Chapter One Hundred One: Wen and Rite (Part One)

Time flows on, and years pass like water. Since the divine race established the Divine Court in the Northern Wastes and brought the myriad tribes of that land under a single rule, a full one hundred thousand years had gone by.

For all those ten thousand decades, the great wastelands had been largely peaceful, with only scattered regions still aflame with war. In simple terms, only the Ten Thousand Great Mountains had remained a constant battlefield; everywhere else was tranquil.

It was almost laughable: the mere Titan clan had held the line in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains for a full hundred thousand years against the overbearing, ferocious beast race, whose savagery shook heaven and earth.

Even the dullest among the myriad tribes of the Great Wasteland could sense that something was not right.

Yet no race knew what schemes the beast race was plotting in secret.

So the myriad tribes could only throw themselves into building armies, strengthening their own power, and preparing for the earthshaking war that was bound to come.

The situation in the Great Wasteland now was like a calm lake whose depths seethed with terrifying undercurrents. Once a great stone shattered that peace, the limitless and dreadful currents beneath would surge forth at once, engulfing heaven and earth and destroying all living things.

In any case, this brief and strange peace of a hundred thousand years had given the newly founded divine race and the Divine Court enough time to grow in strength.

A hundred thousand years ago, the divine race’s power stood between that of the top draconic clan and the lesser Xuanwu clan—neither high enough to be the best, nor low enough to be the worst.

A hundred thousand years later, relying on the immense power of the Divine Court system and drawing the strength of the myriad tribes of the Northern Wastes into its own use, the divine race had become comparable to the dragon clan, one of the strongest races of all.

Now, the divine race was truly one of the Great Wasteland’s supreme powers.

This colossal Divine Court already possessed enough strength to overturn heaven and earth.

Even if a war for supremacy over the Great Wasteland erupted the very next moment, the divine race and the Divine Court would be a decisive force.

The Northern Wastes.

The City of the Gods hung high in the ninth heaven like a second sun, side by side with the true sun star, granting the northern lands endless light and warmth.

Over these hundred thousand years, the beings of the Northern Wastes had grown used to that second sun suspended in the highest heavens. They had grown used to worshipping the City of the Gods and drawing power from it.

Though the City of the Gods could not, like the true sun, bestow endless light and heat, it could grant the beings of the Northern Wastes hope and strength.

So long as they worshipped the City of the Gods with devotion, they might obtain powerful sacred force from within it.

Countless divine spirits of the divine race had proven by their own deeds that the City of the Gods truly possessed such magnificent power.

Only by devoutly worshipping the City of the Gods could one, at the very edge of life and death, receive from it a mighty sacred force.

At that final threshold, such power could decide life itself.

Moreover, the divine spirits of the divine race all worshipped the City of the Gods in earnest, and through it they could transmit crucial messages at any time.

This also made ordinary beings dare not slaughter members of the divine race or the gods of the Divine Court.

After all, divine spirits and the gods of the Divine Court could send word to the City of the Gods of their murder before they died.

Once the divine race and the Divine Court received the news, they would surely dispatch powerful deities and armies to hunt down the blasphemer.

How many below the rank of Divine Lord could survive the siege of the Divine Court’s armies?

Even a Divine Lord would never dare offend the Divine Court so blatantly; otherwise, once wanted by the Divine Court, one would have only two choices: surrender or flee the Northern Wastes.

This too was why Nanluo insisted that the City of the Gods remain high in the ninth heaven, aligned with the sun.

Suspended above the heavens like a sun, the City of the Gods could both absorb the faith of all living beings to be refined within it, and inspire awe in the hearts of the Northern Wastes’ creatures toward the divine race and the Divine Court, strengthening the divine spirits’ sense of honor toward their race and the gods’ devotion to the Court, thereby reinforcing the rule of both divine race and Divine Court.

The sacred and resplendent City of the Gods released an endless brilliance of divine light.

