Journey to the West: I have Nine Golden Crows Inside Me
Chapter 1057 - 764 Human Emperor’s Investiture of the Gods Technique

Chapter 1057: 764 Human Emperor’s Investiture of the Gods Technique

"Fate! Incense! Merit!"

"Only when the three become one can it be called the true Divine Dao."

The more Jiang Chen thought about it, the more ideas flooded his mind. Eventually, he even derived the concept of merit in addition to fate and willpower.

He felt that if there were the Path of the Incense Fire Divine Dao and the Path of the Fate Divine Dao, what harm would there be in pioneering a Path of the Merit Divine Dao?

The three create all things: fate, merit, and incense. These three forces combined could build a complete and rigorous system of the Divine Dao.

You see, the gods protect a realm, bringing stability and prosperity to the people and peace to the land, free from the disturbances of demons. For Heaven, it is the maintenance of the operation of Heaven and Earth.

For humans, they exhibit virtue; for Heaven, they accomplish merit. In doing so, they gain not only faith but also Heaven’s reward—merit!

The Divine Dao is inherently a supreme path closely related to merit. It does not require one to pursuit merit deliberately; by simply fulfilling their duties, they naturally acquire merit.

In a sense, the gods are working for the Heavenly Dao, and merit is the salary paid by the Heavenly Dao to the gods. The better they perform their duties, the more merit—salary—they receive from the Heavenly Dao.

Since one must reform the Divine Dao, how can it bypass merit?

Merit, like fate and incense, is a pillar of the Divine Dao. If the Divine Dao seeks perfection, it is undoubtedly indispensable.

"Great, this trip to the Ancestor’s grave alone saves me tens of thousands of years of effort."

Had he not come to this place and received the inheritance of the Fate Divine Dao left by the Ancestor, Jiang Chen would have no idea how long it would take to perfect the Divine Dao. Indeed, the one to eventually perfect the Divine Dao might not even be him.

In the Prehistoric World, there are countless capable individuals. If Jiang Chen were to pass along the incomplete Incense Fire Divine Dao, there would undoubtedly be those who would perceive the flaws of the Incense Fire Divine Dao and take it upon themselves to complete it.

Should that happen, the fate of the Divine Dao would surely be seized by others, and at that time, Jiang Chen might not be the only ancestor of the Divine Dao. Perhaps he would become one of the dual ancestors, or even one of three or four ancestors.

However, now that Jiang Chen has received the inheritance of the Fate Divine Dao and has had an epiphany, he discovered the flaws in the Incense Fire Divine Dao ahead of time and thought of a way to remedy them. In just a while, he can create a more complete and rigorous Divine Dao.

In doing so, he would be able to monopolize the fate of the Divine Dao, and the benefits he gains are substantial.

Just cutting off future troubles and preventing others from intervening in the Divine Dao is enough for Jiang Chen to feel fortunate, not to mention that the newly developed Divine Dao will be far more powerful than the current Incense Fire Divine Dao. Once it emerges, the changes it brings will be even greater. Perhaps, one day in the future, it could really rival the Immortal Dao, or even surpass it.

"Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique!"

In his excitement, Jiang Chen subconsciously gripped the scroll that recorded the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique tighter, bringing it before his eyes to look over and over again.

In his lifetime, Jiang Chen had encountered many benefactors, such as the Sovereign Xihuang, Upper Qing Saints, Jiang Xuan, Jiang Hao... And now, there was Jiang Ziya as well.

The Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique as a Divine Ability had directly cleared the path forward for Jiang Chen’s Divine Dao, suggesting a smooth future. Such a contribution naturally deserved the title of benefactor.

"Wait, ’Emperor’? Something’s not right!"

As he stared at the scroll in his hand, Jiang Chen suddenly realized there was something peculiar about the word "Emperor" in the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique. It carried faint traces of the Power of the Heavenly Dao, as though it wasn’t written by human hands but was a creation of Heaven and Earth.

This was strange. The other four characters were written by the Ancestor Jiang Ziya himself, so why was the character "Emperor" so special, as if it were crafted by Heaven and Earth?

