Sage Monarch

Night in the god world was absolutely pitch black, without any moon or stars.

The howling of the wind made it seem like terrifying creatures might leap out from the night at any moment to grab them. Thankfully, they had shelter, which made them feel a bit safer.

The cabin was quite secure. Brahma had instructed them how to plant the logs deep into the ground to provide maximum defense against any wild animals.

Many people present were grandmasters when it came to spell formations, but at the moment, this structure was the only thing they had to keep them safe. They were now ordinary people who couldn't even use their true energy externally. Because of that, they couldn't carve or craft magical devices, or use the vital energy of the god world to unleash divine abilities, much less create and operate spell formations.

"We'll need to be able to unleash godpower before we can use spell formations," Brahma reminded them. "Right now, we're like Energy Arts practitioners in the mortal world. For the time being, we need to focus on training and cultivation. Normally speaking, only people who are on the verge of godly ascension can work with spell formations. We call people like that Quasi-Gods. They're a step above the average citizen of the god world."

"Yang Qi," Doom said, "how far are you from reaching the peak Terrifying level? From the way you were catching those fish earlier, it seems your cultivation base has already improved. You must be close to a breakthrough."

Yang Qi cast his senses inside and found that his blood vessels and muscles were transforming, becoming more in line with the magical laws of the god world.

"I think I am," Yang Qi replied. "I'm already starting to understand the god world a lot more, and godhood is forming within me. It won't be long before I should be able to reach godly ascension without any problems. Thanks to my God Legion Seal, I can absorb the magical laws around me, and understand their ultimate meaning. With that, I can slowly form a god body and gain the constitution of the legion of gods."

Of course, he was also thinking about how strong Proud Heaven was. If it was so difficult to survive in the god world, how had Proud Heaven returned from the place? What good fortune had he come across?

If Yang Qi wanted to return, he wouldn't even know where to start.

Crash. Crunch.

All of a sudden, noise broke the stillness of the night; it sounded as though some creature was making its way through the forest at the edge of the beach.

Snap!

The animal stopped outside of their wooden cabin and struck the barrier with claws of some sort, as if it wanted to break in. Everyone jumped in shock, and were about to rush out to start fighting when Brahma reminded them, "It's very dangerous at nighttime. You can't see a thing, which means you're an easy target for the wild creatures. Don't worry, it can't get inside. Just wait it out."

There were more scratching sounds and everyone inched closer together, ready to start fighting if the creature somehow broke inside. Some nibbling sounds could be heard, then silence returned as the creature apparently gave up on trying to get inside.

Everyone breathed sighs of relief.

All of a sudden, Yang Zhan yawned and laid down on the ground as if to sleep. "It's so strange," he said. "Even before I was a Master of Energy, I gave up sleeping. Now here I am, a mid Terrifying expert, and I'm about to fall asleep?"

"If you're tired, sleep," Brahma said. "Restore your energy. That's another reason I suggested building this structure. When you're a god, you can do without sleep. But before then, you need to get your rest."

Hearing that, Yang Zhan laid his head over and was snoring a moment later.

By this point, everyone except Yang Qi was feeling tired. After all, he had the God Legion Seal.

"You all sleep," he said, "I'll stand watch. I don't need rest. Hopefully, by the time I gain enlightenment of how the God Legion Seal and the god world interact, you'll all be able to use your divine abilities."

Everyone nodded, although no one could see that. Laying in various positions, they all drifted to sleep.

Yang Qi kept his ear cocked for any noises on the outside, and at the same time focused on his breathing exercises. The true energy in him flowed constantly, getting stronger as he worked. The God Legion Seal also seemed to be breathing, and whenever he circulated his true energy, the seal would absorb some of the magical laws of the god world, using them to turn his true energy into godpower, and by extension, help build his god body.

Brahma had not yet fallen asleep. "Yang Qi, once you reach the peak Terrifying level, you'll be able to send godpower out of your body and use divine abilities. That will be very helpful. I'm getting the sense that this isn't actually an island, but rather a continent."

"You know a lot about the god world. Do you have any idea where we are?" Yang Qi asked.

