You Haven't Even Used Your Full Strength

"Haha, I was bored!"

Leis Jing made no attempt to hide it and admitted it outright.

"You rascal!"

Hermes laughed.

"Come on, what is it?"

"Some friend you are. Can't I come here just to hang out when nothing's wrong?"

Leis Jing muttered under his breath.

Although he had been alive for hundreds of thousands of years, he had never left the Purple Crystal Mountain Range. On top of that, Purple Thorn Sovereign God had protected him well.

So he was rather innocent.

Even when he toyed with the God-level experts trapped in the Purple Crystal Mountain Range, he did it with nothing more than a playful, carefree attitude.

As for how many people died because of it, that was not something Leis Jing considered.

The weak were destined to suffer. Leis Jing was only playing, but they had to risk their lives to keep him company.

Still, there was nothing to be said about it. The Coiling Dragon World had always followed the law of the jungle, plain and simple.

A dark version of it, too.

"If you're not going to tell me, I'm leaving the Purple Crystal Mountain Range right now."

Before this retreat,

he had spent plenty of time hanging out with Leis Jing. Sometimes, they had even discussed their experiences cultivating the Great Earth Law.

It hadn't brought any substantial improvement, but it had at least helped them draw inspiration from one another.

"Wait! My mother asked me to find out whether you're a Sovereign God's Emissary."

Leis Jing grew anxious.

He even blurted out that Purple Thorn Sovereign God was behind it.

Purple Thorn Sovereign God, who had been watching everything from the shadows, could only sigh helplessly.

After this,

she was even more determined to keep Leis Jing confined to the Purple Crystal Mountain Range. He wouldn't be allowed out unless he reached Asura strength.

"Your mother?"

Hermes pretended to be confused.

"Come on, come on!"

"Let me tell you in private..."

Leis Jing transformed into a giant child more than three meters tall, then hooked an arm around Hermes's broad shoulders.

"What? A Sovereign God? Your mother is a Sovereign God?"

Hermes's surprise was only half feigned.

The other half came from his shock at how clueless Leis Jing was.

You'd just told me, an outsider you'd known for a mere few tens of thousands of years, something this important?

In Hell, tens of thousands of years was hardly a long time. It could even be no more than the duration of a single retreat for a God-level expert.

"What's a Sovereign God's Emissary? What does one do?"

After dragging Hermes to the foot of the Golden Hill, Leis Jing revealed his family background outright.

"A Sovereign God's Emissary works for a Sovereign God. You can think of it as the relationship between you and your follower, Bamer."

Hermes scoffed.

"I'm not a Sovereign God's Emissary, but don't try to fool me. Would a Sovereign God respect me as much as I respect Bamer?"

"An ordinary Sovereign God's Emissary, no. But you could be different!"

Leis Jing coaxed him patiently.

He suddenly thought his mother really was wise and farsighted.

Judging by Hermes's reaction, even if he wasn't a Sovereign God's Emissary, he certainly knew all about them.

"Not easy to fool, huh?"

Nice try!

You're this innocent yourself, and you think you can fool someone else? You wouldn't even dare dream of it!

"What makes me different?"

Hermes continued to play dumb.

If he had wanted to become a Sovereign God's Emissary, he wouldn't have come to Hell. Waiting at the Chongxuan Mountain Range might have been his best option.

"You've only fused three Mysteries, yet you can already shatter Big Purple's Purple Crystal body with your fists. If you fuse one more Mystery, your Material Attack will rival that of a Paragon!"

That was the key point that convinced Leis Jing to make up his mind and pull Hermes into his mother's camp.

Across the countless planes,

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

It represented the pinnacle of God-level life and the highest possible existence.

By most estimates,

even if one counted every High God suspected of being a Paragon across the countless planes,

there were probably no more than twenty Gods who had truly reached that realm.

And because his mother was a Sovereign God, Leis Jing had a deeper understanding of Paragons.

He knew that the number of High Gods who had truly become Paragons

was no more than eight or nine.

A Paragon was a peerless treasure among the countless planes, so precious that even the exalted Sovereign Gods could scarcely attain that realm.

Leis Jing knew that his mother, Purple Thorn Sovereign God, wasn't a Paragon either, though she was relatively powerful among Sovereign Gods.

As a Mid-level Sovereign God with no weaknesses in either material or soul defense, she was virtually unrivaled among Mid-level Sovereign Gods.

In fact, those experts suspected of being Paragons were merely divine beasts by birth.

People might have mistaken them for Paragons because their true forms had powerful innate talents and they rarely showed their strength.

But their actual strength still fell short of a Paragon's.

There were also Divine Clones of Sovereign Gods who walked the outside world.

These Divine Clones possessed Will Power close to a Paragon's—about eighty percent as strong.

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

That had further inflated the number of supposed Paragons.

A Paragon was not only a symbol of strength, but also the embodiment of invincibility.

Paragons represented a profound understanding and mastery of the laws of the universe.

It was a realm that nearly all life could never attain.

In this Magic Universe of endless planes, Paragons were like invincible legends, inspiring both reverence and longing.

They were hailed as emperors among Gods!

Even Sovereign Gods regarded Paragons differently, and some even admired them, because this was a realm that Sovereign Gods themselves could not reach.

A realm like that!

Who wouldn't long for it?

Now his mother, Purple Thorn Sovereign God, was telling Leis Jing that if Hermes fused four Mysteries, his Material Attack could reach the level of a Paragon.

How could he not be stunned?

But when he thought about it carefully, it did make sense.

"Forget it. Even if I have to swallow my pride, I'm keeping Hermes here!"

Leis Jing wanted so badly to get out.

Purple Thorn Sovereign God had two Sovereign God's Emissaries under her command, but they were only as strong as ordinary Peak Asuras.

How could they compare to a Paragon?

"Oh, so even if I fuse another Mystery and reach a fusion of four Mysteries, my strength will increase by at most tenfold."

Hermes continued to play dumb.

The legend of Paragons wasn't limited to the circle of super experts.

In Hell, and across all the Supreme Planes and God Planes, almost everyone knew the stories of Paragons.

Even Lowgods who had only just become Gods had probably heard of them.

As long as someone had lived long enough, and their clan had a High God, they would eventually find out about Paragons.

"No! My mother says you haven't even used your full strength!"

Leis Jing didn't give Hermes another chance to play dumb.

That was true!

If he really went all out, he could probably shatter the dimensional space in the Purple Crystal Mountain Range with ease.

Even though Purple Thorn Sovereign God was stationed here, and the Purple Crystal Mountain Range was home to the Purple Crystal Divine Beasts,

the dimensional space here was more stable than in other parts of Hell.

But so what?

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

That was, if he could land the hit.

If his strength increased tenfold,

then without a Material Defense Sovereign Artifact, no one in all of Hell would dare take a punch from Old Black again.