Hadn't Houtu been the one to become a Sage?
The Underworld, the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
The reincarnation Houtu had created.
How was Xu You the Lord of Reincarnation?
And who was Xu You?
At that moment, every living being in the Primordial World who heard Houtu's decree was utterly dumbfounded.
Almost none of them had ever heard that name.
Who was this? Could he be some Great Witch of the Witch Clan?
But none of the Twelve Ancestral Wu was named Xu You?
What relationship did this Xu You have with Houtu?
She had created reincarnation herself, yet instead of becoming its lord, she had given the position to someone else.
This was outrageous!
Who did she think she was, the Three Pure Ones? Even for the Three Pure Ones, if there weren't three chances to become Sages, but only one, just see whether those three would fight over it.
Yet Houtu had actually handed this precious position straight to someone else.
Who was this person?
At that moment, Gu Yuena stood atop the golden dragon's head, her face brimming with fighting spirit as she gazed at the two Sages in the sky.
The thought had already risen in her heart: I could take their place.
She was the Dragon God, so naturally, she could also become an even stronger Sage.
Xu You?
"Why does that name sound a little familiar?"
"M-Master?"
Gu Yuena was dumbstruck. Wasn't her instant master's name Xu You?
"No, they must just have the same name. How could Master possibly compare to a Sage?"
Although her instant master's strength far surpassed hers, in terms of corresponding ranks, the Douluo World's Supreme God King (Dragon God) corresponded to the Primordial World's strongest rank, Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal (Sage).
Counting downward, Taiyi Golden Immortal seemed to occupy the same position as a Douluo Second-Level God.
But their statuses were different.
Her instant master, a Taiyi Golden Immortal, could casually and effortlessly crush a God King like her.
But in the Primordial World, a Taiyi Golden Immortal wasn't much. Even in the Heavenly Court, he would just be a roadside nobody.
Xu You: Who are you insulting? Only my level is Taiyi Golden Immortal. My strength reached Daluo Golden Immortal ages ago. My experience bar is stuck, understand?
But to Gu Yuena, what qualifications did her instant master have to become some Lord of the Six Paths? His status even seemed higher than a Sage's.
"Same name. It must just be the same name."
Gu Yuena was still thinking about subduing her master and the Dragon Clan. The Dragon Clan had no Sage. She only needed to cultivate to Quasi-Sage to take control of the Primordial World's Dragon Clan and become the new Dragon God.
But how could her instant master become the Lord of Reincarnation?
She refused to accept it!
"Refusing won't do you any good!"
"Face reality, my dear disciple. Once my disciple, always my disciple."
Xu You smiled. Naturally, he knew this instant disciple of his had a rebellious streak.
But disrespecting her master? Not a chance!
Houtu had decreed the appointment of the Lord of Reincarnation.
If only his current level weren't a little low, and he didn't still lack purple Qi? There were no Heavenly Dao Sage positions left either.
Otherwise, even the two Western Sages had become Sages on credit.
Could a feat as great as establishing reincarnation not accommodate a second Sage?
Still, Xu You focused more on what was before him. The future was beyond his control.
That was also why, after wrestling with the decision, he had still let Houtu become a Sage first.
Then he would see whether he could find a way for her to bring him to Sagehood.
In reincarnation and the Underworld, naturally, there was a primary and a secondary.
The Western Sect was the same, with Jieyin taking the lead and overseeing its fortune-suppressing treasure, the Twelve-Rank Golden Lotus of Merit.
And now, as the Lord of Reincarnation, the fortune-suppressing treasures of reincarnation and the Underworld naturally fell into his hands.
"The Book of Life and Death + the Judge's Pen!"
With Houtu's decree, the appointment took effect.
The Heavenly Dao trembled, and golden light appeared.
The mantle of the Lord of Reincarnation settled upon Xu You.
At the same time, a jade book bearing the paths of all living beings in heaven and earth, black-and-white Dao patterns flowing across it, emerged from the netherworld, closely followed by an ink brush that was dark from end to end.
They appeared directly before Xu You.
"Huh? Master? You're serious?"
Gu Yuena's little mouth fell open wide enough to fit an apple.
She was shocked beyond belief.
"Super Divine Artifacts? Two Super Divine Artifacts!"
On the Douluo Continent, the most powerful weapons were naturally Super Divine Artifacts.
They were practically the core of a God King.
Almost every God King came equipped with a Super Divine Artifact, the equivalent of a complete manifestation of their strength.
God Kings with and without Super Divine Artifacts were nowhere near equal in strength.
Take the second-generation Kindness and Evil, for example. Because the first-generation gods had only gone traveling and wanted to return whenever they pleased, they had not passed their Super Divine Artifacts on to the second generation.
As a result, Kindness and Evil had no say whatsoever in the Divine Realm.
Whenever there was a meeting, all they had to do was mumble along. Whatever God King Tang said went.
They couldn't resist him anyway.
Even though the two of them had entered the Divine Realm before God King Tang, without super divine skills, there was nothing he could do.
Yet now, her instant master had simply received two Super Divine Artifacts?
On the Douluo Continent, everyone had watched Nüwa become a Sage, followed by Houtu.
Both had required vast amounts of fortune and merit, which meant the Heavenly Dao's recognition.
Everyone had originally thought that as long as they kept cultivating and broke through to level 99, they would naturally become gods.
It was just that now, without the Divine Realm, the path to godhood had been severed.
But now, another path seemed to lie before their eyes.
Fortune and merit.
It seemed to have opened the door to a whole new world for the other Soul Masters all at once.
"If accumulating merit lets you become a Sage, can we also rely on merit to become gods?"
"But the question is, where does merit come from?"
"That Nüwa seemed to have mended the heavens and saved the world, but wasn't Houtu a demonic god? Wasn't she going to refine billions of living beings to become a Sage?"
"Uh... it seems we misunderstood. She wasn't killing living beings and refining their souls. She was gathering the souls of beings who had already died and were wandering across the continent."
Everyone had assumed Houtu would take the Evil Soul Master route to become a Sage.
How could the Evil Soul Master route possibly earn the Heavenly Dao's recognition and make it bestow fortune and merit?
It turned out she had been giving the souls a home.
And rebirth and reincarnation.
Those also seemed to be things the Douluo Continent lacked.
"Could I also establish reincarnation on the Douluo Continent?"
"Someone poke a hole in the sky so I can mend it! Let's see whether I can become a god."
"These scenes of people becoming Sages in the Primordial World really have given us something to think about."
Many factions, organizations, and their upper ranks, such as the Spirit Pagoda, Shrek Academy, the Tang Sect, and the various sects.
Or the Star Luo Federation far overseas, the Dou Ling Empire, the Heaven Dou Empire, and even the current Douluo Federation.
All were discussing ways to become gods.
This was something no Soul Master could resist.
Of course, after learning that merit existed, everyone undoubtedly needed to do good deeds.
Great deeds that saved the world.
For the present Douluo Continent, there were two very clear directions.
The first was to kill those damned Evil Soul Masters.
The second was to counter something the Douluo Federation had never told the world about: suppressing the threat of an invasion from the Abyss Plane.
Both seemed to count as good deeds that could earn merit.
Then the question was, where was the merit? Why hadn't Douluo's Heavenly Dao bestowed any merit?
Douluo's Heavenly Dao: Dying here. Already possessed. Do not disturb.