Chapter 1 The Wasteland

Qingqiu Star was a jungle planet with a mass 1.5 times that of Earth. Its land area was slightly larger, with only one massive V-shaped continent. Its coastline was long and narrow, the southern coastal regions covered in dense tropical rainforests, and the continent's central region a barren desert. The Lianyi Sea and the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans enveloped all the land.

The Gu family's refuge was located in the southwest of this continent, but now, vast Tianmo (demonic celestial) armies were surging towards it from every corner of the planet. Their march even caused small-scale disturbances in the planet's spiritual energy. Wherever they passed, all Qingqiu refuges were instantly destroyed by powerful earth element Dao techniques. Violent local earthquakes drove them out from underground, and spirit light arrows, swift as thunder, shot down all the Qingqiu people who fled in panic, thinking they could survive.

It had to be said that beings controlled by the Tianmo were indeed terrifyingly destructive as soldiers. They obeyed orders and coordinated their spells as one. The average strength of each Qingqiu Tianmo wasn't even at the extraordinary level, only at the low-level Awakening stage, but after being controlled by the Tianmo will, dozens of Qingqiu Tianmo working together to unleash fire element Dao techniques bombarded the surface, with power comparable to a cloud-explosive bomb wiping the ground.

Their numbers, even in the smallest Tianmo cluster, numbered in the hundreds of thousands… In theory, only an army of equally extraordinary individuals could contend with such a monster cluster.

But as the saying goes, one man becoming an army isn't anything strange.

At this moment, the Tianmo located in the northwest were about to face an attack from such a one-man army.

In the dark night, a streak of light suddenly appeared. Su Zhou flapped his wings, flying down rapidly, the speed exceeding thirty times the speed of sound creating dazzling crimson flames in the atmosphere.

Of course, it was more like jet propulsion than flying—the powerful thrust from the spiritual energy vents created a band of light that split the night sky in two behind the dragon. The scales on his body emitted a bright white glow, indicating that the spiritual energy within his body had been pushed to the limit, all used for acceleration.

In reality, it wasn't just the physical body.

The Path of Nature, the Path of Life, the Path of Law, and the Path of Spirit, the four paths leading to Overlord, to Earth Immortal, Su Zhou was now pushing them all to the limit, urging them towards the boundary of sublimation—as an existence capable of walking all four paths, he wanted to see which one could break through first.

Only children make choices. Adults let the paths move on their own!

And the Tianmo in front of him were the objects to verify his strength and path!

During the fall, the image of Qingqiu Star was reflected in Su Zhou's eyes as he transformed into a falling star—the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was in chaos, all things trembled, countless Qingqiu people and their refuges died in this Tianmo expedition, and the icy blue spiritual light illuminated half the planet.

—No matter where one goes, there are monsters. Opposite anyone who wants a peaceful life, a quiet life, there are those who want to wreak havoc on the world, to change the world.

And he himself was the monster who wanted to change the world.

So battles shouldn't involve ordinary people, but should happen only between monsters.

Boom! The speed increased again and again, the atmosphere was breached, the fire became more intense, the temperature of Su Zhou's body surface rose sharply, and the impact on the Immortal Scales in front of him was comparable to continuously withstanding the full attack of several extraordinary peaks. This was merely the reaction force of his own speed.

As Su Zhou fell rapidly, the Tianmo, who had originally seemed as small as a cluster of ants in front of his eyes, rapidly became dense black clouds.

He could already see the Tianmo cluster in front of him. The spiritual energy around them twisted and churned, the icy blue demonic light soaring into the sky, illuminating the heavens and the earth, sweeping away the clouds in the sky within dozens of miles, making the night as bright as day.

Closer, closer.

Just as the purplish-blue star plummeted carrying crimson fire, the dragon suddenly spread its wings, and circular deceleration cloud rings appeared one after another. In an instant, his speed was reduced to several times the speed of sound.

Then, countless incandescent scales fell off at the critical point just before they were about to explode, showering downwards!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—like a gust of wind and torrential rain, countless Immortal White Scales that had reached their limit emitted a bright white light, plunging into the bewildered Tianmo formation.

