I Will Grind My Way To Godhood

"Something's off..."

Aqin muttered as she suddenly realized something was amiss.

"Hey, my rate of transformation... seems to have decreased."

She said uncertainly.

While helping her untangle the steel ropes around her, Xue Jing responded casually, feigning indifference, "Oh? Really."

A hint of joy appeared on Aqin's mature and beautiful face, "Even though there's been no precise test, this feeling of a clear mind is unmistakable.

Could it be because I've freed myself from your control, regained my sacred mark, and thus relaxed my spirit?"

Xue Jing replied nonchalantly, "Probably...

Where's the thing you promised?"

Aqin was about to tease this handsome young man when she heard his calm voice, "I advise you against any surplus thoughts. There's less than a step between us...

You must know what that means to a martial artist, right?"

Aqin stiffened slightly, "You're no fun..."

She shook her head and raised her right hand.

A gap split open in the floor, and a thick green stem burst through, twisting and elongating to reach Aqin's hand.

At the tip was a budding flower, which bloomed as Aqin twisted her wrist, revealing a walnut-sized dark red seed at its center.

She handed the seed to Xue Jing and said, "This is the 'Nagusuum Chaloralus' seed you wanted...

I don't know what you need this for, but let me give you a heads up."

"This is an otherworldly plant, its cultivation environment is completely different from our world.

It can't grow here.

I can control its growth due to the power of the Benevolent Mother..."

Xue Jing took the seed, his fingers brushing its uneven surface, feeling the rough texture.

He glanced at the floor, which was cracked by the emerging stem.

"You'll cover the repair bill for the floor."

Aqin's eyes widened slightly, "The floor cracked because I was getting the seed for you!"

Xue Jing replied, "If you had mentioned the floor could be damaged, we could have gone outside the hotel.

And do you really have to make it come out from the underground?"

Aqin's lips twitched, "It has to come from the underground...

The Master of Myriad Blossoms and Colors is the source of all flora and vegetation, and the birth of this entity stems from the fusion of 'earth' and 'water', which are two of the four elements that make up the world...

That's why all flora and vegetation in the world either grow in the ground or water."

"As a symbol of its creation, when we Blessed invoke its power, there are limitations.

We can only summon vegetation from the ground or water, not manifest it in the void."

Xue Jing rubbed his chin, "That's good intel...

Regarding this piece of information, you don't have to cover the repair bill, you can go now."

With that, the enmity between them was resolved, and Aqin breathed a sigh of relief.

After she relaxed, her thoughts began to wander.

Looking at Xue Jing's flawless handsome face, she couldn't help but speak, "Xue Jing, have you really never considered joining the faith?"

"I think, with someone like you, the Divine Mother would favor you even more than your sister..."

Xue Jing glanced at her, holding the dark red seed, and walked to the sofa to sit down, saying lightly, "You're really persistent, aren't you?"

Aqin shook her head. "I just value talent... For someone like you, to already possess such strength at this age, you must be an ambitious and non-conformist person."

"Practicing martial arts... is such a waste."

Xue Jing shook his head, "Again with this talk, I'm already tired of hearing it."

"Whether the path of martial arts is viable, I know better than anyone... On the contrary, it's you all, whether it's the transformed with alien implants, the new martial arts sects using forbidden drugs, or those of you who think you are favored by the gods..."

At this point, Xue Jing paused for a moment, "Forget it, even though I want to argue with you, I should be the least suitable person in this world to say these words to you."

He gestured with his hand, "You'd better leave."

Aqin tilted her head, slightly puzzled.

She initially thought Xue Jing would say something like, 'The power you use is not truly your own,' 'Non-human powers always come at a price,' or 'Martial arts is the only path truly owned by humanity,' and was prepared for a debate. But unexpectedly, Xue Jing merely brushed it off.

Aqin nodded, seeing that Xue Jing didn't intend to continue the conversation, she could only say, "Alright then, if you change your mind, you can always reach us through your sister."

