Gol D. Ace In Coiling Dragon

After their conversation ended, both Ace and Linley's group decided to remain together for the time being.

During that time, Linley, with Amira's help, began to teach Yunaia and Olivier the method of utilising "Concepts". A feat that took no longer than an hour or so to explain but several days before either was able to truly get started.

Thankfully, both Yunaia and Olivier had met the entry requirements. Not only were both their souls easily strong enough, but they both also had weapons of incredible quality that matched their respective paths.

That was especially true for Olivier. Despite his soul still remaining in the saint realms and his weapon being a Divine Artifact at the Demi-God level, it appears that after his successful soul mutation, for whatever reason, his longsword – the Luminous Shadow Blade – seemed to have completely accepted him as his new master.

Unfortunately, as magical beasts, the path of concepts wasn't suitable for Oscar and Bebe – at least not until they broke through to become deities and became able to transform into human form.

As a result, the three beasts would often spend their time battling against each other. And as Apex-level Divine Beasts, they each had their pride, making them unwilling to lose to the others.

Still, eventually, a winner was born to rise, and surprisingly, it wasn't Oscar, whose realm was the highest and closing in on the middle stages of the saint realm, but Leona.

Although all three of the Divine Beasts were at the early stages of the saint realm, Leona's comprehension was miles ahead of the other two. It was to the point where, as soon as she genuinely began using her insights into the laws of fire, she became virtually unstoppable. It was only when Bebe and Oscar worked together that they were reluctantly able to suppress the fearsome Lioness.

Until that point, both Bebe and Oscar were happy with their progress and prowess. Although they knew there were many stronger than them, they both felt it was only because they were yet to finish maturing and become a deity.

It was common knowledge that although Divine Beasts held an advantage over their human counterparts with their heaven-defying physical abilities, it was only when they broke through to become deities, awakening their Divine Abilities, that their innate superiority would truly blossom.

That was true for all Divine Beasts, but especially so for Apex-level Divine Beasts like the three of them.

It was because of this that Bebe and Oscar were okay with their current rates of progress, but after seeing Leona's otherworldly battle prowess, something clicked inside of both of them.

From that day, Bebe and Oscar spent all of their free time in meditation, pondering over the laws of their respective elements. A feat that brought a smile to both Linley and Yunaia.

As for Leona, she spent her free time wandering around the fifth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, hunting the various saint-level creatures, refining her battle style, and cultivating to raise her realm.

It wasn't that she didn't want to further her comprehension, but for reasons that escaped her, she couldn't!

She had no idea why, and she'd be lying if she said it didn't profoundly frustrate her, but she was unwilling to sit back and do nothing. All she could do now was slowly raise her realm and hope that everything would be okay after she broke through to become a Demi-God.

As for Ace, whilst everyone else was busy focusing on their training, so too was he. During their time on the second and fifth floors of the ruins, Ace and his group had picked up a number of top-quality treasures that would speed up the cultivation of mortal-level creatures, both beast and human alike.

It was thanks to them that Amira and Leona had been able to raise their realm so quickly previously, but after Amira broke through to the eighth rank and finally had the ability to protect herself in front of peak saints, she was no longer in a hurry to raise her realm, instead focusing on her comprehension.

Although she wasn't like Ace, wanting to raise her comprehension to the limits of the eighth rank before breaking through to the ninth, she still wanted to bring her primary focus back to her comprehension whilst cultivating the old-fashioned way to increase her realm slowly over time.

As for Leona, after breaking through to the saint realm, those resources they found were barely able to scratch the surface for her anymore. The difference in energy levels between saints and mortals was like the difference between night and day. As such, instead of wasting them, she decided to leave them to Ace and Amira.

Even if there were too many for them to finish alone, they could bring it back to their respective forces or even the Pavilion. There were still a number of mortals around them that could use it.

With so many top-quality resources at his disposal, Ace's cultivation as both a mage and a warrior rose like a rocket. Going from the early stages of the seventh rank to the middle stages in a day before spending a little over 48 hours before breaking through to the latter stages of the seventh rank. By the end of the week, he had smoothly entered the peak of the seventh rank, only one step away from entering the eighth rank.

The best part about it was that he didn't have to worry about his cultivation speed affecting his foundation. With the amount of time he spent at each level, his foundation couldn't have been any firmer, even if he wanted it to be.

Unfortunately, it seemed that these resources wouldn't be enough to help him bridge that final gap and allow him to enter the eighth rank – at least not as a warrior, anyway.

It had to be remembered that, aside from the descendants of the four supreme warriors and a select few born with special physiques, no other humans were able to cultivate past the peak of the sixth realm without first cultivating their battle qi. This was even true for Ace and Amira, whose bloodlines were not one bit inferior to Linley's. Still, it was only a problem that affected those who didn't belong to the Yin-Yang Pavilion.

Upon reaching the pinnacle of the seventh rank as both a mage and a warrior, an excited grin took shape on Ace's handsome face as he skillfully used [Impose] to absorb the elemental essence in the world around him to break the shackles that kept him from entering the eighth rank.

He only used [Imposing Devourment] for a minute or so, but when he stopped using his master's incredible technique, a satisfied smile suffused Ace's lips as he felt the changes to his body.

Aiden had previously explained that when breaking through to the seventh rank with the use of [Imposing Devourment], one's body would see a much larger than normal improvement, making their body equal to a magical beast of the same rank, and after reaching the eighth rank, the innate potential of the body would once again increase making it no weaker than some of the more powerful magical beasts of the same rank.

As it stood, although inferior to Divine Beasts and those Mystic Beasts who would become saints as soon as they reached adulthood, the power of Ace's natural body could be considered top tier amongst ordinairy magical beasts.

Still, what Ace was mostly focused on was the changes caused by his bloodline. Similar to when he broke through to the seventh rank, his [Haki] had seen an incredible level of improvement.

As it stood, when he used his [Armament Haki] in its entirety, his warrior cultivation would jump straight to the ninth rank. But what delighted him, even more, was that the power of his soul went from that of a prime saint-level mage to what he could only describe as a ½ step deity.

His soul had finally reached the same level as Aiden's back when they first met, meaning, if it were to improve any more whatsoever, it would break through to the deity level.

The difference in spiritual essence between deities and those below the deity realm was too vast. It was at this level that one's soul transformed into a spiritual sea, allowing those all-powerful deities to utilise their Godrealms.

Because of that, Ace knew that the chances of his soul transforming into a spiritual sea upon breaking through to the ninth rank should be virtually impossible. It was more likely that Ace's already freakish soul would break the norms and continue to grow in size rather than truly transform, but he could sense the limitations imposed by the heavens themselves preventing such a thing from happening.

But more than that, he could sense his spiritual body and its unwillingness to be restricted by heaven…

He wasn't 100% sure, but something told him that he would be pleasantly surprised by his breakthrough to the ninth rank.

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