Mist Hidden Spear

Not long after Barn broke through to Godlevel, the century-long garrison duty officially came to an end.

The group returned to the Ice Blade Squad's base outside the Ice Prison Royal City. That very evening, they held a lively barbecue party.

Gideon gnawed on a piece of meat and asked through a mouthful, "Miss, what's our plan from here?"

"I'm going to have you and Barn consolidate your strength. As for the others, you should all work hard and see if you can break through to Godlevel." Fukaloss dug into her food without a shred of elegance.

Barn immediately leaned forward with a grin. "Miss, I'm missing a Water Element Defensive Divine Artifact!"

"Go make one yourself!" Fukaloss shot him a glare. "That spear of yours is already a Divine Artifact. You don't need another one. You have plenty of Divine Power to slowly nurture a Defensive Divine Artifact. Didn't you also get a Wind Element Defensive Divine Artifact before? Make do with that for now."

"Miss, you're playing favorites!" Barn deliberately refused to let it go.

"Well, you became a god later than Gideon. We agreed from the start that whoever became a god first would get the big prize!"

Under her glare, Barn immediately shrank back, wearing a pitiful expression—though of course he was putting it on. After all these years together, they had long since figured out how their young miss operated: you never knew unless you tried. If she happened to be in a good mood, she might just let something good slip their way.

Julia offered a timely reminder. "Miss, shouldn't we divide up the rewards from this mission too?"

"You're getting bolder and bolder!" Fukaloss said, pretending to be angry. "You dare ask me to divide the spoils—er, I mean, the dividends!"

But as soon as the words left her mouth, her expression fell. She took out three Soul Gold Beads. "This is all we got from the mission."

"Huh? That's all?" Disappointment showed on everyone's faces.

Seeing their disappointed expressions only made Fukaloss feel more dejected. She sighed softly and explained, "I didn't expect it to be so little either. I asked the legion about it later and found out that we must have fought too hard in the last defensive battle. The energy fluctuations from the Godlevel combat were so violent that they damaged the orchard trees' roots. For the following decades, the trees produced far less fruit. They couldn't even manage a hundred fruits a year, so they barely met the mission quota. The rewards were directly tied to the orchard's yield, so when production plunged, the rewards shrank with it. In the end, all we got was these three Soul Gold Beads."

The group exchanged glances.

Blair hurried to reassure her. "Miss, being able to cultivate peacefully at a resource point for a hundred years is already the best reward we could ask for."

Declan nodded too. "That's right. My insights have improved quite a bit as well."

Fukaloss immediately lifted her head and announced indignantly, "I've decided! Everyone will spend the next ten years cultivating at the base and stabilizing your realms. After that, we'll take on a major mission with truly generous rewards!"

"Great! We'll do as you say, Miss!" they answered in unison, smiles returning to their faces. The gloom hanging over the courtyard instantly lifted, and the scent of grilled meat and laughter once again filled the air.

In the end, Barn did get himself a defensive suit of armor—or, more accurately, he made one himself.

Back when they had killed a Sanctuary powerhouse from the Evil Royal City, they had also hunted a Frost Dragon. The dragon had been extremely powerful, with scales as hard as stone and brimming with the frigid power of the Water Element. Barn had thought the scales might come in handy someday, so he had carefully collected them and stored them in his spatial ring. Now that he had broken through to Godlevel in the Water Element, their properties suited him perfectly. He went to the Heavenly River Legion's base and found a craftsman to forge them into a complete suit of scale armor.

The suit was made from hundreds of Frost Dragon scales fitted together. It was pale blue, its surface glimmering with a faint, icy sheen. When Barn put it on, it fit him perfectly. The cold scales rested against his body, sending a refreshing chill through him as they resonated faintly with the Water Element Divine Power in his body.

However, this Frost Dragon scale armor was still only a decent Sanctuary-level piece of equipment, a long way from becoming a Divine Artifact. It was only slightly stronger than Barn's body after he transformed into a Tiger-pattern Warrior, just barely able to withstand a full-force attack from an ordinary peak Sanctuary expert. Against a Godlevel attack, it would be utterly useless.

