"This place is heavily infused with yin energy."
The Korean War had raged for seven years, turning mountains and rivers into a wasteland. Over a million lives were lost within those seven years, meaning that every corner of this land was likely littered with bones.
The souls of the Japanese dead returned to the Eastern Yellow Springs, controlled by the Shinto faith. Along with the souls of the Korean people who perished, due to the collapse of the Korean nation and the usurpation of its destiny, even their own souls became wandering spirits, absorbed into the Eastern Yellow Springs. Now, with the return of national destiny, though the national prestige was meager, it was at least enough to protect some recently deceased wandering spirits.
However, while some of these souls were consumed by the Eastern Yellow Springs, the resentment they left behind permeated the entire landscape.
*Crackle...*
"To shape a Heavenly God, one first needs a vessel."
"That being said, after seven years of war, where are there any Earth God temples? Without a basic vessel, perhaps capturing a powerful ghost would suffice. However, the intention of the Huang family's shamanic practitioners was that if it were an object of yin, it would be difficult to bear the transformation into a Heavenly God and would vanish into smoke. Ultimately, setting aside ghosts and spirits, these are things from the Pre-Qin period. Ghosts and yin deities are products of later eras, belonging to the yin element and thus in opposition to Heavenly Gods, who are inherently yang."
"........"
"If that's the case, wouldn't it be just as effective if I directly created an underworld Heavenly God?"
Ultimately, the first step was to find a "physical body" for the Heavenly God to be shaped. Preferably, it would be a temple of an Earth God, City God, or Mountain God. By using their wooden or clay effigies, their divine statues, one could directly obtain a superior vessel.
This was what Ji Xiang thought. Just as Ji Xiang was about to give up, he suddenly saw a collapsed temple not far away. Its scale seemed to be that of more than just an ordinary Earth God temple, but it had already become ruins, with the statues inside missing their heads. Upon seeing this statue, Ji Xiang rejoiced, reaching out to telekinetically summon the colossal statue. As the statue was removed, the temple instantly crumbled, turning into a pile of dust.
*Thud!*
This headless divine statue was erected on the ground. It seemed there was still some incense residue within.
"Prepare to begin."
Ji Xiang sensed the surrounding resentments, his mind already formulating the idea of creating a certain deity. He then let out a strange, long howl, a sound so terrifying that it was utterly inhuman!
This was the Heavenly Sound of the Demonic Path!
Instantly, the numerous resentments within the mountains and rivers were stirred by this demonic sound, boiling like hot water, or like a hundred beasts gone mad. In an instant, the heavens and earth changed color. These resentments, from every corner of the land, transformed into storms, all converging near Ji Xiang!
In a flash.
The sky and earth turned dark, not a speck of light visible. The hatred in all its forms surged like a vast ocean, intending to destroy all living beings.
"Cease your clamor!"
The second demonic sound was uttered, its power even more fierce than the first. Instantly, the boiling and churning resentments were forcefully suppressed by this powerful force. However, within the resentments, consciousness seemed to be coalescing.
They had been slaughtered at will in life, and even in death, they could not become vengeful spirits; their souls ceased to exist, leaving only pervasive resentment. Under these circumstances, these resentments gathered, accumulating and condensing, gradually forming an irregular shape.
"Boundless resentment has transformed into an existence with form but no substance. All driving force comes from the intent of resentment. The desires of all things in the world are miraculous. Since you so wish to take human form, I shall grant it."
Ji Xiang raised his hand, and a surge of qi and blood, along with demonic energy, erupted from his palm!
The qi and blood converged into the shape of resentment, and the demonic energy also gathered within. Qi and blood formed the substance, demonic energy built the foundation, and resentment served as the origin.
"Incense, gather!"
Ji Xiang spread his hands and recited a brand new incantation.
The Tongbai Palace Heavenly God True Immortal Incantation!
A secret incantation!
Secret incantations, unlike normal incantations, are hidden. Normal incantations are manifest, while secret incantations are concealed. The word "secret" in incantation refers to the fact that most of them consist of a single phrase, or three, four, or five characters, decreasing in number. Those with six, eight, or ten characters are ordinary secret incantations, and not considered superior among them.
That is, the stronger the secret incantation, the fewer the characters recited, with one phrase or one character being the strongest.
Those who can understand its meaning are known as "knowers," and they are only Heavenly Gods and Ghost Gods.
The most powerful among manifest incantations is the "song-spell."
A manifest incantation sung in the form of a song is the most powerful incantation that can be understood and heard by humans. In the Yuqing Hidden Book, if one cultivates to the seventeenth chapter, according to the demonstration given by the Heavenly Lord Lingbao, it is precisely a song-spell!
The Song of the Three Realms Demonic Kings!
