Everything happening in the outside world was something Leilin had no attention to spare for at this moment. He was currently in an extraordinarily peculiar state.
The realm of Demigod — for others it might be as difficult as ascending to the heavens, but for Leilin it posed no great problem. His original reserves and divine power were already sufficient; what he lacked was a catalyst!
And today, that catalyst had suddenly appeared. The tremendous pressure from four Demigods was precisely the final push he needed to break through his own limits and ignite the Divine Fire!
Advancing to Demigod required an intersection with the rules of the world, and for him it was an extremely precious experience.
"At the moment of advancing to Demigod, a deity's entire being will be enveloped by the Sea of Origin, observed by the power of the rules — making it the safest moment imaginable…"
Leilin had not the slightest worry about outside interference at this point, and was able to devote himself wholeheartedly to the insights of his advancement.
This was merely advancing to Demigod. Once it came time to advance to True God and raise his Divine Kingdom into the sky, even deities of great divine power would not dare make a move at such a moment.
They would typically wait until the entire advancement was complete, when the newly born deity was at their weakest, before striking. Compared to the eternity of a deity, such a short time and a measure of patience were negligible.
At this moment, outside, the four Demigods including Akben had likewise chosen to observe from a distance.
To avoid angering the Sea of Origin, they had proactively retreated a considerable distance.
"The Sea of Origin has descended…" In Akben's eyes glowed a golden light, as though he could perceive a profound ocean of primal force that surpassed even the
Countless streams of primal force surged and roared, forming wave after wave of hymns.
"Judging from this trend, the odds of success are quite high…" Akben frowned, feeling as though he had just gained an extraordinarily troublesome enemy. But then he let out a rueful chuckle.
"Even if that divinity-bearer successfully advances to Demigod, he'll still be a newcomer. His use of divine power won't even be refined — how could he possibly be a match for the four of us?"
Compared to Akben, the other three Demigods — those with the appearance of beasts — harbored no such complex thoughts.
They merely felt an instinctive sense of dread. And there were the potential benefits of witnessing this advancement firsthand, which drew them so deeply into contemplation that they became intoxicated by it.
Observing the Sea of Origin during another deity's advancement was a remarkably rare experience for any deity. As long as one was a deity, one would instinctively never let such an opportunity slip.
"Woods and the others really are something…"
Akben shook his head and similarly closed his eyes, using the divine sense unique to deities to observe this tide of primal force.
The surging, tumultuous Sea of Origin represented everything in the entire world of gods. It lifted a sliver of its mysterious veil before Akben…
However, this intoxication lasted only a brief moment before Akben opened his eyes in stunned astonishment, looking toward Leilin.
The countless streams of primal force had already formed a vortex, like a black hole. The force it projected made even his heart tremble with dread.
"Such a massive tide of primal force… this scale is nearly comparable to a True God's… Could it be that his reserves have already far surpassed mine?"
The magnitude of Leilin's advancement was clearly several times greater than what Akben remembered from his own experience, and the implications of that immediately killed any desire he had to continue his meditation.
To be able to draw such a vast descent of the Sea of Origin at the stage of divinity-bearer — even throughout the history of the world of gods, there had been hardly a handful of such cases.
Even without knowing the specific significance, Akben's face had turned exceedingly grim.
But regardless of how complicated his feelings grew in that moment, all he could do was watch the roaring primal force surge onward, only to be endlessly devoured by the black hole centered on Leilin.
…
[Ding! Unidentified energy detected… Main soul translocation in progress! Subsidiary system upgrading…]
The Chip projected its final notification window before slipping into hibernation.
In the world of gods, a Legend was essentially equivalent in strength to a Fourth-rank Dawn Star
In other words, after Leilin's advancement, the strength of his split soul would actually catch up to his true body back in the Wizard World!
The energy contained within this process was more than enough to warrant another upgrade of the Chip.
And Leilin was already looking forward to the day when this subsidiary system would return after its upgrades. The fusion of two Chips would undoubtedly bring even more terrifying capabilities!
Under normal circumstances, this "cheat" he had brought from his previous life — the Chip — would have been enough to let him become a Wizard and dominate everything below the Seventh-rank. Rule-level existences above the Seventh-rank possessed minds whose computational speed was no less formidable than the supercomputers of his past life.
But… during the space-time translocation and a series of inexplicable changes, the Chip had fused with Leilin's soul and could grow alongside it. The probability of such a thing happening was probably zero — it would never occur again across the entire multiverse.
