Yes, I became a god just by exercising.

Chapter 272 Absolute Defense VS Rhine Calamity! The True God vs. the Ancients!

The treasure map is made of black animal hide, with a rough, matte surface and a texture similar to cowhide; it is quite thick.

However, Xia Fa, who was holding the treasure map, was somewhat stunned.

Because the treasure chest on the treasure map is neither in the upper right corner, nor in the lower right corner, nor in the upper left corner or the lower left corner.
But... right in the middle!
Not only was it right in the center, but it was also several times larger than the treasure chests on the three treasure maps he had obtained before!
"So, there aren't actually four treasure maps, but five?"

"One from the central treasure chest, and one from each of the four corner treasure chests?"

At this moment, Xia Fa felt fortunate that Benes and Meowkor had brought him back from the Endless Realm this treasure map with a treasure chest pattern in the center.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be pleasant if you foolishly collected the four treasure maps, each containing a treasure chest in one of the four corners, only to find nothing had happened and you had no idea why you'd forget them in the corner where you left the bag.

He had also tried divination, but got no results at all, which indicated that these treasure maps were of extremely high status.

"Now we only need one more, but it's like searching for a needle in a haystack, we're completely clueless..."

Xia Fa sighed inwardly, but in any case, getting another treasure map was always a good thing, especially the most crucial one.

But just then, he felt a button-shaped pouch on his waist tremble.

Immediately afterwards, three more treasure maps flew out, surrounded by black light, and converged on the treasure map in his hand.

Immediately afterwards, these three treasure maps were actually integrated directly into this treasure map.

In this way, the treasure map becomes a map with a large treasure chest in the center and a small treasure chest in three of the four corners.

The only thing missing is the treasure chest icon in the bottom left corner.

"This……"

Before Xia Fa could react, the treasure map in his hand began to vibrate violently, emitting an extremely powerful suction force.

It seems to be calling out to... that last treasure map in the unknown distance!

……

On the edge of the universe, in a small, unnamed star field.

On a tiny, completely unknown planet, a group of primitive people with six arms were dancing and gesturing around a campfire, overjoyed.

A huge wild boar was roasting over the campfire, its skin already charred and crispy, sizzling with oil.

Although these primitive humans have six arms, this wild boar is no ordinary creature either; it is about to transform into a fungus-level supernatural being.

Therefore, it took them a lot of effort to hunt this wild boar. They had been hungry for several days and were waiting for the wild boar to be thoroughly roasted.

They seemed to have not even developed language, nor did they appear to possess much intelligence. Therefore, being able to catch prey and have a good meal was already something to be very happy about.

However, just a few hundred meters away from this group of primitive people, on a sheltered hillside.

The enormous tunnel begins at the hillside entrance and extends deep into the earth, where two adventurers are tirelessly digging with hoes in hand.

They were clearly all extraordinary beings, and had all reached the level of demigods. The hoes in their hands were also secret treasures, emitting a glow with each swing, capable of digging tunnels thousands of meters long in an instant.

But inside the tunnel, in the soil that forms the rock walls, lie countless skeletons.

"This place... used to be a relatively prosperous small life-bearing planet, inhabited by the six-armed race among the demi-humans. However, it experienced a world-destroying war."

One of the lean adventurers wiped the sweat from his brow, shook off the dirt and bone fragments from his brown beard, and gave a harmless smile before continuing:
"It was a battle between two extraordinary monarchs, or even possibly veteran extraordinary monarchs. For some reason, they fought fiercely, and the aftershocks of the battle alone destroyed all the civilization and buildings established by the six-armed race on this small life-bearing planet."

Another hunched and sleazy adventurer gave a sinister smile:
"Who cares? Tens of thousands of years have passed, they're probably all dead by now, and the treasure they fought over should belong to the two of us, haha."

As he was talking, he dug with his hoe, and there was a dull "clang," as if he had hit something extremely hard.

