Chapter 481: Ten Thousand Phenomena Commission the Gods; the Divine Seat Chooses All Beings

In simple terms, the world was still that same world, but the various natural phenomena within it had become the vessel of the "Ten Thousand Phenomena Spirit-Washing Transformation Divine True Art."

If one looked from a vantage higher than the world itself, one could see the invisible existences entangled with every hairsbreadth of the world being drawn out as the flow of natural phenomena—water cleansing, fire scorching, wind eroding… and the like—circulated.

It was precisely the Shepherd-Spirit lineage left behind by Xuan!

Under the manipulation of the Immortal Net's threads, the world's rules easily sliced apart the "Shepherd-Spirit" entangled with the world's origin, separating it out.

At the same time, the Ten Thousand Phenomena Divine-Commission Chapter, which complemented the Heaven-Earth Cleansing Chapter, was also quietly playing its role in this process.

Governing concepts that participated in the Heaven-Earth Cleansing—such as "Earth, Wind, Water, Fire," "Yin, Yang, Yuan, Qi," "Life, Death, Fortune, Misfortune"—all gave birth to divine seats with corresponding authority!

Mountains and rivers cradled their spirits; the myriad things birthed their gods.

One saw the 【Sea of No Return】, which severed the immortal from the mortal, lying at the boundary between the mortal world and the Cultivation World.

Ten thousand acres of azure waves churned, the wind high and the waves urgent.

Nine water spouts, each nine hundred and ninety-nine zhang tall, bridged heaven and earth, as if communing with heaven and earth; the dark clouds hung heavy, and thunder roared.

The array that severed the immortal from the mortal had long since collapsed along with the disappearance of the "Shepherd-Spirit" lineage.

In places ordinary folk could hardly see, the essences of the world's myriad waters gathered mightily from the heavy dark clouds, converging and merging at the very center of those nine water spouts, condensing into a nine-inch great seal—translucent and azure blue, with five dragons intertwined as its knob!

Ethereal white mist swirled around the great seal, and within it the essences of the myriad waters could be seen manifesting as dragons, swimming unsteadily.

Through its form, one could glimpse the scenes of lakes and great marshes, sea currents and rivers!

The Water-Commissioning Source-Governing Emperor Seal!

It was the embodiment of the divine seat of "Water" in the Xuan Xiang Realm.

Any living being, once recognized by the Immortal Net's merit assessment to wield this seal, could govern all the waters of the world and preside over everything under the category of "Water."

Even if one were an ordinary person before wielding the seal, after wielding it one could ascend to the heavens in a single step, directly possessing divine abilities no inferior to those of Return-to-Void!

This was the greatest aid Xu Xing and the others had left this world to change the current state of affairs!

Soon, that translucent azure-blue five-dragon great seal was completely solidified under the pouring infusion of the essences of the myriad waters surging in from all directions!

Hum~

The great seal trembled, the ethereal white mist around it dispersed, and a visible ripple spread across the void.

At a glance, it seemed like the ripples stirred by a spring breeze brushing over a lake's surface—utterly gentle.

But wherever it passed, the dark clouds dispersed and the wind and waves stilled.

In but an instant, the nine water spouts that had just been roaring and raging calmed down, leaving only the Water-Commissioning Source-Governing Emperor Seal suspended above the sea.

Sunlight pierced through the dispersing dark clouds and shone down upon the translucent five-dragon great seal, refracting into streaks of seven-colored rainbow light that spread across the entire sky.

And at this moment, within 【No-Return City】, situated beside the Sea of No Return.

Inside the thousand-layered Gao Ta, wooden racks had collapsed, and all manner of spirit materials lay scattered across the ground.

The City Lord of No-Return City, clad in a blood robe, stood among the spirit-material wooden racks, his eyes bloodshot, stuffing handful after handful of spirit materials into his mouth.

Violent spiritual energy pooled within his body, causing his entire frame to swell up by a full size.

The blood vessels throughout his body burst open from the impact of the spiritual energy, and fresh blood kept dripping down along his wide sleeves.

"Impossible! Impossible!"

