The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 43: Developing A Divinity Tree

-----

As I left my family down below enjoying the beach, I flew into the skies to deal with some of the things I had yet to get done with. Reminiscing about the past won’t get me anywhere anyway; the present is better than I could have ever hoped, but even then, I feel the necessity to continue growing stronger, even past my own limits.

Slowly, I’ve realized that the key to breaking my limits is all these powers I’ve acquired since I got back to Earth. Mana, Divinity, and now Broken Divinities and Shattered Divine Realms. With my new Skills, I decided to fully absorb them both.

Although I might have been a bit too prideful and arrogant before, I have come to the realization that these powers are indeed useful and strong, and I won’t shy away from using them if they can get me ever so close to reaching the Primordial Immemorial Void Realm.

RUMBLE!

The skies trembled as two gigantic spheres emerged out of thin air; they were the Shattered Divine Realms of both of the Gods of Eclipse. I quickly opened a portal to my Inner Realm as I activated a certain Skill with a simple command.

“{Divine Realm Assimilation}”

FLASH!

The Skill effects activated, and a power I could not grasp entirely was given to me completely now. Although I could break and shatter things, forcefully absorbing these things might only destroy them.

So, a fine and delicate ability was needed, and I couldn’t afford to practice my ability to absorb these things on my own. This Skill helped me skip that whole process entirely.

The two bubbles quickly started melding with my Inner Realm, quite literally melting inside and then slowly merging with it.

For the first time, I felt a change. My Inner Realm, the representation of all my cultivation and the growth of my soul, trembled.

The Divinity I’ve been harnessing this entire time suddenly appeared above the Inner Realm, streams of Divine Essence and Mana flowed from it endlessly.

It flowed through the rest of my Inner Realm for the first time, Divine Essence and mana—energies it couldn’t produce before! I was only able to “produce” Mana thanks to my System equipment, but this was now coming from my very own soul.

The Divine Realms merged together nicely, their entire structures fused, the colorful heavens of my inner realm swirled together as they extended, and the gigantic heavenly domain of the goddess appeared.

Hundreds of floating islands abandoned temples, and then her own golden palace emerged, alongside the blue skies and the white clouds. The Divine Realm emanated a bright divine essence, one that was greatly enchanted with the elements of Holiness, Light, and Life.

But that wasn’t all; below the ground, caverns opened and extended, making my Inner Realm grow several times bigger. These caverns then gained rivers of Nether, Trees made of Bones, and roaming Undead appearing. The Underworld Divine Realm was made.

My Inner Realm became at least 30% larger after absorbing just these two Shattered Divine Realms, but the best part was the Essence! Elemental Divine Essence of Holy Light, Life, Darkness, and Death are constantly produced by them, filling my Inner Realm with new essence and life.

And my Divinity absorbed it all while letting out more and more Mana as well; it seemed that at any moment, a breakthrough of some kind would be achieved!

“T-This is incredible.”

[You have fully assimilated the {Shattered Divine Realm}: {Mother of Light’s Heaven} and {Shattered Divine Realm}: {Lord of Deep Darkness’ Underworld} inside of your own Inner Realm!]

[Both Realms have been completely assimilated; your Inner Realm can now produce Divine Essence of Holy Light, Life, Darkness, and Death in low quantities every second.]

[You gained +500.000 Mana.]

[You gained +200.000 Divinity.]

[Your Divinity Stat will increase naturally over time the more you refine this essence. Your Developing Divinity is shining brightly, slowly about to undergo a special change.]

“Excellent.”

The new quantities of mana reserves and divinity were already showing; I felt like this energy was finally flowing through me at a much more decent amount and pace.

“Now, to the other two aperitives.”

Two floating masses of divinity surged in front of me. One overflows with light, the other with darkness. I was unable to assimilate them into my Developing Divinity before, and I am fairly sure I could try, but they would end up shattered even more; they were already broken due to my mishandling.

I activated the [Divinity Steal (SSS): Lv1] and [Divinity Tree Absorption (SSS): Lv1] Skills together at once. The broken divinities flew inside of my soul as I activated these Skills, I felt like I was finally “digesting” them properly.

My Developing Divinity, which resembled a golden flame, absorbed both of the broken divinities, darkness and light, mixing together and swirling against one another.

“T-This is…?!”

It resembled the Yin and Yang Rotation Cycle.

FLASH!

Suddenly, my Developing Divinity was not developing anymore; it was born, anew, bright, and yet at the same time, dark. Darkness and light, life and death, destruction and creation, love and war, day and night, sun and moon!

“So this is my Divinity… I should have guessed it would be something like this.”

I had thought it might be related to light or the nine heavens, but that my Divinity was to be the embodiment of the Harmony between Yin and Yang was both surprising and somehow predictable. After all, I’ve been using abilities related to them since I got back home.

The rotating darkness and light slowly moved towards the skies of my Inner Realm, spreading countless roots through it all, which also manifested inside my soul.

The Divinity swiftly grew to become like a gigantic tree made of darkness and light, encompassed by purple and blue-colored essence.

It resembled some sort of cosmic tree rather than a divine one.

The branches moved upwards and the roots downwards, rooting themselves inside my Inner Realm while the branches spread into the endless, rainbow skies.

“Beautiful.”

[You have successfully absorbed the {Broken Divinity}: {Holy Mother Of Light and Life} and the {Broken Divinity}: {Deep Darkness and Death Shadows} into your Developing Divinity!]

[Your Developing Divinity has developed completely, transforming into a Developed Divinity!]

[You have awakened the {Divinity Tree}: {Yin and Yang Harmony Tree}: {Tier 1: Rank 1}!]

