Becoming a God

On the Tara Plane, within the Osiris Empire's Silver Blue Grand Duchy, the fluctuations of someone becoming a god shook the entire territory. Anyone on the plane whose cultivation had reached a certain level could sense them.

At the very center of those fluctuations stood the protagonist of this ascension: Richard Hegel.

Richard had long since lost any interest in the outside world. Once he had fully comprehended the wind element, becoming a god had become inevitable.

The Laws of Heaven and Earth descended. At this moment, the entire process of ascension could not be interrupted—not even if a Chief God arrived.

Soon, a godhead formed. All of Richard's insights into the Laws of Wind would be engraved within it.

Then Richard came to an understanding. Next, he could choose to become a god within his body or outside it.

The advantage of becoming a god within his body was that there would be no period of weakness after ascension. The disadvantage was that he would never have a Clone, and aside from the Wind Element, he would be unable to become a god through any other element.

The advantage of becoming a god outside his body was that he would gain a Wind Element Divine Clone and could still comprehend other laws to become a god. The disadvantage was that half his soul would need to be torn away to form the Clone. If he chose this method, his soul would remain weakened for a long time.

Naturally, Richard would not choose to become a god within his body. Leaving aside the fact that he was a Transmigrator who had read Coiling Dragon, his Water Element was not far from becoming divine either. That alone doomed him to choose ascension outside his body.

Once he made his decision, the Will of Heaven and Earth seemed to sense it.

Then he felt a burst of excruciating pain as his soul was ripped directly in half.

Richard gasped sharply from the pain. He had not expected the Will of Heaven and Earth to work in such a simple, brutal fashion. Its craftsmanship was so rough it was unbearable to look at. Fortunately, Heaven and Earth protected him during the ascension process; otherwise, choosing to become a god outside his body would practically be a dead end.

Even a Chief God's soul would probably be crippled, if not killed, by something like this.

As Richard's pain numbed him, a cyan figure gradually took shape, its features slowly becoming clear. This was his Wind Element Divine Clone. Richard coughed and summoned Wind Element Divine Power to conceal the figure.

With the help of the Will of Heaven and Earth, Richard had now completed the process of becoming a god. Even the pain from his torn soul had been partially healed under its assistance. Though his soul was still weak compared to that of a normal deity, at least he was no longer suffering.

As for the weakness of his soul, he could seek treasures that restored Soul Power, or he could simply leave it alone and wait for it to recover naturally. Even if he did nothing, it would recover within a few thousand years at most.

Richard merged his Divine Clone with his main body. He knew guests would soon arrive, and this was not the right time to study the changes brought by becoming a god.

Not long after Richard finished preparing, the first guest arrived.

"Richard, I knew you were the one who became a god. As expected of someone I had my eye on." Before the man arrived, his hearty voice had already reached him.

"Your Majesty Osiris overpraises me. Richard is unworthy of such praise from Your Majesty."

The visitor was the first emperor of the Osiris Empire, the very man who had led the empire to become a peak power on the Tara Plane.

He was also Richard's greatest patron in this world. When Richard had first transmigrated here, he had been nothing more than a destitute noble with nothing to his name. Everything he had today was the result of several centuries of struggle.

Back when Richard had first entered the Saint Domain and faced recruitment from all sides, he had chosen to join the Osiris Empire's imperial family.

Only after marrying an imperial princess had he officially entered the imperial family's social circle.

Of course, Richard had never met His Majesty Osiris before then. After all, the other man was a Mid-level God, while Richard had only been at the Limit Saint Domain before becoming a god. Though he had held some social standing, there were no fewer than eighty or even a hundred Limit Saint Domain experts across the continent. Even Low-level Gods paid little attention to them, let alone Mid-level Gods.

The so-called Limit Saint Domain was merely the point where one had comprehended a law's Profound Mystery to its limit and needed only one final step to fully understand it. Yet that last step was the difference between heaven and earth. Without full comprehension, one was still only in the Saint Domain. Once one fully comprehended it, one could become a god. Their statuses were utterly different.

This could be seen from the fact that there were not even several dozen Low-level Gods on the entire Tara Plane.

"You are still so humble. I noticed you back when you first reached the Limit Saint Domain. You had reached the Saint Domain Limit less than a hundred years after entering the Saint Domain. At the time, I believed you would definitely become a god.

"And now, less than five hundred years later, you truly have."

"I was merely lucky for a moment," Richard said modestly. As for His Majesty Osiris claiming that he had been watching him for a long time? Richard would just take it as truth. Whether it was real or not, there was no way for him to investigate.

"Do not let those people who have been stuck at the Saint Domain Limit for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years without breaking through hear you say that," Osiris teased.

In the Coiling Dragon World, one could attain immortality simply by reaching the Saint Domain. If people from worlds with limited lifespans heard that, their eyes would probably turn red with envy.

In this world, countless cultivators suffered a collapse of their resolve after remaining unable to break through for too long, then turned instead to enjoying life.

As for Richard, what he would not say was that he was fundamentally different from other Limit Saint Domain experts. Though he too had been stuck at the Saint Domain Limit for five hundred years, he had never stopped comprehending the Profound Mysteries of the laws. By now, he had not one path to godhood, but three. One in the Water Element and two in the Wind Element.

Thus, for him, breaking through to become a god was not a gamble on a sliver of luck. It was inevitable.

As long as he gained an insight along any one of those three paths, he could become a god.

Richard merely smiled calmly at His Majesty Osiris's teasing.

The two tacitly moved past the subject.

