Lord of the Earth

Qianxia Dynasty, Baiyujing!

The midday sun blazed down, yet the colossal city, housing nearly a hundred million people, was even hotter than the sun itself. The streets, city walls, and rooftops were packed with people, making it impossible to move. These days, many of Qianxia's most outstanding talents, along with His Majesty, had traveled to the City of Saints to participate in the "Grand Ceremony of Heavenly Competition"!
Every day, large numbers of people spontaneously gather here, eagerly awaiting their arrival.

"Look at the sky!"

At that moment, someone pointed to the sky and exclaimed in surprise.

Everyone looked up in unison, and saw a phantom of a vast city suddenly appear in the sky: the city walls were as if cast in gold and made of jade, the four ancient seal characters "City of Saints" on the city gate flowed with mysterious yellow light, and the Spirit Pivot Tower in the center of the city floated in mid-air, with thousands of law threads hanging down, swaying and shining like a beaded curtain.

Around the Spirit Pivot Tower, various illusory images of powerful artifacts swirl: in Qianxia's "Chess Game of Heaven and Earth," star pieces alternate between light and shadow, deducing the rise and fall of dynasties; in the alien "City of Technology," gears and runes intertwine, bursting forth with the brilliance of reason; the Pharaoh's "Obelisk" shoots out golden beams of light, weaving a net of laws with the threads of the Spirit Pivot Tower...

Each piece is a treasure of the glass-like quality, together forming a majestic protective barrier.

The city gates of the illusory city slowly opened, and Xia Tian led his ministers out from within.

He wore a colorful dragon robe with clouds and dragons, his posture was as upright as a pine tree, and although he had experienced a great battle, his aura was calm and steady, and his body was surrounded by a faint aura of the holy city.

Behind them, Zhuge Liang stood smiling, holding a feather fan; Bai Qi had a sword at his waist with a resolute gaze; Wu Song's black hair danced wildly, his eyes were cold; and the figure of the demon god Lü Bu was shrouded in blood clouds...

"They're back! His Majesty and the others are back!"

On the ground, Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen, who remained behind, stood up. In the "Langhuan Jade Mansion," Wang Yuyan held a book lightly, her eyes filled with concern. Even Pan Jinlian, standing behind the crowd, was overjoyed, her eyes sparkling with genuine anticipation. All the civil and military officials, extraordinary people, and eccentrics of Qianxia were present, each full of energy and carrying the glory of triumph.

"Your Majesty is back!"

"It's His Majesty! And also Lord Zhuge, Lord Bai, General Wu, and General Lü Bu!"

"We won! His Majesty has secured the position of Lord of the Holy City!"

When the message arrived from the sky, cheers erupted instantly, and nearly 100 million people knelt down at the same time, shouting "Long live Your Majesty!"

The sounds converged into a torrent, impacting heaven and earth, even making the air scorching hot.

Endless aspirations surged from the hearts of the people like a tide, transforming into visible golden specks of light that rushed toward summer.

In the sky, Qianxia's aura and sea of ​​clouds were activated by this passion, and golden dragon energy surged up and wrapped around his body; moreover, countless fragments of merit light fell from the void, which were the power of merit for slaying calamity-causing beings and protecting the human race.

At this moment, following the cause and effect, they are converging on this Lord of Qianxia.

With his willpower at its zenith, his fortune like a dragon in the abyss, and his merits as dazzling as stars, Xia Tian's body was filled with these three forces, which intertwined and collided, producing a buzzing sound.

"This is……"

Summer suddenly came to a halt.

He could clearly feel that the accumulated willpower, fortune, and merit within his body had broken through the critical point, and his mind and spirit resonated with the laws of heaven and earth in an unprecedented way.

The imperial strategies that once ruled Qianxia, ​​the unwavering belief in protecting the people, the iron will to fight against calamities... all these experiences have forged a spiritual realm that has been sublimated at this moment!
"Buzz!"

A powerful divine pressure suddenly spread out, forming golden ripples centered on him. Wherever it passed, the cheers of the people were lifted by an invisible force and transformed into purer willpower that flowed into his body.

The phantom of the City of Saints in the sky trembled violently, and the threads of law hanging from the Spirit Pivot Tower converged on him like birds returning to their nests.

"boom!"

Summer burst forth with dazzling golden light, and a purple-gold lotus flower formed from the power of wishes bloomed at his feet. Nine dragon veins of fortune coiled around his body, and white light of merit transformed into a divine halo hanging behind his head.

Most astonishingly, a wisp of dark golden divine fire ignited between his brows, and as the flame flickered, it clearly reflected the patterns of the order of heaven and earth.

"Is that... the divine fire?!"

Zhuge Liang's eyes flashed with a sharp light.

"His Majesty has actually broken through at this moment and ascended to the divine throne!"

