The Secret Codex of Dou Qi

Lei Mo currently faced this very problem: his own strength far exceeded that of an average Saint-level expert.

However, creating a Battle-Qi manual that could lead one to the Saint-level was no easy feat; if it were truly that simple, Saint-level experts would not be so rare.

The most crucial aspect of the Saint-level is the comprehension of the "Trend" between heaven and earth; if one cannot grasp this Trend, their Battle-Qi will cease to grow once it reaches the ninth rank.

Therefore, the most important factor in creating a Battle-Qi manual capable of reaching the Saint-level is whether it can assist the practitioner in comprehending the Trend more easily.

If it can achieve this, it is a Saint-level Battle-Qi; if not, no matter how exquisite the technique, it remains at the peak of the ninth rank.

In the thousands of years of the kingdom's history, including Lei Mo, there have only been three Saint-level experts, so this cannot be rushed; furthermore, Lei Mo was not satisfied with his Battle-Qi having only a single attribute.

Consequently, Rachel could only practice a ninth-rank water-attribute Battle-Qi manual for now, with plans to switch later.

Standing in the small garden of the Duke Mansion, which covered several acres, he held a Rune Cube, flipping it continuously between his fingers.

Lei Mo's brain was spinning at high speed, deducing and arranging every possible and impossible combination.

"To make Battle-Qi possess an attribute is actually not difficult at all; the hardest part is actually making Battle-Qi attribute-less. As long as energy is required, there will be an attribute!"

How could Battle-Qi not require energy? Without energy, Battle-Qi would lose its lethality, so what would be the point of practicing it? This was a paradox.

"Since it is impossible to eliminate the attributes of Battle-Qi, one can only increase them, which will provide more choices in the future!"

Lei Mo continued to think; having ruled out the possibility of eliminating the attributes, the only option left was to increase them.

"However, I can only master seven runes right now, and there are only four attributes; I also don't know how to engrave the Law of Destruction runes."

"Besides, the Law of Destruction is too difficult; I cannot see Franklin, let alone comprehend the runes on its body."

"These four runes can be used in the creation of the Battle-Qi; what can be used to incorporate all four attributes into the Battle-Qi?"

Lei Mo fell into deep thought. If he used a rune matrix, or a magic array, how would he combine them? Could he burn the runes onto his body?

"Eh? Why not?" Although they couldn't be carved into the flesh, what about tattoos? Perhaps that would have an effect.

If that were the case, Lei Mo would not be limited to the seven elemental laws, nor even limited to the laws and rules!

Lei Mo knew that whether it was Franklin or its clones, there were some runes whose functions were unknown.

The functions of these runes were unknown, but their complexity and mystery were not weak at all; the only question was whether they could be comprehended.

With so many rune souls, there must be some who could comprehend these runes!

He would have the rune souls depict the runes they comprehended, and Lei Mo would screen and test them; he would surely find some different runes, though that was a matter for the future.

Recently, Lei Mo had been fixated on a strange rune on Franklin's body; this rune was not connected to any others and sat alone in a corner.

It did not look very complex, yet it was almost a complete rune. As for why he could feel it was complete?

This was a mysterious sensation with no concrete reason, much like how Lei Mo felt the incompleteness of the profound law runes.

Having no insight into this rune, Lei Mo depicted its appearance and then had Franklin search for a soul that had comprehended it.

It was possible that it only appeared after Franklin became a god, as he had never found a soul that had comprehended this rune.

"I'm drifting too far!" Pulling his thoughts back to the creation of the Battle-Qi manual, his soul had never stopped deducing the creation of the technique.

How could he create a Battle-Qi that contained seven elements? This was already Lei Mo's greatest ambition; he dared not covet a Law-based Battle-Qi.

Lei Mo's current idea was to take the simplest profound mystery from each of the seven elements, find the corresponding simplest rune fragments, and then combine them into a new rune or tattoo.

Finding the basic elemental rune for each of the seven elements was simple, but finding the simplest fragment was extremely difficult.

The basic elemental runes of each element were incomplete in themselves and entangled with many rune branches; how could one know which was the simplest?

Even if the simplest rune fragments of the seven elements were found, how would one combine them?

It wasn't just a matter of finishing the combination; they still had to be activated, which was a hellish difficulty.

It was already heaven-defying for profound laws to manifest in the form of runes; to dismantle and recombine them was incredibly difficult.

As for it being completely hopeless, that wasn't necessarily true; the different profound laws of a soul mutant could be fused, which meant that the runes could also be combined.

Forget it, don't make things difficult for yourself.

Better to lower the difficulty; how about a water-fire Battle-Qi? Or water-light, fire-light, or even water-earth? Those names sounded terrible.

Thinking about these random things made his head swell, and the final result was that none of them could be realized.

Better to honestly go and modify Rachel's Battle-Qi; that was something Lei Mo was confident in.

The Frost Battle-Qi Manual was contributed by a ninth-rank female expert, who supposedly created it after observing the battle of a Frost Dragon.

It was likely a far-fetched claim; it was merely a Battle-Qi manual that could accumulate energy up to the eighth rank.

The Battle-Qi provided no assistance to the profound mysteries of the water element, and while ice was a water attribute, it seemed to have some connection to the profound mystery of the Sharpness of Ice.

However, the attribute of this Battle-Qi was very mild; practicing it felt like soaking in a hot spring.

The Battle-Qi attribute had at most a cooling effect and had nothing to do with sharpness. Lei Mo did not intend to move in the direction of sharpness, as that seemed to be an intermediate profound mystery, not suitable as a stepping stone.

When Battle-Qi is practiced to the extreme, if the contained laws are simpler, it is easier to comprehend the complete profound mystery and become a god; as for other profound mysteries, those can be dealt with after becoming a god.

The soul transformation after becoming a god is sufficient to improve one's corresponding law talent.

Just like that, while living a carefree life with Rachel and deducing the Battle-Qi manual, seven or eight days passed, and today was the Duke's promotion ceremony.

In the kingdom's largest square—Tagore Square—a hundred-meter-high platform had been urgently constructed, with the top of the platform spanning several hundred square meters.

Fortunately, this was a world of the extraordinary; otherwise, who knows how many commoners would have been worked to death. Lei Mo stood upon the high platform, pondering exactly that.

Tagore Keaton and John Keaton, who had not appeared for hundreds of years, both stood upon the high platform.

John Keaton personally presided over the ceremony, and the items used were extravagant to the extreme, though to Lei Mo and his peers, they were nothing more than ordinary.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tagore Square. Every time John Keaton announced one of Lei Mo's achievements, a wave of cheers erupted from below; one wondered if everyone's throats would be hoarse by the end.

"Now, we invite the great founding monarch of our Keaton Kingdom, the Saint-level powerhouse—Lord Tagore Keaton, to personally bestow the rank of Duke upon Lord Franklin!"

John Keaton concluded.

Tagore slowly levitated, holding high a scepter one and a half meters long, forged from an unknown metal.

It was embossed with a bull's skull and two pitch-black Totem Pillars, with the words "Duke Franklin" carved at the end in the common human tongue.

"I declare the promotion of Lord Franklin to be a Duke of the Keaton Kingdom, for all eternity! Rejoice, my subjects, for the glory of Lord Duke Franklin is with you all!"

As he spoke, he slowly handed the scepter to Lei Mo with both hands. Lei Mo received it with both hands, gripped the center of the scepter with his right hand, and raised it high.

Following this, Lei Mo levitated and flew three laps around the square, flaunting his nobility and glory.

It wasn't that Lei Mo was putting on an act; it was all part of the standard procedure arranged by the protocol officers!