Fortune Beyond Measure and Becoming a Water Element God

With some apprehension, Richard tried binding the two Space Rings with blood. If this guy had other clones, he could forget about getting the Soul Gold Beads.

Thankfully, the binding succeeded easily, and Richard let out a sigh of relief. As expected, fate was on his side. Even the heavens approved of him delivering justice on their behalf.

The moment he inspected the two Space Rings, only one thought remained in Richard's mind: He was rich.

Looking at the countless golden beads within, Richard roughly counted them with his spiritual force. There were at least over a million.

Hiss. If he remembered correctly, a single Soul Gold Bead sold for a hundred thousand Ink Stones in Hell? This was treasure worth over a hundred billion Ink Stones.

He knew this guy had been using hunger marketing, but he had not expected him to have stockpiled so much. He must have been refining them for tens of thousands of years.

Richard tried putting himself in the other man's shoes and immediately understood. As a treasure that clearly enhanced the soul and was extremely precious, it absolutely could not be sold cheaply. Rarity created value; sell too much, and it would no longer be worth anything.

If others found out he could refine hundreds of thousands in ten thousand years, their price would definitely crash to that of cabbages. They would be worth less than Low-level Divine Artifacts, because all the gods in the entire plane combined could not refine tens of thousands of Low-level Divine Artifacts in ten thousand years. Even ten thousand would be difficult.

Come to think of it, it was normal for the God Level experts of this plane to be ignorant bumpkins who did not know how precious Soul Gold Beads were. But it was strange that the Plane Overseer had not come looking for trouble with this man. Although Soul Gold Beads were specialties of Hell and the Underworld, as someone from the Heavenly Realm, could he really not have heard of them even if he had never seen them?

Still, this was good. If that person had pulled up the leek roots long ago, what would be left for him now?

Getting rich overnight was nothing more than this. Richard definitely could not use so many himself. Once he reached a Divine Plane, he could sell some of them as starting capital.

As for the rest, there were several hundred Low-level Divine Artifacts of various kinds. There were relatively few Material Defense Divine Artifacts, only a few dozen. The rest were all Material Attack Divine Artifacts. As for Soul Defense Divine Artifacts, there was only the one outside.

But Richard was already extremely satisfied. Soul Defense Divine Artifacts were incredibly precious. The fact that this guy had managed to obtain one was already astonishing. Richard thought there was a high chance the man had refined it himself. He truly counted as a talent. This was not mockery. The other man could refine both Soul Gold Beads and Soul Defense Divine Artifacts. Even if it could only barely be considered a low-level soul defense divine artifact, he would absolutely count as a talent in a Divine Plane.

If this guy went to a Divine Plane, as long as he could enter a city, he could become an honored guest by casually joining any major faction. Of course, he was even more likely to become a soul slave, considering how weak he was.

It was worth mentioning that this guy had two Mid-level Material Attack Divine Artifacts, though Richard had no idea where he got them. One was a longbow with three arrows, and the other was a longsword. Because Richard had acted too quickly, the two divine artifacts had not even been taken out of the Space Rings.

Richard could only be thankful that the other party had not acquired a Mid-level Material Defense Divine Artifact. Otherwise, he might have been the one to fall.

The longsword had been nourished with Water Element Divine Power. Excellent. He now had a primary weapon for after becoming a Water Element God.

The longbow, meanwhile, had been nourished with Wind Element Divine Power, making it perfectly suited for Richard. He lovingly held it in his hands and played with it.

During the early stages of his cultivation, he had used bow and arrows for a long time, pairing them with Wind Element magic and Battle Qi in a Kite Strategy.

Although he had practiced swordsmanship as well, for someone as protective of his life as him, charging in with a blade and hacking at opponents? No chance. Unless he was sure he could win, the kind of reverse challenge across levels, would he use an enemy to practice his swordsmanship.

He only had one life. Richard would never gamble on surviving every close-quarters battle.

Back then, Richard's Wind Element and Water Element magic talents had both been exceptional, and his spiritual force talent had been exceptional as well. However, in the middle and later stages, Mages cultivated far more slowly than Warriors.

Therefore, Richard had focused primarily on magic cultivation in his early years while maintaining a certain amount of Warrior training. Once he turned sixteen and his body had mostly matured, and once he had largely exhausted the golden period of his Mage talent, he decisively shifted his main focus to Warrior cultivation. By the time he became a Saint Domain Warrior, his magic had not even reached Level 7.

Later, he only picked up magic cultivation again in order to comprehend the Laws.

Before Level 9, his primary weapon had always been a bow. Once he became a Level 9 Warrior, his physical abilities became absurdly powerful. None of them could be considered human anymore. The lethality of bows dropped sharply, so he switched his primary weapon to a longsword.

Even after reaching the Saint Domain, he had not managed to acquire a divine longbow, so he could only continue using a longsword.

