Chapter 1756: The Heavenly Punishment Dao Court and the Great Sun Tathagata Future Buddha

The newly established Tuwang Dynasty began to expand.

They surged toward the surrounding world like a tide, madly strengthening their own power and swelling the ranks of their subjects before King Yu's great army arrived; the common folk of every direction brought grain and rallied to them in droves — a scene bursting with vitality.

"In the indictment, the second of King Yu's ten great crimes is showing no reverence for ghosts and gods…"

Jiang Ding silently pondered.

This generation's Human King seemed to want to take the path of throwing in with the divine beings, to serve as the gods' dog in exchange for a slim chance of survival.

On this point, Jiang Ding did not object.

Nowadays, the highest goal was survival; whether humble or noble, as long as one lived, everything still had a future.

This point was reflected in Tu Ying San Yi's national policy.

He placed great emphasis on uniting and safeguarding the interests of divine beings, temple keepers, and devout believers, carrying united-front work to its utmost — precisely the reason his forces expanded so swiftly, gaining the covert support of numerous religious powers.

This truly was a generation's Human King.

Without anyone to teach him, relying solely on the inheritance of a single scroll of scripture, he instinctively knew on his own where the strongest power lay and where unity and compromise were most needed.

If circumstances developed favorably, after founding the dynasty and settling the realm, this Human King, for the sake of his own imperial clan's foundation lasting ten thousand generations, might well raise the butcher's blade again and slaughter to the last the divine powers that had helped him into the saddle — burning the bridge after crossing the river, turning his back and refusing to recognize them.

What a pity…

Jiang Ding lowered his eyelids and waited in silence.

Several years later, the great army of the Great Tu Dynasty surrounded and killed a divine being, the Black Water River Earl.

This deity was judged by many of the Great Tu Dynasty's gods to be an evil god, their divine enemy.

This Black Water River Earl, moreover, delighted in breaching dikes to drown the common folk and sacrificing living beings with blood rites; therefore he was jointly surrounded and slain in the river by the gods and the Great Tu Dynasty's army, his divine core shattered, utterly dead.

This was a minor ripple in the Great Tu Dynasty's expansion, drawing no one's attention.

At the same time, no one knew that, hidden beneath the obscuring veil of the Great Tu Dynasty's myriad beings' karmic fortune, a cold gaze fell upon the soul of the Black Water River Earl about to die, invaded it, read through his entire memory, and then let the Black Water River Earl perish, soul and spirit both annihilated.

No special karma or trace was left behind.

This tendril extended was so fine, and further veiled by the karmic fortune of hundreds of millions of living beings under the dynasty, that even a Supreme, unless lying in wait beforehand, would surely be unable to discover anything.

This was the first memory of a powerful expert from the Gods-and-Buddhas Great Thousand Worlds obtained by the Great Sun Sword Child.

Over a thousand years, and finally concrete intelligence had been obtained.

"Black Water River Earl."

"A lineage of one hundred and seventy thousand years, a Void Refinement–grade deity spanning thirty-seven generations…"

Jiang Ding silently read through the divine memory he had copied, carefully analyzing every thread of intelligence within: "

It seems competition among the divine beings is fierce as well — it is not the case that once one receives an enshrined divine office from the Heavenly Punishment Dao Court one can rest easy; at any moment one may die in the struggle for divine authority, exhausting oneself in loyal service as the Demon-Subduing Seven-Treasure Exquisite Commander Lei Ting Heavenly Soldiers, Guardian of the Realm and Blesser of the People, Manifest-Might Mountain-Settling Heavenly King, unto death and beyond."

Heavenly Punishment Dao Court!

Demon-Subduing Seven-Treasure Exquisite Commander Lei Ting Heavenly Soldiers, Guardian of the Realm and Blesser of the People, Manifest-Might Mountain-Settling Heavenly King!

Having lain low with caution for over a thousand years, touching no karma, the Great Sun Sword Child had finally come to know the divine power that ruled over more than half of this Great Thousand World.

"This divine-path Supreme is an old acquaintance,"

"No wonder he manifested within this lord's Heavenly Dao Tribulation — truly seeking his own death…"

Jiang Ding's heart was filled with boundless longing and boundless joy as he spoke.

This endless universe of stars truly does gladden one so.

