“Young man, you now possess three outer provinces and countless believers. There are some things you ought to know.”
Chen Zhou sat up straight and composed himself, giving a solemn nod.
“In the previous eon, heaven and earth were not as they are now.”
“In those days, the Divine Path flourished, and the three realms were in order.”
“The Underworld had One Palace, Five Mansions, and Ten Halls. The human realm had the Nine Provinces and Four Lands. The divine realm consisted of the Thirty-Six Heavens.”
Chen Zhou listened intently. Some of these names and titles were familiar from the myths and legends of his past life, yet they were not quite the same.
“The gods performed their respective duties, upholding the laws of heaven and maintaining the cycles of karma.”
“Cultivators of the human realm ascended to godhood. After death, souls entered reincarnation based on their merit and sins. Even mountain spirits and wild beasts could achieve immortality and take their place among the celestial ranks.”
“At its peak, there were tens of thousands of true gods in existence, along with the countless subordinate gods beneath them.”
“The ninth stage was Truth-Usurping, meaning the ability to alter karma and destiny. The tenth stage was Void-Returning—the void that follows the end of all things and the chaos that precedes their birth.”
“The eleventh stage was Non-Existence. Those at the rank of Non-Existence could create divine kingdoms and establish their own laws. At that level, one is a creator in every sense of the word. Back then, there were no fewer than a hundred true gods at or above the eleventh stage.”
“As for the levels beyond that, there were several great beings overseeing them.”
A Yao’s voice carried a hint of wistful emotion.
“The Divine Path was at its zenith, and all things were in order. Though there were conflicts, they never crossed the line.”
“But all things that reach their peak must decline. Such is the way of the world, and even heaven and earth themselves are no exception.”
“And so, the Heavenly Tribulation arrived.”
Chen Zhou frowned and asked, “What happened next?”
Yuheng took over the conversation, flicking his horsetail whisk with a sigh.
“Next... even I am not entirely sure. That was a matter of the previous eon. I was born sixteen thousand years ago, and by then, the Divine Path was already in decline.”
Mo Cang added in a low voice, “Among us, only A Yao has lived the longest. She is the only one who personally experienced that Heavenly Tribulation.”
Chen Zhou’s gaze returned to A Yao.
A Yao kept her head down, her fingers gently stroking Jianmu. She remained silent for a long while.
“Do you think the era of the flourishing Divine Path was all singing and dancing, with gods in harmony and all beings living in peace?”
Chen Zhou did not answer.
A Yao answered her own question. “It was not.”
“Its prosperity was only relative to the periods of decay.”
“Even when the Divine Path flourished, there were disputes, battles, and conflicts of interest among the gods.”
“It was simply that there were rules back then. The Heavenly Dao loomed over everyone, so no one dared to take things too far.”
“But once the Heavenly Tribulation arrived, the rules vanished.”
“Back then, a single incident served as the catalyst: the God Emperor fell.”
Chen Zhou’s pupils contracted slightly. “The God Emperor?”
A Yao said, “The head of the Divine Path, the supreme existence who upheld the laws of heaven.”
Yuheng added from the side, “I have heard of him as well.”
“He was the existence who, by his strength alone, maintained the operation and balance of the entire Divine Path.”
“While the God Emperor reigned, the Heavenly Dao was stable and the gods were submissive. Even those with ill intentions did not dare to act out.”
“Then, the God Emperor was polluted by the Heavenly Tribulation, and an inner godhead was born.”
Chen Zhou’s gaze sharpened at the mention of the term “inner godhead.”
He possessed a portion of Lian’s inner godhead—the Oasis Goddess.
When Xuandu Ghost Emperor had evaluated that godhead, he had used words like “high-tier,” “extremely high quality,” and “great potential for growth.”
“So, what exactly is the Heavenly Tribulation?” Chen Zhou asked, puzzled.
A Yao shook her head, her expression becoming inscrutable. “The Heavenly Tribulation... is not to be spoken of.”
“You can think of it as a form of pollution. Heaven and earth lost their balance, spiritual energy ran wild, death qi flowed in reverse, and karma collapsed.”
“An entire eon has passed since It descended, but It is still there. Heaven and earth are still beneath Its gaze.”
“If you speak of it too much, the Heavenly Tribulation will fix its eyes upon you.”
“Do you not already possess the inner godhead of an Emperor's Daughter? That, too, is a product of the Heavenly Tribulation.”
“She was originally the daughter of a Great Emperor, a being who held the living soil and governed the vitality of the earth and the fertility of all things. Once her outer godhead was polluted, she became a monster that brought drought and desolation.”
“You knew the owner of the godhead within me?” Chen Zhou asked.
A Yao nodded slightly. “We met a few times. We weren't close.”
“In my memory, she was a very quiet woman.”
“She didn't like to talk or join in on the excitement. She always stayed alone in her divine kingdom, tending to her spiritual flowers and exotic grasses.”
“Her living soil could nurture all things. Her divine kingdom was the most vibrant place in all the Thirty-Six Heavens.”