After she left, Xue Jing lay down on the sofa, spinning the dark red seed before his eyes.

He shook his head and muttered to himself, "Old martial arts really seems to be despised by others..."

To be honest, it's not that he particularly loved old martial arts.

He had always been clear that old martial arts was merely a way for him to develop his skill panel, his true strength never lay in martial arts, but in his panel.

The discomfort from others' disdain wasn't because he had any attachment to old martial arts.

It was more akin to the feeling of having chosen a university major that you liked, only to hear people shaking their heads and sighing, saying that your major is no good...

Xue Jing had some feelings about this, but he found it difficult to refute others' words.

He couldn't even say with confidence, 'I just like it, is that not okay?'

Because he possessed something others didn't, he was able to confidently walk the path of old martial arts without any worries, knowing he was different from others.

If he didn't have the skill panel, could he really refuse alien implants, forbidden drugs, and divine blessings without hesitation, sticking to the path of old martial arts? He's not sure of this.

As long as he's uncertain about this, he can't confidently rebut others.

Xue Jing shook his head, dismissing these trivial thoughts, and pondered:

"Based on what that woman said earlier, it seems that after extracting divinity from the holy mark, the rate of aberration indeed decreases."

He returned the eyeball to Aqin without much fuss precisely to confirm this point.

Knowing that his sister, Xue Wan, had become a gifted one and was at risk of being polluted and transformed, this thought had occurred to him.

"It seems now that the so-called 'divinity' has had a layer of mist peeled away from its true form."

Xue Jing's eyes flickered with insight.

Ever since he touched the [Cat Tail Ring] and began interacting with divine essence, the objects or people whose divinity he absorbed continued to retain their inherent powers without any diminished effect.

The functions of divine relics remained intact; even after the cat fused with Bastet, it continued to possess otherworldly abilities. The woman from the Floral Society, despite having her divine mark absorbed by him, still wielded her power over plants without a hitch.

And now, he finally discovered the anomaly that occurred after drawing out the divinity.

The aberration rate...

The infusion of divine power tainted mental consciousness, leading to transformation. However, extracting divinity decreased the aberration rate while retaining the associated power.

In other words, the so-called 'divinity' isn't the god's power itself but something accompanying that power.

"I can’t confirm it one hundred percent right now. I’ll check with my sister later. She's a gifted one and has a holy mark. I'll draw out some divinity from her and see if her aberration rate decreases."

"If that's the case, then there’s no need to worry much about her transformation."

"Moreover..." Xue Jing stroked his chin thoughtfully.

If extracting divinity truly reduces the aberration rate without affecting anything else, wouldn't that make him the godfather of all the gifted?

Were it to become public, he reckoned he'd have a throng of people calling him godfather.

Yet rationality punched the swelling desire square in the face, bringing him back, reminding him not to act rashly.

"There would definitely be many calling me godfather, but surely among them are plenty of would-be Lu Bus..."

He was unclear about the exact number of gifted ones in the world but knew there weren't few.

The depths of this world were profound, and within the ranks of the gifted, there surely were monstrous powerhouses whose fearfulness he couldn't even begin to imagine at present.

If the ability to solve aberration rates without side effects got exposed... it would draw tremendous interests?

If that were to happen, the outcome would be utterly uncontrollable.

Perhaps he could indeed make himself rich in one fell swoop, but this kind of uncontrollable scenario was not what he desired.

With a skills panel in hand, he would ultimately ascend as a true deity in the mortal realm—not in a rush, not in a rush.

Suppressing the yearning for divinity in his heart, Xue Jing opened the panel for a look.

“Hmm? Why isn't there any sign of recovery?”

He looked at the [Plant Pact] in the divinity skill panel, puzzled.

Ever since contracting with that pot of spider plant, the name of [Plant Pact] had remained dim.

The color symbolizes the mana bar; dim indicates an empty mana bar. However, after using Twin Lives and Shadow Flame, the dim color gradually brightens over time until it returns to a pale gold.

Yet, [Plant Pact] showed no signs of recovery, even though nearly an hour had passed.

