After making a round of inspection in the valley, Wu Qi closed himself behind doors and did not step out of his room for three months, devoting himself to the tempering of his divine sense and the digesting of the three emperors’ insights. He had pleasant findings every day. The insights of Heavenly Dao possessed by the first group of gods born after the world was created came directly from the oldest, most primitive power of laws in this world. Three months of hard work in seclusion had allowed him to make a great stride in his attainment of divine abilities and mystic arts derived from the elements of wood, water, and metal.

In the same three months, Great Wu was busy preparing for wars while Guigu’zi and Mo Di were recruiting disciples in large numbers.

With the overall strength of peak-level Gold Immortals they had shown, the news that they were recruiting disciples spread into Great Wu’s surrounding territories like a wildfire. In just three months, hundreds of immortal sects came with all their disciples. Over ten million people had joined Great Wu, including some two thousand Heaven Immortals, about ten thousand Nascent Divinity cultivators, hundreds of thousands of cultivators, and all their families.

All Heaven Immortals and cultivators were accepted as disciples by them. Those who showed interest in the study of divine abilities and mystic arts were naturally accepted by Guigu’zi, and those who showed talents in artifact refinement went to Mo Di, while others inclining to the miscellaneous knowledge of Dao were assigned to Wu Qi. However, as he was dwelling in seclusion, none of these disciples had the chance to see his face for three months.

Early in the morning, the bells and drums in Great Wu’s imperial palace rang simultaneously, and beasts of a hundred kinds roared in unison. Wu Tianming was summoning his subjects for a grand council. All the officials in the capital city, including even the lowest-ranking ones, put on their finest clothes and entered the palace. The garrison generals stationed along the borders were back inside the city as well.

Soon, all of Great Wu’s subjects were assembled in the court. Led by Reverend White River, the immortals and cultivators who had submitted in the recent months were also lined up orderly in the great hall. Today’s Great Wu was considered a strong kingdom with mighty forces and formidable warriors. From his throne, Wu Tianming looked down at all the subjects gathered in the hall and the square beyond it, swelling with pride. He was never so convinced that he was the only candidate for the position of the new Sacred Emperor of the human race.

“With the help of the three Imperial Advisors, that throne doesn’t seem too difficult to reach.”

The emperor slowly rose to his feet and his Gold Immortal divine sense spread out in all directions. Shrouded in a golden-purple gleam, he looked like a mighty monarch. All his subjects, including the immortals and cultivators, knelt and bowed before him, paying their respects.

The thunderous greetings made Wu Tianming feel as if he was walking on clouds. He thought of the rumor circulating among the various imperial clans in the outer heavenly realms: the man who became the new Sacred Emperor of the human race could invest new deities on behalf of heaven. And with the immense virtues, he could be elevated into the Thirty-three Heavens and conferred as the Celestial Emperor of Heaven, enjoying infinite fortune and power that none of the emperors of mortal kingdoms would have ever enjoyed before.

But, since when did this rumor begin circulating? No one could tell.

In any case, the rumor was highly reliable, because the immortals who helped train soldiers and Oracles in outer heavenly realms had said so. Besides, during the journey when Great Wu’s people were migrating to some outer heavenly realm and later to Pangu Continent, those Immortal Monarchs of Heaven in charge of the outer heavenly realms had mentioned the same thing. Immortal Monarchs could never be wrong, could they?

‘I’ll first become the Sacred Emperor, and then the Celestial Emperor… A bright future is right ahead of me!’ Wu Tianming took a deep breath. Shafts of golden-purple light radiated out of him, making him shine like a small sun with its boundless light enveloping the entire capital city. The subjects, immortals, and cultivators bowed down even more respectfully, pressing their foreheads close to the ground for fear of offending their sovereign.

Amidst the sonorous cries of cranes, three plumes of smoke towered into the sky. Soon afterward, three huge chariots, whose surfaces were carved with numerous patterns of natural phenomenon such as wind, rain, and thunder, soared into the air from a mansion adjoining the palace where the imperial advisors resided, each dragged by three flood dragons with the cultivation base of Heaven Immortals. White clouds surrounded the chariots and compacted into an enormous platform. 3,600 handsome boys and beautiful girls, carefully chosen and dressed in moon-white daoist robes, waited around the chariots, their faces beaming with pride and energy and their hands holding long flagpoles forged from pure gold with colorful banners flapping above.

These boys and girls were all mortals, only with comely features and excellent aptitudes. But, each of them had runes on their chests, backs, waists, and legs. Guigu’zi had drawn the runes on them with the blood essence of some spirit beasts. Invisible to the naked eyes, they gave the boys and girls a strength that was not weaker than ordinary body cultivators.

The only thing was that they were mortals, after all. Their strength and power came from the runes, and they would still have to consume their own energy even when flying or running. If they were to fight enemies, they could only last a quarter of an hour or two hours at the most. They did not have an endless energy like the real Heaven Immortals, who could replenish themselves by absorbing natural energy from the surroundings.

The banners streaming from the flagpoles in their hands measured thirty-six feet in length and two feet in width, drawn with the images of the stars in the universe by Guigu’zi using the blood of spirit beasts. They fluttered as the breeze blew by, exuding waves of star power that caused the surrounding clouds to churn.

