Heading Out

The matter of building a Circle of Friends could wait. Right now, he was busy heading out.

Richard strolled out of Silver Blue Territory, then headed west without delay. The God Level expert capable of refining Soul Gold Beads was not on Osiris Continent.

The Tara Plane had three enormous continents. Beyond them, several smaller continents were scattered across its vast seas.

These three enormous continents were dominated by forces with Mid-level Gods, such as Osiris. Even the continents' names could change because of this. Osiris Continent was one such example.

The smaller continents, meanwhile, were occupied by Low-level Gods and even Saint Domain experts.

The God Level expert Richard sought occupied a small continent overseas.

In terms of total area, the Tara Plane was likely thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of times larger than Blue Star from his previous life. Fortunately, his speed was not restricted in a Material Plane. Otherwise, he had no idea how long the journey alone would have taken.

Ten days later, Richard finally found the target small continent amid the vast ocean. He had gone in the wrong direction several times along the way, but in the end, guided by the Laws of Fate, he found it.

Though it was called a small continent, it was probably no smaller than Asia in terms of area.

Richard did not dare release his spiritual power to investigate. He still did not know what kind of person the other party was. What if he was a reclusive Mid-level God?

It would be awkward if his spiritual power failed to detect the other party while exposing himself completely.

So, he needed to sneak into the village and keep the guns quiet. Richard slowed down and disguised himself as a Saint Domain expert.

As he flew past villages and cities, he discovered that this continent was rather prosperous, with an extremely high population density.

Wasn't this unknown God Level expert supposed to make Soul Gold Beads? Why was the continent he lived on still so prosperous? Could this fellow be secretly capturing Saint Domain experts and using their souls to make Soul Gold Beads?

Then again, while there were quite a few Saint Domain experts throughout the Tara Plane—probably no fewer than several tens of thousands—most of them had status and backing. Trace their connections upward, and they would all lead to God Level experts. After excluding that group, there were only a few thousand truly independent Saint Domain experts without major backgrounds.

And those several thousand Saint Domain experts were spread across the entire Tara Plane. How many could he possibly capture?

Within a few days, he figured out how that unknown deity operated.

That fellow had established a Deity Church, gathering a number of Saint Domain experts under him as the church's upper ranks, and used them to rule the entire continent.

He then imposed religious rule across the continent. There were no nobles profiting as middlemen, taxes were extremely low, childbirth was encouraged, and all these measures gave the residents of this continent living conditions far superior to those of ordinary people elsewhere.

Then came the outrageous move. The Deity Church claimed that the god they worshipped did not wish for his believers to suffer in the mortal world. Any believer over seventy who felt death approaching, or any believer suffering from severe illness, could apply through their local diocese. A Deity Messenger would then come and take their soul into the Divine Kingdom.

Ha, unexpected, right? He did not need to snatch anyone at all. Like Jiang Taigong fishing, only the willing took the bait. If you did not want to go to the Divine Kingdom, then simply do not apply. In any case, countless people applied every year. He was not short one more.

With this continent's enormous population base, the souls brought back each year were probably more than enough for that fellow to refine twenty or thirty Soul Gold Beads.

This God Level expert really knew how to play the game: raise the population of an entire continent like livestock, shear the wool every year, then use his professional expertise for further processing and sell the finished product—Soul Gold Beads.

And according to the intelligence gathered by the family, Soul Gold Beads were extremely precious.

In other words, this fellow was also engaging in hunger marketing to drive up the price of Soul Gold Beads. Otherwise, an output of several thousand every century could hardly be called precious. It would be enough to give every God Level expert in the entire plane dozens of them.

If the Grand Wizard from the Yulan Plane learned about this, he would probably burst into tears. He had secretly gathered souls just to refine a few Soul Gold Beads, only to be hunted down and killed by the protagonist Linley afterward.

Now look at this one. Tsk, tsk. Richard almost felt sorry for the Grand Wizard.

Grand Wizard: Why was I born? Why was I born?

Could anyone see through the secret behind this? Of course. This continent was not hidden by some formation or anything. Since Richard had intelligence about this place, all God Level experts could probably find it too, at most with a bit of effort.

