Chapter 523: Ancestral Worship, Reunion

Zhang Jian carefully selected an immortal city far from the core area of the Central Heavenly Court for this purpose.

Of course, the reason was to bring Zhang Nan and others to inspect the foothold of the Zhang family in the Central Heavenly Realm.

Ultimately, Zhang Jian fixed his gaze on a small town on the eastern frontier of the Central Heavenly Realm.

Though small, it has everything needed, and it is the necessary official road passing through the eastern frontier leading to Eastern Qingyi City.

More importantly, Zhang Jian sensed the presence of an innate spiritual orifice deep underground here through his earth authority.

Innate spiritual orifices contain innate essence and qi, which is greatly beneficial for the cultivation of Zhang descendants, and once a great formation is laid upon the innate spiritual orifice, it can easily be transformed into an Innate Spirit-Gathering Great Formation!

Of course, it is also important that it is not far from Qingyi City.

Eastern Qingyi City belongs to one of the Eastern Sixteen Immortal Cities, which are all major cities, and nominally belong to the Eastern Extreme Qinghua Great Emperor who governs them.

Similarly, the other several directions nominally belong to the other five Heavenly Emperors: the Mi Luo Zhenzhen Yu Huang Great Emperor, the Western Extreme Gou Chen Great Emperor, the Northern Extreme Ziwei Great Emperor, the Southern Extreme Changsheng Great Emperor, and the Chengtian Xiaofa Hou Tu Great Emperor.

At least nominally it is like this; as for whether it is actually so, Zhang Jian does not know.

Zhang Jian's consideration in choosing the Zhang family's foothold in the Central Heavenly Realm to be in the east is deliberate.

After all, his relationship with this Eastern Extreme Great Lord can be considered the closest.

When he ascended to the Heavenly Gate, this emperor's residence also once sent down immortal invitations to recruit him.

Of course, his main goal is still Qingyi City; this town is merely a temporary residence.

Temporarily using this for ancestral worship, he will wait until he clarifies whether there is the divine sense of the Eastern Extreme Great Lord stationed in Qingyi City, then seize the opportunity to relocate the family's base.

The Zhang family in the Central Heavenly Realm, Zhang Jian decided to appoint Zhang Nan as the family head, and similarly left twenty-two true immortals to guard, among whom the true immortals are led by the Taiyin Immortal Maiden and another female immortal from the Lingxiao Sword Sect.

As for the heavenly immortals, he drew out four heavenly immortals from his subordinates to hold nominal positions.

Among them are two feudal lords' chiefs, and two from his own subordinates.

Bai Nu and Feng Ling.

As for these four heavenly immortals, he respectively granted them the authority of mid-to-low rank celestial officials.

Two are civil posts, two are military celestial posts.

The civil posts are clerical positions; Zhang Jian gave them to Feng Ling, and one of the feudal lords' chiefs, that immortal coming from the Ji clan, named Ji Tianzheng.

He is the biological uncle of the Noble Consort Ji of the Ji clan.

And together with Elder Ji Tianyun, they are of the same generation, successfully ascending to heavenly immortal after passing through the Heavenly Gate.

As for the military celestial posts, they were given to Bai Nu, and another heavenly immortal from the ancient immortal sect Dao, who is also a heavenly immortal after ascending the Heavenly Gate, called Xuan Guan Daoist.

As for Zhang Nan, the Taiyin Immortal Maiden, and another female immortal, since their cultivation is still accumulating in the true immortal realm, they were only given three reserve celestial official positions.

But even so, everyone is overjoyed.

This is a celestial post, representing that they will henceforth officially integrate into the Central Heavenly Realm, able to receive stipends from the Heavenly Court, and have their own influence within the Heavenly Court.

However, how much authority they actually hold still depends on the position of the Lingyuan Emperor Lord in the Heavenly Court.

After the preliminary arrangements were made, Zhang Jian then conducted the Heaven and Earth Grand Sacrifice according to the old customs of the lower realm, the Ancestral Worship Grand Sacrifice!

Everything looks quite normal.

In the newly built ancestral temple, the participating deities in the sacrifice are not many, besides Zhang Jian, Zhang Yi, Qi Ruolan, Qi Yuhua, Bai Liying, You Shi, Meng Shi, and also Zhang Nan, Zhang Yujing leading a part of the Zhang clan descendants.

Most of these Zhang clan descendants are children born to Zhang Yi in the heavenly realm, many of whom still have mortal bodies.

