Primordial Era: If I remain in Longevity Mountain, I will steadily attain sainthood.

Chapter 111 After the Great Calamity

After the saints left Zixiao Palace, they each cleaned up the mess left by this great calamity. Tongtian Jiaozhu was the biggest winner among them and was also the busiest at this time.

On one hand, he gathered his disciples and gave them instructions, and on the other hand, he sought out Shen Gongbao and ordered him to establish a list of deities.

Originally, Yuanshi Tianzun wanted to do something about Shen Gongbao, since Shen Gongbao was his disciple.

But to his surprise, after leaving Zixiao Palace, the heavenly secrets became completely clear, and he learned that Shen Gongbao was now a disciple of Confucianism.

Yuanshi Tianzun was naturally helpless, but he breathed a sigh of relief. Although he could not control Shen Gongbao's actions, he figured that Tongtian Jiaozhu was also unable to control him.

This will make things much easier for the disciples who are on the list.

Yuanshi Tianzun also sacrificed his own interests, following the decree of Hongjun Daozu to move the Daoist temple of Kunlun Mountain's Yuxu Palace to the Thirty-Three Heavens.

On the one hand, he took the initiative to visit Qingjingtian. While Hongyun was still in Zixiao Palace, he started to establish a relationship with Zhenyuanzi.

Zhen Yuanzi naturally understood what he meant, but he did not object. Now the Investiture of the Gods was full of the true spirits of disciples of the Chan and Buddhist sects.

Although Hongyun and I have a closer relationship with Buddhism, we still need to be careful to maintain a balance when it comes to the conferment of deities.

We cannot allow Buddhism to gain dominance in the Heavenly Court. The Chan sect is a good means of checking and balancing Buddhism.

On the other hand, Jieyin and Zhunti were arguably the most aggrieved. During this great calamity, Hongyun chose to side with Tongtian Jiaozhu, which led to the destruction of Mahayana Buddhism.

That's fine, Zhunti can be re-established, managed slowly, and it's not impossible for him to recover in the future.

But Zhunti originally intended to seek revenge on the Styx Ancestor. Indeed, Zhunti is no match for any of the saints right now.

He reverted to being the "weakest saint." Even Houtu, a Grand Luo Golden Immortal, was no match for him.

However, Zhunti harbored a deep grudge against the Styx Ancestor and planned to seek revenge after visiting the Zixiao Palace.

But the result.

Hongjun issued a decree in Zixiao Palace, forbidding the saints from fighting each other in the Three Realms of the Primordial World.

Furthermore, with the Styx Ancestor's intervention this time, slaying his avatar, and the Tongtian Sect Master and Houtu Niangniang backing him up, he was truly remarkable.

Zhunti was completely helpless.

"How hateful!"

Zhunti gritted his teeth.

Jieyin sighed and said, "Junior brother, don't think too much about it. It seems that if we want to avoid this humiliation again, there is only one way we can do."

Upon hearing this, Zhunti turned to Jieyin, somewhat bewildered, and asked, "What method, Senior Brother?"

"Prove the Way!"

The guide said, "Only by fully attaining the Primordial Chaos, instead of relying solely on merit as we are now, can we compete with others."

"Otherwise, in terms of merit and enlightenment alone, we are no match for any of the saints."

"Let's not think about the Chaos Bell anymore. As for Buddhism, we're not in a hurry; we can re-establish it later."

Upon hearing this, Zhunti pondered for a long time before finally nodding deeply and saying to Jieyin, "What you say is indeed true, Senior Brother; it has enlightened me greatly."

"I was too attached to appearances. I became arrogant after obtaining the Chaos Bell, but now that I have lost it, it may be a test for me."

"Everything is as my senior brother said."

He then stepped forward and said, "That's right. There are losses and gains, gains and losses. As long as we are still here, the West will one day prosper."

"Alright, junior brother, let's head to the Thirty-Three Heavens and establish our dojo."

"Um."

