Thus, the Heavenly Court, originally modeled on feudal imperial power, gradually became a place where the nobles made decisions together.
Now, the immortals made decisions jointly.
The Heavenly Emperor truly became a position passed around in rotation, with a new election every cosmic era.
The benefit of this was that hatred became dispersed.
Karma would not all fall upon one person.
The long-lived Heavenly Emperors soon understood the necessity of doing this.
In truth, this was perfectly normal.
Earth's development had proven that the most stable model in the end was one where leaders had to be replaced regularly.
That could greatly release accumulated resentment.
And preserve stability.
Why did emperors inspire hatred? Because once they took the throne, they stayed there until death.
Both good and bad things were borne by the emperor.
But the current Heavenly Emperor had just been elected.
He had originally been the God of Wealth.
His greatest achievement, the capital that had allowed him to ascend as Heavenly Emperor, was changing the system from ordering immortals to work into one that enticed and motivated them with incense offerings, immortal power, and the necessities for food, drink, and entertainment.
As a result, everyone still had to work, still had to bring rain and eliminate disasters, but their enthusiasm had risen greatly, and things were no longer as rigid as before.
At the very least, far fewer people deliberately left work undone.
The God of Wealth had earned everyone's support by increasing the total amount of incense offerings received by the gods.
However, once he took office, he faced a new problem.
Revenue had dried up.
The greatest contradiction in the Heavenly Court was between the immortals' ever-growing extravagance and the relatively fixed total amount of incense offerings from devout believers.
The former grew exponentially; it