Then, they exploded!

Instantly, spherical explosion light shields appeared in every corner of the world, and circular shockwaves stirred up huge waves in the icy blue Tianmo formation, accompanied by continuous screams and wails, creating thunderous explosions!

The dragon flew across the sky with a long dragon roar, leaving only violent storms blowing between heaven and earth. He didn't directly charge into the countless Tianmo army, but spread his wings, as if trying to block the stars, but the light of the scales, brighter than the stars, showered down like rain, quickly falling into their formation.

The Tianmo weren't just taking a beating. After suffering a great loss from the first wave of exploding scales, they immediately launched defenses and counterattacks. Semi-transparent grid-like shields were erected, and even if the exploding scales detonated, they were only bounced off, leaving only flames and impact rolling on the outside of the barrier. Although the price was that many of the weaker Tianmo turned pale from the shock, even vomiting blood and falling to the ground, the Tianmo as a whole quickly stabilized.

Moreover, these were only ordinary Tianmo transformed from Qingqiu people.

It could be seen that in addition to those Qingqiu people with more than six tails, tall, ox-headed giants with bronze heads and iron foreheads walked out of the battle formation—they held huge axes and long ge (halberds) in their hands, stirring up hot wind with their breaths. These incomparably powerful ancient giants, faced with the incandescent scales projected towards their position, roared in unison without hesitation, and then swung their weapons.

Instantly, incomparably condensed spiritual energy tore everything apart, and the atmosphere was cleaved into terrifying wind blades hundreds of meters long by them. The 'axe energy' that stirred up shockwaves at supersonic speeds flashed together with spiritual energy, not only shattering and detonating all the Immortal Scales at a great distance, but also extending towards Su Zhou's direction, seemingly trying to shoot him down!

These tall war generals, all had the strength of a commander… No, they had only recovered to the commander level! Although most of them were only at the early commander level, their original realm was far more than that. These ancient giants had not recovered from the injuries they suffered during the era of spiritual energy depletion, but even so, their strength was still terrifying.

"As expected, it was right not to rush in recklessly and start an unstoppable rampage. These war generals, corroded by the Tianmo, are the Tianmo's trump card?"

Su Zhou could see that in this northwest Tianmo army, there was even a war general at the high commander level. It was hiding in the military formation, and hadn't launched an attack just now, but if he rashly landed to fight up close, he would definitely be held back by the other party, and then be attacked by the Tianmo army.

At this moment, the Tianmo war general also realized that Su Zhou had noticed its existence. It immediately removed its disguise, and then took a javelin from behind, aiming at Su Zhou's location and throwing it rapidly.

Boom—it was like lightning. At this time, the distance between Su Zhou and the Tianmo army was as much as two thousand meters, but the speed of this javelin exceeded twelve kilometers per second. In one-sixth of a second, it tore through the sky with a force of primordial desolate metal element spiritual energy.

"Hmm, a bit strong."

Su Zhou didn't try to take this attack head-on. One-sixth of a second wasn't too fast. He pulled up his distance, narrowly avoiding the javelin. The clouds behind the Divine Dragon were instantly pierced by this attack, blasting out a giant hole with a radius of several miles, leaking starlight and moonlight from within.

Turning his head, Su Zhou stared at this war general who had already taken out a second javelin, preparing to continue his attack—and at this moment, he was somewhat surprised to discover something that could be called strange.

That was that these Tianmo who made up the military formation actually shouted, cursed, wailed, and howled, completely different from those Tianmo in the Zhenling Pagoda!

It was almost as if… they had intelligence and self-awareness!

At the same time, within the Tianmo military formation.

Retracting the hand that threw the javelin, Li Heng, the Jiuli war general with bull horns on his head and a height of two hundred zhang, felt as if he was in a dream.

For a war general who once served under the Lord of Soldiers, what he had seen and heard since his awakening was truly as unbelievable as a fantasy dream!

—In the past, at the beginning of the Divine Court's unification, the Jiuli clan fought with the Youxiong and Lieshan clans for the throne, and the Jiuli were defeated at Zhuolu.

