With the general direction decided, Chen Xu summoned Bone Guard One to handle the specific implementation of the follow-up plans.
“My Lord.”
“Prepare yourself. You will lead the skeleton hero legion to crusade against those arrogant space pirates. It would be best if you could uproot them entirely.”
Upon hearing Chen Xu’s command, Bone Guard One did not reply immediately. Instead, he quickly accessed the relevant data through the Undead Network.
Since Wanbao Pavilion had been frequently harassed recently, the employees had already compiled all information regarding the space pirates into a specialized document.
When the system detected the query from a core user like Bone Guard One, Miracle immediately pulled up the document and presented it to him.
After scanning through the contents, Bone Guard One finally gave his response.
“My Lord, the space pirates consist of many different races. I will need some time to train the army in battle formations.”
“No problem. Big Boss is still in the middle of his advancement to become the God of Trade, so you should have plenty of time. Train the undead army according to the current information. Once Big Boss finishes his advancement, he will step forward to lead the crusade against those pirates.”
“It shall be as you command.”
Bone Guard One took his orders and departed.
Chen Xu turned his attention back to the one hundred and eight stars.
Testing their specific traits could wait. For now, these stars were missing one final, most crucial step.
They needed to be placed within the Land of the Undead and assigned their patrol orbits.
Chen Xu’s original goal was to establish a divine court within the Land of the Undead composed entirely of star gods, who would patrol and guard the realm in his stead.
Now that the one hundred and eight Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend stars had been born, combined with the previous Sun and Moon Star Lords, the foundation of this divine court was complete.
Chen Xu exercised his authority, transferring all one hundred and eight stars into the sky above the Land of the Undead.
The appearance of these stars caused yet another stir across the realm.
The idle undead who had not been conscripted by the necrotic archdukes suddenly noticed over a hundred spheres of faint light appearing in the sky.
Terrified, the undead immediately scrambled for the nearest shadows to hide.
Having experienced being scorched by the sun before, these undead had learned their lesson. They didn't go chasing after the starlight or try to bathe in it immediately.
Instead, they hid and observed from the darkness, waiting for other, more impatient undead to test the waters. They would only emerge once they were certain there was no danger.
Soon, a particularly curious bone nightmare couldn't hold back anymore. It cautiously extended a hoof into the starlight.
Once it confirmed there was no harm, it stepped out completely.
With the first pioneer leading the way, other undead began to emerge from the darkness one after another to bathe in the starlight.
The undead began attempting to absorb the light, just as they had with the lunar essence before.
As the starlight entered their bodies, a pattern began to faintly emerge upon their bones, dead skin, rotting flesh, and even within their souls.
The patterns corresponded to the specific starlight they were under, representing the different Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend stars.
While the lunar essence of Taiyin could accelerate the growth of undead creatures, the light of these stars could do the same, though the effect was not as potent as the moon’s.
However, the mysterious star patterns seemed to nurture a different kind of mystical power—one that required long-term exposure to the starlight to activate.
Chen Xu looked at the current orbital paths in the sky of the Land of the Undead and realized there wasn't much room left to arrange orbits for these one hundred and eight stars.
Even though there were only the sun and the moon, there were nine of each.
That was nine suns. Adding even one more would probably trigger a Match-3 elimination mechanic.
As for the moons, he had never heard of anyone shooting down moons because there were too many of them.
In any case, the one hundred and eight stars weren't well-suited for moving orbits, so Chen Xu decided to set them in fixed positions.
Following the distribution of the Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends, he placed them one by one, allowing these stars to become permanent guides in the sky of the Land of the Undead.
If any adventurers from other worlds were to stumble into the Land of the Undead by chance in the future, they might be able to navigate by the stars and write a guide called 《Navigational Guide to the Land of the Undead: Star Map Edition》.
Once the stars were in place, Chen Xu began the process of assembling the divine court.
In the outside world, most divine courts were formed by several similar or acquainted deities leading their respective pantheons into a covenant to watch over each other.
