Chapter 209

As you swiftly quelled all domestic opposition forces, whether mortals or cultivators, they all began to act under your orders.

Ancient Golden Heaven Emperor took humanity as the foundation, ruling over all the tribes of heaven and earth; now your Heavenly Court also imitates the ancient emperor's methods, carrying out its own construction: you use the Blood God Son to brainwash cultivators, then take the cultivators as the foundation of power, establishing a vast and intricate ruling apparatus.

Although you lack the governance talent and ability of the Golden Heaven Emperor, you know how to employ people; you selected talents from the heavenly officials and had them form an efficient and accurate administrative apparatus, delegating all governing authority to them.

Thus, even without you, the Heavenly Emperor, overseeing it, the Heavenly Court could still operate normally, freeing you from tedious state affairs so you could focus on cultivation; aside from a few major matters that required your decision, you were essentially idle…

You, having found people to sideline yourself… truly a prodigy of governance!

But you feel nothing about this, firstly because you still wield the Blood God Son to control their loyalty and life and death, plus your cultivation power absolutely overwhelms them; no matter how great the power of lower officials, you cannot lose your dominant position.

In the Dharma-ending era, spiritual energy itself is an extremely scarce cultivation resource, yet maintaining a territory of enormous size inevitably requires employing cultivators, and cultivator work must have spiritual energy.

And your so-called "internal consolidation" is actually just clearing out redundant officials; you repeatedly launched internal purges, beheading people left and right to fill the treasury… but this only treats symptoms, not the root cause—the demand for spiritual energy is a bottomless pit!

Zhao Si pondered briefly, then clicked directly:

"Choose B!"

You chose option B, external slaughter: Heaven-born myriad things nourish people, yet people have nothing to repay Heaven… Profound Heaven Emperor declares: Kill, kill, kill!

The other faction, however, is not a war party either, because you are now a Heavenly Immortal plus seven True Immortals—a force they cannot match militarily, so they don't want to court death.

In the cultivators' circle, information spreads extremely quickly; right after you forcibly subdued the domestic seven great blessed lands, the news immediately spread to all corners of the realms.

In the fourth year of the Heavenly Emperor, the royal houses of the ten surrounding states all submitted memorials, voluntarily relinquishing power and offering their lands to the Heavenly Court!

Upon the edict, the heavenly officials all rejoiced that they had surrendered early; otherwise this time they'd be finished…

Fellow Daoist, lend me your spiritual energy for a moment!

In short, under your "absentee monarch system," this new Heavenly Court gradually flourishes; although its various benefits cannot match those of the Zhongzhou "utopia," clearly your Heavenly Court is healthier and more normal.

However, "one Daoist's death is not another's poverty"—coincidentally, your colleagues were worried about insufficient spiritual energy stipends; with this edict out, they simply went hunting in the wild!

Signed: Xuan Du!

Mortals relying on their own efforts will not be spoiled; the populace brims with vigorous vitality.

Zhao Si carefully placed himself in Xue Xiaohei's perspective:

"Gathering the strength of all is the best strategy!"

Ten years later, the Heavenly Court continued expanding its territory, annexing over eight thousand states in one go, and reorganizing nearly a hundred million heavenly officials!

In the third year of the Heavenly Emperor, the Heavenly Court slew thirty thousand rebel blessed-land cultivators, establishing its ferocious might in one fell swoop, causing immortals and mortals of all states to tremble in fear!

By the 290th year of the Heavenly Emperor, your subordinates numbered over one hundred thousand True Immortals!

【...】

But their concern is not whether you are truly the reincarnation of Xuan Du, but rather what your attitude toward them is.

Thus, another round of consolidation…

In the eighth year of the Heavenly Emperor, another 108 regional states submitted memorials requesting internal affiliation, and the Heavenly Emperor granted them gold and silver stipends.

All evil will ultimately be punished by law!

Moreover, there is now a very pressing problem troubling you.

