No—this was not a case of the soul being split in two.
Rather, Locke used the soul of his Saint Domain true body to enter the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, personally experiencing the countless variations of the Essence of Water Law profundity within heaven and earth.
At the same time, his water-element divine clone synchronized with his true body's soul. The instant his true body sensed a change in the Water Element profundity, the divine clone would force the three Law profundities it had already mastered to shift in tandem.
Naturally, due to the disparity between an individual and the world itself, the Essence of Water profundity—merged with heaven and earth through Locke's Saint Domain body—might undergo innumerable changes before Locke's own three Law profundities would manage to change even once.
Yet every single transformation of Locke's three Law profundities closely mirrored one particular moment when the Essence of Water profundity in heaven and earth interacted with other Laws.
At this moment, Locke was using his own Law profundities to mutually verify and resonate with the Laws of heaven and earth.
Whenever he adjusted his Laws into a form that could perfectly align with the Water Element at a specific instant, Locke could clearly sense it—
The point of compatibility between his three Laws and the Essence of Water Law had appeared.
And with each such moment of perfect alignment, the degree of fusion among the four Law profundities he had comprehended increased at a breathtaking pace.
Perhaps… this was the optimal way to cultivate Law profundities.
It was only that, in the Coiling Dragon universe, when beings entered the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, they devoted all their focus to understanding their own Law profundities. No one had ever paid attention to the continuous evolution of the Laws of heaven and earth themselves.
However—
In the very next moment, realization dawned upon Locke.
Cultivation was, in truth, extremely counterintuitive.
Many things—if you do not know them, have never seen them—then even if they are placed right before you, you will still be unable to perceive them.
Take soul power, for instance.
Without sufficient attainment in the soul, one could not even perceive the soul aura radiated by others.
Some god-level powerhouses could not even see soul attacks at all.
That was the most basic level.
Of course, if a being's soul power was sufficiently strong, they could completely conceal their own soul aura, rendering it undetectable to anyone with weaker soul power.
The same principle applied here.
If a cultivator lacked the concept that the Laws of heaven and earth are constantly evolving, then when they entered the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, the Law profundities they perceived would appear completely static.
After all, comprehending Law profundities was simply heaven and earth presenting themselves to you in a form you could understand.
How much of those Laws you ultimately grasped depended entirely on your own capacity for learning.
Moreover, this method of cultivation could only be used before a Law was fully mastered.
Once all six profundities of a Law were completely comprehended, one could no longer enter the state of Unity of Heaven and Man—
and naturally, could no longer rely on this state to aid cultivation.
…
Ten years later.
A white-haired youth handed over ten thousand inkstones to the city lord's guards, then returned to the small courtyard.
He sat down before the door of the cultivation chamber, extended his consciousness through his divine spark into the Elemental Sea, and began absorbing divine power.
"Lord Locke has already been in seclusion for ten years…"
This youth was none other than Locke's pet—Little White.
Ever since receiving the divine spark bestowed by Locke, Little White had worked tirelessly to refine it.
Finally, three years ago, it had fully refined the spark and advanced from the Saint Domain to become a wind-element Demigod.
Because it had ascended by refining a divine spark, there had been no descent of heavenly laws.
Naturally, Little White could only rely on the connection of its divine spark to enter the Elemental Sea and draw divine power on its own.
In the past three years, the amount of divine power it had absorbed was perhaps only enough to restore one finger of its divine body.
Of course, while that amount was pitiful for recovery, it was still sufficient to allow Little White to fight at full strength for several days.
From this alone, one could see just how slow divine power absorption was for gods who ascended by refining divine sparks.
Perhaps Little White would need to absorb divine power for several hundred years before accumulating enough to fully restore its divine body once.
Furthermore, the divine power Little White could draw came only from the shallowest layers of the Divine Power Sea—mere tens of centimeters below the surface.
Among deities of the same level, this was the weakest grade of divine power, used as the basic standard of measurement.
At the same time, because its soul had not been tempered by heavenly laws, Little White could not descend deeper into the Divine Power Sea—cutting off any possibility of further improvement.
In the future, whether it advanced to God level or Highgod, the divine power it could absorb would always remain the lowest grade of its tier.
Even so, Little White remained deeply grateful to Lord Locke.
It knew that without Locke, it would never have had even the slightest chance for deification.
More likely, one day in the future, it would have become prey for some god—
dragged off to a tavern and served as a dish on someone's table.
"Five more years…"
After calculating the remaining inkstones in its spatial ring, Little White silently set a deadline.
Of course, this deadline had nothing to do with leaving Locke.
Rather, after paying ten years' rent, the remaining inkstones would not be enough to cover another ten-year lease.
Thankfully, the shortfall was not too great.
Little White decided that after absorbing divine power for another five years, it would leave the city to hunt Saint Domain magical beasts, exchange them for inkstones, and renew Lord Locke's rent for another decade.
…
Inside the cultivation chamber, Locke was completely unaware that his pet was already planning to renew his lease.
After ten years of cultivation, the four Law profundities Locke had comprehended had all reached a critical extreme.
It could be said that if Locke wished, then within at most ten more years, he could become a God who had completely fused four Law profundities, possessing strength comparable to a Six-Star Fiend who had fused three Laws.
However—
!
Even now, within the Water Law, Locke had two profundities he had yet to comprehend.
If he chose to fully fuse the four Laws at this moment, then in the future, comprehending the Wave and Circular softness profundities would become at least hundreds—if not thousands—of times more difficult.
And fusing those Laws afterward would become tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of times harder.
Present strength—or future potential?
After a long while, Locke finally let out a deep sigh. He withdrew from the state of Unity of Heaven and Man, bringing this cultivation session to an end.
(End of Chapter)
T/N: I don't know if I'm tripping but I think the wiki is wrong on this. Is there anything like Waves among the profundities of the water element? Because the wiki isn't helping much. The problem is that most of the story was told through Linley's POV. There's too much we're unaware of, it makes it hard to build the world in a fanfiction without taking certain liberties. I feel there's an overlap between Ice-Edge and Freezing truth:zero, the name doesn't even make sense to be honest. So, for the purpose of this story the sixth profundity of water element laws is Waves. (okay Waves is actually water movement and apparently every law and edict has a movement rule)
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