The first to act was still Zulong. He quickly sent messages to all the elders and high-ranking members of his clan, issuing commands before leading over ninety percent of the True Dragon bloodline descendants to ascend to their chosen positions and swear an oath to the world:
"I, Zulong, now offer myself as a sacrifice, transforming into the central continent's ancestral脉 (vein/pulse) to mend the wounds of the Eternal World."
"Heaven and Earth bear witness!
Now, the adult dragons of the White Dragon lineage, we offer ourselves as sacrifices, transforming into dragon脉 (veins/pulses) to repair the ancestral脉 (veins/pulses) of the Western Continent.
Now, the adult dragons of the Black Dragon lineage, we offer ourselves as sacrifices, transforming into dragon脉 (veins/pulses) to repair the ancestral脉 (veins/pulses) of the Northern Continent.
Now, the adult dragons of the Crimson Dragon lineage, we offer ourselves as sacrifices, transforming into dragon脉 (veins/pulses) to repair the ancestral脉 (veins/pulses) of the Southern Continent.
Now, the adult dragons of the Azure Dragon lineage, we offer ourselves as sacrifices, transforming into dragon脉 (veins/pulses) to repair the ancestral脉 (veins/pulses) of the Eastern Continent.
Transform! Transform! Transform! Transform! Transform!"
"I..."
As the oaths concluded, over ninety percent of the adult True Dragon bloodlines either transformed into ancestral脉 (veins/pulses), became dragon脉 (veins/pulses) to repair the ancestral脉 (veins/pulses), or transformed into spiritual脉 (veins/pulses), terrestrial脉 (veins/pulses), and water脉 (veins/pulses) to mend the heavens and earth.
Following this, the immeasurable karma that shrouded the Dragon clan was instantly dissolved by a vast golden light of merit that descended. The remaining karma, though still substantial, was no longer fatal. At the very least, it ensured the survival of the remaining direct descendants of the Dragon bloodline.
Seeing this, Zulong's residual true spirit found peace.
He then fell into a deep slumber within the central ancestral脉 (vein/pulse).
Subsequently, the Phoenix and Qilin clans quickly followed suit. Ancestral Phoenix willingly sacrificed herself to suppress the ancestral脉 (vein/pulse) of the Southern Immortal Volcano. Ancestral Huang transformed into a vast gestating aura, nourishing the life of heaven and earth, serving as an alternative means to promote the growth and reproduction of living beings. Zu Qilin, unsure of what to transform into or suppress, ultimately offered himself directly to heaven and earth, nourishing the world with his essence.
The other members of the Phoenix and Qilin clans also followed.
In the end, they all sacrificed ninety percent of their direct bloodlines, barely managing to preserve the remaining ten percent who were either underage or yet to be born. They also forfeited their protagonist destiny.
At the same time, immeasurable merit once again began to gestate in the sky. This merit belonged to Ding Yun, as she had included herself in the rules of merit and karma when formulating them. If she was accounted for in the calculation of karma, she naturally should be accounted for in the calculation of merit.
Whether it was the merit for saving the world by destroying the God-Devil of Destruction, or the credit for guiding the three clans in repairing the world, these were not minor accomplishments. Therefore, the immeasurable merit currently gathering in the sky was rightfully hers.
However, the world consciousness hesitated. Intuitively, it felt that the descent of this merit might not be beneficial to it, yet it was bound to follow the rules.
Any violation of the rules would lead to its own collapse.
Observing the delayed descent of merit, Ding Yun calmly reactivated the Heaven and Earth Yin-Yang Life-Death Grand Array, using its power to reorganize the world.
The actions of the three clans had merely allowed the world to regain a little vitality. The world itself remained somewhat chaotic, with fragmented continents and a lack of order in the distribution of spiritual脉 (veins/pulses), among other issues.
What Ding Yun intended to do now was to reconfigure the entire world. Using heaven and earth as the canvas, stars as the pieces, and continents as the foundation, she would reconstruct the grand cycle of heaven and earth. For instance, she would transform the irregular distribution of the Circumpolar Stars into a grand array capable of assisting the world barrier and significantly absorbing chaos to convert into innate spiritual energy.
