Chapter 18: Divine Realm X Knife Intent (Redemption Plus One More Chapter)

  The influence of the yin spirit on the yang realm is temporary and changeable. The fundamental changes in the yang realm still come from within itself, and the yin spirit merely attaches to it. They enjoy incense and offerings in the yang realm, supervise all things in the yang realm, report back to the yin court, and then the yin court selects some important matters to report to the heavenly court. This is the order of heaven and earth.

  The collapse of the order of heaven and earth is no longer a matter of one or two days. When the blue sea turns into mulberry fields, when rivers turn into mountain peaks, when monsters, Qi refiners, and even warriors obtain the golden seal of the gods, refine it, occupy certain places, and become the local evil spirits, enjoying the incense of the world, this is a sign of collapse.

  It's been 8,000 years since such a thing happened, but the Heavenly Court didn't intervene and the Underworld didn't overstep its bounds. As a result, in these thousands of years, yin spirits have fallen in battle while seeking incense and fire in the mortal realm, with countless numbers lost to the ages. Between heaven and earth, apart from those 365 orthodox deities, the local spirits everywhere had long since ceased to be the yin spirits of 18,000 years ago. In many places, due to the loss of the Golden Seal, the positions of gods were vacant. Some cultivators who felt they could no longer progress on their path would try to occupy these positions and enjoy the incense and fire from mortals, attempting to break through in this way. Such things have happened countless times before. As long as they didn't cause trouble, the Underworld and Heavenly Court wouldn't bother with them. Even if they fulfilled their duties as a deity and accumulated merit, they would still have opportunities to ascend to the Heavenly Court for appointment. So, it can be said that in today's mortal realm, as long as one has sufficient power and knows some methods for gathering incense and fire, even without the Golden Seal, one can occupy land and become a god, ruling over territory.

  The guy in the Zhangshui River is also a demon god like this.

  Such a demon god, no one knows its origin, it is possible that it was a old demon lurking in the Zhang River for thousands of years, suddenly cultivated divine powers and refined the golden seal, so it occupied this Zhang River. It is also possible that it was originally a demon god from another place, due to defeat or other reasons, escaped here and re-occupied the Zhang River. Tie Jian knew that it was mostly the second kind, because in Chen Jiu's memory, this Zhang River has been formed for more than 10,000 years, but since it is located in a densely populated area, there are no special creatures inside. This sudden appearance of a demon god can only be from another place to the Zhang River, and it is very likely that it obtained the golden seal of the Zhang River, otherwise a demon god would not occupy this plain land with humans as the main inhabitants.

  He can even foresee that this flood of Zhangshui is just a manifestation of his existence to the surroundings, and there will definitely be next steps.

  As soon as he thought of this, his mood became heavy.

  "Master, something like this has happened, doesn't the imperial court care?"

  "The pipe must be managed, but this involves the demon god, and the imperial court will likely also wait and see!"

  Ming Jian smiled wryly and said, "As for the so-called separation of yin and yang, once a demon god returns to its position, it becomes a yin god, belonging to the yin department. Our imperial court in the sun is beyond their control, whether it's the Six Panels Gate or the imperial army, as long as this demon god doesn't stir up heavenly wrath and human resentment, avoiding it is enough. After all, the range of influence of a demon god is limited!"

  He nodded, once becoming a demon god, especially after refining the local golden seal and returning to his position, even if the divine power is great, the scope of influence is limited. The mountain god's influence range is just one mountain range, the land god is just a few miles around, the river lord has to be more powerful, affecting an entire river and the surrounding areas within ten miles on both sides of the river. Some river lords even manage the distribution of rainwater on both sides of the river, but that's all. The place where the Zhangshui River flows is not an important place for the Tang Dynasty, it's just a remote small county, with few people living on both sides of the river, and Zhouwangji is just a cargo transportation hub. Therefore, the impact is not great, at most, some townspeople will be relocated to a far enough place, and the demon god will no longer have an influence. This is the limitation of the yin god.

  Of course, some people also say that this is not necessarily the case. The yin god is just a title, and in the past, the yin god was the ghost of a sealed god, but now these yin gods all have physical bodies and are powerful demons in their own right, so they don't need incense offerings at all. Even if they leave the Zhangshui River, they would still be a formidable figure, and such a demon is almost equivalent to a yang god.

  This statement is also valid, the gods and spirits of today are different from those of Chen Jiu's time. They are said to be yin spirits, but in fact they all have their own bodies and do not need to rely on clay or wooden idols in the mortal world like Chen Jiu did. Their need for incense offerings is not so urgent, and their thrones are often just a nest for them.

  But is it really so? Is there really such a good thing?

  It's certainly impossible. If such a good thing really existed, wouldn't every cultivator do the same? The world would have been unified long ago, so how could there be so many vacant divine positions?

  Tie Jun deeply understands this, his understanding comes from Chen Jiu, the land master.

  For divine beings, whether they are yin spirits or yang spirits that have obtained the golden seal and occupy a region, the source of their authority is the same, namely the golden seal or divine seal.

  The divine seal is a symbol of the divine spirit, looking like a treasure, but it's not. When you refine the divine seal, a strand of divine soul is attached to the seal, and at the same time, it is also bound by the seal.