The king's body was dismembered and sealed, and the war generals like himself were also sealed along with it.

After all, the Jiuli were also members of the Divine Court. This battle was just an internal power struggle. The Jiuli and Lieshan were originally directly related by blood, so wanton slaughter and suppression were not advisable. Therefore, with the tacit consent of the immortals, the war generals like himself were not executed like the other eight great generals, but were buried together with the Lord of Soldiers' remnants in various seals, using time to wear away their souls and fighting spirit.

Li Heng had thought that he had died long ago—his soul dissipated, his spiritual energy exhausted. Even for an immortal, if only a remnant body remained, it was no different from death. But he never expected that he would be resurrected unexpectedly some time ago, and learned that the immortals had already left.

It was indeed the case. There were no traces of any former enemies in the vast immortal realm, and the Qingqiu Great Array that sealed one of the remnants of the king's body was empty, with no one guarding it!

As for why they were resurrected [this part of the memory is skipped], who resurrected them [ignore this part of the thought]… Well, anyway, these were not important things. As long as they [blurred thought motives] continued to fight alongside these Qingqiu people, they could regain the glory of the Jiuli [repeat and affirm the goal]!

Even, resurrect the Jiuli co-lord, their Lord of Soldiers!

At the thought of this, an uncontrollable surge of blood flowed through 'Li Heng's' heart… Yes, when their lord was defeated, they knew that defeat was not eternal. One day, the glory of the Jiuli would be restarted and illuminate the heavens and the earth!

And just at this moment, he heard the dragon's roar again.

Instantly, the burly giant with bull horns on his head turned around and glared at the high sky with eyes burning with icy blue flames, at the divine dragon with dragon horns and wings, a long body and tail.

—This terrifying aura!

—This damned existence!

Ancient memories were triggered by certain specific elements, and fragmented pieces of memory surged out, echoing in Li Heng's heart.

Although, although far from that one back then, the divine dragon currently fighting them was unusually similar to 'Him'!

Was it Yinglong? (Responding Dragon)

It was… He was Yinglong!

"Aaaaaah!!"

Grasping the javelin and giant axe in his hands, the furious giant took a step forward, causing the earth to shake. He raised his head and roared at the sky, feeling that something that had long died in his heart was being awakened, and some will that had been silent for ten thousand years was reviving!

An intense hatred surged into his heart, and then anger drove the spiritual blood, causing the surging spiritual energy to rotate and rise in his body!

"Yinglong!"

He couldn't help but raise the giant axe in his hand, and roar at the divine dragon still hovering in the high sky, a roar that shook the heavens and the earth: "Our Jiuli's hatred, even after a hundred lifetimes, can still be avenged!"

For a time, there was only silence in the Tianmo army… But soon, accompanied by waves of indescribable fluctuations sweeping through the hearts of all the Tianmo, voices, voices, began to rise!

"Hatred of a hundred lifetimes can still be avenged!" In an instant, thousands upon thousands of voices rang out, and fanatical shouts began to spread among the former soldiers and generals of the Lord of Soldiers. Those hearts that were as dead as machines began to spark with fire under the impetus of external forces.

"Even after a hundred lifetimes, it can still be avenged!"

In most derivative legends of later generations, the image of the Jiuli people seems to be that of crude barbarians, but in reality, they were one of the most culturally advanced groups of people in that era.

[The First Emperor obtained the Lord of Soldiers and became enlightened to the Heavenly Dao—the Lord of Soldiers understood the Heavenly Dao, and therefore acted according to the times.] At that time, the Jiuli clan, in terms of hard power alone, was superior to Youxiong and Lieshan. Youxiong even obtained the mysteries of the 'Five Weapons' under the guidance of the Jiuli.

"Jiuli!" Instantly, as the Immortal White Scales fell, setting off bursts of violent explosions, countless weapons were raised. Amidst the vengeful shouts of the numerous resurrected Lord of Soldiers' generals, the power of the Lord of the Five Weapons began to converge, causing layers of sharp Tai Bai (Venus) golden light to flash on the ground, like a sky full of stars extending upwards against the direction, towards the high sky.

