As the Shadow approached the Chu Young Master's room, he saw a handsome young man dressed in brocade clothes going over a bunch of papers. He was so concentrated on his works that he did move his eyes from these papers for 10 minutes straight.
As the Shadow secretly observed this young, he frowned as he realized two things: first, he did not feel any bloodline power from him. Second, and more importantly, this person--who did not have any cultivation or energy inside his body--already opened up his Niwan Palace and has a Sea of Consciousness.
After noticing these flaws, the Shadow decided to be more cautious and observed for another hour before taking action. He turned into an invisible white light and entered Chu Li's Sea of Consciousness.
Immediately, the Shadow found something wrong; he saw a small white cloud-shaped substance floating inside the Sea of Consciousness. Of course, he knew that this was Chu Li's soul, but what surprised him was the fact that there was a half-finished altar or shrine inside, and Chu Li's soul was floating on top of it.
The Shadow observed for a while but did not immediately take action. After recording the information he received, he approached Chu Li's soul; he wanted to secretly use the Soul Searching Technique to read this guy's memories.
Unfortunately, when he got closed, he found a strange white light was attached to the latter's soul, and the light seemed to be connected to some powerful being,
The Shadow guessed that this world had Gods and that Chu Li might be connected to one of them. And if he tries to search his soul, he might alert this God.
After coming to this conclusion, the Shadow decided to use another method. He turned into an insect and attached himself to a grey line that floated above Chu Li's head; it was his Fate Line.
This was a secret technique that the Shadow was taught that allowed him to read the Fate Line of others, just like Wang Wei. However, the Shadow was not strong enough to read a person's entire Fate Line without being backlash.
However, this technique called Gu Fate Reading was a downgrade version of Wang Wei's Fate Reading. It allowed the person to view one specific but very important event of a person's life
So, after attaching to Chu Li's Fate Line, the Shadow experienced one of the latter's memories.
In the memory, Chu Li was participating in a hunt along with many prominent young masters of the city. Everything was going fine, however, one of the prey that was supposed to be hunted during the hunt suddenly went mad and attacked Chu Li.
To be exact, he was dragged away from his guards by the beasts. Chu Li thought that he would die at the hands of that beast, however, fate seemed to smile on him as the beast suddenly died while carrying him.
Although injured, Chu Li survived, albeit only temporarily. So, he dragged his body to a cave he saw near him. However, as soon as he entered the cave, he saw an old man sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed and a book in front of him.
Chu Li thought that he had intruded on a person's home, so he quickly apologized. But, it did not take him long to realize that the old man was dead. As such, curiosity got the best of him and he took the book and read it.
The first sentence on the front of the book was: "Whoever gets hold of this inheritance, must swear to the Heavens to spread it, otherwise he or she will not be able to open it."
At first, Chu Li thought that someone was playing some kind of sick joke on him, but after trying to open the book and failing miserably, he realized that he might have encountered something amazing.
So, without hesitation, he followed the procedure on the front of the book and made an Oath to Heaven. Then, the book finally opened.
After reading it with haste, Chu Li learned one of the greatest secrets of this world. The so-called Gods in this world were not powerful beings or noble entities, but mortals that slowly cultivated to have such power.
However, to prevent the rise of other Gods that will compete with them for resources, they erased the existence of cultivation from ordinary people and claimed that only through their blessings or by inheriting Divine Bloodlines people can get access to supernatural abilities.
Of course, not all Gods felt that way. Chu Li learned from that book that a certain number of them felt that it was better to spread the cultivation technique.
Unfortunately, because of this conflict in ideology, a war occurred that led to the defeat of the Gods who were for spreading supernatural powers. The majority of them were killed as a result, and only a few survived by hiding like rats and secretly spreading these techniques.
After learning all this information, Chu Li did not rest and quickly returned home--despite his injury. Luckily for him, his guards were searching for him and found him mid-way.
After they rushed him home and had a doctor healed, the first thing that Chu Li did was to contact the Fire God Huo and tell him about the book and his encounter. Their families have been serving the Fire God for countless generations and had a way to contact him.
As for the reason he did that?
The answer was simple. Chu Li learned that there were 6 stages of cultivation, but the book he received only had two of them. So, he hoped that by telling the Fire God about his discovery, the latter might reward him. Of course, he was quite worried about his Oath.
Fortunately, his bet was correct. The Fire God rewarded him with the method of breaking into the third stage and dealt with his Oath. Of course, Chu Li had to make another oath.
To be exact, he had to make two other Oaths: one was to never reveal this secret to other people, and second, to offer his soul and undying loyalty to the Fire God.
During the process, he knew that if he did not make these oaths--especially the second one--he would be instantly killed. Luckily for him, the Fire God did not immediately kill him on the spot after telling the truth.
After settling everything, Chu Li began to review the cultivation techniques that he received so that he could eventually start practicing.
He learned that the first three stages are called Divine Shrine, Divine Power, and Divine Transformation. In order to enter the first stage, he needed a certain amount of Reputation. And by using a secret method, he could turn his reputation into strength to open his Niwan Palace and have a Sea of Consciousness.
Then, he could use the Reputation to create a Divine Shrine; the altar or shrine is the foundation of every God, so it is very important.
At first, Chu Li was confused about what Reputation was, then he learned that it was meant in the literal sense. As long as people talked about him and he garnered a certain reputation, he could use this to create his shrine.
Knowing this, Chu Li quickly used the power of his family to spread the news that he awakened a Divine Bloodline, thus quickly gathering a reputation as a God Chosen One. And with that reputation, he began to slowly build his shrine
Although his family suggested that he take a large group of people and go hunting a fierce beast in the mountain to show his heroic posture as Divine Spawn, Chu Li quickly denied this idea as he knew that he did not have such ability.
According to his inheritance, cultivators in the Divine Shrine Realm are actually very weak as they do not have any real method of combat except for using their spiritual senses to either control mortals or create illusions.
On top of that, as long as someone has a strong will, these methods will not work on them. Not to mention that ordinary weapons like swords and bows and arrows can easily kill them.
Only after entering the Divine Power Realm and creating divine energy inside their bodies could they actually be considered Gods or Supernatural.
The Shadow reversed back to his normal form after reading the part where Chu Li started to build his Divine Shrine. Immediately after that, he left the Chu Family Compound, and even the city.
Once he reached the nearest deserted mountain, he created a cave, placed some Anti-Spying Formation at the entrance, and contacted Wang Ju to report to her his discovery.