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*****
From profound truths, Su Wen thought of divine thrones, and from there, he thought of authority.
At this moment, Su Wen felt as if he had seen through the very essence of a divine throne.
The so-called authority...
"No wonder it is so difficult for the Divine Realm to become a Divine Star."
Su Wen remembered hearing about it in his past life--the Death of the Dragon God was tied to the Divine Star, which was the next evolutionary stage of a Divine Realm. Back then, the Dragon God had intended to forge the Divine Realm into a Divine Star.
Su Wen did not know the exact details of the plot. By that point, he had already lost interest and hadn't kept up with the series. He only knew about the Dragon God's ambition to establish a Divine Star because he had heard others talking about it.
At the same time, he had heard various theories, such as how the Dragon God's failure was ultimately due to the universe's instinctual resistance.
Su Wen could now understand that point as well.
The core of a divine throne is authority.
And the core of authority is bending the fundamental laws of the universe!
Therefore, the universe resists!
A Divine Star was highly likely to be a form of existence completely independent of the universe, with internal rules that were entirely self-governing!
Authority was not about conforming to the fundamental laws of the universe; it was about stealing the universe's power. The gods, too, were merely intercepting the cosmic energy corresponding to their authority.
As the universe develops, the cultivators within it grow stronger along with it. Once the internal cultivators reach the absolute limit of the universe, they give back, fueling the universe's further advancement.
This was what Su Wen considered the most ideal model of cosmic development.
The universe provides the environment for cultivators. Whether the cultivators drain resources or however they choose to practice, as long as it doesn't cause the universe itself to regress, they can reach the peak of the universe. Then, as they attempt to transcend, they can help the universe take a step forward, aiding the homeland that nurtured them to break through its bottleneck. That would be ideal.
An advancement relying solely on cosmic instinct is agonizingly slow and riddled with uncertainty.
The same applied to life planets. For a planet like the Douluo Planet, upon reaching the threshold of the God Rank, it simply could not break through. At this stage, if the Soul Masters within the Douluo Planet could discover the starry sky, develop space exploration, and then have Limit Douluos attempt to absorb and refine the more primordial cosmic energy--breaking free from their dependence on the Douluo Planet--their chances of breaking through to the God Rank would be far greater than remaining trapped inside the planet.
If they succeeded, it would mean an advancement for the entire Soul Master cultivation system, which would immediately give back to the Douluo Plane that had given birth to it. Even the breakthrough of this God-rank powerhouse originating from the Douluo Planet would provide the planet itself with an opportunity to ascend.
Even if they failed, a Limit Douluo could independently devour and refine a significant portion of cosmic energy before death. The amount of energy returned would at least be no less than what was consumed to birth a Limit Douluo in the first place.
Failing to break through successfully, they could still return to the Douluo Planet. After death, everything would be returned to the planet, perhaps even paying a bit of 'interest.' Over time, this would also give the Douluo Planet a chance to take a step further.
This was the most harmonious and ideal development model in Su Wen's mind.
However, cosmic instinct will resist, just as life planets instinctually bind their native cultivators to prevent them from breaking through their limits.
This was pure instinct. Taking such a path meant cutting away flesh first, while the return on investment depended entirely on character.
Even humans capable of rational thought would hesitate to place such a bet, let alone a planet or a universe driven purely by instinct.
Hence, a Divine Star attempting to transcend would face the resistance of cosmic instinct.
...
Returning to the main topic.
"Authority is the channel through which cultivators steal from the universe to obtain feedback, bending the very laws of the universe's operation..."
Su Wen fell into an epiphany. His comprehension of divine thrones and authority began to skyrocket.
"The fusion of profound truths is authority. By leveraging the power of faith, the power of a profound truth can be magnified and stabilized. Then, using this as a focal point and relying on the willpower within that faith, those wills can be anchored and diffused into the domain of the profound truth, eventually swallowing the universe's laws of development in that respective direction."
The Divine Realm.
The Sea God appeared within the temple of the Rock God.
"I say, Old Rock, it's about time you passed that trial of yours. Su Wen is currently in a perfect state and needs your help," the Sea God said.
The Rock God opened his eyes. Sensing through the imprint, he also felt Su Wen's condition. Right now, the power of faith within Su Wen's sea of consciousness was not only dense, but it had also begun to converge, carrying the aura of a profound truth. This was a manifestation of Su Wen unconsciously fusing the power of faith with his profound truths during his epiphany.
"Formations have already spread across the Douluo Continent, and I have even received feedback from it. Furthermore, Su Wen has spread the formation system on the Heavenly Bead Planet and is perfecting it. The faith related to formations over there will also give back to me."
The Rock God was clearly very satisfied at this moment.
