Chapter 31 The Love-Brained God 31 Slaying the Gods
Hong Zhao thought about it again and realized that this made sense.
Yes, what kind of place is the Heavenly Palace? Which immortal, demon, god, or monster from all corners of the world wouldn't want to enter the Heavenly Realm?
Fairies like them only have the chance to touch the threshold of the Heavenly Palace when the Heavenly Palace recruits fairies on a large scale.
If they're after anything, it's the good benefits the Heavenly Palace wants. What could the Heavenly Palace possibly want from them?
Hong Zhao quickly came to terms with it.
Although she said she didn't want to participate in the Heavenly Palace selection, she was actually quite reluctant to do so. Iris and Lan Qi both said it was no problem, so she naturally relaxed.
The three of them quickly returned to the hotel.
They were in Xiangyuan City, a human city under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Wilderness Bird Clan.
Yes, even in the heavens, there are humans.
These humans are vassals of various divine races. The concept of nations does not exist in the celestial realm. Humans belong to different divine races and live in cities under their protection.
The people of Xiangyuan City worship the Danhe clan.
Crane statues can be seen everywhere in the city, and temples dedicated to the cranes are everywhere. Every temple is bustling with worshippers, and there is a constant stream of people kneeling and praying inside.
Seeing Lan Qi staring in that direction, Hong Zhao assumed she envied the Danhe Immortals who owned temples.
She patted Lan Qi's arm, her tone a mixture of envy and helplessness.
"Stop looking, we can't have that."
She said that the Danhe clan belongs to the bird clan, which is ruled by the phoenix clan. The current Empress is from the phoenix clan, and the Heavenly Prince is also born to the Empress.
"For the past ten thousand years, the bird race has been unparalleled in its power. I've heard that they've acquired several more subordinate cities..."
With more cities, there will be more believers, and the power of the race will increase accordingly.
Hong Zhao had heard that if one has followers, one will possess the power of faith, and using the power of faith to cultivate will be twice as effective with half the effort, and the speed of cultivation can be described as a thousand miles a day.
Otherwise, why would the various gods go to the trouble of building cities to protect the humans they vassalize? It's because humans can provide the power of faith.
Compared to the long lifespan of the gods, the lifespan of humans is too short, like a mayfly, disappearing in a mere hundred years. However, although their lifespan is short, their reproductive capacity is very strong, and they can reproduce a large number of people in three to five hundred years.
Unfortunately, these weak humans, and the power of faith they provided, were mostly divided up by the powerful gods of the four seas and eight wastelands.
Let alone these wild immortals without powerful backgrounds, even some gods who are not strong enough will not get many humans.
Lan Qi's ability to mingle with them clearly indicates that she is a wild immortal with no particular background. Having witnessed the treatment of these powerful gods, she is easily prone to psychological imbalance.
"Sister Lanqi, you shouldn't watch it anymore. Watching too much won't do you any good. It'll easily make you lose your composure."
When Hong Zhao was still a little fairy, she used to envy the immortals from these great clans. They had access to the best resources, cultivated faster than them, and were stronger.
She once wanted to follow their example and recruit some followers, hoping that the power of their faith would help her accelerate her spiritual practice.
But when she told her master about this idea, he sternly interrupted her.
"No, absolutely not, you can't do that."
My master said that immortals in the heavenly realm cannot build temples or erect monuments for themselves at will, as this violates the laws of the heavenly realm. Immortals who privately absorb the power of faith will become evil gods, and once discovered, they will be mercilessly killed by the various divine races.
These wild fairies could only gain the power of faith by attaching themselves to the great gods and making significant contributions to their communities. Perhaps they could then gain some followers, obtain their own temples, and be devoutly worshipped by the believers.
However, this path is basically impassable. All the gods are well aware of the importance of the power of faith. There are not enough of their own people to go around, so how could they possibly give it to some wild immortal who is attached to them?
The Danhe clan protects the entire Xiangyuan City. In this place of the Eastern Wilderness, Xiangyuan City is protected by the Danhe clan and is spared from attacks by monsters, so people can live and work in peace here. Therefore, they are willing to build temples for the Danhe clan and worship their benefactors who protect them.
