Empowerment Ritual

"The shortest was Saint Ichi." Anubis said, "The Empowerment Ritual could only last twenty minutes each time. But to him, it would feel like twenty years had passed."

"Hahahaha!" Miming burst into laughter. Since someone was at the bottom, the Twelve Gods had been surprised they could endure it for so long, right? "Wait, each time? Could it be that there was more than one?"

Anubis nodded. "Saint Ichi has undergone the Empowerment Ritual one hundred and thirty-three times so far. Twenty minutes each time. He said it was simply too painful."

"Wahahahaha!" Miming laughed until his whole body hurt. "Then is he very weak?"

"No, he's very strong." Anubis's voice turned solemn. "You could say he's the strongest Gorosei in history."

Miming's laughter came to an abrupt stop.

To obey unconditionally an ritual that damaged one's life, and to perform it more than a hundred times for one person, showed just how deep the loyalty behind it was. There was no doubt that the Twelve Gods recognized Saint Ichi immensely, which was why they carried out his orders without question.

"When Saint Sanming can stand up, he can go home." Anubis's body once again transformed into a mass of black spiritual wind. "After that, Saint Sanming's task is to train desperately and let his body absorb those powers as quickly as possible. Then come find me again."

"About how long will that take?"

"Maybe a month, or maybe several years." Anubis's voice became ethereal before drifting away.

Miming lay on the ground for a full day and night, but he wasn't bored.

Although his body was completely naked, he didn't feel cold or hungry, because every cell was filled with tremendous energy. The sensations continuously coming from within were so novel that Miming became absorbed in sensing every change in his body. Sensing changes as minute as those in his cells did not rely on his nerves, but on his mind to perceive and transmit them.

"Absorb it. Absorb all of it." Miming desperately issued commands to his own body. At first, it was likely one cell at a time, then patches of cells. His body became lively, as though one lamp after another had been lit.

When the pain vanished, Miming stood up and discovered that he had grown an inch taller, while his body had also become considerably sturdier. But that was only the surface. The true difference lay within. His energy-filled body was practically like a dazzling city plaza where lights had been lit everywhere. Every cell was glowing.

"So hot!" Miming said to Cairns, who was standing nearby with his mouth hanging open. "Give me my clothes."

"Oh, right!" Cairns held the new clothes that had been prepared long ago. He had only been waiting there for half an hour when he saw Saint Sanming climb to his feet. Anubis had clearly told him that he could come back in a couple of days, and that he should wait at least three days!

It's only been one day!

"Hot—!" Miming ordered Cairns, "Go back first. I'm going for a run."

"No, Saint Sanming. This subordinate must follow you in case anything happens." Cairns's eyes were filled with awe. He could sense that Saint Sanming's interior had become completely different, like a furnace undergoing earth-shaking changes.

What he didn't know was that Anubis was also watching Miming in shock from afar. What is going on? The faster he gets back on his feet, the higher his conversion rate will be? Furthermore, only someone who had mastered Life Return could actively absorb the granted energy and speed up the process of standing again.

"Saint Sanming." Anubis felt a trace of sweat slide from the tip of his nose beneath his mask. "What astonishing talent! Could this be what a true Celestial Dragon is?"

After eight hundred years, even the descendants of kings often no longer possessed pure bloodlines. Only a small number of Celestial Dragons were descendants born from unions between royal families, and they still retained their pure bloodlines. The Gorosei families were such an existence.

Miming had no idea how much wariness he had aroused in the Twelve Gods. After putting on his clothes, he stretched his legs and ran outside.

Although his speed hadn't changed much, what was this feeling of never tiring?

Miming ran all the way out of the Holy Land. Fortunately, Cairns was with him. At the gates of Pangaea Castle and the checkpoints leading out of the Holy Land, Cairns had to explain things to the others, because Miming's appearance had changed somewhat. A Celestial Dragon traveling without a large number of agents and slaves didn't look like a Celestial Dragon at all, did they?

Miming ran all the way outward. He constantly felt a ball of fire inside him, and if he didn't run with all his might, there was no way to extinguish the flames.

The guards along the way stared wide-eyed. Was this the frail young master of the Bird family? Not only was he leaving on foot, he had grown a whole lot taller after only a few days!

After leaving Pangaea Castle, Miming kept running and running. After dashing two hundred kilometers, he could see the sea. Beneath the eight-thousand-meter cliffs of the Red Line lay the Grand Line. If one dived straight into the depths of the sea, one would reach the Fish-Man Kingdom.

Miming ran all the way there, stood atop the eight-thousand-meter Red Line, and gazed out at the sea as he let out a crazed roar.

Only then did he feel the heat within his body gradually fade.

The damp sea breeze could not cross the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, and even the clouds could not. Looking down from the cliff's summit, he saw a sea of clouds beneath his feet.

Miming recalled that, in the story he had learned about in his previous life, three years later, after the fish-man Fisher Tiger escaped from the Holy Land of Mary Geoise and returned to the Fish-Man Kingdom, he had climbed the eight-thousand-meter Red Line from this very place. He had set fires throughout Mary Geoise and, amid the chaos, liberated several thousand slaves of all races from the Holy Land.

Although one-tenth of the slaves died on the way out, nine-tenths of them obtained their freedom.

Regardless of how he had managed it, merely looking down from this eight-thousand-meter cliff was enough to make the blood in his body boil!

"What an incredible feat, Saint Sanming!" Cairns appeared behind him with a fawning expression.

"It's not enough!" Miming knew that the Twelve Gods had expended so much power merely to give him a sound foundation for his body. What came next would depend on his own efforts.

"Cairns, lead the way. We're going into the sea!"

"Yes, Saint Sanming! In that case, we'll take the western route."

Cairns's tall body moved as fast as an arrow loosed from a bow, and his footsteps were as light as feathers, not even leaving a trace in the ground.

Miming knew that this was because he was running too slowly. Cairns didn't need to exert himself at all.

There were roads to the Four Seas leading from the east, south, west, and north of Mary Geoise. The eight-thousand-meter drop was no joke. More than a thousand kilometers of winding mountain roads were guarded by layers of troops, and several scenic villages lined the route, along with dozens of palaces built for Celestial Dragons to rest in.

At that moment, everyone along the way stared at Miming as though they had seen a ghost. He came running down, gasping for breath, straight toward the sea. If a CP0 agent hadn't been clearing the way and notifying every checkpoint and unit to make room, who would have believed that a Celestial Dragon, one of the World Nobles, would run down the Red Line on his own two legs?