Chapter 696: Farewell 'Old Acquaintance' (4K)

Reconstructing a new netherworld realm is a massive undertaking for any powerful being.

The netherworld realm is closely tied to the countless beings of the myriad voids.

Every infrastructure project in the netherworld realm, even changes to laws and regulations, can produce numerous consequences.

Therefore, if this is done well, it naturally brings forth vast karmic fortune and boundless merit.

If done poorly, it naturally brings great karmic retribution.

Fortunately, Zhang Jian had served as a chief secretary to Empress Hou Tu and personally rebuilt the netherworld realm of the celestial court, so he was quite adept at this.

However, considering the special cultivation direction of the Tianling Realm, Zhang Jian still made some adjustments to the Tianling Realm's netherworld realm, allowing deities who cultivated the Nether Dao, the Life-and-Death Dao, and the Great Dao of Reincarnation to establish divine kingdoms here, but they must be supervised by the netherworld realm, and after passing through many netherworld divine kingdoms, or even the divine kingdoms of other deities, the souls of beings must be judged for good and evil before the Netherworld Sin-Mirror Platform; if they violate regulations by helping evil spirits escape the netherworld realm's punishment, the deities must bear the punishment themselves.

……

With the netherworld realm's reasonably successful model, Zhang Jian did not prepare to innovate differently on this matter.

He temporarily condensed a phantom of the Reincarnation Grindstone using the Minor Thousand Realms Reincarnation Method, then condensed the Ledger of Life and Death as a supreme treasure using the Nine Nether Life-and-Death Golden Seal, thereby stabilizing the netherworld realm and first getting the Tianling Nether Prefecture operational.

Afterwards, he performed rites to connect with the netherworld depths, emulating the Empress Hou Tu's principle of following heaven, and after signing a 'profit-sharing agreement' with this Empress Hou Tu, a set of netherworld divine artifacts broke through space from the depths of the netherworld dimension and entered the depths of the Tianling Nether Prefecture.

Including a set of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Disk, the Ledger of Life and Death, and the Eighteen Levels of Hell.

Actually, there were originally also the Bridge of Helplessness, the Sin-Mirror Platform, the Three Lives Stone, the Meng Po Bowl, and the divine artifacts, ritual implements, and imperial seals of the Ten Yama Kings of the Netherworld.

However, to minimize the benefits given to the netherworld realm, Zhang Jian chose to endure the hardship himself and refined everything personally.

Even a mosquito's leg is meat.

While refining these netherworld magical artifacts, Zhang Jian did not forget to select suitable deities in the Tianling Realm, or powerful beings to serve as soul-reaping envoys, or mid-level judges of the netherworld realm, etc.

As for higher-ranking ghost kings and netherworld emperors, Zhang Jian prepared to select them from within the Divine Dynasty of Kyushu.

Currently under his command, only a portion of the divine gods under the Primordial Gods of Kyushu can be trusted.

When the situation stabilizes, he will seek candidates from the celestial court of the Tianling Realm, or from the Tongshan Dao Lineage of the Three Sovereigns Heaven Realm.

In the Tongshan Dao Lineage, he has one paternal great-uncle who holds the rank of Netherworld Emperor; if willing, he could also fill the position of sovereign of the Tianling Nether Prefecture.

……

In Nanshen Divine Province, everything is being rebuilt, and all order is being restored.

Nanshen Divine Province was not greatly affected by the heavenly and earthly transformation, except when the Gate of Myriad Stars opened, allowing numerous ancient clan deities and ancient clan progenitors to rush in, and later when two Daozun-level powerful beings descended in their true forms, the terrifying battle shockwaves nearly destroyed Nanshen Divine Province.

Fortunately, the Primordial Yellow Membrane Great Array laid down by Nanshen Divine Province took effect, protecting the earth veins and the vast majority of living beings.

Especially after the descent of the Ziwei Emperor, he slaughtered two ancient progenitors of Daozun level in a short time, cutting off all causes of destruction.

On the contrary, Nanshen Divine Province, being the place where the Ziwei Emperor descended, gradually gained the reputation of the Land of Imperial Descent, attracting numerous native cultivators of the Tianling Realm and the attention of ancient clan deities.

The Kyushu Divine Dynasty also intends to take advantage of this to revitalize this southern divine land.

Deep within the Kyushu Divine Dynasty lies the Kyushu Divine Kingdom.

During this period, the magnificent divine kingdom's incense faith did not diminish but instead grew increasingly fervent.

All these changes are naturally inseparable from the transformation of the larger environment.

