Zhutian Panlong: They've all become gods, and they're only just joining the chat group.

In the Tara plane, within the Olisis Empire and the Silver-Blue Grand Duchy, the aura of godhood reverberated throughout the entire territory. Anyone in the plane whose cultivation had reached a certain level could sense this aura.

At the very center of this turmoil is Richard Hegel, the protagonist of this ascension to godhood.

At this point, Richard had no interest in the outside world. After he had mastered the element of wind, becoming a god was inevitable.

When the rules of heaven and earth descend, the entire process of becoming a god will be uninterrupted, even if the supreme god comes.

Soon, the divine core will be formed, and all of Richard's insights into the Law of Wind will be engraved within it.

Then Richard realized that he could choose to become a god inside his body or outside his body.

The advantage of becoming a god within the body is that there will be no period of weakness after becoming a god, while the disadvantage is that he will no longer have clones, and he will be unable to become a god except for those of the wind element.

The advantage of becoming a god outside the body is that he will have a wind-elemental god avatar and can comprehend other laws to become a god. The disadvantage is that he needs to tear apart half of his divine soul to form the avatar. If he chooses this method of becoming a god, he will have a long period of soul weakness.

Richard would naturally not choose to become a god within the body. Not to mention that he was a transmigrator who had read Panlong, his water element was not far from becoming a god, which meant that he would only choose to become a god outside the body.

After he made the decision to become a god outside his body, the will of heaven and earth seemed to sense his decision.

Then he felt a sharp pain, and his soul was torn in two.

Richard gasped in pain, never expecting the will of heaven and earth to work so simply and brutally; its skill was utterly appalling. It was only because he was protected by heaven and earth during his ascension to godhood that he chose to become a god outside his body—otherwise, it would have been a certain death.

Even the soul of a supreme god would be severely injured if struck like this, if not killed.

As Richard grew numb with pain, a blue figure gradually took shape, its features becoming clearer. This was his wind-elemental divine clone. Richard coughed, channeling his wind-elemental divine power to conceal the figure.

With the help of the will of heaven and earth, Richard had completed his journey to godhood, and even the pain of his torn soul had been somewhat healed with the assistance of the will of heaven and earth. Although his soul was still weak compared to that of a normal god, at least he was no longer in pain.

As for a weakened soul, you can find some treasures to restore your soul power, or you can leave it alone and wait for it to recover naturally. In any case, it will only take a few thousand years at most for it to recover naturally.

Richard merged his divine clone with his main body. He knew that guests would be arriving soon, and now was not a good time to study the transformation into a god.

Not long after Richard finished preparing, the first guest arrived.

"Richard, I knew you'd become a god. You truly are the one I had high hopes for." Before he even arrived, his cheerful voice preceded him.

"Your Majesty Olissis flatters me. Richard does not deserve such praise."

The visitor was the first emperor of the Olissis Empire, the one who brought the Olissis Empire to the pinnacle of power in the Tara plane.

He was arguably Richard's biggest backer in this world. When Richard first transmigrated, he was just a down-on-his-luck nobleman with nothing. Everything he had today was the result of his centuries of hard work.

When Richard first achieved sainthood, he faced the attempts of various forces to win him over, and he chose to pledge allegiance to the royal family of the Olissis Empire.

He only officially entered the royal social circle after marrying a royal princess.

Of course, Richard had never met His Majesty Olissis before. After all, the other party was a mid-level god, while Richard was only a Limit Saint before becoming a god. Although he had some social status, there were at least eighty or a hundred Limit Saints on the entire continent. Even lower-level gods didn't pay much attention to Limit Saints like them, let alone mid-level gods.

The so-called ultimate sacred realm is merely the culmination of a profound understanding of a law, a point just one step away from complete comprehension. However, this final step is an insurmountable barrier. Those who haven't fully comprehended it remain in the sacred realm, while those who have can become gods. The two are of utterly different statuses.

This can be seen from the fact that there are only a few dozen lower-level gods in the entire Tara plane.

"You are still so humble. I started paying attention to you when you first reached the Limit Saint Realm. You reached the limit of the Saint Realm in just over a hundred years. I thought back then that you would definitely become a god."

"Now, less than five hundred years have passed and you have truly become a god," Olissis said.

"It was just a stroke of luck," Richard said modestly. As for His Majesty Olissis saying he had been paying attention to him for a while? Richard would just take it as true. In any case, whether it was true or false, he had no way of knowing.

"Don't let those people who've been stuck at the Saintly Realm limit for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years hear you say that," Olissis joked.

In the Panlong world, one can achieve immortality by cultivating to the Saint Realm. If people in worlds lacking lifespan heard this, they would probably be green with envy.

In this world, there are countless cultivators who, after failing to break through a certain level of cultivation for a long time, experience a collapse of their Daoist heart and turn to enjoying life instead.

As for Richard, what he wouldn't say is that he is fundamentally different from other Saint Realm limit holders. Although he was also stuck at the Saint Realm limit for five hundred years, he never stopped comprehending the profound mysteries of the laws. To this day, he has not just one path to godhood, but three in total: one in the water element and two in the wind element.

Therefore, for him, breaking through to godhood was not a gamble on luck, but an inevitability.

He can become a god as long as he gains insight into any one of the three paths.

Richard simply smiled indifferently at His Majesty Olissis's teasing.

The two tacitly avoided the topic.