She would also arrange the nine continents in a Nine Palaces formation, with the scattered smaller continents serving as auxiliaries, forming a Nine Palaces Earthly Fiend Grand Array. This would not only connect the fragmented nine continents and the smaller scattered continents through the formation, maintaining a general overall structure, but also assist the lower half of the world barrier in absorbing chaotic energy and converting it into innate spiritual energy.
Furthermore, she planned the arrangement where small spiritual脉 (veins/pulses) would present a "drooping arch" structure to medium spiritual脉 (veins/pulses), medium spiritual脉 (veins/pulses) to large spiritual脉 (veins/pulses), large spiritual脉 (veins/pulses) to top-tier spiritual脉 (veins/pulses), and top-tier spiritual脉 (veins/pulses) to ten world ancestral脉 (veins/pulses).
In essence, Ding Yun reconfigured every aspect of the world according to the most optimal structure she could conceive. After this reconfiguration, although the world did not evolve further, its speed of absorbing chaotic energy increased by more than tenfold, and the damaged areas within the world began to recover rapidly.
How to describe it?
The repair by the three clans was akin to patching holes in a tattered world, and the patches were not even fully completed.
Ding Yun's repair, however, was like embroidering flowers onto the patches, making them appear intentional rather than mere repairs, even enhancing the value of the original object.
It was a perfect repair based on the existing foundation.
As Ding Yun concluded her operations, the immeasurable merit that had gathered in the sky multiplied several times over.
This was unavoidable. The merit and karma system formulated by Ding Yun operated on the principle of rewarding merit and punishing wrongdoing. The world consciousness found this system to be highly effective, which is why it was adopted and incorporated into its own rules. Ding Yun's actions were all beneficial to the world, and according to the corresponding rules, the descent of immeasurable merit was only natural.
With the immeasurable merit largely gathered and Ding Yun gazing upwards at the sky, the world consciousness could only reluctantly allow all of that merit to descend.
Ding Yun then, in the shortest possible time, transformed the immeasurable merit into immeasurable merit light wheels. Utilizing the vast power of these light wheels, she forcefully entered the Sea of World Laws. With her Creation Jade Disk as the core and the base stations located throughout the world as auxiliaries, she leveraged the world's power to refine and integrate the Sea of World Laws, officially revealing and activating the complete Heavenly Dao network.
Concurrently, Ding Yun did not forget to break through immediately.
She seized the opportunity to copy and comprehend the law information from her Creation Jade Disk that had not been fully collected before, as well as the portions of the Sea of World Laws newly added in recent epochs.
Although the world consciousness wished to resist, it lacked sufficient origin energy to do so effectively. It couldn't even forcefully "Daoize" Ding Yun and could only watch as events unfolded.
All of this, of course, was part of Ding Yun's plan.
The introduction of the merit and karma system, along with her previous actions, formed the core of her scheme.
The war between the three clans had shattered heaven and earth, plunging the world's origin energy into crisis. Ding Yun's timely introduction of the merit and karma system was undoubtedly seen by the world consciousness as a crucial means to curb the destructive actions of the three clans.
However, both merit and karma within this system were to be evolved from the world's origin energy. Only merit and karma evolved from the world's origin energy possessed such terrifying power, allowing merit to enhance cultivation without affecting one's foundation, and karma to erode destiny, inflict sin, lead to death and the annihilation of one's clan, and so on.
Originally, if only karma were to descend, it would have had little impact on the world's origin energy. However, after the descent of karma, Ding Yun taught the three clans how to gain merit, and then Ding Yun herself performed a series of actions, once again siphoning a large amount of merit from the world's origin energy.
For the world's origin energy,
This was undoubtedly like adding insult to injury.
Although the actions of the three clans and Ding Yun allowed the world to recover its vitality, the recovery of vitality was one thing, but the recovery of origin energy was not so simple. Origin energy required time to heal gradually. Thus, there was this brief period where the world was intact but its origin energy was depleted, creating a weakened state.
This provided her with an opportunity to steal the world's authority.