In addition to the 3,600 boys and girls, a group of 360 handsome men and beautiful girls in daoist robes were leading the way before the chariots, riding on clouds. They were the elite disciples carefully chosen from the immortal sects who had submitted in the recent days. Although they did not have strong cultivation base, their aptitudes were extremely profound. In Wu Qi’s opinion, they all had the potential to step into the realm of Gold Immortals through their own efforts, without cheating with the Nine Rotations Pills.

The immortal sects who had come to Pangu Continent could be described in one word: poor. Just like the White Cloud Immortal Sect in those years, most of them only had one to two Heaven Immortal Artifacts, a couple of spirit artifacts, and nothing else. Some were so poor that Wu Qi could only shake his head at them—they had at least seven to eight Heaven Immortals, but they did not even own a Heaven Immortal Artifact. What they kept as their trump cards were spirit artifacts so badly damaged from battles that they looked no different from rubbish.

How could they have the face to cultivate immortality whey they were so poor?

The eyes of all the Heaven Immortals and cultivators in the hall turned green when the carefully chosen group of 360 young men and women appeared, their hearts filled with envy and jealousy.

Out of boredom, Mo Di had taken a lot of materials from Great Wu’s treasury in the past three months and crafted a batch of Heaven Immortal Artifacts for this group of young cultivators. Given his current attainment in artifact refinement, the artifacts he had casually crafted were all first-grade Heaven Immortal Artifacts. The young cultivators were armed to the teeth—flying swords, magical weapons, immortal robes, boots, hairpins, belts, and rings. Each cultivator was given a set of thirty-six artifacts, all of which were first-grade artifacts!

The immortals and cultivators in the hall glanced at their lucky juniors who were splendidly clad in gleaming artifacts and made the best targets for robbery should they travel alone in the wilderness. Their faces flushed with shame when they looked at the shabby magical artifacts they carried.

But then, they got very excited. They suddenly realized that they had submitted to an excellent backer. A power capable of arming new disciples with tens of thousands of Heaven Immortal Artifacts in three months was absolutely promising. So, as long as they followed Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di, there would certainly be a bright future for all of them!

The chariots landed in front of the great hall, welcomed by Wu Tianming and all of Great Wu’s high ministers. In front of all his subjects, immortals, and cultivators, the emperor bowed reverently at Wu Qi and said, “Master, Uncle Masters, Great Wu needs your support in the upcoming expedition!”

Wu Qi lightly waved his hand as he slowly rose to his feet and walked out of the chariot. With hands clasped behind his back, he cocked his head sideways, facing the sky at a forty-five-degree angle and speaking coolly, “It’s a small matter. It’s up to you to make all decisions about marching and battling. My Senior Brothers and I will only strike when you run into some experts!”

“The newly submitted disciples have to perform well,” Guigu’zi added coldly and arrogantly. “Depending on the service you have rendered, we will take three hundred disciples into the inner sect, who will be taught the ultimate mystic arts of our sects. Do your best to assist Great Wu’s emperor, and don’t make us strike at all those trivial men!”

Mo Di simply flicked his sleeve, and countless beams of light shot out of it, flying toward the two thousand-odd Heaven Immortals and some ten thousand Nascent Divinity cultivators inside and outside of the hall, as well as the tens of thousands of cultivators in the square. Each Heaven Immortal was given three first-grade Heaven Immortal Artifacts, each Nascent Divinity cultivator was given three thirty-sixth-grade Heaven Immortal Aritfacts, and each cultivator below the realm of Nascent Soul was given either spirit artifacts or ordinary magical artifacts according to the level of their cultivation base.

Tens of thousands of immortals and cultivators cheered in unison, dropping to their knees in awe and reverence and bowing to Mo Di.

There were also immortal sects in outer heavenly realms famous for their skills in artifact refinement, but none of them could throw out more than 100,000 Heaven Immortal Artifacts at a time to arm their disciples. These Heaven Immortals and cultivators Mo Di had armed were capable of destroying any immortal sect from the outer heavenly realms, unless they had Gold Immortals.

When the immortals and cultivators were done with their cheering and bowing, Wu Tianming flew up into the sky, accompanied by Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di. Glancing down at his subjects and the Heaven Immortals and cultivators who had submitted to Great Wu, he slowly lifted his right hand.

“Great Wu is destined to rise, and I will be the new Human Emperor! Fight for Great Wu, my subjects, and I will share all the wealth and glory with you!”

It was a very short, but powerful and compelling statement. When every man and woman in the capital city cheered ‘Great Wu is destined to rise!’ in unison, Wu Qi was surprised to find that very strong power of faith was pouring into Wu Tianming’s body, condensing into a plume of pale purple aura that was shaped like a flood dragon.

Was this the aura of the emperor?

Wu Qi nodded slowly. ‘Yes, this is the aura of the emperor!’

At the grand council, Wu Tianming issued dozens of edicts in a row. He ordered dozens of generals to command half the kingdom’s military forces and station at the southern end of the valley, guarding against any possible invaders.

Then, with Wu Dehou as the vanguard and Wu Tianming as the chief commander, the rest of Great Wu’s military forces poured out to attack the various kingdoms in the north.