Initial Rune

"Bill! Are you coming with me, or staying at the mansion to protect Lady Rachel?" Lei Mo asked.

"Of course I want to come with you, Master! Besides, isn't Bailey here to protect the lady?"

Bill knew just how formidable Bailey was.

"Fine. You can come with me. Most of the time, you'll still be my mount, passing yourself off as a Level Nine Divine Wind Bear."

Lei Mo had agreed to Bill's request.

"Yes, Master!" Bill cheered.

Then the shrunken Bill bounded around the entire Duke Mansion. Divine Wind Bears were cute to begin with.

Now he was less than a meter long, adorable and utterly charming.

Several maids who had a special relationship with Lei Mo pinched and kneaded him to their hearts' content. As a Saint Realm magical beast, he couldn't be hurt by their play.

After getting a little too excited, the Divine Wind Bear was left looking rather battered by all the roughhousing, and hurried off to find Rachel.

Now that Bailey was by Rachel's side, she still liked Bill, but she no longer handled him as enthusiastically as she used to. That made him relatively safe.

"Serves you right for showing off!"

Bill gave himself a stern talking-to.

"Rachel, make the necessary arrangements for the mansion. I'm taking you somewhere. It's an extra safeguard for your future safety," Lei Mo said gently.

"Of course, Duke."

"From now on, you can call me Lei Mo. That's my real name."

Lei Mo told Rachel his true name. At present, there was no one in the Keaton Kingdom—or even the entire Seti Alliance—whom he needed to fear.

"Of course, my duke."

Rachel smiled, her eyes crinkling, but she didn't actually change how she addressed him. She still preferred calling him Duke.

Still, she remembered the name Lei Mo.

"As for my true family name, we can talk about it once you have a child. But there's no need to rush."

Lei Mo remembered that there was no reproductive incompatibility in this world. He didn't know why Rachel and he still hadn't conceived, despite being together for so long.

"As for those seven children, we can train them as family warriors. They should be willing to join the Franklin family."

Lei Mo suspected his blood had some special effects after all!

For example, Rachel's gaze grew more and more dazed whenever she looked at him. It wasn't just admiration or infatuation; there might be something more complicated at work.

A few days later, Lei Mo had Franklin return to his true form and cast the Divine Domain. Then he took Bill and Rachel and quickly headed for the Chaos Plateau.

Franklin's true form had grown enormous as he flew swiftly through the sky, yet made no sound as he cut through the air. It was quite a marvel.

Rachel and Bill couldn't sense Franklin's presence. They assumed Lei Mo was carrying them through the air.

Several days later, when they were still more than a thousand kilometers from the center of the Chaos Plateau, they could already see the eight Totem Pillar Sub-bodies, each over a thousand meters tall.

The tops of the eight Totem Pillar Sub-bodies disappeared into the clouds. Only when they drew near did the two people and one beast truly feel the crushing pressure bearing down on them.

Such enormous pillars stood upon the platform, their mysterious runes clearly visible even from hundreds of miles away. The Tauren Ancestral Court could no longer suppress news of the Totem Pillars' upheaval.

Nor could it cover them up with the Hall of Ancestral Spirits. All it could do was hope that the other races wouldn't be able to comprehend the runes.

It wasn't that the people of the Ancestral Court were being too optimistic. The Initial Runes on the eight Totem Pillars were genuinely difficult to comprehend.

The Soul Runes, on the other hand, were simpler and easier to grasp. But they had all been formed from the souls of Tauren, so naturally they resonated more strongly with Tauren.

As things stood, the races across the Chaos Plateau had all come to observe them. They stayed dozens of kilometers from the Ancestral Court and tried to comprehend the runes from there.

During that time, some Orcs from other races had indeed comprehended the Soul Runes, but it had done little to improve their strength.

Even Saint Realm powerhouses gained almost nothing from comprehending Soul Runes of the Saint Realm. To improve, they had to study the Initial Runes.

It had only been a short time. Otherwise, people from across the entire continent would have come to study and comprehend them!

Lei Mo was delighted. The more people who comprehended the runes, the better. Once they died, they would all serve him.

He had originally planned to take Rachel and Bill to the top of the Ancestral Court's mountain. With Franklin's Divine Domain, the Ancestral Court's elders wouldn't have noticed them!

But since things had turned out this way, he decided not to go up. Instead, he found a high spot a few kilometers away and had Rachel and Bill study the pillars from there.

Following Lei Mo's guidance, Rachel studied the Water Element pillar, while Bill studied either the wind or thunder pillar. That way, they wouldn't waste any time.

Bill was already in the Saint Realm and possessed both wind and thunder affinities. It took him only three days to comprehend a wind Soul Rune.

It took Rachel seven days to comprehend a water Soul Rune.

For the rest of their stay, Lei Mo had them study the more complex and mysterious Initial Runes, hoping they might gain some insight.

They wouldn't lose anything if they failed to comprehend them. This had all been done to give Rachel and Bill another safeguard for their lives.

They stayed on the small hill for another half month. During that time, Lei Mo took care of preparing food and drink for Rachel.

Bill no longer needed food or drink.

Over those two weeks, Rachel developed an affinity with the Initial Illusion Rune on the Water Totem Pillar. She could now sense the fluctuations between heaven and earth much more clearly and might break through to Level Eight at any moment.

Bill, however, showed no change. After comprehending a wind Soul Rune, he had gained no further insights.

Lei Mo decided it was time to inscribe Laws Runes on Bill Cleveland. With his talent, becoming a god would be almost impossible otherwise.

The problem was still the same: Lei Mo didn't know the wind or thunder runes, and the other Rune Souls couldn't yet have runes inscribed on them.

Would he really have to wait for the Rune Soul to become a god?

Still, there was no need to hurry. Bill was no longer limited by his lifespan.

Once again, Franklin returned to his true form and spread out his Divine Domain, carrying the two people and one beast back to Paton City over the course of several days.

Rachel returned to the Duke Mansion, with Bailey at her side.

Lei Mo didn't dawdle either. He mounted the Divine Wind Bear and headed for Paton's northern gate. The bear's Saint Realm strength had not yet been exposed, so Lei Mo had him run along the ground.

The wind roared in his ears as they raced along. Lei Mo had no choice but to circulate his Bloodhoof Battle Qi. By then, the Bloodhoof Battle Qi he cultivated had clearly taken on the attribute of Destruction Law.

It was no longer the same as the tribe's fire-attribute Bloodhoof Battle Qi, but Lei Mo had no intention of renaming it. Bloodhoof held special meaning for him.

As Lei Mo headed north through the Keaton Kingdom, he carried no luggage at all. The Space Ring Tagore had given him made traveling so convenient.

Lei Mo had already given his old ring to Rachel. Given her status, no one would dare covet a Space Ring she owned.

Besides, Rachel would soon break through to Level Eight.

The country bordering the northern part of the Keaton Kingdom was called the Alcantara Kingdom. It was a kingdom with no Saint Realm powerhouses in the open, and one of the member kingdoms of the Seti Alliance.

Lei Mo didn't linger in the Alcantara Kingdom. He stopped at a few taverns within its borders, but spent most of his time in treehouses out in the wilderness.

His goal was clear: he wanted to visit the Elf Forest and, if he got the chance, meet Queen Seraph and learn some of the continent's secrets.

Elves and Tauren were both races close to nature, which made Lei Mo quite curious about them.

The human domain was enormous. The territory it controlled directly and indirectly far surpassed the Chaos Plateau.

Moreover, this region was mostly made up of plains where crops could be grown. The population it sustained was a hundred times greater than that of the Orc Race.