Chapter 1105: Divine Status

This Divine Fire is the method the Sun God Anse used for resurrection; He made arrangements before his fall, but a slip occurred—a sun‑spotted viper slipped into the tomb and stole the Divine Essence.

When Lei En discovered the situation back then, the Divine Essence in the Divine Fire was already less than a quarter.

Most of the Divine Essence accumulated over more than ten thousand years was wasted.

Now, after a dozen years, the Sunfire Tribe's trolls and the Daychaser Tribe's minotaurs persist in praying, but their numbers are far insufficient; the Divine Essence has only recovered a little—mere pittance—far from enough to resurrect the Sun God Anse.

Even after another ten thousand years, Anse has no hope of resurrection.

In that case, it's better to cut one's own losses.

Sheng Jilesi stared at the Divine Fire; this ever‑shifting crystal resembled a vessel, with the bottom quarter settled with golden material—that was the Divine Essence!

Igniting the Divine Fire requires ten thousand units of Divine Essence.

This means the Divine Fire can hold up to ten thousand units before ignition, and the current Divine Essence is about 2,500 units.

Sheng Jilesi did not hesitate; he reached out and grasped the Divine Fire, feeling an intense heat as if holding a red‑hot stone. With a thought, he drew the Divine Essence from the fire, channeling it up his arm into his body, and instantly let out a muffled hum.

It wasn't pain, but an extreme exhilaration!

This pleasure is hard to describe in words.

Masses of visibly massive Divine Essence were devoured, flowing rapidly through his body, permeating every limb, assimilating and merging with his own Divine Essence, erasing all the information, traits, and memories it contained, and finally entering the spiritual conduit space, completely transforming into his own Divine Essence.

Under Sheng Jilesi's skin, dazzling light shone; his sacred aura surged, growing denser each second, his imposing pressure like a mountain.

The Divine Essence value displayed on the phone interface rose like a rocket.

2030, 2050, 2100, 2200…

In just a few minutes, the Divine Essence surpassed 3,000 units.

At first, Sheng Jilesi was cautious, deliberately slowing the rate of devouring the Divine Essence, fearing the information it held.

The Divine Essence is, in a sense, the deity's soul.

For a god, the Divine Essence contains His personality, beliefs, wisdom, and memories—all information tied to the deity itself. Mortals or other beings can also absorb Divine Essence to gain great power, extend lifespan, and reap many benefits.

However, one must have undergone at least seven Soul Transformations—that is, be a Saint Rank cultivator—to erase the information in the Divine Essence and safely absorb it.

If one below Saint Rank contaminates with Divine Essence, they will become a slave of the god.

If the deity is dead, it may reconstitute through Divine Essence aggregation, possess a mortal body, and revive.

Sheng Jilesi is a demigod, so this danger does not apply; he easily erased the information the Divine Essence contained and claimed it as his own.

The glow of the Divine Fire gradually dimmed.

Moments later.

The phone interface showed Sheng Jilesi's Divine Essence had risen above 4,600, its growth now slowing; although a trace of Divine Essence remained in the Divine Fire, he stopped absorbing.

Deep within the Divine Fire lay a strand of primordial Divine Essence, shaped like a flickering flame—very faint yet radiating intense brilliance.

This was what Anse had left behind, containing all His information—His memories, wisdom, beliefs, and might—and it was the final symbol of His existence in the world. Erasing this strand of primordial Divine Essence would extinguish the last sliver of hope for Anse's resurrection.

Sheng Jilesi gently swayed the Divine Fire, and Anse's primordial Divine Essence churned within.

A thoughtful expression crossed his face.

He looked up and saw many praying Sunfire trolls; having devoured Anse's Divine Essence, he also inherited His followers.

From now on, he need not rely on the Divine Fire to forge a soul link with the followers.

Of course, to preserve these Divine Essences, it is best that the followers never realize their god has been replaced.

Generally, when a deity supplants another, it initially impersonates the predecessor, answering followers' prayers, granting Divine Technique, and making no changes to doctrine—essentially keeping everything as is to stabilize the former's followers.

Once the Divine Essence stabilizes, the deity gradually revises the doctrine, plants its own people in the church, inserts the new god's name into prayers, adds new rites, claims it as another incarnation of the god, and so on—always finding an excuse to make the followers accept and enact the changes.

This requires a long span of time—shortest tens of years, longest up to millennia.

Step by step, subtly influencing until finally taking over.

Lei En lacked such patience, and Anse's situation was unique, requiring no such hassle; he already had a plan in mind.

Sheng Jilesi thought for a moment and chose not to erase Anse's primordial Divine Essence, allowing it to remain in the Divine Fire.

He turned his gaze back to the phone interface.

4,765!

