The Thunderlight Vine, which had once shimmered with colorful light and brimmed with vitality, was instantly enveloped from within by an extreme chill!
Its dazzling purplish-gold hue quickly faded, replaced by a layer of deep, icy blue crystals that seemed capable of freezing the soul!
In the blink of an eye, the enormous Thunderlight Vine became a giant ice sculpture standing in the Forest of Life. All signs of life and energy had dropped to absolute zero. Only an exceedingly faint pulse of spiritual energy showed that its evolution was not yet complete.
"The freezing phase..."
Lu Ming felt the terrifying cold spreading around him, cold enough to freeze space itself, and his heart tightened.
This was one of the most dangerous steps in the entire plan. The Thunderlight Vine's consciousness had to retain a sliver of clarity while completely frozen, guiding the subtle changes within and enduring this final transformation.
Time passed second by second.
With each passing second, the Thunderlight Vine changed in ways too subtle for the naked eye to detect, but every adjustment was crucial.
Lu Ming held his breath, focusing all his attention on the ice sculpture.
The freeze lasted a full day!
When the final adjustment was complete, the power accumulated to its limit finally erupted!
"Crack!"
The deep blue ice crystals covering vines that stretched for millions of kilometers shattered and vaporized in an instant!
An aura ten, even a hundred times more terrifying than before shot into the sky!
"Boom!!!"
The 216 main vines, along with countless smaller vines and leaves, spread and writhed wildly in every direction throughout the Internal World, like purplish-gold horned dragons breaking free of all restraints!
Every vine had grown thicker and more crystalline. The flowing lightning patterns upon them had transformed into tangible Law Secret Patterns, stirring the thunder laws of the entire Internal World into resonance!
An indescribable pressure, originating from the Universe Origin, suddenly descended!
Before this pressure, Lu Ming's consciousness avatar was forced to the ground without the slightest ability to resist. Yet his face lit up with joy!
"It worked! Its consciousness has connected to the Universe Origin!"
The next moment—
"Rumble!!!"
Endless Immortal Divine Power, containing the auras of both lightning and life laws, surged from the Origin Land of the Universe like a cosmic flood bursting through a dam, pouring into every inch of the Thunderlight Vine's body!
Its energy transformed! Its body transformed!
The Thunderlight Vine's World Power rapidly fused with the complete laws of lightning and life, becoming its own unique Immortal Divine Power!
Its Life Imprint branded itself onto every new portion of Immortal Divine Power at an unprecedented rate, imprinting itself deep within every tiniest unit of its divine body!
From that moment on, its divine power had a master. It had become an undying being!
The pressure of the Universe Origin gradually faded.
The enormous divine body, which had spread out to cover a tenth of the Internal World—tens of millions of kilometers—slowly drew in its light and aura.
That was right: tens of millions of kilometers!
Lu Ming hadn't expected the Thunderlight Vine to grow so enormous!
This was probably due to its Gene Level!
Little Thunder, now fully evolved, slowly shrank.
Little Thunder's body now had a deep, subdued dark purple hue. Its naturally formed, intricate golden lightning patterns intertwined with green life patterns, radiating an awe-inspiring majesty that made one's heart tremble.
Although it had shrunk back to its usual size, the energy it faintly radiated still made Lu Ming's heart pound.
"Whoosh!"
The Thunderlight Vine quickly shrank into a vine about three meters tall, as if carved from purplish-gold divine jade. It flew over to Lu Ming and affectionately rubbed against his arm.
"Master."
A warm yet powerful voice, still carrying the echo of thunder, sounded in Lu Ming's consciousness. Compared with before, it was incomparably more composed and confident.
Lu Ming reached out and stroked Little Thunder's cool, sturdy vines. A brilliant, heartfelt smile spread across his face. "Congratulations, Little Thunder! You've entered the ranks of the Immortal Gods. From now on, you'll exist for eternity!"
"Everything I have is thanks to you, Master!"
Little Thunder's voice brimmed with gratitude and loyalty.
Feeling the Thunderlight Vine's vast, abyss-like divine power—far surpassing that of an Ordinary Immortal, or even a Marquis Immortal—Lu Ming was filled with soaring ambition.
Having spent 336 billion Hunyuan Units to cultivate an Immortal Thunderlight Vine with a Hundredfold Gene and 216 vines, he had produced a being whose true combat strength had undoubtedly reached the King Level!
With its unique vitality and the overwhelming might of its lightning laws, it would likely be no weakling even among King-Level beings!
An ordinary Thunderlight Vine that broke through using the optimal method with 216 main vines could already rival a Marquis Immortal!
With the toughness of a plant life-form and its divine body, it could even rival a King-Level being.
But Little Thunder had a Hundredfold Gene and a divine body tens of millions of kilometers across!
And it had cost 336 billion Hunyuan Units!
It could absolutely rival a Pinnacle King-Level, if not a King-Level Limit being!
"Excellent! Next, we'll find you a suitable Space Fragment and establish your Divine Kingdom."
Lu Ming smiled.
"With you at the Immortal Level, plus my own strength... we can go anywhere in this universe!"
After celebrating Little Thunder's successful breakthrough to the Immortal Level, Lu Ming didn't linger.
He knew how crucial the establishment of a Divine Kingdom was. They had to choose a location that was safe, secluded, and suitable.
He first spent several days traveling through the Dark Universe in his spacecraft, moving far away from the Barren Star Domain where the breakthrough had taken place. At last, he stopped in a remote corner near the edge of Human Territory, a place so obscure that it wasn't even marked in detail on star charts.
The spacecraft emerged from the Dark Universe and hovered in a silent stretch of space.
They were far from every known interstellar route. Within hundreds of thousands of light-years, their probes detected only some aging stars and cold planetary fragments. There were no signs of life.
"Little Thunder, what do you think of this place?"
Standing in space, Lu Ming surveyed the endless darkness around him.
"Master, it's quiet here. Very suitable."
A few of the now-Immortal Thunderlight Vine's vines hovered beside Lu Ming, conveying its thoughts.
"Good. Then this is the place."
Lu Ming gave a slight nod. Little Thunder casually slashed one of its vines through the space ahead!
Rip!
A huge spatial rift was torn open in an instant. Space fragments shattered like glass along its edges, revealing a strange dimension beyond, filled with countless streaks of light and fragments—the Space Interlayer!
Lu Ming stepped inside, entering the Space Interlayer with it.
The moment they entered, they were met with endless Space Fragments of all sizes, flying at different speeds.
Some of the fragments were empty. Others contained broken expanses of land, icebergs, or bizarre landscapes, all filled with chaotic spatial fluctuations.
"The Space Interlayer is vast and divided into thousands upon thousands of layers."
Lu Ming floated in the void, taking in his surroundings.
"Closest to the Primal Universe is the 'Space Fragment Layer.' It's relatively stable, with fewer dangers. Some powerful World Lords can survive there. Farther out is the 'God Kingdom Layer,' where the Space Fragments are much larger, often tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of kilometers in diameter. It's an ideal area for Immortal Gods to establish their Divine Kingdoms, and relatively stable. Beyond that... is the perilous 'Space Torrent Layer,' where spatial storms rage and torrents surge. Even powerful Immortal Gods could perish if swept deep inside."
"It feels just like the deep sea. The farther out you go, the deeper the water, the greater the pressure, and the danger increases exponentially."
Lu Ming understood it perfectly.
"To establish a Divine Kingdom, we need to find a suitable fragment in the 'God Kingdom Layer.' It must be large enough and stable enough, and we need to avoid areas that could be caught in battles between powerful beings."