The Four Heavenly Flamesâthere were countless legends about them.
Some said each flame represented a fundamental structure of creation. Others believed they were the structures of creation themselves.
These flames had existed since the beginning of the world. You could say they were the oldest things still in existence.
The Heavenly Flames possessed a wide range of abilities, such as resurrecting the dead, granting eternal lifeâand some even claimed you could use them to create miniature or artificial worlds.
But... were any of these stories true? Honestly, no one knew. No one even knew where the flames were located.
Thatâs exactly why Daniel found it ridiculous. What kind of technique needed a Heavenly Flame to function?
Driven only by curiosity, he kept reading the bookâand it didnât take long before he understood why.
And honestly? It was terrifying.
Someone who reached the peak of this technique would make their soul eternal. But not just any kind of eternityâtheir soul would unify across all timelines.
In other words, trillions upon trillions of souls across infinite timelinesâeach a different version of himselfâwould merge into one eternal existence.
Death would become meaningless for his soul. Even the gods would no longer be able to destroy it.
"So thatâs why it needs a Heavenly Flame... Something like this is dangerously tempting. But where the hell am I supposed to find a Heavenly Flame?" he groaned again to himself.
Truthfully, he didnât even have a lead. The best he could do was either ask Mr. August when he returned or try researching it through the Awakened Associationâs online community.
Outside of those two options, nothing else came to mind.
After that, he placed the book back on the table and moved on to the third one.
"Eternal Bones of the Titan." The name itself sounded dominating.
Especially the word Titan. He had no idea what a Titan actually was, but thankfully, there was a small note at the end of the book explaining it.
And honestly? The explanation shocked him.
According to the text, Titans were mythical beings born with bodies on par with those of the gods.
They didnât exist in the mortal realmâbecause if they did, it would be an absolute catastrophe. Even dragons couldnât stop them.
He read through the technique and gained a general understanding. As the name suggested, it was a body-cultivation technique.
But not for the whole bodyâthis one focused only on the bones.
Unlike the previous techniques, this one was relatively simple to use. It just required Eternal Energy. By using Eternal Energy, one had to break and then reconstruct their bones.
Youâd have to repeat this process around 36,000 times across your entire skeletonâand in the end, youâd obtain Titan Bones.
"I already have the Bones of Death. If I use this technique and get Titan Bones too, will my bones evolve like everything else? Will I end up with something like âTitan Bones of Deathâ or something similar?" Daniel wondered.
But he wasnât sure. Unfortunately, there was no evidence to support such a transformationâand he doubted there were even records of anyone who had ever done it before.
Even though the technique didnât have strict requirements, he still couldnât practice it yet. It required a massive amount of Eternal Energyâand the Eternal Core he had just wasnât strong enough for that right now.
So for now, all he could do was wait.
After that, he picked up the final book.
"Mind of Eternal Clarity." Just reading the title and description left Daniel shocked.
It was a mind cultivation technique! This was the first time he had ever seen one in his entire life.
He had heard rumors about such techniques beforeâbut as far as he knew, they were extremely rare. So rare that no one ever put them up for sale even in official auctions.
Anyone who had such a technique would keep it for themselves. After all, it was an incredibly valuable asset.
Awakened of Rank A and higher could use mental attacksâbut due to the rarity of mind cultivation techniques, almost no one could protect their minds against them.
Thatâs why, if someone ever did try to sell one, the price could reach hundreds of billions of Zenâor even the legendary price of a trillion.
And now, Daniel held one in his hands.
And not just any mind techniqueâthis one had been created by a demigod who successfully ascended to godhood.
Excited, he dove into the descriptions. But the more he read about the requirements, the darker his expression became.
The technique had many effects. For starters, it would completely detach the mind from the body and make it eternal. Once you reached the peak of the technique, no mental attack would ever work on you again.
It would elevate your mind from normal logic and emotion to a multi-layered understandingânonlinear time, multi-dimensional awareness. A mind capable of analyzing thoughts, events, and parallel futures simultaneously, at speeds millions of times faster than a normal human brain.
To cultivate it, though, you needed Timeless Thunder, which had to be fused with Eternal Energy.
And Daniel had no idea what Timeless Thunder even was.
"What kind of insane technique is this?" he muttered, frowning as he looked once again at the four techniques.
"Could these be the requirements for the path to godhood?" He felt like his mind was starting to clear upâas if he was beginning to see the truth.
All four of these techniques were unbelievably extreme. He seriously doubted the Prophet had cultivated them just to get stronger.
There had to be another purpose. Maybe... to ascend.
Now that he thought about it, the Prophet might have been the last person in recorded history who successfully reached godhood. No one had done it since.
"So the requirements to become a god are... reaching the peak of the body, mind, soulâand having a cosmic source." His eyes lit up.
He now had a clear picture of the Path to Godhood.
But his intuition told him he was still missing something. Noâhe forgot something.
"What am I forgetting?" he frowned. But there was no time to think about itâbecause suddenly, he heard knocking.
He walked over and opened the door.
Evangelin was standing on the other side, her face filled with panic.
"Somethingâs happened... A demon army has surrounded the city."