Initial Rune

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

"I naturally want to follow you, Master! Isn't Bailey still here to protect the mistress?"

Bill was well aware of Bailey's formidable strength.

"Very well, you shall accompany me. In public, you will remain my mount, posing as a ninth-rank Divine Wind Bear."

With this, Lei Mo granted Bill's request.

"Yes! Master!" Bill cheered.

The now-shrunken Bill began to frolic throughout the Duke's estate; a Divine Wind Bear was naturally adorable to begin with.

Now that it was less than a meter long, it was both cute and charming.

In the hands of the few maids who shared a special relationship with Lei Mo, it was squeezed and kneaded; even a Saint-level Magic Beast couldn't be broken by such play.

After becoming over-excited, the Divine Wind Bear found itself in a rather miserable state from all the pampering and quickly sought out Rachel.

With Bailey now by her side, Rachel still loved Bill, but she didn't maul it as intensely as before, making it relatively safer.

What are you showing off for? That's karma for you!

Bill engaged in some internal self-criticism.

"Rachel, arrange the affairs of the estate. I am taking you somewhere; this is a double insurance policy for your future safety!"

Lei Mo said to Rachel gently.

"Very well, Duke!"

"You may call me Lei Mo from now on; that is my true name."

Lei Mo revealed his real name to Rachel. Within the Keaton Kingdom and even the entire Seti Alliance, there was no one left who could make Lei Mo feel constrained.

"Very well, my Duke."

Rachel's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, but she didn't truly change how she addressed him; she still preferred calling him Duke.

However, she did commit the name Lei Mo to memory.

"As for my true family surname, we shall discuss that once you have children, though there is no need to rush."

Lei Mo remembered that there was no reproductive isolation in this world, and he wondered why, after being with Rachel for so long, there had been no developments.

"Also, those seven children can be trained as family warriors; they should be able to identify with the Franklin family."

Lei Mo felt that his bloodline possessed some rather unique properties!

For instance, the increasingly dazed look in Rachel's eyes when she looked at him wasn't just due to worship or fanaticism; it might be for more complex reasons!

A few days later, Lei Mo had Franklin revert to his true form and manifest his Divine Domain, carrying Bill, Rachel, and himself as they sped toward the Chaos Plateau.

Franklin's massive true form flew rapidly through the air, yet it produced no sound of breaking the wind—a truly miraculous feat.

Rachel and Bill could not perceive Franklin's existence, assuming only that Lei Mo was carrying them through the air.

Days passed, and when they were still a thousand kilometers from the center of the Chaos Plateau, the eight thousand-meter-tall Totem Pillars were already visible.

The tops of the eight pillars were already shrouded in the clouds. Only upon arriving close did the two people and one beast truly feel the overwhelming pressure bearing down on them.

Such massive pillars stood upon this plateau, and the mysterious runes upon them were clearly visible even from hundreds of miles away. The Tauren Ancestral Court could no longer suppress the news of the upheaval surrounding the Totem Pillars.

They could no longer cover them with the Hall of Ancestral Spirits, and could only hope that members of other races would not comprehend the runes above.

It could not be said that the people of the Ancestral Court were being overly optimistic; the Initial Runes on the eight Totem Pillars were not easy to comprehend.

While the Soul Runes were simpler and easier to grasp, they were formed from the souls of Tauren, making them naturally more compatible with their own kind.

The current result was that races from all over the Chaos Plateau had arrived, though they did not approach the Ancestral Court, choosing instead to observe and comprehend from dozens of kilometers away.

During this time, other orc races had indeed comprehended Soul Runes, but it had not improved their strength.

Saint-level powerhouses gained almost nothing from comprehending Saint-level Soul Runes; to improve, one had to observe the Initial Runes.

It was only because so little time had passed; otherwise, people from the entire continent would have come to observe and gain enlightenment!

Lei Mo was quite pleased; the more people who comprehended the runes, the better. When these people eventually died, they would all be serving him.

He had originally intended to take Rachel and Bill to the mountain peak of the Ancestral Court; with Franklin's Divine Domain, the elders of the Ancestral Court would never have discovered them!

However, given the current situation, he decided not to go up, instead finding a high vantage point a few kilometers away for Rachel and Bill to observe and meditate.

Under Lei Mo's guidance, Rachel observed the water-element pillar, while Bill observed the wind or lightning-element pillars, ensuring no time was wasted.

Bill, already a Saint-level expert with dual wind and lightning affinities, comprehended a wind-element Soul Rune in just three days.

Rachel took seven days to comprehend a water-element Soul Rune.

The remaining time was spent letting them observe the more complex and mysterious Initial Runes, hoping they might gain some insight.

Even if they gained nothing, nothing would be lost; this was, after all, merely a safeguard for the lives of Rachel and Bill.

They stayed on this small hill for another half-month. During this time, Lei Mo was responsible for providing food and drink for Rachel.

For Bill, food and drink were no longer necessities.

Over this half-month, Rachel developed an affinity for the Initial Illusion Rune on the water-element Totem Pillar, and she could now sense the fluctuations of the world more clearly; she was on the verge of breaking through to the eighth rank at any moment.

Bill had not changed much; after comprehending a wind-style Soul Rune, he had no further insights.

Lei Mo felt it was time to engrave a Law Rune for Bill Cleveland, otherwise, given his talent, becoming a god would be nearly impossible.

The problem remained the same: Lei Mo did not know wind-style or lightning-style runes, and his other soul runes were not yet capable of engraving them.

Could it be that he had to wait until his soul runes reached the god level?

However, there was no need to rush; Bill no longer had a lifespan limit.

Franklin reverted to his original form and expanded his Divine Domain, carrying the two men and one beast back to Padon City in a few days.

Rachel returned to the Duke's Mansion with Bailey by her side.

Lei Mo did not dawdle; he rode the Divine Wind Bear toward the north gate of Padon. Since the Divine Wind Bear's Saint-level status had not yet been exposed, Lei Mo let it run on the ground.

With the wind rushing past and roaring in his ears, Lei Mo had no choice but to circulate his Bloodhoof Battle Qi. By this time, the Bloodhoof Battle Qi Lei Mo cultivated had clearly taken on the attribute of destruction.

It was no longer the same as the fire-attribute Bloodhoof Battle Qi of the tribe, but Lei Mo had no intention of changing the name; Bloodhoof held a special significance for him.

Heading toward the north of Keaton, Lei Mo traveled without any luggage; having the spatial ring given by Tagore made this trip much more convenient.

Lei Mo had already given his original ring to Rachel; with her status, no one would dare covet a spatial ring in her possession.

Moreover, Rachel was about to break through to the eighth rank.

The country bordering the north of the Keaton Kingdom was called the Alcantara Kingdom, a kingdom that ostensibly had no Saint-level experts and was a member state of the Seti Alliance.

Lei Mo did not linger long within the Alcantara Kingdom, only stopping at a few taverns within its borders, spending most of his time in treehouses out in the wilderness.

His goal was very clear: Lei Mo wanted to go to the Elf Forest to take a look and, if possible, meet Queen Seraph to learn about some of the continent's secrets.

Furthermore, both elves and Tauren were races that felt close to nature, and Lei Mo was very curious about them.

The human territory was vast, and the area they controlled directly or indirectly far exceeded that of the Chaos Plateau.

Moreover, this region was primarily plains, suitable for agriculture, and could support a population a hundred times larger than that of the Orc Race.