After the ancestral worship ceremony ended, Zhang Jian remained alone inside the ancestral temple.

The others did not mind, as they knew this had already become Zhang Jian's habit.

After everyone left, Zhang Jian then took out numerous gold and silver ingots from the Mountains and Rivers Void.

These gold and silver ingots, however, were not brought up from the lower realm.

Mundane objects brought up from the lower realm, even ordinary spiritual objects, cannot withstand the power of the spacetime storm and will be directly crushed.

These gold and silver ingots, however, are not for sale in the heavenly realm.

At least Zhang Jian has not yet found a place to sell them.

They are all condensed by his power of creation, he personally inscribed the scriptures within them, and used the collected treasure seals to stamp his own mark.

To complete these gold and silver ingots, Zhang Jian did spend some mental effort.

Still, it is a continuous mountain of gold and silver ingots like a mountain range.

Besides this, Zhang Jian also took out a second-rank immortal treasure from within the Mountains and Rivers Space.

This was refined from a portion of divine materials taken from the Fire Cloud Cave Heaven.

It is a cloud kerchief, its interior filled with the divine marvels of the Heaven and Earth Eight Trigrams, combined with a part of the Great Zhou Heavenly Red Cloud Law Prohibition.

Zhang Jian calls it the Eight Trigrams Cloud Light Kerchief; inside it inherently contains an Eight Trigrams space, very mysterious.

In Zhang Jian's gaze, the continuous mountain range of gold and silver ingots is being rapidly consumed.

However, in Zhang Jian's gaze, this time's sacrificial scale still cannot surpass the previous one, and it seems roughly the same as last time.

Zhang Jian is not surprised by this.

Although the Lingyuan Emperor Lord's rank is high, he does not possess much actual power, but a high rank also has its benefits, namely possessing extensive influence.

Of course, if he could obtain actual power, his influence would increase further.

Seeing the gold and silver ingots in the center of the great cauldron gradually cease burning, Zhang Jian moved a portion of the gold and silver ingots out, then proceeded to throw the Eight Trigrams Cloud Light Kerchief into it.

It gradually burned in the sacrificial flames, turning into green smoke and disappearing.

After the sacrifice was completed, Zhang Jian cleaned up the traces and gradually stepped out of the ancestral temple.

He needs to re-establish the house-guarding prohibition for the Zhang family, and purchase spirit fields, medicine gardens, and various other resources.

A newly risen immortal clan needs to prepare too many things.

Central Heavenly Realm, near the Yaochi Holy Land, a magnificent immortal island floats in the eighth layer of the upper realm.

The immortal island is vast, and the sea of clouds it resides in seems to form a magnificent heaven and earth of its own.

Above the vast sea of clouds, another path of divine light rushes skyward in the distance.

At this moment, a majestic figure sat in repose within the celestial palace, her entire being enveloped in a grand aura, threads of vital energy dispersing outward, as if pressing down upon the very source of the cosmic law of heaven and earth, boundless majestic divine power bursting forth, extraordinarily terrifying.

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' carefully contemplated her own Daoist Sovereign power, secretly feeling a touch of joy.

After over twenty thousand years of arduous cultivation, she finally broke through the Great Calamity of Annihilation, successfully attaining the Daoist Sovereign form.

The Daoist Sovereign's rank—eternal spacetime, all freedom and ease, her mighty power permeating every temporal dimension and timeline.

Such majestic divine power is sufficient to sweep across heaven and earth.

Following her true self on this journey into the primordial relics, she did not come in vain, successfully completing her breakthrough plan.

Of course, even more crucial was the immense effect exerted by the one hundred and ten incense-offering nations from the previous sacrifice.

Not only did it help her perfect her incense-offering Dao fruit, but it further condensed several strands of immense power into eternal immortal arts.

This proved greatly helpful to him at the critical moment!

At this very instant, she suddenly opened her eyes, yet deep within her pupils lay anticipation—her gaze seemed to pierce a segment of the river of fate, and in an instant she beheld a portion of the majestic spectacle, as if boundless incense-golden light surged forth from the Two-Worlds Pool.

A faint smile appeared at the corners of her eyes, and she silently mused to herself.

"My true self was indeed not mistaken—after that one returns to the Central Celestial Realm, it will not be long before they attempt the sacrifice!"

Her form shifted through empty space, instantly appearing before the Two-Worlds Pool.

Within the Two-Worlds Pool, the nine-colored waters surged and flowed, already showing omens.

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' condensed a strand of immortal light and merged it into the Two-Worlds Pool.

