Fate Law Godhood

For god-level beings, a hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the past hundred years, Barn had seized that sliver of insight into the Fate Law and focused single-mindedly on absorbing, digesting, and mastering it. At last, he had truly comprehended the Fate Law that was his alone.

He had also taken Timothy's advice and stayed at their base for a full hundred years without setting foot outside. Every day, he did nothing but train with dull but unwavering resolve. It was as if this place were not the Gobada Plane Prison, rife with bloody slaughter and constant peril, but the peaceful, tranquil Yulan Continent.

Then, one day—

A vast will of the world descended without warning.

Inside the room, Barn abruptly opened his eyes and looked up at the new Godhead floating above him, radiating a faint golden Fate Divine Power.

"I really am a genius!" he roared with laughter, making no attempt to hide his delight.

But after the wild joy came excruciating pain—

The agony of splitting one's soul in two was something no one could easily endure.

Then, under the baptism and blessing of the world's will, Barn's Fate Clone quickly took shape.

Three figures now stood in the room: his original body, clad in chainmail that was a Divine Artifact; his Water Element Clone, wearing Ice Dragon Armor; and his Fate Clone, dressed in a golden robe.

As the three figures merged into one, Barn raised his hand. Blue Water Element Divine Power and dazzling golden Fate Divine Power gathered in his palm. Under the innate control granted by his Soul Mutation, the two kinds of Divine Power fused perfectly, without the slightest resistance.

Barn carefully sensed the surging power within him and furrowed his brow. "The increase isn't as exaggerated as I imagined—only about eightfold. Is the Fate Divine Power far less pure than the Water Element Divine Power?"

After all, Sovereign's Might had no levels of superiority or inferiority, but below that, the Divine Power of Lowgods, Midgods, and Highgods differed in purity.

Barn's Water Law had continued to develop, and his strength had risen along with it. He could now reach sixty meters into the Lowgod Sea of Divine Power. By his estimate, the Lowgod Sea of Divine Power reached a limit at a depth of one hundred meters; beyond that lay the region of Midgod Divine Power.

But his newly formed Fate Divine Clone could currently draw Fate Divine Power from only ten meters down in the Sea of Divine Power.

The two kinds of Divine Power might have no difference in rank, but their purity was worlds apart.

"Still, an eightfold increase is already remarkable." Barn soon came to terms with it. "This power should have reached the threshold of Midgod Divine Power—at least, it's equivalent to the power found ten meters down in the Midgod Sea of Divine Power."

The gap between Lowgod and Midgod Divine Power was no gradual transition. It was a sheer cliff.

Only after his original Water Element Divine Power surged eightfold did it barely reach the most basic level of Midgod Divine Power.

Then Barn turned his attention to his soul.

"The greatest advantage of Soul Mutation is the soul."

"When I broke through to godhood, my soul was baptized by the world's will and grew stronger. Its total capacity became twice that of an ordinary god-level being. We confirmed that when I sparred with Gideon."

"Now, my Fate Clone's soul is as strong as my Water Element Clone's was when it first became a god."

"On top of that, there's another huge advantage: my soul's upper limit is far higher than that of a Lowgod at the same level—at least ten times higher! And this increase isn't exclusive to my Water Element Clone. Now that I've become a god through the Fate Law, the total capacity of my soul will likewise far exceed that of an ordinary god-level being."

This was Barn's conjecture based on his own circumstances.

(The original novel never clearly stated the soul's upper limit at each level. It only mentioned that when Linley broke through to Highgod, his soul was baptized by the laws of the world and increased tenfold. This is a new setting; readers who have objections can bring them up.)

Over the past hundred years, Barn's Water Element Clone had made slow, steady progress in developing the profound mysteries of Water Element and Water Body Technique. The harsh environment of Gobada had severely hindered his rate of insight into the Water Element.

To speed up his comprehension of the laws, Barn's Water Element Clone had taken one Soul Gold Bead after another—using, of course, the batch Annabelle had given him all those years ago.

Fukaloss had once told Barn that an ordinary Lowgod's soul could absorb the essence of roughly a thousand Soul Gold Beads before reaching its limit. Clearly, she could answer with such confidence only because she had experienced it herself.

Barn was short on funds and couldn't compare with that wealthy Fukaloss. After absorbing eighty beads in a row, his Water Element Clone's soul had shown no sign of saturation—not even one percent of its capacity had been filled.

That was why he had formed his theory: as a dual-element Soul Mutator, his soul's total capacity was ten times that of an ordinary god-level being of the same rank!

In other words, he would need to absorb ten thousand Soul Gold Beads to fill his soul. And now, both of his clones had such a terrifyingly high soul capacity!

Having fully adjusted to his new clone and familiarized himself with the power of fusing two kinds of Divine Power, Barn pushed open the door.

Declan and Adele's family had been waiting outside for some time.

Over the past hundred years, they had relied on the Divine Power that seeped from Barn's Water Element Clone to nourish their cultivation. Of course, the Divine Power from a single clone wasn't enough to support five Sanctuary peak magical beasts. Fortunately, Barn had given them plenty of magic cores, so none of them had gone hungry.

"Have you broken through to Midgod?" Declan asked, his eyes full of anticipation.

Barn glanced at the Spine-backed Iron-armored Dragon who had been with him the longest and smiled. "It's not that easy. I became a god through the Fate Law."

Adele flattered him. "To become a god in two elements in less than two thousand years—you truly have a talent we can only look up to, my lord."

Barn accepted the compliment without hesitation.

In Gobada, it was only natural for the strong to earn the admiration of those beneath them. If he had played humble, outsiders might have thought him weak and easy to bully.

Of course, Adele's family was genuinely delighted too.

With Barn having another Divine Clone, more Divine Power would seep out, enough for all five of them to cultivate, with some left over.

For the past hundred years, the family had been on edge, afraid that one day Barn would decide supporting five magical beasts with a single clone was too much of a burden and find an excuse to send some of them away.

Barn asked, "Declan, Adele, how is your cultivation going?"

Of the five magical beasts before him, only Declan and Adele had much hope of becoming gods on their own.

Declan had already reached the threshold of fusing the profound mysteries of Darkness Element and Shadow Clone.

Adele's original body, meanwhile, had long since reached the threshold of godhood in her comprehension of the Life Law.

Declan said excitedly, "I'm almost there! Just a little more, and I'll completely fuse the profound mysteries of Darkness Element and Shadow Clone!"

Adele sighed softly. "I've been stuck at the threshold of godhood for a long time too, but it's been like this for over a thousand years. I'm still missing that final step."

She had once been a Light Element Lowgod and had lived for more than ten thousand years. Her original body had continued studying the Life Law, but she still couldn't take that final step.

Barn smiled. "I just broke through, and I want to test out some new moves in the wilderness. I won't go far. Come along with me."

Now that he had become a god in two elements, he could finally bring out the true power of his Soul Mutation. Barn felt it was time to devote serious effort to developing his moves and combined combat techniques.