argenis was now Orloff's Sovereign Emissary—one of Orloff's own subordinates.
In truth, as Orloff's subordinate, regardless of what sort of punishment Locke proposed for Argenis, in order to protect his own people and let his other subordinates know he would stand up for them, Orloff would never permit Locke to punish Argenis directly.
At most, Orloff would personally mete out some symbolic punishment to Argenis and give Locke a way to step down gracefully.
But perhaps Argenis felt that after being abandoned by a Sovereign for so long, and finally becoming a Sovereign Emissary once more, how could he allow Lord Orloff to trouble himself over him?
Thus, upon hearing Sovereign Locke's words, Argenis voluntarily stepped forward to accept punishment, hoping to avoid placing Lord Orloff in a difficult position.
However, what Argenis did not know was that his actions had actually placed Orloff in an even more awkward position.
After all, for Argenis to interrupt while Sovereigns were speaking gave the impression of: when adults are talking, why is a child interrupting?
It showed a lack of manners.
Furthermore, if Argenis were punished by Locke right in front of Orloff, then once word spread, Orloff would completely lose face.
One of the Four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, the Chief Sovereign of Fate, Orloff, unable even to protect his own Sovereign Emissary and allowing a Laws Sovereign to punish him—if that wasn't a joke, then what was?
Among Sovereigns, face and dignity mattered even more than they did among Deities.
Of course, there were also Sovereigns who simply did not care about face.
For example, the Wind Sovereign Deya. Among Sovereigns, Deya had long been labeled the weakest and most cowardly Laws Sovereign, yet wasn't Deya still living perfectly well as the ruler of the Wind Divine Plane?
A few words and rumors meant absolutely nothing to Deya.
After all, Deya had personally witnessed the face-conscious Water Sovereign being instantly killed by the Four Divine Beast Sovereigns.
To the Wind Sovereign Deya, face? What was that?
Being able to survive, and continue surviving forever—that was what truly mattered.
"Lord Orloff, what do you say?"
After a brief moment of awkwardness, Orloff's expression had already returned to normal.
Although Argenis's actions had effectively slapped him in the face, the Chief Sovereign of Fate still had no intention of abandoning Argenis.
As one of the Four Chief Sovereigns of the Edicts, before revealing the additional portion of Will granted through his light divine clone, Augustus, Orloff was publicly acknowledged as the weakest among the Four Chief Sovereigns.
Naturally, the Chief Sovereign of Fate was unwilling to remain in that position.
At present, Orloff was searching for a path that could further increase his strength.
As a rare member of the Buluo Clan within the Yulan Universe, Orloff's physical strength was not weak among special lifeforms.
However, compared to the other three Chief Sovereigns—whose bodies had already reached the level of Sovereign artifacts—this had become one of Orloff's weaknesses.
Thus, the Chief Sovereign of Fate was currently researching divine beasts and special lifeforms whose bodies possessed Sovereign artifact-level toughness, hoping to analyze exactly how their bodies differed from his own.
Then, based on those differences, he intended to create a method capable of elevating his own body to the level of a Sovereign artifact.
If the Chief Sovereign of Fate could truly create such a method and raise his body's toughness to the level of a Sovereign artifact, then his true strength would surpass the Chief Sovereign of Destruction, Wordred, and the Chief Sovereign of Life, Vivia, reaching a level comparable to the Chief Sovereign of Death.
However, Orloff's ambitions did not stop there.
He wanted to become the strongest Chief Sovereign.
Thus, he needed to achieve breakthroughs in other areas as well.
Many times, Orloff greatly envied Locke.
Mm, naturally there was also jealousy.
However, emotions such as jealousy had already been borne by Orloff's other self, Augusta. Therefore, on Orloff's side, what remained toward Locke truly was only envy.
At a time when all Sovereigns had already reached the limits of their potential, Sovereign Locke still possessed a road ahead of him.
If he himself had also been a soul mutate like Sovereign Locke, Orloff felt that in the field of fusing Profound Mysteries of different Laws...
Well, perhaps he truly still would not be able to compare to Sovereign Locke.
After all, Sovereign Locke being a dual-element Paragon already proved that his talent in comprehending Laws and Edicts surpassed theirs by several streets.
Orloff had not even brought his light divine clone to the Paragon level. Thus, in terms of fusing Profound Mysteries of different Laws, Orloff estimated he could at most achieve the fusion of two different Profound Mysteries.
However, wasn't there still the power of faith?
As long as it wasn't a major bottleneck, the power of faith was even more effective in the fusion of Profound Mysteries from different Laws than it was in fusing Profound Mysteries of a single Law.
Unfortunately, during these tens of millions of years, Orloff had also researched methods of becoming a soul mutate.
And he had personally created many soul mutates.
Among them was even a fortunate fellow named Mosi Bagshaw, who successfully became a three-element soul mutate.
However, it was precisely because he had personally created so many soul mutates that Orloff understood that it was utterly impossible for himself to become one.
Soul mutation was a beneficial transformation spontaneously produced by the survival instinct of the soul after suffering a soul attack severe enough to be fatal.
Because soul mutation required an enormous amount of soul energy, the weaker one was, the easier it was to succeed.
Of course, this "weakness" was relative.
Normally speaking, only after reaching the Saint-level did one's soul possess the possibility of undergoing a beneficial mutation.
At the Saint-level, among a thousand test subjects, perhaps one or two might successfully produce a soul mutation.
Among dozens of souls that experienced beneficial mutation, perhaps only one could truly complete the mutation.
As for Deities, only one among several hundred thousand experimental subjects might experience a beneficial soul mutation.
And among a million beneficial mutations, only one person might successfully complete the soul mutation.
In Orloff's experiments, Saint-level soul mutates were the most common. There were also more than a dozen soul mutates at the Demigod and God levels.
But at the Highgod level, there wasn't a single one.
Orloff could already foresee that it was impossible for him to become a soul mutate.
Having lost the possibility of soul mutation, there was no way Orloff would let go of the creature supposedly born from the spatial turbulence.
"Sovereign Locke, since Argenis already recognizes his mistakes and has admitted them, then..."
At this point, the Chief Sovereign of Fate looked toward the kneeling Argenis and spoke words imbued with heavenly authority.
"Shatter."
The instant that word left Orloff's mouth, an immense power of the Edicts of Fate descended upon the Sovereign artifact presented in Argenis's hands.
Crack! Crack crack crack—
Under that single word from Orloff, the crescent-bladed halberd rapidly split apart, shattering into countless fragments that drifted down from Argenis's hands.
Argenis was horrified.
At the same time, his awe toward Sovereigns deepened even further.
That was a Sovereign artifact!
Yet before Lord Orloff, it could not even withstand a single word.
Locke narrowed his eyes slightly.
Orloff truly deserved to be a Paragon of the Edicts of Fate. His use of the Grand Prophecy technique was even more proficient than Locke's own.
"Sovereign Locke, now that the Sovereign artifact bestowed by the Nine Nether Sovereign upon Argenis has been destroyed, naturally Argenis is no longer a Sovereign Emissary."
"Is that so?"
"But Lord Orloff, why do I still sense traces of a second Sovereign artifact on Argenis?"
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