Under the watchful eyes of Yuanshi Tianzun and Tongtian Jiaozhu, Zhunti Daoren said calmly, "My disciples of the Western Sect reside in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, chanting Amitabha Buddha's name. They do not enter the mortal world, nor are they tainted by karma. This calamity of the immortals has nothing to do with my sect."
Yuanshi Tianzun and Tongtian Jiaozhu sighed.
As Master Hongjun just said, this is a calamity for the Xuanmen (Taoist sects), and ultimately it cannot be traced back to the Western Sect...
Yuanshi Tianzun looked at Tongtian Jiaozhu and said indifferently, "Fellow Daoist, most of your disciples are born from eggs and covered in scales and horns. Many of them do not cultivate merit, and countless others act recklessly."
Please, fellow Daoist, add them to this Investiture of the Gods list, lest they fall into reincarnation when they encounter calamity.
The Tongtian Sect Leader, of course, would not use the lives of his disciples to fill the Investiture of the Gods list. He sneered, "How could my disciples be as incompetent as you say? If you want to use my disciples to fill the Investiture of the Gods list, you have completely misunderstood."
"If you truly intend to follow the will of Heaven, then you should first fill in the names of your own disciples, lest they be utterly destroyed when the calamity strikes."
If one is listed on the Investiture of the Gods, one is almost destined to be cut off from the Great Dao and lose one's freedom.
Both leaders were protective of their own and placed high hopes on their disciples, so of course they wouldn't send them to the list.
The two immediately engaged in a heated argument, filling the entire Zixiao Palace with their voices.
Hu Le and the other religious leaders and saints were not involved in the matter and simply watched with amusement as the two argued more and more fiercely.
While Hu Le and the others could remain neutral, Taishang Laojun, the senior disciple of the Xuanmen sect, could not do the same. He spoke up, saying, "Alright, you two, stop arguing and calm down. You both need to fill in some parts of the Investiture of the Gods list. It's no use in passing the buck."
As he spoke, in order to set an example for the two brothers, he directly created an avatar and signed it on the Investiture of the Gods.
From then on, the name of Laozi appeared on the previously empty Investiture of the Gods list.
After writing down his own name, Laozi added a few more names. These were former followers of Shennong who had not yet attained enlightenment, as well as some marginal disciples of the Human Sect who were destined to never achieve enlightenment.
After signing these documents, Laozi handed the Investiture of the Gods to Yuanshi Tianzun beside him.
Seeing that his senior brother had given up everything, Yuanshi Tianzun couldn't be stingy, so he also signed his name on the Investiture of the Gods.
Then, without hesitation, he handed over the Investiture of the Gods to the Tongtian Sect Leader.
When the Tongtian Sect Leader saw that there were only a few dozen names on the Investiture of the Gods, he couldn't help but laugh in anger.
There should be 365 vacant positions for the righteous gods on the list. Now, even Taishang and Yuanshi haven't filled 70-80% of them. Are they going to have his disciples from the Jie Sect fill the rest?
Although his Jie Sect was said to have ten thousand immortals paying homage, none of his disciples were superfluous.
Whether it's Daoist Duobao or anyone else, they were all nurtured by him with his own hands.
He was still hoping these disciples would carry forward his Jie Sect, so how could he bear to send them to join the divine path now...
However, since both of his senior brothers had filled it out, he couldn't very well leave none of his disciples blank.
So he also randomly filled in some peripheral disciples of the Jie Sect.
However, after he finished filling in the list, the total number of names on the Investiture of the Gods was less than a quarter.
After reviewing the list, Yuanshi Tianzun said with some dissatisfaction, "Tongtian, your Jie Sect has many disciples, how come you only filled in so few?"
Because of his dissatisfaction, he stopped calling him "fellow Daoist" and started addressing him by the name of the Tongtian Sect Leader.
