The grand stage of Shrouding the Heavens-if you've got nothing, stay away!
The locals here might seem stubborn beyond all reason, fighting for supremacy on the imperial path, convinced they were invincible. Either I kill you or you kill me-never back down, just fight your whole life through.
But whenever longevity or attaining immortality came into play, world-shaking power would retreat to the sidelines and let world-shaking wisdom take the stage.
Perhaps it wasn't necessarily wisdom, but it was certainly world-shaking!
For instance, sacrificing a group of extraordinary physiques, including a young Sacred Body, giving up the possibility of him reaching full maturity and challenging an Ancient Great Emperor, all for a sliver of hope of repairing a broken immortal artifact.
Or, for another example, what did an immortal palace matter if it meant becoming an immortal for a lifetime? Even an Immortal Second Realm Mighty Figure could attack it!
Truly world-shaking!
And those were merely the antics of cultivators below the emperor level.
Once they reached the realm of the ultimate Dao, their games grew even more elaborate and audacious, their wisdom even more "world-shaking."
Take a Chaos Green Lotus, which stole Pangu's job of splitting heaven from earth, forcibly dragging an immortal artifact into slumber alongside himself during the era when the Road to Immortality should have opened for him.
Or a Buddhist Great Emperor, who gathered the thoughts and prayers of all living beings, scheming and stockpiling for hundreds of thousands of years, only to rush headlong to his death when the Road to Immortality opened, taking a great crowd along with him.
If you could imagine it, they could do it.
Viewed in that light, whatever the other mythical Heavenly Venerates, primordial emperors, and Ancient Great Emperors did... Feng Jiu felt he could accept it.
Carefree Heavenly Venerate raising fish?
Perfectly normal!
This ancient Heavenly Venerate, who had created Nine Secrets: Xing, had once used extraordinary means to suppress an emperor in the midst of attaining the Dao. He seized the emperor's body, merged with his primordial spirit, and finally replaced him, extending his own life by another lifetime.
Doing it again would be perfectly reasonable.
And after a female emperor attained the Dao through an inconceivable method, there was now a path to follow toward a Chaos Body, making the prospect even more tempting.
How could possessing an ordinary physique possibly be as appealing as possessing a Chaos Body?
If their positions were reversed and Feng Jiu were Carefree Heavenly Venerate, he would only go further and act more ruthlessly!
With a mere turn of his eyes, countless crooked ideas churned through his mind. His gifts and talents for the demonic path were simply inconceivable.
"Passing down Nine Secrets: Xing is nothing... too small! Your vision is too small!"
"If it were me, I'd pass down that longevity method of 'possessing another body to extend your life,' and give every being of every race in this universe a copy!"
"Hmm, I could dress it up a little. Call it an empowering transmission, the generosity and compassion of a supreme being who passes all his lifetime's cultivation and memories down to a successor. There's just one little side effect: the recipient's original sense of self will blur and disappear..."
"Those who attain the Dao first will help those who come later. It'll herald a magnificent era where everyone is like a dragon!"
"Hmm, too much cultivation to transmit easily? Then split it into hundreds or thousands of portions, along with the primordial spirit... memories don't matter, though. Those can just be copied..."
"After splitting, wait for every 'me' to grow stronger and strengthen his primordial spirit, then repeat the cycle... one spreads to ten, ten to a hundred, a hundred to a thousand, a thousand to ten thousand... until, in the end, the whole world is 'me'!"
"'I' serve everyone, and everyone serves 'me'!"
"All living beings are 'me,' but 'I' am also all living beings. After the initial split, they set out from a common source along different paths, living out different lives..."
"Finally, all the world's 'mes' merge back together, devouring one another until only a single 'me' remains... I think that might make me an immortal?"
Feng Jiu mulled it over.
He firmly believed this was a bright road forward, one that could usher in a great era of "shared immortality."
As for what to do if something went wrong, if it failed to produce immortality and instead created a terrifying monster-like that certain unscrupulous fat Daoist who died and lived, lived and died, passing down the Reincarnation Seal only to unleash a corpse calamity that plagued countless ages?
