Hoo. I took a deep breath and arranged the spiritual energy inside my body. The spiritual energies of the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God, which were opposites, had become one and settled inside me.
Although some energy was lost in the process of merging, I still absorbed more than half of the energy they possessed.
‘This should be about level 4.’
Yes. The realms in the Divine Realm are divided from level 1 to 10, and the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God were at level 4 before their support base collapsed. I have become similar in strength to those two.
However, the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God were among the slower-growing dragon gods. Among the remaining dragon gods, there are some at level 5. There must be even higher-level ones.
To catch them as well, I had to grow stronger here.
‘There is a way.’
There is a method that takes a long time, and a method that takes a short time.
The side I must choose is the latter. Before the other dragon gods learn of the deaths of the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God and come for me, I need to become strong quickly to grow the power to face them.
Whoosh!
I guided the spiritual energy and lightly stirred the wind. The things that had accumulated in my body during the long period of sitting were blown away.
Woong!
I concentrated spiritual energy at my fingertips, sharpened it, and trimmed my long, messy hair.
After cutting it short, I checked the length of my hair. Seeing the length, I could tell how much time had passed.
One year.
As I lightly stretched and stepped outside the cave, a message sent from Earth appeared.
-Attacked the Ice Dragon God’s base.
-Killed all high apostles, including the supreme apostle.
The message didn’t end there.
-Confirmed the Fire Dragon God’s base.
-Started a war.
It contained that not only had they destroyed the Ice Dragon God, but they had also found the Fire Dragon God and started a war.
“Hmm.”
The most ideal scenario was to make the Ice Dragon God and Fire Dragon God fight each other, then take advantage of their weakened state to absorb both energies. Like with the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God. But those two didn’t have a deep rift of emotion between them, and there was no prior setup, so they had no reason to fight. A situation where I had to capture them with pure skill alone. For now, the plan was to take down the Ice Dragon God, whose foundation had crumbled, and then wait for the Fire Dragon God’s foundation to collapse.
‘To do that, I need to get a bit stronger.’
In the memories of the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God that were contained in their spiritual energy, the Ice Dragon God’s skill level was also recorded.
High level 5. With his support base now collapsed, he should be somewhere between level 4 and level 5. If we fought one-on-one, the win rate was fifty-fifty.
But battles don’t always go the way I want. Considering various variables, my chances of losing were very high right now.
To win for sure, I needed to reach level 5, and among that, a level close to 6. To achieve that now, the only option was to capture a being with strong spiritual energy.
Spirit Beast
Mystical animals that exist only in the Divine Realm.
Their origins are unknown, but if I could catch one, I could gain tremendous spiritual energy in a short time. In particular, spirit beasts possess various attributes, making it easy to raise a specific attribute or resistance.
That’s why hunting spirit beasts was the top priority for those who came to the Divine Realm.
‘The problem is finding them is difficult.’
Unlike ordinary animals, they have self-awareness, think, and grow on their own, so they’re essentially no different from those who came to the Divine Realm. The one difference is their desire to become stronger.
Those who came to the Divine Realm all think of climbing higher, but spirit beasts don’t think that way.
They aim to live in accordance with nature. That’s why they rarely reveal themselves. They live in special places where their spiritual energy doesn’t leak outward, making them even harder to find.
But even for creatures that hard to find, there are ways to locate them. I took out a sacred relic I had brought from Earth.
It only works in the earthly realm, so it has no influence here, but with a small amount of work, it could be used in the Divine Realm as well.
A mysterious blue gem. A necklace shaped like a cat’s eye. I placed my hand on the Blue Cat’s Eye and infused it with spiritual energy. A massive amount of spiritual energy flowed into the gem. The energy changed the nature of the sacred relic.
It shattered the existing engravings and granted new ones.
Wooouung!
The blue eye flashed brightly and was reborn as a new item filled with spiritual energy.
Divine Treasure.
Treasures used by gods. Anyone who has reached a certain realm can create a divine treasure, but doing so permanently consumes spiritual energy, so low-ranking beings rarely use this ability.
[You have acquired the Divine Treasure: Blue Cat’s Eye]
[You can offer spiritual energy to find what you desire.]
I used the divine treasure to locate the spirit beast I needed to capture the Ice Dragon God. Heat to melt the frozen cold.
The Blue Cat’s Eye allowed me to see the world from a different perspective, and it precisely found what I wanted in that world. My eyes flashed, and a specific point appeared.
“Shall we go.”
A field where blue flames flickered. When seen with the eyes, it looked just like blue grass, but when you got close, you could see an incredibly hot blaze raging. I used spiritual energy to protect my body from the flames.
Woong!
Every time I passed through the field, the blue flames and my barrier collided, causing resonance. The flames flared up slightly in response to the energy forming the barrier. A place that others could not easily enter.
The heat was so intense that only those with a very high understanding of the Fire Attribute could enter. If I hadn’t received Gold’s power, it would have been difficult to go after the spirit beast inside.
‘Gold’s ability encompasses all attributes.’
Even if my understanding of the Fire Attribute was slightly lower than the Fire Dragon God’s, it was far superior to others. This was all the reason why the Gold Dragon became the Lord.
“It’s a perfect place to train the Fire Attribute.”
