Daily Intelligence: From Water Snake to Jinghe Dragon King

Chapter 188 The Technique of Dividing Rivers and Seas, and the Divine Assistance of Quiet Cultivation

After offering incense, Liu Qing prepared to continue his secluded meditation. However, the steward, Shi, came to report that the Lord of Shilang Lake, the Great Demon Qingyu, would be holding a God Festival in three days and invited Liu Qing to attend.

When Yuan Datou became a god last time, the great demon Qingyu, the lord of Shilang Lake, came. After Liu Qing took over as the lord, he naturally needed to reciprocate by going to witness the ceremony.

Little did they know that this great demon of the blue fish had almost collected a million incense silver coins and was about to be granted the title of seventh-rank god.

Does it not know that the secrets of heaven are unclear these days, and that even if it offers sacrifices to heaven and begs for a title, it will be difficult to become a god?

Regardless of that, although we are all from the Five Lakes Alliance, we are not considered family. At most, I will go to attend the ceremony in three days and see the joke.

Three days passed quickly.

On this day, Liu Qing traveled by water to Shilang Lake, hundreds of miles west of Dawan Lake, to prepare for the ceremony.

Hong Gu didn't go. The last battle against the Wei River Demon made her realize her own inadequacy, and she's recently started to work hard, planning to cultivate diligently at home.
If Hong Gu doesn't go, Bai She'er, Xiao Ya, and Shui'er also don't want to go. If Hong Gu gets tired of cultivating, the four of them can get together for a mahjong game. Playing mahjong is so much better than hanging out with a bunch of smelly river monsters.

Liu Qing came to Shilang Lake alone.

As the head of a water manor, Liu Qing's arrival was naturally greeted personally by the manor lord, the great demon Qingyu, who then warmly entertained him, including a banquet.

There is a moon tonight; it is the fifteenth of September.

The Azure Fish Demon Lord of Shilang Lake, imitating Yuan Datou, erected an altar in the manor square. After six sacrifices...

Then the spirit escaped, revealing its true form, and swam towards the sky, flicking its fish tail, along the steps built of incense and silver.

Liu Qing roughly estimated that the staircase constructed of incense money was much shorter than that of a Yuan Dynasty silver dollar, costing approximately 100,000 taels.

He realized that the old bluefish had begged for an eighth-rank incense offering position.

Perhaps having heard of Yuan Datou's splendor after becoming a god, he could no longer suppress his longing. Even though he didn't have enough incense money, he still wanted to get an eighth-rank to satisfy his craving and taste the flavor.

Similarly, his physical body was left to the demons of Shilang Lake as a way to settle his karma, while his spirit manifested its true form and floated towards the sky along the silver steps littered with incense.
The night sky was chaotic, the morning star was not shining, the divine dawn had not arrived, and the calamity clouds formed by the killing aura came to block the way, carrying countless wronged souls.

At this moment, the calamity clouds were several times larger than when Yuan Datou begged for his title, obscuring the sky and carrying several times more wronged souls.
Before the great demon's spirit could react, it roared and charged forward, brandishing a hoe and pitchfork.
This time, without Liu Qing's help, the great demon Qingyu roared in grief and anger, and was about to be torn to pieces by the wronged souls brought by the tribulation clouds.
Liu Qing was kind-hearted, but he couldn't help but intervene.

He quietly shook the Yin Jade Spirit Banner, extending blood-silk soul threads, and with a single force pulled the Yang Spirit of the Azure Fish Demon into the Yin Jade Spirit Banner.

With Liu Qing's current cultivation level, he secretly seized the Yang Spirit of the Azure Fish Demon, so the other river demons watching the ceremony would not notice anything amiss.

And so, Liu Qing once again intervened in the deification of the demon, and gained a Yang God puppet that had reached the stage of refining emptiness and merging with the Dao.

Since the secrets of heaven are unknown, there's no fear of being devoured by the heavenly forces.

The river demons watching the ceremony gasped in unison, all horrified. Several powerful demon lords who had originally planned to perform a sacrificial ceremony to beg for titles soon also sadly abandoned their plans.

