After the announcement of Chapter 201, "The Restoration of the Rule of Appointing Generals," the immortals were filled with sorrow...

The results of the third competition were not announced until a full month and a half later.

Bitao was first, Mingguang second, Yunchuan third, followed by Taiji, Guanghan, and then a group of outstanding ancient immortals led by Bingjing, arranged in order according to Mingguang's calculations.

Originally, the third competition was for the celestial positions of the Six Departments, but after the Great War in the Heavenly Realm, many of the celestial positions reset by the Stardial were unfortunately not successfully reborn.

The vacancies in the six departments were so numerous that there was no need for these competing immortal positions to compete for any immortal posts. Many of them took on multiple positions after joining the department.

Those "banished immortals" who followed Mingguang and others from the arena and finally returned to heaven to assume their positions after hundreds of years, had not yet adapted to returning to the celestial realm before being sent back to the Six Departments. Amidst their busy official duties and tireless efforts to "plug holes" everywhere, they rediscovered their sense of responsibility as immortals.

Since Mingguang, the second-place finisher, had been in a coma and had not yet attained the position of Taixian, Bitao naturally took over the soon-to-be-retired position of Fengdu Emperor before him and began to adapt to being an "Emperor".

However, the timing of Bitao's takeover was truly chaotic.

The great war in the celestial realm affected the souls of all living beings in the myriad realms. Many of them were "unintentionally implicated and their lives were not meant to end." Tracing back their merits and demerits in their previous lives would be an extremely large and complicated project.

At that time, the Southern Celestial Venerable caused quite a bit of trouble in the underworld in order to lure the Fengdu Emperor Daju back to the underworld. The Fengdu Emperor killed some of the ghost officials to quell the chaos. Also, because the Avici Evil Ghosts were released, some ghost officials tried to stop the evil ghosts from causing trouble and reincarnating, but unfortunately they were beaten to death by the evil ghosts.

Therefore, the underworld is also so short of people that it has no choice but to temporarily recruit ghosts who cannot be reincarnated in time to do things.

In this chaotic situation, even if Bitao had a brilliant mind, she would still be overwhelmed and unable to cope with such a mess, especially since she was a novice emperor who was "distributing firewood and rice for the first time".

The handover and wrangling between Da Ju and himself took six or seven days and they still hadn't resolved it.

Bitao usually addresses the Emperor respectfully with a smile, but when it comes to official duties, she and Mingguang are just as serious and meticulous, never giving an inch or being ambiguous in the slightest.

They chased after Da Ju, who was about to pack up and head to Shangqingjing for a carefree life, asking him all sorts of questions until he got really annoyed.

Da Ju glared at Bi Tao: "You child, I spoiled you and helped you for nothing before. It's just that the Avici Hell Demon hasn't been interrogated for ten thousand years. What kind of old grudge is this? Why are you talking so rudely?"

"If you find it troublesome after you become the Emperor of Fengdu, just kill all the evil spirits of Avici Hell and replace them with a new batch of evil spirits. Anyway, they are all extremely wicked, so their deaths are a favor to them. It's as if you have granted a general amnesty to Fengdu after becoming the Emperor."

"Besides, the mess you celestial beings made is truly awful. My Netherworld is now overrun with ghosts, and many souls are incomplete. It's not a crime for them to be thrown into the River of Oblivion. The mess you gods made should be cleaned up by you gods!"

"Your Majesty, please be careful with your words," Bitao said with a smile. "The Heavenly and the Underworld are one family. Aren't many immortals in the Heavenly Realm already in the Underworld helping out?"

Da Ju sneered: "Help? More like causing trouble while sightseeing! They're all Supreme Immortals, but they're clueless. They haven't done much of the real work since entering the Netherworld. All they do all day is exclaim in amazement, 'Wow, wow, wow!' Every day when I open my eyes, I think the Netherworld has started raising a bunch of frogs!"

Bitao remained calm and patient, gently and patiently explaining things to the Emperor of Fengdu, refusing to presume to help him with anything she couldn't understand.

The Emperor of Fengdu was so annoyed that he went to find Kunyi.

"You'd better keep an eye on that Bitao. She's supposed to be your daughter-in-law, and you're practically her mother. She's so annoying. She's not exactly a decent or old-fashioned person by nature, but she makes things difficult for me at every turn!"

