"That question."
"Who will answer it?"
Zhao Xuan's voice was not loud.
Yet it was like a nail driven into the heart of everyone in the Primordial World.
Outside Golden Turtle Island, the sea breeze paused for a moment.
It was no heavenly portent.
It was simply too quiet.
So quiet that even the scattered cultivators watching from afar could hear their own throats bob as they swallowed.
The fourth page hung above the Investiture of the Gods Accountability Ledger.
The words on it were perfectly clear.
Benefits of the Investiture: the Heavenly Court gained divinities, the Chan Sect avoided calamity, the Western Sect gained power, and the Xuan Sect gained order.
Costs of the Investiture: why should the Interception Sect bear them alone?
The question was too direct.
So direct that there was no room to maneuver.
The first question had asked whether the Interception Sect was guilty.
Now, the second asked who was reaping the benefits.
Zhao Xuan looked up at the Investiture of the Gods List above the Nine Heavens.
"Investiture of the Gods List."
"You've listed three crimes of the Interception Sect."
"Then shouldn't you also list the four benefits of the Investiture?"
"First, what did the Heavenly Court gain?"
As his words fell,
inside High Heaven Hall,
Haotian's face darkened at once.
Taibai Jinxing's heart tightened.
Here it came.
Zhao Xuan wasn't asking whether the Heavenly Court had been involved.
He was asking outright what the Heavenly Court stood to gain.
That was harsher than an accusation.
Because the Heavenly Court could not deny it.
The Investiture of the Gods List had appeared precisely to fill the Heavenly Court's ranks with divinities.
Three hundred and sixty-five righteous gods.
The Eight Departments of Immortals.
The Thunder Department, Fire Department, Plague Department, Dou Department, Wealth Department, and Water Department.
Once the gods took their positions, the Heavenly Court would finally have the framework it needed to rule the Three Realms.
That was the Heavenly Court's greatest benefit.
Haotian's fingers slowly clenched inside his sleeve.
He wanted to say this was about the order of the Three Realms.
But the words reached his lips and stopped there.
Because Zhao Xuan wasn't asking about order.
He was asking about benefits.
No matter how grand the word "order" sounded, it could not conceal the fact that the Heavenly Court would ultimately be the one in control.
Outside Golden Turtle Island,
Zhao Xuan did not wait for the Heavenly Court to answer.
He picked up his brush and wrote the first line on the fourth page.
Benefit to the Heavenly Court: replenishing its divine ranks through the Investiture, gaining the gods of the various departments, and establishing authority over the Three Realms.
As the words settled,
High Heaven Hall fell utterly silent.
No one dared say it was wrong.
No one could say it was wrong.
Zhao Xuan continued, "What did the Chan Sect gain?"
Inside Yuxu Palace,
Guangchengzi abruptly looked up.
Chijingzi's expression changed as well.
Among the Twelve Golden Immortals, some looked cold, while others felt their hearts grow uneasy.
They knew exactly what the Chan Sect had gained.
It had avoided calamity.
It had kept its peace.
It had kept the Twelve Golden Immortals off the list.
It had preserved the foundations of its disciples' immortal paths.
If the Investiture of the Gods List was to be filled, disciples of all Three Teachings would be caught in the calamity.
But if most of those who ended up on the list were from the Interception Sect, then the Chan Sect would naturally face a lighter burden.
For every disciple of the Interception Sect who died, one less disciple of the Chan Sect would die.
No one said it aloud.
But that was how the tally worked.
Yuanshi Tianzun sat upon his Cloud Bed, his expression growing colder.
Zhao Xuan's brush had already fallen.
Benefit to the Chan Sect: using the Interception Sect to bear the calamity, protecting the Twelve Golden Immortals, and preserving the purity of the immortal path at Yuxu.
"How dare you!"
Guangchengzi finally could not hold back and snapped.
But he stopped after those two words.
Because he suddenly realized he had no way to keep berating him.
Call Zhao Xuan's words slander?
Then would the Chan Sect agree to let the Twelve Golden Immortals be placed on the list?
Call Zhao Xuan's words nonsense?
Then why weren't the Twelve Golden Immortals of Chan Sect listed among the primary names?
Say that Zhao Xuan showed disrespect to a Sage?
But Zhao Xuan was asking about the tally.
He wasn't demanding anyone bow.
Guangchengzi's chest heaved, his face turning hideously grim.
Zhao Xuan paid him no mind.
His voice continued to ring out.
"What did the Western Sect gain?"
Atop Mount Sumeru,
the smile on Zhunti's face faded completely.
Jieyin raised his eyes as well.
This question was even more unpleasant.
Because in the Investiture Game, the Western Sect had always been the one best at pretending to be poor.
The West was barren.
The West had no disciples.
The West had shallow foundations.
The West could not afford any more losses.
But after the Investiture, had the Western Sect really gained nothing?
No.
It gained people.
It gained fortune.
It gained an opening created by the breaking apart of the great Eastern sects.
It gained an opportunity in the wake of the Ten Thousand Immortals of the Interception Sect scattering.
It gained a path to the West's future rise.
Zhao Xuan wrote.
Benefit to the Western Sect: taking advantage of the East's internal strife, guiding disciples of the Interception Sect to the West, seizing the East's fortune, and opening the way for the West to prosper.
Zhunti stared at that line.
For a long while,
he suddenly smiled.
This time, however, the smile did not reach his eyes.
"Senior Disciple Brother of the Interception Sect."
