The Monster Deity

"What I mean is, after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, the Heart Refining Realm may not be the only path to further advancement!"

Ling Xin looked at Luo Jun: "Do you remember when I was trapped in some ruins in the Savage Wilderness?"

Luo Jun nodded. "I've read the reports. It seems the famous 'Night' rescued you, right?"

Ling Xin nodded. "Normally, if something happens to the Ling Family's own team, especially if a member of the royal family is involved, the Wildlands Hunter Guild wouldn't issue a mission to the public. But at that time, the Ling Family really didn't have any capable teams left, because apart from the family head Ling Ao, almost all the elite members of the Lineage had been sent out."

"Yes, I was wondering about that too," Luo Jun asked. "Isn't your brother the Number One Under Ascension? Why didn't he go to save his sister?"

"Because he was sent to carry out a more important mission." Ling Xin sighed. "Actually, the place where I was trapped was a relic left by an Ancient God. According to the information in the relic, humans once lived in Savage Wilderness ancient wilderness and fought against the monsters of the Savage Wilderness for many years. At that time, both the human side and the monster side had a Deity- level leader."

"The place where I was trapped was the God Ruins on the human side. Only Night went to the deepest part, and I don't know exactly what's inside. Although Night claimed that there was only some information from the murals inside, the guild generally speculated that Night must have obtained some substantial benefits from inside."

"But what the outside world doesn't know is that the Wildlands Hunter Guild actually discovered two Ancient Ruins. Besides the one where I was trapped, the other one was the Secret Realm that my brother was sent to explore."

"And he lived up to expectations, successfully exploring and returning. According to the information he provided, that Secret Realm contained the ruins left behind by the Deity of the monster faction!"

"The ruins of a monster Deity?" Luo Jun narrowed his eyes. This was interesting. After seeing the ruins of the human Deity, he originally thought the monsters would ultimately win. But according to Ling Xin, the monster Deity also left behind ruins. Could it be that the final result was a mutual destruction?

"That's right." Ling Xin nodded. "According to the information my brother brought back, the ruins record that an ancient monster -Deity possessed a unique cultivation method. According to the records, it seemed unable to form external qi, and could only continuously strengthen its Body Refinement Realm cultivation. Relying solely on the physical abilities brought by the foundational cultivation, it became an existence surpassing even the Feather Transformation stage!"

Hearing Ling Xin's words, Luo Jun's eyes grew brighter and brighter. Wasn't this the extinct ancient race that Midnight had mentioned? Did this monstrous Deity appear before or after the Saints?

If it happened afterward, does that mean that some members of that saintly race survived and cultivated to the legendary saintly realm, or even surpassed it?

"You mean, even if you can't reach the Heart Refining Realm, as long as you keep cultivating the Body Refinement Realm, you can still possess power surpassing Feather Transformation?" Luo Jun asked tentatively.

"At least according to the records in that ruin, that's certainly the case." Ling Xin nodded. "However, it seems that due to differences in physique, the cultivation methods of that monster Deity are not applicable to humans. But my brother has already recorded the cultivation methods, and after studying them, they might bring us new understanding and even change the current state of Vital Energy Cultivation."

"What did you say?" Luo Jun's eyes widened upon hearing this. "You mean, that ruin contains a method for achieving Physical Body Sanctification?"

"Physical Body Sanctification?" Ling Xin blinked. "That's quite an apt description..."

"I read it in a novel..." Luo Jun replied casually, then eagerly continued, "Did your brother, Ling Yao, really record the methods of Deity cultivation?"

Ling Xin nodded. "This was originally a secret of the Ling Family, so don't tell anyone else. I just want you to know that even if you can't reach the Heart Refining Realm, don't give up on yourself. There's always a way out. Humanity has only been exploring Yuan Qi for a little over a hundred years. We are still young, and we have many opportunities and possibilities..."

Luo Jun was no longer listening to Ling Xin's advice; his mind was completely focused on the legendary God Technique: "What is the cultivation method like? Can I see it?"

Ling Xin frowned upon hearing this. "I'm telling you all this to cheer you up, not to make you practice it! After all, it's not a human Cultivation Method. The Ling Family is currently researching it, and the preliminary conclusion is that humans cannot cultivate the original monster -God Technique. However, we can use some techniques and tricks to improve upon current human cultivation methods. But we're still in the exploratory stage, and no one knows what the consequences of arbitrarily changing cultivation methods will be... But at least there's hope for now. Once we research a new, safe Cultivation Method, I'm not afraid to teach you..."

