While studying the tome, Levos didn't let his body sit idle.
He streaked through the universe at high speed, planning to find a planet to use as a foothold.
"Strange… why haven't I detected any life for so long?"
Levos frowned deeply. He had been flying for ages, yet still couldn't find a single planet fit for habitation, let alone sense even a trace of living aura.
Originally, he'd wanted to confirm where exactly he was, then find a way to visit Earth in this timeline.
Best-case scenario, he could gather the Dragon Balls as an emergency fallback.
Even if that failed, he could at least enter the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and try to exploit the "time-flow bug."
But now, he could only set those thoughts aside for the moment.
He had finished reading the method for converting divine power into divine ki. Levos chose a random small asteroid, landed, and in this dead-silent starfield began circulating the technique exactly as the book instructed.
The method itself wasn't difficult. It didn't take him long to grasp the underlying principle.
Divine ki was simply the byproduct of divine power naturally leaking out.
The key difference was that divine power needed the body's cells as a storage medium. If the cells lacked sufficient capacity and toughness, they would inevitably be overfilled and burst.
Divine ki didn't have that limitation. It could be stored anywhere without relying on any external vessel, and it could also be easily condensed back into divine power.
Maybe that was why angels stored huge amounts of divine ki inside their staffs as reserve energy.
In fact, once Cell Max successfully completed the "path to godhood" evolution, converting divine ki would become as effortless as eating and drinking.
But right now, doing it with a mortal body was far more complicated than it would be for beings born with divine physiques.
Origin of the Gods also mentioned that for mortal life to advance toward the divine level was an unimaginably long process one that required endless years of tempering and refinement.
"So Earth's technology really has zero research on the divine system…" Levos exhaled slowly. "Fully completing the path of godhood is still a distant dream."
"But on the other hand… once I survive this crisis and possess an inexhaustible supply of divine ki, that law-of-heaven-and-earth giant divine form can finally become part of my regular combat power…"
As Levos's understanding deepened, ripples began to spread through the surrounding void. Threads of divine ki seeped out of his body, curling and drifting around him.
Levos's eyes lit up.
He knew he'd stepped over a critical threshold he had grasped the trick.
"The method's in hand, but…" Levos knit his brows. "Efficiency is the problem. It has to at least balance the rate I'm absorbing the Gods of Destruction. Otherwise, Cell Max's body still won't last long."
Right now, his conversion efficiency was painfully low.
But very soon, Levos realized that worry was unnecessary.
Because his main body and Cell Max were still connected.
Cell Max's external "brain" felt laggy, like the connection stuttered and choked yet the link between the two bodies was absolutely real. It hadn't been severed, even though they were in different timelines.
That "lag" existed because the time-flow on both ends differed, meaning that commands and feedback would arrive with a noticeable delay.
"Strictly speaking, it's not delay," Levos thought, eyes narrowing. "It's that my main body's thinking speed is now far beyond Cell Max's."
Back when he trained inside an angel's staff, the difference hadn't been this extreme and for a long time, it had actually been Cell Max's side that processed faster.
But this time, Levos felt something entirely new.
He vaguely sensed that his understanding of [Time Power] had deepened. He was only one step away from a breakthrough.
Across layers of spatial barriers, Levos issued a command to Cell Max: convert divine ki.
With his main body's extremely accelerated thinking speed, Levos achieved precise micro-control over every single cell inside Cell Max.
"All cells, don't you dare slack off. Get active."
"Nucleus, shift laterally by 0.5 nanometers!"
"Mitochondria, adjust divine power release angle by 4.5 degrees!"
"Cell membranes, hold the line. No conversion until divine power reaches 99.9% of the limit. Prioritize easing the burden on injured brother-cells!"
Order after order.
Cell Max's body followed his directives and began running at full output.
As time passed, Levos's control became finer and finer down to an almost absurd level. Even his use of every sliver of power began marching toward something more extreme, more perfect.
His raw strength hadn't increased, but Levos was certain his overall combat ability had climbed another tier.
"At this rate… I might actually touch the threshold of Ultra Instinct…"
Divine ki gathered around Cell Max at a terrifying speed.
Almost instantly, the courtyard outside was flooded with dense divine ki, which then spread throughout the entire Time Nest city.
Levos immediately split his focus and began funneling it into his pocket space bit by bit.
Outside, space itself began to hum.
Across the Time Nest, everyone could see the thick pillar of light blasting from the temple's direction, punching straight through the sky.
It looked like a dragon drawing water from the heavens so spectacular it made every onlooker's eyes tremble.
"It's almost done!"
Levos's face brightened. The conversion rate was about to catch up to the absorption rate.
The only downside was that the sheer volume of divine ki was too enormous. When he tried to store it away, he simply couldn't suppress the external phenomenon.
"This spectacle is… a bit outrageous. How long is it going to last?"
He hadn't been inside the History Scroll for long. In the outside world, only about ten seconds had passed. In other words, Chronoa probably hadn't even made it back from the Temple of Time to the courtyard yet.
But Levos had already prepared himself for a long battle.
Because if he wanted to gain the upper hand in this tug-of-war against the Gods of Destruction, merely balancing absorption and consumption wasn't enough.
He had to drain them completely.
And that wasn't something he could finish quickly.
The changes in the courtyard were soon sensed by Chronoa.
A look of astonishment surfaced on her face.
"He mastered it in such a short time… this guy really is a monster…"
The thick divine ki around her stirred an old memory that had long been buried.
It was like returning to childhood back when she was still swaddled in blankets, growing little by little under her parents' protection.
That incomparable sense of safety.
"Time really flew…" she whispered. "Back then… having someone shielding you from wind and rain felt so good…"
Now she carried her own mission, her own duty, and had endured who knew how much time.
"That guy escaping danger is only a matter of time."
Chronoa let out a long breath.
At this moment, the Time Nest's barrier was sturdier than ever and still strengthening. With a terrifyingly strong presence stationed here, it was safer than it had ever been.
Once her nerves loosened, and once she soaked in that rich divine ki, a heavy wave of drowsiness washed over her.
"Huh…?" Chronoa blinked, confused. "I'm a god… so why am I sleepy?"
Dragging her exhausted body, she walked to Cell Max. Seeing the risk of detonation dropping little by little, she finally exhaled.
"I'm really… so tired…"
In the end, she couldn't hold on anymore.
She collapsed and fell asleep on the spot.
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