The short, scrawny adventurer's eyes suddenly lit up, and with another stroke of his hoe, this time he swept away the surrounding dirt.

A vault wall, crafted from a mixture of iron and mithril, appeared before the two adventurers. It was covered with ancient and mysterious patterns, as if it existed since the beginning of time.

The short, sleazy adventurer gave another sinister smile:
"We've finally found it! It's truly a case of the snipe and the clam fighting while the fisherman benefits! Second brother, we're both rich now! With this money, I can finally propose to that noble lady from the Greer family—"

boom! ! !
Before he could finish speaking, a gunshot rang out.

The gentle-looking adventurer withdrew the Shadow Gold Revolver he had been holding to his younger brother's head, watching as his brother, with a large hole in his head, fell to the ground, his head slamming heavily against the vault wall before sliding down, leaving a long trail of blood mixed with brain matter.

"I only have one Soul-Destroying Bullet left. Using it on you wouldn't be a waste, would it, my dear brother..."

The adventurer smiled, his expression relaxed, but his gaze slowly turned fervent, as if he had thought of something:
"With this money...with this money, I can try to buy a fiefdom and become a lord, acquire enough anchor points, then sign a secret contract and become an angel..."

His expression grew increasingly frenzied. He raised his hoe and began hammering and smashing the wall. Finally, his hard work paid off, and he broke a large hole in the metal wall.

But immediately, countless black wisps surged out from it, and even though he had taken out holy water as a defense beforehand, it was to no avail.

The black mist seemed to contain countless ghostly heads, which instantly engulfed him before rushing out of the tunnel with a whooshing sound.

Only a withered skeleton remained, its face filled with extreme resentment, lying on the nearby rock wall.

Perhaps because he was a demigod, even in his last moments before death, he was still able to forcefully turn his neck and glance at the vault.

Inside the vault, there were vouchers piled up everywhere from the Gold Prospectors' Guild and the Secret Traders' Guild, with the lowest denomination being 500,000 gold pounds.

There were countless treasures and sealed artifacts piled up everywhere, with all sorts of extraordinary fruits and metals scattered around.

But even these treasures deserve to be just piled up on the ground like this.

In the very center of the vault was a round shelf made of gray tin, inlaid with yellow gemstones and engraved with patterns in mithril and shadow gold.

This is a method to prevent divination and prying into secrets, and in the very center of that shelf, there is only one thing.

A treasure map made of black animal hide.

Below the circular shelf are the skeletons of two demi-humans with six arms each.

The lower half of the skeleton on the left was missing, while the second hand of the upper half held a poisoned blade, which was inserted into the vest of the skeleton on the right.

The skeleton on the right reached out, trying to reach the treasure map, but seemed to have been killed by a deadly poison at the last moment.

Even after tens of thousands of years, their remains showed no signs of decay; one was as white as jade, and the other emitted a shimmering green light.

Originally, the treasure map seemed to be sealed inside this vault, and the gray tin-based frame, designed to prevent divination and prying, restricted all means of searching.

But as the adventurer knocked open the vault and the seal was broken, the treasure map trembled slightly, as if it had sensed some kind of call, and burst out with an extremely viscous and dense black light!

The next moment, the treasure map floated up automatically without any wind, and instantly disappeared into the Star Spirit Realm, heading to an unknown distance.

……

In the City of Ten Thousand Stars, in the Fishermen's District, within a newly opened subspace.

In the bedroom, Xia Fa stared in disbelief at the opening of a rift in the Star Spirit Realm.

Then, a treasure map made of black animal hide flew out and flew towards the fused treasure map in his hand.

This newly appeared treasure map only had a sliver of black light left on it, as if it was about to exhaust its last bit of strength.

However, in the end, it still merged with the treasure map.

Then, in the lower left corner of this fused treasure map, a treasure chest pattern slowly emerged.