Ling Xin's words made Luo Jun's heart race. He was stuck at the Body Refinement Realm Ninth Layer and was worried about not being able to improve. And now this new Cultivation Method was delivered right to his doorstep? Could this be the true value of Great Success?

"I want to see if it works right now," Luo Jun continued to plead, even resorting to using the Dice of Heavenly Secrets.

"Ding! Event Difficulty 100 points, Final Points 90 + 15 points, Event Success!"

The difficulty was extremely high, and Ling Xin clearly didn't want to reveal the specific training content, but she couldn't stop Luo Jun's Dice of Heavenly Secrets from being too domineering!

After earnest pleading, the girl finally said, "I haven't seen that God Technique either... but I can ask my brother when I get back. If he can send it to me, I can let you take a look... but you promise not to practice it recklessly!"

"Don't worry, didn't you say that humans can't practice that thing at all? I'm just satisfying my curiosity..." Luo Jun said this, but he was secretly overjoyed. He thought to himself that he already had God Technique as a foundation and the Dice of Heavenly Secrets to protect him, so it wasn't really practicing recklessly!

After making the arrangements, the two rushed back to the city center. After all, tomorrow was the day they were leaving for the Exchange Meeting, and they needed to rest well today. Neither of them planned to go back to school. Luo Jun took Ling Xin home first.

Seeing that upscale gated community, and thinking about my own place... I used to think my current rental was pretty good, but compared to this... never mind, let's not even compare.

Back at his rented apartment, Luo Jun didn't want to sleep. Instead, he took out the newly acquired Enchanting Magic Wand.

There are four more chances, meaning you can transform four epic items into legendary ones.

On the way back, Luo Jun had already decided who he wanted to enlighten.

The first item Luo Jun took out was the Dominator's Necklace.

The reason Luo Jun wanted to upgrade this item was because he now had more and more powerful Summoned Creature, and the three loyalist slots were clearly not enough. So Luo Jun planned to upgrade this item, which might allow him to increase the number of loyalists.

With that thought in mind, he took the Enchanting Magic Wand, aimed it at the Dominator's Necklace, and then activated the Dice of Heavenly Secrets.

"Enlighten to an advanced effect!"

Two pairs of dice were rolled. One pair showed a total of 46, and the other pair showed two zeros!

You're incredibly lucky!

"Ding! Event Difficulty 100 points, Final Points 100 + 5 points, Event Success!"

After receiving the success notification, Luo Jun decisively used the Enlightenment effect.

As a petal disappeared, a beam of light enveloped the Dominator's Necklace. Moments later, the necklace's design changed, appearing before Luo Jun in a completely new form. The original Dominator's Necklace had a pendant shaped like a quail egg, entirely black with a faint vertical slit in the middle. After the upgrade, this slit opened up from the center, revealing a moving eye!

So this necklace is actually an eye? It looks kind of creepy...

As Luo Jun's energy swept across the necklace, its new attributes became apparent.

Name: Dominator's Eye

Grade: Legendary

Introduction: A powerful pirate captain, in order to better control his crew, commissioned a mage to create this treasure. Years later, the treasure fell into the hands of a young man, who used a special method to upgrade and evolve it into an even more powerful artifact!

Function 1: Loyalty: When wielding this Noble Phantasm, one can accept the loyalty of other beings as Master. Loyalists cannot actively harm the Master, nor can they disobey the Master's orders. The Master can know the location of the loyalists at any time and can contact them at any time.

Master can have up to five loyalists at the same time. Master can cancel a loyalty at any time, and a loyalist who wants to stop being loyal needs the Master's consent.

Function Two: Blessing. While wearing the necklace, the Master must allocate 5% of their total vital energy to each loyalist, and this energy is doubled and converted into the loyalist's power, serving as the energy source for the loyalist to unleash their abilities.

Function Three Feedback: After activation, the Master can temporarily borrow a certain ability from a loyal follower. During the borrowing period, the loyal follower will be unable to use the ability or receive the Master's blessing. The Master can also choose to lend the borrowed ability to a loyal follower.

Activation consumes One Hundred Breaths Vital Energy, lasts for a maximum of one hour, and has a 24-hour Cooldown Time, with the Cooldown Time calculated individually for each loyalist.

Note: Pledge allegiance to me, and you will gain the power you've always dreamed of!

The version listed in 1619 is flawless!

