Eternal God Emperor: Only I Am Emperor One

Chapter 231 The Empress No Longer Slays Gods? Cultivation Qualifications for the Temple of Truth (Two Chapters Combined)

The war is over.

The saints of the seven realms of Shatuo began to clean up the battlefield and collect valuable spoils.

The millions of sacred corpses, their sacred essence, blood, and bones, along with the sacred artifacts, manuals, elixirs, and talismans they left behind, are all of immense value.

The battlefield was too vast, and it was impossible for Di Yi to keep all the spoils for himself.

As the sun sank in the west, it was an unfamiliar star, even more dim and yellowish than the sun beyond the Kunlun Mountains, with a dark reddish hue.

Under the setting sun, Ziyuan's shadow stretched long as she walked through the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, trying to find familiar faces among the dead bodies.

In the great battle of the Seven Realms Saints, with her current cultivation level as a Saint of the Earthly Realm, she doesn't have many opportunities to show her abilities; simply preserving herself is already a remarkable achievement.

At this moment, all she wanted was to do her part to bring back the evil saints of the Kunlun Realm who had died in battle in another world to their homeland for burial.

Di Yue's armor was tattered, and there was a hideous knife scar on his face. The Rakshasa evil energy in the wound had been cleared, and he was no longer in danger of losing his life.

He joined Ziyuan in collecting the saint's body, distinguishing the severed limbs and broken pieces.

In a small hill piled with the corpses of a Rakshasa Marquis, Di Yue unearthed half of a mutilated body, which belonged to Huang Quan Saint, one of the six great holy elders of the First-Class Hall in the Eastern Black Market, and a close friend of the Nine Nether Sword Saint.

He didn't have much time left in his life, and in the end, he died in battle in a foreign land.

At the summit of the sacred mountain not far away, Ye Honglei took out a long flute, brought it to her lips, and exhaled, creating a mournful sound.

Combined with the setting sun gradually sinking into the earth, the scene was filled with sorrow.

Di Yi also joined the ranks of collecting the corpses of the saints of Kunlun Realm, using stones from the sacred mountain as coffins. In a single day, tens of thousands of coffins appeared in the mountains. This was only for those whose corpses and some remains could be found; most of them had no remains at all.

The Rakshasa race has a penchant for cannibalism; half of the holy corpses of the saints who died in the battles of the Seven Realms of Shatuo have already been devoured by the Rakshasa marquis army.

From night to day, and from day to night, Teiichi felt more exhausted than ever before, more tired than in any previous battle.

The death of a million saints is just a number; the deaths of tens of thousands of saints from the Kunlun Realm are also just a number.

But only when you actually collect those mangled corpses, each one barely recognizable as human, will you remember that every Kunlun Saint who died here was also the head of a family, the head of a clan, a high-ranking member of an ancient sect or clan, and a figure who established his own sect and became an ancestor.

Di Yi didn't know most of them, and most of the rest he had only met once. But after witnessing their deaths, Di Yi couldn't remain indifferent, and his heart was filled with turmoil.

As night deepened, a lone figure in black robes appeared atop the sacred mountain, eyes closed, hidden in the rising night mist.

Han Qiu, Ye Honglei, the talented scholar, Luo Shuihan, Zi Qian...

A group of women, each with their own unique characteristics, stood near the mountaintop, silently waiting for dawn. At that time, the three-month period would arrive, and the Battle of Merit among the Seven Realms Saints would come to an end.

Further away, A-Le, Wan Zhaoyi, Fu Longzang, Bu Qianfan, and other Kunlun Realm Saints were also gazing into the distance.

The cultivators of the Guanghan Realm gathered on another sacred mountain a thousand miles away. Zhang Ruochen, who changed the fate of the Guanghan Realm by his own strength, was surrounded by the moon like a star, and the brilliance of the Realm Prince Wu Hao was completely overshadowed.

Mu Lingxi stood beside Zhang Ruochen, watching with him as they looked up at the figure atop the sacred mountain.

"What is he doing? Is he mourning the fallen saints of Kunlun Realm, or is he cultivating?"