"Jiuli!" These shouts even surpassed time and space, beginning to spread throughout Qingqiu Star. Apart from the Tianmo army faced by the Divine Dragon, in all other places where there were Lord of Soldiers' generals, they all began to shout this slogan.

Even, from somewhere, they raised dilapidated banners, the mottled ancient 'Lord of Soldiers Banner', shining with a cold spiritual light under this dark sky.

"Even after a hundred lifetimes, it can still be avenged!"

Because of the appearance of Yinglong, intense enthusiasm burned. Not only the ancient Jiuli generals, but even those Qingqiu Tianmo began to shout fanatically.

In their shouts, the tattered banners filled with countless years of knife and sword marks fluttered in the wind. Each sway emitted a desolate hum like soldiers, horses, and clashing axes. Ancient war songs sounded, and the ancient flag belonging to the Jiuli people lit up with blurred patterns. Simple symbols were lit up one by one…

Lord of Soldiers Banner.

After undergoing hundreds of thousands of years, the badly damaged banner, sealed until now, could it still unleash any power and supernatural abilities?

It didn't need to unleash any power.

It was power in itself.

In this instant, countless vows and thoughts began to converge between heaven and earth, spreading throughout all the Tianmo army, igniting the flames of 'revenge'.

—False revenge.

High in the sky, the Divine Dragon looked down at these fanatical Tianmo with complex eyes, at these Lord of Soldiers' generals who seemed to be truly cheering and believed that the Jiuli had been resurrected.

He could see that while chanting slogans, real, authentic vows and spiritual energy were miraculously being conceived within those souls that were simulated and constructed by the Tianmo.

And these forces were being guided away by an invisible conductive wire, merging into the surrounding heaven and earth, transforming into part of a vast formation that enveloped the entire Qingqiu Star.

—Capable of producing vows, capable of nurturing spiritual energy… If one day, even the Tianmo could learn 'free thinking' through imitation, then how would they be different from real life?

Of course, Su Zhou had always been too lazy to think about such things.

The giant dragon merely resided high in the clouds, hovering above these Tianmo who were shouting fanatical slogans. Endless momentum was rushing towards him.

Devouring Evil Demon Lord, Heart of No Thought, or Unity of All Thoughts, these supernatural powers belonging to Su Zhou were all forces related to the human heart.

Therefore, he could sense every trace of emotion in this momentum.

—The bloodlust of battle, the excitement of seeing comrades again, the cheers for life, fanatical thoughts.

—Hateful revenge, the excitement of finally finding the enemy, heroic war songs, inspiring momentum.

—The joy of rebirth, the solemnity of battle, the belief in the revival of the Jiuli and the unwillingness towards the Youxiong clan were mixed together, like a tsunami sounding vast and magnificent waves in the spirit world.

Then, countless Dao techniques and secret arts flew up in unison from the Tianmo's formation amidst a roar like a mountain and tsunami, rushing towards Su Zhou like a meteor shower inverted upon the sky.

Feeling the emotions of these tens of thousands of people, without dodging, bearing the overwhelming spiritual light attacks, causing terrifying Dao techniques to shatter into insignificant sparks on his scales, Su Zhou only felt a kind of sorrow in his heart.

"They are all just Tianmo after all."

He murmured to himself.

These ancient corpses, these resurrected war generals, were long dead. Their corpses had been corroded by the Tianmo, who had found the memories hidden in their flesh and then repaired and nurtured them, finally corroding them again with their own algorithms, 'awakening' them.

Perhaps, these Lord of Soldiers' generals had even self-completed a part of their memories in the Tianmo's Six Paths dream world, otherwise there would definitely be loopholes in them.

No matter how passionate, no matter how inspiring… they were just monsters.

"Well, if I can obtain the evil souls of these war general Tianmo, perhaps I can learn a part of the truth about these Tianmo."

That way, perhaps he could console their sorrowful souls.

