After finishing his conversation with Allen.
Roger returned to the secret chamber and continued refining soul essence while trying to break through his bottleneck.
A year later, he had finished refining all the souls in the twenty crystal balls.
As usual, Roger first absorbed twenty percent of the soul essence in each crystal ball.
This time, however, he deliberately set aside one crystal ball's worth of soul essence for his true body to absorb.
Sure enough.
Once it had absorbed the essence, his Saint Domain true body's soul became nearly ten times stronger than before!
With that, Roger's rate of absorbing divine power soared, and the soul power he could supply to the Jade Disc each day also increased dramatically.
"Ah, I should have strengthened my true body's soul to its limit sooner..."
Seeing how effective strengthening his true body had been, Roger immediately felt a little regretful.
But he remembered that his highest priority at the time had been to strengthen his most powerful combat asset, his Death God Divine Clone.
Roger could only suppress that regret.
Indeed.
If he had not strengthened his Divine Clone first, Roger would never have cultivated both branches to their limits so quickly.
"No point overthinking it. Back to cultivating!"
After a short rest, Roger had his Death God Divine Clone, whose soul had already been strengthened to 6.6 times its original strength, resume cultivating.
Now, however, rather than studying the other branches of the death edict, Roger focused on working out how to break through in the "Soul Refining" branch.
Another year passed.
Roger had made no progress...
Left with no other choice, Roger turned to studying the "Soul Control" branch, hoping to form a complete Soul Seed and use it to break through his bottleneck.
But a Soul Seed capable of perfectly controlling a soul was extraordinarily complex.
Although Roger had extensive experience in soul refining, his understanding of how to control another person's soul was still somewhat lacking.
After a year of working through it and countless failed attempts.
Roger turned back to working on the Soul Refining branch...
Unfortunately.
By the time his agreed meeting with Hagson arrived.
Roger still had not broken through his bottleneck...
"Brother Roger, here are twenty-five soul crystal balls. I'll come back to collect them in three years!"
Hagson took ten crystal balls filled with soul essence, left twenty-five filled with Sanctuary Souls, and hurried away again.
This time, Hagson did not even have time to exchange more than a few words with Roger before heading toward the Black Wolf Tribe with two deputies who appeared to be injured.
"Sigh, the situation seems to be getting worse and worse."
Over the past few years, Roger had clearly felt the atmosphere in the tribe growing increasingly tense, with more and more injured Lowgods.
Even the rate at which they were losing Sanctuary residents far exceeded that of previous years.
All of this indicated that the next tribal war was not far off.
"Luckily, the supply of Sanctuary Souls hasn't been affected too badly. I'll strengthen my Death God Divine Clone's soul to the limit for a Lowgod first."
After being stuck at his bottleneck for several years straight.
Roger had begun to feel a trace of anxiety.
Back in the secret chamber.
Roger took out the crystal balls and began refining the souls with practiced ease.
Roger had repeated this process countless times, bringing both his speed and efficiency to perfection.
But no matter how much soul essence he refined, Roger still could not produce a true Soul Gold Bead.
After years of working through the problem and experimenting.
Roger knew.
The moment he could truly form a complete Soul Gold Bead would also be the moment he fully mastered the "Soul Refining" branch.
A year later.
Roger successfully finished refining all the souls in the twenty-five crystal balls.
As usual, he first absorbed twenty percent from each one.
Once he finished absorbing them.
Roger's Death God Divine Clone's soul had been strengthened to 9.1 times its original strength!
"Almost there. I can feel it nearing the limit."
Roger sensed the changes in his Death God Divine Clone and, after a moment, reached a confident conclusion.
"In that case, I'll keep going and use the soul essence that belongs to me first."
Having made his decision, Roger immediately resumed absorbing it.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~
The dense golden mist was rapidly absorbed.
A long while later.
"Burp~ Soul essence really does taste good."
Roger opened his eyes. "So this is what it feels like when a soul has been strengthened to its limit..."
After using three crystal balls from his allotted share ahead of time, Roger finally strengthened his Death God Divine Clone's soul to its limit!
A feeling of perfect fullness arose within him, as though he could no longer absorb even a trace of soul essence.
"Hmm, my soul really has become nearly ten times stronger!"
Spreading out his soul power and comparing its reach with its original range, Roger reached his conclusion.
"With a soul this strong, I should be close to a midgod, right?"
From his previous conversations with Hagson, Roger had learned that a midgod's soul was indeed ten times stronger than a Lowgod's.
Of course.
That was only the general rule.
If someone had consumed large amounts of soul essence or Soul Gold Beads, belonged to a special race, or was even a divine beast.
Then their soul would be somewhat stronger than that of someone at the same level who came from an ordinary race and had never used any treasures.
"This level of soul strength should be enough. Now I'll focus everything on breaking through!"
Half a year later.
Bang!
In front of Roger, a Soul Gold Bead that was ninety-nine percent complete burst apart.
Whoosh~
Roger calmly gathered the scattered soul essence back together.
"Sigh, I've failed thousands of times now. Just what am I getting wrong...?"
Watching the soul essence return to the crystal ball, Roger began reviewing and organizing his insights into soul refining from the very beginning.
That review took several days.
During those days, Roger completely forgot about cultivating.
Although he ultimately still found no opening for a breakthrough, it helped Roger regain his composure.
In the Netherworld, being stuck at a bottleneck for thousands or even tens of thousands of years was perfectly normal.
Roger had felt this particularly keenly while talking and sparring with the tribe's other deities.
The oldest Lowgod among them was already over a million years old and had been stuck at the bottleneck to becoming a midgod for over a hundred thousand years...
Over the next few years.
Roger settled into a completely relaxed state.
Although he still found no opening for a breakthrough, Roger did not sit idle.
Aside from continuing to refine soul essence, he worked on developing signature techniques of his own.
Although Roger had fully comprehended the "Soul Attack" branch, he could still only perform conventional soul attacks, making his use of his strength merely adequate.
Roger had noticed this while sparring with other Lowgods as well.
His soul attacks could trouble others, but it was difficult for him to kill them.
That was actually only natural.
After all, even the youngest Lowgod in the tribe had lived for over ten thousand years, and each had developed their own understanding of soul defense.
Anyone who could survive in a place like the Netherworld had trump cards of their own.
Although none of them used their full strength while sparring, this was still readily apparent.
Inside the secret chamber.
Roger finished reviewing his sparring matches from that day and was about to continue working through his techniques.
Hum!
Suddenly.
Something stirred in the Jade Disc within his consciousness.
Roger immediately stopped contemplating and delved deep into his consciousness to examine the Jade Disc.
"It's been ten years. The Jade Disc has been absorbing divine power and soul power all this time, and now it's finally grown to twenty percent of its original size."
Looking at the considerably larger Jade Disc Fragment, Roger felt delighted.
Those ten years of painstaking nourishment had paid off after all.
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