Elemental Sea

At this point, Rhodes did not need to do anything himself.

A special energy entered Rhodes's mind directly and enveloped his soul. At that moment, every secret within his soul was laid bare, and the lightning element he had comprehended was naturally seen through by this special power as well.

Rhodes thought with relief, Good thing it only examines profound mysteries. If it examined memories, wouldn't Hongmeng strangle me to death?

"Hiss, hiss..."

Directly above Rhodes's head, a power bearing the aura of "laws" began to gather. At the same time, lightning element converged madly as well, finally condensing into a single point.

A divine spark? Rhodes felt somewhat puzzled. Although he had read the original novel, he had never actually witnessed a divine spark condensing!

The surging elements of the world dispersed. A black crystal radiating a faint purple glow hovered directly above Rhodes's head. It was a lightning-attribute Lowgod divine spark, and the instant it formed, it was already connected to Rhodes's soul.

Because this divine spark had formed according to Rhodes's soul aura, it was incomparably compatible with his soul.

"A divine spark!" Rhodes tilted his head back to look at the hovering divine spark, which radiated a faint purple glow.

"Finally, I've become a god!" Something resembling a smile appeared on Rhodes's avian face. Just then, a piece of information naturally entered his soul. The Laws of Heaven and Earth are asking me to choose whether to keep the divine spark inside my body or outside it.

Having read the original novel, Rhodes was definitely going to choose outside his body. Wouldn't choosing inside waste his talent as a top-tier, dual-attribute Divine Beast? Choosing outside would even give him an extra life. How wonderful!

Without hesitation, Rhodes chose outside his body, controlling the divine spark to hover beside him.

"Aaaah!" Rhodes involuntarily let out an agonized scream. The intense pain felt as though his head were being torn in two.

At that moment, deep within Rhodes's mind, the round soul hovering in his soul ocean actually split into two with a bang under the protection of the Laws of Heaven and Earth.

The pain of his soul splitting in two was tens of millions of times worse than all the pain Rhodes had experienced in his previous life. The moment his soul split, he had already stopped thinking, unable even to let out the screams that pain instinctively provoked.

Gradually, Rhodes was finally able to let out low groans of pain.

The soul in Rhodes's mind that had split into two semicircles had now become "round" again. More precisely, his original soul had become two smaller "round souls." One remained within the soul space deep in his mind, while the other flew straight out of his body.

This round soul, radiating multicolored light, flew straight toward the divine spark. Then it effortlessly merged directly into the divine spark. Soul and divine spark fused into one, a sign that refining a divine spark had succeeded.

Rhodes let out a deep breath, finally regaining the ability to think. He felt as though he had grown much weaker. Splitting his soul in two had damaged it far too severely. When reading the original novel, he could not feel the pain of splitting a soul. This pain simply could not be described in words. Without the protection of the Laws of the World, he reckoned he would have passed out the instant his soul split. As for whether the pain would have killed him, he did not know.

While reading the book, he had only felt that gaining another divine clone was practically gaining another life. Even working a job would earn him an extra paycheck. It was simply perfect. When his own turn came, This simply isn't pain a human can endure.

Rhodes sensed his weakened soul. Splitting it in two had damaged it so badly that even his subsequent comprehension of the Laws of Wind would probably become several times slower. Still, to continue comprehending the Laws of Wind, he had no other choice. Asking him to abandon his talent as a dual-attribute Divine Beast would have been even worse than killing him.

"What a strange feeling." Both his original body and that divine spark contained Rhodes's soul. Suddenly...

"Rumble..."

The surrounding space trembled. The soul inside the divine spark wondrously sensed a peculiar place, situated at the very heart of boundless space. It was a vast, limitless plane, a place that could only be sensed upon reaching godhood-the elemental sea.

"Boom!"

This was a misty space, with no light whatsoever in the sky. Only the purple radiance emitted by the elemental sea itself illuminated this plane.

Boundless tides of elements surged, their waves rising and falling. This was the lightning element sea.

The surface of the elemental sea consisted of the elements of the world condensed into tangible liquid. Through his divine spark, Rhodes's soul could sense the depths beneath the elemental sea's surface.

The elemental sea had liquid elements on its surface, and beneath them lay endless divine power.

The deeper in the sea this divine power lay, the purer it became. Yet Rhodes could barely penetrate the "surface layer of liquid elements," sensing as far as five meters beneath it, from the divine power immediately below the surface layer down to the divine power five meters below.

The difference was only five meters, but the divine power was nearly twice as pure.

Having read the original novel, Rhodes remembered that Linley seemed to have been able to draw divine power from roughly ten meters down as soon as he became a god. In other words, one Linley equaled two Rhodes. Fortunately, I'm a Divine Beast. That should make up the difference.

"But don't forget, I also have the willpower rewarded by the world." Rhodes immediately used the willpower bestowed by the world to amplify his soul. The depth from which he drew divine power plunged farther and farther down: ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters, forty-five meters, finally stopping at fifty meters.

Rhodes could sense that it was not that he could not continue drawing purer divine power from farther down, but that even if he absorbed it, he could not use it, and it would instead dissipate into the world. Going any farther would mean reaching Midgod divine power. It seemed that, as the original novel said, ordinary Lowgods who refined divine sparks could only draw divine power from the surface of the ocean of divine power. Fifty meters was exactly a tenfold difference.

"Rumble..."

Fifty meters beneath the elemental sea's surface, a considerable amount of divine power abruptly vanished into thin air. Following a special channel formed by the Laws of the World, it descended directly above the divine spark that had fused with Rhodes's round soul. With the divine spark at its center, it began condensing a divine body.

