Becoming a god starts from planting a Bodhi tree.

Chapter 498 is now connected, everything is connected.
“Absurd and utterly nonsensical,” the Heavenly Emperor said coldly.

"Yes."

Ji Jingqiu suddenly took a step forward, and the Qixi Festival around him became even more profound and ethereal.

"He said it himself back then: after he left, I don't know how many people in the world will establish a religion and call themselves the founder, and how many people will dare to call themselves invincible, but he has no regrets."

"Perhaps he had already anticipated your presumptuous actions."

Boom! ! !

Outside the palace, the sky changed color, as if the heavens were enraged!
In the depths of endless nothingness, a muffled thunder seemed to rumble, yet it was more like the immense and unimaginable Great Dao was violently shaken by someone's wavering!
For the first time, an extremely subtle change appeared on the Heavenly Emperor's flawless and perpetually indifferent face.

The dazzling galaxy surrounding her seemed to dim for a moment, and a slight, yet deeply moving, stagnation appeared in its flow.

After a few moments of silence, she spoke again, her voice still icy, but seemingly less absolute indifference, carrying instead a subtle weight and scrutiny:
"Who the hell are you?!"

This time, it was no longer a simple denial and questioning, but a genuine exploration.

Ji Jingqiu remained calm, but his heart was heavy. He had just had a sudden idea, but he hadn't expected it to trigger such a huge reaction from this person.

Once, when he was crossing a bridge on the road to Guizhen, he glimpsed a stone tablet and saw a brief past through it, and met a person.

He didn't know who the stone tablet came from, or who left the inscription on it, but he suddenly had a brilliant idea and pointed it out.

Given this female Heavenly Emperor's current attitude... could she be the Heavenly Emperor of yesteryear?

at this time--

Suddenly, a distant Buddhist chant echoed through the heavens and earth.

Suddenly, Ji Jingqiu turned around and sensed an unusually familiar fluctuation.

That is Ksitigarbha!
Ksitigarbha, Azure Sky, and the Lord of the Underworld were indeed trapped here!

This sudden change caused the female Heavenly Emperor to tone down her aura and look into the distance.

In the palace.

The saints listened to the argument between the two with solemn expressions, not daring to utter a single word.

"...How many have established their own sects and become their founders, and how many have claimed to be invincible... It seems the founder mentioned this before?"

"That's right, this is an inscription on the road to returning to the true self!"

"Is this person truly the World Honored One?"

"It's obvious. On the contrary, the identity of this Heavenly Emperor is questionable, as the World Honored One has revealed his true form! Even if he is indeed the current 'Heavenly Emperor,' he is probably not the Great Dao Ancestor we speculated about, but rather a successor, or... a usurper."

The saints whispered among themselves, some with solemn expressions, recalling the important information left by their patriarch and reaffirming Ji Jingqiu's identity.

Meanwhile, Hela was completely baffled by Ji Jingqiu's situation, having no idea how the two of them had gotten along.

Moreover, the more I listen, the more I feel that Ji Jingqiu is an ancient being from a hundred centuries ago?
The Moon-Slaying Sword flickered with light and darkness, and to be honest, it also had some doubts about whether Ji Jingqiu was indeed an ancient being from a hundred centuries ago.

Only Zhou seemed to be smiling, but as he listened, he appeared thoughtful.

In his view, Ji Jingqiu's nonsense was nothing; the key was that the other party "connected" at the end.

This is where things get interesting.

Was it a lucky accident, or... was this a preordained fate?

At this moment, the commotion from afar grew even louder, as if someone was breaking free from the suppression of heaven and earth and challenging the Heavenly Dao of this realm.

The saints were startled by the sudden and incessant Daoist chants. Looking up, they saw magnificent palaces collapsing high above, a vast array of forbidden formations being triggered, flames soaring into the sky, and the faint shadow of a giant tree that had been used as a weapon to sweep across the Pure Land and shatter its vast expanse!
"Internal strife?" some speculated.

At this point in time, surely no one would dare to attack the Old Heavenly Court?

At least they didn't receive the message.

