Chapter 94: You Can Only Like Me (20)
Jiang Zhiyan wanted to leave early, but seeing Song Jin’yue’s attitude, she knew she couldn’t. She herself felt no guilt, but Song Jin’yue did.
She wanted to talk to the world consciousness or the Heavenly Dao, to gauge their attitudes and determine her next course of action.
Jiang Zhiyan casually found a stone bench in the courtyard, sat down, closed her eyes, sensed the surrounding demonic and spiritual energy, and established a bridge of communication with the Heavenly Dao.
“What do I need to do to rebuild the cycle of reincarnation? Can you rebuild it yourself?” Jiang Zhiyan asked directly.
As soon as she finished speaking, she felt an intense killing intent, almost materializing. Dark clouds gathered above Jiang Zhiyan’s head, the reddish-black sky closer to the ground, as if about to devour the earth.
“You’ve become weaker, haven’t you? Otherwise, an incomplete part of me wouldn’t be able to destroy the cycle of reincarnation,” Jiang Zhiyan continued. “Now that I’m offering to help you rebuild it, you should be happy.”
The System had never seen anyone negotiate like this.
The thunderclouds continued to gather, seemingly not wanting to talk to Jiang Zhiyan, just wanting to strike her down, but just as the lightning was about to fall, it was held back by another force.
Jiang Zhiyan couldn’t see the struggle between the world consciousness and the Heavenly Dao, but she could sense it, after all, she was now a demigod.
“Why did you become weaker? Was the one managing reincarnation in the mortal realm your avatar? If your avatar formed an underworld, then it’s all been destroyed now, it’s normal that you’re so weak,” Jiang Zhiyan continued.
She had been thinking about this ever since returning from the mortal realm. The legends and stories in the mortal realm still mentioned the underworld system, and they considered them gods. But now it seemed that the Heavenly Dao couldn’t find anyone to manage the underworld. Considering that no one had ascended from the cultivation world for a long time, the “gods” managing the underworld were very likely avatars of the Heavenly Dao itself.
It wouldn’t allow “gods” to appear again, because gods, in a sense, threatened its position. It was likely that the Heavenly Dao had also played a role in the slaughter of the gods back then. After the gods died, everything was under its control, and it was so petty that it wouldn’t even allow ascension.
Now that the underworld system had collapsed, its weakness was exposed.
“Boom,” thunder rumbled.
Jiang Zhiyan twitched the corner of her mouth.
“World consciousness…” Jiang Zhiyan called out in her heart. “If the Heavenly Dao disappears, you can take its place, right? After all, in my opinion, your roles are essentially the same.”
The Heavenly Dao was indeed difficult to communicate with, or rather, it directly refused to communicate. If its strength was restored, it would probably attack her again.
“Host, not every world consciousness can talk,” the System reminded her.
“That’s true, why would a proper world consciousness talk?” Jiang Zhiyan complained.
“I can take its place,” a third voice suddenly appeared, overlapping with Jiang Zhiyan’s.
Jiang Zhiyan, who was complaining, felt a bit awkward, and so did the other voice.
They were both silent for a moment, but Jiang Zhiyan, thick-skinned, quickly recovered and calmly greeted: “What a coincidence.”
“I was dormant for a while, and when I woke up, it had already appeared. Now that the order is collapsing and it’s weakening, I can devour it once it’s weak enough. You becoming a demigod has also taken away part of its authority,” the world consciousness continued.
Jiang Zhiyan leaned against the table: “I shouldn’t have told the cultivation world then, but did you sleep for too long?”
“That won’t do, it’s too messy, I can’t fix it,” the world consciousness refused, unable to resist defending itself. “As for sleeping, I’m naturally in a dormant state without taskers around.”
Jiang Zhiyan nodded in understanding, currently, the closest person to ascension in the entire cultivation world was the sealed Demon Lord. She pondered and narrowed her eyes: “If the cultivation world can resolve the situation in the mortal realm, it would also weaken the Heavenly Dao, right? After all, that was originally its responsibility, if we can reduce the cultivation world’s trust in the Heavenly Dao… that’s also weakening it.”
“More or less.”
Jiang Zhiyan nodded, a plan forming in her mind, her expression instantly relaxing: “Then let’s wait and see, I’m going to rest.”
“Oh, right, the Heavenly Dao might have other avatars, I’m counting on you,” Jiang Zhiyan continued.
“Mm.” After agreeing, the world consciousness paused for two seconds, it didn’t quite understand why it had agreed so readily, but whatever, it just wanted to quickly regain what belonged to it, if this extra thing continued to grow, it would be devoured, and the world would escape the Main God’s control.
Thunder rumbled in the Demon Realm all night, unsettling the demons, many felt it was a bad omen, but even after using all sorts of divination methods, they couldn’t figure out the reason.
The Western Demon King didn’t sleep well all night, staring at the sky, he felt like he would be struck to ashes by the next bolt of lightning. He wanted to contact Jiang Zhiyan, but she was also in the city, she must have seen it, and since she didn’t say anything, it meant there was no problem.
