"Haha, this place may be nice, but it is not my homeland. You can stay and enjoy it slowly, big brother. I'm setting out to explore the legendary Endless Sea and Shadow Continent."
Seeing that Simon had made up his mind to leave, Loya no longer tried to persuade him. "Then I wish you smooth sailing, little brother. When you return, make sure to visit your old brother again."
"I will."
Simon agreed, then stopped lingering. He transformed into a breeze and vanished into the distance in the blink of an eye.
"Youth really is wonderful." Watching Simon race away in pursuit of the pinnacle of cultivation, Loya said enviously, "I can't fall too far behind either. Starting today, I'm swearing off women and cultivating seriously!"
Simon swiftly crossed the coastline of the Loya Empire. Beyond it lay the sparsely inhabited Endless Sea.
From Loya, Simon had also learned that the Plane Teleportation Array of the Rayast Plane was located near the southern end of the Endless Sea, close to the edge of the plane. The Plane Guardian stationed there year-round was extremely mysterious. Loya had never seen him in the past ten thousand years.
He had not appeared even if one went back tens of thousands of years further.
However, this mysterious Plane Guardian had left information about the Supreme Planes long ago. He had also warned those who became gods not to leave the Material Plane lightly. Even if they wanted to leave, it was best to possess the strength of a Midgod first.
That was why Loya had never dared to go after learning about the Supreme Planes.
After all, no normal person would give up being an emperor just to become someone else's slave, with the risk of dying at any moment if their luck was bad.
This gave Simon a favorable impression of the kind-hearted but derelict Plane Guardian. At the very least, he had not deliberately concealed the cruelty of the Supreme Planes and tricked everyone into going there to die.
Simon decided to fly south first, to see the legendary Plane Teleportation Array and this mysterious Plane Guardian for himself.
Simon had also been curious about the Teleportation Array, which had been born not long after the creation of heaven and earth, for a long time.
After leaving the mainland behind, Simon barely saw any traces of humans. While traveling through this boundless sea, he discovered that his progress in the Laws of Water seemed faster.
So Simon was in no hurry to continue traveling. He found a small island, swept it with his Divine Sense, and landed after confirming there was no danger. He casually found a spot, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating in earnest.
The vast world of laws.
"Water embraces all things. It can be soft or hard."
"Gentle as if it has no substance, yet harder than steel."
Simon could not help but immerse himself completely in the vast ocean of the Laws of Water.
At that moment, even his main body, which had been continuously deducing and fusing Heterogeneous Laws, began comprehending the Laws of Water as well.
His Wind Element Divine Clone separated from him and stood guard nearby.
"Roundness and softness as one, transforming the body into all things."
The round and soft properties of water revealed themselves before Simon without the slightest reservation.
Facing the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness, which he had previously been unable to enter, Simon finally got his wish.
Yet his epiphany had not ended. Simon remained immersed in his comprehension.
"Water can be the softest thing, but it can also be the hardest. Scattered, it becomes gas and forms the Profound Mystery of Mist. Condensed, it becomes solid and turns into ice."
"Ice is hard and sharp."
Several months later, Simon opened his eyes.
"Sure enough, coming to the Endless Sea was the right choice. I never expected to gain entry into both the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness and the Profound Mystery of Ice Sharpness at once."
Simon rose to his feet. With a casual grasp of his right hand, a spear radiating intense icy cold formed. He then swung it toward a nearby island, and the ice spear instantly tore through space and shot toward it.
With a heavy boom, the small island spanning dozens of miles instantly turned to dust. A gust of sea wind scattered it completely.
"The Profound Mystery of Ice Sharpness truly is the strongest material attack mystery among the Laws of Water."
Simon looked at the destruction caused by the icy spear and sighed in admiration.
"Right, there's also the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness."
With a thought, Simon mobilized Fusion Divine Power and formed a suit of divine power armor over his body according to the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness he had just comprehended.
The Wind Element Divine Clone beside him swung his sword and stabbed at the Fusion Divine Power armor. The armor instantly dented inward, but as divine power flowed through it, the sword became trapped inside. It could neither pierce through nor be pulled free, fully displaying the resilient qualities of the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness.
Seeing that a casual strike could not harm him, the Wind Element Divine Clone exerted his full strength to pull out the sword. Then, channeling Fusion Divine Power, he used Sigh of the Wind with all his might and stabbed again. Only then did he break through the defense formed by the Water Element Divine Clone's Fusion Divine Power.
"Although the Wind Element Divine Clone's first strike was casual, it was still comparable to a normal Lowgod's full-force attack. Its power was about the same as John's desperate strike back then, yet it still couldn't break through the defense. The Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness truly deserves to be called a high-level mystery of water. Having only just entered it, it can already withstand full-force attacks from the same level when paired with Fusion Divine Power."
Simon praised it.
In fact, if Simon had not fused the Profound Mystery of Speed and the Profound Mystery of Slow to a point close to completion, greatly increasing the attack power of Sigh of the Wind, it would not have been so easy to break through the defense.
