Chapter 208

Seven true immortals gathered in the capital, a spectacle unseen since ancient times!

Generally, after becoming true immortals, each family's immortals actively seek the immortal realm, since cultivating by eating humans in the mortal world is already too much of a challenge to the moral bottom line.

The cave-heaven cultivators who have always claimed to be the orthodox path, after becoming true immortals, basically all go to the legendary immortal realm to pursue the dream of infinite heavenly and earthly spiritual energy and other cultivation resources; being able to avoid eating people is, of course, better……

Therefore, it has never happened in a single country for seven true immortals to gather together, let alone that these seven true immortals have come together to jointly execute another opposing true immortal!

More importantly, the true immortal about to be executed also claims to be the reincarnation of the ancient Xuan Du Heavenly Emperor.

This inevitably adds a layer of fantastical, magical-realist feeling to today's great battle:

Modern true immortals, to execute an ancient heavenly emperor……

Is there any news more explosive than this?!

Of course, regarding this heavenly emperor's identity, the seven true immortals do not agree:

What era is the Heavenly Court from? And what era is this Xuan Du Heavenly Emperor, an old antique?

Leaving aside whether he is alive or dead, even if he really died and wanted to reincarnate, it would be impossible for him to reincarnate into this dark age of declining Dharma!

Those who believe this, surely their brains are not problematic, right?

The seven true immortals snorted at this.

Moreover, even if he truly is the reincarnation of an ancient heavenly emperor, don't think a single order will make the crowd kneel and surrender!

Furthermore, his surrender conditions, besides demanding unconditional surrender, also forbid the continued existence of human-eating cultivation……

No, in this declining Dharma age, if I don't eat people, how can I achieve longevity and become an immortal?

You, without saying a word, directly blocked the crowd's hope of longevity so tightly— isn't this obviously forcing the crowd to kill you?

Anyway, today you're fake if you're fake, and even if you're real you're still fake— in short, you're fake.

Execute the false emperor, it is happening today!

【However, it's not that no one expressed concern: given how arrogant the false emperor is, first ordering us to surrender unconditionally, then letting us break through…… no matter how you look at it, there's a problem!】

【"If not brain-dead, then they must have some reliance!"】

【A true immortal expressed worry, saying this expedition might not go as smoothly as we imagined……】

【Dog thief! How dare you undermine our army's morale!】

【Another true immortal cursed: "You surrender faction, I suspect you privately took fifty bottles of immortal pills from the false emperor!"】

【That true immortal: ……】

【"Will we win?"】

【Another true immortal timidly asked: "Although it's not good to say discouraging things, I really feel a bit nervous……"】

【"Sure to die!"】

【Someone responded like that.】

【The war-faction true immortal flew into a rage: "Who? Who is disturbing our army's morale?!"】

【The remaining six looked at each other, since they hadn't spoken, then……】

【The seven stared blankly at the black-robed, dignified youth floating beside them, and in an instant cold sweat poured forth!】

【"Continue whispering loudly."】

【You gave a slight smile.】

【"I'm listening."】

【The seven fell silent involuntarily……】

【……】

【The anticipated great battle does not exist, because when the power gap reaches a certain degree, fighting equals giving oneself up; if surrender is not absolutely forbidden, it's best to immediately surrender sensibly.】

【It is obvious that the seven true immortals all understand the worldly truth that those who know the times are outstanding; after a moment of silence, they decisively clicked to surrender……】

【The opposing aura is clearly one realm higher than ours; although below the sage realm it's not impossible for many ants to bite an elephant to death, but merely seven ants, no matter how strong, definitely cannot bite a dead elephant!】

【Everyone cultivates for longevity; now that we have finally become immortals, why risk our lives?】

【The immortal way values life, harmony is precious……】

【However, although the seven surrendered, this does not mean the matter is dropped; you, in the name of the Heavenly Emperor, issued them an order: after returning, seize all rebels and bring them to the capital to be beheaded, and others must also come to surrender!】

【In short, each cave-heaven must have half of its members as rebels; having fewer than that number means unwillingness to behave decently……】

【The seven true immortals couldn't help but sigh in relief; after hastily expressing thanks, they hurried back to select rebels— as for who is a rebel, whoever the little rooster points to gets chosen!】

【Not long after, over seventy thousand cave-heaven cultivators, under the leadership of each family's true immortal ancestors, entered the capital trembling with fear……】

【Half of them, amid wailing and cursing, were dragged to the Cai Shikou execution ground; the capital's civilians watched curiously and fearfully: it's strange, this execution ground used to behead only mortal thieves and rebels, but now it's actually beheading immortals!】

【It's not just beheading one or two, but tens of thousands of immortals at once— truly the Heavenly Emperor's myriad victories!】

【Those cave-heaven cultivators labeled with the "rebel" tag, under the civilians' gaze, completely broke down: everyone had been shouting "Execute the false emperor," so why are only we being arrested?!】

【Dog-bastard ancestor!】

【Amid the wails of grief and anger, you personally carried out the execution, beheading those thirty-plus cultivators one by one; for a time it truly was a river of blood, the scene extremely horrifying!】

【Under the stimulation of blood and authority, all spectators, whether mortal or cultivator, felt their whole bodies tremble— this is both excitement and, more so, fear.】

【Today's Heavenly Emperor can slay cultivators as easily as cutting grass; he truly is no kind-hearted fellow……】

