"If it involves the secrets of the Fujimoto family, the Tian family and I are willing to offer compensation!"
The voices of various powers advising them rose one after another, and after what seemed like an eternity, Sword Saint Fujimoto let out a long sigh before slowly saying,
"During the last Age of Spirit Energy Tide, a peerless genius from my Fujimoto family grasped the essence of the Dao and broke through to the Spirit Refining Stage.
We thought he could add strength to the foundation of Ying Island’s Cultivation World, but who would have expected that on the day of his breakthrough, a thunderbolt from the Ninth Heavens struck down, annihilating the newly advanced ancestor!"
Someone immediately retorted:
"How could it be possible!"
"At the Spirit Transmutation Stage, one can command thunder with the true intent of the Sword Dao, let alone a Sword Saint of the Spirit Refining Stage?"
"The Spirit Refining Stage is powerful enough to rival local deities; how could one be killed by a mere thunderbolt?"
Sword Saint Fujimoto continued with an indifferent expression,
"The moment the thunderbolt struck, all direct descendants of that Sword Saint ancestor were utterly exterminated.
My ancestor was originally from a collateral line of the Fujimoto family; he only took over the main family line by chance after the extinction of the direct lineage."
No sooner had these words been spoken than the previously noisy shrine fell deathly silent, the voices of all factions as if choked by an invisible hand.
The power to annihilate a Spirit Refining Sword Saint with a thunderbolt and exterminate his direct bloodline could only belong to one faction within the entire Ying Island region.
Everyone subconsciously looked up in the direction of Pingan Capital, as if they could see the vast Sky High Plateau pressing down like a dark cloud over countless beings.
"Could it be, the wielder of the thunder, Takemika..."
"Shut your mouth! Are you out of your mind, daring to speak its name directly in the shrine!"
"Why, why would the gods want to kill that Sword Saint from the Fujimoto family? Did that Sword Saint commit blasphemy against the divine?"
In the midst of the conversation, an Onmyoji dressed in feathered robes suddenly said from a corner:
"Three thousand years ago, an ancestor from our Harehara Onmyo Bureau also broke through to Spirit Refining, but attracted a divine thunder punishment leading to the demise of all the powerful experts within the Bureau, resulting in our Harehara Onmyo Bureau’s decline ever since."
"Why have I never heard of this before?"
The Harehara Onmyoji glanced indifferently at the person who had asked the question and said, "At the time of my ancestor’s breakthrough, it was the end of the Age of Spirit Energy Tide, and with the decline of Spirit Energy, everyone was too preoccupied to know of our Harehara Onmyo Bureau’s fate."
There was silence.
A single thunder punishment might be considered an accident, but when thunderous extermination of direct bloodlines happened repeatedly, it couldn’t be explained away as mere coincidence.
A terrifying thought gradually rose in the minds of cultivators from all sides.
And it was at this moment that Nagasaki Iyo finally spoke up.
"The divine punishments of Spirit Refining are not acts of heaven, but acts of gods!"
All cultivators looked up at the sky in fear, worried that a thunderbolt might strike them directly.
But Nagasaki Iyo, undeterred, continued,
"Our Ying Island is just a remote corner of the Primal Chaos Realm, controlled by The gods.
While across the vast sea in the territory of Great Xia, the Human Clan rules over heaven and earth, and the canonical gods also follow the rules of humanity when acting."
"Our Human Clan’s incense offering willpower is the jewel of the Divinity Path for gods to be born.
The gods crave this incense offering willpower, continuously expanding the human population, yet fearing humans might grow too strong and escape their control."
"Should any cultivators above Spirit Refining appear in this world, they will be met with thunder punishment, their Spirit Souls destroyed, their bloodlines eradicated.
In the eyes of the gods, humanity is merely a tool for generating incense offering willpower."
"Inside Pingan Capital, the gods’ divine decrees secretly abolished many factories, providing only the most basic food to the people, forcing them to offer the purest form of incense beliefs amidst poverty and hunger.
This divine decree has even begun to spread beyond Pingan Capital, with several cities already affected—even amidst threats from Hell specters.
If the Hell specters are dealt with, the divine decree will spread throughout the whole of Ying Island, and by that time, the only choices left to you will be:
To become lapdogs of the gods, squeezing faith on their behalf, or to be exterminated by divine decree along with your families."
