A brilliant golden light flashed, and Lin Mu, now heavily clad in the Thunder Atlas Armor, swiftly and confidently seized the Destruction Scepter.
"Boom—"
The exact instant he firmly grasped the Destruction Scepter, an unprecedented, terrifying destructive force violently erupted from it, intensely shaking the surrounding hundred miles of frozen terrain.
Even so, Lin Mu absolutely did not retreat a single, solitary step.
This incredible feat was largely thanks to the Thunder Atlas Armor; as the undisputed ultimate armor, it intrinsically possessed extremely strong, peerless defensive capabilities, more than enough to completely withstand over ninety percent of the direct damage.
Therefore, Lin Mu was perfectly able to calmly hold the volatile Destruction Scepter.
Next, he forcefully mobilized all his vast soul power, making the five ultimate elemental forces actively coil tightly around the Destruction Scepter to completely counteract the violently emitted destructive force.
After some tense attempts, he finally successfully raised the Destruction Scepter high.
[The seventh trial of the God of Destruction is complete. Reward: 15% massive increase in affinity with the God of Destruction, bringing the total affinity to 75%.]
"It was honestly that easy?!"
Lin Mu was actually somewhat incredulous. He had fully expected the highly anticipated seventh trial to be incredibly difficult, but he had managed to complete it so easily.
In fact, the distant God of Destruction had absolutely not anticipated this specific outcome either.
In his cynical view, the Destruction Scepter, officially recognized as one of the Five Ultra Divine Artifacts of the entire God Realm, would severely require Lin Mu to violently risk at least half his life to even barely gain its basic approval.
However, reality completely slapped him in the face; he had clearly, massively underestimated Lin Mu's true strength.
Willingly giving this ultra divine weapon to Lin Mu might actually allow it to fully unleash power far exceeding its original, theoretical potential, given that Lin Mu simultaneously wielded five ultimate elements. These elements, perfectly combined with the Destruction Scepter, would be fully enough to violently destroy the heavens and the earth.
For him personally, the stronger Lin Mu ultimately was, the far more beneficial it would actively be for him and his beloved wife.
Although Ye Lingling's combat abilities were honestly slightly inferior, Lin Mu's terrifying strength was completely formidable enough, even heavily possessing the raw potential to eventually surpass the God of Destruction himself; their combined influence in the God Realm would absolutely only rapidly increase in the future.
[God of Destruction's Eighth Trial: Successfully Condense Five Elemental Soul Cores. Strict Time Limit: Exactly One Year.]
"Hmm? It's finally become a somewhat normal trial starting exactly from the seventh test?"
Lin Mu's purple eyes flickered slightly. It honestly seemed the first six trials were absolutely just basic, ordinary assessments, meaning the God of Destruction had deliberately gone incredibly easy on him, finally increasing the difficulty exponentially from the seventh test onwards.
However, it still wasn't honestly too difficult for him.
After all, he had long ago naturally planned to condense five elemental soul cores anyway to perfectly maximize his overall combat strength.
A moment later, Lin Mu successfully suppressed his inner excitement and slowly turned to look at Ye Lingling, quietly noticing that she also currently held a highly miniature version of the Ancient Tree of Life.
Clearly, the Goddess of Life had also generously passed her own ultra divine tool, the Ancient Tree of Life, directly to Ye Lingling.
However, Ye Lingling absolutely didn't currently have Lin Mu's outstanding, overwhelming abilities and didn't immediately manage to gain the Ancient Tree of Life's full approval, so she sensibly had to put the difficult matter aside for the time being.
"Little San, have you completely finished your Eighth Sea God trial?" Lin Mu asked Tang San directly.
"Yes, Master. I officially only have the final Sea God inheritance left to complete."
After a brief pause, Tang San suddenly remembered something highly important and quickly changed the subject, saying earnestly, "Master, I'm honestly not in a huge hurry to become a god. You still have some considerable time before you fully become a god, so I'll gladly wait a few more months for you."
"You silly boy, whoever specifically said a loyal disciple absolutely has to patiently wait to become a god strictly after his master?"
Lin Mu said warmly, fondly reaching out to gently tap Tang San's forehead.
Hearing this reassurance, Tang San awkwardly scratched his cheek highly sheepishly.
He genuinely, deeply didn't want to become a god before his respected master, and he certainly didn't want to officially enter the vast God Realm entirely alone.
For him personally, his incredibly smooth passage through the grueling trials was absolutely, mainly due to his master's constant, invaluable guidance and active help.
At this emotional moment, Lin Mu clearly saw his deep worry and patiently explained, "After you successfully become a god, you absolutely won't immediately be forcefully dragged into the God Realm. You can safely stay right here and comfortably take care of all your personal affairs first."
