"Because I had a bit of a conflict with my colleagues in the Divine Realm, I'll be spending the next few centuries here on Douluo Continent. If your talent and performance satisfy me, I wouldn't mind giving you some extra guidance."
"But don't get too greedy—do things step by step. For now, focus on completing your first trial. At your current age, the most important thing is to improve your basic attributes."
The God of Arrogance casually took out a fruit from his sleeve, bit into it twice, and then, noticing Chen Ming looking at him eagerly, pulled out another identical fruit and tossed it over.
Although the fruit originated from the Divine Realm, it wasn't any sort of precious treasure. It was just a fruit nourished by immortal energy. For god-level beings, it didn't bring significant improvement, but the taste was decent. When the God of Arrogance descended to the mortal realm, the God of Gluttony had specially sent him a bunch of these fruits to enjoy.
For the God of Arrogance, who didn't particularly crave food, these fruits weren't anything valuable.
Chen Ming wiped the fruit and took a bite. He could feel a surge of immortal energy melting in his mouth before being absorbed by his body. Feeling the intensity of energy within the juice, Chen Ming suddenly recalled a question that had always puzzled him.
"Senior, I've always had a question about gods and divine positions. Could you enlighten me?"
"Ask away. If it's something too sensitive or something you shouldn't know at your current level, I won't say it. For other questions, I'll answer depending on my mood."
The God of Arrogance's tone sounded somewhat provocative, but he bore no ill intent.
"According to the basic information about the Divine Realm provided by the God King of Destruction, our world of Douluo is already considered a high-energy plane in the universe. Even so, according to the Divine Realm's power system, the lowest-level divine officials and law enforcers have strength equivalent to level 100 in our plane."
"With that calculation, how do worlds with energy levels lower than Douluo's ever produce gods? Do those planes even have enough energy to nurture god-level beings?"
"That's a good question. The fact that you can think this far already puts you ahead of the majority of the rigid-minded fools in the Divine Realm."
The God of Arrogance gave a proud smile and began explaining to Chen Ming.
"Becoming a god through one's efforts and inheriting a god's position are two entirely different things. A god-level being and a god with a divine position are also not the same. A divine position is a special artifact, a limitation imposed by the cosmic laws."
"In comparison to your world, many other worlds have energy level caps equivalent to about level 79 or 89 in your system. Logically, such worlds shouldn't be able to produce god-level beings."
"But…" The God of Arrogance paused as if realizing he was about to touch on old matters related to the Dragon God. After a brief hesitation, he continued.
"But nothing is absolute. The universe contains many Divine Realms, and within the rules of our Divine Realm, there's a law regarding divine positions. This law was added to the Divine Realm's system by a powerful god who had reached an extraordinary level. It allows worlds with insufficient energy levels to nurture god-level beings."
"In some worlds, the limit is level 79, but certain exceptionally talented individuals might reach level 80. These individuals, who almost transcend the plane's limits, make it nearly impossible for the plane's forces to kill or destroy. When these beings gather faith power, they can gradually forge a rudimentary divine position."
"For such worlds, there's still a vast gap between their strongest beings and true gods. However, under the rules of the Divine Realm, these special individuals can use faith to coalesce the simplest and least growth-potential divine official prototype. They can then establish a connection with the Divine Realm."
"In this case, the gods overseeing the Divine Realm will dispatch other divine officials or law enforcers to guide these beings. With the help of the Divine Realm's central power, the rudimentary divine position gets completed. However, divine positions forged in this manner are only as strong as a divine official, with very limited growth potential."
"The Divine Realm's energy level is extremely high. Once these ascending divine officials merge their divine positions into the Divine Realm's central system, their power will be directly boosted to the upper limit of their current realm. This is why lower-energy planes can still produce gods. However, since the laws of lower-energy planes are often underdeveloped and their energy limited, the gods they produce generally max out at the level of divine officials."
"Still, ascending as a divine official doesn't mean you can just sit back and relax. Because their divine positions were forged with the Divine Realm's help, divine officials must continue completing tasks assigned by the Divine Realm to repay the immortal energy and faith power they borrowed."
"Only after they've repaid the energy they borrowed for ascension—plus a bit of interest—can divine officials begin accumulating power to further advance."
"That being said, very few divine officials or law enforcers ever manage to grow into third-class gods. As for second-class gods, there aren't any at all."
"I think the Divine Realm's interest rates on this are a bit high."
As Chen Ming listened to the God of Arrogance, he couldn't help but feel something was off.
According to the usual logic of fantasy novels, once you hit the level cap in your current area, shouldn't you just move to the next area with a higher level cap? Why did it seem like the Divine Realm's rules deliberately blocked conventional ways of advancing to new areas, forcibly absorbing talented individuals into its system instead?
Those prodigies who could break through the limits of their low-level planes would surely achieve tremendous growth if placed in a higher-energy plane, wouldn't they? No matter how you looked at it, it didn't make sense to trap them forever at the divine official level.
It was like how a fallen genius from a Dou Qi plane could eventually become the master of the Endless Fire Territory. One of the three supreme rulers of The Great Thousand World.
Moreover, logically speaking, beings who surpass their world's limits should help drive their world's evolution. For instance, they might refine the world's energy system to make cultivation easier or even directly enhance the world's energy level. Over generations, these small changes could gradually elevate the plane's power level.
But this method of directly absorbing talent seemed like it would slow or even halt a plane's evolution. And why did this process suddenly sound like taking out loans to work? A world's peerless prodigy ascends to the Divine Realm, only to owe the Divine Realm's central system a debt of energy. Then, they have to work endlessly to repay it before they can continue advancing. Doesn't this sound strange?
No matter how you think about it, it feels suspiciously like student loans from a certain country! If an unlucky or slightly weaker divine official can't repay the energy debt before they retire, do they just stay stuck forever?
This rule—created by a powerful god after reaching a certain level—inevitably made Chen Ming think of the Dragon God and the words left behind before the demise of the Fire Dragon King:
["Don't trust the Dragon God. The Dragon God is the greatest liar."]
What exactly did the Dragon God deceive people about? How many lies were told? Could the Divine Realm's ascension system itself be part of the Dragon God's lies and schemes?
Is the Divine Realm's time flow—where one day in the Divine Realm equals one year in the lower realms—a natural limitation of the rules, or was it deliberately set up by someone?
In the Divine Realm, one year passes while hundreds of years pass in the lower realms. After ten or so years in the Divine Realm, the ascending gods would lose all ties to their original plane and stop investing energy into it, instead fully integrating themselves into the Divine Realm.
Was this intentional or accidental?
And at the very beginning, how exactly did the Dragon God become a god? Did the Dragon God break through to god-level on their own and then create the Divine Realm, later forging the Dragon God's position through the faith of the dragon race? Or did they first forge a divine position through faith and then use it to raise their strength to god-level?