Wow——!
The moment the treasure chest pattern fully appeared, an extremely dense and viscous black light shone brightly, condensing into a beam of light like a twisted rope, and rushed towards Xia Fa's brow.

Xia Fa instinctively wanted to dodge, but suddenly, the shark tooth folding knife that had been hidden in his sleeve trembled slightly, and the steel ball in the hollow cavity of the back of the knife vibrated rapidly, emitting an extremely joyful sound.

It seems that this treasure map, this dark light... are all closely related to it!
Xia Fa had always wanted to know whether his horse-slaying sword was a sealed object or a secret treasure, and if it was a secret treasure, what level of secret treasure it was.

He once guessed that the Zhanmadao (horse-slaying sword) was slightly better than the external mystical treasures, but far inferior to the orthodox mystical treasures.

And now, the truth... seems to be about to be revealed.

call out!
The dark light pierced into Xia Fa's brow, and Xia Fa was suddenly jolted. Countless images exploded in his mind like fireworks, allowing him to see a great many things in an instant.

Those taboos and secrets from ancient times...

The desolate and lonely universe stretches endlessly, seemingly without end.

Countless stars and planets stretch from one region to another, ultimately reaching into the countless distances beyond.

Suddenly, the entire starry sky seemed to tremble.

[A colossal figure with twelve arms stumbled out of the Protoss Realm, desperately fleeing towards the edge of the universe.]

[His size... was comparable to a supermassive star, his body was surrounded by swirling mercury, and his body was covered with extremely strange magical patterns and ancient runes. Both his six arms on the left and six arms on the right were holding a horse-slaying sword.]

These two swords were also incredibly large, like thousands of planets strung together.

[Both swords were also coated in mercury, radiating an astonishing killing intent; even a small planet would shatter into pieces the moment it grazed them.] [And so, this figure with twelve arms, wielding two swords, recklessly cleaved through the void, fleeing for his life.]

But it was too late.

Above His head, a rift opened in the Protoss Realm, and a massive, silvery-white metallic hand, almost obscuring the entire star field, pressed down upon Him.

The silvery-white metallic hand was so wide it was almost impossible to estimate. Under its coverage, not only was the twelve-armed figure engulfed, but countless planets in this star field, from supermassive stars to the smallest planets, were also covered.

Fortunately, this star field... seems to have had all its life forms evacuated long ago, so it's now completely silent. Even if it were destroyed, no one would be injured or killed.

[Except for that figure with twelve arms]

The silvery-white metallic hand swept down with a whoosh, shattering countless stars and planets beneath its grasp as easily as glass marbles being smashed by a truck.

Finally, the enormous, silvery-white metallic hand, large enough to cover an entire star field, approached the top of the figure with twelve arms.

This figure seemed to be in utter despair, yet unwilling to simply sit and wait for death.

Suddenly, He raised His head, His twelve arms gripping the two sabers tightly, aiming at the enormous silver-white metal hand above His head, which seemed like the heavens to Him.

The mercury on his body suddenly became scalding hot, bubbling and steaming, before converging towards the two swords.

He suddenly leaped up, all twelve arms simultaneously gathering power, and the saber followed with incredible speed and ferocity, as if trying to break through the sky-covering, silvery-white giant hand and escape.

At the same time, countless black lines emerged from the void around Him, freezing this cosmic expanse and making its colors even more vibrant.

The shattered planetary fragments around him, under the strange fluctuations emanating from his body, suddenly began to decrease in dimension by several times, shrinking from three dimensions to one, leaving only a bunch of thin lines.

[Immediately afterwards, the space of trillions of square kilometers seemed to be crumpled into a ball of paper by an invisible hand. He was in this crumpled paper, trying to use this unfathomable high-dimensional power, together with his strike, to break through the infinitely large silver-white metal giant hand.]

But it was all in vain.

The massive, silvery-white metallic hand pressed down, cold and ruthless, like a god overlooking the universe.

