Chapter 537: Legendary Summit

A full 1,893 units of power!

This is the highest storage ever in the Soul Power Pool, most of it coming from the demonic soul absorbed from the sun‑spotted viper.

The beast devoured a massive amount of divine nature, converting it into flesh and blood, and a small amount of divine nature forced its soul to undergo five metamorphoses, yet due to innate limits it could not achieve Holy Soul Ascension. Its demonic soul is over ten times larger than that of a typical Legendary High-rank, and it converted all of it into power, about 1,500 units.

Another portion, close to 400 units, came from Divine Fire!

Lei En noticed when he obtained the Divine Fire that the MutatedPhone could directly devour divine nature and convert it into power.

At the time he feared the hazards of divine nature, so he dared not absorb it recklessly and forced a stop.

However, in just a few dozen seconds, the power in the Soul Power Pool surged by several hundred units, while the divine nature in the Divine Fire dropped only slightly!

The energy density of divine nature is truly shocking.

If all the divine nature in the Divine Fire could be absorbed, Lei En estimates that it could fill a 2,000‑unit Soul Power Pool at least three times.

But he didn't do that; it would be too wasteful.

This is divine nature!

The most precious energy in the world!

The myriad celestial deities vie for each other's death, spread doctrines, grow followers; for countless years they have wrought so many deeds in the mortal realm—why? Simply to gather the power of faith, convert it into divine nature, add fuel to the Divine Fire, and gain more divine power!

Before the Sun God of Scorching Sun fell, it painstakingly arranged a resurrection plan; it took over ten thousand years to amass just this little divine nature, showing how difficult it is to collect divine nature.

Directly absorbing divine nature and converting it into Soul Power is beyond any description, even by squandering heavenly treasures.

As for the divine nature already absorbed, there is nothing that can be done.

Lei En can now confirm that his phone, when devouring divine nature, erases all carried divine information, making it safe to use.

"With so much power, how should it be allocated?" he mutters to himself, a bit troubled, but it's a happy trouble.

Inside the pyramid, Reslin also stared intently at the phone interface.

He glanced at the Divine Fire on the hovering altar.

At all times, the square pillars in the palace gather the power of faith and transmit it remotely into the Divine Fire; through a strand of the Sun God of Scorching Sun's primordial divine nature, it assimilates into more divine nature.

When he just touched the Divine Fire, he formed a rough idea of the number of followers of the Sun God of Scorching Sun.

Approximately between 50,000 and 80,000!

Among them are the Day‑Chasers Minotaur tribe, fewer than a thousand, whose devotion is the highest; then a group of trolls on the Prime Material Plane. These trolls are less devout than the Minotaur Day‑Chasers, but their numbers are vast, comprising over ninety percent of all followers, and are the main source of the power of faith.

Reslin is not the true Sun God of Scorching Sun; he only possesses a portion of divine authority, so he cannot directly perceive the state of the troll followers.

He can only vaguely sense that they are several troll tribes scattered across a primeval forest.

There are also some scattered followers whose faith is already very weak, intermittent, located in corners of the Prime Material Plane and certain other planes, their exact locations currently unknown.

Reslin shook his head inwardly; with only these tens of thousands of followers, the Sun God of Scorching Sun could hardly be revived.

Deep within the Divine Fire, that strand of dormant primordial divine nature contains all of the Sun God of Scorching Sun's information—its memory, wisdom, belief, and power—but the accumulated divine nature is insufficient to awaken it. Moreover, its divine office has been seized, especially the crucial "Sun" office, which now belongs to the Solar God Ge Weng.

The Solar God Ge Weng is a trinity, simultaneously holding the three divine offices of "Dawn", "Scorching Sun", and "Dusk", as well as numerous related offices such as "Light" and "Flame".

Divine power is vast, followers countless!

The Solar Church is the state religion of the Lamon Empire, with a dozen neighboring minor states also serving it.

Even if the Sun God of Scorching Sun were revived, it could not reclaim the "Scorching Sun" office; once exposed, there is only death.

Its only way out is to abandon "Scorching Sun" and choose a different divine office.

The book "Path of Sealing Gods" details the concept of divine offices.

A divine office is the domain a deity governs, within which it holds dominion and the associated power and Divine Technique; it can be an industry, a profession, a race, an object, or an abstract definition.

After igniting the Divine Fire and successfully sealing a god, the deity can choose a divine office—that is, the domain it governs.