Thereafter, the army of one hundred thousand True Immortals regularly went out to suppress cultivators, sending the seized spiritual energy back to the capital, and the conquered lands were immediately assigned heavenly officials to take charge!

Spiritual energy is insufficient!

The stipend system you established back then has long been on the verge of collapse under the enormous bureaucracy, with hundreds of billions of heavenly officials clamoring for sustenance, and domestic spiritual energy is extremely scarce…

Furthermore, your revealed attitude opposes eating people, yet where in the world are there cultivators who don't eat people? Once you harbor the resolve to eradicate evil completely, what awaits them is an unavoidable massacre of their entire sects!

"However… he seems to indeed have no better alternative…"

In the 300th year of the Heavenly Emperor, the Heavenly Court, which had never launched large-scale warfare since its founding, under the edict of the Profound Heaven Emperor directly mobilized one hundred thousand True Immortals, forming a hundred thousand heavenly troops and generals; with this fearsome strength, it launched a devastating strike against cultivators of all states east of the Heavenly Court!

One faction is the classic pessimistic surrender party, advocating prostrating surrender, offering loyalty from afar, presenting their lands and wealth to gain the status of a dog…

The Heavenly Emperor approved this, causing the heavenly officials to incorporate the lands and populations of the ten states, and each of the ten royal families received rewards.

Meanwhile, abroad, astonishing stories were spreading about the "reincarnation of Xuan Du" rebuilding the Heavenly Court!

Whether orthodox or heretical, as long as one is a cultivator, they fall within the extermination scope!

"Never mind, if we die we just restart!"

Without spiritual energy supply, the Heavenly Court is essentially nonexistent; this is not a problem that can be solved by heavenly officials willingly serving as free Pals!

And to obtain spiritual energy, one can only extract and convert mortal souls… the Heavenly Court certainly cannot do that, otherwise what difference would it have from Zhongzhou?

Therefore, no matter how Xue Xiaohei thinks, he always has only one direction to choose, namely:

Slaughter cultivators!

The army returned victorious, the Heavenly Emperor greatly pleased, and the obtained spiritual energy is immeasurable.

Cultivators work diligently, loyally serving the Heavenly Emperor; each is a brainless fan who expects no stipend.

"So extreme?"

What's wrong with being a dog of the Heavenly Court? Being able to serve as its dog is the greatest honor! Indeed!

Under such efficient expansion, you suddenly realized how laughable your past self was, actually thinking you could annihilate the primordial immortal path by your own strength…

You secretly made a resolution, deciding to maintain your spiritual energy reserves by the most extreme means…

Everyone was eagerly discussing: The Profound Heaven Emperor living a second life is truly a blessing to the world…

Thus you soon received a declaration of war!

A: Internal slaughter, due to the Heavenly Court's redundant-official problem causing an empty treasury, you should slaughter internally to physically reduce demand! B: External slaughter, Heaven-born myriad things nourish people, yet people have nothing to repay Heaven… Profound Heaven Emperor declares: Kill, kill, kill!

【...】

In the thirty-sixth year of the Heavenly Emperor, seeing the ever-expanding bureaucracy, the Emperor announced a temporary halt to accepting territorial submissions; the domains under the Heavenly Court must undertake overall construction to digest the vast lands absorbed.

In the sixth year of the Heavenly Emperor, the former lands of the ten states altogether offered seventy-two blessed lands, all submitting surrender; aside from a few cultivators who fled due to noncompliance with heavenly statutes, nearly a million cultivators joined the heavenly official ranks, causing the officialdom to swell dramatically!

Secondly, because you are inherently not a power-seeking being; you lack both exceptional governance ability and corresponding desire for power, and unless ruling the primordial wilderness is an imperative undertaking, you would not want to establish a troublesome Heavenly Court…

Either slaughter internally or externally; there is no third option…

And this broad direction can be divided into two approaches: one is to reduce demand internally, the other is to increase supply externally.