Of course, with long-term nourishment from Divine Power, the Frost Dragon scales would eventually be nurtured by it and slowly transform into a genuine Water Element Defensive Divine Artifact.

At that moment, Barn sat cross-legged in his room, his eyes closed and a faint stream of Water Element Divine Power slowly swirling around him.

He wasn't in a hurry to use his Divine Power to nurture his set of scale armor. He knew that nurturing a Divine Artifact took an incredibly long time, with ten thousand years as the bare minimum. Even some exceptionally gifted Divine Artifacts needed hundreds of thousands, or even a million years, to fully take shape.

Barn had only just broken through to Godlevel and was still a Lowgod. His reserves of Divine Power were limited to begin with. He had to set aside some of it to familiarize himself with his Godlevel combat strength and refine the fusion of his profound mysteries. He also needed to keep some in reserve for battle and daily cultivation. Each day, he could barely accumulate any Divine Power at all for nurturing a Divine Artifact. If he forced himself to use it to nurture the dragon-scale armor, he wouldn't speed up the process. Instead, it would hinder the stabilization of his realm and might even drain his Divine Power, making it a losing proposition.

Barn turned his attention to the Mist Hidden Spear in his hand instead.

His heart filled with anticipation. Now that he had become a god, he could finally bring out the true power of the Divine Artifact that had accompanied him for so long!

As Barn slowly immersed his divine sense into the Mist Hidden Spear, the mysterious space filled with endless white mist once again appeared in his mind. Unlike when he had been at the Sanctuary level, his divine sense was now far more concentrated, and his perception much sharper. The white mist filling the space seemed to have thinned as well. Countless hazy fragments of battle flashed through his mind at high speed. They were the combat memories of the Mist Hidden Spear's former master, clashing with all kinds of gods. Every movement and every attack was at least a hundred times clearer than what he had sensed at the Sanctuary level.

Barn carefully studied those battle memories, drawing useful experience from them as he silently familiarized himself with the Mist Hidden Spear's properties.

A day later, Barn slowly opened his eyes, a glint flashing in them. He raised a hand and slowly poured the Water Element Divine Power in his body into the Mist Hidden Spear. As the Divine Power flowed into it, the spear's deep blue shaft gradually turned transparent. A thin layer of white mist swirled around it, growing denser until it completely enveloped the spear. It now seemed to flicker in and out of sight, as though it had melded with the surrounding mist.

"It looks like the former owner of this Mist Hidden Spear comprehended the profound mystery of 'mist' within the Water Element." Barn reached out and lightly touched the white mist surrounding the spear. A cool sensation brushed his fingertip, and a faint soul fluctuation traveled through it into his mind. He frowned slightly and murmured, "This mist doesn't just block vision and hide one's figure. It also has some ability to confuse the soul, though it's not very strong. At most, it can interfere with a Lowgod."

Barn withdrew his finger and pondered silently. "It's also possible the Mist Hidden Spear hasn't fully accepted me yet. After all, I've only just become its new master, and we haven't developed enough rapport. Besides, the Divine Power I'm pouring into it is only that of a Lowgod. Maybe it'll take stronger Divine Power—after I break through to Midgod or Highgod—to fully unleash its abilities."

He looked again at the Mist Hidden Spear in his hand and examined its changes closely. He realized that its transparency didn't simply make it invisible. It was more like a state of "hiding in the mist." The spear itself didn't disappear; it was merely wrapped in the surrounding mist, using it for cover to conceal itself while also fooling divine sense to some extent.

This was completely different from the transparency of Linley's Shadowflash Sword. That sword was the product of a special fusion of the four elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—and worked as soon as Divine Power was poured into it. The Mist Hidden Spear's ability to turn transparent, on the other hand, seemed to be an added effect of a profound mystery, one that depended on the white mist around the shaft. Without the mist to cover it, the spear would return to its original appearance, lose its transparency, and no longer be able to conceal itself.

"Interesting."

Barn tightened his grip on the spear, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

"Once my Divine Power grows deeper, I'll get to the bottom of you."