Qing Ling looked at Zhen Yuanzi with relief and said, "The future years will be your burden, fellow Daoist."
Zhen Yuanzi nodded, "Since I am a great power of the Earthly Dao, I must fulfill my responsibilities. It is the same for me as it is for the Underworld Lord!"
Qing Ling smiled leisurely. It was always comfortable speaking with intelligent people of the same faction.
Qing Ling, accompanied by Zhen Yuanzi, visited all the great powers of the Earthly Dao. There were two supreme great powers, Ming He and Gui Zu, the Elder Mother Qi Meng on the Bridge of Helplessness, and the rest were Da Luo who came to pay their respects.
The Earthly Dao now had three supreme great powers, and more than ten ordinary Da Luo Golden Immortals.
The issue of capacity, which restricted the achievement of great powers in the ghost path, would be resolved by Zhen Yuanzi in the future.
Therefore, many ghost cultivators came to visit from Fengdu City. Zhen Yuanzi smiled and accepted them all. To any ghost cultivator who wished to transform their spirit into a god, he agreed, even explicitly recording that he would take a trace of their soul to keep for use. The ghost cultivators all knew him to be a kind-hearted person.
They did not know that Zhen Yuanzi was actually worried about his own task, and it was as if the pillow had arrived just when he was sleepy.
He was to act on behalf of the Earthly Dao to confer titles upon the spirits of mountains and lands, and to gradually strengthen the power of the Earthly Dao. However, there were very few mountains and lands where natural spirits were born. He could not wait for thousands or even tens of thousands of kalpas. Naturally, he had to find another shortcut.
The complex and ever-changing nature of the mountains and lands required much consideration, making it extremely complicated. All of this would be Zhen Yuanzi's work in the future.
Qing Ling was greatly satisfied and returned to Duguan.
Zhen Yuanzi spent a thousand years in the Netherworld before returning to Wuzhuang Temple.
He compared it with the Map of Rivers and Mountains, taking an overall view, and then specifically graded it to establish the Earthly Dao's Immortal system.
All gods of rivers, lakes, and seas, mountains, and lands were collectively referred to as Earth Immortals!
However, the gods of rivers, lakes, and seas were under the jurisdiction of the Four Sea Dragon Clan. They would continue to be managed by the Dragon Clan, with the addition of a procedural step to consult Zhen Yuanzi, to show the honor of the Earthly Dao.
With the Old Ancestor Huanglong, the foremost ancestor of the Dragon Clan, present, the Dragon Clan naturally had no objections.
Zhen Yuanzi focused solely on managing the Earthly Immortals of the land. He established the positions of Land Gods and Mountain Gods, dividing them into Land Gods and Mountain Gods.
Those managing an area of one hundred li were of the Yellow rank divine position, those managing one thousand li were of the Profound rank divine position, those managing ten thousand li were of the Earth rank divine position, and those managing one million li were of the Heaven rank divine position.
Based on the size of the area they managed, it naturally determined the strength of the Earth Immortal. For example, a Land God managing one hundred li was equivalent to someone who had just achieved immortal cultivation. A Land God managing one thousand li was equivalent to a Celestial Immortal or Profound Immortal. A Land God managing ten thousand li was equivalent to a Golden Immortal or Taiyi, and those managing one million li were naturally Da Luo!
Currently, there were only two such Earth Immortals managing one million li: one was the Land God of Duguan, and the other was Lu Wu, the Mountain God of Kunlun Mountain.
The Queen Mother of the West, having received a favor from Qing Ling in the past, was now repaying it. It was merely adding a title and a nominal steward, as her own mountain gods remained her own mountain gods.
Zhen Yuanzi visited various mountains and conferred divine positions upon those ghost cultivators willing to walk the path of Earth Immortals, transforming their spirit bodies into Yin spirit bodies and entrusting them with the governance and education of a region.
On the Great Earth, the Witch Clan had Houtu to command, and the Monster Clan had Qing Ling's decree. Even in the regions of the Witches and Monsters, the existence of Land Gods was permitted. However, the Land Gods in the territories of the Witches and Monsters were all trembling and extremely cautious, for fear of offending these great figures. They would only huddle on their own mountain peaks and would never come out without a summoning spell.
