Arrival

Each Law and Profound Mystery danced with the others.

Each Law touched, collided with, fused with, and then separated from another Law, before repeating the process with yet another Law and Profound Mystery.

Gradually, Aier's Earth Law Profound Mysteries began to fuse in pairs, then in threes, fours, fives...

It was as if the six Profound Mysteries were about to unfold the infinite secrets of the Laws of the Earth.

But when all six Profound Mysteries attempted to fuse together, it was like pouring a bowl of water into a pot of boiling oil. The entire Ocean of Laws erupted into violent waves as countless whirlpools and undercurrents collided.

Before long, the turbulent Ocean of Laws directly shook Aier's consciousness out of his Soul Space.

"Hiss—"

Aier shook his still-dizzy head and sucked in a sharp breath.

Unlike other people's Fusion Laws, when Aier fused Laws, each new Law joined with the ones he had already mastered, seeking common ground while preserving their differences. He stirred up the Ocean of Laws and forced them to fuse through sheer brutality.

It was a matter of brute force producing a miracle.

Each fusion of Laws and Profound Mysteries placed a certain burden on Aier's soul.

But it wasn't without its benefits.

The turbulence in the Ocean of Laws had tempered Aier's soul considerably, raising its limits.

Aier had completely refined the Earth-Element High-God Spark he had obtained from Hector Boy.

Unfortunately, he hadn't found a point of compatibility among the six Profound Mysteries.

There was no helping it. Even Hector Boy had only carried a dozen or so High-God Sparks, and he had possessed only three Earth-Element High-God Sparks.

Still, each time Aier absorbed the six Profound Mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, his command of the Earth-Element Profound Mysteries improved.

Aier estimated that if he absorbed ten more Earth-Element High-God Sparks, he would be able to find a point of compatibility among the six Profound Mysteries in the Ocean of Laws.

"No rush..."

As Aier soothed the discomfort caused by his soul's turmoil, he reassured himself.

"There's no harm in taking it slow and steady."

"As long as I'm on the right path, I'll reach the end someday!"

With the Boy Family's allegiance, Aier was confident he could cultivate his Earth Divine Clone to the level of a Highgod Paragon before challenging the Prefect of Liang'an Prefecture.

As for repaying the Boy Family...

Once Aier became the Prefect of Liang'an Prefecture, helping the Boy Family put down roots there wouldn't be a problem.

If the Boy Family wanted, he could also arrange for a few small cities to be placed under the charge of suitable members of the family as City Lords.

It was true that a small city's City Lord had to be at least a Five-Star Fiend. Even the Boy Family had only one or two such experts besides Hector Boy.

But Aier could simply assign a Five-Star Fiend as deputy City Lord of the small city.

If Aier remembered correctly, Hector Boy's son, Salomon Boy, would only be a Four-Star Fiend, yet he would become the City Lord of Yiliang City in Liang'an Prefecture.

The Boy Family had surely pulled some strings to make that happen.

As things stood, the Boy Family was still far from being able to arrange for someone to become City Lord of a small city.

After all, the family's strongest member, Hector Boy, was only a Six-Star Fiend.

They would need to reach at least the level of a Seven-Star Fiend and occupy a large city before they could have any say in who became City Lord of a small city.

Otherwise, as soon as they sent someone to take up residence, other experts with their eyes on the same city would swarm in, hoping to gobble up the easy prey.

Aier shook his head and put the matter aside. He casually took a Wind-Element Mid-God Spark from his Space Ring and began refining it.

They were still about a hundred years from Liang'an Prefecture.

That would be enough time for Aier to fuse one or two more Wind-Element Profound Mysteries and reach the strength of a Six-Star Fiend.

It had to be said: if you never went out and saw the world, you would never realize how little you knew.

Aier had long known that Prefecture Cities were the largest cities in Hell, and that there were only one hundred and eight of them across all of Hell.

But it was only after seeing one with his own eyes that he realized the Prefecture City he had imagined was nothing compared to the real thing.

First, there was its size.

Even from the sky, Aier couldn't see the city's edge.

The area outside the city walls was crowded with settlements, let alone the city itself. The area around the gates was especially bustling—busier than some medium-sized and small cities.

The number of powerful experts was also far beyond what remote medium-sized and small cities could rival.

The siphon effect existed in every world.

In Hell's lowest-ranking tribes, some chieftains were only Low-Gods.

Most tribes had Mid-God chieftains.

Tribes like the Crimson Blood Tribe, whose chieftains were Five-Star Fiends, were exceedingly rare.

They were all located in places with rare mineral deposits or a steady supply of valuable resources.

In small cities, Five-Star Fiends could serve as City Lords, and Saint Realm experts working in the city made up nearly a third of its population.

In medium-sized cities, Six-Star Fiends were the strongest fighters. There were plenty of Five-Star Fiends, and even High-Gods counted as powerful experts.

Large cities had Seven-Star Fiends stationed there, with plenty of Six-Star Fiends. From time to time, even Seven-Star Fiends on missions passed through.

In a Prefecture City, the strongest person was naturally the Prefect.

The one hundred and eight Prefects of Hell were among the very strongest people beneath the Overgods.

Some retired Asura Prefects might be stronger than the current Prefects, but none of those who could hold on to the position were weak.

The weak had long since been driven out.

Of course, even in a Prefecture City, Fiends still enjoyed special privileges.

After Aier and his group entered Liang'an Prefecture, Eric went to rent a place to stay, while Aier headed straight for the Challenge Arena.

The Challenge Arena in the Prefecture City occupied nearly one-tenth of Liang'an Prefecture.

The arena itself wasn't large: a standard platform a hundred meters long and a hundred meters wide.

The arena's boundaries restricted the distance fighters could cover, making their battles more intense and allowing a winner to emerge in the shortest time possible.

The area a hundred meters beyond the arena was where spectators gathered.

Anyone could watch ordinary battles.

But spectators had to pay an entrance fee for battles with ten or more consecutive wins. Even so, those battles drew far larger crowds than the ones with no win streak.

The longer the winning streak, the higher the entrance fee.

Not long after Aier signed up, he was called for his first battle.

Standing on the arena, Aier attracted only a small crowd, since he was a newcomer to arena battles. Still, it was the first time he had found himself at the center of everyone's attention before a watching crowd.

It would have been a lie to say Aier wasn't excited.

Who didn't want to be the one everyone looked at?

Especially Aier, who had spent the first million-plus years of his life as a lowly Saint Realm miner, never even leaving his tribe.