Zhang Ruochen was not in a very good mood. Although he had helped the Guanghan Realm escape the fate of becoming a battlefield for merit, the battle was too tragic. Among the saints who died in the Kunlun Realm, many were his old friends.

Wise and wise ministers, members of the Mingzong Emperor's faction...

Months ago, these people were with him, destroying the Lingxiao Heavenly King's Mansion and snatching a bride from Wuding Mountain. Now, half of them have perished, their souls scattered in foreign lands.

"I do not know either."

The long night is about to end, and dawn is about to break in the distant sky.

Soon, as dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight fell from the east, the Saint's Merit Battle came to an end.

Just then, Di Yi, who had stood atop the sacred mountain all night, opened his eyes and softly uttered, "All the saints have fallen in another world, their souls have returned to the Abyss. Their souls have returned to the Abyss. It's finally done."

His aura underwent a mysterious change, and his entire body became more restrained.

Emperor Yi finally comprehended the final level of the wordless sword manual, reaching perfection.

A beam of tricolor divine light flew from the dark universe and landed in the Ancestral Spirit Realm, enveloping all the seven saints of the Shatuo Realm on the world fragment.

They felt their bodies lighten, followed by a dizzying spin, and when they landed back on solid ground, they were already on the Merit Star by the Milky Way.

At the top of the Merit Star Staircase stands a magnificent temple, connected to the staircase below. This is the renowned Merit Temple, responsible for overseeing the Merit Battlefield.

Outside the Temple of Merit, beams of divine light appeared, and moments later, all the Holy Kings and Great Saints of the Seven Realms of Shatuo who were still alive appeared on the vast square.

The four battles for merit—Saint, Saint King, Great Saint, and God—have all ended.

The gods of the seven realms of Shatuo stood above the Temple of Merit, radiating their divine power. The saints could not see their true forms at all, and could only see their outward appearances.

The Moon Goddess was among them, as was Empress Chi Yao.

"Why is Empress Chi Yao here? Shouldn't she be on her way back from slaying the gods?"

Di Yi was shocked, wondering whether the victory of the Kunlun Realm in the Saint Merit Battle had been secured early on, or if something had happened in the God-level Merit Battle.

The expected event of Empress Chi Yao slaughtering the gods did not occur, and the fate of the Kunlun Realm was truly decided by the Saints' Merit Battle.

As he pondered, a young man emerged from the Temple of Merit. He was Shang Zixuan, a leading figure among the younger generation of the Temple of Merit and a divinely appointed disciple.

At this moment, Di Yi's consciousness was pulled into the independent space created by the divine thoughts of the gods.

In the center of the space stood the figure of Empress Chi Yao.

"Di Yi, your performance on the battlefield of saintly merits was excellent, and you have made great contributions to the Kunlun Realm." Chi Yao's voice rang in my ears.

As they spoke, a streak of flame flew out and landed in front of Di Yi.

It was a set of armor, only lacking the gauntlets. The aura emanating from it was the same as that of the Vulcan Gauntlets, making it the Vulcan Armor.

"This is my reward to you, and it's a set with the Vulcan Gauntlets you have."

Emperor Yi was stunned for a moment, but did not refuse. He reached out and took the Vulcan Armor, put it on, and hid it under his robes.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Emperor Yi is also a cultivator from the Kunlun Realm. Fighting for the Kunlun Realm is his duty. I believe that even if he fails to win first place in the Saint Merit Battle, Your Majesty will still slay a Hellish Evil God in the God-level Merit Battle and bring fame to the Kunlun Realm."

Upon hearing this, the space instantly fell into an eerie silence.

After a moment, Chi Yao spoke calmly: "I did have the opportunity to kill a god from the underworld, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I did not make a move in the end."

"Speaking of which, it's somewhat related to you. You captured Lingquan Shaojun and used him to threaten the Rakshasa clan's marquis army, which also led Lingquan Shaojun's father god, the Rakshasa clan's Tianquan Monarch, to the God-level Merit Battlefield."

"That's a pity," Di Yi sighed softly, sounding regretful.