The Tongtian Sect Leader, of course, wouldn't hold back either, coldly saying, "Yuanshi, you're unwilling to put your own disciple on the list? Are you perhaps less capable than me?"
Yuanshi Tianzun glanced at Tongtian Jiaozhu, quite disapproving. Did Tongtian really think he could compare to him?
It should be noted that even though their own Chan Sect has the Pangu Banner to suppress its fortune, they are still extremely cautious when accepting disciples.
The Jie Sect, which has reached the heavens, clearly lacks a supreme innate treasure to suppress destiny, yet it still recruits disciples on a large scale. Most of these disciples are born from moisture and eggs and do not cultivate merit.
In this way, how can a great religion last long...?
Before those wicked individuals corrupt the fortunes of the Jie Sect, sending them to the Investiture of the Gods would be of immense benefit to both the Xuanmen (Taoist sect) and the Jie Sect itself...
However, what troubled Yuanshi Tianzun was that Tongtian Jiaozhu did not understand his good intentions at all. Instead, he thought that his elder brother had ulterior motives and wanted to use his disciple to shield him from calamity.
In this situation, he was also helpless...
Yuanshi Tianzun and Tongtian Jiaozhu argued for a long time, neither of them able to persuade the other to give in.
Seeing that if the argument continued, the two were about to break off their relationship and start fighting, Laozi had no choice but to speak up and interrupt their quarrel.
As the senior disciple, he was quite troubled by his two junior disciples.
"You two can shut up now."
"Under the will of Heaven, we should discuss this among ourselves before we can reach a conclusion. Today is only the first discussion. You two don't need to make a decision so soon. Go back and think it over carefully. Let's discuss it again at my Shouyang Mountain a hundred years from now."
After hearing this, Yuanshi Tianzun and Tongtian Jiaozhu nodded in agreement.
Nuwa then said, "Since this calamity is none of my concern, I will not attend the next meeting."
The Taoist Zhunti also laughed and said, "Neither of us will go over there either."
Hu Le was about to speak when he said, "This humble Taoist priest..."
However, Laozi suddenly interrupted him, "Fellow Daoist Xuanxiang, please come to the Eight Views Palace next time to be our witness."
"Very well then." Hu Le couldn't refuse, so he nodded in agreement.
The sages temporarily reached a consensus, and Laozi bowed slightly towards the cloud platform in front of them, saying, "Please show yourself, Master."
Before he finished speaking, the figure of Hongjun Daoist floated out from the depths of chaos.
Then, Laozi told Hongjun about the matter of the Three Merchants.
The Taoist nodded slightly after hearing this: "In that case, it is not too late for you three to sign the agreement before reporting to me."
The saints bowed respectfully and saw Hongjun Daoist off again. They also left Zixiao Palace, bid farewell to the chaos, and returned to their own Daoist temples.
...
Hu Le returned to Buzhou Mountain, sat down in the Heavenly Dao Palace, and pondered this tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods.
After a while, he ordered the boy in blue to ring the Gathering Immortals Bell in the palace.
Not long after.
Guan Kong and his disciples arrived at the Heavenly Dao Palace and entered the hall to pay their respects.
After the disciples paid their respects, Hu Le explained why he had called them over.
After he informed his disciples about the divine calamity,
They couldn't help but shudder. During the last great calamity of the human race, they had ventured deep into the midst of it, fought fiercely, and narrowly escaped death.
I've only enjoyed a few days of peace and quiet, and now I'm facing another major calamity.
They almost suffered a breakdown of their Daoist resolve.
However, they relaxed after Hu Le explained that this calamity only affected the Xuanmen (Taoist sect) and had nothing to do with Taoist disciples...
Hu Le gave them a few more instructions, telling them to stay away from the mountain as much as possible after they returned, to recite Taoist scriptures, and not to have too close contact with the disciples of the Chan and Jie sects.
After all, although the calamity had nothing to do with Taoism, if they got involved themselves, then no one could save them...
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