The Breakthrough in the Round Soft Profound Mystery

As they walked out of the Colosseum, the Bearded Boss suddenly stepped forward and blocked Barn's way.

"Interested in becoming a gladiator? You can make good money."

Barn looked at him and immediately understood what he meant.

Back on the Yulan Continent, plenty of Colosseums hired powerful fighters for this kind of work. But the Colosseums there would never have been able to hire Godlevels as gladiators.

"Sure, but I've had some insights lately. Let's talk next time I'm here."

The Bearded Boss didn't press him. He casually tossed Barn a bronze token. "Just come straight to me next time."

Barn wasn't just making excuses. He really had gained some insight.

Perhaps fighting with all his strength had truly awakened some hidden potential. Or perhaps he had always been talented. After the battle, he'd clearly felt something shift within him—his grasp of the Round Soft Profound Mystery had loosened.

As soon as he returned to their residence, Barn began cultivating in seclusion.

Now that Adele, their second Godlevel, was there to hold down the fort, he had no need to worry about anything going wrong and could focus on his cultivation in peace.

In his room, Barn and his Water Clone reviewed his battle against Joanna over and over.

The spear lashing like a whip, force redirected with Circle Softness, trajectories shifted... The scenes played over and over in his soul.

Meanwhile, his Fate Clone was absorbed in pondering Joanna's Curtain Domain.

Fate Divine Power flowed slowly around him.

That battle had given him an important inspiration:

He didn't necessarily have to get close to his enemy to use Trajectory Distortion.

If he could spread out the Fate Law and form a domain of his own, so that an enemy's attacks and movements were automatically disrupted upon entering a certain range, the effect would far surpass his current ability to manipulate individual attacks.

But that would be incredibly difficult.

Joanna had created the Curtain Domain because her understanding of the Darkness Law was already profound, and she had perfectly fused Night Veil with the Darkness Element.

The Black Stone Space from the original story was even more complex. It had taken the fusion of three Earth Profound Mysteries and an extremely intricate structure to form.

Barn had only just begun to grasp the Fate Law.

At most, he could evenly spread Fate Divine Power around himself, but that approach was too crude. It consumed a terrifying amount of divine power, yet its effect was negligible.

Barn slowly opened his eyes and shook his head. "No. My understanding of the Fate Law is still too shallow. I should focus on deepening it first and think about developing a signature move later."

He glanced at the Fate Clone standing motionless nearby, then sank back into arduous cultivation.

Unlike the Fate Clone, which had hit a dead end,

Barn's true body and Water Clone were now awash with inspiration, like a dam had burst.

The Round Soft Profound Mystery had been stalled for more than three hundred years.

It had been the first Profound Mystery he'd comprehended, inspired by the philosophy of his previous life, and he'd once pinned great hopes on it. But later, as the Water Body Technique and Water Element Profound Mysteries began to fuse, he'd been eager to increase his strength and set Circle Softness aside for a while, using it only now and then to redirect force in battle.

Circle Softness had no offensive power and wasn't even purely defensive.

It was a supporting Profound Mystery that could be combined with other Water Element Profound Mysteries to improve force redirection and boost both attack and defense.

Once it truly fused with another Profound Mystery, its power would undergo a qualitative transformation.

And now, this Profound Mystery, sealed away for three hundred years, had finally made a major breakthrough—

The Round Soft Profound Mystery had begun to fuse with the Water Body Technique Profound Mystery!

By the time Barn finished this retreat, a hundred years had quietly passed in Gobada.

Adele was waiting for him outside.

"Where is everyone else?" Barn asked.

Adele still had her usual cool demeanor. "They're all cultivating. Declan, especially—he seems to have reached a crucial bottleneck. Not long after you went into seclusion, he went into seclusion too. He still hasn't come out."

She studied Barn, her expression shifting slightly. "You seem happy."

The corners of Barn's mouth lifted despite himself, and he couldn't hide his smile.

"Yeah. I made a major breakthrough. If I fight Joanna again, I'm confident I can hold her to a draw."

As things stood, within the Water Law, Water Element had fused with the Water Body Technique, and the Water Body Technique had in turn fused with Circle Softness.

None of them were High-level Profound Mysteries, but if he continued steadily along this path, he could reach the level of a top Five-star Demon without fusing any other Profound Mysteries, relying on his Water Clone alone.

With Soul Mutation and the Tiger-pattern Warrior's innate talent on top of that, his combat strength could reach the peak of the Six-star Demon level.

In Gobada, a Six-star Demon was already a true powerhouse.

After all, Adkins from the original story had been a Six-star Demon, yet he'd still secured his place as the second strongest person in Azure Fire Royal City.

With strength like that, Barn could protect himself in Gobada.

The path ahead was also becoming clearer in his mind:

The safest path was to keep cultivating at their residence for a few hundred years, break through to Midgod, then look for clues about escaping Gobada. If he couldn't find anything, he could defect to Azure Fire Royal City.

The riskier path was to wait until his Water Clone had completely fused three Profound Mysteries before attempting to become a Midgod. But the opportunity to fuse them was elusive, and searching for clues outside as a Lowgod would be far too dangerous.

After weighing the options, Barn decided not to rush into becoming a Midgod.

There was a possibility he'd always been hoping for: fusing the Fate Law with the Water Law.

Adele looked at Barn and said softly, "A team came by earlier and asked us to join them on a mission. I turned them down."

Barn wasn't upset. "That's just what I wanted. We aren't short on supplies, and we all still have plenty of room to grow stronger. There's no need to risk going out."

Adele nodded. "Then what are you planning to do next?"

"I want to go back to the Colosseum and fight someone."

Adele sighed. "I didn't realize you were such a battle maniac. I won't go with you this time. I've had some insights of my own. Be careful, and surrender in time if you can't win."

"I'll be careful."