Kunyi had just returned from quelling the chaos in the myriad realms and was already distraught at the sight of the many chaotic situations in the human world. When Daju came to her for judgment, Kunyi pondered for a moment and said expressionlessly, "If you can hand over the reins clearly, you can go to Shangqing Realm. If you can't hand over the reins clearly, you can continue to be the Fengdu Emperor for three thousand years. I will personally take Bitao and teach her the method of controlling the Five Thunders."

Da Ju was really tired of being the Emperor of Fengdu. Shangqing Realm was so much better. It was full of demons and monsters, without all sorts of messy rules and ranks. It was a place where the strong were respected.

Not only can you unleash your full power when slaying demons and monsters, but you also have a limit on the number of people you can tolerate killing if you're mistakenly killed during each mission.

Da Ju was recruited by Shangqing Realm more than a thousand years ago. After a few days of playing freely, he became restless and eager to succeed the emperor. He didn't want to waste a single second of his time now that someone was finally available to take his place.

When Kunyi said that the handover was unclear and that he still had to be the Emperor of Fengdu for another three thousand years, Daju was immediately speechless.

Finally, he pointed at Kunyi's cold, unyielding face, saying, "You, Kunyi, I treated you so well back then, always helping you with your plans. It seems all my sincerity towards you has been wasted!"

After saying that, Da Ju vanished in a flash.

Bitao had come to Kunyi with a question about her official duties when she happened to overhear this. Her mouth gaped slightly, and her eyes shone with an unusual light.

Wow, could it be that the Emperor of Fengdu and Kunyi had a past relationship?

However, Bitao was too preoccupied with the handover to care about the past events of the immortals. She had serious business to discuss with Kunyi.

"Immortal Master, there is a ghost in the River of Oblivion in Fengdu. During the great war in the Heavenly Realm, the River of Oblivion flowed backward to the Heavenly Realm, devoured the White Tiger Star God, and occupied his immortal bones. Later, when the Southeast Heavenly Venerable fell into the River of Oblivion, it ate his immortal soul and crawled out of the River of Oblivion..."

Bitao recounted the entire story of Emperor Enrong to the Heavenly Dao of the Myriad Realms.

After listening, Kunyi pondered for a long time before asking Bitao, "You are about to ascend to the position of Emperor of Fengdu. What do you think should be done with this neither-immortal-nor-ghost Ziwei Star God?"

Bitao had been waiting for Kunyi's words. She took a slight breath and said righteously, "Yesterday I went to ask Jichunjun. After the White Tiger Star God's immortal bones were taken over, the star chart did not show that he had fallen. In other words, this Emperor Enrong has inherited the authority of the White Tiger Star God."

"Furthermore, he also devoured the immortal soul of the Southeast Immortal Venerable. I have seen him several times. He is clear-headed, his body is intact, his meridians are smooth, and his body is filled with pure energy that does not dissipate... He can no longer be described as a 'ghost'."

"I believe that the Heavenly Realm is currently in dire need of people. Ghosts who crawl out of the River of Oblivion are extremely rare throughout history. Since he has this opportunity, it must be his destiny to have this good fortune."

"He is unable to ascend because he is suppressed by the evil spirits of the underworld. Why not open the Heavenly Gate, cleanse him of the evil spirits with the Five Thunderbolts, and test his character? If he is fortunate enough to ascend, we can place the confinement artifact on him and keep him for observation... What do you think?"

Bitao added, "He was once the Ziwei Star God personally chosen by Mingguang, so it's unlikely that his character would be damaged by the Wangchuan incident."

Bitao truly believed that Emperor Enrong's ability to devour the two immortals by chance, completely shedding his remnant ghost body and transforming into a ghost immortal body, was quite remarkable.

However, Emperor Enrong had already climbed out of the River of Oblivion, and Bitao had already done many things for him in the Netherworld. She chose this opportunity to explain to the Heavenly Dao of the Myriad Realms and proposed to directly open the Heavenly Gate so that he could ascend, which naturally contained her own selfish motives.

In her heart, she hoped that Enrong could successfully overcome his tribulation and ascend to immortality, so that he could reunite with Xuanjia.

It wasn't to rekindle their past relationship, but simply to put Xuanjia's mind at ease.