Subsequently, Liu Qing returned to Dawan Lake.

Upon returning to Dawan Lake, Liu Qing immediately ordered his various factions to garrison and patrol, and to muster his demon soldiers and generals before marching to Shilang Lake.

With the death of the most powerful demon lord of Shilang Lake, the Azure Fish Demon, the remaining few, even the most outstanding among them, were only at the Refinement of Spirit and Return to Emptiness stage.
Now, after Liu Qing has taught his subordinates, including Eel Master, Little Alligator Dragon, Four Short Men, and Three Water Willows, they have all mastered the martial arts techniques of the East Sea.

Having accumulated considerable experience, his cultivation level has advanced by leaps and bounds, and his strength and abilities far surpass what they were before. Taking over the Shilang Lake area together should not be too much of a problem.

Furthermore, Liu Qing also ordered his fourth avatar, the ninth-rank River God of the Four Short Rivers, to go along and secretly watch over them, lest they truly harm the lives of the river demons under his command.

Ever since the Jinghe River Festival, Liu Qing had harbored this intention, originally planning to first target the Four Rivers Alliance, which had betrayed him.

However, since Floating Dragon Lake was chosen first, Liu Qing had no choice but to take it over first. Now that Floating Dragon Lake has been secured, a good opportunity has arisen for Shilang Lake.
Liu Qing had no choice but to send his river demons to attack Shilang Lake again.

Liu Qing wouldn't intervene; he was too powerful, and it wasn't worth it for him to do it personally. He would have his various factions stationed at their posts, while the patrol inspector would lead the troops to attack.

The intention was to let them hone their skills; otherwise, even with profound techniques, it wouldn't work to just work in isolation, as they still needed practical experience.

In Liu Qing's view, the Five Lakes Alliance and the Four Rivers Alliance were all his own. According to his plan, once he had taken over all five lakes and four rivers...
He then prepared to take over the seven families along the Jing River, at which point the entire Jing River area would belong to Liu Qing.

After taking control of the entire Jing River, he allowed his first clone to take over the Jing River, while Liu Qing himself set his sights on the position of Dragon King of the Wei River.

In Journey to the West, the killing of the Jing River Dragon King was still something Liu Qing was wary of. If he wanted to become the Dragon King, he should become the Dragon King of the Wei River. He didn't want the Jing River Dragon King, who was just a mere incense offering clone. He thought, "How can you kill him?"
Moreover, the Wei River has a larger waterway and a wider area than the Jing River, and the Dragon King of Wei is of a higher status, being one of the eight most prestigious rivers in the land.

The eighth-ranking dragon king is second only to the four great river dragon kings in status.

After making the arrangements, Liu Qing devoted herself to quiet meditation.

A month later, Liu Qing, who was meditating, suddenly felt a tremor in his divine storage place. He quickly looked over and was overjoyed. The six divine powers that had been nurtured when his authority and divinity reached 100% earlier had all ripened and fallen together today.

Lines of text appeared, explaining the six powers and supernatural abilities.

[Explanation 1: The Divine Power of Dividing Streams originates from the divine nature of authority. Once this divine power is used, it can divide the waters of rivers and lakes in two. As its growth level increases, it can even separate the endless waters of major rivers such as the Eight Streams, Four Rivers, and Five Lakes.]

[Explanation 2: The Supernatural Power of Cutting Off Rivers. This supernatural power originates from the divine authority. Once activated, it can cut off the ceaseless flow of a river. As its growth rate increases, its power will increase again, and it can cut off the waters of major rivers.]

[Explanation 3: The Divine Power of Overturning the Seas. This divine power originates from the divine authority. After being used, it can turn the waters of great lakes and abysses upside down. As its growth rate increases, a single strike can even overturn the entire world.]

[Explanation 4: The supernatural power of water restriction originates from the divine authority. Once activated, fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs cannot swim within its range, forming a water-restricted area. Its power will further increase as its growth rate improves.]