Curious, Jiang Chen focused on the character "Emperor" and began to scrutinize it closely.

Here, "Emperor" does not refer to the son of the Heavens, but to the "Master" in the Hundred Schools of Thought. The founder of a school of thought can be referred to as "Master". Hence, the Hundred Schools of Thought mean the Hundred Masters.

"Emperor" refers to one who encapsulates the Great Achievements of the Heavenly Dao.

It would indeed be an exaggeration to say that the Ancestor alone encompasses the Great Achievements of the Heavenly Dao, but adding King Wen would be enough.

King Wen divined the I Ching, exhaustively interpreting the variables of the postnatal. The Ancestor divined the art of war, exhaustively interpreting the changes in Heaven and Earth. To say they are those who encompass the Great Achievements of the Heavenly Dao is no exaggeration.

Hence, the "Emperor" here, in a narrow sense, refers to King Wen and the Ancestor. In a broader sense, it refers to all who encapsulate the Great Achievements of the Heavenly Dao.

Therefore, there was no reaction from Jiang Chen when he first saw the term "Emperor".

The Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique is for those who encapsulate the Great Achievements of the Heavenly Dao to confer divinity upon the gods, not for the sons of the Heavens to do so.

This distinction must be firmly remembered; the two are fundamentally different. For those who encapsulate the Great Achievements, the power belongs to themselves.

Whereas for the sons of the Heavens, it suggests a mandate to confer divinity on behalf of the Heavens, indicating that their authority comes from the Heavens, not from themselves. The title of the son of the Heavens may sound grand, but in the eyes of cultivators who possess all power within themselves, even if they don’t say it aloud, they would still somewhat look down upon it.

How could King Wen and the Ancestor, with their lofty aspirations and pride, willingly degrade themselves to be sons of the Heavens?

"This character ’Emperor’, it has been changed by someone later on." After looking for a while, Jiang Chen had a hypothesis. The original name of the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique was probably not this, but it was altered by someone later on.

And the person who altered the character, altered the second character in "Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique," the "zi (子)" character.

"If it’s not called the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique, then what is it called?" Jiang Chen’s left eye was shining, as he pushed the power of the Primordial Chaos to its limit, staring intently at the "zi (子)" character.

Not long after, the "zi (子)" character started to change in Jiang Chen’s eyes, gradually blurring, and at the same time, another hazy character faintly appeared before Jiang Chen’s eyes.

"Di (帝)?"

What replaced the "zi (子)" character was precisely the "di (帝)" character. This indicated that the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique was originally intended to be called the Heavenly Emperor’s Divinity Codex.

"Majestic indeed!"

Jiang Chen was shaken by the grandeur of King Wen and the Martial Ancestor; Emperor and Sovereign, a difference of just one character, but the reality was a world apart.

An Emperor’s son embodies the great achievements of the Heavenly Dao, even if exceptional, remains under the control of the Heavenly Dao. But the Heavenly Emperor is different, he is the lord of all creatures, the ruler of all in the world, even the Heavenly Dao, theoretically, falls under the Heavenly Emperor’s jurisdiction.

From this, one could see the ambition of the Martial Ancestor and King Wen – to be the rulers of all under Heaven and Earth, directly in control of the Heavenly Dao.

If they truly achieved this, they would be truly formidable. The gods enshrined by the Heavenly Emperor would be real gods, without any flaws, directly wielding the Authority of Heaven and Earth, possessing the ability to mobilize the rules of Heaven and Earth.

"No wonder the Martial Ancestor and King Wen suffered backlash from the Heavenly Dao, they aimed to be the master of the Heavenly Dao, how could the Heavenly Dao tolerate it?"

Of course, this statement was made in jest; the Heavenly Dao is indifferent, possessing no emotions, so how could it get angry? Aspiring to become the master of the Heavenly Dao wouldn’t incur its wrath, only committing acts against the order of Heaven would provoke its intervention.