Not long after, the two saints, Jieyin and Zhunti, also established a Taoist temple outside the Thirty-Three Heavens, which was called the Great Western Heaven.

In addition, the Taiqing Sage established the Great Red Heaven, the Yuqing Sage Yuanshi Tianzun established the Qingwei Heaven, and the Shangqing Sage Tongtian Jiaozhu established the Yuyu Heaven.

From that day on, the saints gradually disappeared from the Three Realms.

As time went on, the beings of the Three Realms gradually forgot the existence of the saints, and the various earth-shattering events and the battles between saints that had occurred became nothing more than ethereal myths and legends.

Those newly promoted immortals only knew that there was a Heavenly Court above and an Underworld below, but they were skeptical of those ancient stories and legends.

I do not believe in saints.

Only those cultivators who have truly witnessed the battle of the saints and the great war of the gods know that the saints have not disappeared, but are looking down on this world and all living beings from beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens.

The terror of the sage is beyond words; after all, isn't the primordial land divided into four parts clear proof?

In the era before the intervention of sages, the Heavenly Court became the most powerful ruling force in the world, governing all living beings in the Three Realms, establishing various heavenly rules, and commanding all immortals, none of whom dared to disobey.

Besides these, several other major sects also flourished. One of them was the Jie Sect. As the biggest winner of the Investiture of the Gods, the Jie Sect naturally prospered.

However, it was after this battle that Tongtian Jiaozhu reorganized his doctrines, absorbed the ideas of other sects, and integrated them into his own great religion.

The Jie Sect of today is quite different from the past. Although it still accepts disciples widely, it no longer does so indiscriminately and has begun to pay attention to assessing the character of its disciples.

If there are disciples who break the rules and violate morality, there will be various means of punishment.

It is precisely because of this that the Jie Sect was able to truly flourish, rather than reach its peak and then decline and weaken.

It can be said that this time, the Tongtian Sect Leader truly defied fate and changed his destiny.

In the original general trend, there was only the flourishing of the three teachings: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, but the Jie Sect was not among them.

However, now there is another sect called Jiejiao.

Indeed, besides the Jie Sect, the other major religions that flourished were Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

Needless to say, Confucianism was already planned by Hongyun. After the Great Tribulation, he sent his disciples down to the mortal realm to spread the teachings.

Confucianism and Taoism are favored by the Way of Heaven, so they naturally flourished.

During the Investiture of the Gods, Taoism had only one disciple, Grand Master Xuandu, who escaped the calamity.

Therefore, Taoism also developed after the calamity. Although it could not compare with the Jie Sect or Confucianism in terms of prosperity, it was still extremely powerful.

As for Buddhism, although it was destroyed once during a great calamity, as mentioned earlier, it was protected by Theravada Buddhism.

Mahayana Buddhism, however, can be re-established at any time, and its doctrines are simply too attractive.

As a result, Mahayana Buddhism developed extremely rapidly, eventually surpassing other sects and even gradually threatening Confucianism, Taoism, and Jiezi.

In contrast, the three major sects of Chan Sect, Earth Immortal Sect, and Human Sect are declining day by day and gradually fading away, with very few disciples under their tutelage.

However, the reason for this is also related to the corresponding sage. Hongyun is relatively lenient towards the Human Sect, after all, this great sect is also an immortal sect, and can be manipulated at will.

The reason why Zhen Yuanzi and Yuanshi Tianzun did not develop their own great religion was twofold: first, they realized that the future of their religion did not seem to be very promising; and second, both of them were diligently cultivating and focusing on attaining enlightenment.

So much so that the two of them almost gave up the merit of preaching, in order to first complete the path of severing the three corpses and proving the Tao.

The numerous battles between sages made these sages realize that merit is unreliable. Only by severing the three corpses, proving the Dao through force, or, like Hongyun, forging another path to the Dao, can they truly grasp the power that belongs to them and will never be lost.

However, despite this, the first person among them to attain Hunyuan was neither Yuanshi Tianzun nor Zhenyuanzi, nor even any other saint.

(End of this chapter)