After the little incident involving Shadow's arrival passed, Luo Ao once again settled down to cultivate his Elemental Laws of Fire.
Yet while his cultivation was steadily improving, fluctuations of the Natural Laws appeared twice in succession in the distant northern lands, with less than half a year between them.
It was as though becoming a deity had suddenly grown easier on the Boya Continent. In less than fifty short years, the fluctuations of the Natural Laws accompanying ascension to deityhood had actually appeared four times in succession.
Many Peak Saint-level experts seemed to have been spurred on as well, working even harder to comprehend that final sliver of the Profound Mysteries of the Laws. Unfortunately, this was not something they could accomplish simply by putting in the effort.
"What has been going on lately? Why are so many people cultivating to deityhood?" Far away in the imperial capital, Wind God Darren's face was filled with bewilderment. Ordinarily, even ten thousand years might pass without a single Deity Level expert emerging, so why had ascensions to deityhood become so frequent lately?
And since the Natural Laws had descended, it meant these people must all have become deities independently.
Someone like Bourne, who had become a deity by refining a Divine Spark, would not cause such a great disturbance.
Luo Ao paid no attention to the shifting winds of the outside world, remaining on the mountain behind his home to cultivate diligently.
Time flowed by, and another twenty-three years passed in the blink of an eye.
His cultivation of the fusion of two profound mysteries had long since reached its final step. He could break through to complete mastery at any moment.
At this moment, however, Bourne sat in his courtyard without much of a smile on his face.
Successfully refining a Divine Spark and stepping into the Deity Level should have been something well worth celebrating, but not only was Bourne unable to smile, his face was clouded with worry instead.
This was because, in these mere twenty-odd years, another tremendous upheaval had taken place on the Boya Continent.
Luo Ao, who had remained immersed in the world of the Profound Mysteries of the Laws, knew nothing of these matters for the time being.
Today, Luo Ao's cultivation finally reached its critical moment-
To think that fusing even these two simplest low-level profound mysteries would hold me up for nearly two years. Luo Ao spoke inwardly, though he understood the reason.
Although the Fire Element and the Fire Body Technique were both merely low-level profound mysteries, arguably the two simplest profound mysteries within the Elemental Laws of Fire,
he had been comprehending these two profound mysteries and fusing them at the same time.
In other words, this breakthrough would actually overcome the bottlenecks to complete mastery of each individual profound mystery, as well as the bottleneck to complete mastery of their fusion.
What appeared to be one bottleneck was actually equivalent to three.
The ten-year deadline Aogemate set is almost here. If Luo Ao doesn't come out of seclusion soon, I'll have no choice but to go to the mountain and interrupt him. Just as Bourne was thinking this anxiously, suddenly-
"Hummm..."
A peculiar fluctuation of the Natural Laws descended directly upon the mountain where Luo Ao was.
Although this had already happened four times in succession over fifty years, its recurrence still drew the attention of many experts on the continent.
Especially since it had happened in that location... it sent Bourne and Darren into wild delight.
"Luo Ao broke through again?"
Bourne and Darren flew straight toward the mountain where Luo Ao was.
At this moment, enveloped by the peculiar Natural Laws, Luo Ao once again floated into the air involuntarily.
Luo Ao's eyes were closed when, abruptly-
the fire-attribute Lowgod Divine Spark within his body emerged from his head as though it were incorporeal, finally hovering above him.
A vast quantity of fire essence surrounded the Divine Spark. Under the control of the Natural Laws, Luo Ao's Divine Spark slowly began to transform...
A transformation from a Lowgod Divine Spark into a God Divine Spark!
The fire essence dispersed, and the aura emanating from the Divine Spark, which shone with fiery red light, was clearly far more powerful than before.
"Humm..."
The fiery red Divine Spark spun round and round before finally merging into Luo Ao's body.
At this moment, Luo Ao had fully fused the two profound mysteries of the Fire Body Technique and the Fire Element, stepping into the God realm!
A moment later-
The Natural Laws dissipated. Luo Ao kept his eyes closed for a while longer. Having just reached the God realm, he was sensing the changes within himself.
Breaking through from Lowgod to God, with the Natural Laws descending and enveloping my soul, my soul transformed again in just this brief time. Luo Ao understood that only an increase in his Divine Spark's rank could raise the upper limit of his soul's strength.
Although he had undergone Soul Mutation before, both his elements had only been at the Lowgod level. Even with the Myriad Worlds Pearl constantly nourishing his soul, it could only reach the limit of an ordinary God's soul.
Now that his fire element had reached the God level, his soul had transformed again, and the upper limit of its growth had risen to the Highgod level.
Moreover, at the rate the Myriad Worlds Pearl nourished his soul, it probably would not take long for his soul to grow to the very limit of the Highgod level.
Aside from my progress in profound mysteries, my greatest improvement from this breakthrough was actually my soul. Luo Ao quickly understood where his greatest strength now lay.
His Water Element was still at the Lowgod level. Continuing to fuse his divine power would instead reduce its might because the divine powers could not be balanced.
The might of his God-level fire divine power alone was only comparable to the fusion of his two elements' Lowgod divine powers before, with almost no improvement.
But soul strength equivalent to a Highgod's was a genuine increase. It was just a pity that his Soul Attack methods could not yet be considered particularly sophisticated.
Even so, the increase in his strength this time was already substantial enough.
When Luo Ao once again sensed the outside world, he discovered that his father Bourne had already arrived, and Wind God Darren had actually appeared here again as well.
"Father, Darren, has something happened?" Seeing that their expressions were clearly wrong, Luo Ao immediately furrowed his brow and asked quickly.
"Leave that aside for now. Luo Ao, first tell us how strong you are now." Bourne did not answer immediately, instead looking at him with a solemn expression.
"My strength? I've improved quite a bit this time. At any rate, an ordinary God is absolutely no match for me." Luo Ao did not know why his father was asking, but he still answered honestly.
Inwardly, however, he thought of the fellow who called himself Shadow. He wondered which of them would be stronger now.
With his current strength, at least an ordinary God was absolutely no match for him.
"Luo Ao, is that true? Are you sure you aren't lying to us?" Bourne was thrilled and delighted at these words, though he was also somewhat puzzled as to why Luo Ao was so confident.
Darren, standing to the side, instead felt an inward jolt. Mr. Luo Ao's strength had already been unfathomable before, and now he had clearly made another breakthrough. Perhaps dealing with that fellow would not be difficult.
"Father, I'll explain the details to you slowly afterward. First, tell me what exactly happened." It was difficult for Luo Ao to take the time to explain the fusion of profound mysteries just then, so he first asked what had happened.
"Alas, this all began ten years ago. You must have sensed those two fluctuations of the Natural Laws as well." Bourne shook his head and sighed. Hearing this, Luo Ao quickly nodded to indicate that he knew.
Although he had been in secluded cultivation, he had not been completely unaware of the outside world.
He had naturally sensed the two fluctuations of the Natural Laws ten years earlier.
"Could it be...?" Luo Ao's brow furrowed slightly as a faint guess arose in his mind, and he turned his gaze toward Darren.
"That's right. Just as you suspect, one of those two fluctuations of the Natural Laws was caused by someone breaking through to become a God." Darren shook his head helplessly before explaining the whole course of events.