Xu Zhi turned around and looked at Thunder Emperor, Dragon No Name, and the others.
They were among the earliest batch of players, and back then, their minds and thoughts had gradually been consumed by incense.
Incense is Poison.
The more incense power one used, the more severely one was assimilated.
These people had also had most of their minds eroded. Although the side effects of incense had been completely resolved in later eras, they had already lost many things.
They had become even more decayed than people like Nü Yi and Zhi Ji. They had lost the ability to innovate and had completely ceased advancing.
They were already half Incense Gods.
Now, though they were all Ninth-Order Dao Attainers sustained by the worship of countless billions of Seventh-Order extraordinary beings, with inexhaustible stamina, they no longer possessed the ability to progress or innovate.
Thus, they were merely responsible for maintaining order in the Heavenly Court, ordinary and unremarkable, never again displaying any brilliance.
"It has been a long time."
Messiah Monarch Great Emperor slowly raised his head and looked at the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals standing upon golden clouds. He smiled. "When we met in the Peach Orchard long ago, you were young and full of drive. Now, you reek of old age, clinging to the rules."
Dragon No Name's expression darkened. "To forge a path, there must always be sacrifices. Only when predecessors clear the way ahead and carve through thorns and brambles can things mature. Though sacrifice was not what we wished for, we also deserve credit for the maturation of the Incense Dragon Vein system."
Without pioneers like them to test the system and improve its flaws, it could not possibly have become so complete and free of side effects today.
They had not done