The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 14: The Next Morning

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It was the morning of the next day within my Inner Realm. Time Dilation was possible here as well; I could accelerate its internal time up to a hundred times faster than the time outside. But to make it possible for us to sleep well and synchronize with the outside world, I disabled the Time Dilation function. Right now, it was morning. The Rainbow Sun Crown, formed of nine colorful stars I had refined long ago, rose from the horizon, illuminating my expansive Inner Realm with a myriad of beautiful colors.

The gentle sound of the Immemorial Fountain of Youth behind me created a nice background noise as I woke up from my sleep. I was strong enough that I didn’t need sleep at all, but sleeping was like a delicious cup of wine; it still felt nice to do so, and it calmed things such as stress and soul exhaustion. Although I wasn’t going through the latter, I was slightly stressed.

Not because I was going to fight Gods, but because I was worried about my family, and it made me feel slightly guilty for being too direct with my approaches. Imagining getting them involved in something terrible was one of my worst nightmares. Now that I have two people I need to protect, I can’t be too reckless in my attempts.

Or, well, I simply have to do it alone while they’re not watching!

For now, however, I was looking at a skill I have possessed since the beginning of my new journey on Earth. One that Clide, the only Administrator I’ve trusted, granted to me and also to my sister.

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[Premium Player Privilege (SSS): Lv1]

[Skill EXP]: [0/100.000]

A Premium Skill is often given to Administrators that beta test new System Functions. Not something that Players should ever receive.

Grants the partial ability to manipulate System Functions, allowing you to keep your System even without it being bound to your body and soul.

Increases the amount of Stats gained per Level by x2 of the chosen Class Stat Growth.

Increases the amount of Skill Points and Stat Points earned by 10 after taking a Class, grants access to the Skill Shop.

You can further accumulate “Credits” by slaying powerful Monsters and Boss Monsters, which you can exchange for valuable items in the Administrator’s Shop.

More privileges can be unlocked as the Skill Level increases, which can be done by using Credits.

Next Upgrade at 100.000 Credits.

Available Credits: 355.000

Level Bonus (1): Credits Earned Increases by 10%. All Shops give you a discount of 5%. The Gods will show 10% more interest in you.

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Its description changed the moment I obtained a Class, yes.

Especially this:

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Increases the amount of Stats gained per Level by x2 of the chosen Class Stat Growth.

Increases the amount of Skill Points and Stat Points earned by 10 after taking a Class, grants access to the Skill Shop.

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The amount of Stats I earn per level is now doubled, and above all, the Stat and Skill Points I get per level are also made into 10 instead of the previous 5. My mother told me most people earn between 1 and 3 stat and skill points per level, so I was ridiculously privileged with my higher growth.

Although the System is something like a piece of equipment for me, it might become a powerful weapon to devour the Gods and obtain their powers properly, so I have begun to both appreciate it more and desire to make it grow faster.

Why do I want their powers? So the Worlds they manage don’t end up collapsing or dying. If I can become the world's pillars instead, they will be spared from destruction. Therefore, devouring the power of the Gods and taking their place as the goddess of these worlds is also my new plan, something I’ve thought about as I slept in my dream realm.

For now, I have over three hundred thousand Credits, so I should be able to easily upgrade this Skill. I can also spend credits in some Credit Shop thing? But I bet there’ll be more useless items there. I will check it later, I suppose, just for the sake of it.

Ding!

[You have exchanged 100.000 Credits, and the Skill [Premium Player Privilege (SSS): Lv1] has Leveled Up!]

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[Premium Player Privilege (SSS): Lv2]

[Skill EXP]: [0/200.000]

A Premium Skill is often given to Administrators that beta test new System Functions. Not something that Players should ever receive.

Grants the partial ability to manipulate System Functions, allowing you to keep your System even without it being bound to your body and soul.

Increases the amount of Stats gained per Level by x2 of the chosen Class Stat Growth.

Increases the amount of Skill Points and Stat Points earned by 10 after taking a Class, grants access to the Skill Shop.

Decreases required Skill Points to learn new Class Skills by -50%. (New Ability!)

Increases Classless and Magic Skill Slots by +1 (New Ability!)

You can now Sponsor other Players by using Credits to buy a Divine Blessing, giving them special Skills related to your developing Divinity, Abilities, Bonus Stats, and Items. (New Ability!)

You can further accumulate “Credits” by slaying powerful Monsters and Boss Monsters, which you can exchange for valuable items in the Administrator’s Shop.

More privileges can be unlocked as the Skill Level increases, which can be done by using Credits.

Next Upgrade at 200.000 Credits.

Available Credits: 255.000

Level Bonus (2): Credits Earned Increases by 20%. All Shops give you a discount of 10%. The Gods will show 20% more interest in you.

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Interesting! That’s quite a lot of upgrades and three new Abilities right away. I could spend the Credits again, but I’ll save them for later. Seeing how I don’t gain more stats out of leveling the skill, there’s not much of an urge right now.