The Immortal Weapon Sect's Supreme, Ancestor Lei Yang, the Demon-Subduing Seven-Treasure Exquisite Commander Lei Ting Heavenly Soldiers, Guardian of the Realm and Blesser of the People, Manifest-Might Mountain-Settling Heavenly King, and many more — one after another they popped up, one after another they came before him, begging the Great Sun Sword Child to strike them dead; if he did not strike them down it would not do, if he did not kill them he was not to leave.

This truly was a blessed world, in no way lacking beauty.

"Vast Heaven Above, how greatly do you favor this lord?"

"Truly I am unworthy of it, unworthy of it…"

Jiang Ding sighed: "What a pity, this lord is of shallow virtue and weak strength; I can only find some divine sons, buddha sons, and dao sons, and bestow upon them glory, yet cannot grant the more resplendent radiance to a Supreme… sigh, a person like this lord is indeed a mud-legged yokel of country origin — when a great opportunity comes knocking, he cannot take it; this is simply his scope."

Endless regret filled the Great Sun Sword Child's heart.

These were all great-dao opportunities, dao fruits, the stairway to immortality — all were powerful experts with a path to death; truly too regrettable.

"The Heavenly Punishment Dao Court is one of the two strongest powers in the Gods-and-Buddhas Great Thousand Worlds, possessing three divine-path Supremes."

"The first is naturally that Mountain-Settling Heavenly King with a name both foul and long, an old acquaintance I have met; the remaining are the Dark-Mysterious Formless Inspectorate Boundary-Patrol Soul-Seizing Crime-Adjudicating Great-Mighty-Virtue Wisdom King, also called the Soul-Seizing Wisdom King, and the last is the Pure-Clear Pure-Land Universal-Salvation Compassionate-Voyage Sweet-Dew Transformation-Birth Primordial Lord, also called the Wondrous-Flower Primordial Lord."

"These three divine-path Supremes each hold their own authority, each possess their own might; every one of them is an existence who has walked some branch of the rules to its very limit."

"All are splendid opportunities."

Jiang Ding's eyes were practically glowing green.

In this world, truly heroes and champions emerge in endless streams — he only hated that he had no ladle.

"Besides the Heavenly Punishment Dao Court, the other divine power in the Gods-and-Buddhas Great Thousand Worlds is called the Great Sun Tathagata Future Buddha, likewise a terrifyingly strong divine-path Supreme power; I hear this divine force can peer into the future — I wonder whether it has seen this lord's future… good, good, good, the danger has grown by another measure."

"Good, truly wonderful."

The joy in Jiang Ding's heart

and the thrill grew by another layer.

This blade-edge-licking sensation made his Great Sun instinct nearly boil over; for the first time in tens of thousands of years of dull, tedious life, a brilliance had appeared, so excited he was on the verge of trembling.

The foundation of divine beings lies in the incense-and-prayer power of sentient beings, in the contest for population.

One need not think to know that between the Heavenly Punishment Dao Court and the Great Sun Tathagata Future Buddha there must surely exist layer upon layer of conflict; the divine wars throughout history are beyond counting.

This Great Sun Tathagata Future Buddha possesses an extremely strong ability to peer into the future, yet he may not be able to recklessly deduce the karmic future of the Heavenly Punishment Dao Court.

Being situated in the heartland of the Punishment-Heaven Dao Court was, on the contrary, a good thing.

Having digested the various pieces of intelligence, the excitement in Jiang Ding's heart turned to icy calm; his Great Sun instinct was operating with unprecedented efficiency, making his ears keen and his eyes bright: "My earlier guess was correct — the Gods-and-Buddhas Great Thousand Worlds does indeed have wars against the outside; the previous Black Water River Earl went to take part in one and returned alive by luck, seemingly fighting against human cultivators."

"When the time is right, I'll go to the Myriad-Law Heavenly Pivot to find that soft-persimmon Miss; the two of us still have some friendship, I suppose — I wonder whether this intelligence is valuable."

"I must obtain more intelligence…"

Jiang Ding murmured.

As for asking for reinforcements?

That was absolutely impossible.

All the Divine Sons, Buddha Sons, and Dao Sons belonged to him; whoever dared to reach out would be beaten to death on the spot, friend or foe, insider or outsider, with only Citizens and True Immortal Children allowed a slight exception.