Many progenitors were defeated, and the extraterritorial heavenly court gained control of the Tianling Realm; as the first progenitor deity to ascend to heaven, the Primordial God of Kyushu received special treatment, and the human race under his command also gained the favor of the heavenly court's deities.

In this era when many primordial gods, demons, and foreign races were targeted, monitored, and suppressed by the heavenly court, the human race rose as an unexpected force, rapidly expanding, faintly showing signs of soon replacing the many god and demon remnant races of the Tianling Realm.

And naturally, as the object of worship for the Tianling Realm's human race, the Primordial God of Kyushu naturally saw a surge in incense offerings.

Deep within the Kyushu Divine Kingdom lies the River Luo Divine Temple.

The Primordial God of Kyushu is naturally well aware of the growth in incense and faith; while increased cultivation is cause for joy, his greatest concern remains whether the River Luo Daoist can be resurrected.

Now, over a thousand years have passed since the day of the heavenly transformation in the Tianling Realm.

For the Primordial God of Kyushu, this is a period of 'not short' duration.

At this moment, the Primordial God of Kyushu suddenly felt a stirring in his heart; he sensed that the Kyushu Divine Kingdom had been penetrated in an instant by an invisible divine force, and in that instant he hastily walked out of the River Luo Divine Temple, only to see Zhang Jian's figure already manifested outside the temple, though he did not know when.

"Emperor!"

Seeing Zhang Jian, his expression became slightly solemn, and he hurriedly performed a salute.

At the same time, the Primordial God of Kyushu felt a slight shock in his heart; in just over a thousand years without meeting, this emperor's cultivation had clearly made significant progress.

The Kyushu Divine Kingdom is the gathering place of the Kyushu Divine Dynasty's karmic fortune, and moreover is his absolute divine domain under his control; yet now this emperor entered it, arrived at the edge of the River Luo Divine Temple, and he could only sense something vaguely, but could not know when he had appeared outside the River Luo Divine Temple.

"Kyushu, it seems you have been waiting for quite some time!"

Zhang Jian's expression remained calm; his gaze swept toward the interior of the River Luo Divine Temple, and without waiting for the Primordial God of Kyushu to speak, he said.

"The opportunity has matured; this sovereign's journey here is to help you fulfill your heart's wish!"

Saying this, he directly stepped forward into the River Luo Divine Temple.

Inside the River Luo Divine Temple, the true form of the River Luo Daoist lay prostrate at this moment, quietly lying on the ground, surrounded by blooming strange flowers and clusters of extraordinary herbs.

The flowers are Instant Divine Flowers; this flower takes ten thousand years to grow, blooms only after a hundred thousand years, and its bloom withers in just a few breaths, but its flower possesses special life-force divine power, containing creation; after consumption, it can make one's Dao body brim with vitality and maintain immortality.

The extraordinary herbs are Deathless Grass; this is a kind of deathless divine medicine, similarly able to enhance the vital force of the physical body.

Its value even surpasses that of the Instant Divine Flower.

To sustain the vital force supporting the River Luo Daoist's true form, the Primordial God of Kyushu has truly spared no effort.

Zhang Jian's gaze fell upon the River Luo Daoist.

This person of the human race is an extraordinarily orthodox ancient human, with an exceptionally pure divine-demonic bloodline within.

The human race originally began in the vast wilderness world; the earliest batch of humans were innate humans.

Innate humans are the five-colored humans.

The five-colored humans are also a collective term for a portion of innate gods and demons; each of them is an innate deity born from the nurturing of the great Dao laws of heaven and earth, an innate god and demon, extraordinarily powerful.

Among the five-colored humans was born a human emperor, who also once ruled as the sovereign of all gods in the innate era.

After the innate era ended, the five-colored humans declined with the fall of the human emperor, completely withering away.

However, with the birth of the human way and the unbroken karmic fortune, emulating the ancient holy mother Nüwa, they molded clay to create humans and continued the karmic fortune of the human way.

This is the origin of the ancient human race.

When the first batch of ancient human race took form, they were bestowed with various ancient divine and demonic bloodlines by the goddess Nüwa, making each of them extraordinarily powerful, often able to contend equally with ancient gods and demons.

However, as they reproduced, part of the ancient human race's bloodline underwent transformation.

Yet some descendants of the human race, the heavenly-chosen ones, could still revert to the ancestral bloodline of the ancient human forefathers.

The River Luo Dao Sovereign is undoubtedly one such heavenly-chosen one.

Born with various divine and demonic abilities, innately knowing how to seek fortune and avoid misfortune, adept at emulating heaven and earth, their cultivation speed is extremely rapid.