"You keep an awfully detailed tally."
Jieyin said nothing.
Because the finer the tally, the harder it was to dispute.
Outside Golden Turtle Island,
Zhao Xuan looked up one last time.
"What did the Xuan Sect gain?"
This question sounded gentler than the first three.
Yet it weighed heavily on the hearts of many mighty figures.
The Heavenly Court's benefit could still be described as the order of the Three Realms.
The Chan Sect's benefit could still be concealed beneath talk of peace and avoiding calamity.
The Western Sect's benefit could still be passed off as an opportunity.
But what had the Xuan Sect gained?
After the Investiture, the Three Realms would be in order.
The Heavenly Court would have its gods.
The Killing Tribulation among the Sage's disciples would be quelled.
The general trend of the Primordial World would return to the rules of the Heavenly Dao.
That was the Xuan Sect gaining order.
Who paid the price?
The Interception Sect.
Who was shattered?
The Interception Sect.
Who was locked onto the list?
Still the Interception Sect.
Zhao Xuan wrote a single line.
Benefit to the Xuan Sect: using the Interception Sect's defeat to quell the Killing Tribulation among the Sage's disciples, establish order in the Heavenly Court, and stabilize the general trend of the Primordial World.
Four lines now filled the fourth page.
The Heavenly Court gained divinities.
The Chan Sect avoided calamity.
The Western Sect gained power.
The Xuan Sect gained order.
Every line was a benefit.
And not one of them mentioned the Interception Sect.
On Golden Turtle Island,
the Ten Thousand Immortals stared at those four lines, their eyes slowly reddening.
It wasn't fear.
It was pent-up rage.
It was hatred.
It was the fury of finally seeing the truth, the anger they had kept pressed down in their chests for countless years, no longer able to be held back.
Zhao Gongming stared fixedly at the fourth page.
His fingers slowly clenched.
"So—"
"They all got what they wanted."
"And in the end, my Interception Sect was the one that had to die?"
No one answered.
Because the answer was right there on that page.
Holy Mother Guiling gritted her teeth, a fierce light surging in her eyes.
"What an Investiture of the Gods."
"What a grand scheme."
"So this grand scheme was paving the way for them with the lives of my Interception Sect!"
Holy Mother Jinling said nothing.
But the sword intent behind her had already turned terrifyingly cold.
Daoist Duobao's expression was complicated beyond words.
He had always been the one who considered the bigger picture.
He had also been the one most afraid that the Interception Sect would go too far down the wrong path.
But now that this account had been laid out before him, he suddenly realized that the so-called bigger picture he had once upheld might never have been meant for the Interception Sect at all.
The grand scheme had to be kept stable.
Who would be broken?
The Heavenly Mandate had to be fulfilled.
Who would die?
If it was the Interception Sect that broke, and the Interception Sect that died, then why should the Interception Sect still care about this grand scheme?
Holy Mother Wudang said softly, "Senior Brother."
"Keep writing."
Her words were quiet.
Yet they made many Interception Sect disciples' hearts shudder.
Because they knew the truly gut-wrenching part had yet to begin.
The benefits had been written down.
Next came the costs.
Zhao Xuan lowered his eyes.
His brush touched the page again.
The Costs of the Investiture of the Gods.
First cost.
Interception Sect disciples die.
The moment those seven words appeared,
countless disciples on Golden Turtle Island stopped breathing.
Die.
Not undergo a tribulation.
Not temper themselves.
Not enter the Heavenly Court to enjoy divine office.
They would die first.
Their True Spirit would leave their bodies, and their physical forms would perish.
The Investiture of the Gods List had never wanted living immortals from the Interception Sect.
It wanted their True Spirit after death.
Zhao Xuan continued writing.
Second cost.
Their True Spirit would be placed on the list, serve at the Heavenly Court's command, and lose the path to immortality.
This time, even the onlookers in the distance changed expressions.
They had only ever heard that being placed on the list and invested as a god meant gaining divine office.
But Zhao Xuan's words tore away the outer skin of that divine office.
Placed on the list after death.
Obey the Heavenly Court.
From then on, the Great Dao would be cut off.
How was this deification?
It was turning carefree immortals into ministers bound to a list.
Zhao Xuan wrote again.
Third cost.
The Interception Sect's orthodoxy would wither, and its ten thousand immortals would scatter.
Daoist Duobao's eyelid twitched sharply.
Holy Mother Wudang lowered her head.
The Three Xiao Sisters fell silent.
Anger burned more fiercely in Zhao Gongming's eyes.
They all remembered the future Zhao Xuan had spoken of.
Ten thousand immortals paying homage.
In the end, ten thousand immortals would enter the tribulation.
This was no empty phrase.
It was a blade that would fall upon every Interception Sect disciple.
Zhao Xuan did not stop.
Fourth cost.
Shangqing's name would be besmirched, and past merits would become accusations.
Holy Mother Guiling jerked her head up.
This was harder for her to bear than the first three costs.
She wasn't afraid to die.
But she couldn't endure the Interception Sect being burdened with the labels "ignorant of the Heavenly Mandate," "shallow in their roots," and "weighed down by a deep Killing Tribulation" after they were all dead.
Why?
The Interception Sect had done the work.
The Interception Sect bore the karma.
And in the end, the Interception Sect was still the one cursed.
What kind of account was that?
Zhao Xuan's final stroke fell.
Fifth cost.
Saint Tongtian would lose his sect, and the Interception Sect's fortune would collapse.
Boom!
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