Chapter 1039: This Sovereign Has Rendered Great Merit Upon the Living Beings of the Flame Stone Star Domain

A streak of blood-colored light flew in from the horizon and landed in the sky above the Shan Sect.

A Daoist in a blood-red robe revealed his form, silently gazing down at the great earth below, and at the people within it.

Several hundred years had passed. The pillar of those days had long since died—no one knew how long ago. His lifespan had run out; he had failed to advance to the Foundation Establishment realm, and even if he had, surviving several hundred years of continuous chaos would have been exceedingly difficult.

During these several hundred years of turmoil, the Horned Demon Imperial Clan had lost its grip, order had collapsed everywhere, and every race ceaselessly waged war—killing their own kind, killing other races, killing the Horned Demon Imperial Clan. All manner of riots and uprisings never ceased, and countless living beings of the myriad races perished within them.

The Shan Sect, having endured such turmoil, had seen every single one of its people replaced and its territory greatly reduced, yet the sect remained, and the ancestral rites continued. One could not deny this was an immense stroke of fortune.

Yet, even after enduring such chaos, would the living beings of the myriad races long for peace?

No.

Not in the slightest.

There is one clear fact: during these several hundred years of chaos, the myriad races killed many of their own through various riots and wars between kin and strangers, correct?

Those who died from war and disorder did not even amount to one-tenth of those who perished during the Horned Demon Imperial Clan's rule!

Under the peace imposed by the Horned Demon Imperial Clan, every race had its use. Those with strong divine souls were refined into ghosts; demon clans with nourishing flesh and blood were kept as meat for the Horned Demon Imperial Clan; the rest served as all manner of materials for alchemy, artifact-forging, and body-tempering. Not a single slave race was permitted to eat for free without producing what the Horned Demon Imperial Clan required.

There were no exceptions whatsoever.

The human race offered essence-blood and lifespan to refine ores; the Skeleton Blood Vine Demon Clan spent their life's vital essence to brew blood-wine; the Fragrant-Flesh Tiger Clan tribes were themselves ingredients…

The living beings of every race seldom lived past half their natural lifespan.

One could say the Horned Demon Imperial Clan was systematically slaughtering and discarding the myriad races' living beings, carrying it out under an extremely efficient order that maximized output. In this, the thoughts and feelings of those beings were irrelevant.

How could the number of beings who died from the myriad races killing each other in chaos possibly exceed such an extremely efficient and orderly slaughter?

The difference in efficiency was at least tenfold!

Though these several hundred years looked like an age of chaos with the myriad races ceaselessly at war, in truth this was the best era the living beings of the myriad races in Mo Shi Xiao Gao Jie had seen in untold tens of thousands of years.

The clansmen of the myriad races no longer had to constantly offer up essence-blood, lifespan, and flesh and blood; they truly possessed some property of their own. For the first time, the strong among the myriad races lived freely to the end of their natural lifespans, dying peacefully in their beds, surrounded by children and grandchildren who saw them off.

In days gone by, such things were beyond imagination!

Those born and dying during these several hundred years were fortunate, possessing a time far more beautiful than that of their fathers and ancestors—even if they had to face racial slaughter at every moment, it was nothing.

"Beyond doubt."

"This sovereign,"

"has rendered great merit upon the countless living beings of over a dozen Minor Thousand Worlds in the Flame Stone Star Domain…"

Jiang Ding traveled all the way here, observing the survival and development of every race, and the answer formed in his heart. He murmured to himself.

Yes.

He had slaughtered billions.

He had killed many living beings, drawing on their fresh blood to cultivate.

But he was a good person.

How could some people call him a hypocrite?

Regardless, he had won several hundred years of relatively happy, relaxed life for the countless beings of over a dozen Minor Thousand Worlds—even though it was not his intention, and even though it could not continue.

But fact is fact, and merit is merit.

In all things under heaven, what one thinks does not matter; what matters is the result.

Jiang Ding's divine sense swept across the Shan Sect.

Here everything had returned to its original state. The human race once more offered their essence-blood and lifespan to refine ores and elevate their essence. Qi Refining cultivators could live at most fifty years; Foundation Establishment cultivators at most a hundred. An entire lifetime had to be devoted wholly to the Horned Demon Imperial Clan.

The Chun Jian Shi Zhen Ren of two generations ago, the Hei Tu Zhen Ren of the previous generation—both dead. Now the strongest in the Shan Sect was a Jin Dan Chu Qi cultivator named Zi Shi Zhen Ren, who barely maintained the sect's foundation.