Under Zhang Jian's divine gaze, this River Luo Dao Sovereign possesses a special talent, with an innate extremely high affinity for water attributes, and also carries dragon race bloodline within the body.

"Your Majesty, do you still need to make other preparations?"

At this moment, the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces glanced around; surrounding the River Luo Divine Palace were placed many heavenly and earthly divine materials, including not a few of innate level, even reaching the level of heavenly and earthly rare treasures.

But most of them are for repairing the primordial spirit, or nourishing essence and qi, calming the Dao heart, with no divine objects playing a key role in resurrection.

The Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces always felt somewhat uneasy.

"It's not that complicated!"

Zhang Jian remained calm in expression, casually comforting the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces.

He still remembered how the goddess Hou Tu revived part of the ancestral gods: by utilizing his impending breakthrough of the Great Calamity of Annihilation, directly casting a spell to interfere, using the Heavenly Dao as a stepping stone, to seize a portion of the ancestral qi and spirit fragments of the ancient demon god clan.

This is a very perilous method of resurrection.

The goddess Hou Tu did this out of helplessness, because in the vast void of the heavens, too many powerful beings do not allow the twelve ancestral gods to reappear.

But the River Luo Dao Sovereign is different.

Not wishing for the River Luo Dao Sovereign's return, the immortals and gods have almost all died out cleanly; otherwise, they would absolutely dare not reappear in the Heavenly Spirit Realm.

Zhang Jian's display of the dharma, re-condensing the River Luo Immortal Sovereign's spirit, is then much more convenient.

Gazing at the River Luo Dao Sovereign before him, Zhang Jian did not hesitate; raising his hand, a cluster of three-colored divine light condensed in his palm.

Deep within his palm appeared a three-colored gemstone.

This is the supreme divine object, the Three Lives Divine Stone.

A supreme divine object whose value is sufficient to rival that of ordinary innate spiritual treasures.

The three-colored divine light flew up from Zhang Jian's palm, piercing deep into the River Luo Dao Sovereign's forehead; the divine light illuminated, and countless images of past, present, and future spacetime gradually manifested from the void.

Upon close inspection, the past, present, and future above the River Luo Dao Sovereign's head seemed to have already been completely severed by someone, with all vitality extinguished.

Seeing this, Zhang Jian's expression remained unchanged.

Although the River Luo Dao Sovereign had her past, present, and future severed by someone, she ultimately left traces in the deep river of fate within the Heavenly Spirit Realm; the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces never forgot her—this is the proof.

What Zhang Jian needs to do is simply gather her traces again, naturally able to recover her scattered spirit and true spirit fragments from the immeasurable spacetime and the depths of fate.

Only seen, above the Nine Provinces Divine Kingdom, thunderous sounds echoed, as if the immeasurable spacetime and the river of fate were summoned downward by the Three Lives Stone; countless threads of fate's traces condensed from within, forming into the figure of a pure and graceful female immortal.

As she gradually appeared, Zhang Jian activated the Nine Nether Authority; a vast divine power formed around the illusory form of the River Luo Immortal Sovereign, shaping into an ancient book that seemed black and white, as if possessing immeasurable purity and the light of life and death.

On the book flowed the two grand heavenly and earthly Dao rules of life and death, and reincarnation; the light seemed to pierce through the spacetime of the Heavenly Spirit Realm and the river of fate above.

The vast divine light, without concealment, directly rushed in, flowing upstream against the current, exerting full effort to search for the River Luo Dao Sovereign's spirit and qi.

At this moment, above the Heavenly Spirit Immortal Court, many deities, and the powerful beings dwelling in the various divine mountains and blessed lands within the Heavenly Spirit Realm, all became aware.

Merely sensing that terrifying divine power comparable to the supreme will, the myriad immortals and gods all chose to stand by and watch.

Upon sensing that the target of this divine light's search had no conflict of interest with the gods, many powerful beings naturally were also happy to observe from the sidelines.

They currently have no conflict with this Earth God.

Most of the immortals and gods with conflicts are of insufficient cultivation level, dare not come out to contend.

At this moment, the life and death, reincarnation Dao laws of the entire Heavenly Spirit Realm resonated together, mobilized by Zhang Jian; this realm-spanning Dao divine power was too astonishing, and Zhang Jian himself could not help but feel some ripples in his heart.

His cultivation level, compared to a thousand years ago, has indeed made great progress.

After a moment, Zhang Jian's expression stirred, yet he sensed that in a certain unknown special cave heaven, a ray of spiritual light resonated with the River Luo Dao Sovereign's Dao Sovereign body, and instantly flew out from within.

