Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension Chapter 1316 - 711: Complying with Heaven and Responding to Destiny

It must be acknowledged that Zhao Dingshan’s outpouring of grief was largely sincere, yet it was also heavily layered with performance; his theatrical abilities far outstripped those of a professional actor.

After all, this man had survived for more than sixteen centuries. To merely label him an old fox would be an understatement of his profound cunning.

Regrettably, Zhao Dingshan had picked the worst possible target for his schemes!

Throughout the man’s lamentation, Zhao Sheng listened with a cold, unreadable expression, remaining entirely unmoved.

"...Our lineage has fallen into weakness, and the younger generations lack the will to excel. We are powerless to take our revenge or claim the justice we deserve. I beg... I beg the Ancestor to uphold justice for our people!!" Zhao Dingshan finally unveiled his true intent.

Even now, Zhao Dingshan harbored the ambition of wielding Zhao Sheng as a personal blade, completely unaware of how badly he had misjudged the situation.

"Answer me this: which power currently holds the Nine Nether Tower?" Zhao Sheng ignored everything else, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

Zhao Dingshan trembled violently as a spark of hope flared in his eyes. He replied hastily, "Informing the Ancestor, the Nine Nether Tower is currently possessed by the Ghost God Sect. Many years ago—"

Zhao Sheng cut him off mid-sentence, his voice chilling. "I will ask one more time. Where is the main gate of the Ghost God Sect located? Is it situated at the Heavenly Burial Plain?"

The light in Zhao Dingshan’s eyes faded, but he did not dare hesitate. He shook his head immediately, explaining, "The site at the Heavenly Burial Plain is only a branch of their Sect. Their true headquarters is located far away in the Spring Birth Realm. I have some knowledge regarding its precise location."

As he spoke, Zhao Dingshan brushed his hand against the storage bag at his hip, causing several white jade scrolls to manifest in his palm.

He offered the jade scrolls to Zhao Sheng with deep respect. "Ancestor, these scrolls contain a vast trove of intelligence gathered by our clan members over thousands of years. It details the geography, key figures, and the distribution of Sect power within the Spring Birth Realm. I pray you review them, Ancestor!"

Zhao Sheng reached out, capturing the jade scrolls with a gesture. His divine thought swept through them instantly, absorbing every piece of information into his consciousness.

Once he had finished scanning the scrolls, Zhao Sheng gave a slight nod, now possessing a comprehensive grasp of the Spring Birth Realm’s current state.

"You have performed well. A reward is in order!"

The moment he finished speaking, a flash of gray light erupted from his sleeve and landed in Zhao Dingshan’s arms.

When the radiance faded, a gray storage bag remained.

Zhao Dingshan was filled with joy at the sight. He instinctively probed the bag with his divine thought and was immediately overwhelmed with ecstasy, his lips quivering with shock.

The storage bag was filled with an incredible mountain of spirit stones. More than half were of mid-grade quality, and there were thousands of top-grade spirit stones among them.

"These... these spirit stones are far too many! Ancestor, I beg you to take them back!" Despite his elation, Zhao Dingshan forced himself to offer a polite rejection.

Zhao Sheng spoke with gravity, "Hmph, these are not for your personal use alone! Hear me: although the Ascension Array of this realm is still functional, your people—whether from the Central Sect or the other branches—must unite the clan’s resources. You must cultivate one or two new Divinity Transformation True Monarchs and assist their ascension to the Spirit Realm."

"The spirit stones within that bag are strictly reserved for those with the potential to reach the Divinity Transformation stage. Once I have completed the ancestral task, I shall remain in the Tianzhu Realm for a time. If you encounter difficulties in your Cultivation later, you may seek me out at the Ascension Platform!"

Zhao Dingshan recognized the immense favor being granted, realizing this was a miraculous opportunity that hadn't appeared in thousands of years. Moved to his core, he saw a glimmer of hope for the future.

The Ascension Platform was not a location accessible to common cultivators; one required a Cultivation level at the Nascent Soul Realm just to reach it!

In other words, this divine chance was only available to the Nascent Soul Ancestors, leaving the Golden Core Masters with no hope of participation.

After all, the Ancestor would not stay in the Tianzhu Realm for another thousand years.

Sadly, when totaling all the Zhao Family sects, there were only seven Nascent Soul Ancestors and fewer than two hundred Golden Core Masters remaining.

This meager strength was but a shadow of the clan's peak five thousand years ago.

Nevertheless, in this age where spiritual energy was fading, the Zhao Family sects were still powerful forces that outsiders dared not provoke lightly.

