Ancient Divine Path

"You are too kind."

Ling Qing hurriedly stood up to return the gesture, hesitating as he asked, "This... I wonder what it is you seek of me, Elder? My own abilities are meager, and I fear I am ill-equipped to subdue that tiger demon."

A tiger that has not yet attained spiritual enlightenment already possesses a Strength stat nearing 19 points; once it becomes a demon, its strength would surely be superhuman.

Although the data suggests a difference of only one point, the actual disparity in power is immense.

Furthermore, once an attribute reaches 20 points, it enters the realm of the extraordinary.

An increase in the level of strength is one thing, but anyone who steps into the extraordinary can acquire corresponding traits and abilities.

One must realize that at times, the effects of these extraordinary traits are even more despairing than the raw gap in strength.

The Earth God waved his hands hurriedly, explaining, "I would not dare trouble a scholar to risk his life."

He then pulled a roll of animal hide from his robes, holding it out to Ling Qing with both hands. "In truth, I obtained a scripture in the past, but as I am not well-versed in letters and do not understand its profound meaning, I wish to request your noble assistance to explain it to me."

"My own learning is shallow, and I fear that wasting your time would be a minor matter, but distorting the meaning of the scripture would be a grave sin."

Ling Qing was stunned; he had nearly forgotten most of what he had learned back in school.

The knowledge of scriptures he had gained from choosing the scholar identity had not yet been organized due to his focus on learning spells, so he truly dared not claim he could explain such texts to others.

"It is no matter, no matter. A scholar's learning is always superior to mine, and besides, this scroll is not as profound as the teachings of the Sages."

Seeing that Ling Qing had not flatly refused, the Earth God quickly placed the animal hide roll into his hands.

"This... very well, I shall read it through first."

Seeing this, Ling Qing hesitated no longer and unfolded the hide to examine it carefully.

Since the Earth God had appeared, the surroundings had been shrouded in night, yet Ling Qing could see everything around him clearly.

It was as bright as day, so he had no fear of being unable to read the characters on the hide.

"This is..."

After a careful reading, Ling Qing could not help but exclaim in surprise.

There were two types of writing on the hide. One was a script Ling Qing had never seen before; the characters resembled mountains and rivers, with sharp angles and twisting, winding strokes.

However, whether judging by the hide itself or the text, it was clear that only half remained.

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

What shocked him was the content of the surrounding annotations.

The annotations were written in a combination of seal and clerical scripts, surrounding the primary text. They first clarified the origin of the hide and the general meaning of the scripture.

Then, they provided a detailed, word-for-word annotation of the entire passage.

After reading it through, Ling Qing roughly understood the contents of the hide.

The origin of the ancient scroll was untraceable, but the person who wrote the annotations signed his name as Xu Shi of Qi.

This Xu Shi had discovered the scroll in a deep mountain cave and, after much investigation, had barely managed to decipher its general meaning.

This was a cultivation method for ancient gods, detailing how to gather the authority of the mountains, rivers, and the earth into oneself, thereby executing the will of Heaven and acting on its behalf.

However, only half of the scroll remained, focusing primarily on how to gather the authority of the mountains and rivers, without explaining how to act on behalf of Heaven.

Yet, in the present day, all authority over the world belongs to the Heavenly Court. Apart from a few Emperors and Heavenly Lords, the divine positions of most other deities are granted by the Heavenly Court.

Those like the evil gods and illicit cults mostly rely on incense to gain some supernatural powers, calling themselves gods in vain; they are not considered Orthodox God.

Even gods enfeoffed by the imperial court are merely wild gods if not recognized by the Heavenly Court.

When a dynasty is at its peak, they may possess great spiritual power, but once the dynasty declines and a new one clears the world, these gods who benefited from the old dynasty are the first to be purged.

By the same token, gods enfeoffed by the Heavenly Court are the same; if someone were to overthrow the Heavenly Court, the gods it enfeoffed would likewise be liquidated.

But because the Heavenly Court is powerful, its influence covering the three realms, it is far more enduring than any human dynasty.

Therefore, almost all long-lasting deities are those enfeoffed by the Heavenly Court.

Secondly, unlike human dynasties that use dynastic dragon qi to enfeoff gods, the Heavenly Court acts much like this ancient scroll, gathering the authority of the world—mountains, rivers, lakes, seas, and even fortune, longevity, wealth, life, and death—into itself.

When it wishes to enfeoff a god, it simply grants them the corresponding authority.

This authority is like a game GM permission; with it, you gain massive advantages in your designated region.

The extent of these advantages depends entirely on the magnitude of your authority.

Only with authority can one manage the flora, fauna, fish, and insects within a mountain or river, or even the changes of the terrain, its rise and fall, its prosperity and decay.

Take the Earth God before him: he became a god merely through the wishes of the local people, and only after receiving recognition from the Mount Lao City God and being incorporated into the City God system did he gain a formal title.

Yet, his divine authority is mostly limited to human-centric matters like bountiful harvests and the health of livestock.

This scripture—no, it should be called Divine Script—must have been passed down from before the establishment of the Heavenly Court.

Although its miraculous effects are extraordinary, the majority of its primary functions have already been rendered obsolete.

Setting aside whether there is any authority cast down by the Heavenly Court for you to collect, even if there were, you might not dare to take it.

To recklessly steal heavenly secrets without the investiture of the Heavenly Court would likely result in you failing to become a deity and instead suffering a heavenly tribulation.

By then, I fear your soul would scatter and dissipate, never to be reincarnated for all eternity.

However, this Divine Script is not entirely useless; while one cannot rely on it to collect authority and ascend to godhood, it does offer numerous benefits to those who have already attained divinity.

After all, to collect authority, one must inevitably possess an understanding of the principles of heaven and earth; the deeper that understanding, the more comprehensive the authority obtained.

Even if both are a Land God, one might only be capable of performing minor divine arts like sending dreams or ensuring a bountiful harvest, while another could nourish all things, regulate the qi of water and soil, and even organize the order between the yin and yang realms.

The gap between these two cannot be measured by conventional means.

Therefore, although one cannot acquire new divine authority through the method of gathering authority, one can utilize the principles of gathering authority to deepen one's mastery over one's inherent divine authority.

Ling Qing took a sheet of white paper from his book box and transcribed the annotated text in neat regular script.

For any obscure characters or esoteric terminology within the text, he added vernacular annotations on the side whenever he understood their meaning.

He also marked down the parts he did not understand.

As for the mountain-like and water-like Divine Script, it was not that Ling Qing did not want to transcribe it as well.

The key was that while he felt nothing miraculous and could see it clearly while looking at it, the moment he turned his head to write it down, his mind would go completely blank, leaving him with no impression at all.

After trying repeatedly with the same result, Ling Qing had no choice but to give up in regret.

It was not his fault, for just as he finished organizing the text, a message appeared before him.

"Character has obtained skill information: XXXX-Incomplete."

XXXX-Incomplete
Level: Uninitiated
Quality: Epic (Mythical)
A method to gather and control the authority of mountains, rivers, and peaks, forging divine authority into one's own being.
Note: Although the skill display is incomplete due to the missing second half, the foundational technique remains intact, so it does not affect initiation.