There were also cases like the Heavenly pantheon, where the Lord of Heaven stood high above, commanding all subordinate gods.
Whether called a divine court or a pantheon, they were essentially the same thing. The truly critical element was the core symbol of the court, which was vital for the spread of faith.
No matter how grandly one described a divine court, it was still a system of deities. And as long as there were deities, they needed to gather believers and collect the power of faith.
Even world-level deities like the Sun God or the Moon God needed followers to handle the mundane tasks; they couldn't possibly do everything themselves.
If they ran into a troublesome figure, having followers deal with it provided room for plausible deniability. If the deity acted directly, there would be no turning back.
Furthermore, the power of faith was a miraculous force that could allow a deity to resurrect from extinction. No god would ever turn it down.
A symbol was essentially like a company’s trademark and core values. It helped the pantheon expand its number of believers and cultivate more high-quality zealots.
For example, the symbol of Heaven was the holy light that nourished all things and the covenant that represented fair order, perfectly corresponding to the two great Daos of the Lord of Heaven.
Beyond that, the symbol served another purpose: it acted as a communal energy reservoir for the divine court, where the various deities could deposit their divine power.
When believers encountered a crisis, they could connect to the symbolic vessel through their faith and draw upon that divine power to survive.
Of course, not just any believer could use the power within the symbolic vessel.
By universal law, only zealots, or those with special statuses like a Saint, Saintess, or Pope, could communicate with the symbolic vessel through prayer.
Since this Star Lord Divine Court was located in the Land of the Undead, Chen Xu didn't need to overthink the design of the symbolic vessel.
After all, besides the undead and the vassals of the various Star Lords, no other living creatures would travel ten thousand miles to the Land of the Undead just to join a pantheon.
Thus, Chen Xu casually molded a skull and embedded the unique patterns of the one hundred and eight Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend stars upon its cranium.
For the eye sockets, he placed the sun in the left and the moon in the right, following the tradition of the left being the position of honor.
With the physical form of the symbolic vessel decided, the symbolic content was obvious: the Star Lords of the Land of the Undead would naturally represent the two great Daos of the Undead and the Stars.
As the symbolic meaning was established, the Star Lord Divine Court was officially founded.
A beam of divine light radiated outward from Chen Xu, the Lord of the Divine Court, announcing the court’s establishment to every creature within the Land of the Undead.
If the necrotic archdukes were not currently busy fighting back and forth with the demons of Hell and were instead stationed in the Land of the Undead, they would surely have cried out, “This is bad!”
A new competitor had entered the struggle for faith in the Land of the Undead, and it was a powerful one at that.
Its own strength was remarkable, and its background was terrifyingly immense—so immense that it was at the level where background music would practically start playing on its own.
As for Chen Xu himself, he was pleasantly surprised by the rewards of founding the divine court.
The moment the court was established, the Dao rhyme of the Great Dao of Stars began to flow continuously into him through the faith of the various Star Lords.
This rate of growth was unlike anything Chen Xu had ever seen. The exaggerated speed of improvement gave him a taste of what it felt like to receive sudden, divine enlightenment.
By the time the transmission of Dao rhyme ceased, Chen Xu’s comprehension of the Great Dao of Stars had reached a bottleneck, attaining the level of the eternal-tier—the stage of having attained the Dao.
Chen Xu immediately activated his [On Duty] talent to mount the Great Dao of Stars, letting it automatically progress toward the next stage.
At the same time, he activated his [007] talent to add more fuel to the fire for this Star Lord Divine Court and the Star Lords he had personally created.
【007 talent triggered. Gained effect: Core Backbone (You are not the founding elders who won the realm for the company, but you are the foundation that stands firm even after the company has reached its peak. Every bit of overtime you put in and every project you complete makes the heart of the company jump with a powerful beat. Your sweat and your sacrifices have not been in vain; the company is proud of you!). The Star Lords of the Star Lord Divine Court receive a special enhancement: Guarding the Realm.】
Rate on N.U.