Observing his qi mechanism, his realm had already plummeted from Return-to-Void down to early-stage Jin Dan.

For someone like him, who had only just ascended not long ago through the Heavenly Tribulation ritual, the impact was the greatest.

And the enormous disparity caused his Dao heart to somewhat collapse; he kept muttering incoherently to himself, appearing crazed!

But in the next instant, his frantic spirit-material-gorging movements paused!

He swiftly rushed out of the room instead, the blood continuously dripping down his trouser legs leaving a trail of bloody footprints on the floor paved with cyan spirit jade.

His body, swollen from the abundant spiritual power of the spirit materials, burst open the tightly shut tower door, and he stared wide-eyed toward the sky above the Sea of No Return.

The seven-colored light representing the authority of the Divine Dao entered his eyes.

Although his cultivation had now plummeted, the early-stage Jin Dan realm was still enough for him to see, amid that seven-colored light, the Water-Commissioning Source-Governing Emperor Seal representing the authority of the Divine Dao!

Boom!

His entire mindscape seemed to explode at that very moment.

On the ground, the bloodstains on his robes floated upward; even the blood deep within his body seemed to be drawn, resonating with it!

In but a single glance, he understood what it was.

Obtain it!

Obtain it, and he could wield the Water-Commissioning Emperor Lord's exalted seat, and once again enjoy the glory of Return-to-Void!

Immediately, no longer caring about anything, a surge of magic power erupted from him, transforming into a great hand that reached toward the great seal.

Yet before that magic-power great hand could approach, it was dissolved by the seven-colored rainbow light refracted from the Water-Commissioning Source-Governing Emperor Seal.

At the same time, within the city many true-element great hands also reached toward the Divine Dao Emperor Seal; even some cultivators whose realms had plummeted to Qi Refining were stirring their spiritual power, bursting out of 【No-Return City】, and treading the sea surface as they rushed toward the Divine Dao Emperor Seal.

"Who dares?!"

The voice, bolstered by magic power, spread outward.

But no one paid it any heed. The ants he normally regarded as consumables—those he could decide life and death for with a single glance—did not pause in the slightest at this moment, but instead drew ever closer to the center of the Sea of No Return at greater speed.

Just as the City Lord of No-Return City was inwardly shocked and furious, about to rush over as well…

The seven-colored rainbow light filling the sky suddenly converged.

The Divine Dao Emperor Seal at the very center transformed into a streak of flowing light, shot toward the horizon, and vanished.

……

……

Similar occurrences were happening everywhere throughout the Xuan Xiang Realm.

A total of nine great seals, materialized from Return-to-Void-level authority.

After revealing their extraordinary nature at the moment of completing their condensation, they scattered to the four directions and began searching within the world for the wielders most suited to them.

The highest point of the Xuanxiang Realm.

The nine six-layered bronze armillary spheres had already vanished.

Only Xu Xing and a few others still treaded the void, gazing into the Xuanxiang Realm.

"'Ten Thousand Phenomena Spirit-Bathing Tui Shen Zhen Fa'... if you ask me, it might as well be called 'Ten Thousand Phenomena Spirit-Bathing Commanding-Gods True Art'!"

Watching the divine-authority tokens scatter to the four directions, Master Mei Zu couldn't help but quip.

This is clearly about commanding and enfeoffing divine spirits—what does it have to do with 'Tui Shen'?

"It's just a name," Xiang Yuanjun said calmly.

"Tsk tsk." Master Mei Zu clicked her tongue twice. "Only you could put it that way."

At the level of a True Art, the art itself becomes sentient, spontaneously generating divine essence.

Every single character carries its own meaning.

If any existence bearing a True Art were to fall into the Sea of Chaos, it might even use the True Art as its core rule to give birth to an entire world.

Moreover, such a True-Art-derived world would have a far greater chance of becoming a Path-Unification-grade great realm than an ordinary world.

The name is naturally of utmost importance—any difference in even a single character would shift the True Art's inclination.

Of course, this only applies to those beneath True Immortal.

For True Immortal existences, it's just that.

