Chapter 754: Era Change

Time flew by in the blink of an eye.

While the forum was buzzing with activity, several decades slipped by.

Within the entire Underworld's Six Paths of Reincarnation, the Yellow Springs Road had re-established perfect order. Fengdu Ghost City was overflowing, and every day, countless wandering souls were orderly reborn into the cycle of reincarnation.

On either side, ferocious Ox-Heads and Horse-Faces, holding steel pitchforks, herded them into the endless vortex of reincarnation.

"No, I don't want to be reborn!""Please let me live in Fengdu Ghost City!"Countless voices cried out.

Previously, souls on the Yellow Springs Road eagerly awaited, desperate to rush into reincarnation.

But now, the times had drastically changed.

After finally managing to deal with the overwhelming tasks and maintain the normal operation of the Underworld, some time could now be spared.

"Mao Tiao, do you know your crime?" Meng Po narrowed her eyes. The old woman, shriveled, wrinkled, and hunched over, looked quite unsettling.

Mao Tiao felt a knot of apprehension in his stomach.

His transgression could be considered both major and minor!

At that time, the Underworld was empty, with only him remaining. Li Sansheng and Xu Yingluo had broken in, and his failure to stop them was a grave offense! Worse, he had even leisurely chatted with them.

The matter could be interpreted either way, as he truly had no means to stop them; his combat power was insufficient to prevent those two from breaking open Avici Hell.

Mao Tiao gritted his teeth and said, "I will definitely speed up the construction of Fengdu Ghost City to atone for my transgression."

With that, he secretly slipped her a book.

Meng Po cast a sidelong glance, saw the title *Confused, Ugly, Adorable Wife: Your Majesty Yama, Please Behave 2*, and was immediately delighted. She patted his shoulder, exhorted him to work hard, and turned to leave.

Subsequently, Black and White Impermanence, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, and Judge Cui all came to "reprimand" him. Mao Tiao, with a smiling face, pulled out several fantasy novels featuring arrogant protagonists and face-slapping tropes, handing them over to appease them.

"I feel utterly drained," he thought, feeling quite distressed that all his reserves had been depleted over the past few days.

After Meng Po departed, she walked, reading the book, as she continued to maintain order along the Yellow Springs Road. Observing the bustling scene before her, she couldn't help but sigh with admiration, "Your Majesty truly plans flawlessly. Those words spoken when becoming an immortal and ushering in a new era were truly profound."

"Heaven is enlightened by the mind, Earth is perceived by the mind, and the Path is forged by the mind."

"This is the order of the Talent World: observing heaven and perceiving earth is how one paves their own path, and that is what talent truly is."

"The universe is my mind, and my mind is the universe."

"So-called talent is the study of the mind."

Meng Po murmured, "Isn't this precisely what we're seeing now? This is also a new era for talented individuals; their tormented hearts and accumulated grievances will similarly fuel a new age of even greater talent."

While it appears the Underworld's reincarnation is being suppressed and souls are being tempered in purgatory, in reality, the talents of these individuals will become even more powerful, writing more blood-soaked anthems of talent.

It was simply perfect.

She had initially wondered how to deal with so many offenders, how to uphold the laws of heaven and earth, and restore the dignity of reincarnation. But sure enough, everything was within His Majesty's foresight and was easily resolved.

In the Hall of Reincarnation.

"Lord Youshan has finally started stirring up trouble, has he?" Xu Zhi, seated high above, glanced at the mortal realm, a touch of surprise in his eyes. "Time moves so quickly; I'm amazed it has actually developed into this."

In a remote mountain range, somewhere.

From a thatched hut, outside which stood two large gray vats and a rusty rake, a divine light shot into the sky, accompanied by the cry of a newborn.

Waaah! Waaah!

No one rejoiced at the child's birth. The parents shrieked in horror, crying out, "A demon! Another demon has been born!"

"Our family is so unlucky! How could we give birth to a demon when we've always accumulated good deeds and virtue!"

Nearby, a neighbor suddenly became overjoyed. Grabbing a rake from their doorway, they excitedly ran over, crying, "Where is it? Where is it?!"

"It's not an ordinary demon; we normal people can't kill it!"

At this moment, the experienced old midwife, holding a demon-warding sword, was so terrified her pants were wet and her legs trembled. She stood in front of the infant, screaming, "Old Village Head, go quickly! Go and call the village's Taoist priests! Exorcise this demon!"

The neighbor stood at the doorway and peered inside.

"What a powerful demonic embryo!" He was instantly scared out of his wits, his shriek piercing the quiet blue sky of the entire mountain village.

"Quickly, go invite High Monk Pude from Yunshan Temple to come and perform the exorcism!"

Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!

The hut's door burst open.

A mucus-covered infant, umbilical cord still attached, crawled grotesquely and rapidly like a gecko, disappearing into the depths of the forest.

Awaiting it were countless Taoist and Buddhist cultivators, ready to besiege the forest and exorcise the demon.

"Originally, there were no demons in the world, but in this era, demons have appeared..."

Xu Zhi, sitting on his imperial throne and sipping tea, remarked calmly, "Buddhist and Taoist cultivators exorcising demons... the birth of demonic embryos seems to have become commonplace over the past few decades."

Often, distorting the perceptions of ordinary people is simply a matter of a few eras.

Lord Youshan's influence had spread far and wide, implanting the history of these "demons" even into the perceptions of many ordinary people.

Folklore and stories circulated among the populace, claiming that in ancient times, demons ruled the world. It was a cannibalistic era, where demons preyed on humanity, a time of utter darkness and misery...

Then, Lord Youshan, pitying the dire plight of ordinary humans, consulted the unseen Emperor and received permission. Thus, acting under the Emperor's divine mandate, he boldly and decisively eradicated these ancient demons!

What a truly compelling narrative.

The once powerful cultivators were now branded as demons.

"This is truly... Hell empty, demons among us." Xu Zhi watched the constantly reincarnating souls emptying the Underworld, utterly speechless. "Lord Youshan, that shameless chatterbox, is truly a formidable and deadly adversary... especially with that troublesome player, Pan Yuxian, behind him..."

After all, if he didn't use his Insectoid authority or the abilities of his main body, relying solely on the Emperor's combat power, he wouldn't be able to find Lord Youshan's hiding place within the land that had expanded countless times over.

Even an Eighth-Tier God is not an omniscient or omnipotent being.

For an Immortal to find a Heavenly Emperor in such a vast world would be extremely difficult.

It would still be very difficult.

Of course, if he were to break through to the Ninth-Tier, reaching the realm of the Three Pillar Gods, he could distort laws and connect to the unseen threads of causality, naturally catching the loose ends left by his opponent.

However, that would require further advancement.

"Lord Youshan is truly interesting," Xu Zhi chuckled. He had no intention of cheating; it was better to let things unfold naturally and simply adapt to the combat power and identity of this avatar.

Having finally dealt with these pressing matters, he felt a sense of relief and could now temporarily relax.

Xu Zhi's gaze then shifted to his main body. "The Eighth-Tier God has finally broken through... It's time to get down to business, test the current combat power, and adapt to it."