“It is said that the divine realm had a rule back then: no conflict was permitted to affect her kingdom, for it preserved the seeds of every plant in existence.”
“At the time, many gods ridiculed her in private, saying she was the least like an Emperor's Daughter among her peers. While others were conquering the north and south, she was planting flowers; while others were forming factions, she was raising grass.”
The corners of A Yao’s mouth curled up slightly as if she were reminiscing, before slowly drooping again.
“Everything changed after the Heavenly Tribulation arrived. The authority of the gods was inverted by the calamity.”
“Those who governed vitality began to spread desolation. Those who governed light began to devour all things. Those who governed order began to create chaos.”
“Her living soil was polluted, and every flower and blade of grass in her kingdom died overnight.”
“She went from being an Emperor's Daughter to a monster. She went from being someone no one wished to harm to a target that everyone sought to destroy.”
A Yao paused here and looked at Chen Zhou.
“The period after the Heavenly Tribulation arrived is a tangled mess in the memory of everyone who lived through it.”
“Because the Heavenly Tribulation did more than just destroy heaven and earth; it destroyed the ability of many gods to perceive time.”
“I only remember that in the end... out of tens of thousands of true gods, they either died, went mad, or fell into depravity.”
A Yao counted on her fingers.
“Those who remained sane were less than ten percent.”
Chen Zhou was silent for a long time.
Out of tens of thousands of true gods, less than ten percent remained. What kind of scale was that?
A Yao continued, “After the deities fell, a new group of beings was spawned from the scattered inner godheads.”
“Some called them evil gods, some called them false gods, and some called them Heaven-Stealers.”
“They were not the original hosts directly polluted by the Heavenly Tribulation. Instead, they inherited the legacies of the fallen true gods and fused them with fragments of inner godheads to become entirely new entities.”
Chen Zhou’s expression became somewhat strange.
Evil gods?
Wasn't that exactly what he was...
A Yao continued, “The evil gods coveted the authority of the true gods and attempted to steal the heavens. This led to the Battle of Qingtian ten thousand years ago.”
“The Central Province was the main battlefield of the Battle of Qingtian. The three realms were already teetering on the edge, and after that fight, they collapsed completely.”
“The Heavenly Ladder broke, and the path to the divine realm was severed. The Thirty-Six Heavens collapsed, the Underworld was shattered, the Wanchuan River dried up, and reincarnation spiraled out of control.”
“Merit and sin became useless. the Heavens could no longer reward the worthy, and the Earth could no longer receive the guilty.”
She looked at Chen Zhou. “You’ve likely felt it in the outer provinces, haven't you?”
“The Six Paths no longer exist. When a person dies, they are simply gone. If no one with great merit sends them into reincarnation, their soul can only linger where they fell, slowly dissipating or being devoured by something else.”
Chen Zhou nodded.
Back in the Gloomlight Province, he had discovered that countless malevolent ghosts and vengeful spirits were left unguided. Yin Wudao had locked them all into a man-made hell to suppress the black spots.
A Yao continued, “In the human realm, everything outside the Central Province shattered into fragments—those are what you now call the outer provinces.”
“Only the Central Province was preserved.”
“The Central Province is also the only known place that still maintains a portion of the Divine Path's order.”
“That is because the Central Province was established by the evil gods who successfully stole the heavens.”
“They call themselves the orthodox lineage, suppressing dissent and consolidating the remaining resources to inherit the legacies of the ancient gods.”
Mo Cang cursed, “They are nothing but thieves who took advantage of the situation. We fought them back when we followed the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor to war in the Central Province.”
“Their inheritances are a messy, impure mix of all sorts of monsters and demons. It’s nothing like a proper Divine Path inheritance.”
Chen Zhou’s brow twitched slightly. “The three of you went with the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor as well?”
A Yao said, “Yes. Back then, the three of us were all divine attendants of the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor.”
“The Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor was the last true god who tried to reorganize heaven and earth. He led a host to war in the Central Province, hoping to reclaim orthodoxy from those Heaven-Stealing evil gods.”
“In the end, he did not succeed. We were all buried beneath the Heavenly Ladder. When we woke up, we were inside the Immortal-Slaying Shrine left behind after the Emperor's fall.”
“Our mission is likely to guard the inheritances left by these fallen deities and wait for a faint, distant hope.”
“To wait for a successor who can revitalize the Divine Path and restore heaven and earth.”
Chen Zhou remained silent for a while, digesting this information.
So that was what the Battle of Qingtian was all about.
Evil gods stole the heavens, true gods counterattacked, both sides were devastated, and the world collapsed. The Sky-Monitoring office of the Central Province consisted of the evil gods who had successfully usurped power.
But what about himself?
Which side did he belong to? An evil spirit lurking among the true gods? Or a traitor among the evil gods?
Chen Zhou thought for a moment and decided the question wasn't particularly important.
He was himself. His actions were accountable to his own conscience and to those who believed in him. As for how others defined him, that was their business.
However, there was one detail in A Yao’s words that caught his attention.
The Heavenly Tribulation.
What exactly was that thing?
It could pollute even a God Emperor and destroy the entire Divine Path, and it was still watching this world to this day.