Ji Xiang began to chant the incantation. This secret incantation had three phrases, each with three characters, totaling the number nine times nine. The incantation was uttered in a cryptic tone.
First, as soon as the initial three characters were uttered, a change occurred in the heavens and earth!
Instantly, winds rose and clouds surged, the air roared like the sea. The mountains and rivers in this domain actually gathered the essence of countless mountains, rivers, trees, and grasses!
"Using the essence of mountains, rivers, trees, and grasses to form heavenly marrow, with heavenly marrow as the source, to derive divine power. This is the power of the essence of nature, the foundation of the divine path."
The method of shaping Heavenly Gods was not created by the shamanic practitioners of Changbai Mountain, but was a technique bestowed upon them by the Heavenly Palace. The Tongbai Heavenly Palace needed the shamanic practitioners to establish deities in the human world on their behalf, and then, using the bodies of these deities, they could descend to the human realm. However, the shamanic practitioners attempted to combine this power with Shamanism, and their previous attempts were always along these lines.
Yet, as they said, primitive Shamanism had no future; what was condensed was merely a demigod position. Therefore, they needed to rely on the national destiny of other countries. This was the grand plan for the revival of Changbai Mountain. They intended to use this method to create a batch of indigenous gods belonging solely to them.
Even these shamanic practitioners could shape their own "Heavenly God positions," just as the Ancestral Celestial Master Zhang Daoling and several other Celestial Masters had their divine names in Fuli. This was the result of the continuous offerings of incense and sacrifices by successive dynasties and the common people, day and night, without cease.
After thirty days of gathering the essence of mountains and rivers.
A swirl of incense rose, emitting a blazing radiance.
The earth bulged, forming a kiln-like structure, enclosing the headless divine statue within!
"Come!"
Ji Xiang beckoned, tossing the shape of resentment into the headless divine statue, entering the kiln to be refined by the incense!
By igniting the incense and reciting the unique incantation of the Tongbai Heavenly Palace, the most primitive form of the desired deity was shaped. In this initial creation process, Ji Xiang also used the Middle Jade Book for shaping. Thus, under Ji Xiang's masterful sculpting, the originally狰狞 (zhēng níng - ferocious) face formed by qi and blood, and the asymmetrical, twisted arms of the resentful demon, were transformed into the image of a scholar in black robes.
"This looks much better. To gain people's faith, the majestic side is for punishment, and the beautiful side is for attracting followers."
"Bodhisattvas have both the gentle and compassionate gaze and the wrathful Vajra appearance. This is the reason."
In this regard, Buddhism was more experienced than other sects, deeply understanding that to attract followers with deities, one could not have them always wearing a stern expression. Who wouldn't want to see a deity smiling at them? If one entered a temple every day and was met with a glaring eye, although it might encourage repentance, over time, those with ulterior motives would become afraid to offer incense.
Scaring away these shallow believers was a loss for oneself.
At this point, the first stage of shaping the Heavenly God was complete, entering the crucial second stage.
Ji Xiang uttered another three characters, this being the second phrase.
As these three characters landed, the void trembled, and Ji Xiang could instantly sense the existence of countless Dharma realms within the heavens and earth!
In this stage, the important aspect was how to replace the "enfeoffment" and "national destiny" bestowed by the dynasty during the process of ascending to Heavenly God. By using this augmentation to establish a connection between heaven and man, the divine position could ascend to the Great Fuli Realm, becoming a deity residing in the heavens.
In Ji Xiang's understanding, some Heavenly Gods ascended in this manner. The most prominent example in the Ming Dynasty was the continuous enfeoffment of Emperor Zhenwu, elevating him from the Four Saints to an Emperor, which was achieved through constant enfeoffment, augmentation, and the sharing of national destiny. In return, powerful Heavenly Gods would protect the nation. Before being broken by external forces, this was a virtuous cycle.
Then, Guan Yu was also one of them. Initially, there were legends of Guan Yu, the City God of Jiangling, in the Liang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, Guan Yu began to be augmented into a Heavenly God, and the Yuan Dynasty continued this enfeoffment. However, the augmentation in the Ming Dynasty was interrupted for a time, only resuming in the last forty years.
At this moment, the method to replace enfeoffment and national destiny, besides the immortal incantation of the Tongbai Heavenly Palace, required materials that were both within and outside the heavens and earth!
Ji Xiang released a portion of his power! The world began to turn black and white!
"Western Liangli Gongshou Heavenly Emperor Dharma Realm!"
Ji Xiang still possessed fragments of the Western Heavenly Emperor Dharma Realm obtained earlier, and this was precisely what replaced "national destiny"!
"Consider the Dharma Realm as a small country, and enfeoffment is to use the lord of the Dharma Realm's own destiny to replace it. However, one can only connect a portion of the Dharma Realm's power at the Primordial Spirit realm. But how many people in the world dare to claim to be the lord of a Dharma Realm?"