Everyone was a God Level expert, so why did they not have these so-called Divine Kingdoms?

But no one exposed him. After all, this fellow supplied Soul Gold Beads. And as someone who had become a god through Rules, he was certainly stronger than ordinary Low-level Gods. He probably specialized in soul attacks too. Why provoke him for no reason?

More importantly, he was not actively plundering souls. He was deceiving people. By the values held by most experts in this world, why stop something both sides entered willingly?

Thus, this fellow had lived freely until now.

Richard found a group escorting souls and followed them, easily locating this mysterious God Level expert.

Heh, so he really was only a Low-level God. Richard had already guessed as much when he saw the church's business model, but now it was truly confirmed.

After all, if he had been a Mid-level God, why would he have holed up on a small continent? He could have directly occupied a large continent and managed it just as he did now, harvesting at least dozens of times more souls each year.

Since that was the case, then he would not be polite. I don't care. I'm upholding justice and robbing the rich to help the poor. Richard thought to himself. As for how he intended to help the poor, that was none of anyone's business.

Judging from the nature of this fellow's Divine Power, he should be a Low-level Death God. The deathly quality in his Divine Power was impossible to conceal.

Richard took out the Azure Forest Sword. It was somewhat regrettable that he had not yet fully deciphered Gungnir, so he could not add its guaranteed-hit effect to this Divine Artifact.

As for Gungnir itself, it was basically useless to him. Compared to Divine Artifacts, both Gungnirs were far too fragile. They could not even break a God Level expert's defenses in battle unless they were nurtured into Divine Artifacts.

A set of black armor appeared over his body. It was the Mid-level Material Defense Divine Artifact given to him by the imperial family. He found it somewhat regrettable that it had been nurtured with Fire Element Divine Power, making it poorly suited to him. Still, having one was already good enough. Why ask for a bicycle when you had a car?

Using the Profound Mystery of Speed that combined Profound Mystery of Speed and Profound Mystery of Slowness, then stacking the Profound Mystery of Wind Movement with the Profound Mystery of Wind Elements, Richard crossed the vast distance as though teleporting and appeared before his opponent.

Both were Low-level Gods, so their Divine Domains canceled each other out. Then Richard used the Profound Mystery of Slowness to bind his opponent, layering it with Wind Space Imprisonment.

He even used the little of the Laws of Fate he had comprehended to interfere with the other party's thoughts.

He absolutely could not let the other party successfully unleash a soul attack. Otherwise, he probably would not be able to withstand it. This fellow treated Soul Gold Beads like candy, so his soul had likely already reached the peak of the Low-level God level. As for Richard, he had only just become a god, and even the injuries from his soul being torn apart had not yet healed.

When Richard unleashed his strongest attack yet, the Material Defense Divine Artifact worn by his opponent shattered immediately.

But after one Material Defense Divine Artifact shattered, another followed. Material Defense Divine Artifacts were not all armor or clothing; they could be made in other forms as well, though doing so was more difficult.

Richard cursed inwardly. This fellow was truly absurd. He had more than one layer of turtle shell.

There were three full layers of defense, but Richard's attack pierced through all of them. Richard had now begun fusing the four Profound Mysteries of the Laws of Wind. Although the fusion was still shallow, although three of those Profound Mysteries had not yet been fully comprehended, and although the other three Profound Mysteries had not been fused and were only at the introductory stage, his attack power had absolutely reached the level of an ordinary Mid-level God.

With another strike, the God Level expert whose name Richard did not even know was left without an intact corpse. Richard saw the terror in his opponent's eyes, but sorry—once he had acted, there was naturally no chance he would stop.

From the moment Richard launched his surprise attack to the moment the man died, only an instant had passed. This was already the absolute limit of Richard's strength. If those two attacks had failed to kill the other party, the outcome would have been uncertain. After all, the binding ability was not especially strong and could only restrain him for an instant. But at their level, a single instant could decide many things.

Richard began counting the spoils: a gray Godhead, two Space Rings, the fragments of three Material Defense Divine Artifacts, and a Soul Defense Divine Artifact that barely qualified as a Divine Artifact.