Cole's Plan

"Unity of Heaven and Man?"

Hearing Locke say this, Ceres suddenly understood.

As a God-level Expert who had emerged from a Material Plane, Ceres naturally knew the difference between the Saint Domain and the Divine Domain.

At the Saint Domain stage, the Profound Mysteries one comprehended were all derived from heaven and earth.

To unleash one's full strength, one had to align one's Soul Power with the Profound Mysteries of the laws between heaven and earth. Only by entering the state of "Unity of Heaven and Man" could one bring out a portion of the Profound Mysteries' power.

In such a state, if one did not deliberately conceal the aura of one's Spiritual Sense, a Saint Domain expert in that state truly should be able to vaguely sense the Spiritual Sense of a God-level Expert.

However, Ceres had overlooked the most important point.

He was an expert who had cultivated independently to become a High God. His soul had undergone the Law of Heaven and Earth's cleansing three times.

Even if he did not deliberately conceal the fluctuations of his Spiritual Sense, even Low-grade Gods might not be able to detect them.

Locke was merely at the peak of the Saint Domain and had not even reached the Saint Domain Limit. How had he detected the fluctuations of his Spiritual Sense?

Having convinced himself that he understood the "truth" behind Locke's ability to discover him, Ceres was no longer curious.

Ceres immediately asked Locke, "Locke, do you intend to pledge allegiance to the Temple of Light?"

Locke froze. He had never expected His Majesty Ceres to contact him through Spiritual Sense merely to ask such a question.

Locke promptly shook his head and smiled. "Lord Ceres, what are you saying? The Temple of Light is full of filthy scum. How could I possibly degrade myself by associating with them?"

These were Locke's true feelings.

On the Vakanda Plane, the Temple of Light had been built upon "betrayal," "sacrifice," and "plunder."

Naturally, among the common people at the bottom, swept along by the tide of the times, there were both good and bad.

However, so far, every single higher-up in the Temple of Light had been cut from the same cloth.

"Oh?"

Within the throne hall of the Frost Snow Empire's Imperial Capital, Ceres raised a brow.

As a High God, although Ceres did not possess Locke's ability to distinguish others' emotions through their souls, determining whether someone was lying was not difficult for him.

At the very least, Ceres could hear Locke's disdain and contempt for the Temple of Light in his tone.

Clearly, Locke was not lying. He truly looked down on the Temple of Light.

"Then why is your Locke Territory making such a grand show of searching for the sacrifices required by the Temple of Light?"

"What? Searching for sacrifices?"

Locke's mind instantly went blank. "Your Majesty Ceres, how could that be possible?"

But just as Locke was about to refute him, he suddenly recalled Cole's emotions when facing him.

Worry, fear, terror...

Under what circumstances would a younger brother fear and dread his own elder brother?

Only when he had done something to wrong Big Brother would he feel that way.

Combined with what His Majesty Ceres had just said, if Locke still could not figure out what Cole had done in Locke Territory, then he would truly be too foolish.

"Your Majesty Ceres, thank you for informing me."

"Please rest assured. I will handle all of this properly."

"Mm."

The stronger a person was, the more Power of Faith they could offer.

In Ceres's view, Locke's talent was hardly inferior to his own.

There was almost a one-hundred-percent chance that he would break through to the Divine Domain in the future.

His chances of becoming a Mid-grade God were not low either.

If he could bring Locke under his command, then once Locke broke through to the Divine Domain, he could have him replace him in guarding the Vakanda Plane. That way, Ceres could return to the Water Element God Plane and continue serving Lord Philo.

Though both served the Sovereign Lord, how could an external posting compare to a legion stationed at the Sovereign Lord's side?

Not to mention anything else, when the Sovereign Lord bestowed treasures, the soldiers of the Sovereign Legion could almost all receive them directly.

As for gods like Ceres, who had been dispatched to gather faith, by the time their rewards had been skimmed layer by layer, less than half of the original reward might remain in their hands.

The disparity was obvious.

Naturally, Locke did not know what Ceres was planning.

However, since Ceres had personally approached him, it would be hard for him to account to His Majesty Ceres if he did nothing.

Of course, there was an even more important reason.

Locke deeply despised people and actions that sacrificed others to accomplish themselves.

After withdrawing from the state of "Unity of Heaven and Man," Locke was slightly startled.

Although he could no longer sense His Majesty Ceres's Spiritual Sense as before, he could sense some "anticipation" from around him.

Clearly, while he could no longer detect His Majesty Ceres's Spiritual Sense, Ceres had not withdrawn it either and was still watching him.

However, this gave Locke a measure of reassurance.

It seemed that his current attainments in the soul allowed him to vaguely detect the "Spiritual Sense" of a God-level Expert.

"Cole, come to the training room at once!"

In the meeting room, Cole looked at the intelligence report in his hand, his brow slightly furrowed.

Another ten years had passed since Big Brother entered seclusion.

Over those ten years, he had intensified the search for Souls of Purity throughout Locke Territory, yet not a single one had been found so far.

The entirety of Locke Territory had already been searched from top to bottom.

If they wanted to continue searching for Souls of Purity, they now had only two options.

The first was to wait for a new generation of children to be born in Locke Territory, then test the children.

The second was to expand the search for Souls of Purity into the territories of other nobles.

For the first option, it was impossible for the people Cole had sent out to happen to be present whenever a child was born. The more efficient approach would be to wait another ten years before searching Locke Territory again.

As for the second option...

After controlling Locke Territory for so many years, Cole naturally knew that throughout the entire Frost Snow Empire, perhaps aside from the Grand Duke's territory, the territories of every other noble had people of their own searching for Souls of Purity.

If there were any Souls of Purity in those nobles' territories, they would have long since been secretly found and controlled by the nobles. It was impossible for Cole to find any new Souls of Purity in other nobles' lands.

Only within the Grand Duke's sphere of influence did no one else dare conduct such searches.

If Cole wanted to enter those dukes' territories to search for Souls of Purity, it would be fine if he went unnoticed. But once discovered, there was no doubt it would bring a catastrophic disaster upon Locke Territory.

Cole's expression turned grave. In the end, he made up his mind.

No matter how good Locke Territory was, it did not belong to him!

Only by truly reaching the Saint Domain would everything he possessed now truly belong to him.

As for Locke Territory...