Moreover, the so-called enraging of the Heavenly Dao isn’t about truly rousing its anger, but rather committing acts against Heaven, resulting in Heavenly retribution. To outsiders, it appears as though someone angered the Heavenly Dao and thus suffered punishment.

Hence, the saying about enraging the Heavenly Dao came about.

The Heavenly Dao is without sentiment or desire, without joy, anger, sorrow, or joy – the notion of it getting angry does not exist.

The fall of the Martial Ancestor and King Wen, in truth, was quite simple; their ambitions were too great, yet they lacked the matching power, attempting to defy Heaven, which led to their downfall.

Both were Innate Dao Sovereigns, and yet they fancied becoming the Heavenly Emperor, enshrining the myriad gods of Heaven and Earth – such thoughts were unrealistic.

Even Di Jun, a Daluo Jinxian of the Primordial, aspired to become the true Heavenly Emperor. He ruled over half of all under Heaven and Earth, his command included countless mighty beings, and with the righteousness of the Heaven Court behind him, he was only one step away from becoming the Heavenly Emperor – defeating the Witch Clan.

Yet even so, Di Jun fell at the final step.

If even Di Jun fell short, not to mention King Wen and the Martial Ancestor, who were far from his equal, had they succeeded, would it not suggest that the Great Divine Transcendents of the Chaos World were all incompetent, inferior to two Innate Dao Sovereigns?

"The Incense Fire Divine Path ultimately has its flaws; coupled with the Martial Ancestor’s failed plan and inability to refine the Investiture of the Gods List to reclaim the Human Race’s fate, the ’di (帝)’ character of ’Heavenly Emperor’ was altered to ’zi (子)’."

"The Heavenly Dao used this to inform the Martial Ancestor that the Divinity Enshrinement Technique, despite being extraordinary, still wasn’t qualified to bear the name of Heavenly Emperor and thus was demoted to Emperor’s son."

Combining what he knew, Jiang Chen roughly guessed the situation. If the divine ability extrapolated by the Martial Ancestor and King Wen had truly been the Heavenly Emperor’s Divinity Technique, their plan would not have failed.

In this Chaos World, no one can resist a true Heavenly Emperor. To be an enemy of the Heavenly Emperor is to be an enemy of all under Heaven and Earth – naturally, no one could win.

"One day, the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique will complete its transformation in my hands and become the true Heavenly Emperor’s Divinity Technique."

Jiang Chen was also ambitious; the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique formed from the Incense Fire Divine Path was unable to gain approval from the Heavenly Dao to become the Heavenly Emperor’s Divinity Technique.

Then the new Divine Dao he formed by combining the powers of incense, merit, and fate may very well evolve into a Divinity Enshrinement Technique that can rightfully bear the name of Heavenly Emperor in the future.

Starting today, creating the true Heavenly Emperor’s Divinity Technique is his next goal.

However, one must walk step by step, eat bite by bite – with his current true cultivation level, he’s only about equal to the Martial Ancestor and King Wen. Aspiring to the position of Heavenly Emperor at this time would be unwise, likely to follow in their footsteps.

Therefore, Jiang Chen decided to play it safe and first unite the three powers of fate, merit, and incense to create an Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique. Later, when his cultivation had risen to the point of competing with Saints, only then would he attempt to explore the Heaven and Earth Divinity Enshrinement Technique.

...

"Establishing a kingdom to claim the imperial throne, it must be done!"

"Such is the Heavenly Will, I have no choice but to do so!"

Looking at the Emperor’s Divinity Enshrinement Technique in his hands, Jiang Chen suddenly realized that establishing a kingdom to claim the imperial throne was now an unavoidable task.

The foundation of the Incense Fire Divine Path lies in establishing a Human Path dynasty and then diligently expanding one’s influence until it supplants Heaven Court.

This was the true goal of King Wen and the Martial Ancestor, to rebuild Heaven Court and establish one that belongs entirely to the Human Race. At the same time, this represented the ultimate goal of the Incense Fire Divine Path -- if someone could rebuild Heaven Court, they could ascend by means of the Divine Dao, entering the realm of Daluo Jinxian of the Primordial.