Chapter Twenty-Six: Divinity

The youth’s features were refined and graceful, his bearing striking, as though a slumbering deity had just awakened from a distant dream. And in truth, that was not far from reality.

Chen Ming rose and looked around, a fleeting trace of age and vagueness flashing through his otherwise calm and gentle eyes. “Has it already been several months…” he murmured.

He surveyed his surroundings, noticing the dramatic transformation within the divine realm. The once harsh and barren land had become something entirely different: mountains and rivers, verdant grass and flourishing trees, blossoms in all seasons—nothing was missing, casting a breathtaking beauty all around. These changes were the result of Chen Ming’s own aura, which had spread as he slept, transforming the divine domain.

As a god of nature, although his power had yet to reach the might of true gods or demons due to the limitations of his worshippers and his divine essence, his very being was slowly shifting to one governed by natural laws. Though still weak, his influence subtly altered the environment around him.

He paid little heed to the scenery, walking forward in silence.

Ahead stood a vast manor, still quietly awaiting its master’s return. The doors were open, revealing glimpses of the interior. Chen Ming gently pushed them wider and stepped inside.

It was as if he were revisiting an old home. Each familiar yet strange scene stirred memories within him, matching those that now resided in his mind. These were the memories of the ancestral spirit. After absorbing the essence of the ancestral spirit and the warrior souls, Chen Ming had gained many useful insights, though the memories were incomplete and often shrouded by the spirit’s final descent into depravity.

He gazed at an open courtyard, which his memories told him had once been a training ground, with racks of weapons displayed and ready for use.

Inspecting the scene, Chen Ming picked up a greatsword and examined it.

The greatsword was a construct of divine power, not truly real. It lacked the support of divine energy or ancestral strength and could only exist within the confines of the divine domain.

Steadying himself, Chen Ming let his instincts guide him. He began to wield the greatsword, executing a set of powerful, forceful sword movements. He swung the sword freely, not targeting any specific point, and used no divine power, yet the gusts from his swordplay caused the surrounding scenery to sway violently.

With a sharp crack, rows of weapon racks were toppled by the force of his swings.

Then, following a deep-seated memory, Chen Ming’s divine strength shifted, turning into a blood-red energy that flowed into the greatsword.

Instantly, his swordsmanship changed. Where before his movements had resembled the formidable techniques of a mortal swordsman, now they carried the aura of legendary sword arts. With each swing, blood-red trails cut through the air like spectral sword energy, shattering the surrounding illusions.

Finally, as the momentum peaked, Chen Ming surged his divine power and brought the greatsword crashing down. With a thunderous boom, a crater was smashed into the ground, sending waves of sword energy flying out, tearing the landscape asunder.

Seeing this, Chen Ming sighed softly and waved his hand, restoring the scene to its original state.

He looked around, his thoughts wandering further with each remembered image.

Since awakening, Chen Ming had assumed, based on what he saw, that he had been reborn into a backward and ruined world. Now, with the acquired memories from the ancestral spirit, he realized his earlier assumption was naive.

After slaying the ancestral spirit and absorbing its memories, he finally began to understand the true nature of this world.

Every civilization, regardless of how advanced, has both prosperous and undeveloped regions. In Chen Ming’s recollections, this world resembled early Western Europe: numerous powers existed within a single civilization, yet they lived in scattered city-states. Beyond these, less developed lands stretched in every direction, inhabited by tribal peoples.

The ancestral spirit’s origin was as a minor noble from a southern city-state. Hundreds of years ago, during a period of chaotic warfare among the city-states, his homeland was conquered. Forced to flee north with his followers, the ancestral spirit subdued neighboring tribes, gradually forming a new tribe. After his death, his descendants worshipped him as their ancestral spirit, sustaining him with blood sacrifices alongside his loyal guard.

The sword techniques and battle energy Chen Ming had just displayed were the very arts of this family.

In the city-states, supernatural powers persisted. Among ancient noble families, there were methods to cultivate battle energy. The ancestral spirit, having attained the rank of knight through such training, was able to resist the corrosive forces after death and retain his sanity long enough to reap the rewards of the blood sacrifices.

Reflecting on this, Chen Ming felt a complex stir of emotions. He reached out with his divine awareness, sensing the changes within his divine core.

There, a vast field of golden merit shrouded a portion of the core, staining it gold—still small, but growing.

“To think that simply by destroying an ancestral spirit, I’ve earned more merit than from purifying all my lands combined…” Chen Ming couldn’t help but sigh as he sensed the merit.

In hindsight, it made sense. For centuries, the ancestral spirit had gorged on blood sacrifices, taking countless lives. Each lost life meant fewer people to multiply and strengthen the world, and his consumption of souls was a grave taboo. Destroying such an evil spirit was an act of cosmic justice, earning abundant merit.

Still, Chen Ming did not dwell too much on it. Though he did not yet fully understand the purpose of merit, he knew it was invaluable—more was always better. If nothing else, he could use it to refine his divine core and break through the next seal.

“But that would be a waste,” he mused, glancing at the transformed landscape.

“All things considered, this journey has been fruitful. Not only have I gained more than ten thousand followers and destroyed the ancestral spirit for a wealth of merit, but I’ve also obtained vital information and knowledge of this world’s supernatural arts—truly worthwhile.”

“But the greatest reward is—”

He let his consciousness expand, and within the divine core, several threads of law hung suspended, intertwining with one another.

As he sensed these threads, a vast understanding of the cosmos and its principles surged into his mind. Simply gazing upon them filled him with the mysteries of creation, transforming him from within.

This was divinity itself, the crystallization of a god’s understanding of the world, formed from the interplay of law and divine core—a spark essential to igniting the divine fire and ultimately forging a true god’s core.

At this moment, two strands of divinity existed in his core, each distinct in the laws they embodied.

One exuded a soft green light, imbued with the vitality of mountains, rivers, and all living things—the robust divinity of nature.

The other glimmered with a faint blood-red hue, radiating boundless slaughter, rivers of blood, and the silent, horrifying visions of countless beings massacred—a divinity of carnage.

The two strands, though partially entwined, remained largely separate and distinct. The divinity of nature was solid and firm, while the divinity of carnage, though formed, was still short and insubstantial, shadowy and weak.

Chen Ming focused on the latter, feeling countless memories resonate within him.

This divinity of carnage was sourced partly from his followers, but mostly from the ancestral spirit.

Through centuries of blood sacrifices and worship from his people, the ancestral spirit had accumulated vast reserves of slaughter essence. When Chen Ming absorbed his insights, the divine core transformed that power into this strand of divinity.

This divinity, saturated with centuries of blood rituals, was the most precious treasure Chen Ming had gained on this journey.