As he spoke, the space in Xue Mingzhi's hands flashed and he slowly handed a red-gold invitation to Shen Yuan with both hands.

The entire invitation is made of the fifth-rank spiritual material Taixuan gold, and is decorated with luxurious fairy talismans with flying dragons and dancing phoenixes, as well as cloud patterns, painted by a talisman master. A strong dynasty aura lingers on it, and one can feel its extraordinaryness even before opening it.

Ordinary people holding this invitation card will find it difficult for ordinary ghosts to get close to them.

Shen Yuan raised his brows slightly as he looked at the invitation in front of him, with a look of uncontrollable surprise on his face.

Shen Yuan didn't care about the so-called invitation from Emperor Xia.

Re-establishing the City Gods and building the incense and law domain is an inevitable result. It is not surprising that all human dynasties have supplemented their control over the territory through the City God system.

What really moved Shen Yuan was Xue Mingzhi's words: "The Great Xia court wants to regain control of the world."

The weight of this sentence far exceeds the matter of re-establishing the city gods and building the incense and Dharma realm.

Since the advent of the spiritual energy tide, all the major blessed places have begun to recover. The Great Xia court still maintains its influence at the state level, but it is gradually losing control of the counties and prefectures below it.

In the first half year or so, the high-end combat forces in the caves of the major sects had difficulty getting out.

Simply training a new generation of sect disciples is not enough to shake the millions of modernized troops of the Great Xia Court. The Great Xia Court was generally able to control the situation and plundered the vast majority of cultivation resources in the early stages. It can be said that it had all the advantages.

But as time went by, the period of strength of the Great Xia court gradually began to decline, a new generation of disciples in the major sects gradually grew up, extraordinary combat power became the mainstream, and the effect of modern thermal weapons in the struggle of practitioners gradually decreased.

When the outstanding disciples of the major sects reach the realm of Qi Refining and Spirit Transformation, they will be able to ignore most modern weapons except strategic weapons, and reduce the influence of modern weapons to the extreme.

Not only that, during this period, major sects used various platforms to spread their teachings among the people and recruit disciples, attracting countless people.

In the past, cultivating immortality and achieving longevity only existed in myths and legends, but now that we can experience it in person, how many people can remain unmoved?

Although the Imperial Observatory of the Great Xia court has been working hard to select geniuses from various states and counties for training, the loss of talent is still unavoidable.

After all, in terms of Taoist inheritance and the level of the strong, the Great Xia court is still in an absolutely weak position compared to the major caves and blessed lands.

This weakness is even expanding over time.

Especially when the rules of heaven and earth were further restored and could support the demise of the strong men in the Spirit Transformation Realm, the situation changed drastically.

The lifespan of human practitioners is far less than that of demons. In all the major caves and blessed lands, only the spirit-refining masters can have a lifespan of three thousand years. There are no powerful spirit-transforming masters who can live from the last spiritual energy tide era to the present.

But after experiencing several spiritual energy tides, the major caves and blessed lands had already developed countermeasures and raised many long-lived spiritual beasts three thousand years ago.

The strength of these long-lived spirit beasts is not considered strong among those of the same level, but they are also capable of transforming into gods. In today's world, they can sweep across an area and suppress countless practitioners.

In addition, the blessed land will inevitably bestow life-saving magical powers and precious spiritual treasures. In this case, the role of strategic weapons is also very limited.

The lack of high-end combat power has made the current situation of the Great Xia court extremely embarrassing, and its control over counties has been continuously weakened.

Especially in some counties where powerful caves and blessed places are located, as early as the early days of the spiritual energy tide, local tyrants and court officials were controlled by the caves and blessed places, and they almost became the ones who had the final say in the sect.

The Great Xia court may not be without a way to deal with these sects, but when it comes to the situation in Great Xia, the entire body will be affected. Until the Great Xia court is completely sure, it can only sit back and watch the sects' actions.

When the rules of heaven and earth are further restored in the future and the present world can support the appearance of real spirit refiners, those strong people who have truly survived the three thousand years of spiritual energy depletion will return to heaven and earth.

By that time, the blessed land will be restored to its original state, and the Great Xia court will completely lose control of these places.

The Great Xia court naturally did not want to see such a result, but they were unable to stop it. They could only use the orthodox status of the Great Xia court to compete for a large amount of cultivation resources, and secretly support the sects whose blessed lands had collapsed to compete with other sects.

These private struggles intensified the conflict between the Great Xia court and the paradise.

During the rebellion in the underworld three months ago, Dongtian Fudi stood idly by and watched the chaos in Taizhou. This was the consensus reached by Dongtian Fudi in order to check and balance the Great Xia court after the conflict intensified.

