Chapter 1 The Paths of Immortals and Gods

The paths to immortality and godhood are diverse.

All the immortals and gods in the heavens have their reasons for attaining enlightenment and their obsessions in cultivation.

Throughout the million years of the God-Demon Era, the three Celestial Emperors each followed different paths, yet whether those paths were noble or self-centered, they undoubtedly reached the highest realms.

Naturally, the other immortals, gods, and star lords beneath the Celestial Emperors also had their own paths and obsessions.

Only in this way could they achieve their current positions.

Whether it was for longevity, power, proving their self-worth, changing things they couldn't stand, or simply due to talent and luck...

Regardless of the reason, becoming an immortal or god proved one thing.

They must have been trying to create 'a certain order,' which is why they identified with the identity of 'immortal and god,' rather than becoming beings with other names.

For example, 'Heavenly Demons.'

The Nine Netherworld Demon Gods, the Heavenly Demons of the Desire Sea.

Those who held this title were the counterparts to the immortals and gods of the Celestial Heavens.

Initially, they were just a collective term for many powerful, undying beings who disagreed with the order that the immortals and gods wanted to create, independent of the Celestial Court.

They had their own factions, paths, and positions, and their relationships with each other might even be worse than their relationships with the immortals and gods.

The only thing they had in common was that they were all opponents, debaters, and resisters of the Celestial Heavens.

Or, to put it bluntly.

They were all 'keyboard warriors' of the immortals and gods.

This was the original meaning of 'demon.'

Before the emergence of the first Demon Lord, these keyboard warriors had never even been united.

No, that's not right... wrong, it wasn't the Demon Lord.

Because back then, in the distant Primordial Age, the Tianyuan Realm didn't have the title of Demon God.

And the first Demon Lord, in essence, wasn't a 'Demon Lord' either.

But rather a 'Netherworld Lord.'

In the Primordial Age, at the beginning of the God-Demon Era, the Primordial Celestial Emperor elevated the stars, established the Celestial Heavens, opened the Heavenly Court, and conferred titles upon the gods, making them the rulers of the high heavens.

Most of the powerful divine birds, as well as various innate spirits, were the first generation of immortals and gods.

They took it as their responsibility to guide the development of civilization, shape faith, build temples, and establish order, intending to build a prosperous divine kingdom on earth.

Most of them.

Not all innate spirits and divine birds were willing to join the Celestial Heaven's camp, and among them, there was an entire faction, or rather, a category of innate spirits, that rejected the Primordial's invitation.

That was the numerous mountain gods derived from the earth veins.

When the clear light of heaven and earth was still abundant, the earth veins were naturally peaceful and full of vitality, and lofty mountains could naturally nurture intelligence and become innate spirits.

And the numerous mountain gods based on the earth naturally couldn't gather together with the divine birds soaring in the sky, even if it was the tallest sacred mountain in the Eastern Continent of Tianyuan, 'Hongming,' it was only forty thousand miles high, still far from the true high dome of the Tianyuan Realm.

It could only occasionally talk to the Dark Bird, but in the end, they always parted unhappily.

At that time, the Tianyuan beings were multiplying, cultivating, and expanding throughout the world. And such actions were naturally accompanied by a great deal of hardship, failure, and death.

The path of cultivation and exploration was too primitive and difficult, and the gods of the Celestial Heavens were too aloof. They could only see the people who followed them forward, walking on the same path, but they couldn't see the bones of those who didn't keep up with them and eventually fell by the wayside.

Just like in the records of historical classics, in the stories of popular novels, everyone could only see the victories and defeats and glory of emperors and generals, could only see the adventures and explorations of the strong, but couldn't see the unrecorded commoners, the untold losers, the majority who were always forgotten and ignored.

But Hongming could see.

It could see those who wanted to climb it, hoping to ascend to the heavens, but eventually left their souls and bones on its body.

Therefore, it collected the corpses of all beings, gathered ten thousand souls to create the Nine Netherworlds, used its own body to cast the Netherworld Land, and accepted the souls of hundreds of millions of beings from the five continents of Tianyuan.

Thus, it became the 'Nine Netherworld Lord.'

At that time, the Celestial Heavens and the Nine Netherworlds did not interfere with each other, did not care about each other, and there was no war.

Although there were indeed many beings who intended to resist the Celestial Heavens and came to rely on the Nine Netherworlds, there was no atmosphere of having to fight to the death.

