Lex slapped William hard on the back, sending his demigod spirit form stumbling forward.

  “Look at you—like you’ve never seen the world before. Calm down, close your mouth, and carry yourself with some class. Don’t embarrass our school.”

  Snapping back to his senses, William quickly steadied himself. He pointed toward the four massive Divine Realms floating in the distance, his face still filled with shock.

  “What… the hell is that?”

  “What do you mean, ‘what the hell’? Don’t be so easily impressed—that’s a Divine Realm, obviously.”

  Lex replied with a smug smile, clearly enjoying himself as he dangled the answer just out of reach.

  William, knowing this old guy well by now, could see it in his face: Lex was back on his favorite game—teasing him.

  Suppressing the shock in his heart, William adjusted his expression and asked properly:

  “Lex, would you please enlighten me? Why do those four Divine Realms look completely different from the ones I’ve seen before?”

  Lex looked quite pleased with William’s respectful tone. Hands behind his back, he nodded with approval before slowly beginning his explanation.

  “That’s what gods have to do after igniting their Divine Flame.”

  “It’s normal that you don’t know about this yet—you haven’t reached your final year of high school, so this stuff hasn’t been covered.”

  “But once you get into university, you’ll learn all this in a structured way.”

  “Still, since you’re curious, I can give you a rough idea now.”

  He paused for a moment, soaking in the hunger for knowledge on William’s face. Clearly satisfied, he continued:

  “After igniting the Divine Flame, there’s a lot a demigod needs to do.”

  “First, you have to continually invest divinity to keep the Divine Flame burning. Then, using the divine crystals produced by the flame, you start constructing your godhood.”

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  “You also need to pour in massive amounts of divinity to form divine inscriptions. You’ve probably read about some of this already, right?”

  William gave a helpless nod and replied, playing along,

  “Yeah, I’ve seen a bit of that in the library. It was pretty vague, but I got the general idea.”

  Lex gave him a look like a proud teacher with a promising student and continued:

  “Beyond those basics, if your goal is to become a true god—and raise your Divine Realm into reality to achieve immortality—then there's one thing you must do.”

  He pointed toward the four massive Divine Realms floating in the distance, his face filled with longing.

  “You need to refine the laws within your Divine Realm and alter its structure.”

  “Make it more compatible with the real world—that’s essential.”

  “Otherwise, once your Divine Realm enters reality, just maintaining its stability will burn through your divine power at an astronomical rate.”

  “The more the structure and rules of a Divine Realm resemble the basic laws of the real world, the less divine energy a true god needs to spend to sustain it.”

  William’s eyes widened again as he absorbed that. He suddenly realized there was a whole area of knowledge he hadn’t even touched yet.

  “Lex, are you saying that once gods enter the real world, they still have to burn divine power just to keep their Divine Realms stable?”

  Lex gave him a strange look, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “Of course! What did you think?”

  “You think true gods can just drag around planet-sized Divine Realms across the universe without burning through energy?”

  “A lot of true gods will actually embed their Divine Realm into an existing planetary system, like a regular planet.”

  “They park it there and rely on harvesting solar energy from nearby stars to keep their realm running.”

  William was stunned by that.

  This version of a “true god” didn’t quite match what he’d imagined.

  “Lex, these true gods sound kinda… uh… um…”

  He stumbled over his words, unsure how to phrase what he was thinking. After a moment of gathering his thoughts, he tried again:

  “I mean, aren’t true gods supposed to be these… infinitely long-lived, concept-wielding, all-powerful beings?”

  Lex was the one who looked dumbfounded now.

  His face said it all: What the hell are you talking about?

  “Huh? Kid, are you even awake right now? What kind of nonsense have you been reading?”

  Seeing Lex’s reaction, William started to panic. Did I miss some key knowledge somewhere?

  He quickly sifted through his memory but couldn’t find anything to explain the contradiction.

  So, he just stared at Lex in total confusion, waiting for him to explain.

  Sighing, Lex reached out and patted William’s shoulder, his voice turning unusually gentle and serious:

  “Kid, lay off those mystical fantasy novels, yeah? They’ll twist your sense of reality if you’re not careful.”

  “Let me ask you one thing—if true gods are all-powerful…”