Leaving

A vast, soul-shaking power suddenly descended, completely enveloping his original body. At the same time, all the space around it twisted, and his body floated into the air beyond his control.

Rhodes knew this meant he had attained godhood in the Wind Element. Now that he had become a god in both elements, the day he left the mountain was not far off. After all, he had once been a modern man who could not go a single day without his phone. By now, he had grown accustomed to cultivating quietly and focusing on one thing. For Rhodes, that was already an enormous change.

Although this was his second time witnessing the attainment of godhood, Rhodes was still deeply shaken by the sight. He also knew that the agony of his soul splitting in two would come next.

He looked at the nearly finished inner armor in his hands, which he was still refining with divine power, and inwardly rejoiced. Good thing I didn't waste my eggshell. He drew the inner armor into his body to continue nurturing it with divine power, then watched his Wind Divine Clone take shape, quietly awaiting the pain from his soul.

"My Wind Divine Clone has already formed, but as the Lightning Divine Clone, I don't feel anything. Looks like only the original body suffers the pain, haha." Rhodes sensed the changes within his Soul Space.

He looked at the three soul orbs in his Soul Space. Although his original body's soul had split in two, all three soul orbs were the same size. The original novel had never mentioned this. It seemed this was all down to the rules: the rules enforced uniformity, did not allow souls of different sizes, and automatically divided them equally.

After getting a feel for his Wind Divine Clone, Rhodes was no longer as excited as he had been the first time he attained godhood. After all, he had only recently become a Lightning Element god. He drew his original body inside himself and sent his Wind Divine Clone off to refine a divine artifact for its own use.

Rhodes once again considered how to proceed with his cultivation.

"Burying myself in cultivation all the time won't do. I need to go out and have a look. After all, I've already been here for several hundred years, and who knows how many years it's been since I came to this world? I have to go out and see it." (Including his gestation period; he did not know how long he had gestated.)

Rhodes planned to pass through the endless falling lightning and leave the place that had nurtured him once his Wind Divine Clone finished refining its divine artifact.

Time slowly slipped by as Rhodes studied the Lightning Flash Profound Mystery. After all, lightning was anything but slow, so it was perfectly reasonable for its profound mysteries to include one concerning speed. With the aid of the Heaven and Earth Wonder, Rhodes was also rapidly comprehending the rest of the Laws of Lightning.

The Thunder Crystal was like a Paragon who had stripped completely naked. It laid itself before him, setting out all six profound mysteries of the Lightning Law one by one: the high-level Profound Mystery of Judgment and Lightning Magnetism Profound Mystery, the intermediate Profound Mysteries of Thunder and Electricity Profound Mystery, and the elementary Lightning Element Profound Truth and Lightning Flash Profound Mystery.

Rhodes only needed to comprehend them thoroughly, step by step, and he would surely stand at the pinnacle of godhood.

If I remember correctly, no Lightning Paragon ever appeared in the original novel, right? Then let me become the first Lightning Paragon! Rhodes said inwardly, as solemn as if he were taking an oath.

Ten years passed in the blink of an eye, and his Wind Divine Clone finally finished refining its divine artifact. Rhodes looked toward his Wind Divine Clone, which held a bluish-purple jade flute.

Rhodes was very satisfied with the jade flute. After all, ever since he was little, the people wielding jade flutes and fans in martial arts stories had looked incredibly cool. This was the perfect opportunity to refine a jade flute of his own. Most importantly, the flute could help him cultivate and comprehend the Sound Profound Mystery within the Laws of Wind.

Who could withstand the Sound Profound Mystery of the Laws of Wind when used with Wind Space and an ultimate move like the profound mystery of Dimensional Slash? Sound could slip through every opening. After considering the future path of his Wind Element cultivation for a while, Rhodes's Wind Divine Clone merged directly into his Lightning Divine Clone.

Amid Rhodes's idle imaginings, the broad path his Wind Divine Clone would follow over the coming hundreds of trillions of years was settled as well.

From now on, most of the time the Lightning Divine Clone would travel outside, while his main body would hardly ever appear, spending almost all its time in the Soul Space using a miraculous object to comprehend the Laws of Lightning.

Rhodes had originally intended to stop studying once his Wind Divine Clone finished refining its divine artifact, but now he was considering a question.

"An ultimate move. I don't seem to have created an ultimate move of my own yet. Surely I can't use Willpower or an Innate Divine Ability every time I encounter an opponent?"

But to create an ultimate move, he would have to comprehend a few more laws, or properly develop his lightning element and make it transform at will, or something else.

