Two Beast Hides

"Hehe, yesterday's battle truly yielded quite a harvest."

Land God laughed happily.

"Yesterday, thanks to your assistance, sir, not only did I gain a deeper insight into the Way of the Land, but I also grasped the authority of the Yin Office's extradition ahead of schedule, and even gained the ability to refine ghosts."

"Not at all, I must congratulate you, Land God. It is only because of your profound merit that you could achieve such a transformation," Ling Qing said, cupping his hands in salute.

"Enough, let us not stand here exchanging pleasantries. Let us deal with this pack of vicious tigers before us."

Land God continued to chuckle, clearly delighted by his own progress.

"Indeed."

Ling Qing responded, turning his gaze toward the wreckage before him.

The entrance to the village, which should have been fertile farmland, was now pitted and scarred, reduced to ruins.

There were still many untriggered pits remaining; while they were of little concern normally, one feared the damage they might cause should the earth dragon turn over.

Between the gullies, massive tigers lay motionless at the bottom of the pits, the soil beneath them soaked through with drying blood.

The Tiger Demon killed by Land God was in the best condition.

Aside from the brain matter and blood seeping from its seven orifices, which made its already fierce face look even more hideous, its body was otherwise unscathed.

"Rise!"

Land God pointed a finger, and the gullies before them began to churn, lifting the tiger corpses from the depths.

The ground moved like a tide, neatly arranging all the tiger corpses, along with the body of the Tiger Demon, before the two of them.

Afterward, the earth rolled over, smoothing the ground back into a flat plain and filling in the previous pits.

However, the area where the vicious tigers had ravaged was now barren, revealing fresh, upturned soil.

Yet, with the tiger blood nourishing the earth beneath, one could imagine this land would see a bountiful harvest next year.

"Land God, how should we dispose of these tiger corpses?"

Ling Qing looked at the neatly arranged corpses and felt a bit troubled.

Bringing them to the magistrate's office would surely fetch a good sum of silver, and he could even claim the bounty for eliminating the vicious tigers.

But firstly, Ling Qing did not wish to delay his journey for this.

Secondly, he lacked the ability to transport all these tiger corpses.

Yet, leaving them here felt like a waste, and he was reluctant to do so.

"These beasts have powerful physiques; their tendons and bones must have extraordinary medicinal properties. Especially the bones of this Tiger Demon—they must be even more miraculous. But I lack the skill to skin and debone them."

"No matter, no matter. Just watch my handiwork."

Land God laughed as he spoke, beginning to cast his spell.

"These beasts have eaten many people; their flesh is long tainted by resentment and unfit for consumption, so it is better to burn it to ash. However, these tiger pelts are mostly intact and can fetch a good price in the city. The tiger whips and tiger bones also have their own unique uses."

Ling Qing watched as, under Land God's spell, the tiger pelts swelled like balloons.

As they reached their limit and began to deflate, they slid off smoothly, revealing the white, silk-like tiger meat beneath.

Then, without the flash of any blade, the entire tiger skeleton emerged from the flesh without a shred of meat attached, and the tiger tendons and the male tiger's whip detached perfectly intact.

Only a pile of tiger meat remained, igniting without fire and turning into black ash in the blink of an eye, scattering over the newly leveled ground.

Ling Qing stared in surprise, never expecting Land God to possess such a craft.

"Before I passed, I had to make a living. I worked as a guard, a traveling merchant, a butcher, and many other trades," Land God explained with a smile, seeing his expression.

"I never imagined you were so multi-talented, Land God."

Ling Qing sighed with emotion once more.

If he hadn't experienced it himself, who would have thought that this Land God—often treated as a minor deity to be summoned and dismissed in myths—not only possessed extraordinary divine power and deep fortune but also had such a rich life experience?

By extension, anyone capable of becoming a god must have their own exceptional qualities.

Even if the Land God before him relied on divine arts to achieve this, who was to say other deities didn't have their own unique opportunities?

Especially those ancient gods; even if their rank was low, there was a reason they had survived for so long.

It was no wonder the Sage Confucius said: "Respect ghosts and gods, but keep them at a distance."

It seemed he would need to be more courteous when facing various deities in the future to avoid unnecessary trouble.

"Found it. It seems this wicked beast really did carry it on its person."

Just as Ling Qing was lost in his wild thoughts, movement came from the side of the Land God.

He turned his head to look and discovered a piece of animal hide that looked very familiar flying out of the Tiger Demon's mouth.

It was exactly the same as the animal hide that recorded the Divine Script.

"This must be the other half of the scripture."

Ling Qing said this while leaning in to take a closer look.

"Indeed."

The Land God unfolded the animal hide. Sure enough, not only were the mountain-like and water-like Divine Script characters identical, but the annotations were also written by the same hand.

"I must trouble you again, sir." After a quick glance, the Land God handed it directly to Ling Qing.

"It is my pleasure." Ling Qing did not stand on ceremony and took it readily.

Seeing the Land God continue to deal with the tiger corpse, he went under the locust tree to study it carefully.

The content was indeed a continuation of the previous one. After taking the first part out to compare, he found that even the material of the animal hide was much the same.

However, unlike the previous scroll which recorded the principles, goals, and cultivation methods of the scripture, the content of this volume was not the subsequent cultivation techniques he had imagined, but rather the methods of application.

It seemed that what he had previously considered to be the basic cultivation method was actually the true fundamental method.

This second volume contained the Spirit Condensation Method, the Spirit Fusion Method, and the Spirit Transformation Method.

Among them, the Spirit Condensation Method spoke of turning the gathered concepts of divine office into symbols of primordial authority, such as divine edicts or divine seals.

The True Body of the Earth God that the Land God had temporarily condensed yesterday was an application of this very method.

Although the Land God did not master the Spirit Condensation Method, because he was a deity by nature, he had merely integrated the borrowed power into his own authority, unintentionally aligning with some of the true essence of this method.

The Spirit Fusion Method explained how to merge multiple concepts of divine office into a more grandiose concept of authority.

Just like the divine office of the Land God, it encompassed both humanistic authorities such as the abundance of the five grains, and ghostly authorities such as the guiding of wandering souls.

The Haotian Jade Emperor was even more so the God of all Gods, his authority covering the three realms and ten directions, as well as all fortune and misfortune of the four births and six paths.

He walked the way of Heaven and spread the virtues of Heaven.

As for the Spirit Transformation Method.

To transform is to adapt and utilize.

This Spirit Transformation Method explained how to utilize the authority in one's hands along with some miraculous spells.

It was the most diverse and extensive of the three methods, occupying two-thirds of the entire second volume.

The method the Tiger Demon had used earlier to shed the mud rope restraints reinforced by the Land God's authority was the God-Evasion Technique.

It could evade the effects of divine office authority, preventing it from touching one's body.

According to the scripture, once cultivated to the peak, one could essentially ward off all gods and remain untouched by all techniques.

However, because that Tiger Demon lacked the fundamental Spirit Restraint Method from the first volume, it was unable to cultivate the Spirit Condensation Method and Spirit Fusion Method to obtain divine office authority and become a true deity.

Although it was not impossible to drive this divine technique with demonic power, lacking a true understanding of divine office authority meant it would inevitably be unable to cultivate it to a very high realm.

Nevertheless, the fact that the Tiger Demon could rely on it to break the Land God's spell showed just how miraculous this technique was.

Of course, even with the fundamental method, it would certainly not be easy to cultivate it to the highest realm.