Soon, His Majesty Osiris departed. Not long afterward, several Low-level Gods of the Osiris Empire came one after another, including the imperial family's sole Low-level God.

They had merely come to greet Richard, this newly ascended Low-level God. After all, they all belonged to the Osiris Empire's faction and would be comrades in the same camp from now on.

They had been in the same camp before as well, but their statuses had not been equal.

Richard had just become a god, so they did not spoil the occasion by trying to draw him into conversation. They soon departed.

But Richard's busyness was far from over. In fact, it had only just begun. As Richard broke through and became a god, the entire Silver Blue Grand Duchy erupted into commotion.

After Richard married the imperial princess, they had a son. Over several centuries, the family had flourished and multiplied into a large clan, with the Silver Blue Grand Duke's line as its direct branch.

Unfortunately, several centuries later, both his wife and son had long since passed away. Perhaps because extraordinary power had come too easily, neither of them had cherished it very much.

Neither his wife nor his son had enjoyed cultivation. Though Richard had repeatedly urged them, it had done little good, and in the end, he could only watch them grow old.

Perhaps all long-lived beings had to go through this, changing from the mindset of a short-lived species to that of a long-lived one.

For short-lived species, bloodline inheritance was important. It was proof that they had existed in the world and an extension of their will. But long-lived species had no need for such things. It was the family that needed old monsters like them to exist, not old monsters like them who needed the family.

In any case, after his wife and son died one after another, Richard developed a sense of detachment from the family. He no longer carefully controlled its direction, instead delegating power. From then on, he became a secluded ancestor who ignored worldly affairs and devoted himself solely to cultivation.

Soon, the family's other two Saint Domain experts flew over.

Aside from Richard, these two were the only Saint Domain experts in the family.

After all, the Silver Blue line had existed for too short a time. A few centuries was no more than the length of a nap to a God Level expert. In fact, in the eyes of other nobles, the Silver Blue Grand Duke's line was merely a nouveau riche family lacking foundations. What noble family in the empire with even a little foundation had not existed for several thousand years?

Even his title of grand duke had not been granted from the very beginning. In the Osiris Empire, an ordinary Saint Domain expert could at most be made an earl, and even then, their territory would be poor.

This grand duchy had only been granted after Richard reached the Limit Saint Domain and served the empire faithfully for another hundred years.

"Hogg, Della, since you are here, come in. There is no need for formalities," Richard said when he saw the two hovering nearby, wanting to enter but not daring to do so.

Hogg was his grandson. His talent was not particularly good, and though he had been in the Saint Domain for centuries, he had yet to touch upon the Profound Mysteries of the laws.

Della, on the other hand, had surpassed him later on. To be honest, Della had not been keen on cultivation at first. It was only after she married, lived poorly with her husband's family, divorced, and returned to the clan that she began cultivating diligently.

The matter caused quite a stir at the time and gave other families plenty to laugh about. Any other family concerned with appearances would probably have abandoned Della outright, but Richard did not care in the slightest. If she wanted to come back, she could come back.

It was precisely because of Della's example that the other young women of the family followed suit. Any who lived poorly with their husbands' families would run back home as well.

That was why Della had begun cultivating so late. Fortunately, she was a Mage, so her cultivation speed was not constrained by age. Had she been a Warrior, beginning cultivation again after the age of thirty would have made it nearly impossible to achieve anything significant.

When Della was in her thirties, she had only been a Level 5 Mage. By fifty, she crossed the threshold into Level 7; at seventy, she reached Level 8; at one hundred, Level 9. Less than two hundred years later, she advanced to become a Saint Domain Mage. Now, before reaching three hundred, she had already comprehended a trace of the Water Element's Profound Mysteries and stood at the Peak Saint Domain. She had thoroughly slapped the faces of those who had mocked her.

Now that Richard no longer involved himself in affairs, Della was the strongest person in the entire Silver Blue Grand Duchy and the family's spokesperson to the outside world.

"Ancestor—Grandfather—you really became a god?" the two asked as soon as they entered, as if they could scarcely believe it.

They truly had not expected their family to become a divine family just like that.

Among the Osiris Empire's seven Limit Saint Domain experts, Richard was the youngest.

The oldest had been stuck at the Limit Saint Domain for hundreds of thousands of years.

Even the youngest aside from Richard had been stuck there for several thousand years.

The last person in the empire to become a god had done so five thousand years ago.

The last person on the entire Tara Plane to become a god had ascended more than two thousand years ago.

So although they both knew their ancestor was at the Limit Saint Domain and could become a god at any moment, they had not held much hope. Their ancestor was simply too young; he still needed time to accumulate experience.

"Of course it is true. Did you not both sense the fluctuations of someone becoming a god?"

"Wonderful! From now on, our Hessen Family is a divine family too." The two could barely contain their excitement. With their ancestor becoming a god, their family would become one of the greatest families beneath the imperial family in the Osiris Empire, standing alongside those divine families. Even across the entire Tara Plane, they would rank among the top powers.

"Enough. The family's foundation is still too shallow, and we lack Saint Domain experts. Do not rush to expand. Keep doing things as before. If we are to expand, wait until we have accumulated enough Saint Domain experts," Richard said.

The two calmed down. Thinking of how the family currently had only two Saint Domain experts, they had to admit that their ancestor was right. The family did not have the capital to expand.

"Ancestor, then what about the ascension ceremony?" Della asked.

"You handle it yourselves. Just follow the usual customs." Richard rubbed his brow. What he disliked most were ceremonies and rituals like these.

If he had been a solitary cultivator with no attachments, he definitely would not have held such a troublesome ceremony. Unfortunately, he now had to consider the family.