The siblings weren't used to their new bodies yet.
Qianhui looked down at her hands, then back at the two beds.
Their original bodies lay on them.
Quiet, as if they were only asleep.
"Father," she asked softly, "what will happen to our original bodies?"
Pangu looked at her as if he had only just remembered he hadn't explained.
"I'll give them back to you. Keep them yourselves, so you can switch bodies whenever you want."
He walked to the beds and looked at the siblings' original bodies.
"I have a divine artifact that can stop them from aging and keep them unaffected by how fast time flows in the Three Realms. Once it's set and switched on, it works anywhere in this world."
"One day in Heaven is a year in the Mortal Realm, and three hundred sixty-five years in Hell. You may end up working a few years in the Mortal Realm, then running off to Hell. If you don't protect your original bodies first, over time your ages will turn into a mess."
Qianhui looked at herself on the bed again.
Pangu went on:
"The divine bodies you're using now were grown from the fruit of the World Tree. They weren't made from your original bodies' data, so they don't look like you used to."
A flicker of unease crossed Qianhui's eyes.
Pangu saw it. His brow creased, and his voice softened.
"I swear an oath."
He looked at Shanjue, then at Qianhui.
"If one day you truly want to lay down your divinity and properly retire, I won't force you to stay. You can go back to your original bodies, and not one of your memories or the experience of these years will be lost."
The last bit of unease in the siblings slowly settled.
Pangu continued:
"In Heaven and Hell, bodies are just vessels for souls anyway. With money you can buy one, or have one made to order."
"The body you were born with was your original capital. The ordinary bodies mass-produced here are made from World Tree pollen."
He pointed at the bodies the siblings were in now.
"But divine bodies are different."
"Divine bodies are the World Tree's fruit."
"That's something only I control."
"Money can't buy it."
The siblings looked down at their current bodies.
A moment ago they had only felt strange.
Now they suddenly felt rather precious.
Pangu continued:
"But retiring is one thing. Switching bodies day to day is another."
"Once you've mastered leaving your bodies, you can go back to your original bodies anytime, or enter whatever mortal body you like."
"It's just that a divine body suited to your current divine office and work——each of you only gets one."
He patted Shanjue on the shoulder.
"And it's very expensive."
Shanjue glanced down at his body without meaning to.
Pangu smiled.
"Relax. I'm not asking you to pay for it."
"Divine bodies can be refined, strengthened, and upgraded later. Whenever there's a need, we can keep adjusting them."
His tone gradually turned serious.
"So please take good care of them."
"The same way you'd take care of your original bodies."
The siblings nodded.
Only then did Pangu continue:
"One more thing."
He looked at Shanjue, then at Qianhui.
"From now on, you can use the divine power stored in your own divine bodies, and you can also use the permission to draw on the world's divine power that comes with them."
"Within the bounds of keeping the world in balance and pushing forward the new system, you can draw directly on the world's divine power within your own permissions."
The siblings exchanged a look.
It wasn't like being handed an almost unlimited credit card.
It was more like being handed signing authority over the national treasury.
In all their lives, Shanjue and Qianhui had never even held a real credit card.
But they knew the difference.
Your own money, you can spend.
This, you can't touch carelessly.
Qianhui tried thinking about the debt net from earlier. An open ledger appeared in front of her, like a real object formed from thought, but weightless. The dense rows of numbers arranged themselves by whatever she wanted to see.
She moved her finger to one line. That line lit up. To see the income and spending before and after it, she only had to sweep sideways, and a new page joined on.
Shanjue tried the same thing, but what appeared before him was a legal code. The articles weren't carved on paper; whichever one he pointed at, he could open its annotations and related cases.
They soon discovered it wasn't just one or two books. As far as their permissions allowed, the code and the ledger could keep unfolding, linking into other storage in the system, letting them read, write, move, or delete data directly.
But being able to see something didn't mean you could change it however you liked. Qianhui drew her hand back and closed the ledger first.