Chapter 153: Divine Talent

Although he knew his idea was somewhat fanciful, in this world of consciousness, wasn’t everything based on imagination? In fact, even everything in this world of consciousness, including space itself, could be said to be his creation. Yet, though it seemed illusory, it was incredibly real—its mysteries beyond Donald’s comprehension, likely only understandable at a higher level.

So Donald put his plan into action right away. Just then, sensing that divine light preparing to attack him once more, he remained still, only for a triangular flag to suddenly appear in his hand. The flag was only about five feet long, with an apricot-yellow surface depicting the true shapes of the mountains in the world, the Five Great Mountains, and dragon-like patterns. As the divine light neared, a strong yellow glow emanated from the flag. The sharp, arrow-like divine rays plunged into the yellow light, only to feel as if they had fallen into cotton—soft and unable to find a point of resistance, yet also impossibly dense and unbreakable.

At the same time, a simple square wooden whip appeared in Donald’s right hand. It was three feet five inches and six fractions long, with twenty-six segments, each bearing four talismans—a total of eighty-four talismans. It was this unassuming whip that made the divine light instinctively feel as if it had encountered something as formidable as heaven and earth. It struggled desperately but couldn’t escape the range of the yellow light.

“Look at the whip!” Donald laughed loudly and swung the whip. Under this strike, the divine light trapped in the apricot-yellow flag’s glow trembled like a snake struck by lightning. Suddenly, it pulled itself free with a violent jerk, using the force of the whip to escape the yellow light and flee at top speed.

Seeing that his method worked, Donald laughed joyfully, like a child who had received a reward. He had thought that since this was his world of consciousness, anything he imagined could become real. If he wanted to become a god instantly, it might be possible after all.

This time, faced with a trace of divinity that had stumped him despite repeated attempts, Donald felt helpless. He thought, “If only I had a divine artifact, I might easily subdue this divinity.” The Book of Truth had already helped him greatly. If he couldn’t overcome such a minor obstacle, it would be a waste of such a precious opportunity! But in this world, aside from the Book of Truth, he had only seen one secondary divine artifact, and that was also damaged. Repairing it would take who knew how long!

Thus, Donald couldn’t help but think of the situations in the mythological stories from his past life. When it comes to determining which character in traditional myths from his past life was the most powerful, opinions may vary—some might say the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, while I might say the Supreme Lord Laozi and Buddha. But in the storytelling he heard as a child, there was one character who left a deep impression on him: Jiang Shang, the protagonist of The Investiture of the Gods. Characters like the Great Sage Equal to Heaven and Erlang Shen were either born gods or monstrous creatures with extraordinary powers, which made their strength quite reasonable. But Jiang Ziya, an ordinary old man, spent decades practicing Taoism on Kunlun Mountain yet only mastered basic skills like summoning wind, earth, and spells to capture ghosts. To achieve immortality, he didn’t even get close to it—he was even inferior to Shen Gongmao, the master spy in The Investiture of the Gods, and King Zhou, the main antagonist. The former appeared as a god from the start; though not as powerful as the twelve ancient immortals, he could survive decapitation and possessed great magic. Despite being trapped by the Primordial Lord in the North Sea’s abyss, he managed to survive like a cockroach and eventually became the General Who Divides the Waters of the East Sea. As for King Zhou, though he was a mortal king with unique divine powers, he too was eventually deified after death. Only Jiang Ziya received no special mention later on. Yet, this ordinary man, given two sacred artifacts by the Primordial Lord of Jade Pureness—the Divine Whip and the Apricot Yellow Flag—conquered King Zhou and defeated countless gods, eventually establishing all the gods in the world. Such achievements were truly remarkable. So Donald thought at the time whether he could imagine these two precious immortal artifacts, and to his surprise, the result was better than he expected. Although it was just an imagined Divine Whip, not part of the same system as the real gods in this world, under its might, after just one strike, that wisp of divinity was too scared to show itself again. But this was Donald’s consciousness world—no matter how far that wisp of divinity fled, it couldn’t escape his perception. Donald held the Apricot Yellow Flag in his left hand and the Divine Whip in his right, took a step forward as if suddenly moving to the end of space, and with a swing of the whip and a sweep of the flag, captured that already weak wisp of divinity. What followed was simple: Donald used the Divine Whip to drive that wisp of divinity toward his soul’s light column. No matter how powerful that instinctive yet unintelligent divinity was, it couldn’t withstand Donald’s endless imagination. So, though it seemed reluctant, it was forced to merge into his soul’s light column.

