Becoming a God

"Thank goodness, it'll take less than a hundred years!"

After figuring out how long it would take his Equipment Slot to refine the Godhead, Aier felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

After all, Olga had only given him a hundred years off.

If refining the Godhead took longer than a hundred years, Aier would have no choice but to equip it, pretending to be a god so he could handle the escort mission waiting for him afterward.

As things stood, the Equipment Slot hadn't let him down.

With a hundred years off, Aier could sneak away from the Crimson Blood Tribe just before he finished refining the Godhead and fully mastered the Earth-Walking Profound Mystery, then find some sparsely populated place to break through.

Once he reached the Divine Realm, he'd have plenty more options.

With a plan in mind, Aier did nothing else. He hung a sign on his door saying he was cultivating, then shut himself inside.

"Refine!"

Silently, he switched the Godhead in his space from "equip" to "refine." The boost from the Godhead in his Equipment Slot vanished at once.

The precipitous drop in his strength filled Aier with unease, but he knew it was something he had to endure.

Fortunately, he was in luck. While the Equipment Slot refined the Godhead, the Crimson Blood Tribe faced no crises.

In the blink of an eye, sixty-three years passed.

"It's about time!"

Aier checked the progress of the Godhead's refinement in his Soul Space. It was time to find a place to break through.

He left his room and blended in with the Saint Realm miners heading into the mine. Drawing on more than a million years of familiarity with the tunnels, he quickly made his way to an abandoned shaft.

"This will do!"

He estimated the distance. The abandoned shaft was at least fifty miles from where Olga and the other gods of the Crimson Blood Tribe lived. No Saint Realm miners came here to work, either, so it was relatively safe.

After setting up a barrier to conceal his presence, Aier sat cross-legged and steadied himself.

Six months later—

The Godhead in the Equipment Slot in Aier's mind had been completely refined. The Equipment Slot had absorbed every one of its qualities.

The Godhead in the Equipment Slot had now vanished entirely. All that remained in Aier's Soul Space were two balls of light, one large and one small.

The large yellow ball was the complete Earth-Walking Profound Mystery.

The smaller black ball was the essence of the Godhead.

Without a moment's hesitation, Aier sent the yellow ball into his soul with a thought.

"Vmm—"

In that instant, the Laws of Heaven and Earth descended and condensed into an Earth Godhead, which hovered above Aier's head.

"External Godhood?"

"Internal Godhood?"

As the Laws of Heaven and Earth descended, a will appeared in Aier's soul, presenting him with the choice.

"External Godhood!"

Without hesitation, Aier chose External Godhood!

With the Equipment Slot, Aier could gain seven elemental Divine Clones and four Edict Divine Clones if he wanted.

Choosing Internal Godhood would be like cutting his greatest advantage in half.

At Aier's command, the Laws of Heaven and Earth brutally tore his soul into two halves.

"Argh—"

Amid his scream, the half of Aier's soul torn away by the Laws of Heaven and Earth flew out of his Soul Space and entered the Godhead above him. Through the Laws of Heaven and Earth, it connected to the Elemental Ocean Plane.

Without delay, Aier extended his soul power into the depths of the Elemental Ocean he could now reach and rapidly drew divine power from the Ocean of Divine Power.

When the Laws of Heaven and Earth dispersed, Aier returned the Godhead to his Soul Space and spread out his divine sense. He could sense several powerful presences speeding toward him.

Without hesitation, Aier quickly concealed his divine aura, sank into the earth, and vanished from the abandoned mining area.

"After more than 1.4 million years, I, Aier, am finally stepping onto Hell's stage!"

On a mountaintop above the mine, Aier stood with his hands behind his back, his heart surging with ambition.

His patience over more than a million years had finally paid off.

With an ability like the Equipment Slot, all he'd lacked was the most basic foundation.

Now, he had successfully crossed into a new realm.

In addition to his breakthrough in the Laws and Profound Mysteries, absorbing that trace of Godhead essence had also strengthened Aier's body. It had gone from being as hard as a Low-God Artifact to fully reaching the level of one.

Even though Aier was still in a period of spiritual weakness, he could hardly be considered weak among the Low-Gods.

Watching the gods of the escort squad fly across the sky, Aier reined in the arrogance on his face.

He was still a long way from looking down on all of Hell.

At the very least, he still needed the Crimson Blood Tribe as a platform.

Never mind. He'd keep enduring for now. Once he got a second Earth-element Low-God Godhead and became a Mid-God, he could think about running away!

A lone Low-God had far too many dangers to face in Hell.

Setting everything else aside, he was a walking hundred Inkstones!

He'd better go back and keep cultivating.

Before he understood the Laws and Profound Mysteries, Aier hadn't known what the so-called "Laws" were because of his limited perspective.

With the Equipment Slot's help, he had comprehended the Laws and Profound Mysteries, breaking through that barrier. Now he could sense and use them.

But compared with comprehending the Laws and Profound Mysteries himself, Aier felt that refining a Godhead and absorbing the Laws and Profound Mysteries directly from it suited him better.

Aier's leave wouldn't be over for another thirty-odd years.

Others assumed that since Aier had refined a Godhead, he would spend those thirty-odd years accumulating divine power.

In reality, however, Aier was developing the abilities of the Earth-Walking Profound Mystery.

With the Equipment Slot's help, he didn't need to waste time comprehending the Laws.

Creating battle techniques suited to him as soon as possible was the urgent task.

The countless novels, anime, and films he'd seen in his previous life became the raw material for Aier's battle techniques.

Often, all research lacked was a direction.

What Aier was doing now was using the Earth-Walking Profound Mystery to recreate abilities from his memories.

Thirty-odd years would be enough for Aier to use the properties of the Earth-Walking Profound Mystery to come up with several basic techniques suited for combat.

"It's Aier!"

"Shut up, you fool! Can't you feel his aura? From now on, you'll call him Lord Aier!"

When Aier reappeared more than thirty years later, his arrival caused a stir among the Saint Realm inhabitants of the mining area.

Since Aier was a newly ascended god, Olga didn't assign him any dangerous escort missions. Instead, he had Aier guard the Crimson Blood Mine.

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