Since ancient times, most histories had focused on the upper ranks of the court: imperial succession, struggles for power, feuds among feudal lords, warlords locked in chaotic battle. Even if an emperor uttered a foolish remark, it would be recorded at great length; if kings and nobles competed in displays of wealth, every detail of that contest would be meticulously chronicled.
But when it came to the common people, it was usually no more than, "The realm suffered greatly"—how many died in droughts and floods, or how people exchanged children to eat them, and so on. The countless common folk were treated as a single whole and broadly summarized.
Yet now, Qiu Yan's Divine Spirit Body sat astride the dragon's back. That divine dragon was formed from scrolls of history; in truth, he was seated at the heart of history itself, surveying the whole. History flowed through his eyes, then was discerned through the perspective of the Human Path and compiled with the brushwork of the Human Path. That was why the ball of light found it difficult. For ordinary people, without sufficient foundation and learning, it was hard even to grasp such a style of writing. Usually, only Grandmasters or Grand Confucians who had achieved something in the Human Path had room to set brush to paper.
Divine spirits, by comparison, were already at a disadvantage, and they could hardly avoid favoring the Divine Path. Viewed through a god's eyes, the people of the world were all but lambs. How could one settle one's heart and enter deeply into the writing of history?
Thus, for a divine spirit to move history, it first had to adjust its heart and mind. That alone required a long period of adaptation. Then it had to understand the Human Path before it could