I Will Grind My Way To Godhood

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating half of Xue Jing's face as he sat on the sofa.

He crossed his arms, deep in thought.

After a while, there was a soft knock at the door.

The sound was very light, and Xue Jing snapped out of his thoughts, not getting up, but merely moving his finger.

A shadow at the door drew out a black stream of energy, forming a tangible shadow hand that turned the doorknob.

Xue Wan, holding a cat, saw the door open and hesitated, wanting to speak but not finding her brother.

Confused, she walked in, passed through the hallway, and into the living room, finally seeing Xue Jing sitting enveloped in shadows on the sofa.

He remained silent, sitting there with a calm expression on the half of his face touched by light, watching Xue Wan.

His demeanor carried an unexplainable mafioso-kind of intimidation, further intimidating the already guilty Xue Wan.

“Sister, sit down.”

Xue Jing spoke without any fluctuation in his tone.

Xue Wan said nothing.

She released the cat and cautiously approached Xue Jing.

Instead of sitting on a chair or the sofa, she knelt in front of him, placing her hands on his knees.

“Woof~”

Xue Wan barked like a little dog trying to curry favor with its owner, her beautiful face donned an exaggerated cute expression, finding the most adorable angle from below to gaze innocently at Xue Jing with her big, bright eyes.

Xue Jing remained silent.

For this shameless woman, adopting such a pitiful puppy stance for her brother was completely stress-free.

Ever since she lost a game to her brother as a child and barked without hesitation under the vow “losers bark like dogs,” she gave up her dignity as a sister.

Since then, every time she did something wrong, she would act like a dog begging for forgiveness from Xue Jing.

“Behave and sit down.” Xue Jing was long impervious to her tricks, stating it with a poker face.

“Okay…” Xue Wan’s expression turned obedient, her hands left his knees, she shuffled back maintaining her kneeling position, then sat upright as if she were a child sitting obediently.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

“I know, I was wrong, woof~” Xue Wan confessed without hesitation.

Xue Jing, expressionless, asked, “What went wrong?”

Xue Wan, still in a kneeling position, placed her hands on her thighs and obediently replied:

“Running into trouble without telling the family, overreaching by trying to solve it myself, and ended up involving you, brother.”

Xue Jing clicked his tongue, “You really understand, don’t you?”

Although it was typical for her to use this approach, seeing her sincerely admitting her mistakes and earnestly accepting the lesson made it hard for him to get angry.

After thinking for a moment, Xue Jing asked, “When did this happen?”

“Two months ago... my mentor, Professor Lyu, showed me a performance where a seed instantly blossomed.”

Xue Wan recounted honestly.

“After watching, she asked if I wanted to learn it. I said I did, so she directly took me to perform the endowment ceremony.”

She scratched her head, a hint of playful bashfulness appearing on her charming face. "I thought it was just a magic trick, but it turned out to be real, hahaha, haha, ha..."✧Xue Jing's unamused gaze made her laughter shrink, and she returned to her well-behaved demeanor.

Xue Jing pondered for a moment, then asked, "How do you feel now? What's your alienation rate?"

Xue Wan exclaimed in surprise, "You even know about that, Young Master Jing."

“I caught that woman earlier and asked her many things,” Xue Jing replied.

“A woman? What does she look like?” Xue Wan tilted her head.

"Her left eye is colorful."

“Sister Aqin? You actually caught Sister Aqin?”

Xue Wan's face was full of shock and admiration, “You’re incredible, Lord Jing!”

Although her expressions were exaggerated for flattery, there was genuine surprise in them.

Previously, after being separated from her mentor and classmates, she received a call saying something happened at the school gate and rushed over to join in the buzz, realizing something was wrong, and hurried to the scene.

Upon arrival, she saw clear traces of a battle involving a Flower Cult endowment recipient and thought of Xue Jing's departure time, suspecting something happened to her brother.

She immediately received a call from Xue Jing to come to the hotel.

She wasn't quite sure about the actual sequence of events.