The reason he had not handed out the reward until now was because he was waiting for an opportunity--waiting for the perfect moment to give Su Wen his reward.
He hadn't noticed it immediately just now because he had recently felt himself drawing very close to becoming a First-Class God. Just today, he had an opportunity to break through to a First-Class God, so he hadn't paid attention to Su Wen's movements for a brief moment.
"Since that's the case, let me lend you a helping hand!"
The Rock God confirmed the completion of the trial mission. At the same time, he imparted his numerous techniques regarding the elevation of a divine throne to Su Wen, while completely instilling into him the various skills of extending and utilizing authority.
"The first trial of the Black-Level Trials has been completed: Establish the formation system. Reward: The Rock God's Insights."
In Su Wen's mind, the voice of the Rock God--which hadn't appeared in a long time--echoed once more.
This Black-Level Trial, which consisted of only a single trial, was finally considered complete.
The reward was distributed immediately after.
A massive amount of insights regarding the Rock God surfaced in his heart. Su Wen's previous comprehension of authority had already reached a bottleneck, but now, through the Rock God's experience, he rapidly deciphered and elevated it once again.
The elevation of authority, the condensation of authority, the application of profound truths within authority, using profound truths to inversely influence authority...
These various experiences caused Su Wen to become instantly captivated, unable to extricate himself.
Immersed in his insights, the boundless power of faith stored within his sea of consciousness spontaneously began to fuse with his many profound truths.
The Profound Truth of Creation, the Profound Truth of Destruction, the Profound Truth of Time, and the Profound Truth of Space.
Of course, these profound truths did not conflict with his faith, yet they were not a perfect fusion either. Therefore, even though they were already in a state of fusion, Su Wen showed no signs of condensing the prototype of a divine throne.
Because his core profound truth had not yet condensed. His current array of profound truths could only be considered nourishment; a core capable of truly commanding these various profound truths had not yet appeared.
Even though Su Wen's many profound truths had actually fused and he possessed the Holy Power of Creation to carry everything, creation did not match Su Wen's path of knowledge. Because of this, Su Wen did not condense a Divine Throne of Creation.
In fact, the Profound Truth of Creation was also fused from the four major profound truths, serving as an auxiliary profound truth to the authority of the God of Knowledge, melting into Su Wen's power of faith.
Su Wen's comprehension was incredibly swift.
Although the content was exceedingly vast, Su Wen's own accumulation was incredibly robust by this point. For a moment, a massive surge of inspiration gushed forth. Where he truly spent his time was in sorting it out--categorizing and summarizing the numerous ideas in his mind, allowing them to clash and spark new inspirations, thereby continuing to gain even more new understandings.
"A divine throne is within arm's reach."
Recovering from his state of epiphany, Su Wen was highly confident.
He could indeed condense a divine throne anytime, anywhere.
However, his divine throne would be that of the God of Knowledge, not some God of Creation. That was not his core, nor was it his primary path of cultivation.
The so-called creation was also just a verification, a practical application of the knowledge possessed by an all-knowing and all-powerful entity.
"Right now, I can condense a divine throne of the time, space, destruction, or creation type at any moment. It's just that it would definitely clash with those existing gods. A conflict of authority might occur, affecting their collection of faith. I cannot act rashly, otherwise it might draw the attention of too many gods."
"Of course, gods of the creation type are generally benevolent. I can attempt to condense one. Even if I don't have the power of faith related to creation, I can spread a little bit of it and then forcibly condense it."
At this moment, Su Wen finally enjoyed the benefits of his path.
Having gained so many insights, the assistance in condensing a divine throne had begun to materialize.
A normal god required an incomparably vast power of faith just to support the condensation of a powerful divine throne.
Back then, when the Sea God condensed his First-Class Divine Throne, he had gathered the power of faith for a full thousand years. He unified the entire ocean and collected faith before barely achieving the Sea God throne.
And no matter how advanced Su Wen's thinking was, and no matter how he harvested batch after batch of faith, to be honest, his accumulation over these years still had not reached the level of the total amount of faith the Sea God had collected back then.
It wasn't even half.
However, once Su Wen's core profound truth was comprehended, his power of faith would be able to rapidly combine with his numerous insights. After fusion, it would yield a First-Class Divine Throne that was at least not weaker than the Sea God's.
This was the confidence Su Wen gained after this epiphany.
Right now, even if it was just his Profound Truth of Creation, with only a tiny bit of faith assisting it, he could condense authority and achieve a slightly smaller Third-Class God of Creation throne.
Though weak, it would highly likely be a tangible deity in Su Wen's understanding!
Just a profound truth, paired with a token amount of faith, was enough to condense a Third-Class Divine Throne of Creation.
And if his power of faith reached the current level of his knowledge-sided faith, Su Wen estimated that he could barely attempt to push for a First-Class Divine Throne of Creation.