Soon, His Majesty Olissis departed. Shortly afterward, several lower gods of the Olissis Empire arrived, including the only lower god of the royal family.

The group was simply there to greet Richard, the newly appointed lower-level god. After all, they were all in the same camp of the Olissis Empire and would be comrades-in-arms in the future.

Although we were in the same camp before, our status was not equal.

Richard had just become a god, and they wouldn't spoil his mood by talking to him at this time, so they left quickly.

But Richard's busyness was far from over; it had only just begun. With Richard's breakthrough to godhood, the entire Silverblue Duchy began to buzz with excitement.

Richard had a son with a royal princess, and over the centuries their descendants have multiplied into a large clan, with the Silver Blue Grand Duke lineage being the most prominent.

Sadly, centuries later, both his wife and son have long since passed away. Perhaps their extraordinary abilities came too easily, making them less appreciative of them.

Neither his wife nor his son liked cultivation, and even Richard's repeated persuasion was of little use. In the end, he could only watch them grow old.

Perhaps all immortals need to go through this process, transforming from the mindset of a short-lived species to that of a long-lived species.

For short-lived species, bloodline inheritance is crucial; it's proof of their existence, an extension of their will. But for long-lived species, these things are unnecessary. It's the family that needs these old folks to exist, not the other way around.

In short, after the deaths of his wife and son, Richard felt a sense of estrangement from his family. He no longer carefully controlled the family's direction, but instead delegated power. From then on, he became a reclusive patriarch, detached from worldly affairs and focused solely on cultivation.

Soon, two other Saint-level experts from the family flew over.

These two are the only two Saint-level experts in the family besides Richard.

After all, the Silver-Blue lineage's existence was far too short, lasting only a few hundred years—the time it takes for a god-level expert to take a nap. In fact, in the eyes of other nobles, the Silver-Blue Duke lineage was nothing more than a nouveau riche with insufficient foundation. Which noble family in the empire with even a little foundation had a history spanning thousands of years?

Even his title of duke wasn't something he initially possessed. In the Olissis Empire, an ordinary Saint-level cultivator could only be granted the title of earl, and even then, their territory was quite poor.

This duchy was granted to Richard after he became a supreme saint and served the empire for a century.

"Hogg, Della, come on in, no need for formalities," Richard said, noticing the two lingering around, seemingly wanting to come in but hesitant to do so.

Hogg is his grandson, and his talent isn't particularly outstanding. Even after being a Saint for hundreds of years, he still hasn't grasped the mysteries of the laws.

On the contrary, Della came from behind. To be honest, Della was not enthusiastic about cultivation at first. She only started to cultivate diligently after she got married, had a bad time in her husband's family, divorced, and returned to her family.

This incident caused quite a stir at the time, making other families the laughingstock of the country. Other families, concerned with their reputation, would probably have given up on Della outright, but Richard didn't care at all; he was happy to let her come back whenever she wanted.

It was precisely because of Della's example that other girls in the family followed suit, and those who were unhappy in their husbands' families also ran to the family.

Therefore, Della started cultivating very late, because she was a mage, and her cultivation speed was not limited by age. If she were a warrior, starting to cultivate after the age of thirty would basically not yield any significant results.

When Della was in her thirties, she was only a level five mage. By fifty, she had passed the level seven threshold, level eight at seventy, level nine at one hundred, and before she was two hundred, she had ascended to the Saint-level mage. Now, at less than three hundred, she has already grasped some of the profound mysteries of the water element, making her a peak Saint-level mage. This can be considered a resounding slap in the face to those who mocked her back then.

With Richard currently not involved in affairs, Della is the strongest person in the entire Silver Blue Grand Duchy and the person in charge of the family's external affairs.

"Grandpa, have you really become a god?" the two asked as soon as they entered, as if incredulous.

I never imagined that my family would become a family of gods.

It should be noted that Richard is the youngest of the seven Saint-level experts in the entire Olissis Empire.

The oldest one has been stuck at the limit of the Holy Realm for hundreds of thousands of years.

And the youngest one besides Richard has been stuck at the limit of the Holy Domain for thousands of years.

The last time someone in the empire became a god was five thousand years ago.

The last time someone in the entire Tara plane became a god was more than two thousand years ago.

Therefore, although both of them knew that their ancestor was at the peak of the Saint Realm and could become a god at any time, they did not have high expectations. After all, their ancestor was too young and still needed to mature.

"Of course it's true. Didn't you all feel the divine transformation fluctuations?"

"That's wonderful! From now on, my Black Forest family will also be a divine family." The two were overjoyed. With their ancestor becoming a god, their family would be the top family under the royal family in the Olisis Empire, on par with those divine families, and in the entire Tara plane, they would be considered to have reached the top ranks of power.

"Alright, our family's foundation is still too shallow, and we lack Saint-level experts. There's no rush to expand. We should remain the same as before. If we want to expand, we should wait until we have accumulated enough Saint-level experts," Richard said.

After calming down, the two realized that their family only had two Saint Realm experts left, and they had to admit that what their ancestor said was true; the family did not have the resources to expand.

"Ancestor, what about the ceremony for becoming a god?" Della asked.

"You guys figure it out, just follow the usual routine." Richard rubbed his temples. He was most impatient with these kinds of rituals and ceremonies.

If he were a carefree hermit, he certainly wouldn't hold this ridiculous ceremony, but now he has to consider his family's interests.