From what she knew, the flora cultivated by Sister Aqin was practically a nemesis to martial artists.

Her brother, being a martial artist, managed to defeat and even capture her...

“The woman wanted me to join the cult, perform the endowment ceremony, and make me worship your Lord of a Thousand Blossoms.”

“I refused, so she tried to force me, intending to abduct me and make it irreversible.”

“It was your mentor, Professor Lyu, who instructed her,” Xue Jing explained briefly.

Xue Wan quickly grasped the entire situation from his explanation.

Her gaze carried a complex emotion as she softly assured, “Don’t worry, Jing. This won’t happen again... Sister will protect you.”

Xue Jing cleared his throat.

“Speaking of which, there’s something I need to tell you,” he thought for a moment and said, “Actually, I didn’t defeat that woman with martial arts.”

Xue Wan showed confusion, “Huh?”

Xue Wan suddenly seemed to think of something and stood up with a look of shock, slamming her palm hard on the nearby table.

“You're not telling me you couldn't beat her, so you seduced her to betray her guard and strike back when she's—!!”

Xue Jing's mouth twitched as he conjured a shadow flame, forming a hand that delivered a crisp slap to her head.

“What are you thinking? That's downright humiliating.”

Xue Jing said helplessly.

Rubbing her head, Xue Wan blinked at the levitating shadowy hand beside her.

“What is that?”

Xue Jing crossed his arms and placed them under his chin. “Sis, it's time for me to come clean.”

“I'm also a Grantee!”

Xue Wan's eyes widened. “You too...?”

“How could this be...”

She muttered.

Being a Grantee is a perilous vocation, forced to live a life in fear of pollution and mutation, never knowing when one might lose oneself and transform into a monster.

Engaging with this world hidden in the shadows is fraught with danger—the friction among different factions, the hunts by the semi-official mad organizations, and the fierce competition for the few positions on the 'Ladder'; it's more than a life-or-death struggle.

The thing she feared most was her family being dragged into this world because of her.

But now, her most cherished brother had become a Grantee too.

Xue Wan did not doubt Xue Jing's words; the black flaming hand floating beside them was proof enough—unmistakably an 'unconventional' power beyond a normal person's reach.

Xue Jing blinked and revealed the reasoning he had already prepared.

“No sect was involved—in fact, even I don't know why I became a Grantee.”

“All I know is, the god who blessed me is named...”

“—Lord of the Faceless and a Thousand Faces.”

Xue Jing said slowly.

That name... he made it up.

Just now, he had come up with it.

Exposure of his divine skills was unavoidable, and he needed a plausible explanation for his powers.

Given the strength and enigmatic nature of divine skills, only a similarly irrational blessing from a god could account for them.

Hence, he decided to present himself as a Grantee!

What kind of bizarre god must bestow blessings for him to possess such diverse abilities?

For now, it's just his shadow flame and plant affinity skills, but inevitably, he would unlock more divine skills.

He would definitely need a new explanation by then—so why not set up an all-encompassing account from the start?

So, he fabricated a nonexistent god—the Lord of the Faceless and a Thousand Faces.

The term 'Faceless' indicates that this god does not truly exist, lacking a definite form.

The term 'Thousand Faces' explains the multitude of powers he would possess.

A god with a thousand faces and a thousand powers, yet in reality, doesn't exist or have a definitive form.

This is—the Lord of the Faceless and a Thousand Faces.

“The Lord of the Faceless and a Thousand Faces?” Xue Wan pondered, then shook her head.

“Never heard of it…”

Xue Jing remained unperturbed, “Isn't that normal? There are so many exotic gods, you couldn't possibly know all of them.”

Pausing for a moment, he continued:

“In fact, I only became a Grantee recently and don’t know much about it. I even learned about the pollution and transformation of Grantees from that woman earlier.”

“Moreover—”

Xue Jing was interrupted by Xue Wan’s surprised voice.