"The god world is huge," Brahma replied. "So big that not even the Sovereign Lord knew every square inch of it. So how could I possibly know where we are? That said, I'm fairly certain that this continent is controlled by pirates. If we run into them, we could be in big trouble."

"Pirates?" Yang Qi said, unable to hold back from laughing at the idea of pirates in the god world.

"Yes, pirates. They're extremely vicious characters who aren't exactly commoners, but at the same time, can't reach godly ascension. They're very strong, second only to the actual gods. In fact, some are Quasi-Gods. So without being able to use divine abilities, we're definitely not in the position to fight them." Brahma sighed. "Ai, we really need to reach godly ascension...."

Snap!

All of a sudden, they heard a shriek out in the darkness, then a crashing sound. The cabin around them shuddered, and they heard what sounded like wood shattering.

Skin crawling, Yang Qi jumped to his feet.

For some reason, he was certain that there was now a hole in the wooden wall of the cabin, and although he couldn't see anything, he was sure that there was a very peculiar hand reaching inside, trying to grab one of his companions.

Cocking his head and listening very carefully, he then launched a palm strike. It was pure martial arts, backed by the power of his fleshly body, and it was aimed squarely at that strange hand.

A yelp rang out as he made contact with a furry paw and sharp claws. His arm stung from the impact, but at the same time, he heard the crack of a breaking bone. Then the owner of the hand scampered off into the night.

"What was that?" Yang Qi asked, his heart pounding with fear. "It broke into our cabin? This is god world wood that we could only break with the Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth!"

"Based on the sound of its breathing, I'd say it was a ghost-face monkey. They're even worse than the fangfish. We definitely need to be careful, as they're so strong that only peak Terrifying experts can deal with them. That said, once it's day again, we won't need to worry." Sighing, Brahma lay down and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Yang Qi remained awake the entire night.

Eventually, the night passed and day came. There was no dawn, it simply went from darkness to light, almost instantly.

'It's day finally. What a rough night....' That was what everyone was thinking. Making their way out of their shack, they saw bits of fur and blood in various places. Obviously, if they had been out in the open during the night, the consequences would have been too horrible to contemplate.

"Everyone get to work chopping more wood," Brahma said. "We need to strengthen our cabin and accomplish whatever else we can during the daytime. Everyone take one of the fish Yang Qi caught yesterday and eat up."

For breakfast, they ate raw fish. It took a few fish to get full, whereupon they set to work. They still didn't have any tools, so they were forced to use the raw power of their hands and feet to chop wood.

Yang Qi and Brahma did the majority of the work. Some of the trees were so enormous that not even Yang Qi could chop them down with his Strength of the Hell-Crushing Godmammoth. At most, he could leave some scratch marks on them.

But as he continued to work, and his true energy flowed faster and faster, his arm eventually glowed with golden light. At that point, he was able to chop down some of the larger trees.

Thus, the day passed, ending with their cabin much stronger than the day before. They used vines to tighten everything down, and thanks to the harrowing events of the night before, they worked hard to have three layers of wood on each wall.

Night fell, and this time they rested a bit more easily in the cabin.

Eventually, the nocturnal animals came out. Quite a few nosed around the cabin, and some even tried to break in, but they all failed.

More nights passed.

They had now been in the god world for three days. Their days were spent chopping wood, catching fish, and working on their cabin. Their nights were spent sleeping.

Brahma also spent time helping them get used to the magical laws. Slowly but surely, everyone was converting their true energy into godpower, which helped them advance their energy arts and improve their psychic scales. Unfortunately, all of them were still far from the peak Terrifying level. But at least they were all coming to be like martial arts experts from the mortal world.

By now, it wasn't very difficult to chop down trees and catch fish.

Their cabin grew larger, and on the third day, Yang Qi managed to kill a rather large python.

It was as thick as an arm and fully nine meters long, and had launched itself like an arrow at the Shepherd. Thankfully, Yang Qi was faster, intercepting it and bashing its head in with a palm.

Brahma recognized the beast as a black weedmountain python, which was so venomous that it could kill anyone under the level of a god.