Progress

Getting back into the groove of cultivation had been easy. It was as if I'd never stopped in the first place. The qi flowed naturally with only the barest of guidance, and my inner realm didn't look like it had been used as a playground for my demon.

Truthfully speaking, returning to cultivation was probably one the happiest moments of my life. Not to say that I'd had a life scarce of things to be delighted about.

Instead, I saw it as a testament to how much I loved the challenge and reward of cultivation. I have never been averse to grinding at an objective as long as I felt the reward was worth it. The strength granted by cultivation was definitely worth it to me.

During those two years that had passed without cultivation, I hadn't realized how much I missed it. This was, of course, due to me distracting myself with other things, but even then, there had been a little frustration.

It now made more sense to me why characters in those cultivation novels would sometimes spend centuries meditating. It wasn't the most enjoyable thing to do but the feeling of progression that it gave made up for that.

Truthfully speaking cultivating was probably one of the most addicting things ever.

Very tedious and very painful, but also supremely addicting. It just made me feel better.

That is if you're able to bear the pain. Though it could just be that way to me. Anything that provided an increase in my power, strength, or just anything related to my wellbeing was addictive.

Plus, the freedom that is given to those that cultivated also aided in that factor. If one was strong enough, smart enough, or had the right resources, they could make their own path.

That was what had allowed me to form my foundation with a continent worth of qi after all. Granted that it wasn't something many other beings could do, it was still very much an aspect of that freedom.

Deventus's thousand-fold refinement was part of that.

That also wasn't something that many non-divine beings could do, but my point still stands.

Though I must say that I think my achievement is just better. Refining your body is much less impressive than gathering a continent's worth of qi. So 1-0 to me.

To defy the heavens and grow stronger was the point of cultivation. Though there currently wasn't any heaven to defy. The universe wasn't stopping us from growing stronger.

Though it did make me wonder if that was something I should implement into the universe. I still had one chance to alter the rules of reality with that book.

What was cultivation without divine tribulations?

That was definitely something I had to do once this century passed. A challenge always made things more fun.

My titles had also played a rather significant part as to why cultivation had suddenly become so easy. Since I'd realized that I had them, I'd been abusing them to the maximum extent possible.

The abilities that they granted were just too good to not be abused. If we look at the title [He Who Hangs at the Precipe of Annihilation], it's not hard to understand why I'd gained that.

It's clear to see that I gained that title because of the risks that I took when it came to cultivation.

I had used my divine power to keep me from being ripped apart due to how much qi I was using. This put me at the precipe of being atomized, the only stopping that from happening being my powers.

Hell, I'd had to lock myself in space for a couple months after doing it because I hadn't stabilized after that.

As the name implied, it was given to me because I hung right at the edge of folly. So it was easy to understand what it granted me. It essentially just rewarded me with the ability to withstand such things even better.

It allowed me to hang closer and longer at that precipe. Something that I abused every time I broke through.

My other title [The Great Pretender], was the one that boosted regular cultivation. That was given to me because I was good at lying and acting. Of course, the real clincher for that title had been lying to the prophetic goddess. Like the previous title, it was only due to my powers that it'd been possible, but the universe didn't look at that.

That's not to say those were the only reasons I gained those titles, but I would bet money that they were the most important ones.

It hadn't taken me long to figure the effect of that one. Just as the name implied, I became better at pretending. Any action that wasn't the truth was made to be more believable.

But that was the passive ability, the one that took no effort and didn't drain me. The actual important ability was that it would grant me the powers and mannerisms of beings that I acted as.

There were limitations to that, of course. There was a limit on how powerful the being could be. There more powerful they were, the more draining it was for me to pretend to be them. Using their powers would leave me feeling exhausted and sometimes led to me passing out. I considered those to be fair limitations because even with them, it was still a game-changer.

The change of mannerisms had been noticed by Deventus. Though all I do to ease her worries was feed her the lie that acknowledging my origins had "solidified" my existence.

Whatever that meant.

Honestly, a prophetic goddess shouldn't be that gullible.

So, in order to boost my cultivation, I pretended to be a cultivation genius.

Not only did it work, but it worked well. It was why I had managed to break through so many realms in such a comparatively short amount of time.

It wasn't something I could do all the time since that would lead to me passing out constantly. But when I did, my cultivation speed was nearly fivefold what it usually was.

Even though some of my progress was removed whenever I stopped pretending to be a cultivation genius, that still left me with a 3 fold increase in cultivation rate.

