The fragment of the Ancient Divine Realm within the World Tower had long since vanished, but the inner world space remained vast, no smaller than the original fragment. This was the inner world space belonging to the World Tower, personally opened by the Spacetime Great Emperor.
Silently, Hunyue Emperor appeared beside him, looking at Ye Chen with some surprise.
If not for seeing him with his own eyes, the aura of the Battle Saint King before him was so perfectly restrained it was as if he were a non-existent void.
He was an Emperor, after all. Even a peak Sovereign could never achieve such a feat in his presence.
Seven years had passed. The Battle Saint King seemed to have progressed even further since his tribulation, becoming more complete and powerful!
He said, "Battle Saint King, what is your current strength approximately?"
Ye Chen shook his head, still unclear.
After a moment's thought, Hunyue Emperor said, "Battle Saint King, attack me with your strongest power. I will sense your precise realm and combat power."
"Agreed!"
Ye Chen nodded. Before him was Hunyue Emperor, a true Emperor who had ascended step by step from Sovereign, far more familiar than he was with the distinctions between the ten heavens of the Sovereign realm. Moreover, as an Emperor, he could completely withstand Ye Chen's Eternal Sovereign combat power.
Although he had become absurdly powerful after advancing to Ancient Sovereign, he knew he had not yet reached the Emperor level.
Boom—
At this moment, the power of his Sovereign Heaven Soul-level Chaos Saint Soul, his Eternal Sovereign-level Chaos Saint Body, the most powerful Sovereign Rule power within his body, and the power of his Origin Universe—all four merged abruptly, their power skyrocketing to its peak in an instant. The entire void inner world of the World Tower nearly exploded.
This was a peerless Eternal Sovereign fist!
Even though it was the simplest, most direct punch, even though he didn't employ any divine abilities or secret arts, it was terrifyingly excessive, shockingly powerful.
Hunyue Emperor's eyes lit up, brilliant light erupting from them, but he also acted, throwing an Emperor's fist!
Boom—
Heaven collapsed and earth split. The myriad worlds conjured within the World Tower were instantly pulverized, but a mighty force of spacetime enveloped everything, perfectly suppressing all power within a certain range.
It was over!
Ye Chen's figure was blasted back hundreds of millions of miles. His arm was fractured, his fist split open, blood flowing, white bone visible. Clearly, he was no match for Hunyue Emperor.
Of course, this was all within expectations.
What was shocking, however, was that a trace of blood also appeared on Hunyue Emperor's fist.
It seemed minuscule, but in reality, it was extremely astonishing.
One must know that Hunyue Emperor was an Emperor, and moreover, a variant Saint Spirit formed from a Chaos Primordial Divine Mountain. The strength of his divine body far surpassed that of Emperors of the same rank, even capable of clashing directly with Emperor weapons. Yet, Ye Chen had actually forced out a trace of blood from him.
Even if it was just a trace, it was absolutely astonishing.
Under normal circumstances, only an Emperor weapon striking him could cause such a slight trace of blood.
One could imagine how powerful Ye Chen's attack was, possessing power nearly equivalent to an Emperor weapon's strike.
Hunyue Emperor's eyes shone with intense light, extremely excited. "Good, good, truly good."
Rumble—
Operating his Saint Body Regeneration Art, Ye Chen healed his wounds. Looking at Hunyue Emperor, he sighed slightly. Although he knew he was inferior to an Emperor, he hadn't expected his full-power strike to only cause such a minor wound.
Ye Chen spoke, "What heaven of the Sovereign realm does my strength roughly correspond to?"
Hunyue Emperor countered with a question instead of answering, "Tell me what you know about the divisions of Sovereign strength."
"A First Heaven Sovereign generally masters a foundation of two thousand Sovereign Rules, has World Power comparable to one thousand, Sovereign Immortal Weapons roughly comparable to two thousand, with overall combat power around five thousand dao. Of course, this is the baseline; it can increase by several tenths as cultivation grows."
"A Second Heaven Sovereign's strength is doubled, and so on. A peak Sovereign can possess combat power hundreds of times that of a First Heaven Sovereign."
This was the information on Sovereign combat power he had learned from Dark Night Emperor back then.
Hunyue Emperor said, "That's generally correct under normal circumstances, but the latter part is wrong. Or rather, you weren't qualified to know higher-level information at the time, so Dark Night Emperor couldn't conveniently tell you. Some Sovereign information is subject to rule restrictions and cannot be casually disclosed."
"Rule restrictions?" Ye Chen was taken aback.
"Yes, rule restrictions." Hunyue Emperor raised his head to look at the sky. "The Chaos Sea has its own operating rules. Therefore, in many cases, some important content cannot be easily disclosed. It's also to prevent too many people from reaching higher levels."
"Why?" Ye Chen truly couldn't understand. Why prevent too many people from reaching higher levels? Wasn't that a good thing?
Hunyue Emperor said, "You should know that a Chaos Primordial Great World can only give birth to one Supreme One at most, right?"
"I know."
"But why can it only give birth to one Supreme One?"
"Resource limitations. The World Will does not permit it." Ye Chen answered. This matter could be completely referenced from the time when Mythical Emperor couldn't advance to Supreme One precisely because of the suppression from the Ten Heavens Ancient Domain's World Will. That was why this stunning, peerless talent of countless ancient times was trapped for half an epoch era, unable to smoothly advance to Supreme One.
Because the birth of one Supreme One required far too many resources, far exceeding that of an Emperor, causing even a Chaos Primordial Great World like the Ten Heavens Ancient Domain to be unwilling to bear it lightly, thus restricting Emperors within the world from advancing to Supreme One.
"Correct, precisely resource limitations. Generally, a Chaos Primordial Great World cannot give birth to a second Supreme One because resources are insufficient. Once one is born, it could very likely push the entire Chaos Primordial Great World to the brink of exhaustion and collapse."
"And the Chaos Sea, although vast and boundless, follows the same principle. It ultimately has an end. Once too many peak powerhouses are born, such as Supreme Ones, such as Ten Thousand Ancient Giants, the day will eventually come when resources are exhausted. In this way, the Chaos Sea will also be pushed to the brink of decline and destruction."
"In fact, regarding Ancient Chaos Universes, the reason some Ancient Chaos Universes in history suddenly collapsed—partly due to war—also involves this important aspect."
"For an Ancient Chaos Universe to become stronger, it must have sufficient resources to give birth to enough Supreme Ones, even Ten Thousand Ancient Giants."
Ye Chen suddenly remembered something and asked, "Is the Eight Desolations Ancient Universe also because of this?"
As far as he knew, back when the Eight Desolations Ancient Universe exhausted the power of an entire Ancient Chaos Universe to attack the Primordial Immortal World, although the Primordial Ancestor was behind the scenes pushing it, there should have been other important reasons.
Hunyue Emperor nodded. "Indeed. The Eight Desolations Ancient Universe gave birth to too many Supreme Ones. Moreover, with the appearance of the Ten Thousand Ancient Giant, Emperor Hantian, the Ancient Chaos Universe could no longer bear it. The universe's origin was also somewhat exhausted, forcing them to take desperate risks and attack the Primordial Immortal World."
As an Emperor, a variant Saint Spirit, and a figure from the previous mythic epoch, Hunyue Emperor knew many things and was aware of some of these secrets.