Chapter 518: Rules Above Heaven
Jiang Li swept his spiritual sense over the jade pendant and found the world coordinates inside were absurdly numerous.
Houtu Huangqi sighed. “Although the coordinates look plentiful, right now less than twenty percent of those worlds remain unruined. The coordinates marked in red are dead, desolate worlds with no living beings.”
“The Immortal Realm first uses plots and schemes to drive the human-path beings of a world toward destruction. Once the human-path beings are exterminated, or their numbers fall below a certain threshold—ensuring they won’t produce another Heaven—then the Celestial Immortals will move in directly and kill the remaining human-path and beast-path beings.”
“Beast-path beings lack rationality and cannot create a new Heaven. The Immortal Realm kills them out of fear: accidental awakenings could make beast-path beings develop sentience.”
“As far as I know, only your Nine Provinces has produced a Heaven’s embryonic form—that’s what you call the Nine Provinces Earth Vein. Successive Human Sovereigns can be seen as spokespersons or embodiments of that Heaven’s embryonic form.”
“The Immortal Realm probably doesn’t know about your Nine Provinces; otherwise they’d have already sent Celestial Immortals and Golden Immortals to besiege you.”
Jiang Li wasn’t very surprised by this answer. He shook the jade pendant and asked, “There are no coordinates for the Immortal Realm in here?”
“None. The Immortal Realm moves constantly. If a new life is born in the Immortal Realm, we can trace the direction of its reincarnation to find the Immortal Realm, but there are no newborn lives there now, so we are powerless.”
“If a Human Sovereign wants to find the Immortal Realm it’s not difficult. With the myriad worlds destroyed to this extent, the Immortal Realm should shift its attention and will have to deal with us in the Underworld.”
“I used to worry that if the Immortal Realm acted, the Underworld only has one Primordial Chaos and Limitless Immortal like me, and victory would be unlikely—this world would truly be doomed. Now that I see Human Sovereign Jiang, I no longer worry about the Immortal Realm.”
Since Houtu Huangqi learned of the Immortal Realm’s upheaval from the Dao Ancestor, she had trained tirelessly, prepared to perish together with the Immortal Realm. Jiang Li’s arrival let her relax.
Train? Why bother training—no matter how much one trains, one won’t reach the Dao Ancestor’s height, let alone the Heaven’s level. Better to rely on Jiang Li.
“When the Immortal Realm directly acts against our Underworld, the Human Sovereign can come then and will be able to find the Immortal Realm.”
Jiang Li hesitated a moment and said, “Do you want me to stay in the Underworld? If the Heaven acts directly, the Underworld might be hard-pressed to resist.”
Houtu Huangqi shook her head. “That’s unnecessary. The Heaven won’t act directly against our Underworld.”
“Why not?”
“Because of rules. Rules are above Heaven; the Heaven must operate within the framework of rules.”
“The Human Sovereign should know how Heaven is born, right?”
“I heard it’s produced by the collective will of sentient beings.”
“All sentient beings across the myriad worlds operate according to rules. Since Heaven is a product of the collective will of sentient beings, it cannot break the constraints placed on sentient beings; it must also act within rules.”
“Rules are not illusory concepts; they are fixed existences, immutable theorems that must be followed. For example, the rule of life-and-death reincarnation: the dead cannot be revived freely; they must undergo reincarnation and be reborn.”
“The emergence of spiritual energy prompting a soul is a derivative of the life-and-death reincarnation rule. Heaven giving rise to souls and the dead Mortal World Celestial being reborn follow this principle.”
“Take the rule of the strong devouring the weak: in cultivation worlds, the strong dominate and high tiers crush lower tiers at will—this is how that rule manifests.”
“The conservation of energy rule: energy neither spontaneously appears nor disappears; it only converts from one form to another or transfers from one object to another, while the total amount remains unchanged.”
“The mass-energy conversion rule: mass can convert into energy, and energy can convert into mass.”
“Then there’s the time rule: time eternally moves and continuously changes. If the Underworld embodies the life-and-death reincarnation rule, then the River of Time embodies the time rule.”
“That’s why the River of Time has no concept of life and death—because the two are both rules at the same rank; the Underworld has no qualification to govern the River of Time.”
“Space rules: differences in matter’s forms and motion states constitute space. Space can be expressed by length, width, and height, and the derivative of space rules is the Way of Space.”
“There is also the possibility rule: developments always contain uncertainty. The same person confronted with the same event can make different choices—this is the foundation of parallel world theory. Before, no one could prove it; now you have.”
“The life-evolution rule: evolution accumulates heavily, then bursts forth. For instance, accumulating from Qi Refinement First Stage to Ninth Stage is the buildup; advancing to Foundation Establishment is the burst.”
“Life evolution is a leap-like progress. From the Qi Refining Stage to Foundation Establishment, power experiences a leap; there is no smooth, gradual path to Foundation Establishment.”
“Life evolution is essentially cultivation. Any cultivation system can be linked to the immortal cultivation system—martial way systems, enhancer systems, etc. The cultivation ranks are divided into eleven levels: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Unity, Tribulation Transcendence, Earthly Immortal, Celestial Immortal, Golden Immortal, and Primordial Chaos and Limitless Immortal.”
“Derived from life-evolution rules is ‘immortal power.’ Becoming an immortal requires immortal power; without it, one cannot become immortal.”
“The source of immortal power lies in the Immortal Realm; that’s the fundamental reason the Immortal Realm is the center of the myriad worlds.”
“The Underworld has no immortal power, so after we die we cannot cultivate further. Whatever cultivation you had in life is what you retain in death.”
“All things in this world operate according to these eight rules, or derivatives of them.”
“This is eye-opening.” Jiang Li felt a sudden clarity. These matters were certainly secret—only a Primordial Chaos and Limitless Immortal would know them; even the erudite Immortal Elder Changcun didn’t know.
“If we were to elaborate on these eight rules, it would take three days and nights. We Primordial Chaos and Limitless Immortals are all researching the rules. I study the life-and-death reincarnation rule, the Dao Ancestor studies the life-evolution rule, the Buddha studies space rules, the Confucius Sage studies the strong-devouring-weak rule, the Primordial Ancestor studies the time rule, and the Immortal Emperor also studies the life-evolution rule.”
“Heaven operates within these eight rules and must never violate them. If Heaven were to strike our Underworld directly, it would violate the life-and-death reincarnation rule, and the first to suffer would be Heaven.”
“Heaven can only send an Immortal Emperor or the Primordial Ancestor, or both, leading Golden Immortals and Celestial Immortals to attack the Underworld. Even if two Primordial Chaos and Limitless Immortals intervene, I am confident we could hold our own for a time. Human Sovereign Jiang, you should come over during that window.”
“Understood.”
“Don’t move.” Houtu Huangqi took Jiang Li’s right hand and traced a mark on his palm.
“This is my original mark, called the Six Paths Seal. If the Immortal Realm comes, I will use this seal to summon you; you can then arrive through it.”
“If you ever want to come by, you can also come through this seal.”
Jiang Li nodded and took his leave from Houtu Huangqi.
Houtu Huangqi watched Jiang Li depart from the Underworld and bowed her head in thought. After a long while, she slowly said, “The Ten Yama Kings have a three-day holiday. Maybe I should give myself three days off too?”