From the Yulan Continent to Hell, Bei Bei had stayed by his side the entire time. Lin Lei knew full well how hard Bei Bei had been cultivating. By all logic, Bei Bei shouldn't have been able to bring four types of profound mysteries to perfection.
But Bei Bei had succeeded.
It was a fact — a fact everyone had witnessed.
"Bei Bei, how did you cultivate so fast?" Di Lin couldn't believe it either.
"How is that even possible?" Even Olivier, as calm as he was, looked stunned. They all stared at Bei Bei, each eager to learn how he had cultivated so quickly, wondering whether they might pick up something useful from his method.
Bei Bei grinned proudly.
"See, you didn't believe me before," Bei Bei said with a scowl.
"We believe you now. But how did you do it?" Tarosha pressed. Even for a genius, cultivation had to follow a process. Lin Lei had seized every waking moment to cultivate tirelessly; his talent had been evident even back on the Yulan Continent, and his steady, step-by-step advancement had been plain for all to see.
Bei Bei? No one would have believed his cultivation speed could rival Lin Lei's.
"I'm Bei Bei, after all!" He looked around at the group, triumphant. "You didn't believe me, which just goes to show… this has to do with my Grandpa Belute. That's all I'm going to say."
"Lord Belute?" Tarosha, Di Lin, and the others were bewildered.
Cultivation was a personal matter. No matter how powerful Lord Belute was, he hadn't been at Bei Bei's side — how could he have helped?
"Look at you all, acting so smug earlier. Hmph, I'm not telling you. Think about it yourselves. I'll tell my Boss, though." Bei Bei turned to Lin Lei, winked with a grin, and said through soul transmission, "Boss, surprised?"
"Very surprised." Lin Lei couldn't figure it out either — how had Bei Bei cultivated so quickly?
Bei Bei smiled mysteriously and transmitted, "Boss, do you remember when Grandpa Belute said he'd spent a great price to obtain a treasure that would help me cultivate faster? He said I was slow — it took me twenty years just to comprehend the Dark Elemental profound mystery and reach mid-level deity. But if it were you, Boss, under the same conditions, you probably would've managed it in a year."
Lin Lei recalled immediately.
Belute had indeed said that.
At the time, Lin Lei hadn't yet entered Hell and hadn't had a clear understanding of Belute's power. But after arriving in Hell, he had come to realize just how formidable Belute truly was. Belute had forged a divine spark weapon for Bei Bei, fused with a pearl. The attacks it unleashed had been powerful enough to destroy Alikwen — a Seven-Star Demon's divine artifact!
"If it were Lord Belute himself killing a Seven-Star Demon, it would probably be even easier." Lin Lei also recalled what Mo Si, the lord of Hansishi Castle, had said: that in all of Hell, there were very few who could forge soul defense divine artifacts.
"Yet Lord Belute forged one for Bei Bei."
Lin Lei thought to himself, "A divine spark weapon is priceless in Hell — something money can't buy. Even selling just one would yield extraordinary wealth. And on top of that, he's an Emissary of a Chief God!"
In all his time in Hell, Lin Lei had never heard of anyone else who held that status.
To be chosen by a Chief God, one naturally had to be the most elite of high-level deities.
"Lord Belute said he'd paid a great price to obtain the treasure. For someone of Lord Belute's power to call it a 'great price'… what kind of treasure could it possibly be?" Lin Lei understood that even a trillion darkstones would mean nothing to Belute.
A single divine spark weapon alone was worth far more.
What treasure could possibly make even Belute admit he'd paid a "great price"?
The more he thought about it, the more curious Lin Lei became.
"Bei Bei, what exactly was that treasure? What made your Grandpa Belute spend such a great price and let you cultivate so quickly?" Lin Lei asked eagerly through soul transmission.
Bei Bei laughed. "Boss, that treasure was — stripped soul fragments!"
"Stripped soul fragments?" Lin Lei was confused.
