"How could that be possible? I didn't absorb a single bit of Divine Power, young master, you have to believe me!" said the Black Qilin, instantly turning serious.
"If it wasn't you, then who was it? Could it be the Immortal Essence here neutralized it? If that's the case, that's just unbelievable! Hurry up, tell me what happened!" Evan asked, suspicion written all over his face.
"Young master, I've got some great news for you. Remember your little brother inside the Timewheel Bracelet—the Immortal Crystal's artifact spirit? This time, all the Divine Power got absorbed by him," the Black Qilin explained.
"What? He absorbed it? How is that possible!" Evan was dumbfounded, his words tumbling out in disbelief.
"It's true. After the Immortal Crystal spirit absorbed the Divine Power, he said he might even evolve into a God Crystal. But it'll take a while—maybe years, maybe decades. For us cultivators, that's nothing, just a blink of an eye," said the Black Qilin.
Evan was secretly thrilled. If it really became a God Crystal, the Timewheel Bracelet's inner world would be flooded with Divine Power, and training inside would let his strength skyrocket.
"Old Black, when do you plan to leave? You're not gonna stay inside the Timewheel Bracelet forever, are you?" Evan asked.
"It'll take a while. After you ascended to the God Realm, a seal appeared on the Timewheel Bracelet. To leave, you have to break the seal, and if you want to come in with your main body, you have to break it too," the Black Qilin explained.
"Of course, you could just wait—the seal will naturally disappear after about a thousand years. Not too long for us cultivators, but young master, can you really wait that long?" said the Black Qilin.
"Wait my ass!" Evan cursed inwardly. He wished he could jump into the Timewheel Bracelet and cultivate right now. He had plenty of God Stones, so energy wasn't an issue. For now, he could only find a hidden spot to break through to early Heavenly God Realm—then no one would suspect he was just a fresh ascendant.
With a thought, Evan activated Earthshift, ready to burrow into the mountain and cultivate. But he quickly discovered that the rocks in the God Realm were insanely tough. Even with Earthshift, he could only dig a few meters in, and it took a ton of effort—the idea of diving deeper was out of the question.
Everything about the God Realm was just weird. Flying was a pain, the rocks were like iron, and it felt like everything had leveled up across the board.
Forced out of the rocks, Evan flew into a canyon, searching for a ready-made cave to hole up in. After half a day, he finally found one. The place was well hidden—a big tree covered most of the entrance, so unless you looked close, you'd never notice it.
Evan didn't hesitate and slipped straight into the cave. Inside, he found a stone table and a few stone stools. It wasn't spacious—just a temporary rest stop, really—but Evan was satisfied. At least now he had a place to lay low.
He went to the entrance and set up a barrier outside, so nobody could disturb him or spy with divine sense. Of course, he figured no gods would show up in a place this remote anyway.
After using the Chaos Arm, Evan still hadn't recovered his Divine Power. He'd burned through about half, which was pretty much what he'd expected. With his current cultivation, he could only use the Chaos Arm twice—and unless it was life or death, he couldn't afford to waste it.
Evan was sure that if he unleashed the Chaos Arm alongside Ninefold Divine-Dragon Metamorphosis, he could slaughter anyone below God-King, and even late-stage God-Lords wouldn't stand a chance.
Once he broke through to Heavenly God Realm, he'd probably unlock the first four metamorphoses of the Divine-Dragon art, boosting his attack power by another quarter. That was seriously badass.
He pulled out some God Stones from the Coiling-Dragon Ring and started absorbing them. This time, it felt different—the energy from the stones flowed straight into his dantian and began circulating.
At first, Evan picked out the lowest-quality God Stones from the Coiling-Dragon Ring—just a handful of mid-grade ones. It took him half a day to absorb just one. The energy inside was way stronger than Immortal Crystals; even a single mid-grade God Stone was worth dozens of Immortal Crystals, so absorbing them was way slower.
A single mid-grade God Stone could only boost the Chaos Divine Power in his dantian by about twenty percent. Evan wasn't satisfied with that at all, so he pulled out two mid-grade stones and split his focus to absorb both at once.
Another half day passed, and he drained both stones completely. Now his dantian was saturated with Chaos Divine Power, so Evan started circulating it throughout his body. He had no idea how much time went by, but then a crisp sound rang out from his dantian and he felt his strength surge dramatically.
His divine sense and perception were both way sharper than before. He instantly knew he'd broken through to early Heavenly God Realm. The speed of his progress blew him away—he couldn't help but feel ecstatic.
After consolidating his new realm, Evan stopped cultivating. Since he couldn't enter the Timewheel Bracelet, his next breakthrough would take a lot longer. The real reason he advanced so fast was all thanks to the energy from the Ascension Pool.
If he hadn't fought that God-Lord, he probably would've broken through even earlier. But he understood the principle: haste makes waste. "Time to go out and see the God Realm for myself. I should use this period to temper myself and ask around about the basics of this world," Evan thought.
Evan left the cave, flashed up to the mountaintop, and found flying was no longer a problem. He realized you have to reach Heavenly God Realm before you can really fly here. But east, west, north, south—every direction was totally unfamiliar, and he had no clue which way to go.
"Let's check out the east. The God Realm's huge, so I'll just go wherever my feet take me!" Evan muttered to himself.
He quickly shot off toward the east. Meanwhile, back at the Ascension Pool where Evan had ascended, four middle-aged men in matching black clothes appeared. "There was a fierce fight here—the air still smells faintly of blood. Who would dare stir up trouble at the Ascension Pool?" one of them said.
"Protector Liu's been at the Ascension Pool for three days. The soul tablet left in the City Lord's Mansion shattered, which means he was killed here. Anyone who can kill a God-Lord must be seriously strong. Looks like things are getting messy in the God Realm again!" another man said.
"Do you guys think it could've been that kid who just ascended to the God Realm?" After a moment, one of them suddenly blurted out...
PS: Special National Day burst!