Unexpected Joy, Saint Domain Mage!

Another year had passed in the blink of an eye.

Jie Ning and his companion left the Kodi Mountains and arrived at the border between the northern territories of the two great empires. Unlike the south, this place was a vast expanse of desert.

The 'Death God Desert' was the name of this barren land.

Legend said it was the aftermath left behind by a battle between the God of War and the God of Thunder. Even though over a thousand years had passed since then, most of this area remained a desert, as if some mysterious force had severed all life here.

By now, Arannis had successfully become a Level 8 Mage as expected, and Jie Ning could sense that the opportunity to break through to a Saint Domain Mage was right before his eyes.

He could feel his perception of the Life Fluctuations of every living thing in the world growing clearer. He could 'see' the Life Fluctuations of life rising, intersecting, and vanishing within the world...

The more powerful a lifeform, the stronger its Life Fluctuation in the world, just as he could feel his own Life Fluctuation affecting the world around him.

His eyes grew brighter and brighter. Jie Ning could feel his spirit more active than ever before.

Under Arannis's watchful gaze, Jie Ning suddenly crouched down and stared at an ordinary little blade of grass in front of him—at least, in Arannis's eyes, it seemed ordinary.

If there was anything different about it, it was that amid the yellow desert, this blade of grass was a bit greener.

On the surface, this grass appeared to be an extremely fragile, ordinary lifeform.

But from Jie Ning's perception, that wasn't the case. In his senses, the grass before him radiated an immense Life Fluctuation.

However, Jie Ning was certain that this grass wasn't some powerful Magic Beast, which only stirred his curiosity further.

So, following the grass's roots, Jie Ning extended his spiritual power to explore.

He guessed that perhaps the underground size of this grass far exceeded his imagination, which would explain such a massive Life Fluctuation.

'Oh?' As his spiritual power spread out and he 'saw' the astonishing sight before him, Jie Ning couldn't help but marvel.

He had guessed part of it right. The root system of this grass underground was indeed incredibly developed, which was the essence of its vitality.

But the source of the roots hid another enormous secret.

The dense network of roots had formed a huge ball, clearly wrapping something inside. At the center of the roots, a faint, unsettling aura seeped out.

The roots of this 'grass' had largely shielded this aura, but the trace that leaked still made Jie Ning's heart pound—a feeling as if his very life essence was being suppressed.

Passing his spiritual power through the roots, a corpse suddenly appeared before Jie Ning's 'eyes.'

'This is a god's corpse...' Jie Ning realized immediately.

'Pity, it's a god's corpse that has lost its Divine Spark...' The next moment, even though he had never thought of refining a Divine Spark to become a god, 'seeing' the god's corpse devoid of its Divine Spark, merely filled with roots, Jie Ning still felt a subconscious wave of disappointment.

'Perhaps it was this Divine Spark that sparked the battle between the two gods, leading to the creation of the Death God Desert.' Jie Ning speculated.

Of course, this wasn't baseless conjecture.

After all, the Divine Spark of the god's corpse was gone, and there were only two gods on the continent. It was most likely that the Divine Spark was in the hands of one of those two gods—ordinary people couldn't damage a god's corpse.

Collecting his thoughts, Jie Ning focused again on the god's corpse before him. Based on its aura, he could confirm it was an Earth God Corpse.

It was now tightly wrapped in the roots of the 'grass,' which were constantly trying to absorb the divine power from the corpse.

As everyone knew, aside from gods who had fused with a Divine Spark through their Saint Domain, the bodies of other gods were formed from divine power, making them a massive energy source.

Clearly, this 'grass' was too weak to have much effect on the god's corpse. Aside from a wound on the brain, the corpse remained largely intact.

'This grass is sitting on a treasure it can't use...'

'Hm? No, that's not right...' Jie Ning carefully sensed the changes in the roots and immediately overturned his own view. He was astonished to find that this plant actually seemed to have drawn a sliver of divine power from the god's corpse.

'But the amount is so minuscule that its effect on the corpse is nearly nonexistent. No wonder I didn't notice it at first glance.'

Sensing this extremely faint trace of divine power moving from the god's corpse into the plant's roots, Jie Ning saw it dissipate almost instantly.

'The god's corpse is solid divine power, hard to disperse, but this tiny amount of extracted divine power dissipates quickly.'

Still, the dissipated divine power remained within the 'grass's' root system. The roots rapidly absorbed this scattered divine power, using it to grow further and expand the encirclement of the god's corpse.

Jie Ning fell into thought...

Above ground, Jie Ning opened his eyes and looked at Arannis beside him. "Lanni, we'll probably need to stay here for a few more days."

With that, he roughly explained what he had discovered underground.

"My god, there's a god's corpse down there?" Arannis found it hard to imagine. Gods were already the most powerful beings in her understanding, yet here, beneath their feet, lay a buried god's corpse.

"So, are we going to dig it up?" Arannis asked, looking at the ground with eager anticipation.

Jie Ning quickly stopped her and explained, "The god's corpse itself is useless to us."

"A corpse like this is just a polymer of divine power."