No one would have thought that the Ten Kings of Hell were behind the turmoil in the underworld. If Shen Yuan had not stepped in to suppress everything on his own, disaster would have surely occurred.

After the turmoil in the underworld, all the major paradises began to realize that the current Xuanhuang Realm was not as simple as they had imagined, and it became much quieter.

But no one would have thought that the Great Xia court would suddenly stand up during this period of time and even say these words openly.

As his thoughts turned to his mind, Shen Yuan asked with some curiosity in his eyes:

"The Great Xia court actually made such a blatant move. Could it be that they have some basis to rely on?"

Xue Mingzhi heard this and explained in a low voice:

"This decision was jointly discussed by Emperor Xia, the Imperial Observatory, and the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers. The level involved is too high, and I am not very clear about it."

After a slight pause, Xue Mingzhi frowned slightly, and said with a hint of speculation in his expression:

“However, at a banquet for the geniuses in the imperial capital a few days ago, the crown prince personally came to talk about the underworld, revealing that the underworld today is no longer what it used to be.

The two stars, White Tiger and Vermillion Bird, made him appreciated by the Emperor of Fengdu and made him the god of the Six Heavens of Luofeng. In the future, he will be able to ascend to the fairyland and achieve immortality.

The alliance between the Great Xia court and the underworld will surely bring endless benefits."

Shen Yuan was stunned. He never thought that this matter in the Great Xia court could be related to him.

Before Shen Yuan could speak, Xue Mingzhi said with a serious look on his face:

“Three months ago, the Lord of the Underworld, Fengdu Emperor, suddenly appeared in Taizhou, expelled the ghosts from several states, and pacified the underworld, attracting hundreds of millions of people to offer incense and worship him.

At that time, the shadow of Emperor Fengdu appeared in the world, and his divine power covered the entire state. He was by no means comparable to ordinary powerful people in the fairyland.

With such a powerful person in charge of the underworld, plus the rumored six gods of Luofeng, the ghosts and gods of the underworld, and the city gods to be established in the future, its strength is no less than that of the major caves and blessed places.

If the Great Xia court can really reach a consensus with the underworld, and use the power of the underworld to connect the incense and law domains of various states, it may not be impossible to subdue the major cave paradises. "

Speaking of this, Xue Mingzhi was filled with emotion.

No one would have thought that the Great Xia court, which had expected the various caves and blessed lands to help suppress the underworld three months ago, would actually unite with the underworld to fight against the caves and blessed lands.

The strange change in the situation is enough to make people who don't know the inside story dumbfounded.

Just as Xue Mingzhi was sighing, he did not notice that Shen Yuan in front of the stone table had a stiff expression and the corners of his mouth could not help twitching slightly.

"I was wondering where Da Xia got the confidence from, after all this time it turned out that I was the one who brought it to them.

But I, the Lord of the Underworld, the real Emperor of Fengdu, was completely unaware of this."

After complaining to himself in his mind, Shen Yuan was also somewhat curious about the details behind this matter.

Although he gave orders to Baihu and Zhuque to establish contact with the Great Xia court, matters involving an alliance with the Great Xia court were not something that the two of them could decide on. Niutou, the leader of the six ghosts and gods in Luofeng, must personally nod his approval.

"What price did Daxia give to Niutou that made Niutou agree to drag the entire underworld into the water?" Faintly, Shen Yuan smelled something unusual.

Shen Yuan looked at Xue Mingzhi, who was looking respectful, and said in a playful tone:

“Emperor Xia formed an alliance with the underworld to regain control of the situation. Although the invitation to the blessed land was for discussion, in reality it was to use the power of the underworld to establish his authority.

It's fine if it's just a blessed land, but Emperor Xia actually wants to invite me. Could it be that I am also one of the people he wants to establish his authority over?"

Xue Mingzhi's expression froze, cold sweat continued to seep out of his forehead, and he quickly said:

“Please rest assured, sir, Emperor Xia has absolutely no such intention.

Before this, Emperor Xia and the Director of the Imperial Observatory had already known of Mr. Xia's existence, but they were afraid of disturbing him, so they did not take the initiative to show up and explain.

In the discussion of the Dao Conference and the Beimang Mountain incident, the Great Xia court had provided considerable assistance."

Shen Yuan smiled indifferently and did not comment on Xue Mingzhi's words.

During the Taoist Conference and the Beimang Mountain incident, he helped suppress the water tribes and the ancient forbidden land, and the Great Xia court gained a lot of benefits from this.

Compared with what the Great Xia court had gained, that little help was completely justified.

As for the fact that the Great Xia court had long been keeping an eye on him, Shen Yuan knew it very well.