More importantly, it seems I can now sponsor people. I should try doing this with my mother and my sister first. Perhaps simply helping them cultivate is not the only thing I can do now. If I could turn them into my Avatars, they could become even stronger.

But my “Divinity” is developing; it is not something that existed in Murim, the growth of this world is completely different. And for my Divinity to grow, I either need to create a religion or just eat other beings that already possess Divinity.

“I should try to comprehend this better now- Ah.”

I realized my sister and my mother were on my left and right sides. They wanted to cuddle with me after the “terrific” talk of yesterday, and like the family we are, we simply slept in the same bed. It was nice to be hugged by my family after so long. It almost made me feel like when I was a little child.

I stealthily walked away from the bed while the two were still sleeping soundly, taking a bath in the waterfall behind my palace while admiring the beauty of nature and resting in silence. While being naked, I sat cross-legged.

“Let’s see… Divinity and Mana, is it?”

I channeled my Intent and Energies into the System, looking through what it had absorbed for me and quickly infusing it into my body. Aside from the endless seas of Mana, which had increased by almost ten times their original numbers, there was a small sparkle of golden light. This must be the Divinity, isn’t it?

“Let me grasp that.”

I moved the Mana and the Divinity into my body. While I refined more Primordial Essence Dew Drops with the Mana and the Immortal Essence combination, I analyzed the sparkle of light. Its nature and essence were completely alien to any power I had acquired before, yet it still felt both frail and strong.

“I can easily destroy this if I want, but I must channel its powers.”

The small glowing light continued growing larger and brighter, finally landing in the middle of my chest as I deposited it inside of my Primordial Core. Rapidly, the entire Divinity spread its roots, further combining its essence with my energies.

FLASH!

And I felt my power suddenly rise tremendously, for a bit before everything went back to normal. It was very faint, but the power of a Divinity was amazing!

“So this is your power, Gods. Interesting.” I giggled to myself. “Well, cultivating this the normal way doesn’t seem to strengthen it. I’ll truly need to eat a God, huh? Well, not like I haven’t eaten old geezers before to become stronger.”

I had to kill all previous Venerables of Murim to ascend into an even higher existence than them, so I wasn’t foreign to the whole concept of devouring another person’s powers. However, I don’t know if I could call these “Gods” persons, seeing how they’re more akin to monsters due to their nature and origins.

I had acquired some new Skills as well, something related to the Pope and the Spirit I killed. One of them allowed me to conjure... a much weaker version of my Photon Essence Arts, and the latter has the ability to summon spirits of light.

Both seemed okay; perhaps if I could combine them with my abilities, I could create stronger soldiers of light. However, I’ll leave that possibility for later.

More importantly, and the most amazing skill I’ve acquired so far, is this:

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[God Predator (SSS): Lv2]

[Skill EXP]: [11.740/200.000]

A Class Skill that only belongs to the Divine Class: [God Eating Calamity: Ragnarök].

Devour the Divinity of your foes. By killing and absorbing the powers of Gods and their Avatars, you can devour their Divinity to drastically increase your Stats and inherit Skills and Titles from them. The larger the prey, the stronger the rewards. The higher the level, the more power you can draw and assimilate from your prey.

Level Bonus (2): Deals +100% more Damage against Gods and their Avatars. Increases the amount of Stats, Skills, and Divinity assimilated through God Predator by +20%.

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Simple description for an SSS Rank Skill, but it works. It does what needs to be done. I believe the description might be smaller because it was a Skill the System had to just recently create, perhaps.

Also, there’s apparently a Class Skill Tree, let’s see.

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<Class Skill Tree: [God Eating Calamity: Ragnarök]>

Level 100: [God Killer: Lv1 (SSS)] [Cost]: [2000 Skill Points]

Level 200: [Divine Class Absorption: Lv1 (SSS)] [3000 Skill Points]

Level 300: [Divine Soul Parasite: Lv1 (SSS)] [5000 Skill Points]

Level 400: [Undead God Summon: Lv1 (SSS)] [6000 Skill Points]

Level 500: [Locked]

Level 600: [Locked]

Level 700: [Locked]

Level 800: [Locked]

Level 900: [Locked]

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Four Skills available. God Killer most likely increases damage dealt against Gods. Divine Class Absorption could let me steal the classes of foes that have divinity or divine classes related to Gods. Divine Soul Parasite might allow the creation of a parasite made of divinity, or perhaps parasitize divinity-holders. And lastly, Undead God Summon could let me summon Undead from the Gods I kill or devour.

Apparently, there are nine Skills in total, each new one can be learned with a certain level requirement! As of now, I can learn four new Skills. However, there is a catch: I can’t learn them all. Right now, I have less than four thousand Skill Points. Meaning that through normal means, I can’t obtain the other Skills.