That was not something he could accomplish in six months or a year.

"I can't keep going on like this. My original body is constantly studying the Laws of Lightning with the wonder's help anyway. With only the lightning element right now, there isn't much of an ultimate move I can create. If I encounter an opponent, I'll just crush them with Willpower and divine power."

Rhodes had never been someone who liked pursuing perfection. What in all creation was perfect? If he pursued perfection in everything, wouldn't he exhaust himself to death?

After all, Zhou Shuren had once said, "Only the imperfect is perfect!"

At this thought, Rhodes immediately summoned his system to check his information.

"System."

Host: Rhodes (Wind-Thunder Divine Roc)

Realm: Lowgod (Lightning Element Lowgod, Wind Element Lowgod)

Innate Divine Ability: Heaven and Earth Extreme Speed, (???)

Willpower: 50%

Profound Mysteries of the Laws: Lightning Element, Profound Mystery of Speed

Overall strength: Invincible among Lowgods

"The system panel seems to keep changing as I improve. I wonder what it'll ultimately look like in the future?" Rhodes looked at the system panel floating before him. Aside from displaying his overall information, it still was not particularly useful, nor had it gained any other functions.

After sorting through all his information, Rhodes finally prepared to pass through the Thunder Region surrounding Heavenly Thunder Mountain, leave the place that had nurtured him, and see the vast world outside.

It was clear from the original novel that the Infernal Realm was no peaceful place. It was filled with battle and slaughter.

Although he had no idea how far removed the present was from the original novel's timeline, the Coiling Dragon Universe was inherently steeped in slaughter. With his current strength, he really could run wild among Lowgods.

But that did not mean there was no danger at all. Perilous places still existed in the world, and no one knew whether other Divine Beasts had some ultimate moves hidden away, like those of the Four Divine Beasts.

When the Four Divine Beasts unleashed their Fusion Innate Divine Ability, the four Lower Sovereigns became one, their strength approaching that of an Elemental Sovereign. Its power increased a full ten thousandfold.

If four Lowgods joined together to unleash it, they would probably be directly equivalent to a Five-Star Fiend from the original novel. Fusing two Profound Mysteries of the Laws meant ten times the strength of an ordinary Highgod. Among ordinary Highgods, Midgods, and Lowgods, each rank differed tenfold in divine power.

If he were killed by such an unreasonable existence, who could he turn to for justice? No wonder the Four Divine Beasts had emerged so late, and were only four Lower Sovereigns. If they had instead been four Elemental Sovereigns, wouldn't they have been truly invincible? None of the other Sovereigns in the universe would have needed to compete. They could simply submit.

After carefully considering this for a while, Rhodes finally stood up and transformed his body. The Divine Peng's original body, blotting out the sky and sun, appeared in the world once again.

With a gentle beat of his wings, the great roc turned straight into a streak of bluish-purple light and plunged headfirst into the boundless sea of lightning. He traveled farther and farther away, gradually growing indistinct before vanishing from sight.

In his Divine Peng form, Rhodes traveled through the boundless sea of lightning and discovered that none of the lightning could harm him. He sensed the incomparably terrifying thunder all around him.

For the first time, I'm glad I can learn from others. If I hadn't followed the example of my transmigrator predecessors and searched my birthplace, without the Thunder Crystal inside me, I'm afraid I couldn't have escaped such a terrifying sea of lightning even as a Lightning Element Divine Beast. Rhodes felt immensely fortunate.

At the same time, Rhodes secretly resolved that once he went out, he would first collect every unfamiliar wonder he encountered. Perhaps one day they would prove enormously useful.

Rhodes felt as though he had just learned to swim for the first time in his previous life. Flying really felt wonderful-utterly wonderful.

As Rhodes activated his Innate Divine Ability, Heaven and Earth Extreme Speed, all that could be seen was a cyan silhouette appearing behind him. Rhodes spread his wings and gave them a gentle beat, and the great roc vanished outright.

"Wow! This speed is at least a hundred times faster than when I'm not using my Innate Divine Ability."

Rhodes had already been extremely fast, and using his Innate Divine Ability increased his speed another hundredfold. Who at the same rank could possibly hold him back now?

As long as the gap was not so great as to inspire despair, others could only defeat him, not kill him. Rhodes could absolutely rely on his extreme speed to escape.

After flying at extreme speed for some time, Rhodes finally approached the edge of the Thunder Region.

Whoosh~

"I'm out. Is this the Infernal Realm?"

PS: The first chapter is here. To be continued~~~