Ten thousand demonic legions chanted prayers, and the True Without Two Scripture, empowered by the might of a nation, unleashed a potent force of conversion. Countless vows and desires were bestowed upon Ji Xiang, transforming him in the Sea of Suffering into the world's "Sole True Demon."
This great demon bore no name, born from primordial ancient energy, appearing from the Great Floating Li and descending to the human realm from the Jade Purity Heaven.
A fierce and colossal shadow manifested upon Ji Xiang.
The demons of the world prayed with sincere hearts, believing this nameless great demon to be the creator of all things in this existence.
It was far superior to the Five Heavenly Demon Kings.
It was far more powerful than the Eight Emperor Demon Kings.
The Thirty-Two Demon Lords were its subordinates.
The Eighty Thousand Heavenly Demons were its progeny.
The Northern Emperor Demon Annihilator King was its descendant.
"Chaotic primordial, a great demon is born..."
"Primordial Heavenly Demon!"
At that moment! In the chaotic world and the Jade Purity Heaven, the Primordial Heavenly Demon preached the True Without Two Scripture to the primordial demon masses. It declared to the demons, "I shall now greatly enlighten your bodies and minds, and clearly expound the essential Dao. All demons who have attained the Dao in the Ten Directions shall cultivate according to this scripture!"
Om—
The demonic sounds and vows entered the body and ears!
The immortal souls and Ji Xiang battled within the Sea of Suffering. Immortal light and ancient energy poured down like a torrential rain, like a hurricane, sweeping across the sky and covering the land. After an unknown duration of combat, the vast aspirations gradually began to empower them.
It was as if mountains were descending, the sky was falling, and the vital energies of all heavens began to condense motionlessly. Incense and faith started to overflow, causing the states of the immortal souls to undergo severe changes.
They could no longer command vast amounts of heaven and earth vital energy, nor could they mobilize the power of this Sea of Suffering world. Their spells of celestial-human unity collapsed with a roar, and they regressed from their state of embodying heaven and earth, where all things were one with them.
Their previously placid expressions finally contorted. The aspirations they carried, sealed since the Han Dynasty, were being rewritten by the True Without Two Scripture.
Dong—
As time passed, the first rewritten immortal soul appeared.
During this period, Ji Xiang's various divine forms appeared one after another, engaging the immortal souls and employing all manner of supreme spells and formations to trap them, all for the sake of delaying time.
The Four Saints of the North Pole, the White-Faced True Warrior, the Four Heavenly Venerables, the Divine Kings of the Ten Directions, the Thousand Light King Tathagata, the Northern Black Emperor, and even the Great General Who Slay Ghosts... Furthermore, utilizing the power of the Central Jade Scripture, he summoned from the Sea of Suffering those gods he had obtained in the past but not consumed, only to use them as vanguards.
The True Gods of the Five Sacred Mountains led the way, followed by the Great Majestic Fearful Vajras, the Mountain Mother, Take-Mikazuchi, Hachiman Bodhisattva, the Thirty-Six Great Mountain Spirits, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, Kunitokotachi-no-Mikoto, and other gods!
With thunderous roars, hundreds of divine generals and a hundred immortal souls engaged in fierce battle within the Sea of Suffering for sixty sun-and-moon cycles!
Sixty days of combat had left the immortal souls in the Sea of Suffering world utterly exhausted. The Great Floating Li had isolated the power of incense and faith from the Divine Platform, and the Sea of Suffering world had created a small world within the Great Floating Li, creating a double obstruction. Even a true immortal would have been nearly depleted, let alone the Qin Dynasty immortal souls without physical bodies.
Ji Xiang took a deep breath.
Rather, it was terrifying that a group of souls could fight against him, who was half a step into immortality, had refined the Heavenly and Earthly Demons, and had combined the might of a nation, for dozens of days, to the point where both sides were exhausted and their magical powers depleted.
