Chapter 412: Chapter 411 Respected God-hidden

Jiang Li really did not expect such a ludicrous explanation for the emergence of spiritual intelligence in the Heavenly Dao.

When people feel wronged, it is a natural instinct to cry out for justice to the heavens.

And yet heaven did respond.

“People also often curse others, praying to the heavens to strike them down. Could this be the origin of heavenly tribulations?” Bai Hongtu approached the matter from a different angle.

Jiang Li and Yu Yin shifted uneasy, moving a little away from Bai Hongtu.

Bai Hong could admit to being a bloody fool, but he should not drag them into his self-deprecation.

Knowing the origins of the spiritual intelligence in the Heavenly Dao, many things became explainable.

For example, the Yin Yang Heaven Seal can review the cause-and-effect of all people in the Nine Provinces. It can locate the position of the Dao Sect even after the three corpses have merged. However, it cannot locate any of the predecessors who ascended to the Immortal Realm.

Those ascended predecessors either died in the turmoil in the Immortal Realm, or they submitted to the Heavenly Dao and altered their cause and effect.

Therefore, it wasn’t that the Yin Yang Heaven Seal was deficient in reading the Way of Cause and Effect, rather, it encountered an extraordinarily odd situation.

Poor Yin Yang Heaven Seal kept worrying about its uselessness and was still diligently researching methods to cultivate a Spiritual Treasure.

“Fair Immortal, have you ever heard of some people whose statues can’t be shattered? Like this person was powerful in the past, and his image is not to be tarnished or damaged?”

“I have never heard of such a rumor.”

“Do statues of Dao Sect and Buddha have any power that makes them hard to destroy?”

The Everlasting Immortal looked at Jiang Li with a puzzled look, not understanding why he would ask such a strange question. “How can that be? A statue is a statue. What material it is made of determines its hardness. Its hardness wouldn’t change due to the image of the statue. If a statue is hard to destroy, then I should have used my master’s statue to smash the Heavenly Demons long ago. Wouldn’t it be better than an Immortal Artifact?”

Bai Hongtu reminded his overly engaged master: “Not a Heavenly Demon, a fallen immortal.”

The Everlasting Immortal glared at Bai Hongtu. This ungrateful disciple was constantly undermining him.

Jiang Li became even more puzzled: “Since the Heavenly Demons are your creation, what on earth is the Respected God-hidden?”

The Everlasting Immortal was more puzzled than Jiang Li: “What is the Respected God-hidden?”

Jiang Li then remembered, to prevent the Everlasting Immortal from obtaining the reward by killing someone, he did not mention the name of the Respected God-hidden to him.

Jiang Li casually made a small statue of the Respected God-hidden and handed it to the immortal.

“This is the Respected God-hidden. Try and see if you can smash this statue.”

“I told you before, as long as you kill someone, you can get a reward with the prerequisite of believing in a deity.”

“You say this deity is the belief of the Heavenly Demons, responsible for delivering rewards. I thought that the Heavenly Demons have other gods, like the ones governing war and birth. I was prepared to fight with the gods of the Heavenly Demons.”

Jiang Li had made many assumptions and countermeasures against the Heavenly Demons that the Everlasting Immortal had mentioned.

As it turns out, all these assumptions turned out to be futile.

“An unknown figure.” The Everlasting Immortal muttered and smashed it casually.

Something surprising happened.

It was just a clay statue, but it couldn’t be shattered no matter what.

You have to understand that even without using immortal power, his body is still an Earth Immortal body, undestructible through countless calamities.

How can the power of an Earth Immortal fail in shattering a small statue?

The Everlasting Immortal then took it seriously, smashing it with all his might. The Dao Sect experienced a big earthquake, yet the statue remained unharmed.

Bai Hongtu and Yu Yin, seeing this, got excited and each tried. They found that even if they used the Transcendance Tribulation Stage spell, they still could not destroy the statue of the Respected God-hidden.

“What exactly is this thing?”

Jiang Li explained the Respected God-hidden, the God-hidden Cult, the sacrifice of the Heaven Origin City, and the Old Buddha being the real culprit behind these events in detail to the three of them.

Only then did Yu Yin find out that the Heaven Origin City had the God-hidden Cult behind it. The one who laid down the Absolute Spirit Formation in the royal city was the Old Buddha.

Bai Hongtu finally understood why Jiang Li had killed the Old Buddha.

He had seen Jiang Li in sorrow before but did not ask too much. Now that Jiang Li spoke about the events, he finally understood the inside story.

Yu Yin speculated, “Murder rewards merit. How strange. Could it be that the Respected God-hidden is a big figure in the Immortal Realm on par with the Dao Sect?”

The Everlasting Immortal shook his head, “Don’t underestimate the power of merit. Just as the status of the dead relies on reward for the good they did, reward is crucial to the living. This is the authority of the Heavenly Dao, and no immortal can have the ability to distribute rewards.”

“In my opinion, the Respected God-hidden is not some individual or immortal god, I suspect it’s an entity akin to an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao.”

The Everlasting Immortal looked to Jiang Li: “Haven’t you also said it? The premise of gaining power of rewards is to treat the Respected God-hidden as everything. Correspondingly, everything revolves around the Respected God-hidden, and everything mirrors the will of the Respected God-hidden.”

“Rather than calling it a god, I would say it is the omnipresent Heavenly Dao.”

Bai Hongtu suddenly realized, “No wonder Jiang Li couldn’t get even a bit of merit despite his many outstanding contributions. I thought it was because the staircase to immortality was broken, preventing the descent of the rewards.”

“In actuality, the method to obtain rewards has changed.”

“Heavenly Dao wants to kill, but Jiang Li is always trying to save people.”

The Everlasting Immortal spoke, “Believing in the Respected God-hidden is the equivalent of recognizing a new Heavenly Dao. Or more accurately, of knowing. Knowing about the birth of the new Heavenly Dao.”

“Anyone who kills after knowing about the birth of the new Heavenly Dao could obtain the power of rewards.”

“This means that from now on, any one of us, as long as we kill, can get the power of rewards!”

Yu Yin curiously asked, “Fair Immortal looks certain about this, does that mean you have known about this a long time ago?”

The Everlasting Immortal with solemn expression: “This is what I am going to talk about next.”

“You all should know that the Heavenly Demons are very powerful. Even when the Human Emperor died in battle, it doesn’t always result in taking a Heavenly Demon down with them. In these cases, it’s my turn to come forward. This had happened several times in history.”

“Every time I confronted the Heavenly Demons, I could only secure a narrow victory, with immense exhaustion of immortal power.”

“By usual judgment, my spiritual energy would have been exhausted by now, but in reality, it was not. Do you know why?”

The Everlasting Immortal was never one to be enigmatic. After inquiring, he quickly answered himself.

“I knew about the emergence of spiritual intelligence in the Heavenly Dao before the staircase to immortality disappeared.”

“After I killed the first fallen immortal who descended onto the Nine Provinces, I obtained this.”

The Everlasting Immortal opened his palm, revealing a golden globe of light. It was gleaming with gold, emitting a sense of warmth.

This substance was familiar to everyone. It was the same material as the merit gold brick from the Dream River Dynasty.

“The power of merit?!” Bai Hongtu exclaimed.

Jiang Li and Yu Yin also looked solemn.

“Yes, killing fallen Immortal also grants the power of merit. However, the immortal power transformed by the power of merit was too little to make up for the gap in immortal power produced by the battle with the fallen immortals.”

“But having the power of merit is better than not having any at all. It is the immortal power converted from the power of merit that has allowed me to live to this day. All of the immortal power in my body now was converted from the power of merit.”