"Gentlemen, please choose!"
Nagasaki Iyo’s words immediately plunged everyone into silence.
The powers at hand were not blind to the current situation within Pingan Capital, and with the divine decree of thunderous punishment proving Nagasaki Iyo’s words to be true.
No one wishes to be a lackey, let alone killed by a ludicrous divine decree, especially not after finding the opportunity for a breakthrough in the Spirit Refining Stage.
But... the gods of Sky High Plateau are simply too powerful, having ruled over Ying Island for ten thousand years, any resistance seemed futile.
Sword Saint Fujimoto spoke up, "Just by ourselves, we could never stand against The gods."
Nagasaki Iyo replied with a calm smile,
"Our goal is merely to rid ourselves of the lackeys of those deities, to awaken the people oppressed by The gods. Others will handle The gods themselves.
Moreover, our target is not all The gods, but rather a faction of rebellious deities led by Izanagi."
Sword Saint Fujimoto still hesitated, with reservations in his heart.
"I can also reveal a secret to you. That mighty being who suppresses all Hell’s projections is our supporter, and so are the four High Gods of the Netherworld from Great Xia."
All cultivators were momentarily stunned.
"Wasn’t that Izanagi’s doing?"
Nagasaki Iyo exclaimed in a burst of anger,
"Utterly absurd! If Izanagi had such means, why would he drag out the battle until now.
Now, you only have one chance!"
Sword Saint Fujimoto took a deep breath and finally knelt before Nagasaki Iyo, saying with respect,
"I am willing to serve Your Excellency!"
Within the shrine, other cultivators too knelt one after another to pay their respects.
"I am willing to serve Your Excellency!"
It wasn’t just within Nara City, but across the entire Ying Island region, in over a hundred cities, a similar scene unfolded.
This process went far smoother than Noro Mai had imagined.
The biggest reason was that the orthodox Path of Cultivation was simply too tempting for the Ying Island cultivators.
For the past ten thousand years, the Spirit Refining Stage was like an insurmountable chasm for all Ying Island cultivators.
During the Spirit Energy Tidal Surge a few thousand years ago, there were unparalleled geniuses who broke through the cultivation barriers of Ying Island, stepping into the Spirit Refining Stage.
However, such powerful experts often attracted the divine punishment of The gods the moment they made their breakthrough.
For The gods saw the Spirit Refining Stage as a realm that only canonical gods and Demon Kings were worthy of touching; any mortal stepping onto this path was an act of defiance against The gods, who would nip such ambitions in the bud.
The Spirit Refining Stage, in the eyes of Ying Island cultivators, had become a realm surpassing the pinnacle of this world, but for The gods, it was merely the lowest rung of the canonical gods, so how could one withstand the heavenly punishment from the Divinity Path?
Successive Sword Saints and grand Yin-Yang Masters fell under heavenly punishment, with these histories written in blood in the annals of the cultivators.
Yet, in the face of threats from heavenly punishment, there were still cultivators who followed one after another, attempting to step into the Spirit Refining Stage in search of the true Path of Cultivation.
Therefore, when Amaterasu Miko promoted the cultivation system, these cultivators did not hesitate to support her, even at the risk of enraging The gods, because this was their only opportunity to advance further.
Apart from the support of local cultivators, among the common people outside Pingan Capital, Amaterasu Miko possessed a reverence that exceeded even the Imperial Family.
The reason, of course, was that Amaterasu Miko had been stationed at the Grand Shrine, protecting various cities for many years.
Whenever a city was overrun by Hell specters, the miko stationed at the Amaterasu Grand Shrine were often the first to perish.
The dual support of the local Cultivation World and public reverence made this propagation more successful than expected by Noro Mai and other Amaterasu Great Mikos.
In Pingan Capital, within Falling Clouds Temple.
Shen Yuan stood within the main hall, yet his gaze seemed to transform into the sun, moon, and stars, overlooking the land.
Upon Ying Island, streams of humanity fate rose, resisting the suppression of Divinity Path’s fate, and his own Human Path momentum within him was slowly increasing as well.
He had planted the seed for the rise of the Human Path in Ying Island with his own hands, so naturally, the Human Path momentum responded.
After all, the Human Path momentum was never confined to just the Great Xia region; wherever the Human Clan reached, the Human Path momentum arose!

Comments

Loading...