I Don't Agree to the Terms

After all, for pirates, these islands are truly great to plunder: low defenses, wealthy, and unable to escape. Would they rather not target these islands and instead challenge the navy or their fellow pirates? The former would bring them major troubles with little gain; the latter might even be poorer than themselves.

Following their plunder, pirates naturally proceeded to engage in reckless spending, as there was no point in saving money for a coffin, having chosen this line of work. Thinking of retiring peacefully was out of the question.

On the other hand, after Gu Shanhai brought the Child of Destiny's Divine Phase Investiture of the Gods to an uninhabited sea area, he directly manifested his true form.

A breakthrough definitely required his true form. It didn't matter that he wore transformations allowing him to change size or shape; it was just that during the breakthrough, it would affect his self-monitoring since his state was disguised.

The enormous Fluorescent Giant extended a hand to grasp the giant scroll made up of Divine Beings, and this action caused the Divine Beings within the scroll to struggle frantically. They seemed to sense the scent of death drawing closer by the moment, and if they really were devoured by Gu Shanhai, everything would return to dust, never to be revived.

It was unfortunate that, no matter how they struggled, they couldn't free themselves from the restrictions of the Child of Destiny's Divine Phase Investiture of the Gods, as they were part of it.

"Stop struggling, the time has come; you all need to go," said Gu Shanhai.

Plant tendrils on Gu Shanhai's face wriggled frantically, instantly enveloping the scroll before being pulled into his body.

The Divine Beings' wails echoed intermittently, seemingly as an attempt to resist Gu Shanhai's assault, which naturally had an obvious outcome.

The breakthrough process initiated; this Divine Phase Investiture of the Gods inside him dissolved directly, and the wails of the Divine Beings abruptly ceased.

The Divine Beings had vanished.

Following this, Gu Shanhai felt his strength increasing wildly.

"After the breakthrough, at least level 3500," estimated Gu Shanhai, projecting his strength a month later.

Previously, he had been only at level 2500. With this single breakthrough, gaining a thousand levels was not much of a problem.

In Xuanzhen Realm, transitioning from Cave Soul Stage to Divine Phase Stage certainly didn't have this function. Gu Shanhai's system wasn't a standard one; his cultivation system now had no relation to Xuanzhen Realm's system anymore.

Normally, the situation should be the transformation of the Purple Mansion Spiritual Vein into an internal landscape, then the internal landscape materializing into an external landscape, which, in combination with the Child of Destiny's Divine Phase, achieves the Real Self Phase—meaning the three methods of heaven, earth, and human, intended to refine heaven and earth for human use.

However, Gu Shanhai, after becoming indescribable, had already lost the external landscape. Regardless of the fact that the Purple Mansion Spiritual Vein had become part of the external surface of the Fluorescent Giant, the internal and external landscapes had become a natural ecosystem within him, making it unimaginable to use them in conjunction with the Child of Destiny's Divine Phase to achieve the Real Self Phase.

Thus, Gu Shanhai took a different approach, crafting this Divine Phase Investiture of the Gods into a unique Divine Acupoint.

Using 365 main stars as the major acupoints and then 14,800 secondary stars as minor acupoints.

Eventually forming a network of channels throughout his body, this was the new Divine Phase he created to compensate for lacking the Real Self Phase.

In fact, he could totally rename it something else, only Gu Shanhai simply didn't bother to change it.

One by one, the Divine Acupoints appeared in Gu Shanhai's translucent body, dazzling like numerous stars.

As for breakthrough Divine Skills, they were also gradually taking shape. The name of this Divine Skill was called "Plum Blossom Easy Number," and naturally, its efficacy was formed in the same series as the original breakthrough Divine Skills.

"As expected, using the many Divine Beings crafted into this Child of Destiny's Divine Phase Investiture of the Gods not only serves as my breakthrough material but also allows my Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor to grow as well," said Gu Shanhai, his expression calm. However, he found that the growth of his Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor wasn't limited to just growth but also included an enhanced upper limit.