If the Fire Dragon God learned of this place, he would covet it.
Deep into the field, a massive lake appeared. The lake seemed to be filled with yellow water. But that, too, was a flame. Flames even hotter than the blue field. And on a suitably sized island in the center of the lake was the being I wanted.
A fox with nine tails—a Gumiho. At the tips of the Gumiho’s tails, pure white flames flickered. It seemed to have sensed my presence, as it made no particular movement, just glaring at me with both eyes wide open.
“Go back.”
“That’s going to be hard. I need your elixir pill.”
“I gave you a chance, you foolish creature.”
Shoooaaah!
In an instant, as if exploding, the Gumiho’s killing intent burst forth. The surrounding flames grew tall enough to tower over me, and the heat became more than twice as intense. Blue, yellow, and white. The flames danced and poured down on me. I used Ice Attribute to create a barrier and blocked the Gumiho’s attacks. I could barely defend. If time passed like this, I would eventually exhaust all my spiritual energy and lose.
‘I need to aim for an opening and finish it in one go.’
I quickly leaped through space, dodging the Gumiho’s attacks while creating a spear of cold and throwing it. The Gumiho, hunched over, blocked my attack without moving. The heat emanating from the Gumiho’s body annihilated my attack. Then tens of thousands of orbs created by the Gumiho rushed toward me.
Kwaaaang!
Kwagagagagang!
Countless explosions covered me, madly releasing shock and heat. I quickly moved through the air and evaded the explosions. The ones I failed to dodge, I took with my body, reaching where the Gumiho was.
Inside the massive body of the Gumiho, as big as a dragon, I raised both hands.
Woong!
In my left hand, I raised a black light; in my right, a white light. I split all my spiritual energy in half and sent it to both sides.
An energy obtained from the White Dragon God and Black Dragon God, a technique completed by embodying their memories of black and white. A destructive strike using two opposing extreme energies.
I gathered the black and white energies, which pushed each other away like magnets sharing the same pole, with all my might.
The moment I clasped both hands together.
The black and white energies that were repelling each other quickly intertwined and began to fight. Innumerable compressions and expansions occurred within. I poured that uncontrollable energy directly onto the Gumiho.
An ash-gray that was neither bright nor dark. A gray orb grew larger and swallowed the Gumiho.
Jjeojeok!
Kugugugung!
Space twisted and warped. Perhaps because of the unexpected power, the Gumiho tried to move quickly, but it was already too late when that decision was made. The gray swallowed half of the Gumiho’s body and disappeared.
Literally, space warped and vanished. A black hole was torn open in the world.
Below it, the Gumiho gasped for breath, with only its upper body remaining. It hurriedly tried to draw up spiritual energy to heal itself, but it was too late.
“Your elixir pill—I’ll use it well.”
I finished off the barely surviving Gumiho. Then I took the elixir pill it possessed. Meanwhile, the black hole slowly returned to normal. I sat down on the spot and put the Gumiho’s elixir pill into my mouth. Since the spiritual energy contained in the pill diminishes over time, it was best to consume it quickly.
The location was perfect too. It was good for awakening and raising proficiency in the Fire Attribute.
I closed my eyes along with the warm heat flowing into my body. The heat flowing in from the surroundings.
The heat raging inside my body. The spiritual energy I possessed. Using these three, I made the Gumiho’s elixir pill my own.
The Divine Realm itself was immensely vast.
In that endlessly wide place, there existed all kinds of locations and all kinds of beings.
As there were so many beings, there were also groups gathered under various ideologies. One of them was the Dragon God Alliance.
The place where the five dragon gods who betrayed the Lord gathered.
Black and White were too independent and never joined the alliance, but the other five were not. After being dealt a blow by the powerful forces in the Divine Realm, they judged that they couldn’t go on like this and decided to combine their strength.
Having grown their power and seized a certain territory, the Dragon God Alliance eventually split apart under the name of peace. They decided to grow in their own ways, as they had cultivated the strength to stand independently. Though they had once united, they now kept each other in check.
Those who had ascended to the Divine Realm were all beings who wanted to climb higher; they were not the kind to truly unite. Even if they initially combined forces, they would devour each other the moment a weakness appeared.
“…Damn it.”
The Ice Dragon God gritted his teeth as he felt his power slowly fading. The successor of the Lord, whom he had been so wary of. Yet despite the Seven Dragon Gods’ interference, the Lord had found a suitable successor and passed on everything.
As a result.
The forces of the Black Dragon God and White Dragon God collapsed, and even the forces the Ice Dragon God had were destroyed.
“Damn it!”
It was only a matter of time before the other dragon gods learned of this. If they found out, they would think of capturing the Lord’s successor and devouring him, who had become weak.
To escape this situation, he had to somehow increase his power or get out of the Dragon God Alliance’s sphere of influence.
“Let’s run.”
The Ice Dragon God made up his mind and moved. To the farthest place from the Dragon God Alliance. It would be fraught with all sorts of dangers, but at least it was a place where there was no danger of a knife in the back.
Then he set up dozens of barriers. So that no one could find him.
“…Hoo.”
Just as he was about to let out a sigh after finishing everything.
Kagagang!
The barriers shattered.