【Such achievements have long surpassed the hundreds of thousands of realms you slaughtered in your past life… You have both deeply grasped the limits of individual ability and been shocked by the vastness of the primordial expanse: having expanded this much land, you still occupy only one ten‑trillionth of the Western Wasteland…】

Zhao Si looked speechlessly at this brilliant idea, for the problem of redundant officials in the Heavenly Court is actually no problem at all—now the territory is small, so there are redundant officials; once the territory expands, won't that be fine!

Moreover, with many celestial officials dead, how can the Heavenly Court still administer? Obviously not an option.

【Your prohibition against eating people truly strikes at their fundamental interests—becoming an immortal is everyone's dream and pursuit, and this decree of yours is practically severing the path to immortality!】

If we don't take spiritual energy from mortals, we'll take it from cultivators; in short, we need ample reserves of spiritual energy.

【Everyone is discussing the affairs of the Heavenly Court!】

【And so, over the next few years, you continually received all sorts of foreign news.】

【Under such a simple and effective system, a prosperous age of peace is certainly no difficulty!】

【With this alternating rotation, when land expansion reaches its limit we integrate internally; once integration is complete we expand outward again.】

【Ding! Facing the spiritual‑energy shortage brought by the Age of Dharma's End, you choose: (?)】

【Among the celestial officials, true immortals keep being born; originally, cultivators of the Western Wasteland needed only about two hundred years to become immortals, but although the stipend you give is too low, affecting their cultivation speed, true immortals still appear from time to time.】

【Faced with an organized, disciplined force of one hundred thousand true immortals, cultivators everywhere have no power to resist; wherever they pass, everything is swept away…】

【By the 350th year of the Heavenly Emperor, the Heavenly Court had altogether eradicated tens of millions of big and small blessed grotto‑heavens in the West, slain an uncountable number of cultivators, and often destroyed the grotto‑heavens themselves to gather the stray spiritual energy.】

"Slaughtering the internal celestial officials…… isn't that just crippling the Heavenly Court's administrative ability?!"

【After all, no matter how you put it, you are still a celestial immortal; facing blessed grotto‑heavens that lack even a true immortal, it's basically a dimensional strike.】

"As for opening slaughter abroad…… let's slaughter, after all they're all man‑eating treasures; slaughtering them also counts as upholding the righteous path."

【And so we expand the land again……】

Indeed, it's that demonic path ruthless one who shattered the entire Western Wasteland with a single burst of primordial force—both options are slaughter!

【But your arrogant actions soon attracted the attention of a certain major external power, and upon learning of your "Xuan Du reincarnation" identity, the other party became quite agitated.】

【After ten years of such integration, the realm is well governed, and the people all rejoice in the Heavenly Emperor's prosperous age……】

【So everyone is afraid, and under the catalysis of fear they naturally split into two factions, just like those seven blessed grotto‑heavens before.】

【You sigh while reviewing the various statistics of your domain: population in the ten‑trillions, land in millions of square states, and the total number of celestial officials in the tens of billions!】

【You immediately made up your mind to begin embodying the Great Western King!】

Zhao Si, who hadn't seen Xue Xiaohei pull off such antics in a long while, faced the two options and was momentarily dumbfounded:

"One internal, one external…… isn't that just opening slaughter?"

【Throughout the Heavenly Court, everything is thriving and prosperous!】

【So…… they chose to open moisture!】

But this will undoubtedly force outside cultivators, who want to become lackeys but fail, to be driven to desperation and simply take up arms against the Heavenly Court……

【"We can't go on like this……"】

【In the 294th year of the Heavenly Emperor, you announced to your ministers a major edict: given cultivators' heinous habit of eating people, which truly violates the orthodox Dao, from now on the Heavenly Court will no longer accept foreign cultivators, and all foreign cultivators will be exterminated!】

【You: ……】

……

(End of chapter)