“Could it be...”

Xue Jing took out the seed formed from the spider plant from his pocket.

With a thought, the contract mark engraved on the spider plant seed dissipated.

At that moment, the panel's [Plant Pact] lit up, turning into a pale gold.

“So that was the case...”

A knowing look appeared in Xue Jing’s eyes.

“The restriction lies in the number of contracts...it still won't let me play with an infinite army of plants,” he sighed.

“Lv1, can only contract with one plant?”

Xue Jing placed the spider plant seed on the table and picked up the dark red 'Oxygen-absorbing Tree' seed.

With a thought, a circular contract pattern appeared on the dark red seed.

Looking back at the panel, [Plant Pact] dimmed, and it was even darker than it had been with the spider plant, almost entirely black.

“The stronger the plant, the greater the consumption?”

“It seems that it's not a restriction on the number of contracts but a matter of energy consumption. The total is 100, contracting the spider plant consumes 30, contracting the 'Oxygen-absorbing Tree' consumes 99...approximately like that.”

Xue Jing threw the dark red seed, having completed the contract, onto the ground.

The sound of rustling began as a dozen green stems sprouted from the seed, growing thicker and longer, moving in such a way that it resembled an octopus waving its tentacles.

The stems grew to about ten meters in length, spreading throughout the hotel room, filling it halfway.

Meanwhile, Xue Jing noticed that the stems were breathing, absorbing the surrounding oxygen at an almost violent speed.

The air became thin, and Xue Jing began to feel some difficulty in breathing.

With a thought, he halted the intense respiration of the stems.

Air from outside flowed back in, and the oxygen density quickly returned to normal.

“Not bad.” Xue Jing nodded, quite satisfied.

The plant called Nāguchā is still growing, but there's no more room in the hotel room. It's much stronger than a pothos.

"I'll find another chance to try it."

He controlled all the roots and stems to shrink, reversing their growth. In no time, the dozen thick tendrils retreated and transformed back into a dark red seed.

Putting the seed into his pocket, Xue Jing took out his phone, opened the dialing interface, entered his sister's number, and called her.

…

At the entrance of Maple City University, Xue Wan held her cat and surveyed the chaos in front of her. The ground was riddled with huge cracks. Her usually gentle and amiable face was now expressionless, nearly icy.

Fire truck and police car sirens blared incessantly. Crowds of onlookers stood around, all curious about what had happened, as if the place had just experienced an earthquake.

Several of Xue Wan's classmates, who were familiar with her, wanted to greet her, but seeing her expressionless face, the words stuck in their throats, unable to come out.

"What's with Wan Wan? She seems terrifying."

"Didn't Professor Lyu just call for her? Maybe she got scolded by the professor…"

"She doesn't look like she's in a good mood. Better not disturb her for now…"

The cat stayed in Xue Wan's arms, its face showing a human-like contemplative look.

It had just followed Xue Wan to meet that Professor Lyu and learned a secret.

It was pondering whether to immediately report this to Xue Jing…

Just then, a ringtone came from Xue Wan's pocket.

Her expressionless face softened slightly when she saw ‘My Foolish Otouto’ on the screen. Her icy demeanor melted away.

"Sis."

Her brother Xue Jing’s voice came through the receiver.

Xue Wan took a deep breath, calming her originally anxious heart, and said as calmly as possible, "A-Jing…where are you now?"

"I'm at the hotel…don’t worry, I'm fine." Sensing something off in Xue Wan’s tone, Xue Jing reassured her.

"Give me the hotel's address and room number… I'll come find you."

Unless she saw her brother’s situation with her own eyes, Xue Wan couldn’t feel at ease.

"Besides…there are things I need to talk to you about."

Xue Jing on the other end of the line chuckled, gave her the hotel's address and room number, and added, "Come over, I have something to tell you too."

Xue Wan hung up, placed her phone on her chest, and visibly relaxed.

She glanced back at Fengda Horticulture Institute's direction and then turned to leave.

......