Ten more years passed. Sadius' Dark Sovereign clone still hadn't gone to the Yulan Plane. The main reason was that he wanted to wait until Radius became a Highgod before returning.
Without needing to fuse profound mysteries, Radius' strength improved extremely quickly. It wouldn't take much longer before he became a Highgod.
Within the Amethyst Mountains, Linley's soul had almost fully recovered. It wouldn't be long before he awakened.
However, his current cultivation was only at the Midgod level, so his increase in strength wouldn't be particularly great compared to when he becomes a Highgod.
Fortunately, he will gain Will Power—if he couldn't defeat his opponent, he could banish them, right?
While waiting for Linley to awaken, Sadius didn't forget to secretly cultivate the Laws of Water.
Radius progressed so rapidly mainly because all of his divine clones helped him comprehend the Laws of Water.
When Sadius' Laws of Darkness clone became a Highgod, he discovered that while fusing divine power indeed made him stronger, that mysterious golden energy hadn't changed. This led Sadius to a new suspicion.
That golden energy had only emerged after his Destruction and Earth clones became Highgods and fused with the Amethyst source.
Did this mean he had to find other similar mineral sources to cause new golden energy to appear within his fused divine power?
The answer seemed increasingly certain. Based on the logic of energy production, Sadius arrived at a conclusion.
However, Divine Beasts of dual attributes born alongside minerals—Sadius only knew of one: the Amethyst Divine Beast. Finding another seemed nearly impossible.
"Wait a second…could Divine Essence be considered a type of energy source too?" Sadius suddenly thought of this and felt it was very possible.
Don't God-Eater Rats use Divine Essence to strengthen their physical bodies?
He, Sadius, could also use the Amethyst source to strengthen his body.
God-Eater Rats could refine Divine Essence in a God Spark to create weapons, right?
The Redbud Sovereign could refine Sovereign artifacts using Amethyst, after all.
From this, it was highly likely that Divine Essence was also a type of energy source.
"Then can I absorb Divine Essence?" Sadius mused internally.
Once this idea emerged, it wouldn't leave his mind.
"Let's do it! What's a single divine weapon?" Sadius pulled out a divine longsword forged with a God spark.
He then activated his fused divine power, attempting to refine the sword and extract the Divine Essence within.
Unfortunately, nothing happened.
"Did I guess wrong?" Sadius scratched his head.
"No…the Divine Essence in this divine weapon must be too chaotic. I'll have to find Beirut to forge a weapon aligned with my attributes. But he's currently helping Linley forge a divine sword—he's probably busy."
"Ah, right, there's Bebe. That little guy, after being fed soul fragments by Beirut, is already a Highgod and can refine Divine Sparks into divine artifacts."
Sadius then shifted his attention to Bebe.
At the Indigo Prefecture residence, Sadius used the excuse of taking Bebe out for fun to start sweet-talking him.
"Bebe, has your Godfather treated you well?"
"Godfather's the best!" Bebe answered happily.
It was true—Sadius had always treated Bebe very well and often took him out to search for gourmet delicacies.
"I heard you can forge divine weapons now?"
"Of course! We God-Eater Rats gain the ability to refine Divine Essence into weapons once we reach the Highgod level. But Grandpa Beirut told me to focus on strengthening my body first."
"Can you show Godfather a demonstration?"
"Sure! What kind of divine weapon would you like? A dagger maybe? I can only forge small ones for now."
"No need for anything fancy. Just forge a small bead. Godfather just wants to see. I don't want to delay your body strengthening."
"Alright." Bebe immediately reached into his interspatial ring to take out some God sparks.
"Use mine," Sadius said, pulling out two God sparks. "Two should be enough. Let's not waste materials."
One was of the Darkness attribute, and one of the Earth attribute.
Bebe didn't suspect anything, took the sparks, stuffed them into his mouth, and began refining them.
Only two God sparks—nothing difficult for Bebe. And since Sadius only asked for a simple bead, the crafting process was very efficient.
Not long afterward, Bebe spat out a small bead.
It usually takes a long time to forge a weapon because a God-Eater Rat needed to use dozens of Divine Sparks depending on the weapon and carefully shape, mold, sharpen and imbue divine essence without wasting any to ensure sturdiness.
This isn't even considering the element associated with the Divine Spark. If the nature of the spark wasn't aligned to one of the God-Eater Rats talents it would delay the process slightly.
But a bead? With no regard for careful forging? Not much effort was needed.
Within the bead, the dim Divine Essence contained two types of energy—black and earthy yellow—blending together in a strange swirl.
Sadius took the bead.
"Let's go. Godfather will treat you to a feast."
While Bebe was happily feasting, Sadius quietly used his fused divine power to refine the bead.
Then, a strange phenomenon occurred.
Within the bead's misty interior, the dusky yellow Divine Essence was drawn toward Sadius and entered his body, fusing with his divine power and triggering a unique reaction.
In the next moment, the bead in Sadius' hand disintegrated completely.
He spread out his fused divine power—within it, the golden energy visibly thickened, like a golden thread weaving through.
Sadius clearly saw this happen.
Although it was only a single thread of golden energy, it was an undeniable increase.
"As I thought! I wasn't wrong! Even the original Linley never discovered this, yet I, Sadius did!"
God-Eater Rats were absolutely the best companions for soul mutates.
Ever since Sadius recalled the dusky-gray energy from the Mirage Sword in the original story, he had suspected its nature.
Was it Hongmeng Qi? Clearly not. But it was definitely a treasure.
If a God-Eater Rat kept using equal proportions of Water, Wind, Fire, and Earth God sparks to strengthen its body, what would the end result be?
Sadius had long since instructed Bebe to consume only those four elemental God sparks. But since Bebe had just become a Highgod, the effects had yet to fully manifest.
"After Linley's soul mutation, could he refine the Divine Essence within the Mirage Sword? If he could absorb it, perhaps it would significantly strengthen his body."
Since Beirut was currently forging a divine weapon for Linley, Sadius came up with this idea.
He was curious—once his fused divine power was fully saturated with that golden energy, what sort of transformation would occur?
However, Sadius knew he couldn't have Bebe constantly helping him refine Divine Essence. For this, he'd have to talk directly with Beirut.
"I suppose it's time to come clean," Sadius thought.
Within the Skyrite Mountain Range…Radius was in closed-door cultivation.
Previously, when the Azure Dragon Grand Elder, Gaia taught him how to fuse profound mysteries, Radius hadn't studied the theory. Instead, he dove straight into comprehension.
To avoid Gaia's nagging, he went into seclusion.
Regardless, becoming a Highgod was the top priority.
On this day, Radius gained a sudden insight into the Laws of Water, and the divine laws of the Heaven descended—his Water clone had become a Highgod.
With that, all of Sadius' divine clones had ascended to the Highgod level.
Back when Sadius was still a Midgod, his combat strength already rivaled that of an ordinary Great Perfection Highgod.
Now, with all his clones at the Highgod level, his strength had increased tenfold.
Add to that the tenfold amplification of the golden energy—and Sadius' strength was now a full hundred times that of a standard Great Perfection Highgod.
It could be said—Sadius was now truly invincible beneath the Sovereign level.