A deity's strength is not inherently tied to its divine office; it relates to the number of followers and the amount of faith power.

Deities formulate their missionary ideas, doctrines, and canon based on their divine office.

The broader the scope of a divine office, the larger its audience of followers, the higher the degree of faith, and the stronger the deity's divine power.

For example, the "Magic" divine office is certainly more influential than the "Warrior"; the "Beastman" office will certainly have more followers than the "Halfling" office; the "Love" office inevitably spreads more easily than the "Madness" office.

Thus deities are passionate about matters within their divine office and wield absolute, inviolable authority.

A single divine office may be held by two or even multiple deities, who vie for followers as immortal rivals, inevitably ending with one's fall.

Divine offices can be merged, plundered, transferred, or split.

Divine office domains have similar and subordinate qualities; one office can be a subcategory of a stronger office, creating antagonistic, allied, or subordinate relationships among deities. The prerequisite for merging offices is possessing more Divine Fire.

Divine Fire is not bound to a divine office.

If Reslin uses the Divine Fire before him to seal a god, he does not have to choose "Scorching Sun"; he can select another divine office.

Of course, the most powerful divine offices—such as "Magic", "Strength", "Sun", "Ocean", "War", "Earth", "Life", and so on—belong to the most potent deities of Ai Lun E Si. The next tier of offices, like "Glory", "Courage", "Craft", "Order", have long had masters, either being merged by the strongest deities or existing as solitary gods.

Later sealers can generally only choose obscure, niche divine offices, usually the ones left over.

Thus, it becomes increasingly difficult for mortals to seal a god.

The previous successful sealer, the "Schemer" Lo Xi, had its first divine office as "Conspiracy"; a millennium later it seized "Lies", "Murder", and "Conflict" from other deities—all unfavorable offices, leaning toward negative domains.

Therefore its doctrine naturally cannot see the light, and people treat it as an evil god.

Lei En's true self currently has no intention of sealing a god.

But Reslin can.

He decides to let his true self and his clone walk different paths; Reslin will attempt to seal a god to pave the way for his true self, while his true self proceeds steadily, exploring alternative directions.

"It's settled then!"

Since he wishes to seal a god, the first step is to quickly raise his mage level, undergoing eight Soul Transformations until the soul's essence touches the world's laws.

Reslin opened the phone interface and began drawing upon power.

The true self and the clone share the same MutatedPhone, and the Soul Power Pool is also shared. First, he poured in over forty units of power, raising Reslin's mage level to fifteen.

After several minutes of soul ascension, he continued to inject another hundred units of power.

In the blink of an eye, he reached the bottleneck of a level‑15 mage.

One more level would reach Legendary High‑rank; for other mages, they might be stuck at this stage for a decade or more, and without enough talent or preparation, even a hundred years.

But for Reslin, this is no problem at all.

Half a year earlier, he had already mastered two or three Seven‑Ring spells, including his most used Mirror Image. After investing over three hundred energy units, Mirror Image rose to Eight‑Ring, becoming his first Eight‑Ring spell.

In an instant, this triggered the sixth Soul Transformation.

A moment later, the Soul Transformation ended.

Reslin advanced to a level‑16 mage, entering Legendary High‑rank, but he did not stop there, continuing to pour spiritual power into raising his level.

Level sixteen!

Level seventeen!

Level eighteen!

Level nineteen!

Within half an hour, Reslin experienced five successive soul ascensions, soaring five levels in one go to the pinnacle of a level‑nineteen mage!

Other mages, wizards, and sorcerers might need centuries to traverse that long road, yet he finished it in under half an hour. Throughout the ages, across the many planes of the Ai Lun E Si world, no transcendent has been found who upgrades faster than he does—a miracle even the gods struggle to achieve!

A level‑nineteen mage is but one step away from Saint Rank.

Reslin exhaled gently, and the "Lake of Stars" within his soul expanded more than tenfold, each droplet representing massive mana that surged like tides. When the lake calmed, it reflected the heavens' constellations, each star corresponding to an Element rune.

Compared to a level‑nineteen mage, mastering over fifty spells is not many.

Moreover, he only has the level; the spells' potency hasn't kept pace—one Eight‑Ring Mirror Image is insufficient, and his power growth can't match the leap in level.

"It's time to upgrade the spells next,"

Reslin glanced at the spiritual power pool and saw over 1,200 energy units remaining.

