As the first and the final life among the Six Lives and Five Realms, Huang had been sent by his parents to be a living sacrifice during his childhood. Just as he was about to be sacrificed, the priest brought about a chaotic entanglement of karma! This led to Huang being chosen by the Myriad Karma Corpse Immortal to become the number one lackey under his command. However, he did not view himself as a mere lackey, but rather as someone akin to a partner.
"They" were different from the other Law Corpse who completely submitted to the Myriad Karma Corpse Immortal. Because of the chaotic and fickle nature of fate, Huang believed his entire life was dominated by destiny. After being influenced by the memories transmitted from the Anatta Avatar, he saw the truth of the world, and he understood it all.
Just as Baili Yuan had said, "My life is like a roller coaster. I can't jump off the tracks, but at the very least, I must choose whether to move forward or backward."
"I will not allow anyone else to meddle with karma. The progression and regression of history can only be dictated by me."
"They" were all the same kind of people, which was why they could face death so nonchalantly, because they were ultimately the masters of their own destiny.
Moreover, Huang did not want to become a servant of fate. He chose to fall into an eternal slumber after the Myriad Karma Corpse Immortal was fully born. He wanted to make everyone else slaves to destiny, trapped and repeatedly bouncing within a predetermined cycle of life and death, while he would become the sole individual to leap out of fate.
This was a misanthrope's revenge against the world.
The same held true for Huang at this very moment! He loathed an unchanging destiny, and he refused to have someone manipulating fate above his head--nothing more, nothing less.
Thus, this grand drama of karma was set in motion. If the Laws of Karma were still present, it would likely provoke another round of rolling divine thunder. Unfortunately, the Laws of Karma did not exist here, though they soon would...
Huang sat upright on Sui Yuan's inverted tower, quietly gazing at Tang Hao, who was manipulating things from the shadows while hiding within the planar gap. He was merely waiting for Tang Hao to show himself to instantly deliver a fatal blow, after which he would drastically alter the laws and allow the Laws of Karma to descend upon this land.
Perhaps karma left without anyone to guide it would give birth to some bizarre entity, but at this exact moment, the top powerhouses of the entire continent had gathered. An endless amount of karma was seized by Huang, and a Fruit of Myriad Karma had already been born in his hand.
The transparent fruit in his hand alternated between illusory and real, its shifting patterns representing the condensation of the power of providence. The layered, iterating lines of cause and effect were the Laws of Karma in the truest sense.
The world itself possessed karma and destiny, but unfortunately, karma was scattered and vacant, with no one to weave it.
Once it was injected into the planar gap shortly, natural laws and dispensations would be born into this world, which might bring about some miraculous changes to the martial souls themselves...
"Something's wrong! You haven't fully become a 'God' yet! The Divine Seat! Divine power! The power of faith! You clearly have them all! Why is your strength only at this level? The Sea God shouldn't be at a level like mine, and you shouldn't be at this level either."
Even though he was suppressing Skadi in combat, Chen Xinjie already sensed that something was amiss. He could feel that a god should not be this weak.
Relying on the excellent contemporary theories on martial souls, people had long begun to speculate about what boundary a "God" should reach and how to take a step further.
The most widely accepted view came from Herta, who became a Titled Douluo at just fifteen years old. Although it was said she exploited a loophole in martial souls and might need a few years to progress further, her research on martial souls remained unparalleled, and even they could not refute it. Years ago, she had published an article titled Gods Are Merely Stronger Living Organisms!
Despite her words being full of disrespect toward the divine, her research remained well-founded and logical.
The most formidable part of it was her hypothesis regarding the Divine Seat! To progress further after achieving godhood, one absolutely had to enhance the strength of the Divine Seat. The reason gods passed down their Divine Seats was because a Divine Seat was both an opportunity and a shackle...
Although this article did not trigger widespread discussion--as people felt that gods were too far removed from them, and some even considered it a baseless, ethereal hypothesis--he knew that Yun Ming agreed with it. His subsequent battle with Yun Ming proved this hypothesis once more.
Only by possessing divine power, or by refining soul power into divine power, could one break through rank one hundred. And only the stronger the Divine Seat was, the stronger one's combat power could be...
Chen Xinjie slowed his offensive because he was lost in thought. Taking advantage of the opening, Skadi drove the Trident heavily into the surface of the sea. The ocean then split apart like a terrestrial rift. Countless sections of the sea, accompanied by endless Seaborn, surged toward Chen Xinjie along with the shockwaves. As they smashed into him, they drenched his entire body in the blood of the Seaborn once more, causing Skadi to finally ease her offensive.