He didn't delve into the truth or falsehood of Chi Yao's words. It was already rare for a deity to be able to answer a holy king's doubts.

Di Yi took out the World Seal. The divine power within it had been exhausted, and it no longer possessed the power of a divine weapon. However, it was a supreme treasure in itself, crafted by Chi Yao from treasures gathered from the Kunlun Realm over 100,000 years. It had the potential to grow into a supreme holy artifact, and even had a slight chance of becoming a divine artifact.

"The Battle of Merit is over, and it is time to return the World Seal."

Chi Yao merely glanced at him indifferently before her divine sense dissipated, and the surrounding space shattered as a result.

“Ouyang Huan is dead, and this World Seal is ownerless. You can keep it as a reward.”

Once he regained consciousness, Di Yi looked again toward the Temple of Merit, where Shang Ziheng had already arranged the rankings of the merit battles of the Seven Realms of Shatuo.

The total merit value ranking of the four merit battlefields is as follows: the Great Demon Ten Directions Realm ranks first, followed by the Purple Mansion Realm, the Eight Divisions Realm, the Heavenly Mother Realm, the Blade Prison Realm, the Kunlun Realm, and the Guanghan Realm.

The Kunlun Realm actually surpassed the Guanghan Realm, and there was no one at the bottom.

Of course, Kunlun Realm, by virtue of being ranked first on the Saint Merit List, and Guanghan Realm, by virtue of the exemption granted to Saint Realm prodigies by Zhang Ruochen, can both avoid becoming battlefields for merit.

In the end, it was the Blade Prison Realm that was chosen as the next battlefield for merit.

In an instant, the cultivators of the Blade Prison Realm were filled with lamentations, and even the deity of the Blade Prison Realm could not control his divine might and found it difficult to accept this outcome.

Despite the fact that the Blade Prison Realm was stronger than the Guanghan Realm and the Kunlun Realm, it was the Blade Prison Realm that ultimately became a battlefield for merit.

For the Blade Prison Realm, this is a catastrophe. For the other six realms of the Shatuo Heavenly Domain, it is a brief respite, as they no longer need to worry about becoming new merit battlefields before the next one is destroyed.

The outcome was already decided. After a period of lamentation, the cultivators of the Blade Prison Realm could only accept their fate. Before the Temple of Merit and the entire Heavenly Court, even the deity of the Blade Prison Realm was merely a larger ant, and could only accept the arrangement of the rules.

The gods of the seven realms, along with the cultivators of their respective great worlds, returned to the Shatuo Heavenly Domain one after another.

Inside the Temple of Merit, Shang Zixuan watched the departing cultivators from the Seven Realms of Shatuo with a smile on his lips, while he memorized two names in his heart.

One is Zhang Ruochen, and the other is Di Yi.

Di Yi's performance was incredibly impressive, attracting the attention of many cultivators in the Heavenly Court Realm. Even the gods of the Temple of Truth were said to have become interested in him.

As for Zhang Ruochen, the third cultivator in ten thousand years to single-handedly change the fate of a great world on the battlefield of saintly merit, and also the successor of the Sumeru Saint Monk and a master of spacetime, he may not seem as amazing as Di Yi, but in Shang Zixuan's eyes, Zhang Ruochen's future threat might be even greater. "Zixuan, are you confident in defeating Di Yi and Zhang Ruochen?" A faint divine voice came from inside the temple.

Shang Ziheng said, "It might be hard to say if we are at the same level, but right now, their Saintly Dao realm is still some distance away from mine, so they are no match for me."

The divine voice sounded again: "If you were asked to kill those two, what would you do?"

Shang Ziheng was born in the Heavenly Realm. Although he did not experience the great changes of 100,000 years ago, he had a certain understanding of the attitudes of the various factions of gods in the Heavenly Realm and had long been thinking about the answer to this question.

"To deal with Zhang Ruochen, I have three strategies: the worst, the middle, and the best. The worst strategy is to hire an assassin organization to carry out the assassination. The middle strategy is to sow discord within the Guanghan Realm. The best strategy is to recruit him and find a powerful holy soul to possess. If a successor of the Time and Space lineage grows up, he will definitely be a great help in the future."