Simon then tried using the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness he had comprehended to form a new soul defense barrier with soul power. After testing it, he found that its defense was only slightly weaker than the Wall of Illusion. This was merely the beginning of his comprehension of the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness. Simon immediately decided that his future soul defense would primarily use the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness, with the Profound Mystery of Mist Illusion as support.
After completing the preliminary tests, Simon was very satisfied with the defensive power of the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness. He thought that if it fused with other water mysteries, its defensive power would surely rise dramatically. By then, he would have no worries regarding either material defense or soul defense.
Next, the Water Element Divine Clone continued consolidating his comprehension of the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness and the Profound Mystery of Ice Sharpness. Meanwhile, Simon's main body attempted to deduce the points of compatibility between the Profound Mystery of Water Element, Mist Illusion, Roundness and Softness, and Ice Sharpness. When he could not find any, he advanced his comprehension of Roundness and Softness and Ice Sharpness instead.
Roundness and Softness and Ice Sharpness had only just been comprehended. This was also the best time to seek the points of compatibility between them.
As for the Wind Element Divine Clone, he continued deducing the Profound Mystery of Speed and the Profound Mystery of Slow, trying to reach the final bottleneck. However, the Speed Profound Truth truly deserved to be called a high-level profound truth of the Law of Wind. It was exceptionally difficult to comprehend and fuse. After temporarily falling into stagnation, Simon instead began separately fusing the Profound Mystery of Wind Element with Speed and Slow. After changing his approach, progress in both fusions improved quite quickly.
Thus, Simon began secluded cultivation on this nameless island. At the same time, he did not forget to use Fusion Divine Power and soul power within his body to nourish the Divine Armor he had just obtained.
Since the Laws of Water had achieved a major breakthrough, Simon's main body temporarily devoted all its effort to assisting the Water Element Divine Clone's cultivation.
Although the number of mysteries he had comprehended in the Law of Wind currently lagged behind those of the Laws of Water, the Law of Wind had a great chance of breaking through to Midgod first. Of course, the Laws of Water might also overtake it later. After all, anything was possible in the world of profound mysteries.
After all, Simon's talent in the Laws of Water was just as good. It was still impossible to say whether Wind or Water would be stronger in the future.
Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, aside from testing a few techniques and nourishing his Divine Artifact Armor, Simon remained immersed in cultivation.
After twenty years of nourishment, the four sets of Divine Armor had become true Divine Artifact Armor. Moreover, because Simon had used Fusion Divine Power, testing showed that their defense had fully reached the level of Midgod Artifacts. It was a major gain, though one he had expected.
After this period of secluded cultivation, Simon had fused more than half of the Profound Mystery of Water Element with Mist Illusion. However, he was still some distance away from breaking through to Midgod. His comprehension of Roundness and Softness and Ice Sharpness continued to improve steadily, though they remained far from completion.
Unfortunately, during those twenty years, Simon had only found compatibility between Ice Sharpness and Water Element and Mist Illusion.
As for Roundness and Softness, it was only compatible with Water Element. It had not found compatibility with Ice Sharpness or Mist Illusion.
"The Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness is exceptionally difficult to fit with other mysteries. It seems I can only take it slowly."
Simon also knew that cultivation could not be forced. If one path was temporarily blocked, one simply had to change one's thinking and direction. There would always be a time for success.
In truth, compared with other God-Level experts, Simon's cultivation speed was already extremely fast.
Over those twenty years, Simon's constant experiments revealed that the Profound Mystery of Ice Sharpness not only possessed formidable material attack power, but also excellent defensive power.
Thinking about it carefully, that was not surprising. Ice itself possessed the attribute of hardness, so naturally it would have remarkable defensive strength.
Therefore, the Profound Mystery of Ice Sharpness could also be used for material defense.
Especially after Ice Sharpness became compatible with Water Element, Simon developed version 2.0 of the Ice Mist Battle Armor. Its defensive power was several times stronger than version 1.0, which fused Water Element and Mist Illusion.
With version 2.0 of the Ice Mist Battle Armor defending at full strength, even the Wind Element Divine Clone would need to expend considerable effort to break through it. He would have to attack the same spot over a thousand times. Over such a long time, the Water Element Divine Clone had more than enough time to react.
"It seems my main body will have to devote much more effort to the Laws of Water in the future. There is simply too much left to develop within them."
After this period of secluded cultivation, Simon discovered that the Laws of Water were by no means as weak as described in the original work. Perhaps that was because Linley had risen too quickly and had never encountered many powerful experts who cultivated the Laws of Water.
As he studied the Profound Mystery of Water Element more deeply, Simon discovered that this seemingly ordinary elemental mystery concealed a great secret.
During an experiment testing the attack power of Water Element, Simon suddenly wondered whether he could materialize all the water within an enemy's body into water element essence, effectively evaporating it away.
An enemy stripped of a large amount of bodily water would inevitably suffer a drastic reduction in defense. If he then used a powerful material attack, the effect would surely be excellent.