【After this frenzied beheading of immortals' heads at Cai Shikou, some enthusiasts couldn't help but associate it with the ancient Heavenly Court's "Execution Platform for Demons," and privately gave this place the name "Execution Platform for Immortals."】

【Execution Platform for Immortals, officially named!】

【……】

【After the execution, you ordered the heavenly officials to clean up the corpses and blood, then collected the vast spiritual energy they emitted, and issued an edict to the heavenly officials: henceforth, any spiritual energy obtained from slaying opposing cultivators shall be deposited into the state treasury and distributed as stipends to the heavenly officials!】

【When this edict was issued, the cultivators who had been mourning like rabbits mourning a fox quickly changed their minds: after all, we're just mixing around seeking longevity and immortality, aren't we?】

【Now, by joining under the Heavenly Court's banner, as long as you work diligently, you will receive spiritual energy dispensed; future immortality is also not impossible!】

【For a time, these newly surrendered fellows all developed some sense of identification with your Heavenly Court regime……】

However, you don't need their approval, nor did you think you could win them over completely by conventional means; compared to that illusory loyalty, you have more faith in the power of the Thought Seal!

Then you individually performed the sacred 'Purification' on them, the Blood God Son entered their bodies, and instantly they all became brainless fans!

Loyalty! Sincerity!

The Heavenly Emperor's grace is not yet repaid!

Very good.

You smiled with relief...

The reason you didn't kill them all is mainly because the Heavenly Court is currently in need of personnel; to effectively govern the vast primordial realm, lacking a sufficiently large bureaucratic system is impossible, and you also couldn't be bothered to train cultivator officials yourself—it's better to just recruit them directly.

Next, you took the opportunity to establish a sound official system: the Heavenly Court is still in its early stages, and due to the influence of the Age of Dharma Decline, achieving the ancient Heavenly Court's official system is impossible; improvement must be made.

You decided: mortals serve as clerks, cultivators as officials; mortals are not allowed to cultivate immortality, nor to hold regular official posts, and their stipends are worldly wealth!

The reason you don't allow them to cultivate immortality is not just due to aptitude issues; more importantly, it's because of a lack of spiritual energy, making universal cultivation unnecessary. With life and death, learning from the model of Central Province works fine.

However, you didn't completely copy Central Province's model: first, cultivator officials won't support mortals as Central Province does; they only handle governance, while mortals fend for themselves, lest you spoil the mortals and exhaust the cultivators.

Furthermore, mortal souls after death need not be turned into spiritual energy as in Central Province; let them drift freely between heaven and earth, and you do not allow cannibalistic behavior to appear under your rule!

Meanwhile, cultivators serving as heavenly officials may periodically receive spiritual energy as a stipend before achieving immortality.

You drew on your past life's experience, understanding that cultivation cannot proceed without spiritual energy's support. Although you could use the Blood God Son to order the heavenly officials to work unpaid as Palu, if you want the horse to run, you must feed it grass; the officials' daily work itself consumes spiritual energy, so a spiritual energy stipend is indispensable.

Furthermore, without achieving immortality, one cannot attain longevity; cultivators have lifespans, and you can't just watch them die of old age, so you must provide them with the spiritual energy resources needed to achieve immortality.

But the innate spiritual energy produced by the seven-colored little bird is only enough for your own use; you couldn't possibly take that precious innate spiritual energy and give it as wages to them...

Therefore, the spiritual energy you use to pay wages can only come from human souls.

But since you've already decided not to completely replicate Central Province's model, you naturally wouldn't allow cultivators to seize mortal souls, so you choose... to seize the cultivators'!

Anyway, the primordial realm is vast and cultivators are many; you can completely treat them like wild monsters to be cleared, and the spiritual energy gained can be deposited into the national treasury as stipends for the heavenly officials!

However, your stipends will only be paid up to the True Immortal stage; once they achieve True Immortality, they become immortal, deathless free Palu, so you naturally need not be polite to them anymore...

In short, the Heavenly Court you aim to build is not the mighty one of ancient myth; there's no need for them to cultivate to Taiyi or Daluo—True Immortal is enough; any stronger and you couldn't afford to support them.

In your ideal Heavenly Court, all heavenly officials are True Immortals, all commoners are mortals; under your Heavenly Emperor's edict, the True Immortal officials diligently serve the mortals without any stipend, each being your tool!

Thus, it is an era of peace and prosperity!

After granting offices to the newly joined cultivators, you had your ministers maintain the Heavenly Court's operation, while you yourself cultivated alone in the imperial palace.

Before, you had wondered why your cultivation speed was so much slower than in your past life.

After several rounds of reasoning, you could only attribute the problem to slaughter: the only doubtful difference between past and present lives is that in your past life you slaughtered all kinds of beings, whereas in this life you have hardly killed anyone.

So perhaps, if you just kill more people, your cultivation speed could pick up again...

Although the more you think about it, the more absurd it seems—after all, killing living beings has always been a sin; who ever heard of killing to gain a cultivation boost?! But given the circumstances, you have no choice but to try it first.

"All things in the world are already absurd enough; cultivators must eat people to become immortals, so killing people to speed up cultivation isn't an unfathomable divine logic..."

With the mindset of seeking truth through practice, you silently began to circulate your cultivation method...

After a moment, you opened your eyes and sighed helplessly.

This heaven-defying speculation was proven by your own experience: "Killing people indeed speeds up cultivation speed…"

(End of chapter)