Nine months later, Divine Energy fluctuated from underground as if an eruption happened underground.

Right on the surface was a mountain filled with magma. However, there was a tunnel leading deep underground.

This was where Alex entered deep inside, trying to reach the planet's core as fast as possible. This tunnel was far longer than the one he met in the mission with Aria, where he found the tallest mountain.

The temperature became higher the deeper he got.

According to the ten God Beasts, he could strengthen his power even more. This was the process that the former Fire God had undergone during his ascension, allowing him to reach the peak.

It consisted of four steps. The first step was him absorbing normal Spiritual Energy and the second step was getting a huge amount of Fire Energy from a burning planet. He had endured these two for normal cultivation and Fire Authority.

In fact, this was one of the reasons why Phitrus left behind his Fire Authority. Not only could he pass on his technique, but he could lead him to the right path. He asked the beasts to occupy this planet because he wanted to protect the place where Alex could reach the third step.

After all, the third step was him absorbing the Fire Energy from the Planet Core itself. As long as he could get used to it, he should be able to reach the fourth step, where he absorbed the Fire Energy from the star itself.

Yes. This was what Phitrus learned after fighting the Phoenix. Instead of believing the phoenixes were different from them, he wanted to discover their difference and incorporated them into their system.

Unfortunately, only Alex understood this after taking a bath inside the molten lava. Even the God Beasts didn't understand because they never entered this place.

After a long nine months of training, Alex understood the reason and broke through, officially becoming a Rank 5 God.

This change really allowed him to reach this stage this early. At the same time, it opened another opportunity for him in the future where he could absorb the fire energy from the star. He called it Star Essence.

At that time, his Pure Fire might evolve again to a Fire that surpassed Phitrus's Pure Fire, the one that could kill the phoenixes.

Alex gradually opened his eyes. Everything was red for him, considering he was inside molten lava. He looked around with his Spirit Eyes and found the tunnel.

Since he had finished his cultivation, it was time to go back.

Surprisingly, the moment he came out, all the Ten God Beasts had been waiting for him outside the mountain.

"Congratulations, Your Excellency, for reaching Rank 5 God under one hundred years old."

Alex smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

Alex turned around and looked at Rhadon. "Are the others safe?"

"Yes." Rhadon nodded. "Lady Letizia has long reached Rank 9 God, heading straight to Rank 8. The same applies to Lady Evelyn and Rose. However, Lady Rose's Sword Technique has been improving by leaps and bounds, which have created another wave of happiness. Lady Rose is also improving her aim and control with my wife helping her."

"Thank you for your hard work." Alex smiled before noticing that the layer of ashes was kind of lower than the previous height.

Noticing what he was thinking, Rhadon explained. "Lady Silvia has successfully extracted thirty percent of this world's ashes, creating two Ash Essence. The excessive ingredients are refined into her own nourishment, allowing her to greatly improve her cultivation. Unfortunately, she hasn't reached Rank 3 God yet."

Alex nodded and asked. "After this, what are you going to do?"

"We will just follow the agreement before. My wife and I will remain in this world while the rest will form an investigation squad."

"Still, I have absorbed this planet's essence. I believe that the Spiritual Energy coming out of the core has been reduced."

"We know, but both of us have never thought about reaching God King, so it's enough for us just to maintain our strength for the great war. We have done everything we can during the past few thousand years. A few decades won't change our strength by much." Rhadon shook his head in disappointment.

"Is that so? I will respect your decision." Alex nodded while closing his eyes. "In that case, I will return to their side, alright?"

"We understand."

Before leaving, Alex gave another message to Rhadon…Only Rhadon since he sent it through the thought transmission. "If you are stuck and have nothing to improve, you, who have been enhanced by Fire God's Pure Fire, should begin absorbing the fire from the World's Core. You can say it's the World's essence. That will make your fire closer to the phoenixes that killed your Master."

Listening to his words, Rhadon's body shook as he quickly lowered his head, showing his gratitude. The others were confused for a second and realized that it must be related to Alex. However, Alex already disappeared.

He had arrived in front of the small hut where he found Lin Xingzhi and Rose.

"Ah, Master!" Rose waved her hand with a smile.

"You're back." Lin Xingzhi smiled.

Alex nodded to her while patting Rose's head as soon as he landed. "Anything new?"

Lin Xingzhi hesitated for a few seconds before sighing. She said, "Your coronation will be held in three months."