As expected, after upgrading to Legendary, the number of loyalists he could obtain increased to five, and the blessing ability was also strengthened. Each loyalist could still obtain 10% of Luo Jun's maximum energy, but Luo Jun only needed to reduce it by half, that is, 5% of his maximum energy.

As for the original third halo ability, it's gone, replaced by a feedback ability. This ability, simply put, allows him to borrow abilities from several loyal subordinates and distribute those borrowed abilities to others... This is incredibly convenient. Not only does it greatly diversify the abilities Luo Jun can use, but he can even borrow the abilities of four loyalists onto one person, creating an all-around super-powerful helper!

Compared to the previous, rather weak aura, this ability is indeed much more powerful. This upgrade is definitely worthwhile!

Luo Jun put on the necklace and sensed it. Ailongtan, Aishiliya, and Lilith, who had already pledged allegiance, were still in a state of loyalty. He tried it out, and although he didn't summon the three of them, he could still use the feedback function to borrow their abilities, which was very convenient! Otherwise, it would have been embarrassing if he wanted to borrow Lilith's power but found that he couldn't draw any cards.

However, one cannot borrow all abilities, especially loyalists with multiple abilities. Master can only borrow one of them. For example, Ailongtan is proficient in multiple Elemental Magic, but Luo Jun can only borrow the ability of one element at a time. Another example is Aishiliya can transform into multiple monsters, but Luo Jun can only borrow one monster form at a time, or at most make some minor adjustments to that form. He cannot change at will like Aishiliya.

That's powerful enough. As for the two extra loyalty slots, we can use them later when there are more suitable ones.

After carefully putting away the newly acquired Dominator's Eye, Luo Jun took out another treasure: the Grocery Store Admission Ticket.

Luo Jun hasn't used this thing yet, but judging from the description, it should be a special consumable that can obtain more Noble Phantasms. It would definitely be more cost-effective to upgrade it to Legendary-grade before using it.

Thinking this, Luo Jun used the Dice of Heavenly Secrets again. Unexpectedly, the dice emitted a notification sound, indicating that the event was Mandatory Event and could not be determined...

Is advancement Mandatory Event? Even thinking about it backwards, it can't be guaranteed success, so it can only be guaranteed failure. But why is that? Does this "Entrance Ticket" mean there's no chance of advancement?

Come to think of it, this thing is just a ticket; the Grocery Store itself is what truly functions. You can't just upgrade the ticket and give the Grocery Store an upgrade, can you?

Somewhat disappointed, Luo Jun carefully put away his Entrance Ticket and then took out a smooth mirror.

The Heaven Returning Mirror.

This is a treasure that Luo Jun obtained when he participated in the Tower of Choice. Although it's Epic-level replica, its effects are powerful enough. I just don't know if it can evolve into the real thing!

After the dice were rolled, the Mandatory Event was indicated again...

This won't work either?

Luo Jun recalled his previous attempt to upgrade the Gate of Myriad Realms using the Breath of Divinity, which also failed. He guessed that, just like that time, the genuine Heaven Returning Mirror was already in someone else's hands.

It seems that some Noble Phantasms, in certain situations, simply do not support advancement. In that case, this enlightenment and advancement is not a panacea.

If this one doesn't work, then try another one.

The Chaos Key!

This is a Noble Phantasm that can actively activate Chaos Mission. It's very powerful, but it's limited to Quests of Tier B or lower, and it's completely random. Luo Jun is sometimes bothered by the Chaos Mission signs that appear indiscriminately. Sometimes he wants to use this to avoid them, but since it only works for Quests of Tier B or lower, it's too wasteful. It would be great if it could be upgraded to Rank A.

Pick up the Enchanting Magic Wand, shake the Dice of Heavenly Secrets... This time, there was finally no indication of Mandatory Event!

Good luck, it worked on the first try. Sure enough, the upgraded Chaos Key might randomly trigger Tier A Mission, and the Cooldown Time has been reduced to fifteen days. However, it can only be used once per Chaos Mission cycle.

That was enough. Luo Jun put away the Chaos Key with satisfaction. There were still two petals left. He wasn't in a hurry to activate other treasures. Instead, he focused his attention on the Grocery Store Entrance Ticket next to him.

Since I can't upgrade it anyway, I might as well use one to try it out and see what good stuff the legendary general Grocery Store has to offer.

Luo Jun picked up a coupon, infused it with vital energy, and activated it...

(End of this chapter)