For now, I will pick the obvious one because I can easily predict they will come for my head.

Ding!

[You have exchanged 3000 Skill Points, and you learned the [Divine Class Absorption: Lv1 (SSS)] Class Skill!]

[You can now absorb and assimilate the Divine Classes related to Gods of the foes you slay, including the possible Skills that can be learned and part of their own Skill Points.]

[The Divine Classes you steal will be either assimilated into your current Class to upgrade your Stats and existing Abilities or can be granted to another person after modification using your own Divinity.]

“Good! With this, I could give my sister and my mother very strong classes.” I smiled. “A good harvest.”

And I can even steal my foe's Skill Points once I kill them, even better. I suppose this was how it was intended to earn more Skill Points for these ridiculous Skills, isn’t it?

A Class specifically made to kill the Gods.

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Once my family woke up and we had a hearty and relaxing breakfast inside my Inner Realm, we decided to finally walk back into the city. The place had calmed down, although there were still many people around the destroyed church. Mostly workers clean up the rubble. We noticed a few nobles walking around; apparently, they were looking for the culprit behind this. Apparently, they were with church members as well.

“You can go to the Adventurer Guild. I will resolve the entire problem with the church for now.” I told my mother and my sister to cover them with stealth veils that would allow them to be unrecognizable to those pursuing them by any chance.

“Are you sure, Katherine? What if…” My mother was worried.

“What if what? I won’t lose. Don’t worry. I will follow your words and not be as aggressive, mother.” I smiled at her.

“You got this big sis!” Ruby was already looking forward to what I would do.

Thanks to my Veil Skill and the {Umbral Night Stealth Art} which I had stolen from the {Venerable Of Night and Nightmares}, I was able to easily camouflage them amongst the crowd. As they moved to the adventurer guild, I quickly set my gaze toward the groups of church members.

Around the entire city, there were roughly five more groups. Each one was made up of five paladins and two priests. They were constantly looking for me, asking random people in the streets too. There were nobles as well, and their guards. However, they were not helping them but simply watching over them with suspicious expressions on their faces.

I can tell that the Lord of Nexus City does not like the church that much.

“I am here if that’s what you are looking for.” I stepped forward, standing in front of the group of two priests, and gave paladins, their eyes widening.

“Y-You!”

“It’s her, right?!”

“Foolish woman! Do you truly believe you’ll be spared if you appear before us so recklessly?!”

“I’ll kill you right now, sinner!”

There was little room for conversation with these fanatics.

“I was planning on holding a conversation. But if you greet me with bloodshed, I will also greet you back with more bloodshed.”

I unsheathed my sword, and with a single and gentle swing, a wave of darkness and light was unleashed. The paladins were cut down into shreds, and the priests died in the resulting explosion. It was like crushing ants; there was neither fun nor excitement in this. Yet, it didn’t make me feel bad either.

Ding!

[You have slain [Priests of the Church of Light: Lv150+] x2 and [Paladins of the Church of Light: LV180+] x5!]

[Level Up!]

[Your Level has increased from Level 403 to Level 404!]

[All your Stats have increased. You gained Bonus Stat Points and Skill Points.]

[The Tower God {The Brilliant Mother Of Light} groans in frustration!]

“Well, that’s that.” I yawned. “Oh, sorry for making a scene. I’ll clean the place for you.” I noticed several people were watching in utter horror as I waved my hand, and all the corpses disappeared.

“W-What is she?!”

“She’s a monster…”

“I’ve never seen someone kill those high-level NPCs so seamlessly!”

“R-Run…! RUN!”

A lot of the low-level players ran away, followed by the rest of the population. And right after, the rest of the church members appeared, led by a blonde woman wearing saintly white clothes.

“T-There she is! The sinner! Attack her!” She commanded, waving her staff. Rays of light rushed towards me, attempting to restrain me.

“Your light is nothing against me; I’ve already told you people.”

With a simple thought, an overwhelming Primordial Intent Aura surged from my body, like an endless eruption of golden essence. The church members fell to their knees before they could even touch me. The woman trembled in pain, vomiting blood, as she grabbed a golden relic.

“Y-You damned monster! As the Saintess of the Church of Light, I will not go down! I will avenge my fallen comrades! RAAAH!”

She activated the eye-shaped relic as it suddenly fused into her chest. Her entire body transformed as she started to become incredibly monstrous. Gaining a pair of angelic wings, long and lanky arms and legs, and a face with a single mouth and no eyes.

[Saintess of Light: Raffilia: Lv300] has utilized the [Forbidden Divine Relic: Angelicus (SSS Grade)]!]

[Due to her strong faith and belief, she has been granted the wish to obtain a body that could match your power, evolving into the [Fallen Angel Of Despair: Rafflesia: Lv600+]!]

“SINNER!”

And they keep pulling out tricks from their asses; these people are truly resourceful.

“Sadly, that body of yours cannot match my power either way.”

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