[Explanation 5: Water Escape Technique. This technique originates from the divine nature of authority and is one of the five great elemental escape techniques. It grants extremely high speed in water, and as its growth reaches perfection, it can become the fastest water-based ability in the Three Realms.]

[Explanation 6: Supernatural Power Gathering of Spiritual Energy. This supernatural power originates from the divine nature of authority and can gather water spiritual energy to form spiritual caves, increasing the concentration of water spiritual energy in the surrounding area. As its growth rate increases, it can not only gather water spiritual energy, but also other spiritual energies such as wind, thunder, earth, wood, metal, and fire from the Three Realms.]

As Liu Qing looked at each explanation, her eyes shone brighter and brighter, and she couldn't contain her joy.

As expected of those with divine powers, each one is more powerful than the last. The divine power of splitting the water can change the water's flow, and the divine power of cutting off rivers and overturning seas are powerful attack methods. With these two in hand, which water deity can stand against them in the future?

Its supernatural power to restrict water can even create a water-restricted domain, rendering river demons and river gods powerless against it in the water.

The Spirit Gathering Divine Power is even more powerful, capable of gathering water-based spiritual energy and increasing the concentration of spiritual energy around oneself, making it the best auxiliary divine power for cultivation.
Liu Qing let his thoughts wander, preparing to fuse this spirit-gathering divine power with the array plate to create a spirit-gathering array plate.

In this way, there is no need to be distracted by using supernatural powers all the time. When needed, you only need to activate the Spirit Gathering Array Plate. If you make a lot, you can also give them to Hong Gu and the others.

Thus, the divine authority gave birth to ten supernatural powers: Water Control, Water Puppet, Ice Transformation, Water Thunder, Stream Diversion, River Severing, Sea Overturning, Water Escape, Water Restriction, and Spirit Gathering.

The ten supernatural powers born from the divine nature of incense are: sending incense, strength, penetrating the underworld, turning gold into gold, splitting the soul, sending dreams, yin wind, communicating with the netherworld, binding spirits, and divine descent.

Just like the divine nature of incense, once these six powers and supernatural abilities are conceived, there will be no more powers and supernatural abilities.

However, the corresponding compensation is that when the divine authority increases, it can evolve into a new divine authority office or be promoted to a higher-ranking divine authority position.

During these days of quiet cultivation, besides studying cultivation techniques, spells, formations, alchemy, and weapon crafting, Liu Qing also diligently practices the Dragon-Snake Devouring Qi Technique during the day and inhales moonlight or consumes one or two River Treasures at night.
Therefore, having accumulated a considerable amount of primordial energy, he waved his hand and imbued each of the six newly formed divine powers with primordial energy.
This will propel its growth to its peak.

Once the four supernatural powers of Diverting Streams, Severing Rivers, Overturning Seas, and Forbidding Water are mastered, their power increases several times over compared to when they were beginners, and their casting range expands significantly.

After mastering the Water Escape technique, Liu Qing experimented with it and his speed skyrocketed, becoming comparable to the speed of the Water-Avoiding Golden-Eyed Beast in its water-walking ability.

After mastering the Spirit Gathering Divine Power, it becomes effective against the four types of spiritual energy: water, fire, thunder, and earth. Water, of course, is self-explanatory; Liu Qing is a river demon, naturally drawn to water.
The fire and lightning elements are due to Liu Qing's innate talent for fire wings and his water and lightning supernatural abilities, which allow him to easily gather their respective elemental spiritual energy.
Earth is easy to understand; it is contained within water, and their connection is the closest. Conversely, it can also evolve from water. Therefore, besides water, fire, and lightning, earth is the first element to sense and gather spiritual energy.

However, the other three types of spiritual energy—wind, metal, and wood—cannot be gathered yet. It is estimated that they will only be able to gather when Liu Qing pushes the growth rate of this Spirit Gathering Divine Power to perfection.

