What Do You Mean I Have To Comprehend Dao As A Mortal God?

I stood at the edge of the park where the portal was located.

Accompanying me were Liliac and Dan, both of them outfitted to be ready to take on a rift just like me.

Ahead of us were a group of people also dressed up in combat gear with several official looking people milling about to oversee the area.

There were only a handful of people since this was only a recon expedition to determine the rift’s Danger Class so we didn’t need an entire army here.

Although... Ironically... With myself and these two here, we might as well have brought along an army.

"So... I guess I should be treating you like you’re Qing now?" Dan asked as he looked out at the gathered group of people in the park.

I rolled my eyes at him, "You’re speaking like my other persona is the real one."

"Ha? Is it not? I was sure your real self is actually the other one and this one is fake."

I elbowed his ribs and he just let out a chuckle as he flinched away from me to dodge me, giving me a smirk as he did so.

At that point, Liliac finally spoke up, "Umm... Are you two... Related?"

Both Dan and I turned to look at her before letting out a chuckle at the same time.

"Ahahaha! Yeah, yeah, he my brother from another mother!" Dan laughed, slapping my shoulder half heartedly.

I shook my head at her, "I guess I didn’t really announce this but... He’s my best friend and I knew him from before I became a Mortal God. We would dive into rifts as Vanguards together back in the day."

"Wah lau eh, what ’back in the day’? You make it sound like we some old farts already sia."

I smirked at him, "Well, you’ve got the scent of an old man around you at this point already so am I wrong?"

"Oi, just because I got married and have kids doesn’t mean I old hor. We the same age some more."

I managed to catch Liliac smiling at the sight of our bantering and felt quite satisfied by that sight as I led the way to the group.

One of the official looking people stepped in our way and held up a hand, the guy sweating quite a bit in his suit that he was wearing in our tropical climate.

"Stop. This place is currently restricted. What is your business here?"

I gestured at myself, "Guardian Qing, Guardian Dan and Guardian Liliac, sent here by the Mortal God to accompany the Vanguards on the recon of the rift."

The guy stiffened before quickly stepping aside, "Please go right ahead, Guardians."

We stepped past him and Dan leaned over to whisper, "What a way to suck your own dick, bro."

"You shut up or I’m shoving that mace of yours up your ass."

"Wah, kinky sia. I never knew you swung that way."

I kicked him in the back of the knee and he just chuckled, not even showing any signs of discomfort. Not that I used my full strength to kick him to begin with anyway.

We reached the Vanguard and most of them were watching us with different emotions on their faces.

Some seemed to be regarding us with caution, a few with curiosity, some obviously with jealousy and others with just simple interest.

The jealous ones were probably people who tried to apply as Guardians but didn’t manage to get the spot, while the ones who were cautious of us were probably concerned that we might be those kinds of people who would throw our authority around.

I nodded at the group, "Good morning everyone, thank you for coming. We’ll be relying on you guys to help with the recon of the rift. Happy to work with all of you."

Some of them were quite surprised since they obviously didn’t expect me to show such an attitude to Vanguards like them when we were technically here under the authority of the Mortal God.

Even that time where we had Liyana accompanying us on that expedition on the day I awakened as a Mortal God, she was also kind of looking down on everyone else as well.

Not in the direct sense of looking down on someone but more like she knew she was superior and that everyone else was inferior to her but she knew it wasn’t our ’fault’ that we were inferior to her kind of thing.

Speaking of which, the people gathered here weren’t all humans as I spotted a few other worlders gathered as well, including one guy who was basically a werewolf that was dressed in what looked like a bullet proof vest and holding a rifle.

I gestured at the portal that was at the end of the path, "Now... Shall we?"

The official looking people in suits quickly stepped aside to create a path for us as I led the group towards the portal, the Vanguards following behind me after only a moment’s hesitation.

I went ahead to lead the way into the portal, stepping through the tear in space with my sword drawn and prepared for a fight while Dan and Liliac followed close behind me.

When I stepped through the portal, I found myself standing in what looked like the remains of a city that has become overgrown with plants. Except that the plants had crimson red leaves instead of being green.

The place even looked like a modern city with the high rise buildings and the streets that look like roads with poles on the intersections looking like traffic lights but just differently shaped.

If you didn’t tell me I stepped through a portal here, I would have thought I got transported into some post apocalyptic version of Earth instead.

The other Vanguards stepped through the portal behind me and started looking around, their eyes scanning the perimeter and checking to make sure the coast was clear.

I eyed the buildings closely since these places were ripe for Anomalies to hole up and hide in.

Dan seemed to think so as well since he had shed away his usual unserious attitude and had his shield up and his brows furrowed while scanning around us.

"Liliac... Can you control the plants here?" I asked, gesturing at the vines and branches that stretched out all around us.

She reached out her hand and one of the branches sprouted up to grow another branch before crimson red leaves exploded out from it, creating a small sapling.

She turned to me and gave me a nod.

In that case...

"Can you use them to sense if there’s any enemies ar--"

A movement from the top floor of one of the high rise buildings caught my attention and I turned to see something resembling a cross between a monkey and a wolf leaping down to land on the pavement below.

The Anomaly had a wolf’s head but the body, limbs and tail of a monkey where even its feet looked like hands with opposable thumbs.

The Anomaly let out a growl at us before doing a running leap to charge towards us.

Dan moved in its path with his shield raised, smashing its edge towards its side and knocking the creature flying back towards me.

I was already prepared for that as my sword flashed out, slicing the Anomaly’s head and decapitating it, its body and head landing in two different places with a loud thud.

My senses then picked up the sound of even more growls all around us and Liliac confirmed what I thought.

"Mor... Qing... There’s more of them inside the buildings..."

I then turned to the Vanguards behind me, "There’s more of them coming! Get ready! Form a defensive position here!"

I could tell that these people were veterans with how they immediately moved to surround the portal, setting up a defensive perimeter with just a simple command from me.

If I had been in my Mortal God persona, I would be releasing the purple smoke to give them the buffs but unfortunately... I was only the swordsman known as Qing right now.

At least we didn’t need to clear this rift right now and only needed to make sure the area around the portal is safe for us to start measuring the Danger Class of this rift... So I believe we should be able to handle this.

After all... There’s three Guardians here and that’s already pretty overpowered for just a recon expedition.

Judging from how easily the Anomaly got killed just now, I’m already guessing that this rift was only at a Danger Class of level two or three at most.

The ground beneath us trembled and we looked up as Anomalies suddenly appeared at all the windows of the buildings around us, the same monkey wolf hybrid that I had just decapitated just now.

All of them let out a roar before they leapt off and charged at us.

Alright... Come get it then.