The twelve-armed figure was instantly shattered into pieces, and the two sabers in its hands, under immense force, transformed into two streaks of dark light, flying towards other star systems.

Blood splattered from these fragments, as if a torrential rain was about to fall on this star field, but immediately the fragments and blood began to one-dimensionalize, attempting to escape into the Protoss Realm.

But it was no use. The giant, silvery-white metallic hand grabbed three orbs of light and a transparent shadow with twelve arms, which then shrank back into the Star Spirit Realm rift.

[Only these fragments and blood remained, flying to life-bearing planets throughout the universe, merging with countless extraordinary plants and fruits.]

[From within the fragments, secret contracts began to form, which then detached, skin or bone intact, and fell to various distant parts of the universe.]

"Sudden Law? Sudden Law?"

The moment the scene ended, Benedict’s concerned and worried voice rang in my ears.

"Master, are you okay?"

Immediately afterwards, the hem of his clothes seemed to sway, as if Nyakoru was tugging at his clothes, trying to wake him up.

Xia Fa was only slightly startled before he immediately clutched his head and collapsed onto the sofa, curling his body into a shrimp shape, with countless beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

The physical flesh of the wall of blood and flesh in his stomach was quickly digested into a vast and pure supernatural power, which was injected into his spine and immediately converted into a strange electric current, replenishing his depleted mental energy and suppressing the signs that he was about to lose control.

It took Xia Fa a while to catch his breath. While still shaken, he also felt an immense excitement at having uncovered the secrets of the true gods and the Great Old Ones.

If he wasn't mistaken, he must have witnessed the final scene of the True God [Absolute Defense] chasing down the Ancient One [Rhine Calamity].

Because both the giant silver-white metal hand and the figure with twelve arms bear the characteristics of the "Silver Throne," and they are very obvious and easy to guess.

To Xia Fa's surprise, [Absolute Defense] was far stronger than he had imagined, spanning countless dimensions. It easily ended [Rhine Calamity] with just a single hand extending from the Protoss Realm.

On the contrary, [Rhine Calamity], whose title clearly indicates it is an extremely powerful being among the Great Old Ones, still couldn't withstand the crushing force of a giant silver-white metal hand that was covered by [Absolute Defense], even after using all its trump cards.

Whether it was the Rhine Calamity using a god-like combat tactic that was almost "anti-realistic," reducing the dimensions of everything around it from three dimensions to one, or even the slash launched from a space folded over trillions of miles... none of it had any effect whatsoever.

Under the giant, silvery-white metal hand of [Absolute Defense], all of [Rhine Calamity]'s trump cards, which were clearly enough to destroy most of the universe, looked so ridiculous and powerless.

All I can say is that [Absolute Defense] is just too strong, so strong that it's not even in the same dimension as other true gods, and it can even crush an Old One so easily!
So, the Paradox Joker, who can fight to a draw with Absolute Defense, must be just as strong...

Thinking of this, Xia Fa couldn't help but feel sorry for the Old Ones who had been wiped out more than 30,000 years ago. How could they possibly fight against such powerful [Absolute Defense] and [Paradox Joker]?
There's absolutely no chance of winning!

Fortunately, he was on the side of humans and demi-humans, which meant he was on the side of the nine great gods... Xia Fa could only think thankfully.

But then he realized another very serious problem.

The [Absolute Defense] and the [Paradox Joker], which are so powerful, both stay in their respective earthly divine kingdoms and don't come out... Why is that?
What are they hiding from, or what are they afraid of?
If there really is such a being, forcing even these two strongest righteous gods to hide in their earthly divine kingdoms... Xia Fa felt his scalp tingle just thinking about it.

Fortunately, the universe is still peaceful and prosperous, so there seems to be no need to worry too much.

"If Levimir is truly a drop of blood or a thought of the [Absolute Defense], then according to Him, as long as I become strong, one day He will lead me to see the 'truth of the world'..."