Lan Qi smiled and said, "It's nothing, I was just taking a look."
The number of these temples was terrifying; for a moment, Lan Qi felt that there were even more temples than people in Xiangyuan City.
Before entering the temple, those people were full of energy, but after leaving the temple, although they still looked energetic, their eyes became dull, and their bodies appeared stiff when they walked, looking extremely uncoordinated.
Is it really just the power of faith that these gods are demanding?
"Lan Qi, let's go. Stop looking at it. It has nothing to do with us anymore."
Hong Zhao tugged at Lan Qi's arm and led her back to the inn.
The currency circulating in the divine realm is spirit stones, and these mortal towns also collect spirit stones.
It was fortunate that Hong Zhao and the others arrived in Xiangyuan City twenty years in advance; otherwise, given the grand scale of the Immortal Palace's annual recruitment of female immortals, they wouldn't even have a place to stay.
The inn was quite crowded, and almost all of them were beautiful women, each with a unique beauty, regardless of their size or figure.
The preliminary results will be released tomorrow. Those who are not selected will leave, and those who pass the preliminary selection will proceed to the second selection.
Hong Zhao was quite confident in herself, but she didn't know about Lan Qi and Iris.
“Iris, I’ll sleep with you tonight and I’ll share my experience with you.”
Hong Zhao and Iris have only known each other for fifty or sixty years, while she has known Lan Qi for a longer period, probably one or two hundred years. But for some reason, even though they have known each other for a longer period, she is closer to Iris than to Lan Qi.
Iris nodded obediently. She seemed to have thought of something, glanced at Lan Qi beside her, and whispered, "How about letting Sister Lan Qi live with us? Sister Hong Zhao, you can share your experience with Sister Lan Qi."
They're all friends, and it's inappropriate for the two of them to live together while leaving Lan Qi out.
Hong Zhao paused for a moment, then looked at Lan Qi beside her: "Sister Lan Qi, are you coming?"
Lan Qi shook her head, a gentle smile on her face, and said softly, "No need. It would be best if I could be selected, but if I can't, it doesn't matter. I can come back in two hundred years."
Seeing her say that, Hong Zhao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and coaxed Iris to go back to her room with her.
The three parted ways at the door of the room. Hong Zhao and Iris went to one room, while Lan Qi stayed in another room by herself.
The selection of female immortals in the Heavenly Palace is a fair competition among everyone. Whether or not someone is selected depends on whether they meet the Heavenly Palace's standards. They are not really competitors and get along very harmoniously.
After returning to her room, Lan Qi casually set up a barrier to prevent anyone from investigating, and then released the Empress from the jade pendant.
Lan Qi was naturally Qi Wang in disguise. After dealing with those three love-struck individuals, Qi Wang traveled around the Heavenly Realm to see the world for himself.
There are still many mortals in the celestial realm, and their numbers far exceed those of the gods.
However, due to the existence of monsters, it is difficult for humans to establish their own kingdoms, and they have to rely on the gods for survival.
Humans are completely subservient to the gods.
However, while the power of demonic beasts is an insurmountable barrier for humans, it is insignificant to the gods.
The gods could easily annihilate the demonic beasts, but they did not erase their existence from the celestial realm.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the spiritual energy in the celestial realm is abundant. Normally, humans would have lived and multiplied in this world for tens of thousands of years and could have developed spiritual roots, thus enabling them to cultivate and use their own power to fight against those demonic beasts.
Strangely, despite living in the celestial realm for so long, no cultivators have ever emerged.
Neither human historical records nor those of immortals have ever shown any trace of human cultivators.
This is clearly abnormal.
This so-called celestial realm is full of eeriness; beneath its normal appearance lies a turbulent undercurrent.
There is also the Heavenly Palace's selection of female immortals, which takes place once every two hundred years.
Immortals have long lifespans, so the female immortals in the Heavenly Palace shouldn't be replaced so frequently.
However, the Heavenly Palace launched a large-scale selection of female immortals less than two hundred years later. Qi Wang only did a rough count of the data and found that the number of these so-called female immortals of the Heavenly Palace had reached an astonishing level.