"The records in the ancient texts about attaining godhood at rank one hundred and causing heaven and earth to change color... that's actually just the level of a Divine Officer... A Divine Seat is a cheat code that can absorb the immortal energy of the Divine Realm to help a god rapidly increase their strength. That is why a god can remain in the mortal world for a hundred years."
"My current divine power is all burned out of the power of faith, so it definitely isn't as strong as refining it myself based on a Divine Seat, right?" Skadi remarked blankly.
Afterward, Skadi gazed into the distant horizon. Sensing something, she directly withdrew the simulated Trident, crossed her arms over her chest, and stared at Chen Xinjie.
Skadi was stalling for time, but wasn't Chen Xinjie doing the exact same thing? The Sea God Helmet told him that the Sea God's Light was coming. Although he didn't know why this Sea God had stopped, it didn't prevent Chen Xinjie from voicing his question.
"Are there ranks to a Divine Seat?"
"It seems your ancient texts have all been altered. They didn't even record this? The initial rank is a Divine Officer, followed by a Third-Class God, and so on all the way up to a God King. They can just directly pour divine power into your body and force a Divine Seat upon you! By the way, Tang San went straight to the rank of God King!"
Skadi touched her pure white, smooth hair and said casually.
"No need to perceive or learn the Law? Then how are you supposed to control the Divine Seat?" Chen Xinjie asked back in disbelief. To achieve godhood without any comprehension, relying solely on the cultivation gained from the Divine Trials?
When he read the biography of the Sea God back then, he had marveled at how Tang San's hammer and Blue Silver Grass had absolutely nothing to do with the ocean, yet he could still become the Sea God--surely his talent must have been extraordinary! It turned out it was directly gifted by the god who created the Divine Seat??
Then how simple must that have been? Wasn't becoming a god supposed to be fraught with thousands of hardships and dangers, passed down at the brink of life and death, just like in The Biography of Tang San? Although Chen Xinjie felt it was embellished and exaggerated when he read it, he never expected it to be this simple!!
"Now that the Divine Realm is gone, if you want to become a god, you naturally have to use the hardest method: gathering the power of faith to forge a Divine Seat, and then infusing it with your own comprehension of the laws. Only then can you achieve godhood. Divine power and divine status will connect based on the priority of your affinity with the Divine Seat."
Chen Xinjie had already figured out why this Sea God seemed a bit weak. Without the infusion of immortal energy, she was still just at the level of a Divine Officer. Fighting by burning the power of faith was one thing, but her affinity with the Divine Seat was bound to be the strongest. Just standing beside her made Chen Xinjie feel as if he were facing the entire ocean, not to mention her abilities involving Sea Soul Beasts and earthquakes. The original Sea God's comprehension of the laws probably hadn't been this outrageous.
Immediately, Chen Xinjie thought of something. He looked up at the impending Sea God's Light, and then at the flesh and blood covering his body--god knew how much of it belonged to the Sea God!!
Gazing at the dense Sea God's Light, it was likely that even if the Sea God were alive today, he could only unleash this much! Along with the divine sense within it! Chen Xinjie had already realized what the Sea God Tang San wanted to do...
Possession!! Taking over his body to defeat the new Sea God, or directly entering her body with his divine sense to seize it outright.
But this Divine Seat wasn't even refined by yourself. Can you actually out-wrestle a Sea God who wove her own Divine Seat? Aren't you just delivering yourself on a silver platter?
The skyrocketing Sea God's Light enveloped both of them, and the golden divine sense split directly into two portions, charging straight into their minds!!
"Damn it! Tang San!! You little bastard!! Do you not have any realistic awareness of your own level?" Seeing that the divine sense split into two portions even for a possession, Chen Xinjie was infuriated. No, really? I, your Sea God Priest, have fought to the death for you!! And you still want to possess me? Just how deeply do you distrust people?
He stared at the Sea God before him, whom he had fought for a long time and thoroughly evaluated. Her true meaning of the ocean was invincible; she only lacked the cultivation to become a True God.
Seeing the half-smiling expression on this Sea God's face, Chen Xinjie knew in his heart that it was all over.
"You mother***, f*** your***"
Chen Xinjie's expression collapsed completely as he began to curse loudly. However, with the Sea God Helmet on his head and the divine sense playing tricks on him, his eyelids began to droop, and his consciousness started to fade.
Tang San, you idiot! I f*** your entire family!! In the final moments of his fading consciousness, Chen Xinjie unleashed his parting grievance.