"Below the God-level, there's almost no way to handle the solidified divine power in such a corpse. At best, you could do what this grass does—grind away at it over time for a negligible amount of divine power."

"And once you reach the God-level, unless it's a god's corpse of the same affinity that can be used to quickly recover some divine power, it's still not much use." This was likely the main reason the corpse had been abandoned here.

"For us, this god's corpse is nothing but a chicken rib," Jie Ning concluded.

Arannis was puzzled. "If that's the case, then why are we staying here?"

Jie Ning said mysteriously, "The corpse itself is useless, but it's very useful to me."

With that, he pointed at the blade of grass in front of them.

Arannis stared at the utterly unremarkable little blade of grass before her, thoroughly puzzled. "If even the God Corpse is useless, what use could a single blade of grass possibly be?"

"Lanni, do you remember what I told you about how a Saint Domain mage becomes a deity?" Jie Ning asked in return.

"I remember. You said one must comprehend the laws of Heaven and Earth..." Arannis looked at the grass, as if willing it to sprout a flower. "But how could a single blade of grass contain any laws of Heaven and Earth?"

Jie Ning shook his head helplessly. "Lanni, laws are everywhere. The very reason you can only walk on the ground instead of flying through the air right now, without using magic, is because of a law."

"I have a feeling that this insight might not only allow me to become a Saint Domain mage, but could also take a huge step forward on the path from Saint Domain to godhood."

Since it concerned Jie Ning's cultivation, Arannis couldn't understand but immediately agreed. "In that case, let's stay here for a while. Maybe I can even break through to Level 9 here..."

Arannis was a Wind Element mage. In this empty, desolate desert, the Wind Element was abundant, making it a relatively suitable environment for her cultivation. However, she still had some way to go before becoming a Level 9 mage.

With Arannis's consent, Jie Ning looked around, found a suitable spot, and directly took a complete house out of his Space Ring, placing it down. He then used Earth Element magic to raise several high walls around it to block the wind and sand.

After setting up their dwelling, Jie Ning sat down cross-legged directly above the God Corpse, using his Spiritual Sea to perceive what lay beneath.

In the following days, the two of them settled here temporarily.

Jie Ning knew that plants absorb nutrients from the earth to grow. In this world, the essence of the earth was the Earth Element. Essentially, most plants grew by absorbing the Earth Element.

He had tried to deepen his understanding of life and the earth by directly observing plant growth, but unfortunately, it hadn't been very effective.

The Earth Element that had condensed into solid form within the ground was too tightly bound together. Once absorbed into a plant's body, it transformed in a way Jie Ning couldn't comprehend, becoming part of the plant itself.

All matter in this world, living and non-living, was essentially composed of elements.

Jie Ning believed that if he could understand the transformation from ordinary, non-living elements to living matter, his comprehension of the laws of life would advance tremendously.

And now, right before his spiritual perception, this very scene was unfolding.

First, the divine power dissipated, degrading back into lower-level Heaven and Earth elements. Then, the grass's roots absorbed them. Once absorbed, these elements became part of the grass, and the grass grew...

Jie Ning observed this process meticulously, comparing it to the scene of other plants nearby absorbing ordinary elements from the earth...

Suddenly, Jie Ning understood something. He felt a new kind of insight into the Earth Element. He could clearly sense the Earth Element around him becoming more active. Subconsciously, he manipulated the Earth Element to combine...

'The God Corpse... no. The difference between ordinary elements and divine power is too great. I haven't even analyzed the elemental structure of the God Corpse yet...'

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Jie Ning. He opened his eyes and looked at the stone wall he had raised earlier.

Jie Ning thought for a moment.

Then, suddenly, a clump of mud appeared before Jie Ning's eyes. Then came iron, copper, gold... various metals appeared one after another in front of him.

'On the elemental level, metal and ordinary mud or stone differ only in the arrangement and combination of elements.'

Nearby, Arannis watched the various ores appearing around Jie Ning, a little confused. 'Wasn't he supposed to be comprehending life? But right now, it looks like he's just comprehending Earth magic.'

Unaware of his wife's silent complaint, Jie Ning only felt that he had never been this close to the Earth Element before. They felt like a part of him.

During this process, Jie Ning's Spiritual Sea seemed to stir up waves, beginning a complete transformation.

Arannis noticed that Jie Ning's state seemed to have changed...

And so, the days passed one by one.

Jie Ning 'gazed' at a spherical orb floating above his Spiritual Sea, a mix of joy and wry amusement in his heart. 'My soul is a ball?'

Outside, Arannis was on alert, constantly scanning their surroundings. She had noticed earlier that Jie Ning had entered a deep meditative state. She immediately knew he must have had an insight, and might even be on the verge of a breakthrough.

She quickly went on guard, afraid that some disturbance from the surroundings might interrupt him.

Jie Ning opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Arannis, still on alert. A wave of warmth filled his heart.

"Lanni..." Jie Ning called out to her.

Arannis looked at him with delighted surprise. "Jie Ning, did you successfully break through?"

Jie Ning smiled and nodded, then stood up and embraced Arannis. "That's right. From today on, I am a Saint Domain mage."