This is clearly an abnormal situation, yet everyone in the world takes it for granted that there is nothing wrong with it.
The Heavenly Palace is only so big, so the total number of gods and immortals should be constant, but the number of female immortals increases by a large number every two hundred years.
Where did all those female immortals go?
However, the Heavenly Palace is not a place that ordinary immortals can go to. Those immortals from powerful clans have the protection of their families and do not need to go to the Heavenly Palace to make a living. Naturally, no one from their clan would participate in the selection of female immortals.
In Qi Wang's opinion, those who came to participate in the selection were basically minor immortals with no real foundation.
If he were to investigate, he should be able to find out the problem. However, with the Empress Dowager by his side, Qi Wang simply took a shortcut.
Qi Wang confused the concept of time within the Mustard Seed Space, leading the Empress to believe that she had been imprisoned there for tens of thousands of years.
At first, the diva would still act crazy, but as time went by, she seemed to finally recognize the limitations, and those strange ideas in her mind were worn away by the long passage of time.
Qi Wang opened the shielding barrier and went straight to the point, asking the Heavenly Empress about the female immortals.
The Empress's expression was somewhat numb. Having been out of touch with the outside world for so long, she felt that her soul had withered away.
After hearing Qi Wang's words, it took her a long time to find her voice.
"Will the Heavenly Palace recruit a batch of female immortals every two hundred years?"
Her face was filled with confusion, but her sluggish brain began to work again. After a long time, she finally regained the relevant memories.
"That's true. The female immortals serving in the Heavenly Palace are replaced very quickly. It's normal for them to be replaced every two hundred years."
Her tone was very soft, as if she were talking about something trivial.
"Those female immortals are too foolish. Once they enter the Heavenly Palace, they think they can get a chance to ascend to heaven in one step, so they often make mistakes..."
The Heavenly Empress said that the Heavenly Palace needs many female immortals, but not all of them will work diligently. Those who make mistakes will be sent to the Execution Platform to be punished, while those whose crimes do not warrant such punishment will be given to the various divine races after their punishment.
"Except for a few loyal female immortals, most of the female immortals eventually scatter to various divine races."
As for what will happen after being assigned to another divine race, the Heavenly Empress has no idea. After all, she is extremely busy every day and has too many things to deal with. She doesn't have the leisure to pay attention to those lowly female immortals.
The answer I got from the diva was far-fetched.
If one group of female immortals cannot be served well, then it is impossible for all the female immortals to be served poorly. Over tens of thousands of years, batches of female immortals have been selected, but none of them can satisfy the gods in the Heavenly Palace.
The use of the word 'bestowed' upon the various gods is quite subtle.
The various divine races have numerous members, and there are also many smaller races that depend on them for survival. Why would they need a female immortal bestowed by the Heavenly Palace?
Qi Wang recalled the Flower Realm, which had been isolated from the world by a barrier set up ten thousand years ago.
If we calculate the time, the period during which the Flower Realm did not communicate with the outside world is about the same as the time when the Heavenly Palace began selecting female immortals. Is there any connection between these two?
Given the inherent flaws of the immortals, Qi Wang did not completely believe the Empress's words. He used the Soul Searching Technique to search for relevant information in the Empress's memories.
To Qi Wang's surprise, the Empress did not lie.
She was hardly a good deity; countless female immortals were sent to the Execution Platform by her, while many more were casually bestowed upon other divine races.
As she had said before, she genuinely felt that the female immortals were not serving her well enough, so she simply bestowed them upon other gods and replaced them with a new batch of female immortals.
Is it really that simple?
Qi Wang expressed his doubts.
He felt that the diva's intelligence was insufficient, and she had not grasped the deeper aspects of the matter.
However, considering what these so-called gods had done to the human world, Qi Wang had some vague speculations.
Qi Wang resealed the Empress, who appeared even more dazed after the soul search, into the jade pendant. The Empress's soul could not withstand any more torment, so to avoid causing further trouble, it was best not to release her for the time being.
Qi Wang pondered for a moment before going to find the angel in charge of recruiting female immortals.
After using a soul-searching technique that does not harm the soul to examine their memories, Qi Wang did not find any useful information.
