Adele Becomes a God

The time Barn spent delving into the practical combat applications of the Fate Law was far longer than he had initially anticipated—ten full years of study.

Most Lowgods initially comprehend low-level Profound Mysteries, which offer straightforward effects and simple combat styles. They either specialize in long-range magical bombardment or close-quarters melee, requiring little time to refine their techniques.

Barn's Water Clone was exactly like this. Even after fusing the Water Element and Water Body Technique Profound Mysteries, and later gaining an entry-level grasp of the Round Soft Profound Mystery, he had never spent much thought on his water-based techniques.

In battle, he simply needed to coat his body in a layer of ice armor for defense, use the Round Soft Profound Mystery to evade enemy attacks, and rely on the physical amplification of the Water Body Technique to engage in direct melee combat, which was sufficient to handle most situations.

However, his Fate Clone was completely different. Its attack power, defense, speed, and every other attribute were absurdly poor. If it weren't for his main body merging with it, the strength of this Fate Clone would likely be only slightly better than those Lowgods who broke through by refining a Godspark, making it practically useless.

It wasn't until a loud boom echoed that the sealed cavern where Barn resided suddenly exploded.

Declan, who was cultivating in the cavern, sensed the disturbance immediately and rushed over, his face filled with urgency and anticipation. "Barn! Did you succeed? Have you found a practical combat method for the Fate Law?"

Barn hovered in mid-air, his divine power slowly receding, and he shook his head with a faint smile. "Not yet."

The anticipation on Declan's face instantly collapsed. "Ah? Not yet? I thought for sure you would have!"

Seeing his frustrated expression, Barn couldn't help but laugh. "Although I haven't fully succeeded, I have made a breakthrough in my comprehension of the laws."

Over these ten years, Barn had taken many detours. Initially, he was single-mindedly focused on giving the Fate Clone an independent, formidable combat capability. He tried using Fate divine power to drive soul attacks and using Trajectory Distortion to directly control and kill enemies, but no matter what he tried, the results were far worse than expected, and he ended up wasting a great deal of divine power.

It wasn't until one day that Barn suddenly realized: his greatest advantage was never the strength of a single clone, but the fused divine power—and even fused laws—brought about by his soul mutation!

Only by merging the two clones into one could he truly unleash his full potential—allowing him to fuse the dual divine powers of water and fate, while letting the advantages of both laws complement each other and cover their respective weaknesses.

Guided by this realization, Barn's mind cleared, and a flash of inspiration struck him; he had unexpectedly found a point of convergence between the Water Profound Mystery "Round Soft" and the Fate Law "Trajectory Distortion"!

When he had first comprehended "Trajectory Distortion," he had noticed that this aspect of the Fate Law shared a similar essence with the water-based Round Soft Profound Mystery. At the time, he hadn't thought much of it.

He hadn't expected that while researching combat techniques, he would unexpectedly find a point of compatibility between the two.

The power of fusing heterogeneous laws had been demonstrated many times in the original story. As a Soul Mutator, Barn had always sought to unleash this talent, and now that he had finally found the path to fusion, he was naturally overjoyed.

"I need actual combat to push this fusion breakthrough further. I want to go to the Royal City's dueling arena," Barn said.

Declan hesitated for a moment. "About that, should we wait for Adele? She seems to have had an epiphany and has been in seclusion for a long time."

Hearing this, Barn immediately extended his divine sense to the neighboring cavern.

He saw Adele lying quietly on the ground. The body of the Moonflower Deer was surrounded by rich, emerald-green life force, and her aura was climbing steadily; it was clearly a critical moment for her breakthrough.

Barn withdrew his divine sense and nodded gently. "In that case, I will also go into seclusion for a while and wait until she breaks through."

By the time Barn finally stood before the gates of the Ice Prison Royal City, a century had passed.

Barn couldn't help but sigh. "I never expected that what started as a trip to the wilderness to study techniques would turn into a hundred and ten years."

"It was my delay that took so long," a soft female voice sounded beside him.

It was Adele who spoke.

Over these past hundred years, she had finally succeeded in becoming a god through the Life Law, regaining a divine clone, and her temperament was even more gentle and spirited than before.

Barn was not surprised.

Adele's lifespan had already exceeded ten thousand years, and she had once been a true god-level expert; her vision, willpower, and talent far exceeded those peak Sanctuary experts of the Yulan Continent who pinned their hopes on the Necropolis of the Gods. Her breakthrough was only a matter of time.

This time, it was Adele who led Barn into the Ice Prison Royal City.

After showing the god-level badge of the Ice Blade Squad, the guards didn't ask any further questions and let them pass.

"No entrance fee?" Barn was a bit puzzled. This was different from the fantasy worlds in his memory, where most fantasy cities would charge an entrance fee—especially since the gate guards usually liked to make things difficult for the protagonist, only to be slapped in the face by him later.

Adele explained with a light laugh, "The Royal City once tried charging entrance fees, but the environment in Gobada is too chaotic to establish a stable currency, and barter is difficult to price. Eventually, all the major royal cities gave up. Now, as long as you can prove you are a god-level expert under the Ice Prison Royal City, you can enter and exit freely. However, settling down is difficult; you must either be a Midgod, have made a great contribution, or achieved a hundred-win streak in the dueling arena."

As they spoke, the two arrived at a bustling trading area.

It was completely different from the city-states of the Yulan Continent; there were only simple stalls where the owners displayed their treasures, and everything was traded through barter.

"Let's look around first," Adele reminded him. "I remember you haven't even refined a suitable defensive Divine Artifact. It would be a huge disadvantage to enter the arena like this."

"I do have a defensive Divine Artifact, but the attributes don't match," Barn said.

"The arena isn't for sparring; it's a life-and-death battle," Adele said seriously. "Losing your life because of a shortcoming in your Divine Artifact is not worth it. Besides, you have many valuable items on you. In Gobada, supplies must be converted into combat power as quickly as possible, or you'll regret it when you encounter a strong enemy."

Barn shrugged slightly. "Most of it is the squad's common property; I can't just use it."

Because of the values he brought from his past life, Barn did not want to use their shared wealth for his own benefit. As for the Godsparks left behind by Gideon and Wesker, he didn't want to trade those away either.

The only things he could use were the dark-attribute Lowgod Godspark he had seized from Blackwood and two dark-attribute Divine Artifacts.

"Since it's common property, it's not unreasonable to trade for a suitable defensive Divine Artifact for you, is it?" Adele looked at a stall in front of them. "Look at that one."

After Adele became a god, Barn had given her a "Long Sword" from an Abyss Sword Ghost; she wasn't lacking in offensive Divine Artifacts, but she did lack a defensive one.

Barn looked over. It was a vine armor; the material was indistinguishable, but he could feel a vigorous life force emanating from it.