The immortal souls were valiant. In ordinary immortal paths, their might was almost unstoppable. Even a flying immortal would be torn to shreds by them within moments. If they also possessed the blessings of a nation's destiny, they would possess truly world-altering power, and he would be no match for them, being slowly worn down to death.
Rumble...
Thunderous sounds echoed through heaven and earth. The power of the Central Jade Scripture had also reached its limit. This powerful immortal scripture, written by Yuan Huang, was, after all, merely "partial content" of another, higher-level immortal scripture. The strength of the deities it fabricated had an upper limit. Even within the Sea of Suffering, while it could be infinitely revived by drawing upon the Sea of Suffering's energy, the Sea of Suffering world itself could hardly withstand such prolonged and intense immortal combat.
It was now showing signs of imminent collapse.
Though his divine kingdom had not yet achieved minor success, it showed signs of demise. However, the outcome was not entirely unfavorable.
Ji Xiang sat cross-legged on the Sea of Suffering, his essence, energy, and spirit all dispersed, as if his soul would depart his body at any moment and his flesh would turn to dust. If not for the innate marrow of heaven and earth that had already formed within his body, this physical form would likely have been ruined and unusable by now.
"If not for the desire to convert rather than eradicate, the Great General Who Slay Ghosts would have been enough to tear apart several immortal souls. However, the general's form and spirit cannot remain permanently, and there are simply too many immortal souls here."
In contrast, on the other side of the Sea of Suffering, the immortal souls sat slumped on the Sea of Suffering, their eyes hollow and their forms disheveled. Each immortal soul seemed to have turned into a wooden carving or a clay sculpture, their incense and faith power completely replaced by demonic aspirations. This power had completely transformed them.
However, the imprint left by Emperor Wu of Han could not be erased. Although they were controlled by the True Without Two Scripture, this control was unstable and incomplete. That imprint originated from the depths of their immortal souls, the reason for their birth and their source. To erase such an imprint, one would need to reach the Heavenly Heart realm or have other Heavenly Heart realm experts intervene to reverse causality.
Boom—
Although the power of the hundred immortal souls had been exhausted, their very existence was a personification of "immortal power." The collapsing Sea of Suffering world was repairing itself at an extremely rapid pace, and with the transformation by the True Without Two Scripture, the hundred immortal souls began to revere Ji Xiang as their divine lord, their mouths also beginning to utter prayers.
This prayerful power was not on the same level as the chanting of the ten thousand lost demons!
A hundred immortal-level existences simultaneously revering another who had stepped into the immortal path as their divine lord was akin to establishing a heavenly court in the sky, allowing all immortals to serve that person. Just as the Eastern King Duke ruled over the male immortals of the world, and the Western Queen Mother governed the female immortals, they became synonymous with a certain "immortal existence."
"The Primordial Demon King, born within the primordial void, flying through the Heaven of Primordial Azure..."
The aspirations of the immortal souls were absorbed into the True Without Two Scripture. At this moment, the shadow upon Ji Xiang's body grew even larger. Unlike the fierce aura before, that fierce aura gradually dissipated, transforming into an even more ancient and peaceful aura.
At the beginning of the world's creation, if such a demon king truly existed, it was born without good or evil, without righteousness or wickedness. Above, below, and in all directions, the universe had not yet been opened. In the midst of chaos, the ancestor of all gods had just been born. It comprehended the primordial power of the world and was the embodiment of this power. With this power as the foundation for a path of cultivation, all subsequent heavenly demons were born, flying through the heavens.
Until it was subdued by the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, listed among the divine populace, and used its demonic might to test the cultivators of the world.
Various thoughts spontaneously emerged in Ji Xiang's mind. This was the power of the True Without Two Scripture, using powerful aspirations to alter the state of something in the world, including the holder of the scripture itself.
"This scripture was born imitating the Christian method. The methods advocated by Christ are all reflected in this immortal scripture. Powerful aspirations can even create the past out of thin air and shape corresponding legends and spells for this deity."