"Hmm, your idea is quite good. With all three strategies employed simultaneously, Zhang Ruochen will have no chance of escape. So, how do we deal with Di Yi?" Shenyin asked.

"The two strategies remain unchanged, but the middle strategy is probably not feasible. Zhang Ruochen is an outsider in the Guanghan Realm, while Di Yi is deeply rooted in the Kunlun Realm. The probability of successfully sowing discord is not high."

"Actually, I would prefer to have a direct confrontation with him," Shang Zixuan said.

"Hmm?" Divine clouds surged from inside the temple, condensing into a three-headed fire beast with overwhelming divine power. It was none other than Shang Zixuan's master, the Flame God of the Temple of Merit.

"You always plan carefully before you act. Why did you come up with such a rash idea this time? For a qualified leader, personal bravery should always be the last resort to solve problems."

Shang Ziheng was extremely respectful and dared not question the deity: "Master is right to reprimand me. It was Ziheng who acted impulsively and came up with this idea. Then let's hire an assassin organization to carry out the assassination first. If it fails, we will consider other methods."

……

Upon returning to the sacred land of Crimson Cloud Mountain, Emperor Yi met with Nangong Shi and Huan Sheng, and then announced his seclusion.

In the Ancestral Spirit Realm Merit Battle, his prominence is too great, making him the target of countless people's attention. It is foreseeable that he has now definitely made it onto the kill list of the Heavenly Realm faction cultivators.

Upon entering the World-Stabilizing Banner, Emperor Yi began to digest the gains from his trip to the Ancestral Spirit Realm and consolidate his cultivation.

He now possesses over 30,000 Saintly Rules within his body, but has not yet reached the third-step Saint King realm, remaining at the peak of the second-step Saint King.

With the Holy Source of the Ice and Fire Phoenix and the Rule Emperor Artifact, Di Yi could rapidly improve his cultivation level if he wished.

But he didn't do that.

The sacred rules within the Tongtian Ruins are now predominantly based on the Water and Fire principles, each accounting for over three thousand rules.

However, the three ancient paths he mainly cultivated—the path of swordsmanship, the path of palms, the path of claws, and the path of flowing light—only had a few dozen or even just a few rules.

The structure of the rules of the Holy Path is severely unbalanced.

The structure of the Holy Path rules of an ordinary Holy King is like a pyramid, with the small path at the base, the great path in the middle, and a small number of supreme Holy Path rules at the top.

The Saint Kings at the top-tier genius level have Saintly Dao rules that are roughly olive-shaped, small at both ends and large in the middle. One end is the Lesser Dao, the other end is the Supreme Saintly Dao and the Eternal Dao, and the Great Dao rules in the middle occupy more than half.

Currently, Di Yi's body contains only three to four hundred Sacred Dao Rules, including the seven Sacred Daos he primarily cultivates. Apart from the Water and Fire Daos, more than 90% of the remaining Sacred Dao Rules are Minor Daos.

The problem might not be apparent in the short term, but if things continue like this, let alone maintaining invincibility within the same realm, even breaking through to the Great Sage realm will become a major issue in the future.

Fortunately, his level of understanding is still low, so there is a chance to make up for it.

In the time that followed, both Di Yi's true form and the shadow of the Heavenly Demon devoted themselves to cultivation, comprehending the Eternal Dao and the Supreme Holy Dao, and reversing the composition of the Holy Dao rules within their bodies.

With the Ice and Fire Phoenix Rule Emperor Artifact, Emperor Yi can save himself the trouble of condensing rules and directly select the corresponding Sacred Dao Rule from the Rule Emperor Artifact for refinement.

Apart from the Path of Darkness and the Path of Origin, all other sacred rules can be found in the Ice and Fire Phoenix's Rule Emperor Artifact, which are sacred rules she once comprehended.

Even if it wasn't the main path of cultivation, the number of paths of cultivation within the Imperial Artifact was still considerable, enough to support Emperor Yi's cultivation to the Ninth Step Saint King level.

