Heavenly Emperor
Trait: Heavenly Court - Heavenly Emperor
Tag: [Heavenly Emperor], [Immortal], [King], [Rule]
Synopsis: Mortals have mortal dynasties, mortal officials, and mortal laws; immortals, too, have immortal dynasties, immortal officials, and immortal laws.
The concept of immortals has existed for a long time, and the worship of "Heaven" has been practiced since ancient times. However, it was only after the benevolent souls of those whose relatives were still alive became City Gods and appeared in the human world that people gradually learned about a fragment of this so-called Heavenly Court.
So, there is a Heavenly Palace above the Nine Heavens; so, there is an Underworld below the Nine Netherworlds; so, the Dragon Palaces of the Four Seas are all subordinate to the Heavenly Court; so, after death, people are rewarded or punished according to their good and evil deeds in life...
Powers: [Supreme God], [Lord of the Heavenly Court], [Investiture of the Gods and Conferment of Immortality]
Real World Rules: [Sacrifice to the Heavenly Emperor]
Companion Phantom: [Heavenly Palace], [Netherworld], [Reincarnation]
"We've really struck it rich this time!"
Feng Xue stared dumbfounded at the newly generated Trait. Putting aside the surging Supernatural Tale Fire, the three Companion Phantom alone made him feel as if every pore on his body was about to explode.
Not only were the Heavenly Palace Space Station and the Underworld Consciousness Information Processing Department left behind by Hong transformed into super-large Companion Phantom imbued with metaphysical power, but an additional cycle of reincarnation was also created...
"Wait... this feeling of reincarnation... damn, did I somehow steal the backup plan that Jun left for the Western Teachings?"
Feng Xue fiddled with the disc-shaped Phantom Object made up of six light wheels in her hand, feeling somewhat dazed.
Turn out to be...
Is digging up graves of people who have no descendants really that profitable?
It's no wonder he was so surprised, after all, these three Companion Phantom were far more powerful than any Phantom Object he had ever seen before. Only the Gynomorphic Filter, the Peerless Martial Art, and the Omni-Press Drive could rival them on an absurd level.
But that's only on an outrageous level; these three Phantom Object, however, are truly powerful!
Because they are not simply "one" Phantom Object, but rather super-large Phantom Object born from the fusion of the legacies left by two Weird Tale.
This "large" refers not only to their size but also to their functions. To put it simply, even with Feng Xue's Golden Finger, she could only look at the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the Heavenly Court, and the Underworld; those were completely incomprehensible.
It's not that the Golden Finger malfunctioned; rather, each part of this thing has a different function.
For example, this underworld has completely broken away from the original underground organization of the [Consciousness Information Processing Department], which consisted of only a few hundred supercomputer arrays and a production line of supporting little devils (machine equipment maintenance robots), and has become a special structure that is close to "subspace".
According to the legends released by Feng Xue through the City God, the Underworld has even spawned a series of Phantom Object such as the Yomi Road Ghost Gate, the Road to the Bridge of Helplessness, the River of River of Forgetfulness, the Mirror of Sin, the Mirror of Karma, the Stone of Three Lives, the Wangxiang Terrace, Meng Po's Pot, the Hall of Yama, the Book of Life and Death, and the Judge's Brush. Although each of these can be considered Phantom Object on its own, they are essentially derivatives of the super-large Phantom Object of the Underworld.
Even the City God Temple is included in this Underworld Phantom Object System. In other words, Feng Xue no longer needs to find those ancient temples to disguise as City God Temple. With just a thought, City God Temple will be created in every city in this world, and the locals will naturally assume that they already exist there.
Just like the Underworld, the Heavenly Palace is the same. With the power of the Ascension Platform, as long as he sets the standards for Ascend to Godhood, he can immediately select intelligent life forms suitable for "becoming a god" from all over the world. Then, with Feng Xue's power of [Investiture of the Gods and Conferment of Immortality], he can confer a godhood upon them and make them a part of the Group Supernatural Tale of the [Heavenly Court].
In comparison, the Six Paths of Reincarnation seems rather weak, perhaps because it is essentially an appendage of the Underworld. Its function is quite limited; it can only compress and package Consciousness Data according to the laws recorded in the [Book of Underworld Law] and then put it into the reincarnation process. The only things that can affect it, besides its master Feng Xue, include the three Underworld-derived Phantom Object: the [Book of Life and Death], the [Judge's Brush], and the [Book of Underworld Law].