Forget the difference of one or two characters—even if it were named 'Wu Cuihua Refining Wang Ergou True Art', its efficacy wouldn't change in the slightest.

"In this realm, only one person has sufficient merit to hold the divine honored seat."

As Ning Ruo spoke, she walked past Bie Xuening and took her place on Xu Xing's other side.

Bie Xuening: "..."

Xu Xing gazed down upon the entire Xuanxiang Realm and gave a slight nod: "Given the state of the world, it's hardly surprising."

The Immortal Net's merit assessment rules are extremely strict.

Combined with this world's own particularities, it's hardly strange that only one person meets the standard.

"My suggestion is that we could first let those whose merit is insufficient yet who rarely commit evil temporarily hold divine seats, and decide whether to keep or remove them based on their future conduct." As she spoke, Ning Ruo's gaze swept over the crowd. "Xu Dage, and fellow Daoists, what do you all think?"

After all, the Xuanxiang Realm has suffered greatly from the 'Heavenly Orbit Spirit-Draining System'; in such a world, being able to keep one's evil deeds few is already no easy feat.

"I think this method is workable," Xu Xing replied.

"I have no objections either."

"Agreed."

"No harm in trying—we can let the sect leaders adjust later."

No one had any objections.

After all, in a world like this, how high could you really expect the average moral standard to be?

Pick from the short ones, fill the spots first.

After all, although those Xuanxiang Realm cultivators at Return-to-Void, Soul Transformation, and the like had their realms fall...

As the saying goes, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse, and a broken boat still has three thousand nails!

The small remnant of their cultivation was still not something ordinary people could withstand.

Given that, it was better to let some people whose conduct couldn't be called good but also couldn't be called very bad fill the spots.

That way, even if only to ensure their divine seats could continue to exist, they would take the initiative to do things that increased their merit.

With those Return-to-Void and Soul Transformation cultivators in the Fallen Realm held in check, they wouldn't dare act recklessly anymore.

Of course, there were still some details that needed adjusting, but that would be the sect leaders' business.

Moreover, at this stage the divine-path divine seats were still relatively pure concepts, without too many authorities having branched off and split out.

This would require the world's own evolution after the Divine-Path Epoch began.

After all, every world's divine-path system is one of a kind.

emm...

According to the plan given by the sect leaders, this world's divine-path system might evolve into one where divine seats are obtained through 'examinations'.

"Let's go." Xu Xing withdrew his gaze from the Xuanxiang Realm. "What follows will be the sect leaders' business."

As his words fell, his entire figure vanished on the spot.

Bie Xuening said nothing and vanished along with him.

Thus, the gathered immortals departed one by one.

The last to remain, Dan Zu, glanced at the mortal world and watched the divine seat representing the 'Primordial Qi' authority fall into the hands of a rebel army leader of a mortal dynasty.

The sole person whose merit met the standard.

Interestingly enough, this person did not come from the Cultivation World, but from the mortal realm.

Just after the gathered immortals' incarnations departed.

The highest point of the Tianling Sect.

The Xuanxiang Return-to-Voids sat within clouds and mist condensed from superior-grade spiritual mechanisms, operating the 'Zhuo Ming Su Zhen Chapter' of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Spirit-Bathing Tui Shen Zhen Fa to refine away their own contamination, each face dark as still water.

Their realms varied.

The highest was Xuan Xing, who still retained the realm of early Nascent Soul.

The lowest was the Return-to-Void of the Tianji Palace, who had previously been besieged by contestants and nearly refined into an external incarnation by his own senior brother, only to be rescued by Xuan Xing at the last moment.

Like the city lord of Buguicheng, he now only had the realm of early Jin Dan...

From Return-to-Void, fallen to Nascent Soul and Jin Dan?

This was clearly not an easy thing to accept.

The deathly silence lingered for quite a while, and Mu Yong, who had not dropped many realms, did not even dare to breathe heavily at the side.

After all, his cultivation in total was only so much; even if it dropped, it couldn't drop by much.

But for some unknown reason, his heart was now uneasy to the extreme!

