Bad News: City Massacre

In an instant, a strange force poured into Sean's body. It was not magic, not battle qi, and not even energy, yet both his body and soul seemed to have undergone a transformation.

"My physical strength!" Sean suddenly felt that the power of his body had increased significantly. It wasn't an increase in his warrior rank, but pure, raw power. At this moment, his battle qi was still at the 8th rank, but he felt that even without using it, he was far stronger than before.

This was the advantage of having a formidable physique. Magical beasts were just like that; some beasts of the same rank could withstand a full-force blow from a human of the same level with their bodies alone. This advantage was truly immense, not to mention the boost to his overall strength.

Humans of the same rank generally could not defeat magical beasts of the same rank. Only after reaching the Saint-level, where the study of profound mysteries greatly influenced one's strength, did it become easier for Saint-level humans to kill or even tame Saint-level magical beasts.

Regarding his soul, Sean also felt a layer of gray energy coating it, though it was just a sensation for now and had no practical use.

I wonder how strong my physical body is now? Sean felt a sense of curiosity toward himself.

The greatest advantage of a God-Eater Rat was its ability to devour god sparks to strengthen its body after reaching the God-level. However, even at the Saint-level and below, its physical body was inherently powerful.

In the original story, when Bebe sought revenge for his parents, the attacks from the opposing Saint-level experts couldn't even break his defense; he was completely dominating them. Only when encountering those at the peak of the Saint-level was there a possibility of him being suppressed.

However, they were still in the cave, hiding from danger, so he didn't dare to test it recklessly. Being able to kill the Saint-level death magus earlier was entirely due to a combination of luck and coincidence. Otherwise, even if a most ordinary Saint-level warrior had appeared, he and his companion likely wouldn't have been able to win, even with their divine artifacts.

The descent of the God-Eater Rat bloodline did not cause any fluctuations. Leilia, in the next room, was unaware of the changes occurring; he was still in seclusion, intending to break through to the 9th rank.

Sean did not disturb him and continued his own seclusion. Beyond practicing magic, seclusion was also a time to attempt to comprehend the laws of the world. Although he was only at the 9th rank, it was always worth a try. In the original story, Linley had grasped a sliver of the Earth Pulse at the 9th rank.

However, now that he possessed the God-Eater Rat bloodline, this was no longer urgent, because...

The moment Sean entered meditation, his sea of consciousness was completely different from before. Previously, he could only sense the earth-yellow earth-style elements, but now, in addition to earth-style elements, he could also sense the black-glowing darkness elements and the cyan-glowing wind-style elements!

After manifesting a divine beast bloodline, aside from maintaining a human appearance, one would inherit all the abilities of the divine beast, including innate divine abilities and the elemental laws or rule talents inherent to the beast.

The God-Eater Rat was a darkness-attribute divine beast that also possessed an additional wind-style talent. In the original story, Beirut had cultivated both the darkness and wind elemental laws to an extremely high level. Eventually, he accidentally refined a wind-style lowgod spark, while the one serving as the governor of Yulan Prefecture in the Infernal Realm was his darkness divine clone.

Most importantly, the God-Eater Rat was a divine beast that naturally became a god upon reaching adulthood. Now, as long as he continued to lay low, even without active cultivation, he would be able to become a god through the laws of darkness in a few decades or a century. Furthermore, the profound mystery he would comprehend was Shadow Clone, which was slightly more advanced than the Profound Mystery of Darkness Elements.

"There's also this." Sean took a black crystal out of his spatial ring. It was the magic core of the Saint-level magical beast he had manifested earlier. He hadn't been able to process it while in Shengyue City, but now, things were different.

The crystal wasn't very large, and Sean swallowed it in one gulp. Having the characteristics of a divine beast, he could directly devour the crystals of other magical beasts to increase his strength before reaching the God-level.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, another half a year went by. Sean's strength was advancing by leaps and bounds. In terms of earth-style magic, his magic power had increased, but there was no qualitative difference, and he remained confused regarding the profound mysteries of the laws. He had become very proficient in using various earth-style spells, though he didn't know if he would be able to use this to enter the door of the Profound Mystery of Earth Elements once he reached the Saint-level in the future.

As for his warrior rank, he had successfully reached the 9th rank. Because his body was becoming increasingly strong, Sean felt that he might be better suited to be a close-combat warrior.

The most pleasant surprise was the darkness and wind elemental talents brought by the God-Eater Rat bloodline. In half a year, he had already been able to cast 9th-rank darkness magic and 7th-rank wind magic. The speed of his progress was far greater than that of Bebe in the original story. He didn't know if it was because he was already at the 9th rank when he manifested it, or for some other reason, but in any case, his progress was rapid.

Coupled with the highgod offensive divine artifact, the Purple Blood God Sword, and the Coiling Dragon Ring in his hands, Sean now felt that if he were to encounter Celsus, whom he had ambushed and killed earlier, he would have the ability to fight him. Of course, this was mainly due to the physical capabilities provided by the God-Eater Rat talent.

"Sean!" Leilia's voice came from outside the cave, waking Sean from his meditation. He then used his mind to control the rocks at the entrance, opening a passage.

Leilia looked around cautiously before entering, and the rocks returned to their original state.

"How is it? Did you find out any news outside?" Sean asked after walking out.

The two of them had been in seclusion here for quite some time. Leilia had also been healing his injuries; the damage from death magic was extremely persistent, and it was only recently that he had fully recovered. Before this, the two of them couldn't travel long distances, as it would be troublesome if they ran into people from the Darkness Church on the road.

After Leilia recovered, the two discussed it and decided to go out to gather information.

If the Radiant Church won, they could return to Shengyue City. If they lost, they needed to prepare early. After all, they couldn't stay in this cave forever, as it was only about ten thousand miles away from Shengyue City. In the initial stages of the war, the Darkness Church lacked manpower and needed to commit to the fighting, but if they later controlled Shengyue City and the surrounding territory, the risk of being discovered while hiding here long-term would become increasingly high.

Even if Sean knew that he could become a god in a few decades by laying low, he still had to leave. Not to mention the time before the Saint-level, even the descent of the laws of the world upon becoming a god would put him in danger if it attracted that midgod. When a God-Eater Rat was a lowgod, its innate divine ability could not deal with a midgod.

"I didn't find any specific news," Leilia said with a gloomy face. "But what I do know is that Shengyue City has been slaughtered!"