The Body That Defies Death
The independent Main Gods of the Divine Realm stared at him with expressions of utter incomprehension at his casual reply: “I killed every last one of them who tried to constrain me.” The surrounding Main Gods wore the same baffled looks.
“What part don’t you understand?”
“No matter how strong you are, it’s impossible to handle an entire clan alone. Even a 1st-Circle expert can’t withstand the coordinated assault of four skilled opponents. And the drain on divine power would be enormous. How exactly did you manage an entire clan?”
“Pfft—! Hahahahaha—!”
The laughter burst out of him unbidden. So that’s what they couldn’t grasp. Makes sense. I got heated when those worthless fools started acting superior and tried to turn me into a slave, but I never expected it to be this easy. He said the same thing—that he couldn’t understand how weak the ruling class actually was.
He hadn’t realized the gap between 11th-Circle and 12th-Circle was so vast. More accurately, they had no idea how much stronger they had become by following his training regimen.
Better to show them once than explain a hundred times.
He seized the divine artifact attached to the full-body armor of the “Main God who reigns above the heavens” with his will. The artifact possessed considerable control, yet it was still only at the level of a Highest Main God. He casually broke free of that control and poured his own divine power into it. The adamantite mixed into the artifact began to strengthen under the infusion of over 100 billion divine power. It would easily be enough to destroy a Highest Main God’s body.
He accelerated the artifact through empty space straight toward himself—specifically toward his eyes, the weakest point of the body.
Whoosh—!
A sharp tearing sound split the air. The surrounding Main Gods cried out in shock. If a Creator Candidate’s divine power were loaded into a Highest Main God’s artifact, even another Creator Candidate wouldn’t escape unscathed—especially when the target was the eye. A mere graze would destroy it. For an ordinary Creator Candidate, that is.
Watching the Main Gods rush forward with wide eyes to block the attack only made him laugh harder. Heh. These guys can be genuinely adorable sometimes.
Whoosh—!
The next moment, every Main God present leapt to their feet in shock. The razor-sharp artifact had crumpled like clay striking a rock and stuck to his face in a misshapen lump. It had clearly struck the eye directly, yet the divine weapon that could tear apart even an Outer Universe Highest Creator God’s body had been crushed into a pathetic fist-shaped wad.
Hwi peeled the artifact from his face and held up the lump imprinted with the exact shape of his eye. He tapped it with his finger.
Tap—! Tap—! Tap—!
His fingertip sank into the metal, punching holes straight through. The sound of him casually poking and scratching the lump of adamantite inside the Main God’s hall was chilling. With each touch the artifact deformed further, riddled with holes like clay under a child’s hands.
The adamantite artifact, reinforced with a Creator Candidate’s divine power and far exceeding the durability of a Highest Main God’s body, was being kneaded in Hwi’s grip without him using any divine power or authority whatsoever.
Of course, they could destroy adamantite themselves. But to block an attack and then casually reshape it without expending any divine power—that was impossible. Even for a Creator God, the very idea of achieving this with the body alone was questionable.
Now reduced to a tattered rag, the artifact was flicked lightly into the air with a finger. Hwi smiled.
Ting—! Ting—!
“My body, tempered through his training, isn’t invincible. There’s still one more member of the Demon God Tribe.”
A chill ran down the spines of the surrounding Main Gods. The pitiful state of the artifact floating in the air overlapped with their own images. And now they were told another such monster existed among the Demon Gods.
Another monster like that in the Demon God Tribe?
A demon who can ignore attacks from Highest Main Gods and crush reinforced bodies like dirt?
The one who tore off the Creator General’s arm did it with pure strength?
That means he can pour all his authority and divine power into destructive force? More importantly, maintaining a physical body in reality costs him no divine power or vitality at all?
The implications were staggering. Upon closer inspection, there was no trace of the divine power reinforcement typical of the God Tribe on his body. He was displaying this level of power with nothing but the body itself.
He’s maintaining his body without consuming divine power.
That means he possesses infinite durability and stamina.
As the stunned Main Gods tried to process the absurd conclusion, Hwi infused a bit of divine power into the artifact he had flicked into the air, making it glow. Proof that he had used no divine power until now.
“Correct. I don’t use divine power to move my body. I fight solely with my transcendentally trained physique, so until I activate an authority, I never tire and my combat strength never drops. That’s how I fought continuously for seven days with just this body and buried every fool in that clan who tried to constrain the strong. True strength must be infinite. That’s why the word ‘infinite’ is attached to the authorities of any decent Creator God. Remember this! On a battlefield of Creator Candidates and above, if you fire off a couple of flashy transcendent authorities and then collapse from exhaustion, it’s over. If the opponent defends and then counters while you’re open, you must be prepared for annihilation. Most beings at that level possess sufficient defensive power, so you need continuous maximum output. Fail to do so and you die defeated. Only those capable of it become Creator Gods.”
Hwi lightly struck the lump of artifact still floating in the air with the ring finger of his right hand.
Thud—! Tap—! Whoosh—!
Under that playful strike, the artifact—reinforced with a Creator Candidate’s divine power—slowly crumbled into dust in midair. It had failed to withstand the concentrated destructive force and collapsed from the outside in. If that strike had landed on the body of a Highest Main God weaker than himself, the result was easy to imagine.