"That's right. Grandpa Belute knew I didn't have the patience to cultivate slowly, so he came up with this method. He went to Hell, paid a great price, and hired a powerful figure to strip the souls of many peak Saint Realm experts — extracting the soul fragments related to 'law profound mysteries' in their entirety."
Lin Lei was stunned.
Soul stripping?
Back on the Yulan Continent, Lin Lei had once seen the Undead Saint Grand Mage Sesler perform "Soul Search" — sifting through the soul. But that only accessed partial memories within the soul; it couldn't clearly capture someone's comprehension of the laws.
"Grandpa Belute said soul stripping is incredibly difficult. A god-level expert's soul is fused with their divine spark, so stripping it is out of the question. Only Saint Realm souls can be stripped!" Bei Bei continued through soul transmission. "Extracting the portion of a peak Saint Realm expert's soul related to law comprehension in its complete, undamaged form — almost no one in all of Hell can do it. Grandpa Belute said even he couldn't manage it himself. He paid a great price to hire someone capable."
Lin Lei was secretly shocked.
In places like Black Sand Castle and Crimson Castle, he had never once heard of "stripped soul fragments" being for sale. Such an item was truly priceless — something only people like Belute could possibly obtain.
"Once I reached adulthood, I naturally became a deity and comprehended the Shadow Clone technique. Grandpa then had his friend prepare four portions of 'stripped soul fragments' for me — the remaining four of the six profound mysteries of the Law of Darkness."
Bei Bei transmitted helplessly, "Grandpa Belute said that among peak Saint Realm experts, most had only comprehended ordinary law profound mysteries, like 'Dark Elemental.' Profound mysteries like 'Devour' and 'Evil' were much rarer."
"Grandpa's friend put in enormous effort, carefully stripping the souls. Extracting a complete soul fragment related to law comprehension is extraordinarily difficult. In the end, they managed to obtain these four portions, which I then fused with," Bei Bei transmitted.
Lin Lei was stunned.
The soul was an extremely peculiar thing. Soul attacks alone were already difficult to execute properly.
To take a person's soul and strip out the portion related to "law profound mysteries" in its entirety — just thinking about it was unbelievable.
"To reach this level, one's research into the soul must be extraordinary," Lin Lei marveled.
Belute himself could forge soul defense divine artifacts, which already proved his understanding of the soul was extremely advanced. Yet even Belute couldn't do it — he had to pay a great price and hire someone else.
One could only imagine how difficult soul stripping truly was.
"This friend of Lord Belute must be formidable as well," Lin Lei sighed inwardly.
God-level experts' souls couldn't be stripped — only peak Saint Realm ones could.
"Obtaining these stripped soul fragments… I don't know how many peak Saint Realm experts must have been killed." Lin Lei sighed, though he understood that in Hell, the strong ruled supreme. Many tribes in Hell raised Saint Realm magical beasts, then slaughtered them for body parts to sell to city hotels.
In Hell, Saint Realm experts were like wild rabbits in human society — to be slaughtered at will.
"Sigh. Peak Saint Realm means you've cultivated one particular law profound mystery to the very bottleneck, just one step from perfection," Bei Bei sighed. "So for these four profound mysteries, I've reached the bottleneck in all of them. The final breakthrough still depends on me!"
"Back on the Yulan Continent, I spent twenty years and broke through the Dark Elemental one."
"After coming to Hell, over these nearly seven hundred years, through occasional insights, I broke through to perfection in both 'Devour' and 'Evil.' Now I've fully comprehended four out of six. The fifth has also reached its bottleneck. As for the sixth… I'm completely in the dark. I know nothing about it."
Lin Lei understood completely.
Bei Bei was a divine beast. Upon reaching adulthood, he had naturally comprehended one law profound mystery and become a deity — that was the first one, "Shadow Clone."
Later, Lord Belute, knowing Bei Bei lacked patience but unwilling to let him refine a divine spark, had spent a great price to obtain these four portions of stripped soul fragments. After fusing with them, Bei Bei had naturally brought those four profound mysteries to the "bottleneck" stage.