Ancient Divine Way

"I wouldn't dare."

Ling Qing hurriedly rose and returned the greeting, then said hesitantly, "This... may I ask what you need, Eunuch?

This humble scholar is weak in both body and strength. I fear I may not be able to subdue that Tiger Demon."

Even an ordinary tiger had nearly 19 points of strength. Wouldn't one that had become a demon have extraordinary strength?

Although the difference in the numbers was only one point, the actual gap in strength was enormous.

Besides, once an attribute reached 20 points, it was already extraordinary.

The increase in strength was one thing, but anyone who entered the extraordinary realm could gain certain extraordinary traits and abilities.

Sometimes, the effects of extraordinary traits were even more despairing than the gap in strength.

The Land God quickly waved his hands and explained, "I wouldn't dare put a scholar in danger."

He then pulled a scroll of animal skin from his robes and held it out to Ling Qing with both hands. "It's just that I once came by a scripture. But I know few characters and understand little of the classics, so I hoped the scholar might show his kindness and explain it to me."

"This humble student's knowledge is limited too. I fear wasting your time would be the least of it—if I distort the meaning of the scripture, that would be a grave offense."

Ling Qing was taken aback. He had nearly forgotten everything he had learned at school.

The knowledge of the classics he had gained from choosing the scholar identity had also gone unorganized while he was busy learning spells. He truly couldn't claim that he was able to explain the classics to others.

"It's no trouble, no trouble. A scholar knows more than an old man like me. Besides, this scripture of mine is not as profound as the sages' teachings."

Seeing that Ling Qing had not refused outright, the Land God quickly placed the Beast Skin Scroll in his hands.

"This... all right. I'll look it over first."

Seeing this, Ling Qing hesitated for a moment, then stopped declining. He unfolded the animal skin in his hands and examined it carefully.

Ever since the Land God had appeared, night had already shrouded the surroundings, yet Ling Qing could still see everything clearly.

It was as clear as seeing by daylight, so he had no trouble making out the writing on the animal skin.

"This is..."

After examining it carefully, Ling Qing couldn't help exclaiming.

There were two kinds of writing on the Beast Skin Scroll. One was a script Ling Qing had never seen before, its characters shaped like mountains and flowing water, with sharp angles and curling, winding strokes.

But whether one looked at the animal skin itself or the scripture, only half remained.

Ling Qing had never even seen this script before, let alone recognized it, but that was not what surprised him.

What surprised him was the annotation surrounding it.

The annotations were written in a combination of seal script and clerical script, arranged on either side of the first script. They first explained the origin of the Beast Skin Scroll and the general meaning of the scripture.

Then they went on to annotate the entire scripture in detail, word by word and sentence by sentence.

After reading it through once, Ling Qing had a general understanding of the contents of the animal skin.

The origins of the Ancient Animal Skin Scroll could no longer be traced, but the annotator had signed his name: Xu Shi of Qi.

Xu Shi had discovered the Beast Skin Scroll in an ancient cave deep in the mountains. Only after investigating it repeatedly had he managed to decipher its general meaning.

It was an ancient method of divine cultivation. It described how to draw the authority over mountains, rivers, and the earth into oneself, thereby carrying out Heaven's will and governing in Heaven's stead.

However, only half of the scroll remained. It mainly explained how to draw in the authority over mountains, rivers, and the earth, but said nothing about governing in Heaven's stead.

Nowadays, though, all authority over Heaven and Earth belonged to the Heavenly Court. Apart from a few Emperors and Heavenly Lords, the divine offices of most other gods were bestowed by the Heavenly Court.

Demons and gods who profaned the rites, worshipped illicitly, and the like mostly gained supernatural powers and strange abilities through incense offerings, then presumptuously called themselves gods. They could not be counted as true gods of Heaven and Earth.

Even gods enshrined by the imperial court were merely wild gods if they lacked the Heavenly Court's recognition.

When a dynasty still stood, such gods could indeed wield wondrous powers. But once the dynasty declined and a new dynasty swept the realm clean, the first to bear the brunt were the spirits who had received favors from the old dynasty.

By the same token, this also applied to gods enshrined by the Heavenly Court. If someone were to overthrow the Heavenly Court, the gods it had enshrined would likewise be purged.

But first, the Heavenly Court was immensely powerful, its might covering all three realms, and it endured far longer than any mortal dynasty.

Thus, most gods who remained powerful for a long time had been enshrined by the Heavenly Court.

Second, unlike mortal dynasties, which used the dragon aura of their reign to enshrine gods, the Heavenly Court did much the same as the method described in this Ancient Scroll. It gathered the authority over Heaven and Earth, the mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, and even fortune, prosperity, longevity, wealth, life, death, and reincarnation within itself.

When it wished to enshrine a god, it only needed to grant that god the appropriate authority.

This authority was like administrator privileges in a game. With those privileges, you could gain a great deal of advantage within your territory.

Just how great that advantage was depended entirely on the extent of your authority.

Only with authority could you oversee the plants, birds and beasts, fish and insects in a mountain or river, and even its changes, rises and falls, fluctuations and stillness, prosperity and decline.

The Land God before him, for example, had become a god through the wishes of the common folk. Only after the City God of Mount Lao County had recognized him and admitted him into the City God system had he gained an official standing.

But most of his divine authority consisted of human affairs, such as bountiful harvests and the health of livestock.

This scripture—no, it should be called Divine Script.

This Divine Script described how to draw in the authority over mountains, rivers, and peaks. It had presumably been passed down from before the Heavenly Court was established.

Though its divine effects were extraordinary, most of its primary function had already been rendered useless.

To say nothing of whether there was any authority left behind by the Heavenly Court for you to gather, even if there was, you might not dare take it.

To steal Heaven's secrets without the Heavenly Court's sanction—rather than become an immortal, you would likely suffer Heaven's punishment.

By then, you might be reduced to a scattered soul, never to be reborn.

Still, the Divine Script was not entirely useless. Though it could not help you gather authority and become a god, it offered many benefits to those who were already gods.

After all, to gather authority, one had to understand the principles of Heaven and Earth. The deeper one's understanding, the more complete the authority one could obtain.

Even among gods of the land, one might only be able to perform minor divine arts like sending dreams and ensuring bountiful harvests, while another could not only bring blessings to all things and regulate the energies of earth and water, but also restore balance between yin and yang and maintain order between the world of the living and the underworld.

The gap between the two could not be measured in miles.

So, although one could not gain new divine authority through the method of gathering authority, one could use its principles to deepen one's mastery of the divine authority one already possessed.

Ling Qing took a sheet of white paper from the Book Box and carefully copied the annotations in neat regular script.

When he came across obscure characters or terms from the Hidden Script Terminology, he explained them again in plain language beside the text if he understood their meaning.

Anything he did not understand, he marked as well.

As for the mountain-and-water-like Divine Script, it wasn't that Ling Qing didn't want to copy it down too.

The problem was that while he was reading it, nothing seemed strange, and he could see it clearly.

But when he turned to write it down, his mind went completely blank. He couldn't remember a thing.

He tried again and again, but it was always the same. Ling Qing could only give up with regret.

It was no wonder. Just as he finished organizing the text, a notification appeared before him.

Character gained skill information: XXXX—Incomplete.

XXXX—Incomplete

Level: Uninitiated

Quality: Epic (Mythic)

A method for gathering and mastering the authority over mountains, rivers, and peaks, and fusing divine authority into oneself.

Note: Though the skill information is incomplete due to the missing second half, the foundational method is intact, so this does not affect initiation.