The palace fell into an extreme silence once again, but it was heavier than ever before.

The Heavenly Emperor's aura was visibly on the verge of being suppressed, accumulated, and then exploded, and no one was willing to provoke him at this moment.

Om-!
The entire palace seemed to be firmly controlled by the Heavenly Emperor; the vast stellar power at his command emitted a soft hum that filled the palace at that moment.
The saints changed color almost simultaneously.

The palace was sealed off by the Heavenly Emperor in an instant!
"I will be right back. You all should take good care of the guests from each family in the future."

The Heavenly Emperor spoke calmly, and all the gods, generals, and star lords bowed their heads in respectful response.

Having said that, without giving the saints a chance to ask questions, he left the palace and disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a group of saints in a strange atmosphere.

I do not know how long it has been.

Someone sneered and was the first to question, "Are they trying to detain us?"

……

After leaving the palace.

The Heavenly Emperor, high above the boundless void, slowly walked towards the secret realm ahead.

"Why change the plan at the last minute and not kill him in the main hall?"

Beneath the shimmering starlight surrounding Him, in the elongated shadow cast by His flowing robes of stars, stood another figure, darker than the deepest nothingness, more silent than the frozen night.

Each breath seemed to greedily absorb the immense divine power and pressure emanating from the Heavenly Emperor, transforming it into a deeper, more chilling stillness.

It was a figure lurking in the shadow of the female Heavenly Emperor, who questioned in a low voice at this moment.

"You could easily kill him in the main hall in front of all the saints. That Saint King couldn't stop you at all. This would also give all the saints the most thorough deterrence. Why change the plan at the last minute?" The female Heavenly Emperor remained silent. Her star-studded robes fluttered without wind, resonating with the world around her.

The world seemed to fall into an extreme silence, the air seemed to freeze, and time seemed to stand still, with only invisible thoughts fiercely clashing.

After a long time.

She spoke coldly, "Are you sure this person isn't the reincarnation or successor of an ancient being?"

The man in the shadows paused for a moment, then said, "What do you mean? Although I don't know how he found out your true identity, everything he said afterward was nonsense, so it was just a fluke before."

“He may be the Buddha on the path to enlightenment, but he is definitely not an ancient being from a hundred centuries ago.”

"But what if he's right?" Beneath the nine-phoenix crown, his eyes lowered, and the starlight flowing around him flickered uncertainly. The Heavenly Emperor said, enunciating each word clearly, "You'd better go and verify this person's true origins again and again!"

The man in the shadows frowned and said, "Are you kidding me? He's never even seen Di Yi, and what he's saying is all nonsense..."

The female Heavenly Emperor interrupted him, her voice chillingly cold: "You think he's talking nonsense because he's never referring to Emperor Yi from beginning to end! He's referring to 'He'!! The madman who came out of Guizhen Land back then! Strictly speaking, He is the founder of the Heavenly Court. Both I and Emperor Yi are just later arrivals!"

The outline in the shadows, which had been indistinct, suddenly solidified, revealing a hunched, hunched human figure that spoke in a deep voice:

"Are you fooled by his nonsense, Doumu? How could this person have ever met that person—"

"Then how do you explain what he just said?" The Heavenly Emperor looked down and said, word by word, "The stone tablet on the road to truth has long had its key parts destroyed. Knowing the first half of the sentence is nothing; the second half is the key! It is the foundation for the succession of the Heavenly Emperor's throne! Even I only learned this by chance from the Emperor himself. Where do you think he learned it from?"

In the shadow beneath her feet, a deep blackness surged, and the being in the shadows fell into a long silence, unable to refute.

"Go verify his identity, find everyone connected to his origins, even if it means searching the entire Netherworld!"

The Heavenly Emperor's tone left no room for argument; his command was forceful.

"In addition, I have heard that there is a person outside who calls himself the 'Heavenly Emperor'. Go and find him and see if he is the offspring of Emperor Yi or a lucky person who accidentally obtained Emperor Yi's inheritance."

