Zhao Gongming's True Spirit slowly took shape within the Investiture of the Gods Space.
He stared blankly at the boundless golden space around him, filled with an air of holiness and majesty, and for a moment couldn't react.
"Where... where am I?"
"Didn't I... die?"
His memories still lingered on the final moment, when he had been ambushed by those two nobodies, Xiao Sheng and Cao Bao.
The humiliation, the unwillingness, the despair—all remained vividly etched deep within his soul.
Just then, a detached and majestic voice rang out from every direction, echoing directly within his True Spirit.
"This is the Investiture of the Gods."
"You, Zhao Gongming, died in the great calamity. Your True Spirit should be entered on the list and receive my investiture."
"The Investiture of the Gods?" Zhao Gongming shuddered. Of course he knew what the Investiture of the Gods was.
Wasn't it a plot by the Sect of Explanation to scheme against his Interception Sect?
How had he ended up here?
"Who are you?" Zhao Gongming asked warily.
"Who I am doesn't matter." The voice sounded again. "What matters is that from now on, I will control your fate."
As the voice fell, a brilliant golden light descended from the heavens, enveloping Zhao Gongming's True Spirit.
Beneath its radiance, all the resentment, unwillingness, and regret within his True Spirit were rapidly purified. His soul became purer and more peaceful than ever before.
Then an immense, refined divine power surged into his True Spirit, beginning to reshape his divine body.
"This... what is this..."
Zhao Gongming could feel that this divine power was of a higher and purer order than any magical power he had cultivated in life.
Before this force, even the Great Encompassing Dao Fruit he had once been so proud of seemed crude and insignificant.
"Don't be alarmed. This is the power of the Divine Dao."
Shen Zhaochi's voice carried a hint of guidance.
"Though you have died, this is also a new beginning. Join my Divine Dao, and you will escape the karma of the Immortal Dao, be freed from the constraints of the great calamity, and gain true immortality."
"I will invest you as the 'Golden Dragon Ruyi Zhengyi Dragon-Tiger Xuan Altar True Lord,' granting you dominion over the fortune of the world and the offerings of all its people. This divine position is no less than that of the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court. Are you willing?"
God of Wealth!
Ruler over the fortune of the world!
Zhao Gongming froze.
He had thought that the best outcome of being listed on the Investiture of the Gods would be to become some Heavenly Lord, serve at Haotian's command, and lose his freedom forever.
He had never imagined that the other party would grant him such a revered divine position, with such great authority!
Wealth was the foundation of every living being's survival.
To control the fortune of the world meant he would form the broadest and deepest ties of karma with all the beings of the Primordial Era.
As long as the beings of the Primordial Era still needed "wealth," the offerings to him would never run dry. His divine position would be as secure as a mountain!
This... this was an incredible stroke of fortune!
"I... I'm willing!"
Zhao Gongming agreed at once, without a second thought.
He wasn't a fool.
He was already dead. What was there to be fussy about?
To receive such a favorable end was already a blessing beyond all expectation.
Besides, he could sense that this mysterious master of the Investiture of the Gods... didn't seem to harbor any ill will toward him.
"Good."
Shen Zhaochi's voice held a hint of satisfaction.
He picked up his vermilion brush and swept it across the Investiture of the Gods, beside Zhao Gongming's name.
"I invest Zhao Gongming as the Golden Dragon Ruyi Zhengyi Dragon-Tiger Xuan Altar True Lord, grant him a divine seal, and place him in charge of his divine position!"
As his brush fell, golden light blazed across the Investiture of the Gods.
Zhao Gongming's divine body took shape in an instant.
He wore a golden divine robe and a purple-gold crown. His face was imposing, golden light of fortune encircled him, and he held a profound divine seal in his hand.
A powerful divine might radiated from him.
Feeling the endless divine power within him, linked to the laws of fortune throughout the entire Primordial Era, he was filled with shock.
So this was... godhood?
A power utterly unlike the Immortal Dao, yet immensely powerful!
"My thanks... for your investiture, God Lord!"
Zhao Gongming bowed deeply toward the empty space. This time, his gratitude was wholehearted.
"Think nothing of it." Shen Zhaochi's voice rang out again. "Now that you have joined my Divine Dao, settle here and cultivate in peace. Familiarize yourself with your Divine Position. The conflicts outside no longer concern you."
"But... my sisters..." Zhao Gongming asked with concern.
The ones he couldn't bear to leave behind were his three younger sisters: Yun Xiao, Qiong Xiao, and Bi Xiao.
He feared his death might provoke them, driving them to recklessly throw themselves into the great calamity.
"They have their own fates." Shen Zhaochi's voice betrayed no emotion. "The only thing you need to do now is mind your own affairs."
With that, silence fell over the space.
Zhao Gongming knew that the mysterious God Lord had left.
He looked at his new divine body and felt the immense power within him, his heart awash with conflicting emotions.
Only after a long while did he let out a deep sigh.
"So be it. I'll make the best of it."
He sat cross-legged and began to quietly contemplate his divine position as God of Wealth.
At the very moment Zhao Gongming's True Spirit was entered on the list and invested as the God of Wealth,
in the East Sea, on Golden Ao Island,
in the rear hall of Biyou Palace, within the cultivation grounds on Three Immortals Island,
Fairy Yunxiao, who had been meditating, suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart, as if an invisible blade had plunged straight through it.
She snapped her eyes open and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Eldest Sister! What's wrong?"
Qiong Xiao and Bi Xiao, who were beside her, were startled and hurried over.
Yunxiao paid them no heed. With trembling hands, she took out the life-linked jade talisman she had shared with Zhao Gongming.
The once smooth, lustrous talisman was now covered in cracks like a spiderweb.
"Crack—"
A crisp sound rang out, like a heart breaking.
The talisman shattered completely before the three sisters' eyes, crumbling into a pile of dull, lifeless powder.
"Eldest Brother!!!"
A cry of grief, sharp beyond all measure, tore from Yunxiao's lips.
Two streams of bloody tears instantly ran down her cheeks.
Qiong Xiao and Bi Xiao stared blankly at the pile of powder, their minds utterly blank.
The shattering of a life-linked jade talisman meant...
"No! Impossible! This can't be true!"
Bi Xiao shook her head frantically, unable to accept it.
"Eldest Brother's magic power is formidable, and he has the Sea Calming Divine Beads to protect him! How could he have died? This has to be fake! It's fake!"
"Who did it? Who was it?!"
Qiong Xiao reacted the most violently. She sprang to her feet, her eyes burning with fury and murderous intent.
"Who killed my eldest brother?!"
"I'll tear him limb from limb! I'll rip out his soul and refine it!"
Yunxiao, usually the calmest and most rational of the three sisters, had now lost control completely.
She rose slowly. Her beautiful face was covered in frost, and the hatred and murderous intent in her eyes could have frozen time itself.
Without a word, she silently walked toward the depths of the cultivation grounds.
There, a magical treasure was enshrined.
An Innate Spiritual Treasure formed from a mass of primordial chaos when heaven and earth were first divided.
It was shaped like a dou, and its color was gold.
It was the ultimate treasure the three sisters kept hidden, and one of the most lethal and powerful treasures in the entire Interception Sect, second only to the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords.
—The Primordial Golden Dou!
"Eldest Sister, you..." Qiong Xiao and Bi Xiao watched Yunxiao and understood what she intended to do.
"I'm going down the mountain."
Yunxiao's voice was so cold it held not a trace of emotion.
"I'm going to find out who killed my eldest brother."
"And then..."
"I'll make his entire lineage pay for my eldest brother—with their lives!"
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