He already had a guaranteed path to godhood at this point, so Arthur decided to set his sights on something even further out.
The reason the current Douluo Continent couldn't produce gods was because the Divine Realm no longer existed.
Gripping the Holy Lance tightly in his hand, Arthur suddenly had a wild idea.
Could he use the Holy Lance as a foundation, cultivate the elements of earth, wind, water, and fire, and create a Divine Realm of his own?
In theory it was possible. In practice, there were probably countless difficulties he couldn't even foresee.
But it didn't matter. It was just an attempt. If it failed, he'd lose nothing. If it succeeded, he'd ascend to the heavens in a single step.
And when that happened, Arthur would be the one in charge, and everyone would get a share.
Everyone would have a chance at godhood.
The five soul rings of the Holy Lance suddenly burst with brilliant, radiant light, and the four elements of wind, fire, water, and earth condensed into a swirling vortex around Arthur's body, the very air trembling faintly under that power.
Spatial power drew the four elements together, and after a moment formed a small orb of light.
Arthur opened his palm, and the orb of light hovered above it. He studied it closely for a while, then gave a light wave of his hand, letting the power dissipate.
"No good, I have no idea where to even begin."
Gu Yue's figure flashed through his mind, and Arthur suddenly thought he might be able to go learn a thing or two from her.
After all, whatever else she was, she was the Dragon God's other half, the Silver Dragon King who had inherited the Dragon God's wisdom. She should know how it was done.
But there was no rush. He was only a Soul King right now, and he already had a spatial ability. What would his sixth soul ring give him?
A time ability?
He'd look into the matter of creating his own Divine Realm once he'd truly grown strong enough.
Beside him, Agravaine opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, watching the whole sequence of Arthur's actions and the strange phenomena they produced. It took him a long moment before he finally managed to force out a sentence. "I could tell your second martial soul's fourth soul ring gave you the earth element. But what about the fifth one?"
Having raised Arthur from the ground up, through every mess along the way, Agravaine knew quite a lot about him.
"Space."
"Space?!" Agravaine was both shocked and delighted. "No wonder you said you weren't afraid of the Holy Spirit Cult anymore. A spatial ability really is incredibly good for staying alive."
Then he added seriously, "Still, you need to be more careful in everyday life. The power of a Titled Douluo isn't something to take lightly."
Hearing this, Arthur thought it made sense, that he really shouldn't get careless, and so he suggested, "Why don't the two of us give it a try?"
"A try?" Agravaine's eyes went wide, and then he burst out laughing, slapping his thigh. This was exactly what he'd been hoping for. If he didn't seize the chance to give the kid a good beating now, he might never get another chance.
Given the pace at which Arthur was cultivating, there probably weren't many years of opportunity left.
"Alright! Let your uncle here give you a try!"
The moment the words left his mouth, there was a ripple of spatial power, and Arthur vanished instantly, leaving only a parting line behind. "Take your time finding me, old man. I'll be hiding somewhere in Eastsea City. If you can find me today, I'll take your surname!"
"Cocky brat." Agravaine didn't take it too seriously. His Spiritual Power spread outward, blanketing the entirety of Eastsea Academy.
He found nothing.
"Hm? Something's off."
His Spiritual Power kept spreading, until it had blanketed the whole of Eastsea City.
Agravaine's Spiritual Power was like an invisible, massive net, covering every street, every building in Eastsea City.
Whether it was the bustling markets, the quiet back alleys, or the towering buildings, nothing could escape a perception at the level of a Super Douluo.
But no matter how many times he searched, that presence of Arthur's, one he knew as well as his own, seemed to have vanished without a trace, not the slightest hint of it to be found anywhere.
"Interesting." Agravaine rubbed his chin, a flicker of surprise passing through his eyes.
After thinking it over, he flew straight up into the sky, looking down over the whole of Eastsea City from above.
Agravaine hovered a thousand meters up in the air, his eyes turning into the vertical pupils of a Dragon Sparrow, taking in everything below. But Arthur remained nowhere to be found, as if he had never existed in this city at all.
"Hah?! Now I really don't believe it." Agravaine grew a little anxious, and immediately unleashed his true martial soul form.
A colossal Dragon Sparrow soared high above the sky, blazing with dazzling light at the same time.
In that instant, two suns appeared in the sky over Eastsea City.
The blinding light pierced through the clouds, illuminating every last detail of Eastsea City, every corner touched by that light falling within the reach of Agravaine's perception.
And still, even so, he found nothing at all.
Agravaine was starting to question his life choices.
So where was Arthur, really? He was actually right there in Eastsea Academy, chatting with Wu Changkong.
"What's that?" Wu Changkong looked up at the sky. "Isn't that His Highness the Dragon Sparrow? What's going on?"
"No idea." Arthur shrugged, playing dumb. "Probably that time of the month."
That time of the month.
Wu Changkong went completely speechless. There was no good way to respond to that.
After a moment of silence, he pulled his gaze back from the Dragon Sparrow high above and let it settle on Arthur's innocent-looking face, his cool voice carrying a note of helplessness. "That light looks off. His Highness is probably searching for something."
Arthur held back a laugh, quite pleased with how this little experiment was going.
He hadn't left Eastsea Academy from the very start. He was simply sitting right there on the terrace of the teaching building.
He'd suppressed his own presence using the power of fortune, not leaking the faintest trace of it. The fortune granted by the dimensional consciousness might not be much use in a fight, but for staying alive and undetected, it was absolutely formidable.
Of course, that wasn't the main trick. Simply not leaking his presence wasn't enough on its own.
On top of that, Arthur was making use of the fifth soul skill granted by the auspicious beast, Destiny.
It let him completely sever the threads of fate binding him and Agravaine together, running the two of them fully parallel for a short period of time.
During that time, the two of them could never meet, could never form any connection whatsoever.
Put simply, on the level of fate itself, he had become someone who "did not exist" within the scope of Agravaine's perception.
That was the mechanism behind it!
He glanced over at Xie Xie, who was off to one side secretly putting in extra training. Over the past two and a half years, Tang Wulin had come from behind and completely surpassed Xie Xie's soul power level, and it had struck a nerve hard.
Arthur looked toward Wu Changkong and changed the subject. "Shouldn't we be heading out soon?"
"Heading where?" Now it was Wu Changkong's turn to play dumb.
"Where else? Shrek, obviously."
"Let's wait a bit longer."
"Wait for what?!" Arthur complained. "Seriously, what is there for you to be afraid of? I've got your back, man!"
A complicated look flickered through Wu Changkong's eyes, and it took him a long moment before he finally spoke, quietly. "It's not fear. It's guilt. Back then I insisted on leaving, and I let my teacher and the academy down."
"Now I just..." he shook his head, "I don't know how to face my teacher."
Arthur barked out, "Look at yourself right now! Get it together, don't lose face!"
"Dragging your feet like some kind of drama queen."
"You're just coming along to keep me company while I study, that's all."
"One word, are you coming or not?!"
Wu Changkong was caught off guard by Arthur's blunt jab, a flash of embarrassed frustration in his eyes, quickly replaced by deep conflict. He fell silent for a few breaths, then suddenly lifted his head, his gaze turning resolute. "I'm coming!"
"Now that's more like it!" Arthur grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's no big deal. Once we're at Shrek, whatever happens, I've got it covered!"
"You go let them know. I'll go have a word with Xiao Xu first." The "Xiao Xu" Arthur meant was, of course, Long Hengxu.
Class Zero had all signed contracts back then, so if they wanted to go to Shrek now, they naturally needed Eastsea Academy's approval first.