Mysterious mirror hanging high

Zhongzhou Region, Songfeng Pavilion, Zhongyue Peak.

The clear stream located on the back mountain of Zhongyue Peak is the retreat place of Qi Tianhua, the Supreme God of Transformation of Songfeng Pavilion. This God of Transformation does not like to be disturbed by worldly affairs, so the mountain stream is surrounded by clouds and mist and is hidden all year round. Low-level disciples often cannot enter, and only Yuanying Zhenjun can pay homage to him from time to time.

At this time, in Qi Tianhua's small courtyard in the mountain stream, two foundation-building disciples were standing on either side of the door, bored out of their minds.

These two people were Qi Tianhua's servants, responsible for Qi Tianhua's daily life and cleaning the cave.

If it were a Demon Lord of the Demonic Path who loved pomp and circumstance, he would even arrange two Nascent Soul True Lords to serve as servants to order him around. However, Qi Tianhua was a Heavenly Lord of the righteous path after all, and he did not want to delay the cultivation of his disciples, so he only found two Foundation Establishment disciples with mediocre qualifications and whose paths had already been cut off as servants.

The disadvantage is that every one or two hundred years, when these two disciples die, we have to find new ones, which makes it awkward to use them.

No matter which two foundation-building disciples come to take up the post, they will all be codenamed [Song Mo] and [Cinnabar], and they are usually one male and one female.

Both of them have low-grade spiritual roots. They were lucky enough to build their foundation in their early years, but they made no further progress in their cultivation. Therefore, they ignored the rich spiritual energy here and did not practice, but simply gave up. When the Supreme God of Transformation did not need them, they just spent their time here.

At this time, more than half a month had passed since Xiao Guanying announced the prophecy of the great catastrophe to the world. Naturally, the news also reached Songfeng Pavilion. The two of them had heard about it and often talked about it in the past few days.

A male disciple named Song Mo said, "Have you heard? That Suying Tianjun has now established the Heavenly Court, calling himself the Heavenly Emperor, and has already set up shop in the territory he occupied outside the Tiannan Region."

Another female disciple codenamed [Crimson Sha] curled her lips and said, "I heard it's quite a grand event. The [Heavenly Court] is in charge of the overall situation, and it has subordinate institutions such as the [Immortal Promotion Department], [Astronomical Supervision], [Academy of Inquiry], [Heavenly Vision Pavilion], etc. It's quite impressive."

"Isn't it?" Song Mo said with a smile, "It's only been less than half a month, and it's said that countless geniuses from both the righteous and demonic realms have joined the Heavenly Court. It's also said that there are geniuses from the demon race as well."

"There's no other way. The benefits for the monks with outstanding talents under the Heavenly Court are really good. They don't need to do anything and spiritual resources are handed to them. Who with a little talent wouldn't be tempted?"

Zhu Sha sighed and said, "Besides, I heard that [Suying Tianjun] has an extremely wonderful enlightenment ability that can temporarily elevate the recipient's realm..."

"A cultivator in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul can use this magical power to temporarily leap to the late stage of the Nascent Soul! This is a great opportunity that most True Lords can't even ask for!"

Zhu Sha continued, "You must know that the transition from the middle to the late Nascent Soul stage is a huge threshold. A cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage is also known as a Great True Lord. The difference in combat power between the two realms is enormous. This is because in the late Nascent Soul stage, the Nascent Soul is fully mature and can comprehend the various laws of heaven and earth."

"Although cultivators in the late Nascent Soul stage cannot yet apply the laws as well as a Divine Transformation Heavenly Monarch, deepening their understanding of the various laws is of great benefit to the application of magical powers and techniques. As a result, the application of magical powers and techniques by cultivators in the middle and late stages is incomparable."

"Besides, being able to comprehend the laws in advance at the middle stage of the Nascent Soul Realm is such a huge advantage! Maybe I can attempt to reach the Spiritual Transformation Realm hundreds of years earlier. This will greatly increase my lifespan. If I were a Great True Lord, I would probably be tempted too."

Song Mo sighed, "It's because of this magical power that it attracted many Yuanying Middle Stage True Lords to join the Heavenly Court. Although this [Heavenly Court] was split off from the Tiannan Demon Sect by Suying Tianjun, if we only look at the number of Yuanying True Lords, I'm afraid it will eventually be comparable to the Tiannan Demon Sect!"

"But the ordinary cultivators under the rule of [Heavenly Court] are in a miserable state."

Zhu Sha said with a certain gloating air, "The worse the aptitude, the less spiritual resources one will receive for cultivation. The worst aptitudes will even be captured and forced to work in the mines or farm... But these low-level cultivators can't escape and can only serve as their slaves."

Song Mo was surprised, "Didn't Xiao Guanying advocate that [the Way of Heaven is selfish], and that he wanted to [replace Heaven's will with his own], ultimately controlling Heaven's way and being impartial, so that everyone in the world would possess top-tier spiritual roots and become like a dragon? Why do ordinary cultivators still live such a miserable life?"

Zhu Sha curled his lips. "You also said 'ultimately'. 'Everyone is like a dragon' is the ultimate vision. Regardless of whether it can be realized, even if it can come true, it will be millions of years after Xiao Guanying ascends to the upper realms and becomes a venerable ancestor... What does it have to do with us cultivators?"

"And if you want to realize this ultimate vision? You can only make this generation, and even countless generations of cultivators in the future, suffer. They will use their lives as cattle and horses as nourishment to help Xiao Guanying achieve enlightenment!"

“This is called bitter first and sweet later.”

"Of course, as the time scale stretches out, the entire lives of countless generations of monks will be filled with suffering. This is also something that cannot be helped."

Song Mo said with a sigh, "He is truly shameless..."

But Zhu Sha changed the subject: "But I see that the ordinary cattle and horses under the rule of the Heavenly Court don't necessarily have a very miserable life."

"After all, those cultivators with the lowest aptitude have no hope of achieving the Great Dao. Rather than wasting countless spiritual resources and wasting their lives, only to end up with nothing but money and death, it's better to do down-to-earth work from the beginning and accumulate spiritual resources for the next generation."

"This means avoiding decades of detours."

"Maybe a talented child will be born, which will ensure we have a successor."

Zhu Sha laughed and said, "We have to compete with our parents and teachers here, while the people in Heaven have to compete with their offspring. It's quite a spectacle."

"Not necessarily." Song Mo shook his head. "I've heard that if ordinary cultivators give birth to children with top-tier spiritual roots, they can instantly soar to the sky and enter the highest-level [Wendao Academy] to receive training...but even if they are the direct disciples of the God Transformation Heavenly Monarch, if their parents and elders don't meet the requirements, they still have to go mining!"

"At most, I can just look after them and help them a little, but their occupations cannot be changed... Xiao Guanying said this is called 'each doing his own job', and the purpose is to completely prevent relatives from interfering with the distribution of spiritual resources."

Zhu Sha was shocked and said, "This rule is too harsh..."

"It's indeed harsh. I heard that the decree has been in effect for a few days, but the monks below are not very cooperative, and many are pretending to obey but secretly disobeying... Even the monks responsible for law enforcement have complained about it. I wonder if Xiao Guanying will use drastic measures to kill a group of people to establish his authority?"

"The [Heavenly Court] is just beginning, and the entire power structure is just being established. It's time to use people. I don't think this Heavenly Lord Suying will go on a killing spree, but will instead adopt a policy of appeasement. Otherwise, no matter how powerful he is, it's impossible for him to manage such a large territory alone!"