Normally, to become a prototype of the world, he indeed just needed to continue developing the Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor, but the required development time was definitely crucial and would at least be counted in tens of thousands of years. This time, due to the nourishment of other Divine Beings, it was shortening his development time.

"If this time goes smoothly, after achieving completeness, it would take at most a hundred years for me to successfully transform into a world prototype."

A world prototype, not a fully developed world.

However, he was certain that if he achieved a world prototype, then after breaking through the Magic Awakening Stage and Peeping Dao Stage, he might be able to skip levels, omitting the intermediate development process to directly become a world.

After all, the cultivation system in the Xuanzhen Realm was based on plunder, and the breakthrough materials required for the next two stages naturally involved some core elements of the world.

"Plus, with that leaf from the World Tree, perhaps I could really achieve it in one step."

Gu Shanhai pondered, and then secreted a black viscous liquid from his skin, which moved as if alive, yet was incredibly chaotic.

"These things are indeed problematic," Gu Shanhai said as he collected the black viscous liquid.

The black viscous liquid was everything unnecessary from the Divine Phase of Heaven and Earth's Investiture of the Gods expelled from his body.

Its essence was the chaotic divine power and authority within a divine's body.

"Good stuff, can't go to waste," Gu Shanhai squinted, thinking that this could be used to create Demon Fruit.

However, Gu Shanhai didn't plan to create the fruit directly, he was thinking of experimenting, processing this divine power and authority to return to the world, just like when he created Human Dao's will.

This way, the Demon Fruit would emerge in various forms and would never perish.

Even if destroyed, it would be reborn.

"But that will have to wait until after my breakthrough."

Gu Shanhai wasn't exactly a saint, he surely wouldn't give it away for free, it was to serve as a foundation for his revival.

If he added the I Ching to his breakthrough and divine skills combination, he would acquire the ability to revive with traces, and if the Demon Fruit could become popular in the entire Azure Sea World, even spread through players to many worlds, then Gu Shanhai's path to revival would become broader and broader.

But this was only one of his basic strategies, not everything.

As for traces, the more and heavier they were left, the more they wouldn't disappear.

"Extracting all this stuff properly will at least take a month," Gu Shanhai decided to tackle everything at once, breaking through while simultaneously strengthening himself.

As for the Grand Line and the Red Earth Continent, there was no rush; his body still contained much to handle.

For instance, when he had absorbed the Three Elements of land, sea, and sky, even though they were integrated into the ruling power of the Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor, he found some issues, so waiting to extract them together later was not too late.

"This world is certainly no easy opponent, hard to digest when swallowed."

Originally, there was no issue, but when the Investiture of the Gods entered his body, the Three Elements also continuously emanated from within the divine.

It was probably the principle of dietary incompatibility.

The Three Elements themselves were at odds with divines, and Gu Shanhai even deliberately lured them into his body.

Luckily, Gu Shanhai was prepared and had a coping strategy, otherwise, he really would have to shout "break for me," no, he would even have to call Wang Qi to shout together with Gu Shanhai, as shouting alone wouldn't be very effective, given that he wasn't the protagonist, the Child of Destiny, with no added bonuses.

Later on, he could modify the waste cleaned out from his body into the Red Earth Continent and the Grand Line; after all, using leftovers didn't really bother Gu Shanhai.

Keeping them might be useful in the future, but that was just a possibility, and whether they could be used was another matter.

"Next, let's practice martial arts, I'm idle anyway, might as well try to master the Martial Arts Divine Power like Child Skill Golden Bell Shield Iron Cloth Shirt as soon as possible."

On his body, only the last two layers of the cultivation system and the poorly ranked Abnormal God·Heavenly Emperor, as well as the moderately skilled Martial Arts Divine Power Child Skill Golden Bell Shield Iron Cloth Shirt, needed improvement; all else, be it Spirit Root Abilities or tactics, were already at full level, and to grow stronger he would either need to find completely new resources or rely on enhancing his own inherent power.