I'm a GM

Xiang Dong wanted to try the browser's search function, so he entered Hongjun in the search box. After he confirmed it, a Merit Golden Wheel appeared in the middle of the screen, spinning round and round.

Round and round it spun, round and round...

There was no telling how long the Merit Golden Wheel spun. The loading progress remained slow, and Xiang Dong could feel his Primordial Spirit power steadily draining away.

Hiss, so my Primordial Spirit power is also my data allowance. Looks like it won't last long, since my Primordial Spirit power isn't all that strong.

Driven by his desire to play on his phone and his data crisis, Xiang Dong thought for the first time about raising his cultivation realm and strength and properly cultivating.

As soon as the thought appeared, the inheritance Pangu had left behind surfaced as well.

The complete "Nine-Turn Profound Art"!

Mm, I'll put that aside for now. He had thought about cultivating, but that was all it was: a thought. He had no plans to actually act on it yet.

As the wheel stopped spinning, Hongjun's personal information appeared.

[Name: Hongjun]

[Identity: reincarnated Chaos Demon God cultivating anew, palace master of the Purple Heaven Palace, founder of the Immortal Dao, candidate to merge with the Heavenly Dao]

[Current realm: peak Primordial Unity Golden Immortal]

[Spirit treasures held: Creation Jade Disc (fragment), Twelfth-Grade Merit Golden Lotus...]

[Recent activity: traveling around to enlist the help of old friends against Luohou, founder of the Demon Dao and candidate to merge with the Heavenly Dao]

Xiang Dong: (´◔‸◔') Hm?

"Luohou is also a candidate to merge with the Heavenly Dao?"

He hadn't known anything about that, so he tried searching for Luohou to see what was going on. The loading speed was just as touching. The Merit Golden Wheel spun who knew how many times, and his Primordial Spirit power was nearly half depleted before the results finally appeared.

[Name: Luohou]

[Identity: reincarnated Chaos Demon God cultivating anew, founder of the Demon Dao, candidate to merge with the Heavenly Dao]

[Spirit treasures held: God-Slaying Spear, Twelfth-Grade World-Destroying Black Lotus, innate supreme treasure Heavenly Book...]

[Recent activity: sacrificially refining the Four Swords of Immortal-Slaying and their formation diagram, in progress]

At first glance, nothing seemed amiss, but on closer inspection, Xiang Dong finally spotted the crucial detail.

"The Heavenly Book, the Investiture of the Gods List. It's in Luohou's hands right now. Hiss, no wonder."

The Primordial World had three books: the Heavenly Book, the Earth Book, and the Human Book. The Earth Book was also called the Classic of Mountains and Seas. It was in Zhen Yuanzi's hands and mainly recorded mountains and rivers, geography, exotic beasts, myths and legends, and the like.

Zhen Yuanzi could use it to set up a grand formation of moral blackmail, pointing fingers at you from the moral high ground while you could only take it, unable to hit him.

Hitting him was the same as attacking the entire Primordial Land. If you shattered the Primordial Land and plunged its living beings into misery, congratulations—you'd just earned yourself a Karmic Force gift package. Even a Heavenly Dao Sage would suffer terribly.

The Human Book was the "Book of Life and Death." There wasn't much to say about it: it recorded the lifespans of living beings and was a core component of the underworld's cycle of life and death, the first stop for anyone making a scene there.

If you hadn't gone and crossed something out in the Book of Life and Death, you could hardly call it making a scene in the underworld.

The Heavenly Book was the Investiture of the Gods List, a key item in the Investiture of the Gods Calamity. In Xiang Dong's view, it was essentially a Heavenly Court appointment list plus personnel records.

Holding it meant holding the power to appoint, change, and transfer personnel.

This was a very important, indispensable part of the Heavenly Dao.

It was also very important to Hongjun. Personnel authority—wouldn't you seize it?

Then you had a big heart, huh? Weren't you afraid your subordinates would rebel?