As her immortal light and power fused, the entire Two-Worlds Pool suddenly began to roar, within it seeming as if countless strands of golden light coalesced, the golden light transforming into a spring.

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' had long grown accustomed to this; she raised her slender, pale hand, and with a wave, a divine light enveloped the Two-Worlds Pool.

The Daoist Sovereign's incense-god domain unfolded, within it evolving countless illusory incense-offering nations intertwined in spectacle.

In an instant, strands of incense shot straight into the depths of the nations, instantly causing each nation to be gilded with a layer of incense-golden light.

Pure incense-golden light surged inward, and the 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' could not help but a faint smile touch her lips.

These flawless incense offerings she could now directly absorb, merging them into her own incense immortal light, rapidly enhancing her cultivation.

This is the greatest advantage of incense deities: as long as incense is abundant, cultivation proceeds at a speed far surpassing that of other immortals and gods.

With so much flawless incense, if she comes a few more times, perhaps she could catch up to her true self, likewise able to assault the Second Great Calamity of Annihilation in a short time!

Within the majestic incense-god domain, one saw golden nations instantly materializing from the illusory.

Gradually surpassing a hundred.

That was a hundred billion flawless incense offerings.

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' also sensed that this sacrifice's scale might not match the previous one, her expression carrying a hint of regret.

Yet after the other entered the Celestial Realm, she hoped the sacrifice's scale would be ever greater.

For the feedback received could no longer be limited to heavenly and earthly treasures, nor need she worry about the Celestial Realm's overseers discovering the catnip in the Two-Worlds passage, allowing her to bestow other greater-power supreme treasures, or perhaps cultivation methods, secret arts as feedback.

After the incense-golden light surging from the Two-Worlds Pool continued for a time, it gradually ceased.

"One hundred and five incense-offering nations perfected, nearly one hundred and five billion flawless incense offerings..."

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' had a hint of smile appear in the depths of her eyes.

At this moment, within the Two-Worlds Pool, the nine-colored waters surged, within them the Great Dao Heavenly Sound emerged.

The vast Heavenly Sound at this time was extraordinarily majestic, faintly drawing down the cosmic law of heaven and earth from the heavens above the immortal realm, resonating.

Strands of primordial divine light burst forth from within.

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' directed her gaze toward the azure heavens above.

A hint of astonishment appeared in her eyes.

This time, the primordial treasure stirred within the Two-Worlds Pool, evoking a resonance of heaven and earth's cosmic law that was remarkably strong, and the number of such laws drawn forth was also considerable.

Indeed, there were as many as eight or nine kinds!

She had never before seen a primordial divine object emerge, capable of drawing forth so many resonances of heaven and earth's cosmic law.

"Qiankun Yin-Yang, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, and also Wind and Thunder..."

"Is this the Eight Trigrams?"

The 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' had a premonition in her heart.

She did not wait long; moments later, she saw from the depths of the Two-Worlds Pool a strand of majestic primordial divine light surge skyward, transforming into a colossal Eight Trigrams entwined above the Two-Worlds Pool.

That primordial Eight Trigrams continuously rotated, possessing immense power, seemingly able to dispel boundless mighty force.

Upon merely glancing at this primordial spiritual treasure, she could roughly guess its function.

This should be a defensive primordial merit spiritual treasure primarily for binding, sealing, and unloading.

With a wave of her hand, she took this primordial merit spiritual treasure into her grasp.

After slight refinement, a flash of realization appeared in her eyes.

Eight Trigrams Cloud-Light Banner: A primordial merit spiritual treasure containing five primordial divine prohibitions, within it holding the mystery of the primordial Eight Trigrams, the Eight Trigrams power intertwined, capable of unloading all heavenly mighty force, its inner Eight Trigrams world able to imprison the myriad immortals of heaven and earth, the cloud-light evasion technique hidden and profound!

This is likewise a middle-grade primordial merit spiritual treasure!

A hint of satisfaction appeared in the depths of the 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign's' eyes.

This object is most suitable for her refinement.

It also possesses the cloud-light evasion technique, traceless escape, making it an excellent life-preserving spiritual treasure!

At this time, the 'Qingxia Daoist Sovereign' had already made preparations.

The feedback object she had already prepared.

Deep within her palm, a strange treasure containing intense fate-energy appeared, and this time she prepared to personally journey to the lower realm, simultaneously to meet the other party.

Divine light flashed—her form instantly vanished from the immortal realm.