That power was abused beyond belief.

It took me 20 years to get to the first 2 stages and only another 40 to reach the 9th stage.

It was due to that speed that I allowed myself to take a break. I was reaching the limit of cultivation knowledge in this world. There were other schools of power that I could look into, but my interest in them had waned. Plus, even though I enjoyed cultivation, I didn't want to add another stressful road just yet.

When it came to all those systems of power, there had been little growth.

This is why I was currently focusing on the game of the chosen. I'd wanted to nudge my pick in the direction of upgrading the cultivation levels, but that wasn't making any progress.

He just wasn't all that bright when it came to cultivation, and even though he was a grown man, he was still stuck at the 4th stage. Not bad when compared to everyone else, but not all that good. It was only due to his charisma and my abilities that he was significant amongst his people.

Deventus's chosen had a lower cultivation level, but his influence rivaled if not slightly surpassed that of my mine.

My plan to oppose the single deity focus of the people had gone off without a hitch. When I successfully completed it, the chosen had been given the title of [Messiah of the Storm]. Not by me but by the universe. He had been tied to Tena by the universe.

It was an odd feeling being connected to a mortal. Though it only happened when I acted as Tena.

Nevertheless, I was at a significant disadvantage.

I probably should have been suspicious as to why Deventus hadn't opposed my plan. But by the time I realized that fact, she had already established herself as the head of the pantheon.

She had actually made it easier for the belief in Tena to spread. She had sent visions to her chosen and had even had him speak of the arrival of the messiah. She spun tales about how the pantheon was slowly reuniting and becoming one again. However, she had made it seem that in the hierarchy, I was the one beneath her.

In doing that, she had capped my religious influence. I could never grow to be more relevant than her. As long as there wasn't some major shift in religion or culture, I would always be the god birthed by Deventus.

Tena the guardian of Deventus.That's what they called me.

My chosen, of course, had no idea of this and simply thought that he was being accepted by his community.

The worst part is that any attempt undermine her religious influence would be seen as a betrayal to the "pantheon".

Which wouldn't help me in the slightest.

Even if I succeeded in that endeavor, I was sure that she had backup plans just in case that happened.

Since I had been focused on cultivating, I hadn't noticed any of this happening until the very last moment when her chosen accepted mine with open arms.

She'd birthed a friendship between them that had reduced my chosen's drive to oppose him.

It had been an insidious plan, and I hadn't noticed it since she had disguised it as me just being good at spreading a religion. I honestly had to give props for the maneuver. It had been one of the cleanest things I'd ever seen.

I'd managed to recoup my losses once I noticed. But as I said, there was now a cap on how much influence I could have religiously, and with the friendship, there was a soft lock on my chosen's social position.

I was losing the game. It wasn't a complete blowout by any means, but it's clear to see that I'm falling behind. With a tribe this small, there's already only so much influence that can be gained. Even though the population had increased in these 40 years, that still didn't change much.

That's not including the fact that we weren't the only major faction in the tribe. The sly bastard had created a buffer faction to limit how much influence I could get. Which should have affected her as well, but the leader of that faction was close friends with her chosen. And he wasn't all that impressed by mine.

So, now I had only a third of the pie while she had, by proxy 2 thirds of it. Nobody ever said she wasn't smart. It's actually kind of horrifying what she's capable of. Yet she was still so childish.

Fucking Precogs.

Like who even thinks about creating a buffer faction?

Deventus apparently.

Though I must say that I've been enjoying myself. I had 40 more years before it was time to head back. My memories of Earth were already quite foggy. I'm pretty sure I've forgotten a couple passwords already.

But there are always things to do.

I wasn't too bothered by the thought of returning. I didn't want to be an active player in this world anyway. So, returning was probably the best option.

I'd only have to wait a week or so for them to advance cultivation, at which point I could return.

Entering into this world had honestly given me perspective. In fact, I'd say I wasn't all that worried about cancer anymore. I'd lived for almost up to 80 years now. I still wanted to get rid of it, but I wasn't someone who vied for immortality.

My main goal wasn't to get rid of cancer, even though I would continue to try and do so. Instead, I was now focused on seeing how far I could take this universe. It had been one of the original goals, but now that I'd lived in it, it had taken charge.

The only real problem that I was desperate to solve, at least for now, was the cyclical depression.

However, it wasn't time to return yet. I still had to reach this tenth gate, and then I planned on taking another shot at that conceptual fragment.