Becoming a God

With his treasure hunt over, Rhodes looked at the pile of scrap metal he had brought back. Since he was only at the Saint level now and could not forge his own divine artifact, he could only put all that iron, stone, and wood at the very edge of the mountaintop.

Then he looked down at his bird body-oh, no, his roc body. Rhodes had never felt such an urgent desire to cultivate as quickly as possible. If he had shown this kind of spirit during his college entrance exams back then, he would not have ended up at an ordinary first-tier college. No more dwelling on that painful past.

Rhodes focused all his attention on the two strange stones in his claws. One was transparent and gave off a faint purple glow; one glance was enough to tell him it had to be a wondrous object connected to the Lightning Law.

The other was lustrous black and irregularly shaped. After Rhodes spent a while pecking and clawing at it, it had not changed at all. He had also taken it to the foot of the mountain to endure lightning strikes, yet it had not changed in the slightest. He could not fathom it for now, but his instincts told him it had to be extraordinary.

Rhodes prepared to try claiming ownership with a drop of blood and see whether it would work. Fortunately, there were not even any Lowgods in the world yet, so he did not need to worry about accidentally refining a divine spark and losing the ability to cultivate independently.

Rhodes reached over with his beak and savagely plucked a feather from his wing. A drop of bright red blood tinged with blue-purple dripped onto the two strange stones.

One minute, ten minutes, half an hour, an hour-most of a day passed, and there was still no change.

Rhodes thought, Does the universal blood-binding method not work? Looks like I can only wait until I become a god before refining them. Seeing the Laws of Lightning on one of the strange stones, he had hoped to claim and refine it to help him cultivate the Laws of Lightning. It seemed he had been getting ahead of himself. He could only cultivate one step at a time.

Rhodes recalled the inheritance his bloodline had left in his mind, checking how a Wind-Thunder Divine Roc cultivated.

"Why does the bloodline information only say 'comprehend the laws'? If I can't comprehend them, won't I be stuck at the Saint level for life? I'm a modern person! How am I supposed to comprehend them?!!!"

Thinking of those transmigrators who had come before him, they had not even needed to change their modern way of thinking after transmigrating; every law came readily to hand. Rhodes felt he really was a useless person-oh, not a useless person, a useless bird.

Helpless, Rhodes considered how to comprehend the Laws of Lightning and the Laws of Wind, the two elemental laws he was naturally close to as a dual-element wind-and-lightning divine beast. With the original novel to draw on, the Laws of Wind were relatively easy to find guidance for. He could follow the protagonist's path and comprehend them step by step.

The Laws of Wind contained nine profound mysteries: the high-level profound mystery of Dimensions; the intermediate-level Sound Profound Mystery, profundity of sound waves, and profundity of wind space; and the low-level profound mystery of speed, profound mystery of slowness, profundity of Wind-Walking, profundity of clones, and profundity of wind element.

Of the seven great elemental laws, only the Laws of Wind had nine profound mysteries; all the others had six. Comprehending one was enough to become a Lowgod, and comprehending two made one a Midgod.

A Midgod who had fused two profound mysteries was considerably stronger than an ordinary Midgod who had merely comprehended two. For the Laws of Wind, one had to comprehend three to become a Midgod, while comprehending all the profound mysteries of a single law made one a Highgod.

Recalling the information from the original novel, Rhodes also decided as he thought that he would comprehend and fuse the profound mysteries at the same time.

"With the enhancement of Willpower, as soon as I become a Lowgod, I'll definitely stand at the peak of Lowgods. Once I become a Midgod, I'll likewise stand at the peak of Midgods the moment I advance. If I then comprehend enough to become a Paragon, I'll have 1.5 times the Willpower, and as long as no Sovereigns emerge, I can truly become invincible beneath the heavens."

Rhodes imagined himself in an age before the Sovereigns emerged, Roaming unchallenged across the Four Supreme Plane, with the Sovereign of Life, not yet a Sovereign, in my left arm, and the Sovereign of Death, not yet a Sovereign, in my right. Hehehehe.

Atop the lightning-flashed Heavenly Thunder Mountain, a burst of hair-raising laughter rang out.

After laughing, Rhodes continued recalling the differences in strength mentioned in the original novel. After all, only by understanding those differences could he properly show off in the Infernal Realm, right?

The gap between ordinary Lowgods, Midgods, and Highgods who had not fused profound mysteries was tenfold. The difference in strength lay mainly in divine power, with a tenfold difference between each rank. In the original novel, the gap between a Lower Sovereign and a Mid-level Sovereign was a hundredfold, equivalent to two portions of a Paragon's Willpower.

Then my half portion of a Paragon's Willpower means twenty-five times the strength. When I become a Lowgod, I'll be able to kill ordinary Midgods.

Once he had worked this out, Rhodes's excitement was beyond words. Now he only wanted to cultivate into a god as quickly as possible, then see the scenery of the Infernal Realm at the dawn of creation and search for opportunities along the way.

With that thought, Rhodes also considered how he should cultivate. Looking at the lightning connecting heaven and earth, he felt he should take advantage of the terrain to comprehend the lightning element first. This was also the simplest and most fundamental profound mystery of the Laws of Lightning.