Zhen Yuanzi worked tirelessly for tens of thousands of years. Finally, when there were no more ghosts to utilize and no more gods to confer, he stopped and returned to Wuzhuang Temple.
After all, the ghost cultivators were not fools. Once they learned that becoming an Earth Immortal was not easy, they no longer yearned to become Earth Immortals. Consequently, Zhen Yuanzi had a large number of unassigned mountains and lands, but no one to confer them upon.
Zhen Yuanzi then established the Ancestral Hall of Earth Immortals on Longevity Mountain. All changes in divine positions, births and deaths of Earth Immortals, promotions and demotions, and other major events were announced in this hall.
The Book of Earth also became a treasure for managing the Earth Immortals of the Primordial World, and Zhen Yuanzi was naturally honored as the Ancestor of Earth Immortals by the Earth Immortals!
Time flowed slowly, like water flowing east, ceaselessly.
After the second war between the Witch and Monster clans, there was a great deal of restraint. After all, the strengths of the two clans were evenly matched. If friction increased and escalated into a full-scale war between the two clans, both the Witches and Monsters would suffer heavy losses.
Although the Witch and Monster clans harbored hatred and were inherently enemies, they were not fools who acted on impulse and would not ignite at the slightest provocation.
Only when one clan lost its balance, the other clan felt it had enough strength to crush the opponent, or when a great scheme succeeded and could defeat the opponent in one fell swoop, would the two clans resume their conflict.
On this day, on Fengqi Mountain, Nuwa emerged from seclusion. Her primordial spirit was perfected and her divine power was profound. She was finally about to take that step!
Nuwa was neither anxious nor excited, nor was she uneasy or hesitant, let alone timid or fearful.
Her opportunity to achieve sainthood was the result of countless years of arduous cultivation, innumerable life-and-death battles, and the culmination of great wisdom and fortune.
Oh, and the determination to plan for her elder brother and avenge him.
Nuwa left the mountain, alone, and headed towards Buzhou.
Nuwa extended her hand, and a section of gourd vine appeared in her palm. It was the vine of the gourd from which she had forged the Demon Summoning Banner when she plucked it from Buzhou Mountain in the past.
With a wave of her hand, the vine touched the ground, grew, and spread. Nuwa smiled and said, "It was you who accompanied me to Buzhou back then. Today, I will trouble you to accompany me once more."
The gourd vine grew leaves and a green vine rapidly stretched out, growing towards Buzhou.
Nuwa followed at a steady pace, observing and walking all the way to Buzhou.
Her gaze swept towards Buzhou, a magnificent and majestic miracle of heaven and earth. Pangu's Buzhou had stood here for trillions of years.
Nuwa slowly spoke, "Buzhou Mountain, transformed from Pangu. Since you have seen Him, you should understand."
A voice echoed, "So what if it's Buzhou? So what if it's Pangu? You and I are always Nuwa."
Nuwa shook her head and slowly picked up the gourd vine that had been growing along the way. "Since I am Nuwa, I should do what fate has destined for me."
"If you were Nuwa, would you be willing to avenge my elder brother? Would you plan for my elder brother? Could you enter calamity alone for all the monsters in the world? Could you fight to the death for hundreds of millions of monsters?
You would not. Because from the moment you were born, I merged my lesser self with you. My selfishness, fear, timidity, and hesitation all became a part of you.
I am Nuwa. Although I still have my own desires, they are for the greater good of heaven and earth, for the fear and worry for all living beings, and for the sorrow over the rise and fall of all the ways in the world."
The primordial self, yet to be severed within Nuwa's body, sneered again, "In the end, it's just empty talk, just hypocrisy!"
Nuwa smiled indifferently, "Do you know why I visited Kunlun that day and only asked about the past of the Human Dao?"
The primordial self mocked, "It's merely because you thought yourself different from all beings, hence the distinction, and refused to acknowledge yourself as part of the Human Dao."
Nuwa shook her head and said softly, "I only asked about the past of the Human Dao because I wanted to create the future of the Human Dao!
You should also come out and see this world of sentient beings in the Human Dao!"
Nuwa revealed her majestic divine form with a human body and a snake's tail, facing Buzhou with the Great Dao in her heart. The light of creation illuminated Pangu's Buzhou.