In truth, ten years ago, when the "Gengshen Pact" was drawn up and the great cultivators of land and sea were all present, someone had urged him to advance his rank, declaring that the True Lord's achievements in saving the world and its people warranted a higher station, and that he ought to be honored with the title of Emperor Lord. This had drawn widespread agreement and a chorus of entreaties.
But the True Lord had refused, tactfully yet firmly.
However, three refusals and three demurrals were customary whenever someone accepted a higher rank and a formal petition, so everyone assumed this public refusal merely counted as the first. To the cultivators' surprise, True Lord Evolving Transformation seemed genuinely uninterested. Over the following decade, the world's cultivators submitted joint petitions not merely three times, but as many as thirty. Yet the True Lord remained in seclusion in Western Kunlun, writing books. He never even showed his face, turning a deaf ear to the calls of the world.
Then came this occasion, when the Blue Dragon Earl undertook River-Walking to attain dragonhood and proclaimed his sovereignty over the Southern Sea, stirring wondrous phenomena. Boundless clouds of blazing red reflected upon the sea, seemingly about to set the entire Southern Sea alight. Amid those dazzling celestial phenomena, before the eyes of the many great cultivators attending the ceremony, the Dragon King of the Southern Sea raised the matter once more. Speaking his heart openly, he urged True Lord Evolving Transformation to heed the wishes of the people and accept the title of Emperor Lord.
The Dragon King's words reignited the enthusiasm of the Divine Land's cultivators. In the decade since the Demon Calamity ended, the spiritual atmosphere across the Divine Land had flourished day by day. Many sects that had withered or