…
After seeing the prompt, Tianyan Pavilion didn’t inform the other sects, but sent people to the mortal realm to investigate. That night, the Sect Master of Tianyan Pavilion received another instruction from the Heavenly Dao, ordering them to eliminate Jiang Zhiyan.
The Sect Master of Tianyan Pavilion had performed divinations many times over the years, most of the time, they only gave clues, this was the first time he had received such a clear instruction with a specific name.
Having communicated with the Heavenly Dao for so long, he could sense its selfishness. This direct order to eliminate Jiang Zhiyan clearly meant that she was a threat to it.
But he didn’t understand, how could Jiang Zhiyan, who had only recently reached Nascent Soul, threaten the Heavenly Dao? If she had already reached that level, how could they kill her?
He had just received news from the people he sent to the mortal realm, the situation there was dire, and starting a war with the Demon Realm at this time definitely wasn’t a good idea.
And that instruction about the “mortal realm,” he felt it wasn’t from the Heavenly Dao when he received it, because it was different from the Heavenly Dao’s usual style, and now it seemed he was right.
Thinking about the Demon Lord’s heart he had just released as bait, the Sect Master of Tianyan Pavilion felt a headache coming on.
He hadn’t received any news of internal strife within the Demon Realm, but he did hear about the chaos in the Wanfa Sect, the Sect Master of the Wanfa Sect had fallen into demonic cultivation and consumed the half of the Demon Lord’s heart they had released!
When Jiang Zhiyan heard this news, she was meeting with the four Demon Kings. She sat at the head of the table. The Southern Demon King, whom she hadn’t met before, was a bit unhappy, but after their divine senses clashed, she sat down obediently.
Jiang Zhiyan had asked the world consciousness to conceal their meeting, so the Heavenly Dao couldn’t hear them.
“I’m here today to announce a few things.”
“First, the cycle of reincarnation in the mortal realm is broken, it will completely collapse in ten years at most, and both the Demon Realm and the cultivation world will be affected.”
The four Demon Kings: ?
“Second, the current Heavenly Dao is a false Heavenly Dao, we need to support the return of the true Heavenly Dao.”
The four Demon Kings: ??
“But how do you know…” the Southern Demon King frowned.
“The false Heavenly Dao only responds to human cultivators, the Demon Lord is sealed, and it’s helping behind the scenes,” Jiang Zhiyan said, taking a sip of tea, and raising an eyebrow, continuing to look at her. “And if it were the true Heavenly Dao, how could the cycle of reincarnation be broken? It has been masquerading for too long, and it can’t keep it up anymore.”
Everyone knew that Jiang Zhiyan was hiding and fabricating some information, but some of what she said was true, the Heavenly Dao had never been on their side, and the demon cultivators had long been dissatisfied with it.
However, changing the Heavenly Dao, that sounded too absurd, beyond their comprehension, but seeing Jiang Zhiyan’s casual tone, they felt like it wasn’t a big deal.
“How can you be sure that the new Heavenly Dao will be on our side?”
“The Heavenly Dao should remain neutral,” Jiang Zhiyan said. “Its role is to maintain balance and stability in the world, not to help one side defeat the other.”
“Third, I’m a descendant of the divine race, the descendant of the god who died on this land and created the Demon Realm, I’m now a demigod, so all demons must obey my commands, if you want to challenge me, I accept, if there are no objections, I’ll release the Demon Lord in the next few days.”
The four Demon Kings: ???
They had thought Jiang Zhiyan hadn’t been doing anything, and now the three things she announced, each of them made them want to take a moment to process. They had thought they were experienced, but now they felt it wasn’t enough.
“So what do we need to do?” the Western Demon King asked excitedly, he knew he hadn’t bet on the wrong person.
“No rush, in two days, go back and rest for the next few days,” Jiang Zhiyan said. “I’ll inform you if I need anything.”
The four nodded simultaneously.
“You can leave now, I still have things to do,” Jiang Zhiyan nodded.
Their expressions became serious again, judging by the change in Jiang Zhiyan’s expression, they guessed this matter must be very important.
After saying that, Jiang Zhiyan disappeared without waiting for them to leave. The remaining four exchanged glances.
“I wonder what it is this time.”
“She went to the city gate to pick someone up,” the Western Demon King said, swearing he wasn’t deliberately sensing Jiang Zhiyan, but this was his city, and Jiang Zhiyan hadn’t concealed herself.
The four stood there for three seconds, silent, then they all disappeared and reappeared at the city gate, standing not far away, secretly watching.
Then they saw a female human cultivator jump into Jiang Zhiyan’s arms, and Jiang Zhiyan hugged her and patted her head.
Their silence was deafening.
After a long while, the Eastern Demon King couldn’t help but ask: “She said she would give us instructions in two days, is it because she wants to spend these two days with her?”
“Maybe, is this the Song Jin’yue you mentioned last time? This relationship is so messy, I don’t understand it, but I like it, do you have similar stories? Lend me a couple to read.”
“She’s still in the mood for romance, it seems the problem isn’t that serious.”
They whispered among themselves.
Jiang Zhiyan turned her head slightly and glanced in their direction. The four immediately shut up and looked away. When they looked back, the two were already gone.
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