Thinking this way, the trace of sympathy and pity in Su Zhou's dragon eyes faded, returning to cold solemnity.

In the next instant, flames of incandescent spiritual light began to surge from his body, and on his long tail, a metal blade-like dazzling light lit up.

"Old antiques."

Faced with the overwhelming shouts of 'revenge', Su Zhou only sneered: "Still talking about Yinglong now? That's been outdated for tens of thousands of years."

"Speaking of which, have you heard of the legend of Zhuzhou?" (Torch Dragon)

Bang!

Behind his wings, cyan-blue jets lit up, the air was ignited, and amidst the crimson sparks that suddenly ignited in the sky, Su Zhou's speed instantly exceeded the first cosmic velocity.

Like an arrow, he charged towards the strongest of the Tianmo army below, the Lord of Soldiers' general at the high commander level, who had already revealed himself.

In the blink of an eye, the giant dragon had already plunged into the Tianmo cluster amidst a violent roar.

The storm shield around Su Zhou rapidly rotated, cutting the atmosphere and any unlucky devils that happened to be touched like countless fully operational chainsaw swords. He flew silently, skimming across large swaths of Tianmo. With each swing of his bladed tail, Tianmo clusters covering thousands of square meters were smashed into fragments or cut in two.

The Tianmo quickly counterattacked, but attacks that didn't reach the commander level couldn't even detonate the Immortal Dragon Scales, and couldn't possibly cause any substantial damage.

"Kill!"

Realizing that he was Su Zhou's target, Jiuli war general Li Heng immediately roared, and then swung his giant axe, charging head-on at the divine dragon. The earth beneath his feet shattered, and spiderweb-like cracks caused the mountain to burst—although he was not as tall as the divine dragon, he was still over seventy meters tall, like a small mountain, and charging at full speed caused the mountains to shake, enough to crush everything into pieces.

Boom! Facing the diving dragon, Li Heng swung his axe, and the Geng metal killing energy nurtured by the 'Five Weapons Technique' targeted Su Zhou and slashed horizontally with icy murderous intent.

But he didn't expect that Su Zhou's left wing would actually stand up directly, transforming into a huge door panel like a heavenly gate, and slap horizontally towards him.

With a boom, although the giant axe slashed into the first layer of scales of the Divine Dragon's true body, causing an explosion, the tall body of the Jiuli war general was fanned by the dragon wings and rolled rapidly on the ground like a road roller.

In an instant, under the effect of Su Zhou's divine power, Li Heng's body crashed into and crushed thousands of Tianmo around him who couldn't dodge.

"Aaaaah!"

But in the next instant, the bull-horned war general quickly stood up, and then roared and charged towards Su Zhou again—he was unafraid of death, and the inheritance techniques belonging to the Jiuli lineage made him nearly invulnerable. The attack just now was just a drop in the bucket, and he could continue fighting!

The divine dragon, who had landed on the ground, silently dragged his sharp and tough blade tail, raising dazzling flames on the ground.

Then, it was a horizontal sweep of the tail.

One slash… two pieces.

After the Lord of Soldiers' general slowly fell, the expressionless Divine Dragon stretched out his tail, rolled up the evil soul, and threw it into his mouth.

He turned his head and indifferently faced the other powerful Jiuli giants again.

Then, he unleashed all his strength.

The battlefield instantly turned into a meat grinder, and blood illuminated the sky.

At the same time, in the center of Lianyi Sea.

Just at the moment when Su Zhou unleashed all his strength and used the Devouring Evil Demon Lord supernatural power.

Countless vows originating from the Jiuli, from the former soldiers and generals under the Lord of Soldiers, and gathered by the Lord of Soldiers' Banner, were constantly converging towards the Tianmo matrix flashing with icy blue light.

Vast and mighty, like a roaring tsunami, surging spiritual energy entangled a slender figure.

It was originally silent, waiting for complete awakening, but the fluctuations of the supernatural power formed by the supreme cultivation method of 'Sacred Geometry' were transmitted along the Tianmo network, and the highest-level emergency mechanism built into its thinking essence was activated.