Indeed, these angels are nothing but small fry at best; what could they possibly know?
Having found no useful information, Qi Wang returned to the inn.
The next day, both Hongzhao and Iris received news that they had passed the preliminary selection.
The two were very excited and came to find Qi Wang early in the morning.
"Sister Lanqi, we passed the preliminary selection, what about you? Did you pass?"
Qi Wang nodded: "Approved."
Iris's eyes sparkled as she said, "Sister Hongzhao, didn't I tell you? We all passed, how could Sister Lanqi not pass?"
She told Hong Zhao that she was worrying unnecessarily, that they had all passed the preliminary selection, and that once they passed the final selection, they could go to the Heavenly Palace to serve together.
"I hope that after we enter the Heavenly Palace, we can be assigned to the same place, so that we can help each other in the Heavenly Palace."
Iris was dreaming of a bright future, but Hong Zhao, who was standing to the side, had a look of worry on her face.
She found an opportunity, pulled Qi Wang aside, and whispered something.
"Sister Lan Qi, it seems there's something wrong with the golden core in my inner palace."
Hong Zhao had initially felt relieved last night, but in the latter half of the night, she sensed something was amiss. After a careful examination, she discovered that her golden core had become somewhat different.
She couldn't describe the feeling. The golden core looked the same as before, but upon closer inspection, she discovered that there seemed to be some crimson threads inside.
Hong Zhao subtly inquired about Iris, but Iris, perhaps due to her low cultivation level, failed to notice anything amiss.
It all started after yesterday's checkup. Hong Zhao was worried, so she came over specifically to ask Qi Wang about it.
"Is there a problem with your golden core?"
She nodded, her worry deepening. "Sister Lan Qi, could you take a look at me?"
Seeing that she was really worried, Qi Wang nodded in agreement.
After all, it is Hong Zhao who is responsible for presenting the inner palace to others and bearing the risks. If Qi Wang has any bad intentions, Hong Zhao will be in danger.
After saying goodbye to Iris, Hong Zhao followed Qi Wang back to her room.
Hong Zhao's golden core was red, and the round golden core floated quietly in her inner palace, filled with a light red glow.
Qi Wang did not see the crimson thread she mentioned.
However, he did not think that Hong Zhao was being paranoid. Qi Wang thoroughly searched Hong Zhao's inner quarters.
Not long after, he discovered the crimson threads on Hong Zhao's golden elixir.
Those crimson threads were as thin as hair, and their color was very similar to that of her golden core. If Qi Wang hadn't examined them carefully enough, he probably would have missed them entirely.
He carefully peeled the threads off Hong Zhao's golden core.
Those crimson threads seemed to be alive. When Qi Wang's divine sense touched them, the threads that were originally lifeless lying on the Red Zhao Golden Pill immediately wrapped around Qi Wang's divine sense.
If Qi Wang's soul hadn't been strong enough, he would probably have been drained dry by those crimson threads by now.
However, their power was negligible to Qi Wang. Not only did they fail to drain Qi Wang, but he also took the opportunity to peel them all off Hong Zhao's golden core.
When Qi Wang withdrew his divine sense, Hong Zhao collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat.
She was, after all, a fox spirit with over four hundred years of cultivation; even if someone had probed her inner sanctum, she shouldn't be so vulnerable.
Hong Zhao stood up, supporting herself on a nearby table, and looked at Qi Wang, who stood silently to the side.
"Sister Lan Qi, have you found the problem?"
Qi Wang nodded and took out the red threads that he had just grabbed.
Once outside the inner palace, the red threads revealed their true form.
They were tiny, hair-thin worms with enormous heads that were disproportionate to their bodies. Their heads had no eyes, ears, nose, or throat, only a huge mouthpart filled with rings of fine teeth.
"Did you get this thing from my inner palace?"
After recovering somewhat, Hong Zhao asked uncertainly.
The inner palace of an immortal is extremely important, and she naturally protects it with layers of protection. How could something like this appear in her inner palace?
Hong Zhao found it utterly absurd and outrageous, but judging from Qi Wang's appearance, this thing really did come from her inner palace.
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