As an omniscient and omnipotent being—or at the very least, one who knew everything within His own world—how could God not know exactly what kind of person Li Ming was, even if he was an outsider?
Impossible.
So, even though Li Ming acted carefree and indifferent in front of God, He had seen the darkness lurking in Li Ming's heart from the very first glance. Through their conversations, He had even deduced that Li Ming's hands were already stained with blood. However, God loves all people and does not immediately strike someone down for their mistakes. He gives Li Ming the opportunity to repent and correct himself.
Of course, this is not something that happens overnight but rather a gradual process.
Coincidentally, through Li Ming's desire to read the 'Darkhold,' God intends to teach him about restraint, greed, and endurance.
Restraint is relatively easy to understand. For instance, God forbids Li Ming from using spells during the construction of the ark, even deliberately leaving his mana unsealed, relying entirely on Li Ming's self-control.
So far, Li Ming has done fairly well in this regard, and God is quite satisfied with his performance.
As for greed—well, to be honest, God finds it somewhat unbearable.
Take the wheat, for example. It would be one thing if Li Ming secretly stashed away some seeds—after all, they are valuable. But he has already stockpiled enough flour to complete the ark's construction. Yet every morning, the first thing he does upon hearing the birds' chirping is grab his Scythe and compete with the flock for more wheat.
Does he have no shame? What's next—hoarding enough wheat to feed generations upon generations?
But the trial is not yet over. God can only sigh and wait, hoping that Li Ming will eventually learn the dangers of excessive greed. Otherwise, the consequences will be far worse than just bird droppings.
As for the final lesson—endurance—it depends on whether Li Ming truly builds the ark with a wooden hammer like an ordinary person.
So, what is Li Ming doing now that he vaguely senses God is testing him?
At the end of the first day of ark construction, he drags himself back to his tent in exhaustion.
It's not physical fatigue—Li Ming is, after all, a practitioner of Eastern cultivation techniques. His body has long been tempered by mana, and his stamina far surpasses that of an ordinary person.
But inwardly, ever since gaining supernatural power, Li Ming has rarely suffered hardship—except in the early days when his weakness forced him to endure. Once his strength grew, when did he ever toil like this?
Usually, he lets Klee Che take care of everything while he indulges in luxury. In battle, he summons Dementors to swarm the enemy while he lurks in the shadows, striking from behind.
He hasn't done manual labor in ages. The idea of personally wielding hammers and saws to build a massive ship had never even crossed his mind before.
Still, Li Ming clings to the thought that once the ark is complete, God will help him decipher spells—and that keeps him going for the day.
On the second day, Li Ming wakes again to the sound of birds. Before even opening his eyes, his hand reaches for the Scythe.
He ignores the torrent of bird droppings, charging into the flock to snatch more wheat.
After washing his clothes, he cheerfully works on the ark alongside Ewen and Jane's family.
As for hulling, shelling, and grinding the wheat into flour—Li Ming no longer sees the need. He already has enough flour for himself and Kreacher. Now, his only reason for fighting the birds for wheat is to collect seeds, ensuring he can enjoy steamed buns every day once he returns to the Marvel world.
Besides, grinding wheat into flour takes time—an entire day's worth. Now that ark construction has begun, where would he find the time to mill wheat? On the third day, after gathering wheat, Li Ming stood alone at the ark construction site. There was no helping it—Ewen had gone to work, leaving him alone to build the ark.
Staring at the ark that hadn't even taken shape yet, Li Ming felt a pang of melancholy. Deep down, he truly wanted to finish the ark as soon as possible. After all, the day the ark was completed would be the day he could finally use spells and hear God's explanation of them.
For this reason, over the past two days, Li Ming had repeatedly reminded himself to endure and persevere—for the sake of spells and his future.
But when it actually came to building the ark alone, things weren't as simple as he'd imagined.
Why should he have to do it all by himself? Building the ark was clearly Ewen's task!
After a long while of standing there dazed, Li Ming tossed aside his tools, deciding to give his weary soul a proper break and take the day off.
Li Ming had only taken a few steps when he suddenly saw Joan playing with three little ones in their garden. The sound of the children's joyful laughter inexplicably reminded him of his own family.
The sight of this happy family made Li Ming feel even worse. With a bitter smile, he deliberately found a corner, leaned against a pile of lumber, and sank into memories: How long has it been since I last saw my family? I've almost forgotten what they look like.
After half an hour, Li Ming wiped the corners of his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and silently stood up, picking up his tools to return to the lumber.
So what if I'm building the ark alone? Didn't I come to this world for power? Why should I care about anything else?
In the distance, Joan paused when she saw Li Ming working on the ark by himself. She instructed her eldest son to look after the two younger ones before heading back inside to fetch two bottles of beer to bring to Li Ming.
As for bringing glasses—well, even a blind man knew by now that Li Ming didn't use them. In fact, the two bottles in her hands would likely be gone in just two gulps.
Joan walked up to Li Ming, greeted him, and then said apologetically, "Sorry, Ewen had an important proposal to vote on today. But he promised to come help with the ark as soon as the meeting was over."
