"Master, I am willing!"
Because Ding Yun had prepared sufficiently for the Daoist of Reincarnation, he did not need to sacrifice himself to become the cycle of reincarnation, nor did he need to pay too much of a price. At most, after proving the Dao, his strength would be the strongest in the Netherworld, and he would be somewhat weakened outside of it.
Coupled with the Daoist of Reincarnation's prior preparation.
He therefore unhesitatingly expressed his agreement.
He then manifested his reincarnation dharma form and the innate supreme treasure Ding Yun had given him, channeling his divine power to create heaven and earth within the still dim and hazy Netherworld.
He evolved the Nether Moon and Nether Earth, the River of Oblivion and the Nine Hells.
After these fundamental tasks were completed, he immediately poured all his understanding of the laws into the innate supreme treasure in his hand, the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk, and cast it into the origin of the Netherworld, beginning the evolution of reincarnation.
This established the Netherworld and radiated throughout the entire world.
However, because the current classification of life forms was not very diverse, even being described as too general, there were no Six Paths. Instead, there were only three paths:
Heaven, Earth, and Human.
Heaven primarily referred to all innate beings.
Human primarily referred to all acquired beings.
Earth primarily referred to spirits after death.
For now, having these three major classifications for reincarnation was sufficient. Moreover, this division was more in line with the era's characteristics. After all, the main distinction between beings now was between innate and acquired. It was estimated that only after the innate spiritual energy faded and the world fully entered the acquired era would there be a need to reclassify beings and establish more reincarnation paths.
The reason for specifically adding the path of Earth between Heaven and Human was that the birth of innate beings was becoming increasingly difficult. Many innate beings, upon death, had no opportunity to reincarnate as innate beings again.
They were unwilling to abandon the innate essence of their souls and reincarnate as acquired beings. Therefore, they could only become spirits after death. Thus, the path of Earth reincarnation was not utilized much currently. It mainly encompassed those who were neither innate nor acquired, but simply souls and spirits.
However, this did not mean the path of Earth would always be like this. With the emergence of the Netherworld, life would gradually be born within it. Those who entered the path of Earth reincarnation in the future could be directly born in the Netherworld.
Thus, the Heaven, Earth, and Human paths were sufficient and not redundant.
With the advent of reincarnation, connected to the entire world, and a portion of it integrated into the world's origin, the Eternal World immediately entered another period of rapid expansion. Innate spiritual energy surged within the world, the laws of heaven and earth became clear, and immeasurable merit gathered above the Netherworld. Simultaneously, the positions of Netherworld Lord and Lord of Reincarnation began to take shape. Concurrently, the Daoist of Reincarnation's comprehension of reincarnation reached completion at this crucial moment.
Then, of course, came the proof of Dao.
It was still achieved in three forms:
Proving Dao with the perfection of reincarnation laws, proving Dao with immeasurable merit, and proving Dao with the position of celestial being. In an instant, the Daoist of Reincarnation not only broke through the Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal realm but also advanced significantly within it.
He reached the perfected Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal realm.
Leveraging the authority of the Lord of Reincarnation, he could almost exert half the strength of a Heavenly Dao. To describe it, even Ding Yun would have to treat him with a slight degree of caution on the territory of the Netherworld, their strengths being nearly equal.
However, Ding Yun's Heavenly Dao network had already begun to erode the Netherworld when it emerged.
Furthermore, her guidance in the emergence of reincarnation had also, to some extent, divested some of her authority.
And at this time, the Heavenly Realm had long been completely controlled by Ding Yun during her sermon. Therefore, it would not be long before Ding Yun's Heavenly Dao network encompassed the Netherworld as well. By then, even within the Netherworld, the Daoist of Reincarnation would not be able to hold a significant advantage.
At least, he would not be able to hold a significant advantage over Ding Yun.
However, these were matters for later.
Ding Yun left a message for the Daoist of Reincarnation to continue perfecting reincarnation and the Netherworld, and to also set lifespan limits for innate beings. Then, she departed the Netherworld.
As soon as she left, many innate divine demons and Daoists who had already reached the extreme of Daluo rushed to the Netherworld to offer congratulations, hoping the Daoist of Reincarnation would share some insights on proving the Dao, to give them some direction.
In short, the Netherworld became much livelier for many years afterward.
The Daoist of Reincarnation also spent several hundred years lecturing, and after finishing his lecture, he conveyed Ding Yun's request. Then, taking advantage of the fact that the innate gods and demons, out of respect for Ding Yun and himself, would find it difficult to refuse, he naturally produced the Life and Death Record and the Judge's Brush, newly born supreme innate spiritual treasures after the Netherworld's emergence, and began to re-establish the lifespans of all beings in the Eternal World who had not yet entered the Daluo realm.
All those who had not entered Daluo and had detached from the River of Destiny.
All were recorded in the Life and Death Record.
Furthermore, from then on, lifespans would no longer be based on a being's innate essence but on a divinely ordained maximum lifespan, divided by realm. Those who had not become Immortals would live no more than ten thousand years. The Celestial Immortal realm would only grant one Yuan Hui, which is 129,600 years of lifespan. After that, each breakthrough in realm would add a zero to their lifespan. Even those who reached the Golden Immortal realm would be the same, no longer possessing immortal lifespans. In short, from now on, all beings below Daluo would have limited lifespans.
However, there was a special concession for realms above Golden Immortal.
That is, they were allowed their true spirits to be immortal.
Retaining memories for reincarnation.
In fact, Ding Yun had only originally instructed the Daoist of Reincarnation to impose some restrictions on the lifespans of innate beings to put pressure on them. However, the Daoist of Reincarnation's understanding and execution were a bit too strict.
He included Golden Immortals and Grand Unity Immortals, whom Ding Yun had not intended to pressure, turning their originally boundless lifespans into a limit within a certain Yuan Hui.
Otherwise, they would die of old age.
However, he did not push things to the absolute extreme. Allowing cultivators above Golden Immortal to reincarnate with their memories was considered a grace outside the law. Therefore, when this rule was written into the Life and Death Record and integrated into the world's rules, Ding Yun did not object.
Since Ding Yun did not object, and others who were dissatisfied lacked the ability to object, this rule was naturally smoothly integrated into the world and immediately enforced.
In an instant, a large number of cultivators perished across heaven and earth.
These precisely filled the vacancies in the Netherworld and could be directly transformed into Netherworld life forms, contributing to it.
For a time, many innate gods and demons muttered and suspected that the Daoist of Reincarnation was using the Ancestor's command as a pretext to kill more people.
To populate his desolate Netherworld.
However, these criticisms were inconsequential. At least Ding Yun's objective was achieved. The remaining innate beings whose lifespans had not yet ended but had been very lazy in the past dared not slacken any longer and were diligently cultivating, which was rare. Especially after the news spread through the Heavenly Dao network that all current benefits would be canceled or restricted if the invasion of chaotic fierce beasts began.
They then began to cultivate desperately, hoping to break through to the Daluo realm before the invasion of chaotic fierce beasts.
After all, from now on, if they did not enter the Daluo Golden Immortal realm, they would not possess eternal lifespans. And without Ding Yun's assistance, it would be difficult to guarantee that they could successfully break through before their lifespans ended, even if those cultivators had innate origins, by slowly cultivating and comprehending laws on their own to reach the Daluo realm.
Therefore, they naturally had to seize the time to cultivate.
Seize the time to convert existing benefits into cultivation.