Of course, the cultivation of the Saint King realm is not just about refining the rules to break through; it also requires the cultivator to reach a certain level of understanding of the Saintly Path. Rule-based imperial artifacts are merely auxiliary tools for cultivation, shortening the time required to condense the rules.

In the blink of an eye, a year has passed, and the number of Sacred Paths within the Emperor's Body has increased by nearly 10,000. More than 70% of them are Supreme Sacred Paths, while the rest are Great Dao Rules and Eternal Dao Rules.

The number of sacred rules in the Way of the Sword, the Way of the Palm, the Way of Flowing Light, and the Way of the Claw all exceed one thousand, and the power unleashed when combined with sacred techniques is several times stronger than before.

The number of rules in the Path of Truth has exceeded three hundred, the number of rules in the Path of Darkness is close to two hundred, and the Path of Origin has seen the least improvement, with less than one hundred rules.

The white jade Buddha statue, which contains the inheritance of the divine script of the Origin, is still far inferior to the Heavenly Demon Black Hole Diagram. Relying solely on it to comprehend the Origin Path will result in a very slow rate of progress.

The further one progresses, the more obvious the difficulty of cultivating at different levels of the Holy Path becomes.

The difficulty of comprehending the Eternal Dao is more than ten times that of the Supreme Sacred Dao. Even those who control the Eternal Dao need to slow down their cultivation and spend a lot of time and energy to comprehend the Eternal Dao and increase the number of rules in the Eternal Dao if they want to keep their cultivation in sync with the Sacred Dao.

Emperor Yi cultivates three ancient paths simultaneously, and the difficulty increases exponentially. His rapid progress is due to the combined influence of his Holy Soul and the True Source Demon Eye.

After cultivating for another two months, Di Yi successfully stepped into the realm of the Third Step Saint King.

Having broken through his cultivation level, he did not choose to continue his seclusion but stepped out of the World-Stabilizing Banner.

In the outside world, more than a month has passed, and the cultivators of Kunlun Realm have gradually recovered from the devastation of the Merit War. Every holy domain is thriving.

Chiyun Mountain Holy Land is the location of Nangong Shi's Daoist temple. Apart from the Daoist temple of the Evil Emperor Xia Han, it is the most prestigious cultivation holy land of the evil path in the Kunlun Realm, gathering a large number of old and young evil path cultivators.

After Emperor Yi emerged from his secluded cultivation chamber, he encountered several familiar figures in the Holy Land. Among them were Zi Qian and the talented woman from the Holy Book.

The two men immediately came to greet the emperor as soon as he emerged from the pass.

"You've finally emerged from seclusion! Great Sage Nangong said you'd been in seclusion ever since you returned from the Battle of Merit. I thought you'd sustained injuries on the battlefield, but now you look radiant, not like you were hurt at all," the Holy Book Talented Woman teased.

Di Yi's gaze swept over the talented woman from the Sacred Book. She was not wearing her usual Confucian robe, but had changed into a tight-fitting white dress that accentuated her waistline. Her hair ornaments were also very elaborate, indicating that she had dressed up carefully.

Standing beside her, Ziqian exuded a different kind of charm, appearing somewhat silent.

"After three months of life-or-death battles in the Ancestral Spirit Realm, everyone has gained a lot. I don't think I'm the only one in seclusion. Danqing, Ziqian, you've come to see me because you have something important to discuss, right?" Di Yi said.

The talented woman didn't beat around the bush and directly stated her purpose: "You're quite clever, guessing our purpose right away. That's right, we have something very important to tell you."

"Because the cultivators of Kunlun Realm fought bravely on the battlefield of merit and gained a large amount of merit points, thus contributing to the Heavenly Court, the Temple of Truth issued a divine decree, rewarding Kunlun Realm with seven places to enter the Temple of Truth for cultivation."

"The Queen's intention is to give one of the spots to you."

"The Temple of Truth, seven spots?" Di Yi's heart stirred slightly. Empress Chi Yao had not slain a god, and Kunlun Realm's total merit value ranking was still last on the Myriad Realms Merit List. It was already quite unexpected that she could obtain seven spots to enter the Temple of Truth for cultivation.

