After wandering around Bifu Castle and buying a few interesting trinkets, the three of them decided to find a hotel and check in. After all, the main cities in Hell had a curfew.
At any hotel in House City, the accommodations consisted of individual courtyards with their own gates. After all, divine-level cultivators preferred peace and quiet.
"This one will do." They chose a hotel reception near Bifu Castle that looked fairly luxurious. Even Linley had to marvel at the decorations inside the reception area. The carvings were undoubtedly the work of master artisans.
"Are the three of you looking to check in?" A red-haired woman at the reception smiled warmly as she looked at them expectantly.
"Of course." Linley glanced at the accommodation prices. They really weren't cheap—eight hundred Moshi a year, equivalent to eight Lowgod divine sparks.
"We'll stay for ten years." Milia had said she needed only two or three years to break through, but there was no way to predict exactly how long it would take to overcome a cultivation bottleneck. So Linley paid the lodging fee for ten years upfront.
After receiving a black room token, Linley and the others headed to their accommodations. When they opened the courtyard gate, they found a luxurious yet tasteful private courtyard. Flowerbeds took up a third of the courtyard.
Behind them stood a quaint three-story building.
"Morti, you can stay on the first floor. While you're at it, refine that Midgod divine spark as soon as possible. Once you've succeeded, I'll give you a High Godhead." At Linley's instruction, the white-haired, horned young man respectfully agreed.
Although he had become a god through independent cultivation, he could still feel that cultivation became increasingly difficult after reaching the divine level. If he didn't refine a divine spark, he figured it would take him ages to break through to Midgod. So he didn't object to refining one.
Linley and Milia went up the stairs to the third floor. It was fully furnished, and even had several exquisite works of art by renowned craftsmen.
"The place is pretty nice." Linley nodded in satisfaction, then took out the four High Godheads.
At a thought from him, the Black Hole inside his body unleashed a powerful pull and swallowed all four divine sparks. They vanished in an instant.
At the other end of the Black Hole inside Linley, the four divine sparks traveled through the Black Hole and arrived in the Dark Space that belonged to him.
The Dark Space was a specific, relatively small section of the boundless Paste Space that belonged to Linley. Originally, the space that belonged to him was only two or three meters long, wide, and high.
After the expansion that came when Linley became a Midgod, the area that belonged to him now measured around ten meters in each direction.
At the same time... this space was still slowly growing, at an almost imperceptible rate.
As soon as the four differently colored High Godheads entered the Dark Space, a peculiar substance within it rapidly dissolved and broke them down!
Divine sparks were supposed to be indestructible, yet they melted before his eyes like iron ore submerged in boiling magma. In their place appeared four tiny golden particles, each no bigger than a spark.
These peculiar golden particles were, in fact, the essence of the divine sparks!
Linley had actually discovered back in the Material Plane that his Dark Space could extract this essence. However, the amount of essence extracted from Lowgod divine sparks was far too small.
"The essence in a Midgod divine spark is roughly a hundred times that in a Lowgod one, and the essence in a High Godhead is roughly a hundred times that in a Midgod one..." That was what Linley's earlier experiments had shown.
"Next, I'll see whether I can fuse them." Linley remembered that when Beirut had crafted the Godhead Weapon Liuying for him in the original story, a mysterious black energy had appeared inside the weapon. Linley was very curious about that energy.
"Will it work?" Linley's consciousness guided the four differently colored golden particles toward one another, trying to make them fuse.
"Shhh..." Just as different kinds of wine could be mixed together, the four golden particles naturally blended as they drew near one another. Then a thread of peculiar black energy emerged where they met!
Pure black, without a trace of impurity!
"This energy..." Linley was about to examine it when wisps of peculiar matter spontaneously flew out of the Dark Space and gathered around the black energy.
As time passed, the black energy grew in quantity.
"Is it transforming itself?" As Linley watched in astonishment, the thread of black energy—which had been so fine it was nearly invisible—grew to the size of a fist in the blink of an eye. It kept transforming at a frenzied pace!
At this rate, it might drain every bit of the peculiar matter in the Dark Space.
Perhaps sensing that the energy stored in the Dark Space itself was running low, the boundless Paste Space beyond it began sending wisps of chaotic, paste-like energy through the barrier to replenish what the Dark Space was losing.
As the outside paste-like energy was absorbed, the area of Paste Space closest to the Dark Space became more empty. Linley's Dark Space then expanded its territory accordingly.
"This paste-like energy is good stuff. I just have to keep absorbing it. The bigger my Dark Space gets, the better." Linley was in a very good mood. He hadn't expected to stumble upon a way to expand the Dark Space.
"This black energy..." With a thought, a strand of black energy as thin as a hair flowed along the Black Hole and into Linley's body, spreading through his limbs and organs.
"Crackle..." Linley's Dark God Clone immediately began undergoing a remarkable strengthening!
Though his divine body was formed from divine power, it still had bones, flesh, and other structures, so it could be strengthened and reshaped.
"That feels great!" Perhaps because he had introduced so little black energy at once, the change was extremely intense, yet it felt like a trickle of electricity darting through his body. Instead, it left him with an extraordinarily pleasant tingling sensation.
"I'll use more next time..." Once he realized the benefits, Linley immediately began increasing the amount, channeling more and more black energy into himself!
As time passed, his body was strengthened again and again!
Eventually, the black energy coursed through Linley like a flood, washing through every part of his body without any particular pattern.
Vast amounts of black energy flowed along his muscle fibers, through his blood and bones. It seemed to have found a home, constantly surging into his bones, muscles, and internal organs. Linley's body became more and more imposing, like a fearsome demon god statue!
"Could this black energy be like the four types of divine power Linley fused when he became a Highgod?" Linley couldn't be sure, but he thought it was very likely!
"The black energy is incredibly powerful, too. But right now, I can only use it to strengthen my body. I can't use it as divine power." Strengthening the body was probably a natural property of this energy.
"My body is getting stronger and stronger..." As time passed, Linley could clearly feel every part of his body continually transforming. His muscles grew stronger at an astonishing rate, and his bones became harder with each successive leap.
This rate of progress was truly unbelievable!
"This kind of strengthening really is peculiar, like a divine artifact being nourished by divine power." The process of nurturing an artifact was essentially a gradual absorption of divine power within the body, making the artifact sharper and tougher. It also absorbed some spiritual power, gradually developing sentience.
But making one's own body transform in the same way as an artifact was no simple matter.
Linley did know a few relatively simple methods of strengthening the body.
The principle was simply to let the body gradually absorb energy and grow stronger. It sounded easy, but even if there was plenty of energy, how could one make the body absorb it? That was the difficult part.
Aside from a few exceptionally gifted divine beasts and special races, hardly any of the Sovereigns—despite possessing countless Sovereign's Might—had achieved much in this regard.
But the black energy Linley had produced clearly had the special effect of strengthening the body naturally.
"Hmm?" Linley's divine sense delved into his flesh. He found that the tissue beneath his skin, as well as the areas where his muscles connected to his bones and joints, had already begun to undergo a peculiar transformation.
"It seems this strengthening will take quite a while."
As the process continued, Linley used his spiritual power to guide and control it, preventing any accidents.
Before you continue