His speed was simply not as great as that of his Thunder Element and Destruction God Clones. It was probably because he lacked a Life God Clone, preventing the Four Rules from forming a cycle. Even so, Hodan's various divine clones were steadily growing stronger.
Silvermoon City, in the garden of Hodan's Chinese-style courtyard.
Hodan sat alone in a bamboo chair. Beside it stood a stone table, where a pot of wine was warming on a charcoal brazier. Hodan held a book in his hands, reading and occasionally turning a page before taking a few sips of wine. He savored this peaceful time.
Hodan also knew that these were his last days of peace. Once this period ended, he would have to throw himself back into intense training and endless battles. After that, he would have to worry about finding his way home. He was savoring this rare tranquility.
After a long while, Hodan set down his book. Outside, heavy snow was falling, and a layer of snow covered the ground. It seemed ready to bury everything, yet a speck of green stubbornly pushed its way through.
The instant he saw that bit of green, countless thoughts flashed through Hodan's mind.
What was life?
"Life, at its most basic, has vitality and consciousness!" At that moment, something stirred within Hodan. For the first time, he gained a sense of what life was.
Anything with vitality and consciousness could be called life. Did grass and trees have consciousness? They did, but it was so faint as to be nearly imperceptible. Yet they could keep cultivating, strengthening their consciousness until it eventually formed a soul. That was why grass and trees could also cultivate to become gods.
Likewise, humans were life, as were magical beasts. Even earth, wood, bamboo, and stone that had developed consciousness were life.
"The world is beautiful because life exists, and life makes it flourish. If there were no life in this world, what beauty could there be in such a lifeless place?" For the first time, Hodan felt how beautiful life was. Ordinary people and plants alike—all life was precious.
Following this thread of insight, Hodan finally reached the threshold of the Life Law.
"I've finally made a start on the Life Law." When he came back to himself, Hodan let out a breath.
For someone like Hodan, who had grown up in peaceful times and had experienced neither much hardship nor illness, it was difficult to appreciate the beauty of life.
If you asked who could best understand life, the answer would be those who had survived a catastrophe, or those who had suffered a terminal illness and then been cured. They had come closest to death, lingered at its edge for a long time, and finally returned to the world of the living. Such people understood the true meaning of life best.
Hodan had been through one battle after another, but he hadn't had time to settle down and reflect. Now, after taking this time to recover, he had finally made a start on the Life Law through this chance encounter. But it also showed, in a way, that he really didn't have much talent for cultivating the Life Law. After all, his main path was still that of a fighter.
Hodan didn't mind too much. Making a start was enough; there would always be a way to cultivate into a god. Besides, a single Nether Fruit from the Sovereign of Death could create an Asura-level powerhouse. It was a divine treasure for cultivation, and if he got the chance, Hodan wouldn't let it pass him by.
Putting his thoughts in order, Hodan now turned his attention to his Thunder Element Divine Clone on the Yulan Continent. This year was 9990 on the Yulan Calendar, the year Linley's fate would change at last. According to the original story, Linley would obtain the Coiling Dragon Ring that year and begin his journey to becoming a powerhouse.
Hodan kept his divine sense locked onto Linley. In the end, just as in the original story, Linley went to his clan's ancestral hall to clean and search for treasures.
History really did return to its original course when there was no outside interference. The man Hodan had controlled with a Soul Seed died in an accident after resigning. He hadn't caused any changes for the Baruch Clan; as far as the family was concerned, they had simply gotten a different servant.
Besides, the Baruch Clan had already fallen so far that they no longer needed servants. The family was frugal, too.
That day, after rummaging through the place, Linley angrily hurled the wooden pole in his hands at the wooden rack concealing the Coiling Dragon Ring.
"Smack!" The pole struck the rack with a solid thud.
The rack had long been on the verge of collapse. After taking the pole's heavy blow, it crashed to the ground with a bang, breaking into seven or eight pieces and sending a cloud of dust through the old house.
As the rack broke apart, the Coiling Dragon Ring—which Hodan had hidden again in a compartment inside it, where it had lain forgotten for so long—fell out and rolled across the floor.
In the end, Linley still found it. Since the ring was too big for his finger, he found a thread, strung it through, and wore it as a pendant against his chest. Everything was unfolding just as the story had.
After that, Linley witnessed a mysterious mage controlling a Deinonychus and using the eighth-level spell Dance of the Fire Serpent to slaughter a group of mercenaries. It awakened Linley's desire to become a powerhouse.
Next came the battle between the Saint-level mage Ludy and the Starry Sky Sword Saint Dillon. To Hodan, a Saint-level battle was even more insignificant than children playing house. He didn't even need to act; a divine-level domain alone could crush anyone below the divine level.
The gap between Saint-level and godhood was as vast as the heavens and the earth. They were fundamentally different forms of life. No matter how many Saint-level powerhouses there were—even if they were at the Saint-level peak—they couldn't threaten someone who had become a god by refining a divine spark. It was a difference in rank. No matter how many ants gathered, they were still ants. A god was someone who wielded tools: one flame could burn you to ashes, and you wouldn't be able to keep up with his speed.
But to Linley at the time, and even to most people on the Yulan Continent, Saint-level combatants were walking disasters. Every move in a battle between Saint-level fighters brought immense devastation to Wushan Town.
Their battle made Wushan Town seem as though doomsday had arrived. Hundreds upon hundreds of houses collapsed. More than three hundred people died in the town, and nearly a thousand were probably injured. The town had only a little over five thousand residents, so nearly a fifth had been killed or wounded.
Linley was also struck on the head by a falling boulder while trying to save his younger brother, Wharton.
Fortunately, his butler, Hiri, intervened and blocked part of the impact. Linley wasn't too badly hurt. Otherwise, he probably would have been done for.
Actually, when the boulder flew toward Linley, Hodan had considered using his divine sense to speed it up. That way, the world would have one fewer Fate Undetermined. But Hodan hesitated.
Linley was one of the few protagonists Hodan liked. He had a solid moral compass. Besides, he was still a child and hadn't returned to the Four Divine Beasts Clan, much less done anything to provoke Hodan. Hodan couldn't bring himself to act. You could call him softhearted, but it was a principle he held to.
To stand tall beneath heaven and earth was to be human. And humans had limits they would not cross.
If Hodan had to slaughter bandits or fight people who stood against him, he wouldn't hesitate. But he couldn't bring himself to attack someone who posed no threat to him at all. In the end, he couldn't be like certain transmigrators who ignored their own principles for the sake of profit.
Besides, Linley wasn't Hodan's enemy, and he was still just a child.
When Linley was struck on the head, the Coiling Dragon Ring he wore inside his clothes as a pendant was stained with blood. The blood on its dark, wood-like yet stone-like surface was slowly absorbed by the strange material, as if it were a sponge.
A hazy glow seemed to shimmer faintly across the Coiling Dragon Ring's surface.
The ring was hidden beneath Linley's clothes, but Hodan saw the hazy glow on its surface. He saw everything.
At that moment, without even realizing it, Linley became the Coiling Dragon Ring's master. It was also from that moment that he began walking his own path to becoming a powerhouse.
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