“Of course, this level of attack power is just the baseline. Without a finishing technique capable of ending the fight in a single blow that surpasses the opponent’s defense, the battle will never conclude. Forget the common sense that the Demon God Tribe has stronger attack power but weaker defense than the God Tribe. Their recovery power is absurdly high instead. A Demon God at the level of a Demon God King candidate will instantly return to full condition through infinite stamina and recovery unless killed in one strike. Combined with infinite authorities that surpass transcendent ones, you have to fight endlessly—and it ends in a draw. Damn it. Just like me.”
Thinking of his certification match opponent made his expression twist involuntarily. Both their bodies, tempered by that foundational training, had completely transcended death. As long as even a shred of fighting spirit and divine power remained, their bodies were “immortal.” Not the laughable “immortality” of endless ordinary recovery, but true immortality where the body suffered no damage or cessation unless struck by a higher divine-rank attack or completely drained of divine power and vitality. Only “annihilation”—when every last drop of divine power and vitality was consumed, leaving only the divine soul—could bring defeat to either of them.
This is why no matter how hard we try, we can never settle the match. Yet neither of us can yield for the sake of our clans.
In short, to lose meant abandoning the body, which meant having to redo all the training from scratch.
Even I would consider giving up rather than repeating that foundational training again. I can’t believe my certification opponent turned out to be that bastard no matter how the fates twisted.
Until then, they had been on excellent terms—both highest-ranking members of their tribe who wanted its revival and had undergone the same training. Now they were mortal enemies. At least the tribe was beginning to recover thanks to having two Creator Candidates, but they had made no further progress beyond that. The two strongest battle gods of the Almighty God Tribe were holding each other back, so they had no choice but to push the other Main Gods through a weakened training process to create more Main Gods, but it was only the beginning.
The elders and whatnot—anyone stronger than Main God level gets shoved into mercenary god work to earn money, but they’re too weak compared to the old universe’s powerhouses. They can barely make a living, let alone take on the high-risk, high-reward missions that pay us so well.
Yet the Almighty God Tribe kept droning on about their glorious past. It really seemed like they needed to be overturned again. The biggest problem, however, was that even Creator Candidates weren’t enough for a complete revival of the tribe.
Only by becoming a Creator God can one create a Main God Star.
Without a Main God Star, they would remain direct-subordinate Main Gods forced to obey orders forever. No wonder he couldn’t help resenting his certification opponent.
Damn it! Just yield already. I told him that once I became a Creator God I was confident I could reach Highest Creator God in one leap, and that I would definitely help with the tribe’s restoration, minimize losses, and even assist him in becoming the Highest Demon God King—I even offered to sign a Karma Contract. And his answer was what?
A simple, mocking laugh, as if the very idea were ridiculous, followed by an attack.
BOOOOM—!
“You want me to do that again? Acting like a god while scamming? You yield and get annihilated instead. Sacrificing yourself for the tribe is the job of a Light God, not a Demon God. If you’re going to preach like a Light Main God, then stop scamming and sacrifice yourself!”
“Drop the prejudice that Light Gods only scam! We do sacrifice ourselves once in a very great while.”
“You lunatics! If any of you had actually sacrificed yourselves for the tribe even once, you’d be annihilated at the very bottom. How the hell are you occupying all the high positions and Main God seats in the Divine Realm? And you still claim that sacrificing yourself for the whole is what Light Gods do? At this rate I should’ve become a Main God myself! What kind of situation is this? And you think I’m going to fall for it again?”
After that, they fought with the resolve to settle it once and for all, but no authority or transcendent authority from either the God Tribe or Demon God Tribe could annihilate their trained bodies. They could reduce each other to rags, yet there was simply no way to finish the fight. No matter what authority they developed or used, they couldn’t bring death to each other’s bodies. The opponent was in the same situation, driving both of them mad. That was why they had achieved such overwhelming victories even against the Substitute Gods without ever being annihilated, yet the anxiety that they might remain eternal candidates was slowly creeping in.
This is the secret technique of his clan that brought us endless glory and at the same time crushing despair. It has been completely revealed by him, yet almost no one has mastered it. Honestly, even we are only at the basic stage, barely imitating it.
Even so, they could fight on equal terms with a Creator General while possessing only Main God divine ranks, but they could never surpass that realm. The result was an unprecedented ten-thousand-year certification match between Creator Gods.
Most matches are decided in the early stages, but our compatibility was atrociously bad and we got tangled up. I heard the current Creator Gods and Demon God Kings interfered, but the truth is we were simply so strong that the only comparable opponent among the candidates was each other, and we had crushed everyone else with ease.
Since the only ones in each tribe capable of facing Creator Candidates or Demon God King candidates were themselves, their selection was inevitable.
Just like before, we tried to end the certification match with a single all-out strike—and how dumbfounded we both were? There was no room for mercy, so we went all out, but in the end we couldn’t decide the match and it came to this.
With a sigh, Hwi recited the secret technique his body, the strongest of the Almighty God Tribe, had miraculously mastered.
“Huu—! ‘The First Movement of the Eightfold Celestial Rhythm of the Incomprehensible—Heavenly Time Without Limit.’ The time of heaven is endless. Among them, the opening verse: Ascend to Heaven Through Tempering. To ascend to heaven, one must temper oneself.’ That is the portion of his authority I have mastered. Depending on the degree of tempering, it grants the body ‘immortality’ that prevents death, and as an additional effect, infinite stamina and endurance. Everything else I possess comes from the Almighty God Tribe’s authorities, but they weren’t even necessary to deal with my own clan. My body cannot be damaged by lower divine ranks, nor can they bring me death. In such battles, I don’t even need divine power. In the end, no matter how many there are, gods of lower rank than me can never stop me. It’s only a matter of time.”