You're Not Using Your Full Strength

"Haha, I'm just bored!"

Leis Jing didn't dodge the question, admitting it openly and directly.

"You bastard!"

Hermes laughed.

"Alright, what's the matter?"

"Some friend you are—can't I just come find you to play without a reason?"

Leis Jing muttered under his breath.

From his birth to now, though hundreds of thousands of years had passed, he had never left the Purple Crystal Mountain Range, and the Purple Thorn Sovereign God had protected him well.

Thus, his nature remained innocent.

Even when he toyed with the God-level experts trapped in the Purple Crystal Mountain Range, he did it purely out of a playful, mischievous mindset.

As for how many people died because of it, that never crossed Leis Jing's mind.

The weak were ultimately pitiable; Leis Jing was just playing, but they had to pay with their lives to keep him company.

Still, nothing could be said about it—the Coiling Dragon World had always been a naked jungle law.

And a dark version at that.

"If you're not going to say it? Then I'm leaving the Purple Crystal Mountain Range right now."

Before this seclusion.

He had spent plenty of time hanging around with that guy Leis Jing, sometimes even exchanging insights on cultivating the Great Earth Law.

Though it brought no fundamental improvement, it at least sparked a bit of cross-understanding.

"Don't go! My mother asked me if you're a Sovereign's Emissary?"

Leis Jing grew anxious.

He blurted out the Purple Thorn Sovereign God behind him without thinking.

And the Purple Thorn Sovereign God, watching everything from the shadows, could only sigh helplessly.

This way, she was even more determined to keep Leis Jing trapped in the Purple Crystal Mountain Range—no leaving until he reached Asura-level strength.

"Your mother?"

Hermes feigned confusion.

"Come, come!"

"Let me tell you alone..."

Leis Jing transformed directly into a giant child over three meters tall, then hooked his arm around Hermes's broad shoulders.

"Huh? A Sovereign? Your mother is actually a Sovereign?"

Only half of Hermes's shock was faked.

The other half was, of course, genuine astonishment at Leis Jing's utter lack of discretion.

Such an important secret, and you just blurt it out to me, an outsider you've known for a mere few tens of thousands of years?

In Hell, tens of thousands of years wasn't even a long unit of time—it could be just the span of a single seclusion for a God-level Expert.

"Sovereign's Emissary, what's a Sovereign's Emissary?"

Dragging Hermes to the foot of Golden Hill, Leis Jing directly spilled his family secrets.

"A Sovereign's Emissary is someone who handles affairs for a Sovereign. You can think of it like your relationship with your follower Bamer."

Hermes snorted dismissively.

"Even if I'm not a Sovereign's Emissary, don't try to fool me—would a Sovereign respect me the way I respect Bamer?"

"Of course a normal Sovereign's Emissary couldn't, but you can!"

Leis Jing coaxed him patiently.

He suddenly felt that his mother was truly wise and mighty.

From Hermes's reaction, even if this guy wasn't a Sovereign's Emissary, he knew all about them inside and out.

"Not easy to fool!"

Little rascal!

You're so naive yourself, and you want to fool someone else? You wouldn't even dare dream that!

"What's so different about me?"

Hermes kept playing dumb.

If he wanted to become a Sovereign's Emissary, he wouldn't have come to Hell; waiting in the Chongxuan Mountain Range might have been the best option.

"You've only fused three profound mysteries, yet you can already shatter Big Purple's crystal body with your fists. Once you fuse a fourth, your material attack will rival Grand Perfection!"

These words!

They were also the key point that convinced Leis Jing to make up his mind and drag Hermes into his mother's camp.

Throughout the endless planes.

"Paragon" was an extremely rare and awe-inspiring realm.

It represented the pinnacle of divine life and supreme existence.

By estimate.

In the endless planes, even counting all suspected Paragon High-Gods.

The number of deities who had truly reached the Paragon realm likely did not exceed twenty.

And because Leis Jing had a Sovereign mother, he had a much deeper understanding of Paragons.

He clearly knew that the true Paragon High-Gods.

Numbered at most eight or nine.

Paragon was like a peerless treasure of the endless planes, so precious that even the lofty Sovereigns could barely touch it.

Leis Jing knew that his mother, the Purple Thorn Sovereign, was not a Paragon either, although she was relatively powerful among Sovereigns.

A Mid-level Sovereign God with no weaknesses in either material or soul aspects was nearly unmatched among Mid-level Sovereigns.

In reality, those strong figures suspected of reaching Paragon were merely Divine Beasts by birth.

It was possible that their innate physical strength and their rarity in battle led people to mistakenly believe they had attained that realm.

However, their true strength still fell short of a Paragon.

Additionally, there were Sovereigns' divine clones walking the outside world.

These divine clones possessed roughly eighty percent of the willpower might close to a Paragon.

Their existence further led people to mistakenly believe they had reached the Paragon realm.

This further inflated the count of Paragons.

Paragon was not only a symbol of strength but also an embodiment of invincibility.

Paragon represented a profound understanding and mastery of the universe's laws.

It was a realm almost unattainable by life.

In this Magic Universe filled with endless planes, Paragon was like a legendary myth of invincibility, both awe-inspiring and yearned for.

Revered as the Emperor of Gods!

Even Sovereigns would regard Paragons with special respect, even admiration, because it was a realm even they could not reach.

Such a realm!

Who wouldn't yearn for it?

Now, when his mother, the Purple Thorn Sovereign, told Leis Jing that this Hermes only needed to fuse four profound mysteries to achieve Paragon-level material attacks, how could he not be stunned?

But upon careful calculation, it really was the case.

"Forget it, even if I have to swallow my pride, I have to keep Hermes here!"

Leis Jing desperately wanted to get out.

The Purple Thorn Sovereign also had two Sovereign's Emissaries under her command, but they were merely at the level of ordinary peak Asuras.

How could they compare to a Paragon?

"Oh, so even if I fuse one more profound mystery to reach a four-mystery fusion, my strength would at most increase tenfold."

Hermes continued to play dumb.

The legend of Paragon was not confined to the circle of super experts.

In Hell, and even in all Supreme Planes and God Planes, almost no one was unaware of the Paragon legend.

Even newly ascended Lower-Gods had likely heard of Paragons.

As long as they had existed long enough, as long as their clan had High-Gods, there was always a way to learn of Paragons.

"No, my mother said you haven't been using your full strength at all!"

Leis Jing refused to give Hermes any chance to keep playing dumb.

Indeed!

If he truly went all out, he could probably shatter the spatial fabric of the Purple Crystal Mountain Range with ease.

Even though the presence of the Purple Thorn Sovereign and the Purple Crystal Mountain Range, which birthed the Purple Crystal Divine Beasts, made the spatial stability here stronger than in other parts of Hell.

But so what?

Hermes already had the confidence to kill an Asura with one punch.

Provided he could land it.

If his strength increased tenfold!

Without a material defense Sovereign Artifact, no one in all of Hell would dare to take Old Black's punch.