With spiritual energy gathering, water-based spiritual energy is currently the most important for Liu Qing. This will increase the efficiency of accumulating primordial energy of heaven and earth several times over when he cultivates the Dragon-Snake Devouring Qi Technique later.
In terms of fire and lightning, it can also help with the use of the Fire Wing talent and the Water and Thunder Divine Power. However, the earth element and the wind, metal, and wood elements that have not yet been gathered cannot be used for the time being.

Time passed by in meditation, day after day.

The four incarnations of the Incense Gods, having previously granted a wish to bring rain, have seen a surge in faith and incense offerings, generating a considerable amount of incense money daily. They keep half for themselves to further their spiritual cultivation.
Everything else was sent to Liu Qing himself, and with the addition of salt production, the newly conquered Floating Dragon Lake also became a dumping ground, earning even more incense money.

As is customary, the shrimp merchants would offer tribute at regular intervals, in addition to the scattered incense offerings from the eight incense burners.
Therefore, during Liu Qing's meditation, incense and silver offerings continuously flowed in, ensuring that there was no shortage of them.

Liu Qing wasn't in a hurry to advance to the divine position of his first avatar. His current seventh-rank position as the River God of the Great Bay Lake was sufficient.
Only after all nine branches of the Jing River, including the Five Lakes and Four Rivers, have been conquered, and when the first avatar is to take over the Jing River, will it be promoted to a divine status.

Therefore, Liu Qing used most of the incense silver he received and the incense divinity he absorbed to evolve new divine positions.
With eight pools, five rivers, and seventeen canals, the Grand Bay alone has so many waterways. Each waterway needs a river god, naturally leading to the evolution of many divine roles.

Previously, four ninth-rank divine positions had been created: Wuding River, Sanliu River, Siduan River, and Luanshi Pool. This time, Liu Qing will create the remaining Hunjia River, Shuijia River, Laogui Pool, Shuiyu Pool, Xiannv Pool, Lijia Canal, Liujia Canal, Shibalipu Canal, and Sanlipu Canal.

All of them evolved into the nine ranks of river god positions one after another.

With half of the incense silver remaining, Liu Qing did not continue to absorb the incense divinity to evolve the incense divine function. Instead, he used his alchemy to transform it all into power gold, to be used later.

On Liu Qing's side, his cultivation has not yet reached the perfection of refining emptiness and merging with the Dao, so he cannot merge with the Dao in authority. Moreover, he already has a divine position with authority, so there is no rush for others. He should first accumulate authority gold for future use.

There's no rush regarding authority, but the divine nature of incense offerings has given rise to many new divine roles, requiring a merging of the divine and the Dao.
Therefore, after Liu Qing's three main avatars merged with the incense offerings, he soon used the Soul Splitting Divine Power to create new avatars.
This time, after they had each cultivated to their full potential, reaching the strength of their initial Yang God, Liu Qing did not remember them as part of the Dao Integration Ceremony.

Instead, it split into two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, creating a total of sixteen separate spirits.
Before the spirit merges with the Dao, it needs to be nurtured and strengthened. Taking this opportunity, Liu Qing categorized the various classic texts passed down from Hong Gu in the East Sea and gave them to the spirit to help with its comprehension.
The magic, supernatural powers, formations, and weapon crafting techniques of the East Sea were all entrusted to them for comprehension. Once they had grasped them, the memories would be shared.
The manipulation of energy by the Dragon-Snake Devouring Qi Technique, as well as the absorption and release of moonlight on moonlit nights, were also entrusted to the divided spirit for operation.
With this assignment, Liu Qing essentially gained sixteen more brains to help him, instantly increasing his efficiency.

Liu Qing himself devoted all his energy to comprehending the Dao of Alchemy.

The alchemical classics passed down from the East Sea, along with the alchemical insights stolen from the evil dragon of the Wei River, contain a vast array of complex information, including knowledge of the appearances of numerous spiritual herbs across the Three Realms.
The inherent properties of each elixir, as well as its antagonistic and complementary elements, must all be memorized thoroughly before proceeding to the next step.
Liu Qing became so engrossed in memorizing the numerous spiritual herbs of the Three Realms that several years had passed without him realizing it.

(End of this chapter)