Ji Xiang felt a new "ancient meaning" emerge within him. This was the blessing bestowed upon him by the subdued and controlled hundred immortal souls and the ten thousand lost demons.
No wonder Christ favored proselytizing everywhere. The more people who proselytized, the stronger this "new Christ," who appeared out of nowhere centuries ago, became. Missionaries brought Christ to the East, and to cater to local culture, they borrowed the names of the supreme deities from local legends, "Heavenly Lord" and "Supreme Emperor of Heaven." By descending to the East, as a large number of believers in the East emerged who worshipped "Heavenly Lord" and "Emperor of Heaven," the new Christ would gain the power of the Heavenly Lord and the Emperor of Heaven.
One God in the world, omniscient and omnipotent!
Thus!
Ji Xiang took a break, returned from the Sea of Suffering world to the Great Floating Li earth, and then opened the heavenly gate from the Great Floating Li earth to return to the Divine Platform Dharma Realm.
The incense and faith, having lost their sustaining immortal souls, remained before the cast bronze statues. The gilded bamboo slips in the center of the divine platform had vanished, meaning that Kunlun Dao could no longer be opened for Ji Xiang, and perhaps would never be found by the world again.
Ji Xiang took out the fragments of the Dew-Receiving Plate and placed them into the hands of one of the bronze figures holding its hands towards the sky. Instantly, the stellar bodies of the outer world were projected within this dharma realm, extremely clear and bright. The constellations of the four directions were arranged within, and the Three Enclosures and Four Symbols encircled the celestial sphere, with all the stars within performing their duties.
Ji Xiang looked closely. The stars in the sky were actually pulled closer. Only then did he see clearly that in this world, the stars were not mere stars but the outlines of powerful dharma realms!
"The Myriad Heavenly Stars are the Dharma Realms!"
"Are the Dharma Realms manifested by the stars, or do the heavens and myriad realms inherently exist within the stars?"
Ji Xiang was greatly shocked and came to understand the path of astronomy in this world.
Droplets of starlight descended and condensed within the fragments of the Dew-Receiving Plate. What was originally merely the essence of stars gradually transformed into solar essence within the Dew-Receiving Plate, and its condensation speed was more than a thousand times faster than in the outside world!
Ji Xiang stayed in the Divine Platform for one day and one night.
The solar essence that would take a hundred years to condense in the outside world was already lying within the fragments of the Dew-Receiving Plate!
"Communicating with the heavens and condensing solar radiance, no wonder those immortal souls were so powerful and did not dissipate for thousands of years. This is not only because they stepped into the immortal realm and were eternally appointed to the position of heavenly gods; each of them may have consumed solar essence in their lives!"
"But why was such a powerful Divine Platform abandoned and unused? Emperor Wu possessed such a treasure; why did he keep it for himself to shape an immortal army instead of sealing it for future generations?"
"Could it be simply because the cultivation threshold of the immortal path at that time was extremely high, and ordinary people could not withstand the essence of the sun?"
Solar essence was violent. Ordinary cultivators, if lacking in aptitude, would self-immolate and explode if they rashly consumed it. Therefore, most cultivators could at most consume heavenly marrow up to the level of Moon Radiance Imperial Flowing Paste in their lifetimes.
The immortal path was difficult to cultivate, with an extremely high threshold. Even entering it required several years, let alone cultivating to the level of approaching immortality. However, Ji Xiang felt that this was not the fundamental reason for the Divine Platform being sealed.
Emperor Wu's fondness for immortals was known to all, ancient and modern. Legend has it that after Emperor Wu's death, the Western Queen Mother came to escort him, so Emperor Wu, who had failed to ascend to immortality in life, became an immortal after death.
"It can't be that this Divine Platform was kept for his resurrection, right? Corpse release? That's also impossible. Since hundreds of immortal souls could be shaped to exist, even if these hundreds of immortals were to perform a thousand-fold anointing, continuously purifying the marrow and washing the bones for Emperor Wu, and desperately piling up divine materials and immortal medicines, they could have piled him into an immortal. Why go to such lengths to perform a corpse release ritual?"
