Among the Four Edicts and Seven Elemental Laws, the elemental laws were composed of six profound mysteries except for the Elemental Law of Wind, which had nine profound mysteries. The edicts did not have any profound mysteries, instead, the natural Law judged whether a saint or deity were worth of ascending.
Thanks to reading Coiling Dragon, Akasha knew that the Elemental Law of Light had the Essence of Light, Profound Mystery of Lightspeed, Profound Mystery of Purification, Profound Mystery of Light Doppelgänger, and the Profound Mystery of Illusion. He didn’t have a clue as to the last two profound mysteries, but that was fine.
He had mastered the most basic Essence of Light to become Demigod of Light. The next profound mystery he wanted to master was the Profound Mystery of Lightspeed. Although he had a God of Destruction clone, it didn’t mean his speed was fast. He wanted to master the Profound Mystery of Lightspeed to gain another trump card to save his life.
While Akasha cultivated, life prospered on the Material Plane.
All life born on the material plane started out as saints, puzzling Akasha. Wasn’t it only the Four Higher Planes that had life born as saints? After some thought, he realized that this was the blessing given to the first lifeforms born on the plane. After the material plane matured, the mortal creatures would start appearing.
There were only a thousand lifeforms and their talents weren’t bad. Even so, only about fifty of those thousand lifeforms could be considered divine beasts. Although the juvenile divine beasts and magical beasts had the same sentience as humans, instincts still dictated their actions primarily. As such, battles broke out between the thousand lifeforms.
Akasha watched their battles with little emotion, an act that surprised himself. Strictly speaking, he was once an ordinary human, but now he could watch such bloodshed without batting an eye. Was it because he was a deity now, or had he changed?
He shook his head. People shouldn’t dwell on the past. They should walk forward without stopping.
The more the lifeforms battled, it became clear who stood on the top. No matter how strong the magical beasts were, how could they compare to divine beasts? Not only could the juvenile divine beasts comprehend the edicts and elemental laws faster, but they possessed superior bodies.
Although that was the case, a few juvenile divine beasts still died under the siege of many saint-level magic beasts. Akasha only took action two times to save two juvenile divine beasts. He didn’t help out of the goodness of his heart. The truth was more akin to rearing pigs to slaughter.
The two juvenile divine beasts he saved were compatible with him. One was a lion-shaped divine beast of the light, and the other was a bat-shaped divine beast of destruction. In order for Akasha’s innate ability to work, he had to possess the same attribute as the divine he wanted to devour. The divine beast also needed to mature for the best effect.
Akasha devoured the dragon-shaped divine still in the egg was because of compatibility between the two. If the dragon divine beast matured first and ate Akasha, it would also gain something. The chances of meeting another divine beast this compatible again were infinitely close to zero.
In addition, the teleportation arrays hadn’t appeared yet, so Akasha had nothing else to do.
While waiting for the two juvenile divine beasts to mature, Akasha watched the propagation of life. The saint-level magical beasts bred with one another and produced numerous offsprings. Even the juvenile divine beasts also had a few descendents. Even though Akasha called them juvenile divine beasts, their sexual characteristics had already matured.
Originally, Akasha did this to relieve boredom, but over time, he began to comprehend a few points of the Edict of Life. He couldn’t help but sigh. ‘Was this what the story meant when they said one needed talent and a chance to train in the four edicts? No wonder there are so few deities that train in the four edicts?’
Akasha shook his head. Although he gained a few glimpses into the Edict of Life, it was far from enough. He hadn’t even reached the prime saint-level in the Edict of Life.
After ten thousand years, the first of the juvenile divine beasts matured, and he was the first one among his generation. It wasn’t that his maturation period was shorter than the others, but because of Akasha’s secret aid. Miraculous herbs, divine fruits, mythical water, no matter the treasure, the lion-shaped divine beast seemed to have been blessed by the goddess of luck herself. With so many resources, if he did not mature first, Akasha would have wanted to stomp him into a paste.
The bat-shaped divine beast also ate and absorbed even more, but he was still shy of maturing.
“Haha, I did it, I reached a new level!” the lion-shaped divine beast shouted, his voice booming for hundreds of kilometers. Unlike the deities of later generation, the lion-shaped divine beast did not transform into a humanoid shape but kept his original shape. He had also merged the demigod spark into his body.
Suddenly, clapping broke the lion-shaped beast out of his reverie. Snapping his head, he saw a tiny humanoid less than two meters tall. “What are you?”
In a world where humans hadn’t been born, Akasha’s shape was extremely strange and small. More often than not, the size of a magical or divine beast revealed their strength. Akasha’s face remained impassive. “Show me your divine ability. Otherwise, just die.”
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The lion-shaped divine beast’s expression turned wrathful. He had been a king since birth. No matter how many other beasts fought against him, they would fall under his claw. Now, this puny little thing wanted to command him and even kill him? How could he swallow this humiliation?
Although Akasha couldn’t read minds, he knew what the divine beast was thinking. He snorted and released his godrealm. The lion-shaped divine beast instantly felt the shadow of death. As a Demigod of Light, he could also release a godrealm, but how could a demigod’s godrealm compare to a god’s?
The lion-shaped divine beast no longer had the arrogance of the past. He roared and activated his divine ability.
