The Race to Godhood: Secrets of the Rules
Chapter 5: Deity-Creation Race and Rule Secrets
In the Loi Er Empire, there was a blacksmithing family known as the House Family. Today, a magus carrying a small bear "cub" arrived at his shop.
"Customer, rest assured. With my, Farus's, craftsmanship, these Leiming Purple Copper and Wulun Iron Essence definitely won't go to waste. However, these two weapons will take quite a bit of time; either one will require at least three months." Farus was a muscular man with brown hair. Although he was only a 7th-rank warrior, those sturdy muscles indicated he was definitely an excellent blacksmith.
"Time isn't really an issue. I'll give you three years; I'll come back to pick them up in three years. This is the deposit." Rog planned to have the Leiming Purple Copper forged into a war saber.
In the Coiling Dragon Universe, sword paths or blade paths did not exist; there were only the Seven Laws and the Four Edicts. Therefore, Rog simply chose whichever weapons felt comfortable for him to use. This war saber was reserved for his future Lightning Divine Clone to use. Although he might not necessarily need it, Rog was still making preparations in advance. As for the Wulun Iron Essence, it was projected to be forged into a scythe, to be used by his Death Divine Clone.
"Next, it all depends on whether I or this Six-Armed Demon Ape become a deity first." Having ventured into the Lost Forest for a period of time, Rog had also initially satisfied his desire for adventure, especially after encountering that Dimont. At this moment, Rog was even more determined to become a deity.
"Wanting to enslave this Dimont, however, is not all that easy. Its Innate Divine Radiance is still rather troublesome. Even if I comprehend the 'Soul Ray' to near-completion, it can only increase the 'lethal power' severalfold, allowing me to annihilate its soul much more easily. To soul-enslave the opponent, there are only two methods." Pondering the differences between the two methods, Rog decided to walk the first path first; if there really was no other way, he would then take the second one.
The first path was the simplest and most direct. That was to comprehend the 'Soul Ray' to the stage of becoming a deity at the fastest speed possible.
Once he became a deity, he would have all sorts of methods to easily deal with the opponent. With his talent as a soul mutation subject, even if he were only a Lowgod, his soul essence and strength could rival a Midgod's. Soul-enslaving a Saint-level magical beast wouldn't that be a breeze?
The second path was slightly more troublesome. That was to comprehend that portion of the Death Rule concerning 'Soul Control'.
As long as he comprehended this portion to a strength rivaling the current 'Soul Ray', and coupled it with his own soul strength being higher by a tier, he could first heavily injure the opponent via a long-range Soul Ray, and then seize the opportunity to forcibly soul-enslave the opponent.
However, for this second path, one could not be certain whether this Dimont had any trump cards for escaping. Moreover, being distracted to comprehend another completely different portion of the rule content before becoming a deity would very likely slow down his own speed of becoming a deity, which could also be considered disrupting Rog's previous cultivation plan. Still, if there truly was no other way, in order to subdue this divine beast, he would have no choice but to try it.
Between the two paths, the most crucial point was racing against Dimont for time. A divine beast would automatically comprehend a Law Profound Mystery upon 'adulthood' to achieve Lowgod status, and awaken its innate divine ability. Rog was currently uncertain how much longer Dimont needed until 'adulthood'.
However, judging from their previous exchanges, Dimont was already in the "adolescent" period, and was very close to adulthood. Of course, calculated by the age of divine beasts, this "very close" was at least a dozen or twenty years. It all depended on whether he could break through and become a deity before then.
Judging who would become a deity first was also very simple. With Rog's soul strength, once there was the fluctuation of the descent of the Laws of Heaven and Earth in the Lost Forest, Rog could determine that there was a high probability Dimont had reached 'adulthood'. The possibility of other ordinary Saint-level magical beasts breaking through wasn't non-existent, but the likelihood was very small.
Just like that, Rog stayed in that original manor and began closed-door cultivation, his only companion being Wald, who had shrunk to the size of a puppy. Under normal circumstances, Rog would still have the mind to tease and prank Wald, but right now all his mental energy was focused on cultivation.
"My cultivation of the Death Rule doesn't have the concept of fusing Profound Mysteries;
I wonder if I can break through to become a deity before this Dimont." Carrying unknown possibilities, Rog began the most earnest cultivation of his life since coming to this foreign world. Inside the secret chamber, silver-haired Rog's expression once again entered that "cold" feeling. This was because he had already entered the state of cultivation at this moment; that "coldness" was merely a strange phenomenon produced by the Death Rule drawing upon the death-attribute magic elements in space.