Ji Xiang could not investigate the reason, but these statues of golden bronze immortals could not be kept. Acting on the principle of seizing an opportunity when one saw it, lest it be missed later, he waved his sleeve, and the Tai Xu Treasure Light appeared, engulfing all these golden figures and storing them.
With the Tai Xu Treasure Light isolating them, rather than placing them in the Sea of Suffering world, it prevented the risk of those immortal souls returning to the statues and thus losing control.
And this Divine Platform was truly too vast. This dharma realm was also called the Divine Platform Dharma Realm, indicating that this divine platform was the foundation of the dharma realm, a part of it. Ji Xiang found it difficult to move it, so he had to abandon the idea.
His mind trembled, and the immortal souls in the Sea of Suffering world opened a passage for Ji Xiang to leave.
————
Upon returning to the Mount Tai Hell, Bi Xia Yuan Jun was nowhere to be seen. However, the power of Mount Tai seemed to have become much stronger, as she had also gained significant benefits from this event.
Sensing Ji Xiang's presence, Bi Xia Yuan Jun, who was in the Mount Tai mansion, opened her eyes. The next moment, she appeared before Ji Xiang, even asking impatiently:
"True Master... did you truly embark on the Kunlun Dao that Emperor Wu of Han used to pay homage to the Supreme Emperor of Heaven?"
This question made Ji Xiang feel very strange:
"What do you mean? I did not go to Kunlun Dao."
Bi Xia Yuan Jun was immediately filled with confusion. Ji Xiang, seeing this, also felt curious: "Did you not hear the sound from the jade slip back then?"
"Sound? What sound?"
Bi Xia Yuan Jun genuinely had not heard it. Ji Xiang couldn't help but look at her deeply and shake his head. Seeing Bi Xia Yuan Jun's continued confusion, Ji Xiang explained:
"Where is there any Kunlun Dao! Those who are not descendants of the Liu clan can hardly witness the path of the Heavenly Emperor, let alone travel with a jade slip! It is precisely for this reason that I was trapped in a dharma realm and almost lost my life!"
Hearing this, Bi Xia Yuan Jun couldn't help but be astonished, and then she understood:
"This must be a measure set by Emperor Wu of Han to prevent his secret correspondence from being obtained by outsiders. If that's the case, perhaps I didn't hear that sound because I am not a descendant of the Han Dynasty."
"But this is strange, why would it trap only you and not me? I thought you had truly obtained the power of the Supreme Emperor of Heaven."
She couldn't figure this matter out, and Ji Xiang wouldn't expose it, so he gave a casual excuse. The two were about to part ways. Bi Xia Yuan Jun thanked Ji Xiang for handling the issues below the hell for her, and now she had also received a divine power upgrade, obtaining the power of the ancient gods and ghosts who managed Mount Tai. This time, at least, it could be guaranteed that the eighth layer of hell and above would no longer be replaced by the underworld.
As for the matters here, she had already reported them to the imperial court. However, she heard that the Heavenly Master had declined, stating he could not come.
Ji Xiang's heart became vigilant upon hearing the Heavenly Master's evasion.
It seemed something had happened. The avatar that Old Zhang had sent to Bozhou had likely encountered that golden-armored Heavenly Heart realm expert.
When immortals encounter the Heavenly Heart realm, they have no means of resistance. The Heavenly Master had probably been injured again, which was unavoidable.
"In that case, it's perfect. I was planning to go to Shangqing first."
The strength of the Biao Shanhe was lacking. Both Ge Tianshi and Qin Nu Xiu had their own objectives. Currently, his own cheap elder sister was nowhere to be found, digging graves again. If he wanted to establish a stable fighting force, who better than the Jade Maiden from the True Spirit Ranking Chart?
The promise made back then had also been fulfilled. The pure Yang physical body of Hanatachi Chiyo was enough for this ancient immortal to revive!