Before the Ghost Gate at the Blood Sea, soul-summoning banners snapped in the Netherworld wind.
Ever since Pan Xuan had announced the open selection for the Netherworld's Divine Offices to the Primordial World through the Divine Dao Network.
Countless streaks of escape light had converged here from across the Primordial World.
The Blood Sea was the foulest, most polluted place in the Primordial World, one ordinary cultivators could not avoid quickly enough.
Yet Ancestral Dragon had used his authority as Water God to carve out a pure land in the waiting area before the Ghost Gate, untouched by the corrosive foul baleful energies.
The notice of assessment rules, inscribed in the air with Nirvana Fire, burned brightly amid the Netherworld energy, clearly visible to every cultivator who came to apply.
The applicants had grown from a few hundred at first to thousands, then tens of thousands.
Those who came were not just independent cultivators, but also members of the Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Clan who believed themselves qualified to compete for Divine Offices.
There were lesser demons under the Ten Great Demon Marshals who were unwilling to have their true spirits listed on the register but wanted a legitimate path to standing.
There were even talented members of minor clans who had hurried over from the fringes of the Primordial World and had never listened to the Dao beneath any mighty figure.
Some rode flying swords, some rode strange beasts, and others streaked through the sky as flowing light.
When the Three Pure Ones' Daoist Grounds accepted disciples, the threshold was extremely high; none without a steadfast Dao heart could enter.
Though the selection for the Netherworld's Divine Offices was equally strict, it did not rank candidates by cultivation.
Insight into Netherworld Law and a sense of fairness