"Hiss, hiss..." Clearly, starting from the head and moving downward, a naked body identical to Rhodes's in his previous life took shape. With a thought, Rhodes immediately controlled the divine power within his body to condense into a pale purple robe over his skin.

Rhodes sensed that the special channel was about to disappear. In those final moments, he continued using his willpower to absorb vast amounts of divine power and store it in his divine body. After all, this instant of becoming a god was his only opportunity to draw divine power at such speed. The original novel had mentioned that drawing divine power was extremely slow. Fighting, nurturing weapons-which of those could do without divine power? If he did not milk this opportunity now, when would he?

Finally, the special power representing the Laws of Heaven and Earth vanished into thin air, and the summit of Heavenly Thunder Mountain at last returned to peace.

"It's over!" A happy smile appeared on Rhodes's face as he controlled his original body to merge into his divine clone.

His original body actually shrank directly and fused with his divine clone. It was bizarre beyond measure. Seeing such a scene, Rhodes really wanted to cry, "This fellow is terrifying indeed!"

"Come on out, brother." A streak of light flashed from within the divine clone, and the Wind-Thunder Divine Roc, blotting out the sky and sun, appeared in the world once more. Having just become a god, Rhodes kept drawing his original body in and releasing it, having the time of his life all by himself.

After playing for a while, Rhodes found a huge rock and sat down, beginning to examine his changes carefully.

Deep within his mind, above the soul ocean, there was no longer merely a "round soul" that had shrunk by one size hovering there. Beneath the round soul, at the surface of the soul ocean, a majestic flying roc also hovered. That was Rhodes's original body. Two bands of light surrounded the entire soul space, enveloping it.

Seeing the two rings of light, understanding dawned within Rhodes. These are my two great innate divine abilities. The azure one is my Wind Element innate divine ability, Heaven and Earth Extreme Speed. Who could match it above the heavens or beneath the earth? "Even without using my innate divine ability, few can match my speed. How fast would I be if I activated it?"

The purple one was the innate divine ability that had never awakened before. With the opportunity provided by becoming a god, it had finally developed. Upon learning about his second innate divine ability, Rhodes finally understood just how monstrous he was as the first living being in the world. Even without mentioning his willpower, with his second innate divine ability alone, could he not roam freely above the heavens and beneath the earth?

"Hahaha!"

Having finished learning about his innate divine abilities, Rhodes continued examining his soul space.

"So this is the soul space described in the original novel. How peculiar!" Rhodes exclaimed in admiration again and again.

"This elemental sea..." Through his divine spark, Rhodes sensed that plane at the heart of the boundless universe, where endless elemental tides surged and roared.

He tried drawing Lightning Element divine power and found that, just as the original novel had said, the process was incredibly slow. Divine power entered his body through the special channel one thread at a time. Rhodes tried drawing divine power with the help of his willpower and discovered that, although he was no longer drawing it in thread by thread, compared with the vast amount he had drawn in an instant under the control of the Laws of the World when he became a god, it was like water flowing from a pipe compared with the Yellow River bursting its banks.

"It seems I'll have to be more careful from now on. Once my divine body is damaged, restoring or condensing it again would consume far too much divine power." Rhodes sighed repeatedly.

He could clearly sense the endless divine power within the elemental sea, yet he could only draw it in strand by strand. How frustrating!

After sensing the speed at which he could draw divine power, Rhodes used his lightning divine clone to sense the Lightning Law. Comprehending it was incomparably smooth. Then he sensed the Laws of Wind. With the world newly created, and in a sacred place for Lightning Element comprehension like Heavenly Thunder Mountain, the Lightning Law was like a young woman laid before his eyes without a stitch of clothing. Yet comprehending the Wind Element with his lightning divine clone was like having both farsightedness and nearsightedness, with an additional pane of frosted glass placed before his eyes. He was viewing flowers through the mist, barely able to perceive them at all.

"And even this is only because the world has just been created and the various laws have yet to recede. I really can't imagine how difficult comprehending profound mysteries will become later. It seems I can only use my original body to comprehend the Laws of Wind from now on. I must take advantage of this period when the world is newly created to comprehend as much of the Laws of Wind as quickly as possible. When I go out traveling, I'll also have to search for more Wind Element divine treasures and precious places suited to comprehending the Laws of Wind," Rhodes lamented inwardly.

After all, the farther one progressed along the path of cultivating elemental laws, the harder it became.

"I'll nurture my original body with divine power first!" Rhodes could feel just how powerful his divine clone's divine body was. By comparison, his original Divine Beast body was much weaker.

Rhodes first controlled the divine power within him to flow into every part of his original divine body. Divine power's effects were indeed extraordinary. His divine body slowly transformed, its interior, muscles, and feathers all undergoing changes. Looking at the surging divine power inside him, Rhodes increased its output. More divine power flowed faster into his original body, and as he consumed it, he also maintained an unending flow of divine power drawn from the elemental sea.

Day after day passed, and the transformation of Rhodes's original body finally ended.

"Although it didn't take very long, my original body still improved tremendously. In terms of divine body toughness alone, my original Divine Beast body is considerably stronger than even my lightning divine clone!" Rhodes marveled inwardly.

After all, as one of the first Divine Beasts born in the world, his body had already been far stronger than those of other ordinary Divine Beasts. Divine Beasts, too, were divided into different ranks.

With the transformation of his original divine body complete, Rhodes continued examining other aspects, the differences between before and after becoming a god.