[You have developed your {Divinity Tree}! The Divinity Tree feeds on the absorbed Broken Divinities, forming new Divine Branches and Divine Roots through your Soul.]

[The [Faith Point] System has been unlocked. Collect Faith Points to strengthen and increase all your stats, while also enhancing your own Divinity Tree and unlocking Divine Abilities and Divine Authorities!]

[You have gained +500.000 Faith Points.]

[You gained +100.000 Divinity.]

[You acquired the Title: [Demigoddess of Yin and Yang]!]

[You have gained a Divine Title, becoming a Demigoddess.]

[To ascend further through the path of a Deity, please grow your Divinity Tree and your Divine World.]

“Divine World? Oh, I see. Does it mean the world I control? Wait, did the System take my Inner Realm as my Divine World? Oh well, that’s for the better.” I shrugged. “Now let’s see how I exactly develop this thing…”

I flew towards the tree, and as I touched it with my hands, I felt endless streams of my own Divinity and Mana flowing constantly. By merely being close to it, I felt that my production of Immemorial Venerable Primordial Essence was being produced rapidly.

“This is a blissful sensation; I hadn’t felt a similar thing since I ascended.” I sighed in relief. “Now. Let’s administrate some Faith Points into this thing. The branches or the roots? What’s the difference? System, explain them to me.”

[The Divinity Branches develop Divine Authorities, while the Divinity Roots develop Divine Abilities.]

[It is recommended to first develop your foundation as a Demigoddess, creating a strong Divine Ability. Later, a Divine Authority to go with it would be ideal.]

“Interesting, alright…”

Without much further ado, and with just a single thought, I was able to inject thousands of Faith Points into the roots. The roots grew longer and sharper, until one of them generated a small bump, revealing a bright golden and dark light.

[You have exchanged 250.000 Faith Points.]

[You have unlocked the First Root’s Divinity Ability: [Dual Rings of Radiant and Umbral Harmony (Demi Deity Rank): Tier 0/3]

-----

[Dual Rings of Radiant and Umbral Harmony (Demi Deity Rank): Tier 0/3]

[Growth]: [0/100.000]

Channel the power of your Yin and Yang Divine Essence to summon two Rings, one encompassing the Radiance of Yang and the other the Darkness of Yin. By channeling their power together with the Demigoddess’ otherworldly energies, unique effects can be created.

The Ring of Radiant Harmony will cut through any foes, ignoring 50% of their Defenses and dealing an additional +700% damage against any foe that belongs to the Dark Spectrum of Elemental Affinities. Allies that touch the ring or are near it within a 100-meter radius will instead have their Health and Mana recovered at +500% of their normal speed.

The Ring of Umbral Harmony will slash through any foes, ignoring 50% of their Defenses and dealing an additional +700% damage against any foe that belongs to the Light Spectrum of Elemental Affinities. Additionally, it will inflict random Status Afflictions such as [Soul Corrosion], [Divine Venom], and [Abyssal Curse] on foes at random, while further decreasing their Stats by -30%.

Both rings can be combined to create the {Harmonious Ring of Yin and Yang, which will have both effects combined and doubled but will consume Mana and Otherworldly Energies at a rapid pace.

More effects can be unlocked as the Divine Ability grows on its Tier.

-----

“Oh, it doesn’t sound so bad. I am amused that the Skill descriptions now recognize the existence of Ki and its refined variants.” I giggled. “It seems it can also deal damage to Gods much more easily. Well, not like I required this, but it is nice—a new toy to play around with.”

There was something else, though; apparently, I could upgrade the Divine Ability using Faith Points. It could only increase by 3 Tiers, and it was part of the first root.

[To further ascend your Tier, you must first enhance your Divine Root and your Divine Branch to the maximum Level and then reach Rank 10 of your Divinity Tree, which can be accomplished by the gathering of Faith and the refinement of Divine Essence.]

[Every time your Rank increases, you gain a new Root and a new Branch to unlock and grow.]

“Huh, interesting.” I nodded. “Okay, got it. I guess I’ll wait and accumulate more Faith Points if I want to continue growing stronger. Wait, can’t I unlock the Divine Authority right away?”

[It is recommended to never have zero Faith Points, as your Divinity Tree feeds off it to sustain itself.]

[If you reach zero Faith Points, your Divinity might grow weaker rapidly.]

“Oh, so that’s why… Very well. If there’s one thing I have the most, it's patience. Well, most of the time.”

I walked out of my Inner Realm, or should I say Divine Realm now? As I descended onto the beach, I saw a truly incredible sight. The seas were all swirling upward into the heavens as hundreds of gigantic Sea Beasts emerged.

I was gone for only a couple of minutes, and now there was this appearing out of nowhere.

“Just what’s happening? Can’t a woman enjoy a nice day on the beach now?” I sighed.

RUMBLE!

The seas rumbled as the skies turned black. Amidst the myriad of S-Rank Sea Monsters between Level 400 and Level 600, something surged. Perhaps the King of the Oceans of Eclipse, maybe? It was over a kilometer in height, a gigantic silhouette that seemed to dwarf the oceans themselves.

SPLASH!

“You…! You’re the one! I finally found you!”

The gigantic entity emerged, resembling a massive sea snake, with glistening azure-colored scales, three draconic heads, sharp golden eyes, and countless scars across its enormous body.

[The Ancient Ruler of the Seas [Leviathan: Lv5000 (SSS Rank)] emerges from the depths of the sea!]

[After having slept for eons since his creation and growth stage, it has found itself in a godless world, and it desires to become the new God!]

“I challenge you, holder of the thrones!” He roared. “I will defeat you and become the new God of Eclipse!”

“Oh, so is that how it's going to be?” I wondered. “Come then; I’m feeling like having some sashimi now.”

-----