This is the current Divine Essence value, fluctuating each second, generally hovering around 4,760 units; it is nearly half the target needed to ignite the Divine Fire.

Sheng Jilesi glanced at the Divine Essence, then at the Soul Force Pool.

"If electric charge could be converted into Divine Essence…"

He immediately tried, channeling electric charge into the Divine Flame, but there was no response. After several more attempts, he found no method worked; evidently, electric charge cannot be turned into Divine Essence.

"What a pity."

Sheng Jilesi felt regret.

In fact, Lei En had long anticipated this; Divine Essence is a completely different energy from electric charge—its formation, nature, and effects bear no resemblance, making conversion highly unlikely. Thus, he never promoted Sheng Jilesi to demigod status, keeping him from formally embarking on the Path of Deification.

If electric charge could become Divine Essence, deification would be far too easy.

Even with a minuscule conversion rate, given his massive current electric charge—say one hundred to one—he could ascend to the divine throne in a single night.

Sheng Jilesi rose and walked aside, where a gigantic palm rested on the rocky platform, exuding a terrifying aura.

The palm of Manno, the Cloud Giant God!

The deity's body contains Divine Power, a tier of energy beyond Divine Essence.

If the Divine Fire is a power plant and Divine Essence its fuel, then Divine Power is the electricity generated after the Divine Essence burns!

Lei En had long studied Manno's palm; although Manno is a relatively weak deity, the palm harbors considerable Divine Power—at least a massive figure for a demigod. After conversion through the Divine Fire, the Divine Power no longer connects with followers, being extremely stable, pure, vast, with properties and potency beyond imagination; Lei En has uncovered little about it.

He knew early on that Divine Essence could be devoured, but was unsure whether Divine Power could as well.

The Path of Deification contains no record of this.

The phone's library of countless books on deities also omits this, suggesting devouring Divine Power is a terrifying taboo.

So, today I will give it a try.

Sheng Jilisi walked to Man Nuo's palm, placed his hand on it, and felt the giant palm's skin extremely tough, warm to the touch, as if it still possessed great vitality.

He closed his eyes, focused his spirit on the golden flame in the phone interface; its shape resembled a vortex, with divine numbers displayed at its center.

The next second, the flame vortex began to rotate.

Sheng Jilisi immediately sensed a powerful suction in his palm, his fingertips flashing with light—a sign of divine power flowing.

Sss…

A massive surge of energy flooded his body, the process akin to extracting divinity, but the sensory stimulation was a hundred times stronger!

The divine power coursed from his arm through his entire body, entered his soul space and was devoured by the MutatedPhone, as if consuming a soul, instantly converting into his own strength. Yet the divine power did not enter the spirit pool; instead it reversed, broke down into divinity and merged with the divine flame vortex!

4800, 4850, 4900…

After a few breaths, his divinity surpassed the 5000 mark and continued to surge wildly.

Sheng Jilisi's expression shifted constantly—relief, surprise, awe, and more. The pleasure of devouring divine power was indescribable, and the rapid rise of his divinity made him elated; however, the most important thing was not these reasons but the confirmation of a fact.

Divine power can be devoured!

This meant far more than he imagined; his devouring targets rose from mortal souls to the gods themselves!

Even though he is currently no match for any deity and dares not devour or even reveal this earth‑shattering secret that would invite divine retribution, in the future the gods will become his prey.

Even if his exploration fails and he cannot find the path to true Great Power, settling for becoming a deity is not a terrible outcome.

Devouring divine power guarantees his chance to rank among the strongest deities.

Lei En's expression relaxed.

Soon, Sheng Jilisi's divinity exceeded 6000, finally halting at 6200!

Man Nuo's palm's divine power transformed into nearly 1500 units of divinity—a substantial harvest. The giant palm gradually dimmed; deprived of divine power it lost its terrifying aura, its skin cracked, divine blood withered, and its bones and flesh decayed piece by piece, becoming a hard, fossil‑like substance.

Even without divine power, a portion of the deity's body remains the world's rarest premium alchemical material.

This withered divine hand can forge two or three Legend Grade items.

However, Sheng Jilisi did not glance at it again; he returned to the Divine Fire, sat down anew, and felt the surging divinity within, his face showing contemplation.

Over 6200 units of divinity seemed massive, yet it was still insufficient to ignite the Divine Fire.

Even if he reached ten thousand units of divinity, successfully lit the Divine Fire, and ascended the Divine Throne, he would still be the weakest deity among the gods.

The book "Path to Sealing the Gods" mentions a term: Divine Rank.

The description of Divine Rank in the book is brief, only half a page, likely because the author is also mortal, not a deity, and thus his understanding of Divine Rank is shallow.

