It was too sudden. The old man created from the smoke didn't have enough time to react as the other party had already moved his hand towards him. But he had remained shocked only for a moment since it wasn't his real body and was just made of incense smoke. Even if he received an attack, there wouldn't be any real danger. It was his turn to reveal a smile full of ridicule this time.
Ignorant human.
However, when Jiang Xiu's hand grabbed him, he felt as if his soul got caught. An acute pain surged through him, causing his expression to turn paler, immediately after which he screamed like a rat caught by a human.
"God Controlling Art!"
Jiang Xiu's pupils expanded, his eyes turned completely black, exposing a very awful glint. He chanted spell words from his mouth.
"You… aren't human!"
The old man's avatar tried to struggle with all his strength while an intense light appeared from the incense smoke. Jiang Xiu had forcefully pulled his divine soul from inside, causing the old man to feel frightened. He had never heard of someone possessing such extraordinary methods which can grab the soul of a person through an avatar made of smoke.
"Hahaha…"
Jiang Xiu laughed with an excited expression and opened his mouth under the alarmed gaze of the old man. He breathed in suddenly, causing the surrounding light to enter his mouth.
He was planning to devour the live soul.
This was something really unbelievable to the old man.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
The old man was terror-stricken and cried out in fear with a huge voice. The attractive force from Jiang Xiu's mouth only kept increasing at a frightening rate. The light gathering at his mouth shined upon the entire tea room, making it seem like it was daytime.
Then in the next second, Jiang Xiu's expression turned strange, and that light turned dimmer before turning pitch-black. The divine soul seized this opportunity to run away. That smoke avatar entered the mask and disappeared without a trace.
"Damn it!"
Fury filled Jiang Xiu's eyes. At that moment, his divine force couldn't keep up. God Devouring Art was an extremely high-level Divine Art. It was possible to devour the divine soul and nourish the Godhead greatly. It could've allowed him to step into the 3rd Mythical Realm and bring about the 3rd Divine Regalia, but Deity Xiu had forgotten that he wasn't the same Deity Xiu as before. His current divine force was insufficient in using the art until he had devoured the divine soul.
As a result, the art was only half-executed, and without any divine force to continue, the other party had gotten away.
Crack!
A noise resounded in the room as the mask cracked and broken into two pieces.
This movement was naturally dubious. There was no doubt that the old man got extremely frightened as anyone would've been if their soul was caught by someone who wished to eat it. It was nearly a nightmare.
"Humph!"
Jiang Xiu felt irritated because he had lost an opportunity to raise his cultivation.
"The prey which this Deity set his eyes on has never escaped."
He picked up the mask, the divine faith which was barely there before had already disappeared. It was just scrap piece of metal now, made of bronze and centuries old. Perhaps Tang Zhenshan could sell it as an ancient artifact and cheat over a million or two.
After throwing the mask aside, he returned to his room and started cultivating.
After some time, he had absorbed the remaining spectral energy from the pearl and then began to refine the divine force. He chose the most orthodox Divinity Cultivation Art, Dao Heart Seed Divinity Art.
Dao Heart Seed Divinity, it was the most primordial style to refine divine force. It's just like planting a seed and then nurturing it as it germinates. After it matures completely, everything would pour into the seed, and then this seed will be planted again, followed by germination and until it matures yet again. This process repeats, and through this, the divine force purified unceasingly.
Bubbubbub!
The blood within Jiang Xiu's body began to simmer like boiling water.
"Hmm?"
Jiang Xiu felt slightly surprised. According to his judgment, the time it'd take to condense a seed using the divine force in his body and place the seed on the divinity source should've taken at least an hour or two. However, the speed had exceeded his expectations as it only took a few minutes. Even the rate with which the divine force was maturing after he placed the Divinity Seed had surpassed his previous calculations.
"This matter really startled this Deity."
Jiang Xiu's body was unexpectedly quite suited to this purification art. Deity Xiu revealed a pleased smile when he sensed the quick cultivation speed.
Cultivation speed was related to the innate talent. A faster cultivation speed meant that the grade of the Godhead which Jiang Xiu would awaken would also be higher. Although it was difficult to gauge the potential during the early stages of Divinity Cultivation and hard to guess what it'll mature into, this was definitely a good sign.
