Sage Monarch

Everyone was surprised that a snake could be so strong, and wondered what would happen if something like it escaped into the mortal world.

Using his hand like a blade, Yang Qi skinned the snake and pulled out its gallbladder. Instead of being soft, as might be expected, it was as hard as a diamond. It was virtual godhood, except completely different from the type they were used to in that it was corporeal.

Considering they had been in the god world for a few days now, they were all in the process of converting their true energy into godpower, and all of them had virtual godhood.

"Virtual godhood will be very useful in increasing our psychic scale," Brahma said. "We can boil that gallbladder into a soup to eat."

"Boil it into a soup?" Jadefall said. "We can't make fire, so how are we supposed to boil it?"

At the moment, the purrling rested in her arms asleep, seemingly unconcerned by any of the dangers around them.

"If I'm not mistaken, it's going to start raining soon. And when the lightning hits the trees in the forest, it will start fires."

Apparently, Brahma was very familiar with how the weather worked in the god world.

RUMBLE!

In fact, even as the words left his mouth, they heard the rumble of thunder, and then a great bolt of lightning fell, smashing into the nearby forest with resounding force.

Almost immediately, they could see scorching hot flames rising up from the point of impact.

"Hurry, the storm is coming!" Brahma said. "Go get some of that fire! Let's hope that our cabin can stand up to the rain. The storms that come off the ocean can be incredible!"

In the past few days, they had set about reinforcing the cabin with rocks, making it even sturdier against the animals. However, Brahma had only continued to ask them to strengthen the place, which before had seemed odd, but now made perfect sense. Considering that everyone here was so familiar with spell formations, it was a given that they would build the structure according to a set plan, and that it was well thought out. As of now, it looked much more civilized than it had when it was just sticks and logs.

Looking up into the sky, Yang Qi saw more lightning falling, and at the same time, could see powerful vital energy fluctuations from the incoming storm. There were also black clouds gathering, filling him with a sense of foreboding.

"Everyone get inside, I'll go get the fire."

He leaped into the forest, flying from tree to tree almost like an ape until he reached a spot where the fire was burning. Based on the intensity of the flame, Yang Qi could tell that this fire was vastly more destructive than anything from the immortal worlds.

Grabbing a rather oily fallen branch, he stuck it into the fire, resulting in hissing and popping sounds as it ignited. Then he hurried back to the cabin.

Even as Yang Qi entered the cabin, more crashing sounds could be heard as the rain began falling in earnest outside.

"Good, you're back," Brahma said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Hopefully the rain passes soon. Otherwise, we might be in trouble."

The crash of rain was so loud that it sounded like top experts were unleashing torrents of sword energy onto their cabin. In fact, it seemed like the rain might break through the ceiling and walls.

"Ah, this is nothing," Sword Seventeen said. "It's just rain, right? What's there to be afraid of? In the mortal world, I used to look for the biggest storms possible to practice my sword techniques in. In fact, maybe I should go outside and do some practicing right now. The natural power of the god world should be great for improving my sword techniques."

With that, he walked toward the door.

"Hold on!" Yang Qi said, blocking his path. It was just then that a raindrop happened to work its way through the roof and drop onto Yang Qi's hand. Hissing sounds rang out as his skin started to dissolve!

It was so painful that Yang Qi let out a yelp.

"The rain is that corrosive!?"

He quickly drew on the power of the God Legion Seal, sending golden light out to repair the melted skin.

Meanwhile, Sword Seventeen was staring at him with his jaw hanging open, shivering at the thought that he had just been about to step out into the rain.

"Rainfall in the god world is nothing short of catastrophic," Brahma explained. "If you're born here, and your genes are connected to the essence of the god world, it won't hurt you. But we just came here from the mortal world and are still tainted with its essence. This rain would be very damaging to us, and would probably kill us."

"How come the ocean water didn't hurt us?" Yang Qi asked.