“Wait, A-Jing, did you just say you became a Grantee without undergoing the granting ceremony and you don’t even know why you became one?”

Xue Jing blinked, “That’s correct.”

Xue Wan fell into deep thought, muttering, “Could it be, a naturally born Grantee…a child chosen by the gods.”

Xue Jing expressed confusion, “Child chosen by the gods? What does that mean?”

The nonsense he made up on the spot seemed to align with something else again.

Xue Wan shook her head, “I’m not entirely sure myself, just heard my tutor mention it in passing.”

“Ordinary Grantees are made by ‘people choosing gods’. People offer their faith, performing the granting ceremony, and the gods respond, turning them into Grantees.”

“But naturally born Grantees are different, they are ‘chosen by the gods’. The gods see someone they fancy and, lowering themselves, choose them, endowing them with divine power, hence the term ‘child chosen by the gods’.”

“According to my tutor, there are less than twenty of such naturally born Grantees worldwide.”

Xue Jing nodded, “Sounds impressive.”

“It indeed is. Such god-chosen individuals don’t need to undergo the granting ceremony, worry about competing for the ‘ladder’ position, or fear pollution and transformation. Over time, they can naturally ‘ascend’ and grow stronger…”

Xue Wan’s gaze turned worried.

“But, there is a problem.”

“All children chosen by the gods suddenly and mysteriously disappear at some point, called the ‘Divine Vanishing Phenomenon’.”

“The reason they vanish is still unknown, why they vanish, where they go, even the pattern of their disappearance, all remain mysteries.”

“Currently, the longest-lived child of a god known in the world is forty-six years old.”

Xue Wan put her thumb’s nail into her mouth, biting down with neatly arranged teeth.

“If you are indeed a child chosen by the gods, then…”

Xue Jing patted her shoulder, comforting her, "Don't worry, who can say for sure about the future?"

He hadn't realized that his words would add to Xue Wan's emotional burden.

But now, he could only let things be... he definitely couldn't reveal the skill panel, right?

That's his deepest secret, one he'd never disclose, not even to family.

"Let's put aside my issue for now and solve yours first," Xue Jing said softly.

"My issue?" Xue Wan was puzzled.

Xue Jing asked, "Where's your Stigmata?"

"Uh..." Xue Wan showed a trace of embarrassment.

Seeing her expression, Xue Jing raised an eyebrow, "What, it can't be in a sensitive spot, right?"

That would be a bit troublesome...

"Not exactly,"

Xue Wan hesitated for a moment but then bit her lip and placed her hands at the hem of her shirt, lifting it slightly to reveal her slender waist.

Xue Jing looked over and found the anomaly near her navel: a red octahedral gemstone, resembling a navel piercing.

Though it looked quite attractive, it also seemed rather flirtatiously gaudy.

After showing it to Xue Jing, Xue Wan quickly lowered her shirt, her face flushed. "Okay, okay, no more looking."

Being caught by her own brother in such an awkward situation with the strange Stigmata was very embarrassing.

Xue Jing shook his head and directly reached out, lifting her shirt again, revealing her slender waist and navel.

"What are you doing?!"

Xue Wan's eyes widened.

"I'm your sister, your real sister!"

Xue Jing rolled his eyes, "Can you stop thinking like that, what could I possibly do to you?"

"Just now, I tested an ability of 'His Lordship of No Face and Thousand Faces' on that female colleague of yours, which can solve your issue with the pollution alteration."

"Alright, don't move, let me take a look!"

The cat, who had been watching from the side the whole time, looked exasperated with an almost human-like expression.

"Fine, look all you want, just don't be mean to me..." Xue Wan murmured, ceasing her struggle and turning her face away, resigned.

Xue Jing held up her shirt with one hand, while the fingers of his other hand touched the ruby-like Stigmata.

[Detected Divine Substance, Absorbing Divinity...]

"How does it feel?" Xue Jing asked.

Xue Wan closed her eyes and carefully felt the sensation, saying:

"It feels like... something is being drawn away."