"One out of seven... there is hope for my path! I must... I must succeed!"

While Zhao Dingshan was lost in his thoughts, silently encouraging himself, Zhao Sheng did not linger. He placed a few jade scrolls on the ground and vanished in a shimmer of light.

Zhao Dingshan’s vision blurred for a second, and when he looked again, the jade couch was vacant. The Ancestor had disappeared without a trace.

Shock turned to despair as Zhao Dingshan’s face twisted in grief, feeling as though he had let a monumental opportunity slip through his fingers.

... Heavenly Burial Plain, Central Basin.

The massive inter-realm conflict from centuries ago had fundamentally reshaped the landscape for tens of thousands of miles around the Heavenly Burial Plain. It had carved out a massive basin a thousand kilometers wide and shifted countless subterranean spirit veins.

Back then, a falling object of immense power had pierced the world's crust, causing ancient spiritual energy trapped for eons to burst through the surface in a chaotic eruption.

Within a mere century, the Heavenly Burial Plain saw the birth of numerous new spirit veins, many of which reached the Second Order or higher.

This development took all the sects by surprise, turning the Heavenly Burial Plain into a prestigious new land for Cultivation.

However, the sheer number of lives lost during that ancient war, combined with the land's natural affinity for yin and sha, created a dark legacy.

Consequently, the Heavenly Burial Plain evolved into a "haven" for practitioners of the Evil Path, drawing countless criminals to wage war over the newly formed spirit veins.

A century later, the region had become the most lawless and lethal territory in the Tianzhu Realm. It was a place where hidden treasures and battlefield relics were aplenty, allowing many cultivators to grow powerful overnight by scavenging the remains of their predecessors.

As the natural spiritual energy of the Tianzhu Realm continued to thin, the strategic value of the Heavenly Burial Plain climbed higher each year.

By a millennium ago, it had become the final refuge for the Evil Path, possessing a spiritual energy density that rivaled holy lands like Mountain City, Crystal Palace, and Devil God Mountain.

As a result, many powerful figures from the Demon Path and Evil Path flocked to the plain, forming a nearly unbreakable demon alliance to hold back the Righteous Path by utilizing the treacherous terrain.

The conflict between the Righteous Path and this demon alliance lasted three centuries, ultimately ending in a crushing defeat for the forces of light.

This failure occurred for two main reasons: first, over the course of two thousand years, the Righteous Path’s strength had been bled dry as their elite cultivators migrated to the Spring Birth Realm.

Secondly, the Spring Birth Realm had been covertly manipulating the conflict, and with the Supreme Sensing Sect fanning the flames, the defeat of the Righteous Path became a certainty.

This three-hundred-year war solidified the demon alliance's grip on the Tianzhu Realm, signaling a dark era where the Dao declined and demons flourished.

With the passage of time, the state of the realm grew increasingly dire, reaching a point where no remedy could save it.

To return to the point!

One thousand years ago, the Ghost God Sect rose to power with startling speed. Mysterious experts appeared one after another, expanding the Sect’s reach while crushing any who opposed them and recruiting those from the Evil Path.

Now, a millennium later, the Ghost God Sect stands at the peak of the demon alliance. They control eighty percent of the Heavenly Burial Plain and openly station five Nascent Soul Ancestors at their headquarters.

While the exact number of their Golden Core Masters is unknown, it certainly exceeds a hundred!

The disciples of the Ghost God Sect are notoriously arrogant and naturally sadistic. Due to the nature of their Demon Techniques, they favor live sacrifices and often show no mercy, even to their own blood relatives.

For example, Ancestor Jue Xing once sacrificed a million members of his own clan to the heavens just to secure a chance at a breakthrough,

eventually managing to reach the Nascent Soul Realm through sheer luck.

Normally, the sacrifice of one's kin is a violation of the natural order that would draw the wrath of the Heavenly Dao, resulting in severe punishment for the practitioner.

However, as the Tianzhu Realm entered the final stage of "formation, dwelling, destruction, emptiness," such atrocities began to align with the decaying will of the heavens.

Instead of punishing these blood sacrifices, the Heavenly Dao of this realm perversely granted them significant merit.

The proverb "When the era favors you, the heavens and earth align with your will" was never more true.

The Ghost God Sect clearly enjoys the counsel of a brilliant strategist who saw the shifting nature of the heavenly tribulations. Thus, they act with total impunity, employing the most barbaric methods imaginable.

When Zhao Sheng arrived in the skies above the Central Basin, he happened to "witness" a gruesome ritual involving the live sacrifice of thousands of people.