By the shores of Jingshui Lake, inside a lakeside cottage that had been thoughtfully furnished.
"Luo Ya, are you saying that Bradic was a divine beast?" Milia turned to look at Luo Ya. She had actually guessed earlier that the Thunder God might come looking for them eventually.
The Thunder God was a Midgod, and most likely had two Divine Clones. Milia, on the other hand, was only a Lowgod. She couldn't help at all.
Having her there might even distract Luo Ya, so when the battle had broken out outside, she and her parents had all stayed in the Plane Secret Room to cultivate.
Next time there's a battle, I have to help! Milia swore silently to herself.
"That's right. Divine beasts like him are quite rare in the Material Plane. Oh, and I got quite a few good things from him this time." As Luo Ya spoke, he waved his hand and took a pile of items from a Spatial Ring. They nearly filled half the room.
Most of them were rare plants, along with bottles and jars. There were also some ores and metals. When Luo Ya spotted several transparent crystal bottles among the many items, his eyes lit up.
"Soul Golden Beads?" Luo Ya quickly picked up one of the bottles. Three golden beads were stored inside, and he could sense the dense Soul Essence they contained.
Without hesitation, Luo Ya took out a Soul Golden Bead and reached out to it with his soul power.
Like rivers flowing into the sea, the vast quantity of Soul Essence gathered inside the bead was swiftly absorbed by Luo Ya's soul!
"It feels so good!" Luo Ya felt a wave of comfort wash over his soul, like drinking a glass of ice water in the scorching summer heat!
Of course, the Soul Golden Bead did more than simply make one's soul feel comfortable. Its greatest purpose was to strengthen the soul!
Refining a Soul Golden Bead brought enormous benefits to a Lowgod. Not only would it strengthen the soul, it would also increase one's cultivation speed.
"Milia, these are good stuff. Try refining one." Bradic had left him a full fifteen Soul Golden Beads, so they had more than enough to last them through the Lowgod stage.
"Hm? This Soul Golden Bead is so unusual!" As Milia began absorbing the Soul Essence, she too wore an entranced expression. She had discovered that the Soul Golden Bead could rapidly restore her damaged soul.
When Luo Ya and Milia had become gods, they had both chosen to split their souls in two. Naturally, each of their individual souls had been left weakened.
However, when they had become gods through their own efforts, the Laws of Heaven and Earth had descended. Their souls had been enveloped by the Laws of Heaven and Earth, if only for an instant... Yet their very essence had been transformed. This was one of the benefits enjoyed by every powerhouse who became a god through their own efforts.
That transformation had made their souls deduce things more than ten times faster. Once they absorbed all the Soul Essence inside the Soul Golden Bead, their speed of deduction would surely increase again.
Combined, their soul's speed of deduction and cultivation would be nearly a hundred times faster than it had been in the Saint Realm!
And that was only the increase in the soul's deduction speed. It didn't even take into account how becoming gods would deepen their Divine Clones' affinity with their respective laws, or how the Plane Secret Room would enhance their cultivation.
"Besides, my soul underwent an additional transformation when I was granted Willpower." That extra transformation had raised the essence of his soul another level.
For Paragon High-Gods, by the time they gained Willpower, their Laws and Profound Mysteries were already perfected.
At that point, a transformation of the soul could at most help them deduce and develop a few special techniques more quickly. There was little room left for real progress.
But Luo Ya was different. He was only a Lowgod.
At this stage, the extra growth of his soul brought tremendous benefits—his comprehension of the laws and his speed of deduction were both on an entirely higher level than before!
Aside from the Soul Golden Beads, Luo Ya also found quite a few Artifacts in Bradic's Spatial Ring.
There weren't many Midgod Artifacts, and they were all related to lightning or the Laws of Death. But there were far more Lowgod Artifacts, including two or three Lowgod Artifacts of both the wind and darkness elements.
In the end, Luo Ya chose a Defensive Divine Artifact armor of the darkness element and a metal whip as his offensive Artifact. Milia chose a one-handed wind-type longsword as her offensive Artifact, along with a Defensive Divine Artifact armor of the wind element.
After his battle with Bradic, Luo Ya's life returned to its peaceful rhythm. His Dark God Clone and original body devoted themselves to cultivating the Laws of Darkness.
If he only wanted to perfect the Profound Mystery of 'Dark Element' on its own, Luo Ya estimated that a year would be more than enough. After all, his cultivation speed now was worlds apart from what it had been in the Saint Realm. So he chose to cultivate by comprehending and fusing at the same time.
"Fusing these is indeed much harder than comprehending a single Profound Mystery." It was only after stepping through the threshold of Fusion Profound Mysteries that Luo Ya discovered how difficult they were.
Even fusing the two most basic Profound Mysteries was more than ten times harder than before!
"The best way for me to cultivate now is to gradually fuse the Profound Mystery of 'Dark Element' with 'Devour' as I comprehend it. I also need to keep the degree of fusion roughly in step with my level of comprehension."
The ideal situation would be to have the Profound Mysteries of 'Dark Element' and 'Devour' fully fused the moment he perfected 'Dark Element.'
"Cultivating this way will take ten, perhaps even a hundred times more effort to fully comprehend 'Dark Element,' but it'll lead to the greatest achievements in the future!" The difference between being strong for a moment and being strong for a lifetime was obvious.
Luo Ya didn't just recommend this to himself. He advised Milia to do the same.
Time passed, and another three years slipped by in the blink of an eye.
Although the Profound Mystery of 'Dark Element' was still only at the same minor level of mastery it had reached three years ago, Luo Ya had finally managed to fuse that small portion with 'Devour.'
In other words, from that moment on, the progress of the fusion between the two Profound Mysteries had caught up with his progress in comprehending 'Dark Element' on its own.
From then on, his cultivation was fully on track, with a clear road ahead!
The hardest part of fusing two Profound Mysteries was finding the point where they connected—the first step.
Many people couldn't take even that first step when trying to fuse two Profound Mysteries. That first step was like a key, and it was the most important one.
Once you had a beginning, success was possible.
Now that Luo Ya had found the point where they connected, he wouldn't encounter any major obstacles along the way, except for the possibility of a bottleneck when both Profound Mysteries were fully perfected.
"Boom!" In the Plane Secret Room, the elements suddenly gathered in the space above him.
Cold, gloomy Dark Element rushed together, accompanied by faint rumbling sounds. A mass of dark mist appeared overhead in the secret room, then transformed into a slender, pitch-black venomous snake.
"Pss, pss~~" The snake looked lifelike, baring its fangs from time to time.
It was hard to believe such a vivid snake was merely an object created from elements.
With a thought, Luo Ya directed the little snake to angrily lash its tail. Its thin tail whipped about like a spiked lash.
"Vmmm~~"
The little snake's tail whipped out, and visible ripples appeared in space.
In truth, Luo Ya wasn't even taking it seriously, and the amount of divine power he expended was negligible.
"The power of fused Profound Mysteries really is impressive."
Although he had only fused a small part of the two Profound Mysteries, Luo Ya could tell that even the same move as before was now two or three times more powerful. "And this is only at the early stage of mastery. Once I've fully fused both Profound Mysteries and become a Midgod, my strength will surely make another huge leap!"
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