If there's anything unusual about it, it's that it can regenerate the souls of enemies into animals, demons, or similar creatures. In addition, the Ascension Platform bestows upon mortals the title of celestial officials and grants them the characteristic of immortality, which is also achieved through the [Path of Humans and Gods] of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
However, while these three Phantom Object are incredibly overpowered, they are also subject to significant limitations. In a sense, they are an important part of the [Heavenly Court] Weird Tale, and therefore cannot be taken away from this world at will. Otherwise, it could lead to various troubles. Explaining this in detail would be too lengthy, but in general, it's like the Scales Organization suddenly losing its ability to make coins, which could easily cause the Weird Tale to collapse.
However, even if she leaves this world, Feng Xue can rely on her power Lord of the Heavenly Court to temporarily use a projected Phantom Object, including modifying the Underworld Laws and Heavenly Rules, all of which are accomplished through the corresponding Phantom Object.
As for the last [Supreme God's] power, simply put, it is the ability to absolutely crush all members of this pantheon. Even if there are other Weird Tale with them, as long as they cannot shield themselves from the faction belonging to their own Heavenly Court, they will be subject to control.
It can be said that this set of templates is extremely exaggerated, and it is not something that could be produced in a short period of time. After thinking it over, Feng Xue could only attribute it to the legacy accumulated by Hong and Jun.
Hong brought technology, causing the world's population to explode, while Jun promoted cultivation, giving the people of this world the concept of immortals. The combination of the two, along with a little push, was equivalent to skipping the most time-consuming part of forming the Weird Tale— the concept implantation (that is, getting everyone to accept that such a thing exists)—and completing the final unification.
If there's anything lacking in this Weird Tale...
That means they lack direct Combat Power.
Right.
It's somewhat laughable that, despite being the [Heavenly Emperor], this Weird Tale didn't grant Feng Xue any overt power boost. Although she could summon Five Thunders Strike the Top, Purple Heaven Divine Thunder (ship cannons), 100,000 heavenly soldiers, and a net of Heavenly Net and Earthly Net at any time, in essence, it seemed no different from using other Phantom Object.
"Hmm, am I being a bit greedy?" Feng Xue grinned, but his expression suddenly froze, because he suddenly felt a strong sense of déjà vu washing over him—
"Come to think of it, why does this feeling feel so familiar?"
He immediately perked up and seized that fleeting inspiration.
"By the way, Hundred Tales, although the level is a bit lower, isn't this just the Hundred Tales formula?"
Feng Xue suddenly slammed her fist into her palm, immediately realizing that although direct investiture seemed more convenient than the Midsummer Night Festival ceremony of the Hundred Tales, it was based on the premise that the corresponding legend had already been passed down.
In a way, it does have a bit of the feel of Hyakumonogatari (The Tale of Hundred Tales).
"So why did the Mohism advocate the existence of ghosts? Because Mo Ju was the Heavenly Emperor!"
Many people believe that the rebellion of the Marquis of Dong Bo ended quickly in the original novel, but this is actually a misconception. To be precise, the Marquis of Dong Bo and Queen Jiang died first, and only then did the Marquis of Dong Bo's forces rebel.
After the death of the Marquis of Dong Bo, his son Jiang Wenhuan was the first of the eight hundred vassal lords to rebel (in fact, if we have to say, Su Hu of Jizhou rebelled even earlier, but he surrendered after offering Daji). The most remarkable thing is that Jiang Wenhuan even whipped King Zhou at the very end. If we have to say, we can only say that the old Marquis of Dong Bo, Jiang Huanchu, died early, but it was his son Jiang Wenhuan who truly rebelled. The reason why the text uses "Marquis of Dong Bo" is to refer to the Marquis of Dong Bo's camp.
At the same time, the original work jumps six years in a single sentence between chapters sixteen and seventeen (the book says five years, but according to the timeline, including the two years after Lao Jiang went down the mountain and got married, it should have jumped at least six years). This means that in the previous chapter, Ziya got married and told fortunes, and in the next chapter, he met King Wen. However, there is actually an eight-year difference in this period (he went down the mountain in 1972 and met King Wen in 1980). This also led to a misjudgment of the timeline of the original work.
In summary, while Investiture of the Gods is quite well-known, in terms of the author's writing skill, it's far inferior to Journey to the West *... not to mention its numerous blatant plagiarisms of Journey to the West *...
Finally, although *Investiture of the Investiture of the Gods lacks imagination, has weak battle descriptions, abrupt time transitions, various Deus Ex Machina, and many strange character portrayals (since ancient sources are limited, we won't discuss historical accuracy issues), the story is still quite interesting.