Rhodes did not demand that he comprehend any high-level elemental laws right now; he did not understand them himself. At the dawn of creation, there was no one to teach him, either. Although, as a divine beast, he would inevitably comprehend a profound mystery automatically and become a god upon reaching adulthood, waiting through that long period of growth might have been perfectly normal for the native inhabitants of the Coiling Dragon Universe.

But for Rhodes, once a human on Blue Star, that was far too long. He feared that by then, he would have forgotten all the feelings he had once possessed as a human.

No sooner thought than done, Rhodes immediately spread his wings. With a gentle beat, streaks of lightning flashed past. Looking back at the peak, his figure was already gone, while a magnificent divine roc now stood at the foot of the mountain. Even at such speed, he had not stirred the slightest gale. He truly lived up to being a natural-born divine beast of both wind and lightning.

Having reached the foot of the mountain, Rhodes stood beside the thunderbolt connecting heaven and earth. Strangely enough, being extremely close to it actually kept him from being harmed by the lightning. This was something he had discovered while searching the mountain for treasure. Although he could not leave Heavenly Thunder Mountain yet, as long as he did not actually walk into a lightning pillar, he would not suffer much harm himself, let alone now, when he was merely beside one.

Rhodes was still immersed in his own extreme speed. This had also been his first time unleashing his full speed, and it truly deserved the name "Heaven and Earth Extreme Speed" from the information in his mind. No one could compare. The innate gifts of the first divine beasts born between heaven and earth were truly terrifying.

Rhodes's flying speed in his roc body could be described as a flash of lightning, a spark from flint. Then he suddenly thought that since he flew so fast, perhaps he could comprehend the profound mystery of speed within the Laws of Wind. Who else between heaven and earth could be faster than him?

"Good, good. I'll comprehend the lightning element first, then comprehend each set of laws separately after becoming a god."

Time became impossible to reckon, and even years seemed to have become merely a unit of measurement. All that could be seen beside the lightning pillar was a bird wreathed in electric light, seemingly one with the pillar connecting heaven and earth. Immersed in cultivation, Rhodes could not feel the passage of time.

Beyond the boundless Heavenly Thunder Mountain Range, other life could already be seen gradually appearing. Although their auras of life were not worth mentioning compared with Rhodes's, new lives were being born at every moment. Saint-level beings and beings below the Saint level grew ever more numerous.

Across the Infernal Realm's continent, whose end was unknown, more and more living beings appeared. Though this was the dawn of creation, slaughter was already everywhere. Those below the Saint level could neither live forever nor go without food, making hunting and killing unavoidable.

Time flowed on. After an unknown span, an even more dazzling sun appeared within the blazing sun of the Celestial Realm. An energy like a torrent of heaven and earth enveloped a blond-haired man, accompanied by a declaration: "I, Light King Atez, have become a god today! All factions must withdraw a hundred thousand li, or be killed without mercy!"

As the voice that carried across ten thousand li faded, how could the Saint-level factions within that area be willing to relocate?

Did he really think the center of the Celestial Realm was so simple? As the center of the Celestial Realm, it was also the place where the profound mysteries of the laws were most concentrated. After all, creation had only just begun. With Hongmeng evolving the world, how could the profound mysteries of the laws dissipate so quickly?

Saint-level divine beasts and Saint-level magical beasts could be seen rushing about everywhere. As it turned out, because this was the center of the Celestial Realm, no single faction could occupy it, so three factions had divided it among themselves. Their three peak Saint-level divine beasts were not among the first divine beasts born between heaven and earth, but they had emerged not much later.

What they had not expected was that, despite having joined forces to seal off the central region and reserve it for the three of them to cultivate, someone had arrived even earlier than them-and had gone straight inside the sun to cultivate.

They had yet to become gods, yet such a shameless scoundrel had become one first. Their inherited memories all contained knowledge of the gap between Saints and gods. They also understood that, before a god, they were all no more than ants.

Just as the three divine beasts were arguing incessantly, a humanoid figure appeared above their heads. On closer inspection, was that not Atezi, who had just become a god?

A God's Domain instantly enveloped the surrounding area.

"Submit, or die," Atezi said to the three divine beasts below.

As though in a chain reaction, after the first became a god, a hazy, lovely red figure also appeared on Nether Mountain in the Netherworld, a beautiful green figure appeared in the Divine Realm, and a burly figure appeared in the Infernal Realm's boundless, chaotic sea. Returning to our protagonist, there was the magnificent bird communing with lightning within Heavenly Thunder Mountain.

In a flash of inspiration, Rhodes naturally sensed something. He clearly felt as though he had crossed some boundary-the boundary between the Saint level and godhood.

Rhodes opened his eyes and looked up.

"Hummm~~~"

A vast, soul-shaking power suddenly descended, completely enveloping Rhodes. The space around him twisted, and even the thunderbolt connecting heaven and earth temporarily vanished. This power seemed to isolate Rhodes from all other regions, and his entire body actually rose directly into the air.

He floated in the air beyond his own control.

"How terrifying." Rhodes could sense that vast, boundless, peculiar power. It was an existence akin to laws and rules. Before this power, everything was nothing more than ants.

Are these the Laws of the World described in the original novel, which determine whether someone has become a god? Rhodes was utterly shaken.