Professor Atkinson, Dolores and Jianmen brought the clay tablets with texts they transcribed near the altar at the center of the temple, and they didn’t find any other texts that glowed. Professor Atkinson and Jianmen’s guess was that these were probably texts containing some information that resonated with the residual energy in the altar. And since it was an altar, a place of worship and prayer for grace, the texts were probably either about how the fallen god blessed its believers, or about what kind of god it was.

The avatar of the god stayed behind the gate the whole time the three of them continued their transcribing work. And they were able to finish transcribing the texts on three pillars, before an alarm clock of some sort started ringing.

“Okay, we gotta go.” Dolores laid down her clay tablet, “Storms are coming and we don’t wanna get caught within.”

“Storm? What storm?” Jianmen was a bit surprised.

“Even though this place was temporarily protected by the powers that be, there are still regular energy storms that sweep the surface and disrupt the functionalities of the portals.” Professor Atkinson explained: “We have some detectors on the perimeter monitoring the energy flow on the outside, if it turned violent or had any strange flows, it usually means that an energy storm might be coming. So we will need to leave before it hits us, we can stay here and hide but who knows how long it’ll last. We need to come back when it calms down.”

“Do you feel like the storm is hitting more and more frequently, Professor?” Dolores asked: “We’ve been here for what, less than twelve hours?”

“Nine hours and forty three minutes.” Jianmen sighed and said: “I’d like to experience this storm sometime. But maybe when I’ve recovered more.” Jianmen sighed and shook his head, “But still, I will need to leave a mark here and see how violent the storm can get.”

“Um. Now you’re just showing off.” Dolores said: “But seriously, how did you block a strike from an avatar of a god and only get red on the skin?”

“Meh, I’m a cultivator, my major is spells and laws of order, and my minor is body tempering and close quarter combat, it’s like bodybuilding and martial arts on a grander level.” Jianmen joked: “I can’t teach you any of that - you’re already practicing magic, it’d take some time to adjust your magical power and not Xuanli. But you know, I am trying to adapt it to the training disciplines and methods of paladins, so it can be better fitted to the natures of your power.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Yeah, but it’s different for gods. The attacks of ANY god, even the avatar of a fallen god, possesse immensely suppressive and crushingly destructive power against normal forms of defense from entities without godhood. You can’t possibly defend yourself against that avatar unless… ”

“... unless you also possess some kind of godhood.” Professor Atkinson stared at Jianmen: “Holy shit… what kind of god are you?”

“Relax… it’s in the past.” Jianmen scoffed: “Right now the only thing that’s remotely related to godhood is a piece of jade currently sitting in my heart.”

“I… I’m just not gonna pretend I understand any of that. ” Dolores blinked her eyes and asked: “But holy crap! You used to be a god?! How? I thought gods can’t descend into our realm willy nilly?”

“Yeah. Rules are a bit different back then and back there.” Jianmen sighed and pointed at Professor Atkinson: “And to answer your question - I possessed the godhood of hospitality.”

“Ew?” Dolores frowned.

“Not that kind of hospitality.” Jianmen almost laughed out loud: “The innocent kind of hospitality - like hotels, hostels, inns - and my job was to cook, host and ensure a good night’s sleep. ”

“That’s kind of a niche and unique godhood to have - you gotta tell me more about it. ” when three of them packed everything and were ready to leave, Professor Atkinson told Jianmen: “I didn’t know godhood can come in that form.”

“You know what's interesting about godhood?” Jianmen said: “That any concept, even the most trivial, can be a source … oh I better stop.”

“Thanks. ” Dolores was struggling breathing when Jianmen stopped talking: “Yikes, I now know that you know your stuff. And that’s some great knowledge, which can actually help our research.”

“Let’s go. Looks like there’s hail coming our way.” Professor Atkinson was less disturbed by the weight of knowledge shared by Jianmen: “Be careful.”

Dolores went first, Professor went second. Before Jianmen left, he left a Xuanli mark near the portal and extended his hand to the sky and took three pieces of translucent and iridescent hail from the sky.

“And you brought some hail back.” when Jianmen came out from his own portal, Professor Atkinson chuckled happily: “Yeah, Dolores was just saying we should’ve caught some more pieces of hail for research. Thank you.”

“Hehe, no problem.” Jianmen handed the three pieces of hail to Professor Atkinson: “I was curious so I took them. ”

“Let’s go to the lab and test them right away. ” Dolores’ voice was shaking with excitement: “These pieces are huge and pure and nicely sealed, we could take a much better look now!”

“Yeah, would you join us, Mr. Yu… I mean Mr. Wang?” Professor Atkinson asked: “This could be really interesting - and we’d really like your insight and experience.”

“My pleasure, just show me the way.”