And it was precisely this characteristic that allowed the Chip to undergo multiple upgrades and even assist Leilin in gaining the upper hand against other rule-level existences!
"A temporary shutdown for the Chip is fine. This power of the rules — I want to experience it firsthand once more with my own abilities…"
Leilin's divine sense slowly withdrew, and then the golden radiance accumulating upon his body blazed even more brilliantly, making him look as though he had been forged entirely from gold. Every gesture and movement radiated a sense of sanctity!
The countless rays of light converged, then erupted into blazing flame beneath the Sea of Origin!
—It had to be known that Leilin had already subjugated the cultists of the
And what made it even more critical was that Leilin was not satisfied. He had crossed the ocean yet again and conquered nearly half of Bankitz Island, gaining over thirty thousand indigenous believers!
These natives had been pulled back from the very brink of death by his own hand. One could say he had saved their lives, and their faith was fanatically intense. Even accounting for the deficiencies in the natives' souls and taking a further discount, the resulting power of faith was vast as an ocean — more than enough to sustain an entirely new god!
Under the combined weight of all these circumstances, the power of faith Leilin had accumulated had already reached the absolute limit of any Demigod throughout history. His Slaughter Divinity had likewise condensed to an unprecedented degree!
If an ordinary divinity-bearer had been subjected to such a deluge of power, the only outcome would be being blown apart from within!
But Leilin was different. After all, his true body was already a half-Seventh-rank Warlock! Having experienced one advancement before, and possessing that experience, his powerful divine sense instantly reached every corner of his body, commanding all!
At that moment, every one of Leilin's believers simultaneously felt a surge of longing well up in their hearts.
Driven by this longing, regardless of what they had been doing, they all dropped everything and turned to the holy radiance in their hands, the statues in their temples, or even the sky itself, and began to pray: "Our Lord
This especially intense wave of faith surged forth, immediately triggering even more dramatic changes.
Boom!
The divinity upon Leilin's body had now fully manifested, incinerating all his outer garments and leaving his entire form in the posture of a fetus in the womb.
And once this wave of faith poured in, it was like plunging a massive torch into a pool of gasoline!
Boom!
A golden flame, blazing with holy radiance, erupted instantly from Leilin's body.
The previously accumulated power of faith, the Slaughter Divinity, and even Leilin's original flesh and blood — all of it was consumed as fuel, causing the golden flames to burn with even more dazzling brilliance.
Drip. Drip.
Leilin's eyes were gently closed. Every movement of his body aligned with the trajectory of the primal force.
Under the illumination of the fire, his perfected body melted like a wax figure, dripping continuously into the flames.
His once-powerful aura slowly sank into silence. Everything — every last bit — was being concentrated, and the golden flame was no exception.
In the end, the once-terrifying Divine Fire had been compressed to a single point no larger than a soybean. Yet from this tiny, soybean-sized flame, an overwhelming sense of dread emanated without cease.
This was the very foundation of a deity — the Divine Fire!
Once the Divine Fire was ignited, a divinity-bearer had truly entered the realm of Demigod. They were now genuinely different from mortals, having stepped into the domain of the gods!
Like a distillation of every rule, the Divine Fire pulsed and breathed, drawing in the power of faith and converting it into pure divine power that radiated outward!
Only with divine power could a deity truly bestow divine spells upon their believers. Only then could they truly be called a deity!
And only the Divine Fire could convert the power of faith into divine power!
Just as with Leilin before — though he had an extensive base of believers who prayed ceaselessly each day, the priests beneath him still pathetically possessed not a single divine spell. They could only spread the faith through words alone. Had he not held "holy water" capable of curing plagues, the outcome on Bankitz Island would have been nothing but ignominious failure, to say nothing of any preaching on the mainland.
Threads of golden divine power continuously extended outward, taking shape in the outline of a human figure. First came golden bones, muscles, and blood vessels, and then skin, eyes, and other facial features…
Forging a divine body from divine power! This was a process every Demigod had to undergo, and at this point their life-form underwent yet another qualitative transformation. Even their soul experienced a form of ascension.
The golden radiance of divine power gradually receded, revealing the true form of the divine body. Every muscle was subtly defined, forming elegant and flowing lines. There was even an ineffable quality of the rules about it, as though the very appearance represented some will of the primal force.
The facial features were sharp and distinct, exuding a masculine vigor. There seemed to be no difference from Leilin's original appearance, yet it carried a far more imposing majesty.