After a moment's thought, he first chose the Key of Doors, investing over two hundred units to raise it to Seven‑Ring, granting it the All‑Seeing Eye just like his core. He then selected the Seven‑Ring Arcane "Tim Kainan Sword Art," which can summon two Rending Sky Swords.

Raising the Key of Doors to Eight‑Ring would cause the required energy to skyrocket, exceeding eight hundred units!

Reslin shook his head helplessly and gave up.

Then he upgraded several low‑energy common spells—"Fireball," "Prismatic Shield," "Scorching Ray," "Random Door," "Spear of Light," "Space-Time Shock," "Advanced Delusion," "Dead Cloud"—by one or two rings each.

It's impossible to raise every spell to Eight‑Ring; first, the cap is unreachable, second, it's unnecessary.

Even so, the energy in the spiritual pool drained like a flood, quickly consuming most of it, leaving just over five hundred units. He reserves this energy for his core, intending to strengthen the Extreme Warrior and spawn more Legendary warriors.

Reslin finally stopped.

He looked at the phone screen: a level‑nineteen mage, still far from the required th Level for divine ascension.

Even advancing to Grand Mage alone is a massive hurdle.

To reach the Saint Rank as a Holy Soul Wizard or Grand Mage—that is, to attain Level 20—requires the seventh Soul Transformation. Different casters and schools have different methods to break through Saint Rank.

If the wizard belongs to the Soul‑Guiding school, such as a Ten Thousand Spirits Wizard or a Shape‑shifting wizard, they must fuse a Saint Rank demon soul.

Combat wizards use the same method as the Soul‑Guiding school.

But the Law Seal school's wizards—whether Elementalists, Arcane practitioners, or psychics—imitate the mage's specialization, so their breakthrough follows the mage's path: they must master Nine‑Ring Technique, not one but three!

Wizards must fuse three Nine‑Ring Arcane Elements.

Mages construct three Nine‑Ring spell models within their soul, or they can elevate three Eight‑Ring spells to Nine‑Ring.

Whether fusing elemental Law Seals or building spell models, both are extremely difficult.

The success rate of such cross‑rank fusion is very low.

Advancing to Saint Rank is several times harder than the combined difficulty of the previous five rank promotions; throughout Ai Lun E Si's long history, countless prodigies have been stuck at this gate, never breaking through until the end of their lives.

Reslin's gaze swept over the icons on the phone screen.

He currently has only one Eight‑Ring spell, Mirror Image, and the progress bar beneath its icon has already vanished.

This means Mirror Image tops out at Eight‑Ring and cannot be used to break the bottleneck for a Soul Transformation.

Next are several Seven‑Ring spells—Fireball, Key of Doors, Prismatic Shield, Random Door, and Spear of Light. Random Door caps at Seven‑Ring, and Key of Doors consumes too much energy, so he tried upgrading Fireball and Prismatic Shield; both required over five hundred units to reach Eight‑Ring!

Key of Doors and Spear of Light demand even more.

"This is only from Seven‑Ring to Eight‑Ring; raising to Nine‑Ring would likely more than double the energy required," Reslin sighed.

Indeed, advancing to Grand Mage is difficult.

But it's merely difficult, not hopeless.

Reslin thought of the countless monsters in the vast desert outside, the mantis‑people, desert trolls, and sandworms, whose souls await his harvest.

The entire Remnant Sun plane is his hunting ground!

Reslin pondered for a while, then sat on the altar and began meditating. Hours later, he opened his eyes, a faint cold glint flashing in his indifferent black gaze. The meditation efficiency of a level‑nineteen mage was several times faster than when he was at Legendary Mid‑stage.

Even without the MutatedPhone absorbing souls, just by meditating alone, he could raise several spells to Eight‑Ring within ten years and then attempt a breakthrough.

"Ten years, that's a bit slow,"

Reslin whispered.

He casually ate some dry rations to fill his stomach, feeling refreshed, then took a planar teleportation array from the Nebula Ring and placed it beneath the altar, stepping onto it to adjust.

More magical materials were brought out and stacked beside the teleportation array.

This tomb will serve as his most secret base for a long time to come; he must perfect the planar teleportation array to allow his weakened body to come and go at will. Moreover, the array must be linked to the pyramid's rune formation to bypass the void barrier.

Reslin set to work, already prepared to linger inside the pyramid for several months.

(End of Chapter)