Ding Yun's voluntary appearance and divine display, coupled with no concealment of her appearance, neither young nor beautiful, still the same as on her ID card, made it easy for the secular world to find her true identity and address.
Then, they sent people to understand the situation.
At the same time, they sent people to meet with Ding Yun for communication and negotiation.
They wanted to clarify Ding Yun's true intentions at this time, and also wanted to win her over. If possible, it would be even better if she could be used by them.
The entire communication process was very harmonious.
Ding Yun did not look down on the people sent by the secular world just because her cultivation was profound. The staff sent by the secular world were also very polite. Moreover, both sides intended to foster good relations, so it was difficult for the meeting not to be harmonious.
During the communication, Ding Yun also clarified her identity, which was fabricated by her.
This identity was that of someone who had awakened past life memories.
The secular world staff were very sensible and acknowledged this identity, assuring Ding Yun that they would not treat her differently because of it. They would also strengthen public opinion guidance to prevent ordinary people from being hostile to all products originating from the old era, guiding the conflict towards a correct opposition of good and evil, rather than an opposition of eras.
In simple terms, they guaranteed that future propaganda would lean towards not completely overthrowing everything from the old era, but rather taking the essence and discarding the dross, treating those who were willing to join the new era and acknowledge its existence, such as Ding Yun, who awakened past life memories from the old era but was still willing to serve the country and its people, with distinction.
This was equivalent to giving Ding Yun a peace of mind, and also giving her son and daughter-in-law, who were genuinely worried about this, a peace of mind, so they wouldn't be so flustered and fearful all day that they would frequently fall into qi deviation even during their daily cultivation.
Then came the negotiation of specific cooperation matters.
As for the final outcome—
The secular world hired Ding Yun as the director of the Demon Subjugation Organization, leading all cultivators responsible for demon subjugation to protect the nation, and conferred upon her the title of Cosmic Grand General.
Yes, you heard that right.
Cosmic Grand General was the highest honor in the general's circle of this world. Below this title were the Celestial King Grand General and the Celestial Pillar Grand General, which were Super-grade High, Super-grade Middle, and Super-grade Low titles, respectively. They were extremely honorable.
Since ancient times, only Emperor Tianyuan, who unified the world and completely overturned the old era, had held the position of Cosmic Grand General. It was said that he also created this title.
It symbolized that he was supreme in all directions, past and present, and could be considered the foremost in the world, hence the Cosmic Grand General.
His willingness to bestow this title could be considered a sign of valuing Ding Yun.
It was by no means a funny, chuunibyo title; this was the highest honor for military generals in this region. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
After receiving the specific position and honor, Ding Yun officially took office that day and began her path of demon subjugation, busier than Sun Wukong.
Sun Wukong only dealt with demons when he encountered them on the road, or when they provoked him. Ding Yun, however, had to step in whenever she discovered demons that the ordinary demon subjugation organizations could not handle.
There was no comparison in their workload.
If one were to compare them.
Sun Wukong's monkey was practically on vacation!
However, despite being busy, her influence undoubtedly grew day by day. Furthermore, the secular world's officials also guaranteed that they would produce a TV series, movie, and documentary based on Ding Yun's experiences, which would be released globally in a few years when enough material was gathered. Therefore, Ding Yun had no complaints.
After all, as long as her influence increased.
Everything else was negotiable.
The secular world and Ding Yun were in a win-win cooperation, leading to mutual satisfaction. The only ones who were not happy were probably the demon races and demonic cultivators. They began to hide and refrain from causing any more trouble.
At the same time, they were inquiring everywhere about who Ding Yun's past life was, and why they had never heard of such a powerful figure reincarnated.
Not only the demon races and demonic cultivators were inquiring, but also the members of the old era noble families and sects, who had suffered heavy losses previously, were also investigating everywhere, trying to figure out who Ding Yun's past life was, whether there was an opportunity to establish connections, or to subtly guide her.
So that this person would abandon darkness and embrace light.
And stop being on the wrong side and helping their own people fight each other.
As for the results, they were naturally bewildered. No one could figure out which old monster Ding Yun's past life was. There were a few who resembled her, but not quite. Some ancient cultivators even began to speculate that Ding Yun's past life might not be from thousands of years ago, or tens of thousands of years ago, but from hundreds of thousands of years ago, or perhaps even a reincarnation of an ancient god, otherwise, how could her cultivation have recovered so quickly after awakening her memories?
If Ding Yun was a reincarnation of a cultivator from thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, they might even have acquaintances among their old friends, and could re-establish connections and try to instigate something.
But if she was from hundreds of thousands of years ago, or even an ancient god, they wouldn't be able to establish any connection even after eighteen twists and turns.
She probably wouldn't even deign to acknowledge them.
In order to test Ding Yun and to figure out who her past life was, the old era noble families and sects quickly took new actions, such as trying to get close to Ding Yun to test and provoke her, trying to get close to Ding Yun's son, daughter-in-law, and husband, and even grandson, to inquire about her past life memories.
There was also an attempt to infiltrate various secular institutions.
To provoke the relationship between the secular world and Ding Yun.
In short, if the open approach didn't work, they would resort to covert means, employing conspiracies and schemes.
However, all of this was useless. Firstly, Ding Yun's conviction was firm, and she would not be swayed by their temptations. Secondly, it was a group of cultivators playing conspiracy and calculation with a group of government officials.
Wasn't that ridiculous?
Challenging the livelihoods of others with their own incompetent skills was like showing off in front of Guan Yu with a broadsword.
A novice trying to outshine an expert!
So, overall, these guys' operations did not have much impact on Ding Yun. What truly caused Ding Yun some headaches and anxiety was mainly the decreasing number of troublesome demons and monsters. After three months of her demon subjugation, any great demon or monster with a functioning brain had basically gone into hiding, preferring to cultivate slowly and normally through their own hard work rather than risk their lives by coming out again.
The remaining few, the stubborn and brainless little demons and monsters,
Did not require Ding Yun's intervention at all.
Ordinary cultivators at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages were sufficient to deal with them.
This situation seemed like a good thing, but correspondingly, Ding Yun's influence was not increasing.
Or rather, the rate of increase had abruptly slowed down.
When demon kings and devil lords appeared, she would step forward and eliminate them, saving a large area of people, and her influence would naturally skyrocket. This was like traffic; there would be traffic only when major events happened. If nothing happened, and she wasn't subjugating demons, just sitting in her office, how much traffic and influence could she have?
However, Ding Yun could not bring herself to encourage or, rather, create demons and monsters herself to cause chaos in the secular world for the sake of influence.
So...
She undoubtedly had to find a new source of influence.