"I see. I will be ready by that time." Alex nodded with confidence.

"What is your plan?"

Alex thought for a moment. "Because of various reasons, I haven't gotten a chance to open the weapon gate in Encore, so I will go there right after this. And I think I will consolidate my power first after absorbing too much World's Essence. It's quite unstable."

"I see." Lin Xingzhi nodded.

"After that, I will go to the Dungeon God's inheritance. Since I thought I needed to be a Rank 5 God first before entering the trial, I have been refraining myself this whole time. Unfortunately, I can't go now because I don't know how long it will take for me to clear the inheritance. Hence, I am planning to prioritize the coronation first before going there."

"Yep. You can do that." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and asked. "Are you ready to challenge the whole universe?"

"Of course. I have been ready the moment I decided to become the Spirit King." Alex smiled.

"That's good. After all, this road is a path of sacrifice. Millions of people will die during this war, but I wish we can stand at the top."

"Yeah." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "By the way, how about our allies?"

"We only have the Blackwade Clan at this time. Probably with Silvia's family. Other than that, there are no certainties that they will ally with us again. After all, the pact is only between them and the former Spirit God."

"Either way, we can have three or four God Kings in an emergency, so we have enough assurance to move forward no matter how hard it is."

"Agree." Lin Xingzhi smiled before her expression turned serious. "Still, out of the thirty-two God Kings, we have found that half of them are too far from us to even fight us. From that number, there are five people who seem to have a grudge against the Spirit God. I don't know what they will do, but I am sure that at one point, they will gather together sooner or later."

"I see. In that case, we will eliminate them as soon as possible. However, this will also create chaos in the universe and people will start getting threatened by our existence. To that end, before eliminating them, I will negotiate with a few neutral God Kings to prepare themselves against the beasts instead of being scared of me."

"I will help you in convincing them. Although the record is quite fuzzy, I believe we can persuade up to three people. Your existence is already out anyway, so it's fine to meet them." She thought for a moment. "I will be searching for the right candidate for the alliance against the beast."

"Thanks." Alex nodded. "Also, I want you to trust no one. There are chances that they are traitors because humans or any species can turn into one of the "weapons" so I don't want to take the risk."

Lin Xingzhi waved her hand.

"By the way, can you wait here first while I go to Encore? It's not like it will take a couple of months just to consolidate my foundation. So, I can spend at least one month for all of you in exchange for the one year we have spent here."

Lin Xingzhi smiled and nodded. "Alright."

Alex then nodded. "In that case, I shall not waste any more time."

With just a wave of his hand, Alex disappeared, heading straight to Encore.

Just like the previous time, he traveled inside the Black Hole to arrive at the universe where Earth belonged.

Although with his current strength, he only needed a few days to reach Earth as long as he knew their location, he had no interest in going back to that place.

He used his Teleportation Array to send him to Encore, reaching the same room where three out of the five gates had been opened.

"To think I would have completed it this soon." Alex furrowed his eyebrows.

He opened the gate without hesitation.

His vision was filled with shelves. Each shelf had at least ten weapons and the room was so big that it could even have one million weapons inside.

"This…is a serious weaponry." Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Considering that my past self destroyed so many worlds and killed trillions of lives, I think it's normal to have this weaponry. The weaker ones have gone to the treasury for Gacha."

Alex looked around. "Yep. Unlike the Garden and Spirit Crystal vault, this one is sorted perfectly because there are only either Rank 8 Weapons or Divine Weapons. From the looks of it, there are at least ten thousand Divine Weapons."

"I will take them all and use it to strengthen Eulja so as to prepare for the unending wars." Alex waved his hand and stored everything inside the Inventory. Since he had no need for another weapon, he didn't bother glancing over the list and quickly made his way out of the room.

Suddenly, his attention got distracted by the last gate.

"A gate that shouldn't be opened unless I know that I can't defeat the beast, huh." Alex narrowed his eyes.

It would be a lie if he said he wasn't interested in this gate, but he would still honor the promise he made with his past self.

"Hopefully, there is no need to open this gate just like you said, me…" Alex smiled and turned around, leaving the temple.

After that, he used the Teleportation Array to send him back.

When he returned, Letizia and Evelyn had returned to the hut, waiting for him. Meanwhile, Silvia stopped her research since she didn't want to be left behind for this.

Alex smiled and said, "I'm back. Let's enjoy the remaining time we have on this planet."

"Okay!"