"Rain's rain," Brahma replied, "and ocean water is ocean water. The rain sits up in the sky, brewing, filling with the preheaven power of the gods. When that power falls to the earth, it becomes ordinary godwater. But the preheaven version needs to be avoided. Eventually, perhaps in ten or fifteen days, we'll have refined enough of the mortal aura within us that the rainwater won't cause major problems. At that point, we might get sick if we ended up soaked, but little more. In any case, the deadly nature of the rain makes it dangerous for anyone who hasn't reached godly ascension. For weak people like that, the only hope is to become believers in some god and enter the protection of their god kingdom.

"Let's build the fire up. It'll keep the cold away, and believe me, the chill in this rain would be harmful if it seeps into you."

They had a lot of wood in the cabin, so they dug a pit and built up a roaring fire that drove away any cold. Soon, they all felt warm and cozy, and their true energy flowed even better than before.

By this point, they were all convinced of the extraordinary nature of the god world fire. At a certain point, Jadefall produced a stone pot they had hewn out, which they used to boil the snake gallbladder into a fragrant soup that soon had their stomachs grumbling.

Right now most of them were wearing the hides of various animals that Yang Qi had killed over the past few days. Their previous clothes had quickly disintegrated, and their god items were gone. The only items they had left were Yang Qi's fragments of the Cruiser of Civilization. And in terms of disintegrated clothing, the only exception was Yang Qi, who, thanks to his God Legion Seal, could wear his God Legion Battle Robe.

Everyone else present had been used to wearing clothing made from true energy, but as commoners here in the god world, they would be naked if they didn't wear beast hides.

For all intents and purposes, they were like savages now.

As the rain crashed and the storm raged outside, their cabin shuddered and creaked, making them worry that it might collapse at any moment.

In fact, they all regretted that they hadn't worked harder in the previous days to make the structure even stronger.

RUMBLE!

As everyone scrambled to keep the cabin from collapsing, they suddenly heard a loud rumbling sound that sounded like something slamming into the shore.

However, they were too focused on keeping their cabin standing to worry about it.

Drip. Drop.

Soon, rainwater was making it through the roof, dropping into the interior of the cabin, forcing everyone to dance this way and that to avoid it. Unfortunately, the leaks got worse and worse, until water was falling everywhere.

Purr. Purr....

A drop landed on the purling, causing it to shiver and let out two angry purrs. A bubble popped into being around everyone. At the same time, Yang Qi used his God Legion Seal to heal them of any injuries they had sustained from the rain hitting them.

They were safe.

The rain continued without cease until, eventually, their cabin collapsed.

Everyone in the group marveled, fully aware that if it weren't for the purrling, they would have been severely injured, or possibly even killed. Thankfully, not a single drop of rain could get through the purrling's bubble.

The screaming winds raged around them, combining with the falling water to create a scene of chaos that was almost nothing but a blur. There were even occasions when the wind lifted up pieces of wood or rock, which would slam into the exterior of the bubble before flying away.

"Incredible," Brahma said, looking at the purrling. "How can this godling have energy arts like this? It's a miracle! What is it? I've seen a lot of things in life, but I've never seen anything like it!"

Yang Qi wasn't as surprised. Further, although he knew the purrling was amazing, the downside was that it wasn't possible to control it. Sometimes it used its amazing powers, and other times it didn't.

Hour after hour passed. Eventually, the rain stopped and the sky cleared. At that point, the bubble vanished.

Landing on solid ground, everyone looked around. Although the sky was now bright and clear, the beach looked like a disaster zone.

"Hey, what's that?" Jadefall said pointing up the beach. Everyone looked over and saw a ship that had apparently run aground into the offshore reef. Scattered corpses could be seen here and there around it, with a few living beings trying to crawl up onto the beach.

1. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, snake gallbladders are believed to be very beneficial to the health. In fact, it's something of a trope to have characters in Chinese fantasy novels grow stronger by eating them.