  Because the refinement of the divine seal has a very important prerequisite, that is, it needs to resonate with the terrestrial vein's primordial energy. Only when the practitioner's soul, divine seal, and a certain part of the terrestrial vein's primordial energy form a resonance can they refine the divine seal. After refining the divine seal, while the divine seal and soul mutually constrain each other, the divine seal also produces an inseparable connection with the terrestrial vein's primordial energy. When connected to the terrestrial vein's primordial energy, it forms a divine domain. The so-called divine domain is the range that can be influenced by the combination of the divine seal and the terrestrial vein's primordial energy. Within this divine domain, with the help of the divine seal, the divine spirit can exert power that surpasses its actual strength by thousands or even tens of thousands of times. Unless one's actual strength exceeds that of the divine spirit by several levels, it is fundamentally impossible to be a match for the divine spirit. However, similarly, outside this divine domain, without the support of the terrestrial vein's primordial energy and the divine seal, the divine spirit's power will be reduced.

  A cultivator, after refining the divine seal, even if not a yin spirit, having their own body in the yang realm will still be restricted by the terrestrial vein's primordial energy. If they leave the divine realm for too long, their body will weaken and their strength will plummet drastically. Therefore, ordinary cultivators generally won't refine the divine seal unless absolutely necessary.

  This is also the reason why there are more demons in the world. These monsters, after cultivating into spirits, have no systematic inheritance and basically don't understand anything. They discover that refining the divine seal can greatly enhance their strength in a short period of time. After two Western adventures, Buddhist teachings spread widely, and the method of cultivation using incense fire is no longer a secret. So, after obtaining the divine seal, regardless of three seven twenty-one, they first refine it, and when they truly achieve the position of god, they realize that there are gains and losses, but it's already too late.

  Tie Jun didn't know what kind of demon the new god of Zhangshui River was, but he knew that Dengzhou Prefecture was in trouble, and Dongling County was also in trouble.

  Dongling County was originally a remote place, and the Zhangshui River is the only way to Dengzhou Prefecture. Now that a demon has appeared in the Zhangshui River, it's almost as if the road from Dongling to Dengzhou has been cut off. To get from Dongling to Dengzhou, one must take a big detour, traveling more than 500 miles extra, which is simply a matter of life and death for ordinary people, and also affects the imperial court.

  So, for the next few days, the county magistrate's face was very unsightly, because Dongling had been isolated from Dengzhou Prefecture, communication was cut off, and it became an isolated island.

  The demon god of the Zhangshui River, after using his divine powers to flood the river's banks for several days, made an announcement: anyone who wanted to cross the river would have to make a sacrifice. Without sufficient offerings, no one could cross the river. The best offerings were young boys and girls; each time someone crossed the river, only one pair of children was needed as a sacrifice.

  All you need is...

  Whoever heard this news couldn't help but curse out loud.

  When this news spread, the entire Dongling County was in a state of panic. The return of a demon god was not an unusual event, although it had not happened in Dengzhou Prefecture for nearly a hundred years. However, over a hundred years ago, there was a mountain god who returned to Cow Horn Mountain, also a demon god, and also required the sacrifice of young boys and girls, causing unrest throughout Dongling and even Dengzhou Prefecture. In the end, it was only when the imperial court dispatched a large army, joining forces with the masters of the Six Panels Gate, that they were able to destroy the demon god, shattering its divine seal, and bringing peace to Dengzhou Prefecture. However, this was over a hundred years ago, when the imperial court was still very powerful and had strong military forces. Now, however, the national strength of the Great Tang has declined, making it difficult to mobilize large armies. Although there are many masters in the Six Panels Gate, without the support of a large army, they would be no match for a demon god in the divine realm. This was something that Mingjian had already confirmed.

  "I have flown the sword and sent a message, notifying the six gates. This demon god is too powerful to be defeated by force, we need to temporarily avoid its edge!"

  Ming Jian stood up and paced back and forth twice, "Now the problem is you, it's a bit of trouble!"

  "What troubles me, I have!" said Tieguan inexplicably.

  "You are my apprentice, I practice sword, but you practice knife, that's the trouble!"

  "Aren't you saying that my knife skills are no good and I should switch to practicing swordplay?"

  "That was in the past, you grasped the knife's momentum at Niújiǎozi Mountain and killed three mountain bandits. Now your knife skills are not bad, but rather good! Forcing yourself to practice swordplay won't do you any good!"

  "I, grasped the sword's momentum?" Tie Jun was initially perplexed, and involuntarily recalled the situation at that time. Indeed, at that moment, he had performed beyond his usual level, but didn't know why. Suddenly, he swung out a knife, and when he did, he hadn't thought much about it. Now thinking back, those few knives were indeed strange, not some Five Tigers Broken Gate Knife or other knife techniques, but rather came from Chen Jiu's memories of battle arrays within his mind. There was no fixed move, nor any fixed rotation method, just temporary changes in momentum, yet this temporary change in momentum had unleashed unimaginable power, instantly cutting down three people. Now thinking back, it felt like a dream.

  It's really troublesome!!