"Huu~"

A soft exhale broke the deathly atmosphere.

Then Xuan Xing slowly stood up, his expression extremely ugly. After sweeping a glance at the others, he said in a deep voice, "Having met with this sudden change, we should quickly work out a set of rules."

Now the 'Mu Ling' Dao lineage had collapsed.

The consumables between heaven and earth were once again taught the 'Zhuo Ming Su Zhen Chapter' by those existences behind the Soul Transformation beings from beyond the heavens. If they did not come up with some countermeasures, there would definitely be problems!

"What Brother Dao says is quite right." The Return-to-Void Daoist of Tianji Palace said.

At this moment, he had also dropped to late Golden Core, second only to Xuan Xing among those present.

"However, since all of us have had our cultivation drop, other cultivators in the world should not be exempt either. There should still be time to prepare."

In the past they could cultivate all the way to Return-to-Void; now, starting over once more, naturally they could as well…

At the very least, having once had the insights of the Return-to-Void realm, cultivating again would be faster than for other cultivators.

At worst, they could first shrink the sect's sphere of influence and get through this difficult period first.

The only thing that was rather troublesome—

—was that when the existences behind those Soul Transformation beings from beyond the heavens taught the 'Zhuo Ming Su Zhen Chapter' to all beings, they also demanded that they wash away the converted portions within their bodies.

As former Return-to-Void cultivators, the converted portions within their bodies were also the most…

At this rate, one had no idea how much time it would take.

As for not obeying?

They did not dare entertain such a thought at all.

After all, the gap was truly too vast—so vast that they could not even muster the thought of resistance. Better to obediently comply.

Moreover, what was even more worrying were those existences behind the Soul Transformation beings from beyond the heavens; one did not know whether they had left behind other means…

"Think on the bright side—henceforth we will no longer suffer the Xuan Xiang Heavenly Mechanism extracting our cultivation. Consider it a shackle removed…" Sheng Qing added softly.

At this moment, her realm had dropped to Mid-Golden Core, her complexion ashen; one could not see any trace of her former coquettish charm.

"…"

Everyone fell silent, yet could not help but smile bitterly within their hearts.

A shackle removed…?

Now they could only comfort themselves with such thoughts.

However, Xuan Xing seemed to have realized something, and turned his head to look at Mu Yong in the corner, who did not even dare to breathe heavily.

Since even the influence of that old ghost Xuan Qi had been purged, then this brat who had dared to curse him…

"Earlier, when you were exploring the Heavenly Mechanism, it seemed…"

Sure enough, even though killing intent surged within his heart, there was not the slightest sign of cultivation draining from his body.

Mu Yong: "…"

It's over!

Just as Mu Yong's heart was bitter and he had already prepared himself to have his soul extracted and refined by that old ghost Xuan Xing…

Hum~!

A clear blue stream of light appeared out of thin air, and before Xuan Xing and the others could react, it plunged directly into his brow.

The stream of light landed at his spirit platform and sea of consciousness, transforming into a translucent azure great seal with five coiling dragons as its knob—the Water-Commanding Source-Emperor Seal!

【Divine Position: Water-Commanding Emperor Lord (Return-to-Void)】

【Authority: Water—governs all waters of the Xuan Xiang Realm, commanding all water-attribute matters within the realm】

【Holder: Mu Yong (Provisional)】

【Merit: 0.3】

【Evil Deeds: 7】

【Provisional for three years; merit must reach three thousand, evil deeds must return to zero; if not met, the divine position will depart】

In an instant, a brand-new power, different from spiritual energy, true essence, magic power, and the like, flowed out from that Water-Commanding Source-Emperor Seal.

Every wisp of power seemed to echo the rules of heaven and earth, causing his every movement to carry the might to overturn heaven and earth.

This power even completely surpassed his former self in his past-life memories, who had already reached Return-to-Void.

Mu Yong was utterly dumbfounded.

But he still quickly came to his senses and looked at Xuan Xing and the others, who were filled with shock and suspicion.

Emm…

Although he did not know what had happened, it seemed…

The offensive and defensive positions had switched? (End of Chapter)