The Role of Deities

Liang Ji's Natal Star, Dragon Soul Star, in the Nine Springs Underworld.

A dark sun hung high in the sky, its dim light spilling across the layers of the Underworld. Under its light, all manner of underworld spirit plants, such as yin trees and nethergrass, were nourished and grew.

Within that dark sun, a scroll was faintly visible, floating in the air. It was the Deification List, fused with the Star Origin. It continually plundered the Origin from the underworld of Mu Yun Star, and the stolen Origin flowed into the Nine Springs Underworld along with the sun's ghostly radiance.

As the Origin slowly increased, the Nine Springs Underworld's territory expanded as well. The sky grew higher, the earth thicker, and the Nine Springs at its center broader and deeper.

The number of ghosts and gods, and Ghost Officials, that each layer of the Underworld could support increased once more.

In Fengquan City, Yaquan City, Yellow Spring City, Lower Spring City, and the other ghost cities across the layers of the Underworld, the Heavenly Emperor Cult's ghost priests and church leaders summoned the ghosts inside and outside each city. They held grand ceremonies before the temples and altars, bowing toward the sky.

Liang Ji's figure appeared in the Underworld sky, wreathed in starlight, immense and supremely sacred. He reached up and beckoned, and the Deification List flew out from the Underworld's Origin, landing in his hand. As he unfurled it, he chanted a Divine Decree. Each divine note rang out like the voice of the Great Dao, transforming into celestial flowers, golden lotuses, and runes that sank into the Deification List. Like a masterful brush, they added divine names to the list and condensed new divine edicts.

"...In the name of the Heavenly Emperor, I confer the Crimson Edict of