Soul Golden Bead

It was a marvelous feeling, unlike anything he could have experienced while reading a book in his previous life.

First of all, Linley could sense deep in his soul that he had broken through a major threshold. From this moment on, he knew he was no longer at the same level as before. Before, he had been Saint-level; now, he was a god.

The vast, indescribable Laws of the Heavens and the Earth came from beyond the Spatial Turbulence and entered the plane space directly, yet they did not damage the edges of the plane space. They did not even affect the tables and chairs inside. Linley, meanwhile, rose into the air beyond his control. There was no force compelling him; even Linley himself felt that it was perfectly natural.

A special power seeped into Linley's mind and entered his soul. The Shadow Clone Profound Mystery contained within his soul seemed to lie completely exposed, merging with the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!" While Linley was still comprehending the majesty of the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth, an aura of Darkness Laws suddenly gathered above and in front of his head. In the Spatial Turbulence beyond the plane, a vast amount of darkness elements were also drawn in by the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth. Yet the bubble-like edges of the plane space remained unaffected, and the powerful Spatial Turbulence was no longer so violent in the presence of the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth.

A moment later, the power of the Darkness Laws vanished, and the surrounding darkness elements dispersed. The Spatial Turbulence outside returned to normal. Above Linley's head, a black Godhead the size of a finger glimmered with the inky light of the Laws.

Linley could now clearly sense his connection to it. It seemed to be a part of his body, and his soul imprint was inside the Godhead.

Suddenly, the soul within the Godhead received a message. The Laws of the Heavens and the Earth were asking him to choose between Internal Godhood and External Godhood.

This seemed to be a step that everyone who became a god independently had to go through. Without the slightest hesitation, Linley chose External Godhood.

In the Coiling Dragon World, the sole advantage of Internal Godhood was that one could immediately wield one's full strength upon becoming a god. There was no need to split one's soul, and thus no need to recover afterward.

There were no other advantages. Having multiple Divine Clones meant a longer lifespan and greater prospects. One could even use a Divine Clone as a "human telephone" in the Higher Planes.

Still, the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth had their reasons for doing this. Godheads were treasures, whether in the Higher Planes or the Material Planes.

If someone chose External Godhood when the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth descended, without anyone else to protect them, they would go through a period of weakness. For other gods, this was the perfect time to hunt them. Under normal circumstances, recovering a split soul took a long time without resources.

Take Linley, for example. If he became a god on the Zhongyuan Continent, such a commotion would inevitably alert the other gods, or even the gods of the Darkness Church. It would also be difficult to hide, leaving him with a real chance of falling.

So quite a few people still chose Internal Godhood, especially those with only one talent or a poor second talent.

The advantage of choosing External Godhood lay in the future. One might enjoy those benefits, provided one survived long enough to reach it. Not everyone was the protagonist. More likely, someone would finally become a god on their own, only to hand their Godhead over to someone else.

Of course, even someone who chose Internal Godhood could meet the same fate.

If a Middlegod suddenly discovered that an unfamiliar person nearby had become a Lowgod, then if they were ruthless, they would surely kill them on the spot and take their Godhead, then have a friend or family member refine it. That was the most likely outcome.

And the Coiling Dragon World was full of ruthless people. The Death Middlegod of the Darkness Church, for instance, had slaughtered hundreds of millions of lives to refine Soul Golden Beads. In the Higher Planes, Saint-level beings were just as likely to become food or ingredients for Soul Golden Beads.

Thus, manifesting a Miniature Plane Space not only made cultivation faster, but also allowed one to become a god quietly at the edge of the Spatial Turbulence. Otherwise, Linley would have had a headache just trying to pick a place to become a god on the Zhongyuan Continent.

"External Godhood." Linley conveyed his decision to the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth.

"Ah!" Linley let out an involuntary scream of unbearable pain. The agony made every muscle in his body spasm and convulse. Deep in his mind, his soul was enveloped by the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth, then split in two with a sharp crack.

The pain of splitting one's soul was millions of times worse than physical torment.

After a long while, Linley finally recovered. He could now feel that his soul was in two different places, each looking at the other as if in a mirror.

"Rumble!" Through the Godhead, Linley immediately sensed that its deepest reaches connected to the legendary Elemental Ocean.

Before reaching Saint-level, everyone—humans and magical beasts alike—used the energy between heaven and earth, whether they cultivated magic or battle qi. But upon reaching godhood, they used divine power from the Elemental Ocean.

The Godhead could be called a door. From anywhere, it could connect one to the most mysterious Elemental Ocean in the Coiling Dragon World. This was true for a newly born Lowgod in a Material Plane and for a supreme High Sovereign alike. It was one of the most basic rules governing the world.

Linley could now sense a point ten meters deep in the Elemental Ocean. With a mere thought, he could draw divine power from it, though the process was incredibly slow.

Just then, a vast amount of divine power from the Elemental Ocean flowed through Linley's Godhead and into the plane space. Under the direction of the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth, a large amount of Lowgod divine power formed a body identical to Linley's without needing any control from him. The instant the body became divine, the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth withdrew their control, and the half of Linley's soul inside the Godhead took control of the new body.

It was a marvelous feeling. The two bodies shared the same soul, like a pair of hands, but each had its own eyes and divine sense. The energy within the Lowgod Divine Clone was countless times greater than that of Linley's Saint Domain True Body, and his soul had undergone a new transformation as well.

The power of the Laws of the Heavens and the Earth gradually faded, and the plane space returned to calm.

Linley didn't hurry to examine the information and energy contained in the Godhead. Those things weren't going anywhere. Instead, he immediately connected with the book Coiling Dragon inside his body and manifested the two Soul Golden Beads Linley had obtained upon becoming a god as a Grand Wizard in the Yulan Plane.

PS: There was a problem in the previous chapter that a reader pointed out. In the original, that Magic Array was destroyed after Linley drew his sword. That didn't happen in this book because I hadn't noticed that detail.

The plot needs the Spatial Passage, not the remains of the Magic Array. If I'd known earlier, I would have just written that only the Spatial Passage remained.

The story is already written, and changing it now would be a lot of work, so I'll patch it up earlier by saying the difference was caused by the planes being different.

This isn't a major issue, but things like this may come up again later. I'll definitely respect the original when writing fanfiction, but there are many details I can't notice all at once. Also, everyone interprets the original differently.

All I can say is that I'll do my best to keep the overall logic consistent with the original.

With today's godhood chapter, the subsequent plot has begun. Although this is fanfiction, I'll do my best to write some new stories and introduce new characters, aside from certain figures who can't be changed, such as the Overgods and Paragons.