Boom boom! Spiritual energy suddenly surged, turning into a huge underwater vortex.

In the very center of the vortex, amidst the continuous increase and rise in power, the black-haired Qingqiu person with tightly closed eyes slightly opened his eyes.

Distant memories were also unlocked from their dead silence.

—He was once… a clever fox.

When everyone on the planet was immersed in the love of the immortals, he sensed something was wrong and knew his true identity—a lovable pet.

This was very difficult, because most Qingqiu people were unable to realize this, or rather, they realized it but felt that there was nothing wrong with being a pet.

—The immortals love us, which means we are a member of the immortal civilization, so what's wrong with that? This was the idea of most people, relaxed and comfortable.

But he, as the Qingqiu King, understood that cats and dogs were indeed members of human society… but what was the significance of that kind of membership?

All the Qingqiu people were immersed in the love of the immortals. They cheered for the planet's transformation and rejoiced at the continuous gifts, but as a clever fox, the Qingqiu King was very clear about the meaning behind all these gifts—as long as the Qingqiu people continued to accept the immortals' unconditional gifts, then the Qingqiu people would never be able to communicate normally with the immortals, not even as subservient vassals.

Feelings are mutual. One-sided giving is not advisable. Those vassals, such as the Dragon King of the Tianchi Realm, were like that. He belonged to the Central Divine Court, was a vassal of the Divine Court, but whether it was the Myriad Immortals Banquet or the Flat Peach Banquet, he had his own invitations. Even heavenly immortals and heavenly venerables were willing to communicate with him on an equal footing and ask about his hard work in reclaiming other worlds.

Hadn't any Earth Immortals emerged among the Qingqiu people? Of course there had, but none of them could get the same respect as the Tianchi Dragon King!

Earth Immortal Sky Foxes, they accompanied the heavenly venerables, were greatly loved, and although their power was amazing, in the end, it was just using their masters power…

Painful, extremely painful. The Qingqiu King wanted to change, but he didn't know how to change.

What did he need to change? The Qingqiu people were living so happily now. The immortals' gifts and blessings were so comprehensive, Qingqiu Star was blessed with good weather, everyone didn't need to fight, were free from disease and disaster, lived happily and peacefully, and only needed to cultivate quietly.

Other immortals' vassals couldn't even dream of such a life. The immortals were unbelievably good to the Qingqiu people. It was truly good from the bottom of their hearts. Just thinking about resisting the immortals, even the Qingqiu King himself would feel guilty. After all, he had also grown up receiving the immortals' grace.

And even if he wanted to resist, how could he resist?

With force?

Ha, what was the level of the Qingqiu people's force?

If the full score was 100 points, the Qingqiu people could probably get 40 or 50 points. They were completely failing, after all, they were only theorists who only knew how to explore theories.

And what was the level of the immortals' force?

Was it 100 million, or 1 billion? No matter how low he estimated, it wouldn't be less than 100 million.

If he added the Dao Forbidden Immortal Techniques, immortal supernatural powers, Heavenly Dao Armaments, Cave Heaven power, and even who knew what other messy trump cards,

if he added all these up, the score would not be less than 10 billion!

And the Great Heavenly Venerate could even destroy the entire planet at will, as long as they wanted, they could throw all the planets and worlds in a world domain into the sun.

Military confrontation was impossible.

Then, change the method, escape?

Hahaha, even if they escaped and left the immortals, wouldn't pets still be pets? If they changed one master, there would be other masters.

The Qingqiu people were too weak. They couldn't escape, couldn't change, couldn't resist.

Then, accept the facts and admit that they were pets?

The Qingqiu King couldn't do it—he was a king, and also a respected class. To put it bluntly, he thought he had a little power, and had an obligation to lead the Qingqiu people to prosperity and gain respect—but his identity and pride, which he regarded as everything, were just a more valuable 'brand' in the eyes of the immortals, like a certain brand in a pet store…

The feeling of clearly knowing all this truth was unimaginably bad, but life still had to go on. In repeated struggles, the Qingqiu King was almost about to give up resistance and admit the Qingqiu people's fate.