And within that cave heaven and blessed land, Zhang Jian then saw two 'old acquaintances'!

One was a white horse wearing bright dragon scales, with dragon horns on its head; the other was a mute, sullen large jade turtle.

These two old acquaintances also sensed his presence; the large jade turtle was fine, merely slightly so, but that dragon horse had a foul expression, and the two figures instantly vanished.

Subsequently, a large fragment of spirit flew out from within, falling into the River Luo Dao Sovereign's true body.

At the same time, Zhang Jian sensed that in the mortal realm, several living beings had the River Luo Dao Sovereign's true spirit qi circulating within them.

These are the results of a part of the River Luo Dao Sovereign's true spirit imprint being shattered and then reincarnated; to some extent, they have already become entirely new individuals.

After thinking, Zhang Jian thus did not insist.

With this spirit fragment, the River Luo Dao Sovereign can naturally be resurrected.

It is merely a severe loss of origin, inevitably requiring several cycles of reincarnation before returning to the path of longevity.

As an invisible divine light condensed from the void and fell into the River Luo Dao Sovereign's body, her lifeless vitality, like dead water, began to slowly flow at this moment, continuously surging into her Niwan Palace depths; moreover, threads of vital essence and qi drifted out from those instant divine flowers and deathless grass, to be absorbed by the River Luo Dao Sovereign.

The Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces clearly also sensed this extraordinary omen.

His eyes shone with a bright color.

Although the River Luo Dao Sovereign did not immediately awaken, it was evident that she had already been successfully revived!

At this moment, above the void, the boundless omens gradually subsided, and the Three Lives Stone transformed into a three-colored divine light, flying back into Zhang Jian's body.

He gazed upon the River Luo Dao Sovereign's true body, as the heavenly and earthly spiritual qi gently fluctuated around her.

The River Luo Dao Sovereign is still very fortunate.

Although she fell, her primordial spirit, true spirit, and still have a small portion of fragments preserved.

As long as a thread of true spirit exists, there is naturally a thread of vitality.

However, Zhang Jian indeed does not understand what connection this River Luo Dao Sovereign has with Fuxi the Heavenly Emperor, such that the Holy Emperor Fuxi sent the River Chart and Luo Book personally to safeguard her thread of vitality.

……

Outside the River Luo Divine Palace, Zhang Jian paused his steps, gazing into the distance at this magnificent Nine Provinces Divine Kingdom.

This divine realm is extraordinarily vast and immense.

Moreover, the divine realm's power continues to grow day by day.

If it continues to expand, the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces may not lack hope of glimpsing even a fraction of that Dao Venerable-level primordial ancestor realm.

At this moment, within the Hetu Luo Divine Palace, the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces has already arranged everything, stepping out from the main hall, his deep eyes shimmering with boundless light, as if all obsessions have been completely untied at this moment, his Dao heart has been replenished, appearing as one whose cultivation has greatly advanced, and around his body there is still an aura of great destruction.

This is the impending second great calamity of destruction.

Zhang Jian gazed into the distance, his expression unchanging, and asked.

"What do you plan to do next?

Will you continue to remain in the Tianling Realm as the Ancestral God of the Tianling Human Race, or do you wish to consider leaving this place?!"

Upon hearing this, the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces replied without hesitation.

"Your Majesty, this humble deity wishes to enter the Three Sovereigns' Heavenly Realm to cultivate in seclusion for a period of time!"

In the depths of the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces' eyes, wisdom shimmered.

"A wise choice!"

Zhang Jian smiled faintly, as the Tianling Realm selected humanity as the protagonists of heaven and earth, humanity will inevitably continue to expand.

In the short term, as the object of worship for humanity, the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces may perhaps gain some benefits, but this is something the Purple Micro Emperor's mansion cannot attend to, as it must first deal with the various innate gods, demons, and alien races, suppressing them completely.

Once the myriad stars and immortals of the Purple Micro Emperor's mansion free up their hands, how could they possibly stand by and watch the Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces monopolize the great fortune of the human Dao in this realm?

The grandeur and vastness of the Tianling Realm's heavenly and earthly origin are not inferior to that of the Earth Immortal Realm in any way.

In such a great realm, the fortune of the human Dao, human Dao faith—how could the myriad immortals and gods possibly have no ideas?

The Ancestral God of the Nine Provinces is not one of the many emperors of the Three Sovereigns' Heavenly Realm, nor the Human Sage Emperor.

Such a great cake cannot be guarded without corresponding strength.