It was just that due to the lack of information, the Great Xia court mistakenly believed that he was a walking immortal on earth with the ability to subvert the overall situation, so he did not dare to act rashly.

Today, the Great Xia court has formed an alliance with the underworld, which has made up for the lack of high-end combat power and can even go a step further to establish the incense and law domain.

There really wasn't much hostility from Emperor Xia in this invitation, and it was impossible for the Great Xia Emperor to actively push Shen Yuan to the opposing side.

But asking Xue Mingzhi to pass on the invitation may have been intended to test Shen Yuan's true intentions.

At least in the eyes of the Great Xia court, with the support of Emperor Fengdu, there is really no need to be too afraid of a mere earthly immortal.

Thinking of this, Shen Yuan couldn't help but reveal a strange smile.

"Emperor Xia's confidence was given to him by Emperor Fengdu and the underworld.

But if he knew that I was the King of Fengdu, how would he feel? "

Thinking of this, Shen Yuan suddenly became interested in Emperor Xia's invitation.

His eyes fell on Xue Mingzhi. The subtle influence of the will of heaven and earth remaining in his body had not dissipated yet.

According to Shen Yuan's understanding of the will of heaven and earth, ordinary changes in the general trend are just the internal cycle of the Xuanhuang Realm, which will not be noticed by the will of heaven and earth at all, let alone lead Shen Yuan to intervene.

Such unusual changes in the will of heaven and earth prove that there must be other abnormalities behind Daxia's re-establishment of the city gods this time.

"A powerful outsider is invading? Or is it the source of the strange aura that is causing trouble again?"

Just before this, Shen Yuan had made up his mind to establish a connection with the will of heaven and earth in the Xuanhuang Realm in order to avoid the crisis he might encounter before returning to Wanzai.

Since we have this idea, we must intervene in the affairs guided by the will of heaven and earth, so that it will be convenient to bargain with the will of heaven and earth.

It is impossible to work for free, never in this life.

Thinking about how to extort money from him, Shen Yuan reached out and took the invitation that Xue Mingzhi handed over.

"This is the first grand event since the revival of the spiritual energy tide. We can go and see it for ourselves."

Shen Yuan accepted the invitation, which made Xue Mingzhi completely relieved.

Xue Mingzhi received many benefits from Shen Yuan. His title of genius in the imperial capital was entirely due to Shen Yuan. It can be said that he was reborn.

This time, Emperor Xia suddenly issued an edict regarding Shen Yuan, and issued it directly to the entire Xue family in the name of the emperor, which caught Xue Mingzhi completely off guard.

Before this, Daxia had never had any contact with Shen Yuan, so Xue Mingzhi found it difficult to figure out the specific situation.

If the order was only issued to an individual, Xue Mingzhi could have simply refused without knowing Shen Yuan's specific attitude. At most, he would have suffered.

However, since it involves the family, if Xue Mingzhi refuses, it is likely to have a bad impact on the Xue family, so he has no choice but to accept the order.

Fortunately, Shen Yuan did not seem to be dissatisfied with this, which made Xue Mingzhi feel a lot more at ease.

"When do we set off?" Shen Yuan asked casually.

“After receiving the invitation from the Great Xia court, all the major cave paradises set out for the imperial capital immediately, and the guardian spirit beasts of each sect also set out for the imperial capital.

Nowadays, many sects gather in the imperial capital, and even among the holy lands that have been closed for a long time, three holy lands have descended on the imperial capital.

If you have connections with any of the major sects, it might be a good idea to go to the imperial capital now.

But if you don't want to get involved in these mundane matters, you can just rush to the imperial capital before the City God Ceremony begins."

Xue Mingzhi's words made Shen Yuan's eyes light up, and the secret realm in his sleeve trembled slightly.

Before, he was still worrying about how to attract various caves and blessed lands to enter the Fang Cun Secret Realm. Now that there are so many caves and blessed lands in the imperial capital, it is a great opportunity that should not be missed.

"Are there any Soul Refining Masters in charge of the teams heading to the imperial capital from various cave paradises?"

Xue Mingzhi was slightly stunned, and shook his head lightly:

“Right now, the rules of heaven and earth can only support the arrival of a powerful god-transforming expert. If a god-refining expert uses secret techniques to walk the earth, his strength can only be at the peak of the god-transforming level.

With the intervention of the underworld and the protection of the spirit beasts of each sect, the spirit refiners of the major cave paradises may not choose to take risks. "

Xue Mingzhi's words did not disappoint Shen Yuan.

He just smiled and gently stood up from the stone table.

"The so-called unwillingness to take risks is simply that the benefits are not enough."

Shen Yuan took a step forward and slowly walked towards the gate of the secret courtyard.

"Then let's make the water in this imperial capital even more muddy."