Although a God of Creation being only a First-Class God sounded comical, that was the reality.
Comprehension, at this moment, materialized into a visible and real progress toward the condensation of a divine throne.
Su Wen pondered for a moment, deliberating whether he should attempt to condense this divine throne.
Although it might only be a Third-Class God in the short term, its ceiling was incredibly high. The faith of creation was not easy to collect in the later stages; it seemed it could only be elevated through the faith of living beings. But for Su Wen, it was different.
There were numerous avenues for a god to elevate their own power of faith, most of which were obtained by intercepting the 'taxes' of heaven and earth--which was authority. For instance, the God of War intercepted power from battles; even if the creatures in battle held absolutely no faith in him or even loathed him, he could still absorb the power of faith. Under the concept of the ocean, the Sea God could permanently obtain a stable income of faith.
An iron rice bowl.
However, the God of Creation seemed to be merely a concept.
Moreover, it wasn't the kind of concept that existed conventionally.
Because creation had already long passed.
At most, the birth of a life planet--this tiny act of creation--could derive a faint power of creation faith.
However, this was negligible for the elevation of a divine throne.
Therefore, once the Divine Throne of Creation was truly condensed, it would highly likely remain at this magnitude forever.
Unless the faith was exceptionally fervent.
This was clearly very difficult.
Even with Su Wen's level of appeal, he wouldn't dare to twist his believers' faith in knowledge into a faith in creation.
Thus, the pathway of obtaining faith from the beliefs of living creatures was also a drop in the bucket.
Without an income of faith, the possibility of elevating the divine throne naturally vanished.
However, that was under normal circumstances.
Su Wen was different.
He had too many small worlds to open up.
According to his plan, if he really continued to open them up based on the structure of great chiliocosms and lesser chiliocosms, he might open up countless small worlds in the future, perfecting his personal small domain to the point of a Divine Realm or even a completely new universe.
Or perhaps, perfecting it to a boundary like a Divine Star?
Such a future meant Su Wen still had plenty of possibilities to acquire faith as a God of Creation.
"And condensing the God of Creation now, even if it can only reach the Third-Class God level due to a lack of faith, a Third-Class God with a divine throne is still equivalent to a Super God-rank in the universe!"
In the universe, the True God-rank corresponded to a Third-Class God without a divine throne, and the Super God-rank corresponded to a Second-Class God without a divine throne.
With the enhancement of a divine throne, a deity of the Divine Realm could exert a level of power one rank higher out of thin air. In other words, a Third-Class God with a divine throne would be considered a Super God-rank when placed out in the universe.
This was an immense supplement to Su Wen's current situation.
Of course, this didn't mean a Super God-rank could contend with the Abyss, but a Super God-rank foundation would allow Su Wen to better carry the power of the Great Dao of the universe.
In this way, he might truly be able to borrow enough power to resist even two or three moves from the Abyssal Sovereign.
Coming back to his senses, Su Wen calculated the time.
He had only prepared for ten days before setting out.
When teleporting, he didn't teleport directly onto the face of the Abyss; he had left himself time for comprehension.
With this epiphany, Su Wen carefully calculated that about three days had passed.
In three days, the Abyss was already drawing near.
Of course, the Abyss--which originally should have entered the Douluo territory in two days at full speed (a total of half a month)--was currently still a considerably vast distance away from the Douluo territory precisely because they had slowed down.
But even so, it was already very close to Su Wen.
"Let's perfect it just a little bit more."
Su Wen didn't just wait idly; he continued to perfect his Three Talents Great Dao Formation.
His understanding of authority gave him a new train of thought for perfecting the Three Talents Great Dao Formation, preparing to use authority to carry the power of the Great Dao, thereby further ensuring that he would not be assimilated.
"Ideally, I should use my three small worlds as a more concrete carrier."
Su Wen looked inward at his own three small worlds, his heart surging with emotion.
Right now, there was no time for him to go to the Douluo Planet and arrange for the faith of a God of Creation.
He could only extract the residual power left over from when he previously opened up the three small worlds.
Possessing the Profound Truth of Creation, and with sufficient understanding of authority, Su Wen actually drove it directly with the profound truth at this moment, absorbing this remnant power.
The power of faith converged.
Su Wen began to undergo a transformation.
"My soul power level is still not enough; it's impossible to truly become a god."
"Furthermore, I want to open up my own Divine Realm. Becoming a god of the Douluo Divine Realm won't do."
"Therefore, this Divine Throne of Creation cannot be achieved within the Douluo Divine Realm." Su Wen looked at his three small worlds, his expression changing slightly.
He would condense the prototype first; truly becoming a god would have to wait a little longer...
(End of Chapter)