Although the God Realm constantly seems incredibly grand and highly lofty, it's actually quite incredibly boring and highly tedious; it's absolutely much more comfortable to simply stay on the mortal Douluo Continent.
However, there were strict, universal rules that heavily limited mortal lifespan; if one critically couldn't become a god, their overall lifespan was strictly finite.
Tang San honestly couldn't bear to heartlessly abandon his beloved master, mother, and Xiao Wu to enter the God Realm entirely alone, so he deeply wanted to patiently wait for his master to fully complete his own divine trial.
After quickly returning to Heaven Dou City, Lin Mu comfortably rested for two full days before actively taking Tang San and Xiao Wu directly back to Sea God Island.
Ye Lingling urgently needed to focus and complete the seventh trial of the Goddess of Life, so she naturally didn't go with them this time.
The three of them rapidly arrived at Sea God Island in just a mere half a day of travel.
Soon, warmly received by the guardians of the Seven Sacred Pillars, they swiftly arrived at the base of Sea God Mountain, where they could clearly see the Sea God Douluo Bo Saixi standing atop the mountain.
Although she still naturally exuded incredible majesty, her physical appearance had undergone a highly dramatic, shocking change.
The once stunningly beautiful High Priestess was completely gone, entirely replaced by a highly frail old woman, a rather shocking sight to behold.
On one hand, she was fully, mentally prepared for her impending sacrifice.
On the other hand, Tang Chen was tragically dead, and she no longer felt she needed to actively maintain her youthful appearance for anyone.
"Let's go up."
With that, Lin Mu gently waved his hand, quickly creating an invisible, powerful breeze that smoothly carried him and Tang San directly to the summit of Sea God Mountain, while Xiao Wu patiently remained below.
Watching Tang San's rapidly retreating figure, Xiao Wu strongly felt a highly complex mix of deep emotions.
She sincerely hoped Tang San would successfully inherit the Sea God's godhood, yet she deeply worried that they would be permanently separated after he officially became a god.
"Brother, to stay completely by your side forever, I must quickly find a divine inheritance too," Xiao Wu said highly resolutely.
Meanwhile, Lin Mu and Tang San had already silently followed Bo Saixi directly into the massive Sea God's Temple, which currently remained completely dark and silent.
A moment later, Bo Saixi slowly stopped, slowly turned to Tang San, a clear hint of deep sadness in her tired eyes, and said softly, "Tang San, right before your great-grandfather tragically died, he specifically asked me to give you this."
As soon as she finished speaking those heavy words, Bo Saixi casually flicked her wrist, directly gesturing towards the side of the massive Sea God's Temple.
The very next moment, a highly intense red light suddenly shone brightly, and in a quick flash, the terrifying Asura Demon Sword suddenly appeared right before the three of them.
Even directly faced with the massive, overwhelming temptation of the Asura God King's Inheritance, Tang San absolutely did not lose his logical mind.
Although the Asura God King's Inheritance was definitively a full level higher than the Sea God's Inheritance, the overall difficulty was also significantly, exponentially increased.
Moreover, he had already successfully completed the vast majority of the Sea God Trials, so there was absolutely no logical need to foolishly give up all his massive previous efforts now.
"Senior, let's simply leave this highly dangerous artifact here for now."
"That's perfectly fine too. The sooner I fully help you officially complete the final trials, the much sooner I can finally be completely free."
After a short, highly emotional pause, Bo Saixi slowly looked at Lin Mu again and said highly solemnly, "Lin Mu, I genuinely thank you for healing Tang Chen before. That brief period was honestly the absolute best time of my entire life."
As the old saying goes, a dying person's final words are always kind.
In the past, Bo Saixi had naturally harbored some deep hostility towards Lin Mu, but she had now fully, completely come to terms with it.
"Let's honestly not dwell on the past anymore," Lin Mu said perfectly calmly.
Next, Bo Saixi fully activated Tang San's Sea God Inheritance through her ultimate sacrifice.
The highly painful first step was to strengthen his Eight Spider Lances external soul bone, a brutal process that was extremely painful. But Tang San, having already experienced several horrific bone-shattering incidents, was fully able to stubbornly persevere.
Then rapidly came his other highly intensive soul bone enhancements. After an completely unknown, agonizing amount of time, Lin Mu suddenly noticed that the glowing progress bar on the system light screen right in front of him massively surged, fully reaching one hundred percent in one fell swoop.
[Main quest completion rate successfully reached 100%, fully unlocking the supreme Asura Armor. Rewarding absolutely all existing soul rings with a massive 100,000-year increase in age.]