After pondering for a while and seeing that he had no clue, Xia Ding composed himself and decided to stop thinking about it for the time being.

At the same time, the scene of [Rhine Calamity] being killed inexplicably reappeared in his mind.

Without a doubt, as an Old One, [Rhine Calamity] possesses an extremely tenacious vitality. Even when shattered into pieces, it can still use its low-dimensional abilities to attempt to escape.

But it was no use. [Absolute Defense] directly seized His soul and will, and also seized three things wrapped in strange light.

Xia Fa strongly suspected that those three items were three different kinds of "certificates of eternity".

"So, the Great Old Ones, like the true gods, absorbed and contained the three [certificates of eternity]?"

"Could the ability of [Rhine Calamity] to reduce the dimensions of surrounding objects, its anti-realistic capabilities, and its ability to fold space originate from those three [Eternal Tokens]?"

Xia Fa even suspected that one of the [Eternal Proofs] might have been given by [Absolute Defense] to [Temporary Reality], which should not have become a true god at the time, thus allowing [Temporary Reality] to also become a true god.

Then, the divine combat technique of "anti-reality" was developed.

"Oh right, the other horse-slaying sword..."

Just now, in addition to obtaining these top-secret ancient images, Xia Fa also naturally obtained a lot of information and intelligence.

One of them answered his biggest question.

These two swords, one named "Rhine" and the other "Calamity," are... ancient treasures personally crafted by the Great Old One, [Rhine Calamity]!
The ancient treasures are supreme divine objects, almost on par with the orthodox treasures!

Don't be fooled by the fact that [Rhine Calamity] is powerless against [Absolute Defense] when wielding these two swords; that is the strongest [Absolute Defense] among the nine Great Gods, capable of single-handedly countering the [Absolute Defense] of five Great Old Ones!
If [Nature Monarch] and [Supreme Law] were to come, Xia Fa suspected that [Rhine Calamity] could actually wield these two swords and fight two against one, and even win a great victory.

"This weapon in my hand is 'Calamity,' and it must be found in 'Rhine' to become a complete ancient treasure..."

"Before this, a single item was only slightly stronger than an outer magic treasure, and many of its abilities were sealed, requiring both to be used together..."

"Moreover, to unleash the full power of a single weapon, one needs to be of a high enough rank, but using two together seems to allow one to activate them directly without even reaching the rank of a god, like Patriarch Osius and the Mystic Emperor Dionysius..."

As Xia Fa thought of this, his gaze hardened.

Now that I have this horse-slaying sword in my hands, I must find a second one no matter what!

As for how to find it...

He looked at the treasure map in his hand and saw that all five treasure chests on the map were open, each containing an identical hourglass.

Fine sand is slowly flowing down inside the hourglass.

Xia Fa simply compared the speed at which the fine sand flowed down with the wall clock and found that it seemed the fine sand would be completely exhausted in less than five days.

At that time, this treasure map will likely become the key or guide to the location of the "Rhine" sword.

"Five days...that's perfect. If we can get our hands on it, it will be very useful in ten days."

After all, ten days from now will be the day when the "Eternal Proof" is born on the Baron Ocean.

After resting on the sofa for a while, Xia Fa decided to strike while the iron was hot and enter the small world to absorb the fist-sized pure white light-chasing silver crystal!

Xia Fa had already experienced such a significant improvement after absorbing only a few pure white light-seeking crystals the size of lychees. He was very much looking forward to seeing what kind of transformation this fist-sized pure white light-seeking crystal would bring him.

Perfect timing! Let's bring Benedict and Meowkor into the little world too, let them get acquainted, and hopefully build a base there.

Thinking this, Xia Fa looked at Benedict and Meowkor with a mysterious expression, and waved to the two girls, one big and one small:
"You two, come here. I have a huge secret to tell you."

Benedict immediately became curious:

"What? What earth-shattering secret?"

Nyakoru's eyes widened even more:
"Wow, really?"

(End of this chapter)