With that thought, Simon caught a Saint Realm Octopus Monster in the nearby sea to test it. Sure enough, after all the water in its body was stripped away, the massive Saint Realm octopus instantly carbonized and died, despite its exceptionally strong vitality.
Even the legendary Life Source Pearl could not save such an injury.
Although the experiment had worked well, the test subject had only been a Saint Realm creature.
Simon guessed that God-Level experts should be able to resist it to some degree. After all, their bodies had greater resistance, and they could rapidly repair injuries with divine power. However, repairing with divine power required time. During that period, an enemy would inevitably be weakened. Wouldn't that leave him at Simon's mercy?
Simon then tested it on his own Wind Element Divine Clone and found that it was indeed as he had expected. At present, this move had little effect on God-Level experts, since a Wind Element Divine Body contained very little water.
Moreover, Simon discovered that as long as the body was completely covered in armor formed from wind element essence without leaving the slightest gap, water element essence could not penetrate it and could not strip away bodily water. That made the move seem rather useless.
That made sense. There were so many experts cultivating the Laws of Water that plenty must have comprehended this move. Yet water experts were still famous mainly for defense, which showed that their offensive methods were inferior to those of other laws, at least in most situations.
However, Simon felt that the Stripping Property he had comprehended was still special and possessed enormous room for future improvement. After all, he was a Soul Mutation. If he could thoroughly understand this property and integrate it into Soul Attack, allowing his Soul Attack to contain the Stripping Property as well, then Simon, who had never been particularly skilled in Soul Attack, would gain another powerful trump card.
After a long period of continuous testing and refinement, Simon finally succeeded in integrating the Stripping Property into Soul Attack after exhausting dozens of Saint Realm sea monsters from the surrounding waters.
After further research, he found that the Stripping Property he had mastered could considerably weaken an enemy's material defense, reducing it by roughly thirty percent. Simon named this property Life Deprivation.
It stripped away both the enemy's body and soul.
This property carried a slight sense of evil. Simon thought of how water could nourish life, but could also deprive life, and could not help sighing at the wonder of the world of laws.
Furthermore, thanks to having already fused more than half of Water Element and Mist Illusion, Simon only needed a few adjustments to combine this property with Mist Illusion. He further perfected his Soul Attack ultimate move, Phantom Spear, naming it version 2.0 of Phantom Spear.
Once Simon perfectly integrated this property into it, the upgraded Phantom Spear further improved its ability to weaken enemy defenses.
After being struck, an enemy's surface defense and soul defense would both be greatly weakened. If both defenses were weak enough, they could even be reduced to zero, making every attack they suffered deal true damage.
Even if an enemy's defenses were strong enough to resist somewhat, their surface defense would still be greatly weakened after being struck. Once a gap appeared in that defense, the water in their body would be forcibly stripped away.
At the same time, the enemy's soul defense would also be greatly weakened. The Stripping Property would then invade the enemy's Soul Ocean and tear their soul apart.
Failure to withstand either of these attacks would result in instant death. This was the strangest move Simon had developed so far, and it possessed vast room for improvement as well as considerable killing power.
Even if the enemy successfully endured it, Simon could still launch the pure material attack ultimate move, Sigh of the Wind. With the enemy's weakened material defense, it would be extremely difficult to block. Combined with the Ice Wind Space domain, this chain of attacks meant that once an enemy was trapped within it, even running away would be impossible.
At this point in his cultivation, Simon felt that the framework of his future cultivation had roughly taken shape. He would use the ultimate moves he had comprehended as a foundation, then continuously refine and improve them.
For material attacks, he would temporarily use the Speed Profound Truth formed from fusing Speed and Slow as his foundation, then continuously integrate Dimension, Wind Element, Wind Space, the Profound Truth of Sound, and other mysteries that amplified material attacks.
For Soul Attack, he would use version 2.0 of Phantom Spear, which combined Mist Illusion and Water Element and carried the Stripping Property, as his foundation. Afterward, he would continuously integrate mysteries that amplified soul-type attacks.
For material defense, he would use the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness as his foundation, continuously integrating mysteries that amplified defense.
For soul defense, he would likewise use the Profound Mystery of Roundness and Softness as his foundation, continuously integrating mysteries that amplified soul defense.
For speed, he would again use the Speed Profound Truth formed from fusing Speed and Slow as his foundation, then integrate Wind Element, Wind Movement Technique, Clone Technique, Wind Space, Dimension, and other mysteries capable of boosting speed.
For domain space, he would use Ice Wind Space, which fused Wind Element and Water Element, as his foundation. Afterward, he would try to integrate spatial binding mysteries such as Wind Space into it.
Although Simon was only a dual-element Soul Mutation of Water and Wind, as his comprehension of these two laws deepened, he increasingly felt the vastness of the world of laws. Even the seemingly ordinary Profound Mystery of Water Element had brought him such a huge surprise. What other surprises would continued comprehension bring? Simon looked forward to finding out.
Before you continue