Li Ming downed an entire bottle in one go, then scoffed and grinned. "I bet the meeting will end soon. Who knows? Ewen might already be on his way back."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Ming suddenly pointed behind Joan and laughed. "Look, Ewen's back."
Joan instinctively turned around—and sure enough, Ewen was already driving home. But what shocked her was that she distinctly remembered Ewen leaving the house earlier with his hair tied in a ponytail, his beard braided, and his linen robe worn beneath a suit jacket.
Now, the suit was gone. He was just wearing the linen robe, and both the ponytail and the braided beard had disappeared. He looked like a complete wildman behind the wheel.
What in the world happened? Did he skip the voting session?
Feeling that her husband must have suffered some humiliation, Joan covered her mouth in shock and hurried toward Ewen. Li Ming, meanwhile, leisurely followed behind her, beer bottle in hand.
After giving Ewen a comforting hug, Joan asked in confusion, "What happened?"
Ewen shook his head with a bitter smile. "Don't even ask. During the voting session, God publicly stripped me of my jacket, undid my hairstyle and beard braids, and even let black bears and other wild beasts storm into the parliament—along with flocks of birds. They… well, they dropped bird droppings on Representative Lance. And Lance thought I was behind it all." He hesitated before adding helplessly, "I've been suspended."
"What?" Joan gasped.
Ewen tried to console himself. "Maybe it's for the best. Now I'll have plenty of time to spend with you and the kids—and enough time to work on the ark."
Glancing at Li Ming, who stood nearby with his arms crossed and an amused grin, Ewen sighed. "But the embarrassment I suffered in parliament will probably attract media attention. I wonder if Austin would mind the mage's identity becoming public knowledge."
Regarding Ewen's suspension, Li Ming had anticipated it long ago. It was clearly a ploy by God to allow Ewen to focus solely on building the ark, while also exposing his identity as a mage to the public.
If God didn't mind letting the world know of His existence, what was Li Ming afraid of?
Besides, he wasn't even from this world. Eventually, he would return to the Marvel universe. By then, even if every nation on Earth joined forces to scour the planet for him, so what?
Li Ming shrugged indifferently, signaling to the media—let them come. No need to panic.
Casually handing the tools to Ewen, Li Ming patted his shoulder and joked, "Earlier, I was complaining about being the only one working on the ark today and praying for God to send you back. Who knew the old man actually heard my prayer and sent you back right away?"
Ewen rolled his eyes, slung an arm around Li Ming's shoulder, and led him toward the lumber, teasing in return, "Oh, so it was you who got me into trouble? Give me back the beer I gave you."
"Not a chance," Li Ming bared his teeth threateningly. "You think a little guy like you can make me return your beer? Believe me, I'll turn you into a monkey."
Joan watched as the two continued their work on the ark, laughing and joking. Smiling, she called the children over to help. After all, in the Bible, Noah's ark was built through the joint efforts of his entire family. And since Li Ming had explained to her that the ark was actually a love story about trust, how could she go against the essence of the tale?
The next day, Li Ming woke as usual to the sound of birds. But unlike the previous days, though he still rushed out of the tent with his scythe in hand, he stopped at the wheat field.
Standing before the wheat, Li Ming glanced at the scythe in his hand: Not my fault—this is entirely 'habit' throwing me under the bus.
Now that I have grain and seeds to spare, all I want is to finish the ark and grow stronger as quickly as possible. Why would I still fight these damn birds for wheat?
Clutching his chest in mock agony, Li Ming twitched his lips and tossed the scythe back into the tent before striding toward the ark. Damn it, that's God's wheat. And yet, I still want to snatch it from the birds' mouths. What do I do?
As days passed, Li Ming and Ewen's family went from being annoyed by the media's intrusive interviews to commanding two wild lions as security guards, watching peacefully as the ark gradually took shape.
Until today, when the ark was finally completed.
The moment the ark was finished, Li Ming seemed to realize something. Sitting cross-legged atop the ark, he ran his fingers over the Darkhold in his hands.
He had a feeling that he no longer needed God's help—his own willpower and the support of the Mind Stone might be enough to read the tome.
This wasn't baseless speculation. Li Ming knew that among those who had read the Darkhold without succumbing to its temptations, the Ancient One was one.
Though Li Ming wasn't sure how his current strength compared to the Ancient One's when she had read the book. But one thing Li Ming was certain of—when the Ancient One had flipped through the book back then, it definitely wasn't in the capacity of the Sorcerer Supreme. It was even questionable whether she had obtained the Eye of Agamotto at that point.
So how could the Ancient One read the Darkhold without being tempted? What did she have that Li Ming lacked?
In the past, Li Ming hadn't understood. He thought it was simply because the Ancient One was naturally gifted, blessed with protagonist aura, and could effortlessly peruse the sacred text.
But now, after personally building the ark and tempering his mind through the process, Li Ming realized that to achieve great things, one must first endure hardship and suffering.
As long as he guarded his heart against greed and desire, he too could read the Darkhold without harm.