The Primordial Celestial Emperor and the Nine Netherworld Lord, these two old friends, often discussed the Dao, but neither side had ever convinced the other—after all, both sides had their own paths to explore and walk, so naturally, they didn't have time to always nitpick at others.

And such peaceful days continued until the arrival of that day.

The Great Unfathomable descended, and the Tianyuan earth veins changed drastically.

The earth veins of the Western Continent changed, and countless miasmas and baleful energies forced the Celestial Heavens to detach from the Tianyuan Realm; the quiet Northern Continent froze, turning into the Xuanming Abyss.

The Southern Continent and Eastern Continent subsided and disappeared, and after the Primordial Celestial Emperor fell in the Southern Purgatory Sea, the Nine Netherworld Lord, whose main body was the sacred mountain located in the Eastern Continent, also disappeared, perhaps also falling in the subsidence.

However, no one knew when, but the Nine Netherworld Land also detached from its original location like the Celestial Heaven and became parasitic on the Tianyuan Realm. In the absence of the Netherworld Lord, its internal laws still operated and could still accept the endless souls of the world.

But during that time, too many beings died.

Too many, too many.

Even excluding those who turned into vengeful spirits, wandering the world forever unable to be detached, the number of souls of all beings was simply too vast, and they were also too painful.

Their arrival instantly changed the originally peaceful and secluded pattern of the Nine Netherworlds. There, no positive emotions would ever appear again, like dark clouds obscuring the sun, leaving only shadows on the ground.

Countless pains, despairs, unwillingness, and wails condensed together, turning into an ocean of suffering.

That is, the source of the 'demon' in the future.

Having lost the Netherworld Lord, there was no longer any being who could guide the thoughts of the souls of all beings. Even the other gods and demons parasitic in the Netherworld Land could not do such a thing, and even they themselves were vaguely eroded by this despair.

And after Taihao achieved the position of Celestial Emperor and ruled over heaven and earth, it was the same.

Like the Primordial Celestial Emperor, in Taihao's path, there was no place for those dead souls, or even the Netherworld—in fact, he even used going to the Netherworld as a 'punishment,' as exile, punishment, and the cruel torture of heavenly tribulations.

As time passed, immortals and gods who were often dissatisfied with the constraints of Taihao's luck and order were thrown into the Nine Netherworlds, like a trash can for storing waste.

And here, the painful thoughts of hundreds of millions of beings were still constantly struggling.

The beings in the human world also often felt lost in this, and while being bound by fate, they also had to beware of the oppression and punishment of various heavenly tribulations and heavenly punishments.

Too direct and forced oppression and guidance was like holding a person's head into a pool of water to make them drink—perhaps it was well-intentioned, after all, people do need to drink water, but no one would feel 'right' because of it.

If everything in this heaven and earth was the path of the Taihao Celestial Emperor.

Then, even if it meant breaking this heaven and shattering this earth, they would definitely overturn him!

So, at that time, the numerous immortals and gods inside and outside the Tianyuan, the gods and demons of the Netherworld, all the living and dead in the world.

They were all resisting fate, yearning for 'freedom.'

Therefore, in the deepest part of the Netherworld Abyss, the 'Great自在天魔主 (Dazizai Tianmo Lord)' was conceived and born.

In the name of the demon, the Great自在天魔主 (Dazizai Tianmo Lord) ultimately perished alongside the Taihao Celestial Emperor in the Guixu, ending the era in which both gods and demons and all beings were oppressed by fate.

Then, there is now.

That is, the era in which the third-generation God Emperor of the Celestial Heavens and the third-generation Demon Lord of the Nine Netherworlds opposed each other.

However, no one had ever thought about it.

Why the Nine Netherworld Land, which should have been a pile of loose sand, with only the painful wails of numerous tiny souls, could give birth to a Great自在天魔主 (Dazizai Tianmo Lord) with such a firm path, clear goals, and power and skills sufficient to contend with the Celestial Emperor.

【罗睺 (Luo Hou)!!!】

God-Demon Era, 833,018,000 years.

The Void Sea.

In the Celestial Heavens, the Myriad Spirit Divine Bird let out a painful long cry.

Just now, Taihao had suffered an unexpected and unforeseen attack—just as he turned his attention to the Nine Netherworlds, a deep red star that had been surrounding him suddenly changed its trajectory, and then condensed itself into a black-red long cone, directly piercing into the root of the wing behind the Myriad Spirit Divine Bird!