At this point, the Heavenly Emperor paused, then said calmly:
"If they are offspring, we can bring them back; if not, we'll kill them all. I don't like there being another self-proclaimed Heavenly Emperor in this world."

The man in the shadows suddenly asked, "Is there any possibility that Di Yi will return?"

"He has always been here," the Heavenly Emperor sneered. "It's just that now that he has lost his position, he has no power to contend with me and dares not show his face."

"Are there traces of him in the Netherworld?"

The Heavenly Emperor coldly said, "The five gods of the Netherworld bear his marks; otherwise, I would have swallowed them long ago to replenish my Dao power."

After a brief silence, a blurry figure slowly emerged from the shadow beneath the Heavenly Emperor's feet. He resembled a human form molded from black mud, still dripping with black "mud spots" and emitting a disgusting stench.

The Heavenly Emperor frowned, a rare sight: "You can't even maintain your own physical form anymore?"

"My way is not accepted in this world."

The figure in black didn't explain further, but asked directly,
"I will go find the one who claims to be the Heavenly Emperor and verify Ji Jingqiu's origins, but what are your plans to do with him next?"

“He brought too many True Saints with him, including many top-tier ones. You missed the opportunity by not taking action when the Saints were suspicious of his identity. It won’t be so easy to get rid of him now.”

"This is not something you need to worry about," the Heavenly Emperor said calmly. "I have my own ways of handling it."

The shadowy figure seemed to give the Heavenly Emperor a deep look before turning and disappearing into the void, leaving behind a final word of advice:
"Hurry up and deal with that giant Buddha. The Heavenly Court stabilized the situation by devouring many remnants of the Boundary Sea, but it inevitably caused its own attributes to move closer to the 'Netherworld.' In a sense, you and I are both dead. So we must not let it get close to the core of the Great Dao."

The female Heavenly Emperor, or rather, Doumu Yuanjun, sat high above, watching the dark figure depart. Her gaze then fell upon the great Buddha who was attempting to break the seal, and suddenly, a murderous aura surged forth:
"Do you really think I can't kill you?"

"I do not believe that there are truly any selfless people in this world!"

……

Summer palace.

The atmosphere in the palace grew increasingly tense and unsettling.

More than ten divine generals and star lords attempted to appease the saints, but only a few among them understood their plight.

Some people questioned the Heavenly Emperor, asking why he came and left without saying a word to them. What kind of hospitality was this?
This also aroused the dissatisfaction of the gods, who believed that it was disrespectful to the Heavenly Emperor. They wondered if, in later generations, there would be a returnee who would come forward to receive a group of true saints.

The Heavenly Emperor's descent is already a great honor for you all!

“Of course,” Feng Ming said matter-of-factly. “When our Yuan Chu Palace’s founder attained enlightenment, he hosted a banquet for his disciples and personally preached and transmitted the Dharma!”

The saints nodded slightly. To them, the ancestors were "elders" and even teachers, so they respected them greatly, but it was by no means a rigid hierarchical suppression.

In their view, this Heavenly Emperor could have chosen not to appear at all; if he were truly a transcendent being, he could naturally choose to remain aloof and superior.

But since they have chosen to step forward, the ones who will acknowledge and receive them are not themselves, but their ancestors behind them.

Moreover... the saints do not believe that this person is truly a complete transcendent being at present!
The standoff between the two sides is becoming increasingly pronounced.

Some people have already secretly consulted Ji Jingqiu about what to do next.

Since the aura of Ksitigarbha appeared in the world, Ji Jingqiu has fallen silent.

Guided by Ksitigarbha, his mind traveled to another realm.

A golden statue, imbued with Buddhist and Zen spirit, stands tall, holding a bright lamp in its palm, seemingly illuminating the ten directions and supporting a pure land. The world is filled with chanting, enveloping countless wronged souls and evil spirits.

Ji Jingqiu saw those gentle eyes full of compassion and pity once again. In them, he seemed to see the suffering and struggle of all living beings.

He said with joy:

"My Buddha is merciful."

"This humble monk pays respects to the World Honored One of this era!"

(End of this chapter)