A giant lion appeared behind the divine beast of light. Its length from head to tail reached over a hundred meters. The lion bellowed and Akasha felt something hit against his soul defenses, but this soul attack should only be a byproduct of the divine ability. Next, the lion curled and transformed into a white star.
The star emitted a terrifying radiance that purified all those its light touched. ‘A divine ability related to the Profound Mystery of Purification?’
The Profound Mystery of Purification was considered a high level mystery among the Elemental Law of Light, so Akasha was very satisfied. He nodded. “Okay, you can die now.”
The lion-shaped divine beast’s eyes widened. Although he had just awakened his divine ability, it shouldn’t be so weak. In his cognition, he was the strongest life to have ever lived, and even if the unknown lifeform was stronger, it shouldn’t be to the point that he was unaffected. “Who are—”
Akasha didn’t waste any words and revealed his original form, that of a serpentine dragon. He shot toward the lion-shaped divine beast and burrowed into his head.
“AHHH!” the lion-shaped divine beast shouted in pain as he struggled, but how could he overcome Akasha? “Let me go, let me go! I’m willing to be to your slave!”
Akasha ignored his words and found the divine spark. Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and swallowed the Demigod of Light. Outside, the lion-shaped divine beast’s eyes turned dull. After a few breaths, his eyes regained clarity, but they were no longer pure white but scarlet.
The lion-shaped divine beast slowly transformed. Its pure white form turned black and its body lengthened until it became serpentine and scales covered the entire body. The only patches of fur left were the tuffs around the joints. Seconds later, Akasha returned to his humanoid form with some disappointment on his face.
He had devoured the lion-shaped divine beast’s divine ability, which he named “Nova Purification.” However, he couldn’t merge it with the divine ability he gained from his first host. ‘Is it because they are divided into two separate edicts and laws, or is it because I can’t merge divine abilities?’
Akasha didn’t know, so he could only wait. There was another thing that made Akasha disappointed. The lion-shaped divine beast’s body had merged with his saint clone, but that also meant that Akasha couldn’t use it after devouring him. Although it was expected, it still disappointed him. At the very least, Akasha’s original body’s defense had reached the level of demigod artifact. Akasha’s species was more inclined toward the soul, so it was weaker in material defense.
A few hundred years later, the bat-shaped divine beast also matured. Without any surprise, Akasha devoured his second divine beast.
The divine ability of the bat-shaped divine beast was that of a screech. The screech would expand in a ring and all those who heard it would receive a soul attack. To Akasha’s joy, he could merge the divine ability with the first one he gained. It seemed that only divine abilities of the same attribute could be merged.
Akasha narrowed his eyes. The Azure Dragon’s Dragon Roar was related to time. Could he absorb that?
He shook his head. Instead of thinking about that, he should focus on raising his strength and entering the Infernal Realm. While he waited for the teleportation arrays to appear, Akasha merged with the two destruction-type divine abilities. No new demigods appeared during this time. The only reason the bat-shaped and lion-shaped divine beasts could mature so quickly was because Akasha deliberately led them to resources that aided in their growth. Toward the other juvenile divine beasts, he wasn’t interested. This was also their fortune and misfortune since Akasha swept the material plane of any treasure.
While he didn’t have an interspatial ring to sore the treasures, he was a divine beast. Magical beast had special organs to store things. Abilities magical beasts had divine beast also had.
After many years, Akasha successfully fused the two divine abilities into one. He called it the Howl of Destruction. It acted like the bat-shaped divine beast’s divine ability, but it also had a material attack aspect. Wherever the howl passed, space would collapse. The closer to the origin, the greater the destruction.
Because of the new divine ability, Akasha’s comprehension of the Edict of Destruction also increased. Since it waws another aspect of the edict that he hadn’t touched upon, he didn’t cause the natural Laws to descend and become a highgod, but his accumulation increased.
“From now on, my species will be called the Genesis Wyrm!” Akasha said, eyes brimming with confidence. He believed that his innate ability didn’t lose to anyone, not even the Sable Leviathan or the Bula Race. As long as he planned it right, gaining the strongest divine ability of the universe was not out of his reach.
Akasha blinked and looked towards his left. There, four teleportation arrays had appeared.
He had stayed in the arctic icecap of the material plane for two reasons. One, he wanted peace and quiet. The arctic icecap was far away that none of the lifeform in the material plane would come here for no reason. Two, he didn’t know where the teleportation arrays would appear. Since the teleportation arrays of the Magnolia Plane were located on the artic icecap, he decided to try his luck.
Who knew he struck gold?
“Double happiness!” Akasha said with a smile. He observed the four teleportation arrays, wondering which one led to the Infernal Realm. If he accidentally teleported to the Netherworld, the Life Realm, or the Celestial Realm, he could only cry in helplessness.
Luckily, each of the four teleportation arrays exuded a certain aura. Akasha naturally stepped onto the teleportation array that exuded an aura of destruction. Then came problem two. How to activate the teleportation array?
Akasha tried to input his destruction-type divine power into the circle, and to his joy, it accepted it. The teleportation array released a brighter light, but didn’t activate. So, he inputted more divine power, even summoning his light-type clone to speed up the process. Once the light reached its peak, it engulfed Akasha. When the light died down, Akasha had disappeared.