Bang! The incomparably solid divine body let out a shattering hum, and as the long cone entered the body, it instantly divided into endless dark demonic thoughts, which rushed in joy, directly into the depths of the God Emperor's body.

In an instant, one could see darkness spreading, and darkness spread from the rear wings of the Myriad Spirit Divine Bird, which had originally been blooming with brilliant golden light like the sun.

This deep and secluded darkness obscured the light on the divine bird, like a solar eclipse.

【罗睺 (Luo Hou), what are you doing?!】

The Taihao God Emperor, who suppressed his injuries and prevented the numerous rushing demonic thoughts in his body with supreme divine power in the first moment, roared angrily. He quickly turned his head and looked at the ominous star behind him, his eyes full of astonishment and anger.

【I didn't do anything, Your Majesty the God Emperor, I'm just doing what '罗睺 (Luo Hou)' should do.】

The scarlet ominous star flew up and down in the tide of spiritual energy surging in the Celestial Heavens. Even though Taihao stirred up the entire Celestial Heavens with incredible Yuan Magnet Divine Light, he still couldn't capture that star, just like he couldn't capture a shadow.

【You betrayed me!】

The God Emperor didn't even care about the terrifying aura that was rising from the Nine Netherworlds at this moment, and still stared at 罗睺 (Luo Hou) with eyes full of scarlet light: 【I knew about your extraordinary nature a long time ago, and even treated you with courtesy—I even said that after I went a step further, you would become the Celestial Emperor—you know I wasn't lying.】

【But you still betrayed me... could it be that your goal is also to advance to the 'Dao Yi' realm?】

Taihao's tone gradually calmed down. Even though he was backstabbed by an unexpected existence, he had after all cultivated for a long time and witnessed countless conspiracies and rises and falls, so he wouldn't lose his composure because of this.

But in response, a rather calm laughter rang out from the seemingly illusory scarlet star, which was not powerful, but could ignore the God Emperor's attacks: 【Your Majesty, you're thinking too much.】

【Not all immortals and gods want to become Celestial Emperors, or even achieve higher realms.】

【Since we immortals and gods are already immortal and have infinite time to pursue things, then the meaning of power is naturally to achieve our own paths, and not any other trivial matters.】

Taihao didn't continue to question him.

At this moment, he was mobilizing his vast spiritual power, directly suppressing the dividing demonic thoughts that were constantly spreading in his body—those demonic thoughts were also strange, without any traces of curses or grudges, and could even be said to be incredibly grand, not at all demonic, but rather with a burst of vitality.

It was just animating, animating Taihao's own power and even every body component of the divine bird, letting them 'come alive' themselves, and then fighting against Taihao himself.

【众欲魔念 (Zhongyu Monian)...】 (Demonic Thoughts of All Desires)

Temporarily suppressing the '众欲魔念 (Zhongyu Monian)' in his body, which was constantly spreading and intending to divide and animate, the Myriad Spirit Divine Bird narrowed his eyes slightly.

Then, staring at the '罗喉星君 (Luo Hou Xingjun)' in front of him, he whispered to himself: 【This is the method of 大欲天魔王 (Dayu Tianmowang), 门摩罗 (Menmuluo).】 (Great Desire Heavenly Demon King)

【No, this method is more ancient and more quintessential than his... 罗睺 (Luo Hou), it seems I have never understood you.】

罗睺星君 (Luo Hou Xingjun).

The oldest immortal and god, one of the first generation of immortals and gods.

Before and after the God-Demon Era, for nearly a million years, the Tianyuan Realm had a total of three generations of Celestial Emperors and God Emperors, and three generations of Demon Lords and Demon Kings.

And except for the Primordial and the Netherworld Lord, probably no Celestial Emperor, Demon Lord, or other immortal god was more ancient than him.

Although 罗睺星君 (Luo Hou Xingjun) often changed his occupations and his power often fluctuated during such a long period of time, he had always served the Celestial Heavens, was a veteran among veterans, and knew countless secrets.

How could such an existence have defected to the Heavenly Demons? Taihao couldn't understand this kind of thing at all. Theoretically speaking, even the possibility of him defecting to the Nine Netherworlds was greater than that of 罗睺 (Luo Hou).