The so‑called Divine Rank is a standard for measuring a deity's strength.

It is expressed in levels.

A newly sealed deity starts at Divine Rank level one; as divine power grows, the rank rises to level two, then three, and so on.

Level one is the lowest, level ten the highest!

Ranks one to three are lower deities; four to six are middle deities; seven to nine are upper deities.

Reaching level ten elevates one to a Primary Deity.

However, "Path to Sealing the Gods" does not record the exact criteria for each Divine Rank, such as how much divine power is needed for promotion; that secret seems known only to deities. Still, the book subtly cites some deities' names as examples for each tier.

It happens to mention the Cloud Giant God Man Nuo, who is a lower deity.

Other fallen giant deities include the Sky and Thunder God An Heluozi, an upper deity, and the Giant God "Heavenly Father" An Na Mu, a Primary Deity.

The Longhaired Lady is also mentioned, classified as a middle deity.

During the Third Epoch, the once‑flourishing elf and dwarf pantheons were severely damaged, causing most deities' Divine Ranks to fall. Apart from the Elf and Phoenix God A Su Rui Long, who barely preserved the Primary Deity's rank, the Dark Moon Goddess Ai Lu Na remained an upper deity, while most other elf gods fell to middle or even lower deities.

The dwarf gods fared worse; even the strongest "Dwarf God" Ma Ha Er is only an upper deity, the dwarf warrior god Mo Lin Mu Ni Er is a middle deity, and the rest are lower deities.

In the New Epoch, the deities most familiar to people are mostly Primary Deities!

The Lord of Ocean and Storm Ke Su La, the Magic Goddess VijesCui, the Sun God Ge Weng, the Earth Mother Gaia, the Justice and Order God Ti Rui Er, the Beast and Power God Ge Luo Shi, all have Divine Rank level ten, making them the strongest Primary Deities.

Among the evil deities, there are also Primary Deities.

The Black Emperor Ban Er Kou, the Deceiver Luo Xi, the Evil Dragon Mu Ti Ya Xi Si, and the Mad God He Ke Si Tuo Er are all terrifying Primary Deities.

Spider Queen Ros is an upper deity.

Overall, Ai Lun E Si's benevolent deities are far stronger than the evil ones, yet the evil side is backed by the Abyssal Four Gods.

These four ancient Abyssal evil gods possess Great Power beyond any Divine Rank.

Accurately, Divine Rank cannot gauge the Abyssal Four Gods' power; although they are listed among deities, they are fundamentally different great beings, whose stature exceeds that of the gods. They require no followers, their Great Power does not rely on worship, they are immortal and eternal.

No one knows the origins of the Abyssal Four Gods, nor how ancient they are; it seems they existed before the Prehistoric Epoch, before Ai Lun E Si birthed civilization and sentient races.

The history of Ai Lun E Si's world is a blood‑stained chronicle of resistance against the Abyssal Four Gods.

No, in fact it isn't even a resistance.

This world is merely a playground of the Abyssal Four Gods; the sentient races living within it, gods included, are their toys!

When the Abyssal Four Gods are bored, they dispatch endless Demon legions to invade and destroy everything, merely to add a hint of amusement, yet they never eradicate all life, always leaving a spark of civilization to later harvest once it grows.

When Lei En learned of this world's cyclical history, he was left speechless in shock—this is the true god!

To end the cycle of history, one must become a great being of Abyssal Four Gods caliber.

He had no clue at first, until he saw the Ancient Saint Altar.

The ancient saint left hope for this world!

But now, sealing the gods comes first.

Sealing a deity cannot be done in secret; igniting the Divine Fire and ascending the Divine Throne create huge disturbances that, no matter which plane they occur on, cannot be concealed, and will quickly draw other deities' attention, even mortals of the Prime Material Plane will sense the new god's presence.

Therefore, before sealing, one must choose the location of one's Divine Realm and establish it as quickly as possible to survive the most perilous stage.

Once Sheng Jilisi seals himself, Sun God Ge Weng will inevitably detect it.

The radiant divine office makes the two mortal enemies.

Even a lower deity, hidden within its Divine Realm, finds it hard to resist a Primary Deity's assault, let alone when Ge Weng commands several former gods; Lei En does not want Sheng Jilisi, just after sealing, to have his Divine Realm shattered by the Sun God, becoming the fastest‑falling deity in history.

But he also did not wish to ask for the help of other gods.

The situation in the Southern Continent gave Lei En an idea.

Lower gods are certainly no match for Ge Weng; then what about upper gods? If one accumulates vast divinity, at the moment of apotheosis they can ascend to heaven in a single step, directly entering the ranks of upper gods, even becoming a chief god—then all difficulties will be readily resolved!

(End of chapter)