To guard against trouble before it arose, Hongjun had made some preparations of his own. For example, once someone's true spirit was placed on the list and they became a god, they could only receive incense offerings thereafter, and their cultivation realm would be permanently fixed, unable to advance. Finally, there was the God-Beating Whip: anyone who disobeyed or refused to work properly would be rewarded with a few lashes.

Now that the Heavenly Book was in Luohou's hands, Hongjun naturally had to seize it, and this was Luohou's greatest asset in his struggle against Hongjun for the Heavenly Dao.

They would decide not only who was superior, but who lived and who died. There would be no rest until one of them was dead.

After learning that the Heavenly Book was in Luohou's hands, Xiang Dong gave up on further "surfing the web." The data consumption was a little high, and he now had one more reason to intervene in this struggle with the Demon Dao.

But he currently lacked both the ability and the strength to intervene. He couldn't even stand by and watch. If he were caught in the aftermath of the battle, he'd lose a layer of skin even if he didn't die.

So he had to make Yangmei an ally.

With that thought, Xiang Dong began looking through the other functions. He seemed to have gained some Heavenly Dao authority too. If Hongjun could get Yangmei a green card, perhaps he could as well.

Soon, he found the [Accounts and permissions] function and clicked straight into it.

The page changed, and the first thing that met his eyes was a line bearing a glittering golden title.

[Heavenly Dao Agent (sole designated holder): Taichu (Xiang Dong)]

Below it was another line in small gray text.

[Previous agent: Jade Pure Yuanshi Heavenly Venerable (authority reclaimed by Pangu's Will)]

Xiang Dong: (⊙o⊙)...(˘•ω•˘)

Seeing the Jade Pure Yuanshi Heavenly Venerable left Xiang Dong with somewhat complicated feelings. Pangu really had been extraordinarily good to the Three Pure Ones. He had given them Heaven-Opening supreme treasures and Heaven-Opening Merit, and he had also given Yuqing the GM status and authority of a Heavenly Dao Agent.

What about Taiqing and Shangqing, then? Those two should be much the same, right?

Xiang Dong couldn't resist checking their profiles. He found that although they didn't have the status of agent, they too had important roles to play in Pangu's arrangements.

For example...

"Holy crap, Sect Leader Supreme Pure Tongtian is actually an Earthly Dao Sage. He bears the responsibility of protecting his youngest sister Houtu and is a Dao protector of the Earthly Dao."

At that moment, Xiang Dong felt that he should count as the big brother among the Ancestral Witches, unaware that Di Jiang and the others all regarded him as their little brother.

"Grand Pure One Laozi was meant to help Nuwa... hiss!"

Xiang Dong had lost count of how many sharp breaths he had drawn that day. This information had struck him too hard; it differed quite a bit from what he knew.

But on careful thought, those differences made quite a lot of sense.

Nuwa was the Holy Mother of the Human Race, Taiqing was the Humanity Sect Leader, and Tongtian was schemed against the worst in the Investiture of the Gods Calamity, becoming its biggest loser. There seemed to be traces to follow in everything.

Rubbing his brow, Xiang Dong smiled bitterly and said, "Knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing. I'd better take care of what's in front of me first."

First, he checked the permissions he currently possessed. The Heavenly Dao had many permissions, but quite a few of its functions were still incomplete. For example, the absence of the Heavenly Book had wiped out the personnel section entirely, leaving it all grayed out.

The permissions Xiang Dong currently possessed were [Heavenly secrets concealment/revelation], [Merit/Karmic Force adjudication (elementary)], [Heavenly punishment execution (application required)], and [Primordial World living beings household registration management (elementary)].

"Hehehe, whatever Hongjun dares to give, I'll give..." The corners of Xiang Dong's mouth spread into the wicked grin Nuwa knew so well. "And whatever Hongjun doesn't dare to give, I'll give all the more. Give first, negotiate later. Jie jie jie!!!"