A few days ago, Xuanjia made a special trip back from the Star Realm to inquire about Emperor Enrong. Bitao never dared to tell her the truth, only saying that Emperor Enrong had already climbed out of the River of Oblivion with his body and soul intact, and how to deal with him still needed to be discussed with the Emperor of Fengdu.

I dare not say that Emperor Enrong swallowed two immortals in succession, which might bring him great fortune and allow him to try his luck at ascending to immortality.

Kunyi stared directly into Bitao's eyes, her expression unchanged from beginning to end. However, the heavy pressure in her eyes, the cold and clear gaze like autumn frost and an icy pool, clearly showed that she had seen through Bitao's secret intentions.

Bitao didn't flinch or avoid her at all, and even smiled at Kunyi.

Kunyi concluded, "The Heavenly Gate is set up to punish the most heinous criminals; it must not be opened recklessly."

Bitao's heart sank, but she quickly thought that after she succeeded as the Emperor of Fengdu, she would first keep Emperor Enrong as a ghost official, and then find an opportunity for him and Xuanjia to meet after everything was settled.

However, just as Bitao was preparing to make other plans, Kunyi said, "I have discussed with the Azure Emperor about introducing new rules for the Heavenly Realm. We will restore the ancient rules for appointing generals by immortals."

“The positions of the Nine Heavens Immortals are indeed scarce nowadays. If you think that the Ziwei Star God is worthy of great use, you may appoint him to ascend to heaven.”

Bitao was overjoyed again.

He clapped his hands and praised, "This new rule is brilliant! Immortal Master, the ancient immortal clan was originally uneasy about the previous new rule regarding the descent of immortals to the mortal realm for tribulations. Now that the rule of selecting generals has been introduced, they will find it easier to accept the heavenly rules for tribulations."

In any case, the purpose of sending the immortals down to the mortal realm was not to ensure that the immortals would never return, but rather to allow them to personally hear the voices of the common people, understand their true prayers and desires, and thus be able to correct their responsibilities as immortals at any time.

Kunyi looked at her with a deep gaze and said, "But the new regulations for appointing generals have additional rules. If a person who is unfit to be an immortal is appointed to a celestial position and commits a grave mistake, the person who appointed the general will be punished along with him."

Bitao paused slightly, then praised, "The Emperor and the Immortal are indeed thoughtful and wise! In this way, the rule of collective punishment can prevent the younger generation of the Immortal Clan from being burdened by the favors of their elders. The Immortal position and the generals appointed by them will share the same fate, so they will naturally be extra cautious."

Kunyi watched as Bitao smiled like a sly little fox who had achieved her goal because of the "new rules," her eyes sparkling. She praised Bitao's decision as brilliant, and couldn't help but smile slightly.

Who doesn't like to hear nice things?

However, few immortals around her and Qingming dared to show their emotions, let alone such a junior who, harboring selfish desires and feelings, openly flattered and fawned over them.

Kunyi said to Bitao, "Go."

Bitao happily emerged from the Thunder Department and headed straight for the Starry Sky Rotating Yin-Yang Sundial to routinely visit the bright light within it each day.

The Azure Emperor has been frequently descending to the mortal realm lately and has not been presiding over the Star Dial as often. Since he is not here now, Bitao easily slipped into the Star Dial and rushed towards the floating bright light.

She nestled in his arms, enjoying the sensation. Suddenly, sensing an inspiration strike, she summoned the Silver Net and saw the Immortal Gathering Order that Kunyi had just issued.

Following the Immortal Gathering Order, there were two other announcements published on the Silver River.

The first rule is to announce the new Heavenly Rules, informing the immortals to restore the ancient system of appointing generals, along with the rules attached to the appointment.

Bitao was still smiling when she saw the first one, but when she saw the second one, she hugged Mingguang and her expression suddenly froze.

—"Because of the great war in the heavens, the Star Gods were derailed and the star charts of all realms went off track. Now, many star realms are in chaos and disorder, and all living beings are suffering in dire straits... The Azure Nether Emperor, out of compassion for the suffering of all living beings, wishes to fulfill his duty as an Immortal Emperor and use the sundial to remedy the situation for all living beings."

After the news was released, the immortals were filled with sorrow.