The Spirit-Sealing Dao was now truly governed by four fellow disciples. However, the youngest among them had lost his fleshly body several years ago and turned instead to walk the Divine Path.
That person was Daoist Flying Leopard.
It was precisely because of Daoist Flying Leopard that the Spirit-Sealing Dao understood the newly risen overlord of the Divine Path better than other sects. Thus, Flying Hound, who had only recently ascended as Heaven Lord, knew the stakes. He saw the connection between that deity and the Marquis of Pacifying the Realm and became all the more cautious.
However, after Qiu Yan's Divine Spirit Body ascended to Star Lord, Flying Leopard was invested as an Orthodox God and granted a Divine Office. His authority grew ever greater, and the matters he handled steadily increased. Gradually influenced by the thoughts born of his believers' incense offerings, his ties to the original Daoist Sect also faded somewhat.
This was not caused by one's personal disposition, but by the influence of rank and environment. Such things were common even in the world of mortals, though they were more apparent in deities because incense offerings affected them so deeply.
Fortunately, Flying Leopard's nature remained one that valued affection. He would not, like other deities, gradually transform and eventually cast aside the trivial emotions of mortal life.
Now that Qiu Yan's Divine Spirit Body had ascended as Heaven Lord, old retainers like Flying Leopard naturally rose with the tide. His Divine Rank advanced by leaps and bounds. Likewise, the Heaven Lord's rank had an even greater influence upon subordinate deities. The changes to the Humanistic Divine Path were gradually becoming clear, though it still lacked sufficient incense offerings to sustain it, limiting the scope of that influence. Yet close deities such as Flying Leopard already understood