After all, under normal circumstances, the Guanghan Realm could only get three slots every ten years.

The Path of Truth is one of the nine eternal paths. Although Emperor Yi broke the rule that one could not cultivate the Path of Truth without entering the Realm of Truth by relying on the divine script of the character "Truth", he still had to go to the Temple of Truth if he wanted to cultivate the most orthodox Path of Truth.

This is the difference between a rogue cultivator and a supreme lineage.

Ninety out of a hundred of the most outstanding geniuses in the Heavenly Court have cultivated at the Temple of Truth and have achieved a certain level of mastery in the Path of Truth.

If the shortcoming in the number of Eternal Dao and Sacred Dao rules cannot be made up, Di Yi's current advantage may gradually disappear, and he may be caught up, leveled off, or even surpassed by other geniuses.

Heading to the Temple of Truth not only allows one to comprehend the Way of Truth, but the Truth Heaven Domain where the Temple of Truth is located is also one of the ten divine-level heaven domains of Xiniu Hezhou, with a cultivation environment many times better than that of the Shatuo Heaven Domain.

"Besides me, who are the other six spots?"

"The Little Holy King Wan Zhaoyi, the Luo Xu Academy Master of the Eastern Domain Holy Academy, the Li Xian Holy King of the Nine Li Mountains of the Savage Beast Clan, the Li Di Monk and Xue Wuye from the Eight Great Realm Masters, there is still one spot left, and it has not been decided yet," the Holy Book Talented Woman replied.

"The Empress originally intended to choose one of the talented woman and the Martial Saint of Canglan for this last spot, but they both declined," Ziqian said from the side.

"Oh? Why is that?" Di Yi looked at the talented woman with a puzzled expression.

The talented woman of the Holy Book chuckled and shook her head: "I have learned about the Temple of Truth before. Rather than leaving this last spot for me and Sister Canglan, it would be better to let someone with stronger strength go. Although the Temple of Truth is a sacred land for cultivation, cultivators from the Kunlun Realm will inevitably face a fierce battle if they go there."

Di Yi nodded slightly. Luo Xu and Li Qian were both Saint Kings, Wan Zhaoyi was the number one talent in the Kunlun Realm in the last hundred years, and the monk Li Di and Xue Wuye were the two strongest among the realm children.

The Temple of Truth only allows truly exceptional individuals to enter and cultivate there. Saints must be no older than two hundred and Saint Kings no older than four hundred. There are very few cultivators in the Kunlun Realm who meet these requirements.

"So, who do you plan to reserve this spot for?"

"Besides you, among the Saint King level experts in the Kunlun Realm, only the Academy Master Luo Xu, Saint King Li Qian, and Palace Master Ling of the Moon Worship Cult meet the requirements for entering the Temple of Truth."

"The Flying Feather Sword of the Red Mansion is unparalleled. The sword of the Flying Feather Sword Saint has suppressed the sword cultivators of the Kunlun Realm for three hundred years. I think she deserves to be among those qualified to go to the Temple of Truth for cultivation," said the talented woman of the Holy Book.

Ling Feiyu, having mastered the Ninth Sword Technique, would indeed play a significant role in the Realm of Truth.

The Holy Book Maiden clearly had a deep understanding of the rules of the Temple of Truth before making this decision.

"If that's the case, why doesn't Danqing just go and tell Sword Saint Feiyu about this?"

The talented woman from the Holy Book chuckled and said, "The Kunlun Realm needs a leader for the trip to the Temple of Truth. Palace Master Ling is not willing to be easily inferior to others. I think it would be more appropriate for you to tell her this news."

"Is this also the Empress's intention?"

"No, this is what Sister Canglan and I decided."

The Emperor paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Then I thank Danqing for his painstaking efforts, and also Martial Saint Canglan. There are other ways to obtain the opportunity to cultivate in the Temple of Truth, and I will make sure you also have the qualifications to cultivate in the Temple of Truth as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)