Building a sect from scratch.

"The Sword God fought for several months against the Twelve Sword Maidens, the Thirty-Six Sword Attendants, and the Seventy-Two Sword Slaves. However, some of the Thirty-Six Sword Attendants and Seventy-Two Sword Slaves also followed the Sword God, though their numbers were very small."

Dai Min's eyes stared straight at the wall, as if traversing hundreds of years.

“Actually, I am one of the Thirty-Six Sword Attendants,” Dai Min’s voice was still devoid of emotion, but what he said was shocking. “I was also one of the Sword Sect disciples who followed the Sword God in betraying the Sword Sect and opposing the Twelve Sword Maidens.”

Wu Keqi asked, "But didn't all the disciples of the Sword Sect have an accident? How come you're alright?"

"Because the Sword God exhausted his cultivation and sealed my soul, I was able to escape the effects of divine punishment."

As Dai Min spoke, he sighed before continuing, "That battle was fierce and chaotic. The Sword God held nothing back; all twelve Sword Maidens perished, and the remaining Sword Attendants and Sword Slaves scattered and fled, hiding in unknown places to eke out a living, secretly eating people to cultivate..."

"However, the Sword God spent decades finding them all and killing them all."

"At that time, the Sword God could no longer suppress the pollution in his body. Sometimes he would close his nine orifices, five senses, three souls and seven spirits to expel the pollution. But he once told us that even with his ability to prove the way of the sword, he could not completely expel it. He could only slow down the speed at which his soul was completely polluted."

"Later, we kept searching for survivors and building villages."

"Fortunately, a fellow Daoist who is skilled in Gu insects has cultivated the Black-Colored Golden Tortoise Shell. I don't know if you've seen it before, but it's a black beetle. This beetle was originally a poisonous insect that feeds on flesh and blood. But thanks to that fellow Daoist's efforts, the Black-Colored Golden Tortoise Shell has become something that eats red soil and spits out clean soil. Thanks to it, everyone no longer has to eat those rotten stored grains, and the Land of Divine Punishment... can finally grow grains."

Hearing this, Wu Ke nodded repeatedly, seemingly still shaken: "I've seen it! It was huge, and they came in huge flocks, so densely packed, it was terrifying!"

Dai Min said, "These are the ones. Although they look scary, they are now indispensable to various tribes. If you want to survive in the Land of Divine Punishment, you have to raise them."

The Jade Emperor, however, was more concerned with the past: "And then what happened? How did the Sword God die?"

Dai Min replied, "Suicide."

The answer was quite unexpected, yet strangely reasonable.

Yes, even in his most disheveled state, the Sword God is still a god! He was the only god to attain enlightenment at Tiangui Mountain! And he attained enlightenment through the sword path of slaughter! If he hadn't committed suicide, who could truly kill him?
Wu Ke scratched his bald head, somewhat puzzled: "Why commit suicide?"

The Jade Emperor guessed, "He's probably afraid that he'll eventually be corrupted to the point of being completely out of control, and no one will be able to kill him!"

Dai Min nodded and said, "That is indeed one of the reasons. However, although the Sword God committed suicide, he was not truly devoid of his soul. He forcibly separated his three souls and seven spirits, using his Heavenly Soul to seal my soul and his Earthly Soul to forge a divine sword to protect everyone. As for his living soul... in order to prevent himself from becoming a monster, he personally killed his own living soul."

"As for the seven souls, they dispersed into spiritual energy along with his cultivation, nourishing the earth."

"The Sword God said this is atonement... atonement for our past arrogance and the great sin of thinking we could deceive the heavens and create a god..."

After hearing the whole story, both the Jade Emperor and Wu Ke had mixed feelings about the Sword God.

This person… or rather, this god, seems incredibly evil. He forges swords with human hearts and maintains their scabbards with human brain oil—he sounds like a monstrous, utterly depraved individual. Yet, when he was trapped in the Tiangui Mountain area, he acted in ways completely different from his usual behavior. It's truly complex. Nietzsche and the others, who had overheard the entire exchange, fell silent for a moment before beginning to discuss it amongst themselves.

Guantangbao even went straight to the heart of the matter: "However, it sounds like his so-called atonement is about Yinglong, rather than his evil deeds such as consuming human sacrifices?"

Huang Zhucao hesitated and said, "But a gentleman judges by his actions, not his intentions. Regardless of what sins he was trying to atone for, he did objectively protect many ordinary people."

Guantangbao raised his voice, his emotions running high: "If the appearance of the Soul Devouring Rift and the entrapment of Tiangui Mountain are really 'divine punishment' brought about by their Sword Sect's attempt to revive Yinglong, then those ordinary people are innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire, and all those who died were implicated by their Sword Sect. They have no right to talk about protection or anything like that!"

The elephant grass was immediately convinced: "That makes sense!"

"But separating the soul is not something that ordinary people can do."

What's puzzling is that the one who spoke up for the Sword God was actually the Jade Emperor, who had previously been extremely angry and wished he could grind the Sword God to dust.

He spoke into the microphone, saying, "I've listened to more of my senior sister's lectures. She once said that the pain of having one's soul separated is unbearable for most people, not even immortals or gods. If it's forcibly separated, the celestial soul and terrestrial soul are gone, and the living soul will be filled with resentment. So many evil spirits use this method to create vengeful ghosts for their own use. This Sword God is so ruthless that he can separate his own three souls and six spirits without becoming a vengeful ghost... Hiss... I can't even imagine it! His willpower is too strong!"

Wu Ke casually interjected, "That's why he became a sword god after attaining enlightenment!"

Guantangbao disagreed, saying, "That can't erase the sins of killing people for fun!"

The Jade Emperor said helplessly, "I didn't say anything about offsetting it! I just said that this person is really complicated!"

As the group was marveling at the achievement, Renxin Huadao's excited voice suddenly appeared in the team chat: "The teleportation array succeeded! Holy crap! How come the distance is even farther?! Even if I were Ru Hua, I wouldn't be able to get back now!"

The Jade Emperor, upon learning the truth, was utterly shocked: "Huh? This so-called 'Land of Divine Punishment' at Tiangui Mountain can actually have a teleportation array set up?!"

It should be noted that since Fang Xianyu issued them a mission to investigate the Sword Sect, it proves that Fang Xianyu himself was also unaware of the reasons behind it.

In other words, the Soul-Devouring Rift Valley and the unknown red mist that caused the current state of Tiangui Mountain are definitely things that even Fang Xianyu cannot handle—or if he can handle them, they would be extremely troublesome.

Because if she could truly handle things so easily, she wouldn't have sent players—these "soulless" puppets—to investigate. She could have easily found out more thoroughly herself. Besides, even the Sword God of yesteryear was powerless against this. It's not that the Jade Emperor is pessimistic, but can Fang Xianyu really be more powerful than the Sword God of yesteryear? Probably not.

Therefore, the fact that a usable teleportation array could be set up in the so-called "Land of Divine Punishment" was an unexpected surprise that he never expected!
and……

"If the teleportation array works, does that mean we can rescue all these people?!"

The next second, Nietzsche preemptively uttered the words the Jade Emperor was about to say. (End of Chapter)