To control a Dharma Realm, even the weakest one, one must at least be an immortal, and not an ordinary Heavenly Immortal, but at least at the level of Taiyi Scattered Count or Da Luo Scattered Count, or a Flying Immortal, one who has reached the peak of the Heavenly Immortal path. Therefore, for mortals to use such a method to create Heavenly Gods is an absolute delusion.
"Loose Immortals who have fallen from the Flying Immortal realm and failed to comprehend Taiyi or Da Luo are the minimum requirement to become the lord of a Dharma Realm!"
"But I am lucky, I have fragments of a Dharma Realm here. This small Dharma Realm is also under my control, and I am its lord!"
As Ji Xiang thought about the Forbidden City transforming into a Dharma Realm, the shamanic practitioners should have known. The reason Old Master Huang so easily handed over the method of shaping Heavenly Gods was first, to show goodwill, at least not to be enemies, and second, he likely believed that to create Heavenly Gods, the assistance of the Forbidden City was necessary.
Or rather, he likely believed that after offering this method, the previous method of separating national destiny to create Heavenly Gods would be eliminated, thus increasing the number of true Heavenly Gods in a short period. With this batch of Heavenly Gods, they could be summoned to create a large number of divine generals!
Thinking of this, Ji Xiang couldn't help but chuckle softly.
This was truly a gift package from the inner realm.
At this moment, the Dharma Realm was being smelted into the body of the scholar in black robes, entering the final third stage.
This stage was to receive the faith of all people, to obtain the desires of all people, and to become a true deity after passing this step's augmentation. In essence, this step was very similar to the operation when Prince Lu ascended to immortality.
Both used the desires of all people to achieve the desired intensity of the ascension realm itself, serving as a substitute to become part of the immortal or Buddha.
"The third stage is not easy to succeed. If the second stage is successful, it's enough."
Ji Xiang did not utter the final three characters, and these three characters were also the key to achieving the final Heavenly God.
This secret incantation possessed immense power, and the effort required to develop it was naturally considerable. This method of shaping Heavenly Gods relied half on the lord of the Dharma Realm, as it required sacrificing the lord of the Dharma Realm's own destiny to replace national destiny, and even tearing apart one's own Dharma Realm as a small country. The other half of the method lay entirely in this secret incantation.
Without this secret incantation, even after another eight thousand years, it would be impossible to create Heavenly Gods.
Ji Xiang secretly thought that it was indeed worthy of being one of the ancestral courts of the Southern Sect. However, although this method was terrifying, the consumption for oneself was also quite large. He had now contributed incense, destiny, and even Dharma Realm fragments. The mana consumed during this refining process was approximately half of his own.
And according to Old Master Huang, to refine a powerful Heavenly God, one could not be stingy with one's mana. The more mana injected, the more powerful the Heavenly God created. Of course, when the Heavenly God's position reached the thirteenth rank, each upward step required a huge investment, even needing to continue feeding Dharma Realm fragments and sacrificing the lord of the Dharma Realm's own destiny.
To shape a great position like the Five Heavenly Demon Kings, a high rank of the Heavenly Department, one would need to sacrifice at least half of the destiny of a Flying Immortal Dharma Realm lord!
"Unranked..."
Here, since Ji Xiang had not completed the final step, the underworld Heavenly God before him had not yet been assigned a rank.
The final step required at least several years, or even decades, depending on the rank of the Heavenly God.
This required an immense amount of incense offerings. If several immortals assisted, it would also consume all their desires, to the point of exhaustion, before creation could be complete.
"Come, open your eyes. I need to give you a name. Can this thousand miles of mountains and rivers... be borne?"
Since Ji Xiang used the resentments to condense new consciousness, it was equivalent to directly bestowing a main body upon the divine position. Compared to simply shaping a divine position, this was a one-step process, directly creating a deity!
The scholar in black robes then opened his eyes. Resentment still swirled around him, but he now possessed normal emotions and cognition. He respectfully bowed to Ji Xiang,收敛 (shōu liǎn - gather, restrain) all the resentment outside his body, "Please, Demonic Lord, bestow a name."
Ji Xiang pondered for a moment.
Then he spoke, his voice like thunder:
"I decree you to be the lord of all ghosts, demons, and yin deities in these thousand miles of mountains and rivers. Bear my destiny and carry out the great affairs of the demonic path. You may go to various places to appease wandering spirits, manifest everywhere, so that the people of Korea may establish temples and offer sacrifices to you, thereby completing the定性 (dìng xìng - determination of nature, classification) of your divine position."
"I bestow upon you the name... Dahualuo."
Dahualuo, one of the twelve hours, signifying that all things are flourishing and greatly emerging, then suddenly descending.