After sitting in silence in the confined room for a full day and night, as if his breathing had ceased and devoid of any vitality, Donald suddenly opened his eyes. A beam of light three feet tall burst from them, illuminating the dark room as brightly as daylight.
“The Divine Whip is truly convenient and satisfying to use; this trace of divinity has initially merged with me!”
If anyone could see inside Donald’s body at this moment, they would see a faint yet extremely solid beam of light already fused with his soul’s essence. By now, the soul light column had expanded several times over, glowing with brilliant golden light, resembling a pillar reaching the heavens.
Then, the soul light column extended from his consciousness space into his physical body, forming a golden light strand similar to meridians that ran from his skull to his tailbone. Four faint golden lights also extended from his limbs.
That light strand rotated slowly at all times, absorbing beneficial energy from the outside while continuously sending out power through his blood to transform Donald’s body.
Starting from the spine where the light strand was located, the golden light within Donald gradually spread outward, though at an extremely slow pace. If not for Donald’s keen senses, even if one stared intently for three days, no change would be visible.
Through the Truth Book, Donald knew that when his entire body was covered by this light, he would possess a fully divine body. If his divinity grew strong enough, he could ignite the Divine Flame and become a demi-god with an endless lifespan, almost immortal.
Of course, this realm was still far beyond him. At present, he was merely a minor Bronze Mage with just a trace of divinity.
However, compared to ordinary divine beings who only inherited faint traces of their ancestors’ divine power through their bloodlines, the divinity granted to Donald by the Truth Book—separated from the essence of a powerful true god—was, even though minimal, on par with the direct descendants of an ordinary true god over three generations.
The greatest advantage of this divine bloodline was that if he were already a legendary powerhouse, igniting the Divine Flame would be a hundred times easier than in ordinary legendary realms. Moreover, he automatically acquired talents such as divine vision without needing the Truth Book’s assistance.
But since the divinity had only initially merged with him, Donald had only awakened a few weak innate abilities, with much potential yet to be explored.

Apart from the divine vision, the most noticeable change in him was the enhancement of his physique—his resistance had increased significantly. His resistance to fire, electric shocks, toxins, and acid corrosion was now at least several times higher than before. It was estimated that ordinary elemental spells below level three could hardly harm him anymore, while the effects of spells above level three had also been weakened.

To his surprise, he was almost completely immune to cold damage from all spells below level seven. Donald speculated that this might be related to the deity’s domain that he had merged with.

The poem described how the evil god brought endless winters to the northern lands; it was likely that this true god’s domain was related to forces such as ice, snow, and cold.

Additionally, upon gaining divinity, the vitality of his body stabilized at the peak of human maturity and health—around 25 years old. In other words, until the end of his life, he would show no signs of aging, and his physical vitality would remain at this level. As for his appearance, although Donald wasn’t overly concerned about it, having such an advantage still made him happy.

Other changes brought by divinity included the addition of several innate spells. The level-zero spell “Light” he originally possessed had now become a quasi-spell ability—a common trait among divine beings, celestial beings, and their descendants. This meant that Donald could now cast “Light” without even needing to prepare a spell formula; he could simply think about it to cast it.

Besides “Light,” the newly added quasi-spells were “Frost Touch,” “Water Creation,” “Mind Communication,” and “Gift of Nature.” “Frost Touch” and “Water Creation” were typically innate spells possessed by most aquatic or elemental creatures related to water and ice. Mages also had similar spells—“Frost Touch” allowed the user to create a layer of icy air on their body surface, causing damage from low temperatures and physical force to any creature touched by them, while “Water Creation” enabled the creation of clean water in any environment with water elements, with the amount of water depending on the caster’s will and level.

As for “Mind Communication,” it was similar to the spell “Language Comprehension” passed down by ancient prophecy mages, which allowed one to understand the language and meaning of any creature. However, unlike “Language Comprehension,” “Mind Communication” had an advantage: it allowed direct mental communication with the other party, whereas “Language Comprehension” only enabled the caster to understand but not speak in other unfamiliar languages.

The last class spell is Natural Grace, a passive class spell ability that allows Donald to emit a natural aura, enabling him to move freely in natural environments such as forests. He remains unharmed even when passing through dangerous thorny bushes and leaves no trace in such environments, making it impossible to track him. Of course, he can choose to leave traces when necessary. Additionally, the aura of natural power grants him a certain degree of favorability when facing dangerous wild animals, plants, or magical creatures. Donald likely developed this unique class spell ability due to his elven bloodline; it seems that divine bloodlines also greatly enhance one’s innate potential. Divine bloodlines are one level higher than his elven bloodline and can theoretically blend with any force—even abyssal demons can acquire divinity and become powerful divine beings.