This only piqued the interest of Jiang Xiu even more as he was a cultivation fanatic.
By the time he had finished a grand circulation, the divine force's purity had achieved a qualitative leap. The minutest particles in his blood began to tremble as if they were about to break free from some kind of shackles.
"It's evolving?"
Deity Xiu's mood turned anxious.
Before he even had the chance to react, it seemed as if his Divine race's bloodline, as well as genes, were filled with an explosive and significant amount of power.
The divine force in his strength also increased by a large margin.
If someone could look at Jiang Xiu right now, they'd notice a flame-like light emitting from the outer layer of his body's surface.
"It seems like this Godhead is pretty good."
Jiang Xiu was quite experienced and knowledgeable, but he never heard of someone awakening while purifying divine force. That'd only happen when someone breaks through a bottleneck after a long time. However, the time he took to make his first breakthrough was just after single circulation.
"Did this Deity make a mistake?"
This speed was quicker than Immortality Cultivation. Even the rate with which Jiang Xiu had cultivated on the Immortal Martial Continent and caused those chosen individuals to bow their heads wasn't this fast.
"This… what's happening?"
Another new Divine Regalia had appeared on Jiang Xiu's arm. There were already three of them now and placed randomly. This was another good omen.
There would be lesser Divine Regalia if the Godhead was weak and the pattern would also be smaller. Usually, the pattern was already a bit discernable by the 3rd regalia, but it wasn't apparent for his. This meant that his Godhead had more regalia and that it'd be something extraordinary.
"The Divine race bloodline of Earthlings is so powerful?"
According to what Jiang Xiu knew, the spiritual force on Earth had depleted, there were no more Immortality Cultivators, and all of them were ordinary men. Even if the ancestors were from the Divine race, it didn't mean that they were powerful ones. It was due to this reason that Jiang Xiu had felt helpless when he chose Divinity Cultivation, but it seems like he was wrong about this.
"It doesn't make sense!"
Jiang Xiu was sure about one thing. It was that Earth had existed for a long time and human history alone dated back several ten thousand years. It is said that the destruction of human beings has occurred twice on Earth. Of course, it was something those bored scientists had inferred.
"Those scientists didn't guess it correctly, right?"
Before he realized it, the sky had already brightened outside. He looked at the time, and it was already 9 AM. He was already late to class, but Deity Xiu wasn't planning to act like a goody-shoes. He got ready at his own pace and then left the villa.
After heading out, Jiang Xiu entered a five-star hotel to eat a deluxe breakfast and then went to school. The morning subjects had already ended by then.
After he entered, Ye Bing closed in on him seamlessly, "Humph! What? Did you get scared by this Lady and didn't dare to come to school?"
As some students beat up another student, it wasn't uncommon to hear that someone got scared to come to school because of fear.
Early morning, when Ye Bing saw that Jiang Xiu hadn't come to school, a scene flashed in her mind - She had become a bad student who caused all the students to avoid coming to class - and this filled her heart with guilt.
She finally relaxed when she saw Jiang Xiu appear and decided to forget what she had said before about hitting him every time he appeared in front of her.
Jiang Xiu looked at this unreasonable beauty before him, who was a girl so stupid that it made people's liver hurt, "This Deity is very afraid!"
I'm really afraid!
Afraid that I'll die due to your stupidity!
"That's good, let's see if you dare to provoke this Lady again. I'll let you go this time, but you mustn't come near my house again. Just text me if there's something."
After saying this, she flipped her jet-black hair and walked away feeling joyfully satisfied.
"Ignorant girl, you're foolish!"
The days passed by as usual without any events. The classes proceeded customarily, it was just that the time for the college entrance exam was nearing, so the mood in the classroom became increasingly tenser.
Under the influence of this atmosphere, Jiang Xiu picked up a book for the first time ever to take a look.
The memory and understanding of the Divine race were quite high. It was possible for the Divine race to comprehend even the Heavenly Dao, let alone remembering a few words and equations. That was easy-peasy.
Today, Jiang Xiu had gone to class as usual, but Tang Wenchong had called him then.
The Heavenly Dao Religion's Dao Soldier Grand Ceremony was going to begin.