Allowing the nameplate of the Shan Sect to continue its fortunate existence.

No matter how many wars and disasters, no matter how many times the people within the sect died and were replaced, this name had been preserved, enduring for thousands upon tens of thousands of years.

This… was no longer mere fortune.

Jiang Ding walked silently through the Shan Sect, passing by every flower and blade of grass, every tree and shrub, every mountain stone, brushing shoulders with each disciple, walking past every Foundation Establishment realm elder of the sect.

Just as Dong Xue He Wang had done thousands of years ago when he was growing up here—without a single change.

In the end, Dong Xue He Wang came to the Ancestral Master Hall and silently lit nine sticks of incense for the ancestral masters.

Pale smoke curled upward, spreading in all directions.

"Ancestral Master…"

"The sect… may be utterly destroyed."

"There will be no more luck."

Jiang Ding sighed softly: "Still, you would not blame me, I suppose. A sliver of hope at the Emperor realm lies before my eyes—were you resurrected, you too would charge forward without hesitation, casting everything aside."

"This is our shared path, our shared fate."

A melancholy voice echoed through the smoke-wreathed great hall of the sect.

"Who?"

There was one other person in the Ancestral Master Hall—an old man with a forked mustache, none other than the Shan Sect's Supreme Elder, Zi Shi Zhen Ren. His gaze was startled as he looked at the Daoist in the blood-red robe who had suddenly appeared within the sect and lit the incense.

This Daoist in the blood-red robe was strikingly, eerily handsome, and exceedingly young.

A tremor,

fear, and a sense of familiarity rose unbidden in Zi Shi Zhen Ren's heart.

"Sigh,"

"Who else could it be?"

Jiang Ding sighed: "Didn't you receive the sect's Blood God inheritance? Well, that's understandable—after being passed down in fragments over so many years, merely surviving is already an achievement; expecting it to be complete is impossible."

The Blood God inheritance.

This was the main reason the Shan Sect had endured for nearly ten thousand years without being cut off, arranged by Dong Xue He Wang of those days together with the sect's even more ancient ancestral masters.

The Shan Sect's ancestral master had once had a fortuitous encounter and obtained a fragmentary inheritance called the "Blood God Scripture," and so he established the sect in one place and survived.

Right, he just survived, that's all.

A single scripture is just a scripture — getting it doesn't mean one can understand it, let alone have the many supporting resources, guidance, and the ability to practice even a little. And with the brutal oppression of the Horned Demon Imperial Clan, being able to keep a foothold in a small place is already considered not bad.

The Shan Sect accumulated and explored continuously, and by Dong Xue He Wang's generation produced a once-in-a-millennium prodigy — not only with extremely high talent, but also supple and pliant, skilled at flattery, skilled at managing finances. Only with all these conditions and opportunities did a Soul Transformation Canghai Tianjun finally appear.

"You…"

"S-senior is…"

Chun Jian Shi Zhen Ren's voice stammered, his whole body trembling without stop.

The fear and sense of familiarity in his heart grew stronger, but he could not be certain — he could only confirm that the other's strength far surpassed his own, and so dared not show any hostility.

At this moment, the ground was hazy and indistinct; a lump of earth and stone bulged upward, and from within emerged a simple, honest-looking gray-bearded old man. His body trembled without cease, and he could not help but radiate outward strand after strand of heavy Nascent Soul-stage aura.

"Grandmaster? You're not dead?!!"

Chun Jian Shi Zhen Ren was greatly shocked.

This was clearly his master's master, Chun Jian Shi Zhen Ren, who had died he knew not how many years ago!

This gray-bearded old man paid Chun Jian Shi Zhen Ren no attention whatsoever. The moment he appeared, his body trembled without stop, overcome with emotion. With stumbling steps he walked past Chun Jian Shi Zhen Ren, dropped to his knees with a thud, and in a tearful voice, drawing out his words, said: "Laozu Sect!"

"You've finally come back, old elder!"

"It's been almost a thousand years — our sect gets bullied every day, with nowhere to reason things out, and so many generations of Supreme Elders have died!"

"Laozu Sect… wuu wuu wuu…"

Don't be fooled by this gray-bearded old man being a Nascent Soul cultivator and well advanced in years — the moment he saw Dong Xue He Wang he burst out wailing, crying on the spot into a tearful mess, unable to control his emotions at all, just like a seven- or eight-year-old child.