【When exactly did you defect to the Nine Netherworlds?】

Therefore, he directly asked: 【What exactly did those Heavenly Demons use to lure you?】

【Defect to the Heavenly Demons?】

In response, 罗睺 (Luo Hou)'s answer was quite thought-provoking: 【Your Majesty, you probably misunderstood something.】

【From the beginning... no, it should be said, from when that guy 'Taihao' became the Celestial Emperor, I was his 'demon'.】

A light laugh came from the scarlet star, as if shaking his head: 【In the past, under the command of His Majesty the Primordial, I was the '天罗天君 (Tianluo Tianjun)' who held the main body of the Zhutian Star Plate and wielded the sword for His Majesty.】

【And when Taihao held the authority of the 'Zhutian Star Dao,' when he was the '煌明郁仪太阳帝君 (Huangming Yuyi Taiyang Dijun)' at that time, I was the '净明素曜太阴辰主 (Jingming Suyao Taiyin Chenzhu)' who held the side of the 'Zhutian Star Dao' and assisted the operation of the Heavenly Court.】

【Then, I was the '太岁神君 (Taisui Shenjun)' responsible for fighting against the 'Great自在天魔主 (Dazizai Tianmo Lord)' of the Nine Netherworlds.】

Speaking up to this point, the 罗睺星君 (Luo Hou Xingjun) of this generation, an ancient immortal god who had experienced nearly a million years of time, said lightly at this moment: 【But what Taihao didn't expect was that the Great自在天魔主 (Dazizai Tianmo Lord) was originally a good disciple taught by me.】

【In that case, how could he not be defeated?】

The void vibrated.

Easily uttering some shocking words, the light of the Star Lord was small, but it was bright.

Hearing this, the God Emperor immediately understood many things that he had not understood in the past.

【... No wonder, no wonder the Taihao Celestial Emperor would fight that Demon Lord alone, until the end when he didn't even have half a soldier to assist him—I thought the Nine Netherworlds had held back the reinforcements, but now it seems that it was all your plan...】

The Myriad Spirit Divine Bird took a deep breath at this time, but now was not the time to lament these things.

He turned his head and looked at the distant end of the void.

There, in the place where the Nine Netherworld Demonic Land was located, endless rich black-red aura was constantly floating out of that tumor-like world, and finally slowly condensing in the void.

The seven emotions and six desires, all kinds of suffering and fear, countless disturbing and disgusting auras gathered from all directions, and finally condensed into solid and incomparably deep demonic shadows—they piled up and assembled each other, and finally formed a hideous and terrifying image that made people feel uneasy just by its existence.

Buzz! Endless shadows merged, turning into a black core, and instantly, the vast image transformed by the demonic shadow began to become concrete—it had four arms and six eyes, double horns and nine curves, and its entire body was covered with layers of overlapping armor shells, and its lower body was like a winding Styx River giant tail, directly leading to the deepest part of the Nine Netherworlds.

Faintly, one could hear countless dreamlike voices of desire murmuring out of thin air, shaking the void.

That was the true body of the Lord of the Nine Netherworld Demonic Land of this generation, the third-generation Demon King, 'Great Desire Heavenly Demon King' 门摩罗 (Menmuluo)!

However, the light in the six eyes of this Demon King made his old opponent Taihao feel extremely familiar.

Because that was exactly the look 罗睺 (Luo Hou) had when he talked to him earlier!

Although his aura and 罗睺 (Luo Hou)'s aura were independent of each other, and the difference was like heaven and earth.

But this look was exactly the same.

But what shocked Taihao even more was 罗睺 (Luo Hou)'s calm mutter.

【门摩罗 (Menmuluo) was once my incarnation. After the Great自在天魔主 (Dazizai Tianmo Lord) perished, I divided myself into the Nine Netherworlds, intending to cultivate another independent spirit of a Demon Lord.】

As soon as he opened his mouth, he once again elicited a shocked look from Taihao, and the Star Lord even sighed: 【Who knew that the Heavenly Demons of this generation were too unbearable, and there was no existence worth cultivating at all.】

【So my incarnation lurked and lurked, and it became independent and became the contemporary Demon King. It was really beyond my expectations.】

==Recommendation==

Recommend a book, called "魔临 (Mo Lin)," Author: 纯洁滴小龙 (Chunjie Di Xiaolong), interested students can go and have a look.