-My intentions were good. It was the later generations who botched the execution. You can't blame me!
-Just as the Tribulation-Transcending Heavenly Venerate could wait for a Lingbao Heavenly Venerate to clean up his mess, I, too, have great faith in the wisdom of later generations!
"Making the whole world immortal-what a magnificent achievement that would be!"
Feng Jiu's eyes flickered. "I heard my poor system, which got beaten half-paralyzed, say that becoming a Heavenly Emperor isn't just about being good at fighting. There are corresponding performance targets, too."
"A Heavenly Emperor must rule all heavens, command all Saints, govern the universe, enlighten the myriad heavens, enact heaven's way, spread heaven's virtue, bring forth all things, deliver all living beings, balance the three realms, rule all spirits, and save immeasurable multitudes..."
"It sounds complicated, but in short, it boils down to five virtues-merit, sagely virtue, Dao virtue, blessed virtue, and hidden virtue!"
"Creation, dominion, teaching the Dao, salvation, and reincarnation!"
"Does building a Heavenly Court and calling yourself Heavenly Emperor make you a Heavenly Emperor?"
"Obviously not. You need achievements in those five virtues."
"It took the risk of acting before and got greedy precisely because it spotted a supreme treasure of reincarnation. It could use that to farm hidden virtue and take a shortcut..."
"Unfortunately, it succeeded, but also shattered all over the floor. It could barely be pieced back together."
"For everything else, I'll have to make my own way forward... if I can spread the Dao and its methods and make the whole world immortal, surely my Dao virtue will be very high?"
"And it would work perfectly with that lotus seed. Step on my right foot with my left, and spiral up into heaven..."
Feng Jiu let his imagination soar.
Unfortunately, dreams were beautiful, but reality was skin and bones.
"Number Nine!"
Like a basin of cold water being dumped over him, an icy voice rang out. An old assassin approached, his face expressionless. "It's time for you to carry out a mission. Assassinate this generation's candidate Holy Son of the Yaoguang Holy Land and hone your Life-Killing Great Art!"
"If possible, bring back his corpse!"
"Elder Qi." Feng Jiu focused his gaze on the old assassin. "Has this candidate Holy Son committed any misdeeds?"
"Naturally." The old assassin remained calm. "But you're still like this, only willing to kill so-called evildoers. If you keep going this way, I'm afraid you won't get far."
"In fact, if you weren't reasonably talented, you might have fallen along the way long ago. Our Heavenly Court is an Assassin Divine Dynasty, not an organization that punishes evil, rewards good, and carries out heaven's justice."
"You can't last with your hands and feet bound like this... keep it up, and you won't become this generation's Divine Son. The Heavenly Court's core legacy will be beyond your reach."
The old man spoke slowly, a ripple stirring in his eyes.
"The position of Divine Son was never going to be mine anyway." Feng Jiu smiled. "If I remember correctly, isn't there a ninth-generation descendant of an Assassin Saint among our generation's assassin seedlings?"
"While we're still toiling away on missions, farming contributions, and hoping to exchange them for advanced secret arts, he's already learned everything he's supposed to know."
Feng Jiu shook his head.
Assassins made a habit of killing, but that didn't mean they severed all feeling and desire. Naturally, they had descendants too.
"Mind your words," the old assassin said. After a pause, he continued, "You needn't be so pessimistic. Things may change."
"Both Assassin Saints in our Heavenly Court are very old and nearing the ends of their lives, yet no one in the younger generation has the makings of a Saint."
"And now we're in another golden age. All manner of extraordinary physiques are emerging one after another, and some holy lands with ultimate Dao legacies already have peerless prodigies approaching sainthood, or even attaining it!"
"In fact, the most fearsome talent of one ultimate Dao divine dynasty in Central Continent attained the Dao and became a Saint four hundred years ago, then journeyed far into the starry sky. Who knows what heights he's reached by now?"
Concern colored the old assassin's voice. "Under these circumstances, our Heavenly Court may make an exception, lifting the restrictions on the core legacy previously reserved for the Divine Son and choosing a few of the most outstanding candidates to receive it..."