As the divine fire ignited, the sounds of dragons roaring and phoenixes singing suddenly resounded throughout the heavens and earth.

A colossal phantom of an imperial procession emerged on the eastern horizon, with the Golden Palace, the Nine-Dragon Chariot, and the Sun and Moon Banner appearing in succession, showcasing the majesty of the imperial laws; the five colors of the Five Elements—red fire in the south, white gold in the west, black water in the north, yellow earth in the center, and green wood in the east—surged from the earth, condensing into a rotating Five Elements array in mid-air; high in the sky, clouds churned, and silver lightning, like dragons, weaved through the air, emitting a roar that purified evil spirits…

The imperial way establishes order, the five elements generate and cease, and thunder judges—these three types of laws intertwine to form a net that envelops the entire Jade Capital.

The people in the city were stunned, and then erupted into even more enthusiastic cheers.

"His Majesty has become a god! His Majesty Qianxia has become a god!"

"Wait, didn't His Majesty already become a god long ago?"

[Congratulations! You have successfully ignited the divine fire, gaining the approval of the eternal will. Your fortune and potential have greatly increased... You now possess the authority to manipulate the rules of this world...]

At this moment, in Xia Tian's mind...

A vast, mysterious will emerged, not the will of Earth, but the will of the Eternal Land!
At the same time, as summer approaches, a hazy veil seems to be lifted from the sky and earth, revealing a giant net composed of countless mysterious and interwoven "traces"!

They are not physical entities, but they constitute the basic logic and framework for the operation of all things.

"Is this the legendary web of rules that covers the entire Eternal Land and even extends into the endless void?"

Summer brings about a dramatic transformation within oneself.

At the mortal level, one can only utilize the power of the physical body.

At the Transcendental level, one discovers the wondrous uses of mental power; at the Extraordinary level, one can comprehend the power of laws!
The core of the realm of gods lies in the control and application of the "original rules" that constitute this world.

This is the ultimate meaning of climbing all the way, pursuing to become a prodigy, or even an unparalleled prodigy—only by reaching the ultimate harmony with heaven and earth can one truly "see" and touch this eternal and unchanging web of rules, and absorb its Dao essence.

For beings below the gods, the laws of the Eternal Land are vague and elusive, and they can only passively adapt to them.

But the gods can truly "control" a part of it!

The first step on the path to godhood is to ignite the divine fire, using this fire as a catalyst to illuminate and control one's own domain of "rules." These rules are often rooted in one's past cultivation and understanding.

This is why becoming a god is far more difficult than becoming a saint.

There are two paths to sainthood.

Whether one breaks through limits by strengthening their physique and spirit, or hones their skills to a transcendent level, both paths are possible.

But to become a god, one must possess both!
One must possess the immense power to leverage the "lines of rules," and elevate one's skills and understanding to the level necessary to comprehend and observe these lines of rules.

For ordinary people like him, this is an insurmountable barrier.

However, as a prodigy of the human race, with the empowerment granted by the Eternal Land, Xia Tian had already vaguely sensed the pulse of the "laws" at the transcendent and even saintly levels.

Those are the finer, more specific veins in the web of rules, like the veins of a leaf on a branch. Though not the main trunk, they ultimately lead to the source.

If we compare the use of power at the extraordinary and saintly stages to using a ready-made, complex "program"—which requires specific incantations, spells, and energy circuits to guide energy and form fixed techniques or supernatural powers—it's like a programmer calling pre-packaged library functions or running compiled software.

The realm of gods is like having the right to directly write the underlying "source code" and compile and run it in real time!
With a slight thought, summer stirred up some of the most active threads in the web of rules—the "Five Elements" that form the foundation of the material world, and the "Thunder" that represents the majesty of the heavens.

There are no complicated hand seals or lengthy incantations; it is simply a thought with the left hand raised slightly and the five fingers spread apart.

In an instant, the brilliance of the five fundamental laws—the sharpness of metal, the vitality of wood, the nourishment of water, the intensity of fire, and the weight of earth—manifested with the thought, flowing through the fingertips, mutually generating and restraining each other, in an endless cycle!

A mysterious wheel, about a foot in size and composed of pure Five Elements principles, materialized out of thin air and began to rotate slowly.

Although the roulette wheel was small, it emanated a vast Daoist rhythm of the birth and death of all things, and the surrounding space was slightly distorted because of its presence.

Immediately afterwards, he raised his right hand slightly, pointing his fingertip to an empty space in the dome. Just as silently, a tiny electric snake made of pure purple-gold lightning suddenly appeared!

This thunderbolt, imbued with the supreme will of judgment, purification, and creation, and carrying a majesty that made the soul tremble, precisely pierced through that space.

This is not a lightning spell that consumes mental energy to condense.

