Before long, the Heavenly Monarch descended from the Nine Heavens in person to recruit Shi Yongheng and the Willow Deity, but they refused him.
If they had not known that time flowed differently here, and that they were only avatars, the Willow Deity would never have stayed for tens of thousands of years.
Even so, after so many years in this world, they had grown tired of it. They decided to move on to the next.
"Qingtian, you cannot seal me away!" An unwilling roar rang through the God Realm.
"Heh. Xuan Yi, reflect on your actions in Jiuyou.
Zhiyang, after I am gone, you will govern the Chaos Hall until the Chaos Chief God is born!"
"Yes, Ancestral God!"
A figure stood there, neither joyful nor sorrowful. Then his body dissolved into motes of light and vanished between heaven and earth.
"Ancestral God!"
Cries of grief rose, and sorrow spread throughout the God Realm.
Inside the Samsara Divine Hall, two people quietly watched it all: the Willow Deity and Shi Yongheng, the God of Life and the God of Death.
Nearly a hundred thousand years had passed since they arrived in this world. Though they were only High Gods here, they counted among the ancient deities.
Both had been born in antiquity as Innate gods nurtured by heaven and earth. In seniority, they stood on equal footing with the so-called Ancestral God, Qingtian.
They both knew Qingtian had not died. He had merely merged with the Heavenly Dao, giving rise to the tale that the Ancestral God had created the world.
By their reckoning, Qingtian's cultivation was comparable to the Severing Self Realm of the Nine Heavens.
The True Gods of this world were roughly on par with those in the Heavenly God Realm of the Nine Heavens,