That meant the entity still possessed consciousness and was still active.
Chen Zhou thought back to Zhu Pan and Qing Lu from the Central Province's Sky-Monitoring office.
Though he had cut down one of their divine senses, their true forms were still in the Central Province. Above Sky-Monitoring, there had to be even higher-level existences.
From A Yao’s description, the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor had led a host to the Central Province, clearly standing in irreconcilable opposition to those Heaven-Stealing evil gods.
Yet people like Zhu Pan did not seem like they could have stood against the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor.
This clearly meant there were even stronger existences behind Sky-Monitoring.
And what was the relationship between those existences and the Heavenly Tribulation?
Were they enemies? Or had they made some kind of deal? Or perhaps the Heavenly Tribulation itself was something they had orchestrated?
The more Chen Zhou thought about it, the more suspicious it all seemed.
Was the current situation a three-way deadlock between himself and the fallen gods, the Central Province's Sky-Monitoring, and the Heavenly Tribulation? Or were the other two parties working together in a 'two-on-one' scenario?
He looked at the black plate in his system storage. Perhaps once he reached Qingzhou and met Xuan Cai, he would be able to understand the true situation in the Central Province.
Regardless, Chen Zhou was no longer very worried about being exposed.
With the protection of the black sludge pond, the defenses of the City of the Wrongfully Dead had improved by several levels.
Furthermore, with the teleportation function of the Great Emperor's Palace, he could return there at any time and mobilize its resources.
Even if the Central Province discovered his existence and wanted to move against him, they would first have to get past the Five Direction Ghost Emperor Mansions.
Chen Zhou pulled his thoughts back and stood up, giving a solemn bow to A Yao, Yuheng, and Mo Cang.
“Thank you for clearing my doubts.”
He straightened up and said, “I have now received the inheritance of the Great Emperor's Palace. It shouldn't take long. Once I have fully mastered the palace and obtained the authority of the Underworld, I should be able to reopen the Wanchuan River and allow the three of you to reincarnate back into the human realm.”
“When that time comes, I hope you will accompany me to the Central Province.”
Upon hearing this, Yuheng’s eyes immediately lit up.
“Good, good! I’ve been waiting for those words.”
A Yao stated, “If you truly can reopen the Wanchuan River and set reincarnation in motion once more, the three of us would naturally be willing to follow you.”
Mo Cang was already rubbing his hands together. “I was buried at the Heavenly Ladder back then; I haven't settled that score with them yet! Once I reincarnate and cultivate again, I'm definitely killing my way back!”
As they spoke, they suddenly realized something and looked at each other.
A Yao sighed softly. “However, if we all reincarnate, no one will be left to guard the Immortal-Slaying Shrine. It will slowly dissipate.”
She looked at the purple-red sky in the distance, a hint of reluctance in her eyes.
“It’s been a hundred thousand years. Even if it's a dream, it’s still my home.”
The Immortal-Slaying Shrine was the final legacy of the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor. If even the Dream-Keepers left, it would have no reason to continue existing.
Chen Zhou thought for a moment and suddenly said, “Actually, the Immortal-Slaying Shrine itself can be considered a form of inheritance, right?”
A Yao nodded. “Naturally.”
“The Immortal-Slaying Shrine is the final sentiment left by the Heavenly Talisman Great Emperor after his death. It is an inheritance in its own right.”
“If someone could inherit the shrine, they would be able to govern this deep dream and peer into the Emperor's dream-control ability.”
Chen Zhou said, “In that case, why not let the little pig guard it?”
A Yao asked curiously, “You mean the Lord of a Thousand Dreams? That is a fine choice. It can repair the dream while fusing with the entire Immortal-Slaying Shrine. For it, this is a rare opportunity.”
The little pig was lying on Chen Zhou’s lap, enjoying having its ears rubbed. Upon hearing Chen Zhou’s words, it suddenly sprang up.
“Oink?!”
It kicked off Chen Zhou’s lap with its four short legs, performing an incredible somersault in mid-air before landing steadily in front of him.
The tiny, cute pink piglet instantly expanded, transforming into a terrifying nightmare beast.
The ten-zhang-tall fiendish body stood upon the ashen earth, surrounded by rolling fiendish qi, its hundreds of nightmare eyes opening all at once, fangs bared.
A beastly mouth formed from condensed fiendish qi materialized in the air, its interlocking fangs looking incredibly fierce.
“No!”
Its voice was thick and deep, making the surrounding air hum, but its tone was as aggrieved as a slighted young wife.
“Piggy doesn't want to stay in the Immortal-Slaying Shrine! Piggy wants to follow Master! Piggy doesn't want to stay here alone!”
As it spoke, it rubbed its massive head against Chen Zhou. Chen Zhou was forced back two steps by the force of its nuzzling.
“You won't be alone.” Chen Zhou pressed his hand against its head. “Look, A Yao, Jianmu, and the others are here too.”
“It’s not the same!” the little pig continued to nuzzle him. “They are them, and Master is Master.”
“Piggy is Master’s precious darling! Piggy cannot leave Master!”
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