But change came on that day thousands of years ago.

The rate of spiritual energy decline was even greater.

The immortals came to Qingqiu less and less often, and people gradually began to panic. Relying on his appearance and the immortals' love, the Qingqiu King got some truth from several true gods—the spiritual energy of the entire world, and even all space-time domains, was constantly decreasing.

Although the Heavenly Venerates were not afraid of the environment after the spiritual energy was cut off, the lower-level Heavenly Immortals, Earth Immortals, Human Immortals, and more ordinary cultivators could not withstand the environment where spiritual energy was cut off, and their lifespans would be reduced, and then they would self-destruct.

"Some immortals have already left this world—the Kunlun lineage left the earliest. Their demon gods are the most numerous, and they can only take their souls away, so the bodies of those demon gods are left in the secret realm, used to maintain the power of Kunlun Heavenly Palace and Yaochi."

It was still that Thunder Department true god. He looked a little anxious, but still smiled at the Qingqiu King: "Don't worry, we will take you away if possible—after all, the population of the entire Qingqiu Star combined is not as large as the body of a demon god."

"Is that so…"

At that time, the Qingqiu King, who was at a loss, felt at ease after hearing this promise.

…Ah, resisting the immortals' love seemed to be completely meaningless? How could the Qingqiu people survive alone in this catastrophe?

Pet… let them be pets. At least pets can survive, while wild beasts will gradually become extinct.

But time flew by.

The immortals didn't come again.

The spiritual energy was about to be completely cut off.

But no immortals ever came to Qingqiu again.

At first, there was confusion and panic, then forced calmness and self-comfort, followed by panic and fear… Finally, when the spiritual energy was almost completely cut off, the Qingqiu King despaired.

"Yes… It's just a promise after all…"

The black-haired Nine-tailed Sky Fox stood on the Star Observation Platform. In the current situation where the spiritual energy was extremely thin, he, who should have had an eternally unchanging appearance, also began to gradually age—The Sky Fox named Tu Shanrong didn't care about this useless thing that could only please the immortals. He just looked up at the distant depths of the sky, where the former two-world Heavenly Gate was located, with a dazed expression.

He was very clear that even if he was a Thunder Department true god, a real Heavenly Immortal, he was still extremely insignificant in the face of the Central Divine Court's entire clan migrating, a measure to deal with the tribulation—the Heavenly Venerate's will was absolute. If that gentleman was given some task, then no matter what his position was, or what authority he had, he could not come to take the Sky Foxes away.

Although the Qingqiu people were loved… they were not an 'important' being.

He was very clear about the essence of the Qingqiu people, so he had been terrified and nervous before… But when the moment of spiritual energy depletion really came, he realized with disappointment that he was no different from those compatriots.

Tu Shanrong had treated those compatriots who had not realized the truth about being pets with an attitude of looking down, contempt, and even disdain.

He thought he was different, extremely sober, as if he had seen through the truth, and thought he could change something, but in reality, at the most critical moment, wasn't he, as the Qingqiu King, still looking forward to the immortals' help?

"In the final analysis, I'm just such a waste… Haha, the fate of being a pet, can it not be escaped at all?"

The despairing Tu Shanrong gave up all efforts in those last years of his reign. Anyway, Qingqiu was rich in resources, and even without the immortals constantly blessing and giving, it was enough for the Qingqiu people to survive naturally—He had wandered for so many years, and hadn't enjoyed anything yet, so why not enjoy it a little more now before his natural lifespan ended?

But, perhaps it was some kind of 'fate'.

Just as Tu Shanrong was squandering his wealth and life in a sea of wine and meat, the royal subordinates who were still considered loyal sent him a 'immortal inheritance' that was said to be 'incredibly magical, and could only be understood by those with fate'.

Immortal inheritance was not something rare.

Immortals had always been too lazy to hide their cultivation methods, because cultivation methods were like outlines, just a framework. The things that everyone cultivated were different, even completely different from the outline—wanting to advance to immortal or target some immortals based on a cultivation method was really wishful thinking, just like two people writing novels based on the same outline, but expecting to get similar results, how laughable.