However, in the summer, he simply mobilized the power of the surrounding rules representing the "Five Elements" to create an "instantaneous supernatural power"!
Igniting the divine fire and controlling the rules, its power lies in its ability to manipulate this world from the "bottom" level of the rules.

"However, this is only one aspect of the power of the gods..."

Summer said softly.

One of the core aspects of the power of the gods lies in building their own immortal "divine kingdom"—the destination of faith, the source of power, and the embodiment of rules!

"After igniting their divine fire, most of those gods choose to gather even more..."

Ordinary deities need the devout faith of millions of believers as fuel, thrown into the divine fire, to painstakingly transform the ethereal power of faith into the "divine foundation" for building their divine kingdom. The process is long and full of impurities, much like collecting fragmented user feedback to painstakingly reconstruct the underlying system.

But summer is different. When he thought about it, he communicated not with the prayers of believers, but with the vast, magnificent, and condensed golden "sea of ​​fortune" that covered the entire Qianxia Dynasty region and was as solid as a substance!
"hold head high--!"

A majestic dragon roar seemed to rise from the void.

Visible to the naked eye, countless streams of "power of destiny" rose from the Holy City, from the Qianxia territory, and from every human being who yearned for the dynasty, traversing space and converging in the Jade Capital, above Xia Tian's head!

The immense fortune condensed into a majestic and sacred phantom of a purple-gold dragon. It coiled and roared, eventually transforming into a pure and extreme purple-gold torrent that crashed into the divine fire in Xia Tian's sea of ​​consciousness!

"Boom!"

The divine fire seemed to be infused with boundless power, suddenly surging and shining with dazzling light!

These golden torrents of fortune, forged by the divine fire, were not transformed into divine power of faith, but were directly tempered and purified, turning into a more noble, more condensed "divine brick" containing the will of the Qianxia dynasty and the wishes of all people!
Each of these "divine bricks" is crystal clear, containing purple-gold radiance and black-yellow dragon patterns, exuding supreme majesty that governs the mountains and rivers and blesses all living beings.

These are the most perfect, fitting, and infinitely potential cornerstones for building summer's own unique "divine kingdom"!
Using the immense national fortune as fuel and divine fire as a furnace, the foundation of the divine kingdom will be directly forged, becoming one with the emperor's status and the national fortune of Qianxia that Xia Tian possesses!
At this moment, Xia Tian officially stepped into the realm of the first level of the Divine Realm!

The realm of gods is divided into levels according to "heaven," because the place where gods stand is the area covered by their "divine domain."

Within this scope, deities are equivalent to "heaven"!
The stronger and closer the laws it controls are to the core, the more secure its control over "Heaven" will be, and the more thoroughly it will suppress its enemies.

Based on this, each step forward to the next level signifies a new height in the understanding and mastery of the rules.

Just as the difference in power between mastering a single programming language and becoming an expert in the entire operating system kernel is vast, it far surpasses the chasm between extraordinary realms...

"Even at the level of gods, the so-called supernatural powers and special characteristics have been diluted to a certain extent..."

This is because, for gods, modifying their own "characteristics" is not a difficult thing.

The more "rules" one controls, the more "characteristics" one can describe, with theoretically no upper limit!
"This special period of intense fusion of the laws of heaven and earth and the manifestation of their origins is the golden age for comprehending the laws!"

Summer's eyes blazed with divine fire, and he could clearly sense the unprecedentedly vibrant rhythm of the laws governing the air.

The connection between the Five Elements and Thunder is particularly clear, as tangible as a spring gushing forth from a dried-up riverbed. During this window of time, the difficulty of comprehending the laws is greatly reduced, and the efficiency is increased a thousandfold!
This is an excellent opportunity for him to solidify his divine realm, deepen his understanding of the laws, accelerate the construction of his divine kingdom, and even attempt to reach a higher level. It is also a crucial moment for the Qiantian Dynasty to lay the foundation for eternity and seize the supreme advantage in the upcoming era of gods!

"Your Majesty, I have important news to report."

However, they haven't yet officially attempted to unite the divine kingdom in the summer.

A calm voice, amplified by the "Emperor's Personal Guard" effect of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, directly entered Xia Tian's mind!

"The Spirit Race's 'divine messenger' has arrived outside the White Jade Capital and requests an audience..."

"Furthermore, Zhenwu, the vice sect leader of the Taixuan Sect, has come to Qianxia to request an audience... It seems to be related to his sect leader, Daoxuan... His visit is not well-intentioned!"

A flash of divine fire appeared in Xia Tian's eyes, and his deep gaze seemed to pierce through the barriers of the palace, looking out towards the White Jade Capital.

An envoy from the Spirit Clan? Zhenwu of the Tai Xuan Sect?

At this crucial moment when I have ascended to the divine realm and the world is undergoing dramatic changes, the arrival of these uninvited guests is clearly no coincidence! (End of Chapter)