Time passed unnoticed in cultivation, and in the blink of an eye, another thousand years had gone by.
Click!
Nemo scratched a line into an Amethyst that had absorbed light energy and turned crystal clear, then casually tossed it onto a pile of transparent Amethysts beside her.
The mountain of transparent Amethysts was how they kept count of time. Every day, Nemo scratched a line into an Amethyst.
Once she had carved a hundred lines into one Amethyst, she would switch to another and continue.
After a thousand years, the pile of Amethysts used to keep track of time had grown into a small mountain.
Above the Amethyst pit, Pash, Laius, and Bowen surrounded it in a triangular formation.
"Get ready. Once we've scooped up this batch of Amethysts, we're leaving!" Laius said, channeling his divine power. A giant elemental hand formed from wind divine power slowly spread open.
Beside him, Bowen and Pash exchanged a glance, then each formed a giant elemental hand from destruction divine power and Earth Elemental System divine power, respectively.
The three giant elemental palms spread open, blotting out the sky as they faced the mouth of the pit.
Suddenly, without warning, a tremendous bang rang out, and countless Amethysts surged from the pit.
The Amethysts poured out like a fountain, or like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, surging wildly outward.
Watching the Amethysts rise in an endless stream, the three held back, seemingly in no hurry.
Only after more than ten minutes did the immense force pushing the Amethysts upward gradually begin to falter.
The force within the pit suddenly gave way, and the Amethysts that had been rising instantly lost their upward momentum.
Like a collapsing stack of blocks, the vast mass of Amethysts cascaded down, crashing outward like waves.
"Now! Move!"
Laius shouted and was the first to act.
The giant palm formed from wind divine power spread open and made a fierce grab at the surging wave of Amethysts.
Laius scooped up tens of thousands of Amethysts with that grab. Controlling the giant elemental hand as Amethysts slipped from it, he drew it back and deftly stowed the great handful in his spatial ring.
The moment Laius grabbed the Amethysts, Pash and Bowen also made their moves.
The heavy palm formed from Earth Elemental System divine power swept sideways and precisely seized a huge handful of Amethysts, at least several tens of thousands by the look of it.
Dragging the massive handful of Amethysts, the giant earth elemental hand under Bowen's control moved much more slowly.
The palm slowly withdrew, Amethysts occasionally slipping through its fingers.
A burst of destructive aura swept toward them as Pash raised a palm and spread it open, catching all the falling Amethysts in his conjured hand like rain.
In a moment of carelessness, Pash was caught by a wave of Amethysts crashing in from beside him. The giant hand clutching the Amethysts was instantly scattered by the wave, and the Amethysts it had held burst outward in all directions like flowers scattered by a heavenly maiden. In the end, they merged back into the wave, once again becoming part of the vast mass.
Pash did not hesitate after his giant elemental hand was scattered. He formed a new palm and reached for the wave of Amethysts.
The three each used their own methods, grabbing tens of thousands of Amethysts with every move.
Sometimes they failed to dodge in time, and their giant divine-power hands were smashed apart by the waves of Amethysts. But the three had grown exceptionally skilled at grabbing them, and the instant a giant hand scattered, they would gather divine power to form a new giant energy hand.
The Amethyst pit spewed out a tremendous amount, but as the three frantically grabbed at them, the scattered waves of Amethysts steadily diminished.
As time passed and the waves gradually subsided, Pash controlled his giant elemental hand to stuff another tens of thousands of Amethysts into his spatial ring, then called to the other two, "My spatial ring is full. What about yours?"
Laius and Bowen nodded in turn, each saying that his spatial ring was also packed with Amethysts.
Retreat!
At Laius's shout, the three turned into streaks of light and flew into the distance.
After flying for a little over ten minutes, the three landed in a flat valley.
It was called a valley because the open ground was piled high with the Amethysts Laius and the others had gathered from the pit over the years.
The vast quantities of Amethysts piled into mountains stretched as far as the eye could see.
Laius and the other two raised their hands and swung out their spatial rings. The million Amethysts mined that day were instantly piled onto several of the Amethyst mountains, yet they hardly added to their bulk.
As they landed, Nemo came forward to greet them, dressed in a crimson robe, her long hair tied in a ponytail behind her head.
"Even if all of us absorbed the Amethysts here with everything we had for tens of thousands of years, I'm afraid we still wouldn't finish them. Let's stop gathering Amethysts for now and spend this time absorbing them."
Laius nodded. They had gathered Amethysts to strengthen their souls; if they collected so many without absorbing them, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?
Then Laius asked Nemo, "Where's big brother?"
"He hasn't made a breakthrough yet, but he should wake up within a hundred years," Nemo replied.
Nodding slightly, Laius said to the others, "In that case, the usual arrangement? We take turns standing guard?"
Although they had encountered no enemies in the Amethyst Mountains for a thousand years, they still took care to leave one person on guard whenever the others cultivated.
Black Tortoise Bowen said in a muffled voice, "I'll go first this time. We'll change shifts every hundred years."
Since Bowen had spoken up first, the others did not stand on ceremony. They each sat down cross-legged, picked up large quantities of Amethysts, and began absorbing them.
Seeing his brothers begin cultivating, Bowen raised a hand and spread a divine power barrier around the area with earth divine power. He then left his Earth Elemental System divine clone on guard and had his death element clone join the others in absorbing Amethysts.
Ten years later, the light of the Laws of the Universe descended. Redding slowly opened his eyes as a Divine Spark radiating an obscure, profound aura formed under the power of the Laws of the Universe.
"External Godhood!" Without the slightest hesitation, Redding immediately chose External Godhood.
"Ah!"
Even after attaining godhood externally several times, the pain of splitting his soul still felt as though it were tearing Redding apart.
His cries of pain echoed in all directions as a soul flew from between Redding's brows. Beneath the light of the Laws of the Universe, it flew toward the Divine Spark spinning in midair.
He had attained godhood in the Fate Element!
Redding had not expected that he would actually possess a Fate Element divine clone.
Of the profound mysteries of the Four Edicts, the Edict of Fate was the most mysterious. Redding had never imagined he could attain godhood through it.
The other three Edicts at least offered some clues, but the Edict of Fate had truly left Redding completely baffled.
The Fate Element. Fate indeed. Redding chuckled and thought no more of it, simply drawing his newly ascended Fate Divine Clone back into his true body.
From then on, Redding had five bodies: his Saint Domain true body in the Infernal Realm, his water element divine clone, and his newly ascended Fate Element divine clone.
In the Life Divine Realm were Leijia's lightning divine clone and life divine clone.
Rubbing his chin, Redding's eyes flashed. At my current strength, if all my divine clones attacked together, I'm afraid even Uhtred would be no match for me.
If he used only one divine clone, Redding's strongest, his water element divine clone, was probably about evenly matched with Uhtred for now. But Uhtred was at a disadvantage because he had only one divine clone.
As Redding attained godhood, Black Tortoise Bowen had already flown to his side.
As for the others, Bowen's earth divine power had shielded them, and their cultivation had not been disturbed by the commotion of Redding attaining godhood.