"The further along one cultivates the Death Rule, the deeper and more thorough the research into the soul becomes. This 'Soul Ray' can be considered a relatively rudimentary portion, so comprehending it shouldn't be difficult." Of course, this non-difficulty was only aimed at super geniuses like Rog.
However, the 'Soul Ray' itself was indeed a relatively shallow part of the Death Rule. If one wanted to find a reference, it would roughly be equivalent to the simplest and most basic Thunder Element Profound Mystery among the six Lightning Element Profound Mysteries.
Within a time span of about ten or twenty years, Rog still had a certain degree of confidence in thoroughly comprehending the 'Soul Ray', which was equivalent to a basic elemental Profound Mystery.
"The soul is the foundation of all living creatures-at least in the Coiling Dragon World it is. As for what is even more fundamental, it might simply be 'consciousness'." As an existence who directly replaced Rogris through 'consciousness', Rog might temporarily be unable to quickly comprehend high-level methods such as 'Soul Bewilderment' and 'Soul Enslavement', but he was still quite confident in comprehending this most basic 'Soul Ray'.
Because he had personally experienced the 'essence' of a soul, that experience was also a rare and precious opportunity during his cultivation.
Lost Forest.
"Roar!" The Six-Armed Demon Ape Dimont was extremely excited at this moment, because it had actually recently comprehended a portion of the Path of Destruction. Matched with its terrifying six arms, even the king of the northern part of the Lost Forest, that Saint-level black dragon named Liwikeste, was probably no match for it.
However, Dimont felt that it hadn't reached its limit yet, and its strength could continue to grow. Therefore, it wasn't in a hurry to provoke that black dragon; it prepared to wait until it had absolute certainty before challenging Liwikeste.
What it didn't know was that actually, once it reached adulthood, its aspect of the Destruction Rule would directly become a Lowgod. However, if the portion it was currently comprehending was different from that deity-becoming portion, it wouldn't be considered a waste of effort on its part.
Just like that, both man and beast immersed their body and mind in cultivation. However, when it came to self-control and comprehension ability, Rog was naturally far ahead in the lead.
Time flowed like water, and another thirteen years quickly passed.
"So that's how it is. My previous guess was actually wrong; the truth turns out to be like this. No wonder." After truly delving into the 'Soul Ray', Rog discovered that this portion of the rule was not at all as Rog had guessed, merely representing ten percent of the content of the Death Rule.
Now he was only a hair's breadth away from becoming a deity, but he could clearly sense that the 'Soul Ray' was still far from being comprehended to its limit. Beyond that, there was still a great deal of subsequent content waiting for Rog to explore and unearth.
"If we say that for law cultivation, strength or the lack thereof lies in the number of fused Profound Mysteries, then for rule cultivation, it lies in the depth of 'exploiting the rule'. It is likewise comprehending six Profound Mysteries; fused Profound Mysteries can erupt with ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand or ten thousand times the strength. And rules? Likewise only comprehending the rules along a single path, some people can only achieve Lowgod or Midgod status, while others can comprehend up to the level of Seven-Star Fiends or even Asuras." This was Rog's current understanding.
If law cultivation enhanced combat prowess by relying on fusing and stacking 6 Profound Mysteries, while the single six Profound Mysteries themselves did not possess any great might, then rule cultivation was precisely the reverse. That portion of the rules along any single path could be taken to the level of Seven-Star Fiends or even Asura Prefects, and several paths combined represented the entire rule.
The cultivation difficulty of the two was hard to choose between. The former was very easy to figure out all the content, but as they were fused and stacked, the difficulty increased in geometric proportions. The difficulty of the latter, on the other hand, lay in comprehending out that 'profound' portion of rule content on each path, and once they were all comprehended, they automatically formed a whole, no longer requiring the individual to carry out secondary fusion.
One can only say that both paths were very difficult to reach perfection. Even with Rog possessing a talent surpassing that of Linley, the protagonist before his soul mutation, he did not dare guarantee which kind of law or rule he would be able to cultivate to a Paragon High-God in the future.
However, as long as he didn't "meet an untimely end", there was still a great deal of hope for him to cultivate to the level of an Asura Prefect. Coupled with his identity as a soul mutation subject, he could be even a tier stronger than ordinary Asura Prefects.