Departure

Roy considered this harvest even greater than becoming a Paragon.

After absorbing and sorting through his gains, Roy left the palace and headed for the City Lord's Manor in Sanhe City.

"Roy, didn't you tell us before that it would take at least several hundred thousand years for you to advance to a High-level God? How did you advance after only a little over ten thousand years?"

The moment Roy arrived at the City Lord's Manor, Laurent impatiently grabbed his hand and asked.

"City Lord Laurent, I didn't want this either."

Roy shrugged and said with a bitter smile, "The Soul Gold Beads Deputy City Lord Shelley gave me were simply too effective. I absorbed too many at once, and then all those insights into the Laws came flooding into my soul. I couldn't stop them even if I wanted to."

If anyone else had heard Roy say this, they would likely have thought he was lying.

However, the Four Divine Beast Family possessed Bloodline Awakening Pools. Once clan members reached adulthood, they would enter the family's Bloodline Awakening Pools to awaken their Divine Beast Bloodlines and become gods, gaining the Four Divine Beasts' Innate Divine Abilities.

All four of them had stayed in Bloodline Awakening Pools before and had experienced the feeling of comprehending a Law Profound Mystery in a short time and becoming gods.

All they could say was that Roy's affinity with the Earthly Laws was simply too high. After the Soul Gold Beads strengthened his soul, it had reached a level comparable to that instant when a Divine Beast Bloodline matured.

"So that's how it is. Then I'm the one who harmed you."

Upon hearing Roy's explanation, Laurent and the others immediately understood. Shelley in particular regretted giving Roy the Soul Gold Beads too early.

Although the Soul Gold Beads had strengthened Roy's soul by more than tenfold and allowed him to comprehend the final two Law Profound Mysteries, advancing him to a High-level God...

They had also caused the difficulty of Roy's future fusion of Law Profound Mysteries to skyrocket. His strength might very well remain at this level from now on.

"It's fine."

Seeing Shelley blame herself, Roy smiled. "My soul strength has increased greatly. Although completing the final two Law Profound Mysteries has made fusing Law Profound Mysteries considerably harder, it isn't impossible."

"Besides, I've now completely fused four Law Profound Mysteries. My strength isn't weak either."

"Four?"

Laurent and the others exchanged glances, excitement rising in their eyes.

A High-level God who had completely fused four Law Profound Mysteries already possessed the strength of a Seven-star Demon. Even within the Four Divine Beast Family, such a person could not be considered weak.

Excluding foreign elders like Roy, the Four Divine Beast Family currently had fewer than a hundred elders with Seven-star Demon strength.

That was after the Four Divine Beast Family's accumulation over several tens of billions of years.

On average, the family produced only one clan member with Seven-star Demon strength every ten billion years.

Having cultivated an elder with the strength of a Seven-star Demon for the family, the rewards they received would likely allow their strength to advance even further.

"Sister Shelley..."

"Don't worry. My divine clone at the Ancestral Land has already informed the Patriarch."

Knowing what Laurent and the other two were thinking, Shelley rolled her eyes at them before saying to Roy, "Then, Elder Roy, should we set out for the Sky Sacrifice Mountain Range now, or wait until you've dealt with matters here first?"

"Thanks to the protection of the city lords, I was able to cultivate in peace. I don't have anything that needs handling, so I'll follow Deputy City Lord Shelley's arrangements. I can leave whenever."

"Elder Roy, you should just call me Shelley. Once you arrive at the Sky Sacrifice Mountain Range and formally join our family, both your strength and status will surpass mine. Then it will be my turn to call you Lord Roy."

Roy shook his head without responding to Shelley's teasing.

He could still tell the difference between clan elders and non-clan elders.

"By the way, Elder Roy, Sister Shelley, the Demon Castle has a mission. When you leave, you can head to Nichols City as examiners."

"Oh?"

Roy raised a brow at Laurent's words. "City Lord Laurent, ordinary Demon Assessments don't require examiners. What kind of mission is this, to need examiners?"

"Other than the Demon Castle and the various city lords, the contents of this mission remain confidential."

Laurent smiled. "Between Birel City and Nichols City, there is a Tribe called Gells. It was discovered that they were using the souls of large numbers of mortals to refine Soul Gold Granules for cultivation. Eight years ago, a Saint Domain escaped from that Tribe, and only then did the news spread."

"The Demon Castle has now issued a Five-star mission targeting that Tribe. Two Five-star Devils are leading it, accompanied by over a dozen Three-star and Four-star Devils, along with this batch of prospective Demons taking the Demon Assessment. They are waiting for a Six-star Devil to arrive before immediately wiping out that Tribe."

"If you go, you can take care of that Tribe along the way."

"I have no objections. I can leave at any time."

After listening to Laurent's introduction, Roy nodded.

Even if the Demon Castle had not issued this mission, he would have dealt with that Tribe after learning of it.

Among the gods of the God Planes, some people devised cruel methods to increase their strength.

Soul Gold Beads, for example, were made by gods skilled in matters of the soul. They refined mortals' souls into Soul Essence, then refined the Soul Essence into Soul Gold Beads.

Generally speaking, the souls of ten ordinary people could be refined into one portion of Soul Essence. One million portions of Soul Essence could be refined into one Soul Gold Granule, while twenty million portions of Soul Essence could be refined into a Soul Gold Bead two centimeters in size.

As for the more than three hundred fist-sized Soul Gold Beads Roy had absorbed earlier, if counted in human lives, they would have required at least trillions of lives to create.

Of course, only a family like the Four Divine Beast Family, with its hundreds of billions of years of history, possessed such "reserves."

Ordinary people merely established a Tribe, harvested a batch each year, and refined a few Soul Gold Granules.

"Then let's leave now. The sooner we resolve it, the fewer people will die."

"Mm."

After saying goodbye to Laurent and the other two, Roy and Shelley flew directly out of Sanhe City. Shelley took out a Metal Life, and the two rode it toward Nichols City.

What surprised Roy was that, as a member of the Nimo Family within the Four Divine Beast Family, Shelley's divine clone was actually a Wind Element Divine Clone.

However, recalling what Shelley and the others had said while chatting earlier, Shelley still had another divine clone at the Four Divine Beast Family's Ancestral Land. That one was likely Shelley's strongest Fire Element Divine Clone.

Within the Four Divine Beast Family, people like Linley, who was clearly a member of the Azure Dragon Clan but whose strongest divine clones were his earth-element and wind-element ones, were still quite rare.

Traveling from Sanhe City to Nichols City, even at the speed of Shelley's Metal Life, would take more than three hundred years.

Therefore, during the intervals when he and Shelley took turns piloting the Metal Life, Roy did not set aside his cultivation.

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