Permission Authority

"Fellow Daoist, you didn't know?" Golden Light looked at Yu Chen curiously, seemingly rather surprised.

Yu Chen rose to his feet and bowed. "Please enlighten me, Fellow Daoist!"

"Not at all, not at all!" Golden Light also stood and returned the bow before explaining, "Your aura seems to belong to the talisman lineage, Fellow Daoist. I thought you understood the cultivation method of the Golden Light Mantra. I never expected your inheritance to be this incomplete. Cultivating the Golden Light Mantra is actually very simple. Apart from chanting it day after day, the simplest methods are transmitting the Dao and receiving the Dao."

"Transmitting the Dao and receiving the Dao?" Yu Chen repeated softly, looking at Golden Light. "Do you mean imparting and bearing?"

"Exactly! Transmitting the Dao means passing your Golden Light Mantra on to others, while receiving the Dao means bearing another person's Golden Light Mantra."

Golden Light first gave a simple explanation, then elaborated on the issues involved. "Both have their advantages and disadvantages; it all depends on one's choice. If you choose to pass on the Golden Light Mantra, you must separate a portion of the source thought-power of the Golden Light Mantra you have cultivated. The more you give away, the less you retain. The benefit is that whenever those who bear your Golden Light Mantra chant it in the future, it will spur the cultivation of your own Golden Light Mantra as well—until they have completely absorbed the source thought-power of the Golden Light Mantra you bestowed upon them."

"If you choose to bear another's Golden Light Mantra, the advantage is rapid advancement. If the one passing it down possesses utterly profound cultivation, not only can you rapidly master the Golden Light Mantra, you may even ascend to the heavens in a single step and obtain a Dao art divine ability. The drawback is equally obvious: as long as you have not absorbed the source thought-power of the Golden Light Mantra bestowed upon you, you will remain constrained by that person."

"Though transmitting the Dao and receiving the Dao do not conflict, they cannot both exist within the same person."

Hearing this, Yu Chen nodded. He now understood why Golden Light had assumed that, as someone of the talisman lineage, he ought to be proficient in cultivating the Golden Light Mantra. Wasn't this method of inheritance simply a castrated, simplified version of the talisman lineage's conferral of registers?

He could even guess some of the things Golden Light had left unsaid.

Using another person's Golden Light Mantra as one's foundation meant that one's own Golden Light Mantra shared the same root and source as theirs. If the previous generation was willing, they could also pass down their own Golden Light Mantra when they died.

In his previous life, Yu Chen had heard of a dungeon world where the Celestial Master of the Celestial Masters' Mansion was not considered exceptionally powerful by the players. Yet the Golden Light Mantra he had inherited through countless generations possessed terrifying might.

Combined with the thousand-year inheritance of Dragon-Tiger Mountain, the majestic dharma power gathered from its one hundred and eight scenic wonders, ninety-nine peaks, eighty-one Daoist temples, fifty Daoist institutes, twenty-four crags, ten great Daoist palaces, and countless dharma steles and spirit carvings—

Once the Golden Light Mantra was unleashed, it directly covered all of Dragon-Tiger Mountain, drawing upon every ounce of the mountain's power. It hung up and beat the four players who had reached the dungeon world's carrying limit, whose cultivation exceeded that Celestial Master's by an entire realm, and who had joined forces to form an array.

Thinking of this, Yu Chen recalled how, after the incident in which the Celestial Master had thrashed the players, countless people had gone to complete divine path missions in exchange for pure wish-power to enhance the might of their Golden Light Mantras. Curious, he asked, "I have heard that the Golden Light Mantra can also be cultivated with divine power and wish-power. Is that true?"

"Where did you hear such nonsense, Fellow Daoist?" Golden Light laughed. "Though the Golden Light Mantra is called a divine spell, can draw down divine power, and is said to receive the response and blessing of all gods—subduing demons, vanquishing devils, capable of anything—the essence of divine power is wish-power, incense offerings. Even the gods cannot escape the poison of incense offerings, so how could we possibly absorb divine power to enhance the Golden Light Mantra's might? Your foundation is solid, Fellow Daoist, and you have considerable talent in both the Golden Light Mantra and the Purify Heaven and Earth Spell. You absolutely must not believe slander and ruin your own cultivation."

Yu Chen secretly committed this to memory, then asked, "Are spells subject to talent as well?"

"Of course!" Golden Light sighed. "Take the Golden Light Mantra, for example. Some people must chant it ten thousand times before they can produce a resonance, barely commanding a thin layer of golden light to protect themselves. Others need only chant it a thousand times before light arises within their hearts, covering their entire bodies and driving out demons and slaying evil. The same is true for many other spells. A cultivator who has practiced for decades may still fall short of a novice who has practiced for only a few years. That is the gap in talent."

Upon hearing this, Yu Chen suddenly understood. So-called talent was actually one's sensitivity to and degree of control over specific types of primal qi. In the terms of the game worlds from his previous life, it was a matter of how well one's cultivation from a past life, or one's physique in this life, "matched" a cultivation method or divine ability.

However, the latter half of Golden Light's example was not merely a matter of "compatibility." It should also involve "priority."

If two identical divine abilities were used by two people of the same cultivation realm, yet one was powerful and the other weak, then one side's "priority" was inevitably higher. Yu Chen generally preferred to call it a higher "permission authority."

With that, Yu Chen also understood the changes in the Transporting Technique after his breakthrough some time ago.

His "permission authority" had changed. Taking the Transporting Technique as an example, it had originally been an utterly low-grade art among the unorthodox paths and minor ways. Even after Yu Chen had optimized it, according to the game's calculations, the upper limit of the Transporting Technique's "permission authority" was only between one and two.

Meanwhile, "talisman water" provided a certain boost to most talismans and even spells, raising the Transporting Technique's "permission authority" from one or two to two or three.

Once Yu Chen condensed his divine soul, he naturally possessed a point of "permission authority." Under that "permission authority," the talisman water underwent a breakthrough, and the "permission authority" it could raise increased accordingly. In the end, the Transporting Technique's "permission authority" rose to four or five, resulting in the sudden, soaring increase in the might of Yu Chen's spells.

Talismans are cloud-seal luminous writ, the scriptures of gods and spirits. Put plainly, they are a simplified and concrete manifestation of the authority of Heaven and Earth. The high-ranking True Persons of those talisman sects in my previous life could command heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals at will because the conferral of registers raised their status and permission authority. But such status and permission authority have limits; they cannot affect those outside the system.

The same applies to the divine path. Divine authority can actually be regarded as the concrete manifestation of exceedingly high permission authority, which is why they are so terrifying within their corresponding domains. Humanity's restraint over immortals, gods, Buddhas, and demons can be understood the same way. Put plainly, low-level permission authority possesses no permission authority before high-level permission authority...

With this realization, streaks of radiance suddenly arose from the divine soul within Yu Chen's sea of consciousness. This radiance differed from that generated by the Golden Light Mantra. It was the radiance born of wisdom and enlightenment, an external manifestation of the transformation of Yu Chen's innate spirituality.

Beneath this radiance, the Daoist robe covered in patterns upon Yu Chen's divine soul underwent subtle changes, becoming more orderly. In the unseen depths, Yu Chen's control over the primal qi of Heaven and Earth, as well as his understanding of the Dao principles and laws around him, also improved slightly.

"Profound Ancestor of Heaven and Earth, root of the ten thousand qi..."

Yu Chen extended one hand and softly chanted the Golden Light Mantra. Brilliant radiance gathered in his palm.

PS: Everyone should know who a certain Celestial Master was modeled after. The protagonist will soon employ another Earthly Fiend Art—take a guess which one.