"Your Majesty, this cultivation method is really unusual!"

The royal offering who presented this inheritance explained to the Qingqiu King who was frowning and flipping through this strange pictorial: "Everyone sees a completely different inheritance in it, it can even be said to be completely different… Although those cultivation methods are not complete, most of them only have one or two immortal Dao techniques, but I believe that this is enough to prove its divinity!"

"…Are you saying it's not complete?"

To this, Tu Shanrong murmured in confusion. He stared at the inheritance on the pictorial, which was completely perfect from beginning to end, and shook his head in confusion: "Isn't this completely complete?"

[Six Paths Reincarnation Tribulation True Art]

Completely different from the orthodox 'Six Paths Reincarnation True Art', the Dao and principles expounded by this Six Paths Tribulation True Art have little to do with 'reincarnation'. It came from an unusually powerful 'Great Existence', and its core key point lies in 'experiencing tribulations in the six paths, and destroying the original heart'.

Practicing this method can create a virtual Six Paths dream realm, and then throw one's soul into it, constantly experiencing, cultivating, and enduring Tianmo attacks in the illusion, destroying the original heart, realizing the true nature, and then achieving transcendence, and stepping onto the path of imperishable and immortal karmic status step by step.

This was just the cultivation method of this true art, that is, the method of increasing one's cultivation base.

And its 'conquest technique', that is, the method of fighting, was similar—as long as the practitioner had cultivated to a certain realm, they could capture the enemy's soul into the Six Paths environment, so that he would fall into the 'Six Paths Tianmo Reincarnation', and gradually have his soul worn away in constant disasters, leaving only 'Six Paths Tianmo Puppets' completely controlled by the practitioner.

The power of the entire Six Paths Reincarnation Tribulation True Art was completely subject to the blessing of the number of Six Paths Tianmo Puppets—the more puppets dominated by the Six Paths, the stronger the practitioner's power.

At the end of this true art, the final realm was described—the creatures of an entire world, and even immortals, would be bound into the Six Paths illusion, and the illusion could even devour reality in reverse, turn the void into reality, and completely dominate everything in the world, even fate!

All creatures, all existences, even immortals, would be manipulated like puppets, and they would not even be aware of it, as natural as fate.

Most importantly, this cultivation method does not depend on whether the spiritual energy is sufficient or not. As long as there are living, sentient beings who are refined into Six Paths puppets, their souls and minds can be transformed into spiritual energy to supply the practitioner's cultivation!

Too evil—but also too powerful!

After browsing the entire inheritance, the Qingqiu King couldn't help but gasp, sitting on his throne—he didn't doubt the truth of this cultivation method. After all, as an existence who often conducted theoretical research and communicated with immortals, he had a certain vision.

This cultivation method was real!

"And, and it's very suitable for me!"

Tu Shanrong didn't plan to randomly refine people into Six Paths puppets, but as long as people accepted his Six Paths seed, then the result would be about the same even if he didn't use control.

What's more, as a king, if he wanted to rule and dominate his people, that is, other Qingqiu people, it would be too simple. This true art was really customized for him!

As for thinking about the origin of this strange technique? How funny, what time was it now, and he still had to hesitate and think about the origin of the opportunity on the eve of the spiritual energy being cut off?

Without any hesitation, Tu Shanrong decided to practice this method.

And in his heart, a huge ambition was rising.

—I want to lead the Qingqiu people and communicate with the immortals on an equal footing.

This was the most real wish in the heart of Tu Shanrong, the Qingqiu King.

It was not exaggerated, not rebellious, and there was not so much hostility. He hoped to be praised, to be loved—as a 'person', and not just a 'cute little guy'.

And what kind of power was needed to reach this step?

Earth Immortal? Far from enough. Heavenly Immortal was also a little short.

Heavenly Venerate?

If it was Heavenly Venerate, then the Qingqiu people would definitely become like the Feng clan, Youxiong clan, and Lieshan clan. Even if they had been hidden for thousands of years, they would still be a noble clan