From beginning to end, speed had always been what he excelled at most, all so he could run faster when it was time to flee for his life. His Wind Element and Water Element talents were roughly equal, so why did he mainly cultivate the Wind Element? Was it not because the Wind Element let him run faster? Then he layered it with the Water Element's defense and illusions.

It could be said that before becoming a god, attack power had been the weakest among his six attributes. Both his speed and defense were stronger than his offense.

After all, whether he could kill the enemy was not that important. Only the living could keep dealing damage. Survival came first.

Speaking of it brought tears to his eyes. He had only endured all the way to godhood by being so cautious.

Enough about the thoughts and struggles of his growth.

Richard continued examining the gains within the Space Rings.

Cultivation insights, God-level Secret Medicine Formulas, small techniques for comprehending the Profound Mysteries of the Laws, God Level Magic Arrays, Soul Artifact Refining Techniques, Soul Poison capable of killing God Level experts, precious spiritual medicines, rare ores, and more—all of it was the other man's accumulation over hundreds of thousands of years. It was a foundation countless times deeper than Richard's Hegel Family.

Space Rings were nested within Space Rings. Just storing all these things required more than ten Space Rings.

Compared with all the things before them, the pile of gold coins and gemstones stacked like a small mountain was hardly worth mentioning.

Richard could only describe this operation as one trip into the wild earning him lifelong wealth. As expected, murder and arson brought golden belts, while building bridges and paving roads left no corpses behind.

He then turned and left. This continent was about to descend into chaos. The Saint Domain experts here had originally all been soul enslaved by that God Level expert. But with that God Level expert's death, those Saint Domain experts had all regained their freedom. Having been enslaved for so long, it was hard to imagine what they might do, and he had no intention of interfering.

Two days later, on a deserted little island, Richard prepared to use the Soul Gold Beads.

His main body and Divine Clone each sat to one side. They used only two beads each to restore their original soul injuries, with even some improvement.

Richard did not stop. He continued using Soul Gold Beads, using several more to raise both souls to the Low-level God limit.

Afterward, Richard began comprehending the Laws of Water, cross-referencing them with the insights of the two Kings of Ocean and Water.

Several months later, he grasped that trace of insight once again and successfully comprehended the Profound Mystery of Water Elements. During this period, he also successfully gained an initial understanding of the Profound Mystery of Ice Sharpness. Together with the Profound Mystery of Fog Illusion he had already comprehended, he had understood half of the six Profound Mysteries of the Laws of Water, though unfortunately, he had not fused any of them.

The Laws of Heaven and Earth descended. At this point, Richard became a Water Element God and once again experienced the agony of his soul being torn apart.

As the Divine Clone in a light blue robe took shape, this ascension to godhood came to an end.

Richard used his Wind Element Divine Clone to leave quickly, only stopping on another island a day later.

One Divine Clone was enough to serve as his public face. There was no need to expose his other Divine Clones.

After spending several more days on this little island using Soul Gold Beads to heal the injuries from his torn soul, he turned and returned to the Osiris Empire.

In the blink of an eye, he had been away for over half a year. But to a God Level expert, that amount of time was practically no different from going out for a brief walk and returning.

Sure enough, after returning to Silver Blue Territory, nothing had happened. Perhaps no one had even noticed that he had gone on a long journey.

Richard summoned Hogg and Della, granting each of them a Material Defense Divine Artifact. After the previous banquet, he had already given them each a Material Attack Divine Artifact.

But he had not had any extra Material Defense Divine Artifacts before. After all, even the God Level experts who attended the banquet only gave Material Attack Divine Artifacts when they gifted divine artifacts.

As for the Low-level Death Godhead, he did not grant it to either of them. Della had already begun comprehending the Laws of Water, so it would be best if she could become a god on her own. As for Hogg, if he still could not become a god independently before Richard left the Material Plane, Richard would grant him the Godhead then.

He then instructed the two of them to use the divine artifacts carefully. Della was fine. As a Peak Saint Domain expert who had comprehended the Laws and a core member of a God Level faction, using a Material Attack Divine Artifact would not be much of a problem. She merely needed to keep the Material Defense Divine Artifact hidden in ordinary times and avoid using it unless it was critical.

Hogg, however, was only an ordinary Saint Domain expert. Even using a Material Attack Divine Artifact carried risks for him.

But Richard needed both of them to do work, so after thinking about it, he gave each of them a Soul Gold Bead. This would be more than enough to raise their souls to the Saint Domain Limit. With divine artifacts as well, as long as they did not encounter a God Level expert, keeping themselves alive should not be a problem.

He also gave the family a copy of the organized resources and books usable below the God Level, telling the two to increase their efforts in nurturing the younger generation. They could also consider recruiting outside talents, even Saint Domain experts.

He was nearly a Mid-level God, yet he only had two Saint Domain subordinates he could use. It was painful just thinking about it.

Why had he abandoned that small continent? Was it not because he had too few talented subordinates? If he had several dozen Saint Domain experts under him, including three to five at the Saint Domain Limit, he would not have left. He would have directly ruled that small continent.