Unlike the City of the Gods of a hundred thousand years ago, which possessed only the power of law and starlight, the City of the Gods of today had been reforged from endless divine metals, billions of varieties of divine materials, and countless heavenly and earthly treasures.

The present City of the Gods was more precious than the famed Black Tortoise City by more than tenfold, and was the undisputed number one divine city under heaven.

Within the City of the Gods, thirteen sacred palaces hung high in the ninth heaven; above them stretched jade towers and magnificent halls for a million miles, with radiant clouds and auspicious vapors filling the sky for thousands upon thousands of miles.

This was the place where the Divine Court stood.

Centered on the divine palaces of the Divine Emperor and the Twelve Venerables, the Divine Court spread outward into a vast complex of sacred halls, where countless divine officials handled the affairs of heaven and earth.

The Divine Emperor’s Palace was where the Divine Emperor resided, and also the core of the Divine Court.

Within the Divine Emperor’s Palace, in the Hall of Heavens, the Divine Emperor convened the gods to discuss state affairs.

Nanluo sat upon the Divine Emperor’s throne, his bearing increasingly vast and sacred, so that all beings who beheld him wished to kneel and submit.

The ruler of the Divine Court, the Divine Emperor, held a supreme position granted by heaven and earth itself, comparable to the supreme beings among the Primordial Golden Immortals.

Whoever bore the title of Divine Emperor could effortlessly comprehend the profound mysteries of the laws of heaven and earth, and their cultivation would advance at an unimaginable pace, growing stronger at every moment.

For a hundred thousand years, Nanluo had remained seated upon the Divine Emperor’s throne, handling the myriad affairs of state and comprehending the profundities of the laws, his cultivation becoming ever more unfathomable.

Even the second strongest being of the divine race, the Venerable of Fate, Miao Yan, once said that he could not see through the cultivation of His Majesty the Divine Emperor.

According to the regulations of the Divine Court, there was a minor audience once every month and a grand audience once every year.

Today was the monthly minor audience.

The Divine Emperor Nanluo would receive the gods of the Divine Court in the Hall of Heavens and deliberate upon the matters of the court.

Only divine officials of the first rank and above were qualified to attend the minor audience.

Seated upon the Divine Emperor’s throne, Nanluo first discussed several minor matters with the gods, such as mediating conflicts between races, before finally turning to the most important issues.

“Venerable of Literature, how fare the divine script and the rites?” Nanluo asked as he looked toward Fang Yan, his gaze intense and his voice solemn with authority.

A hundred thousand years ago, when the Divine Court was first established, the Divine Emperor Nanluo had given only one task to the Venerable of Literature and the Department of Literature under his command.

That task was to devise a sacred script of ten thousand characters and a complete system of rites within a hundred thousand years.

If a race wished to flourish forever, it had to possess its own unique written language, so that knowledge might be passed down.

Thus was born the sacred script of ten thousand characters.

However, the sacred script wrought by the Divine Court would by no means be a simple thing.

The script devised by the Department of Literature had essentially fused together the traits of all existing writings—such as the domineering nature of dragon script and the pride of phoenix script—to create a sacred writing perfectly suited to the myriad tribes of the Great Wasteland and the countless living beings within it.

The ten-thousand-character sacred script created by the Divine Court would also bear the weight of unifying the written languages of the Great Wasteland.

As for the rites, they existed to regulate the hierarchy between the strong and the weak through ceremony and etiquette.

Among the myriad tribes of the Great Wasteland, the divine race stood supreme.

The system of rites created by the Divine Court was meant to spread widely the hierarchical order in which the divine race held primacy, and to become the order of all beings in the Great Wasteland.

Only conquest of culture and the heart was true conquest.

Fang Yan stepped out of the ranks and faced Nanluo, bowing respectfully.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, with the three thousand divine characters bestowed by Your Majesty as its foundation, the sacred script of ten thousand characters has essentially been completed. As for the rites, in accordance with Your Majesty’s holy intent, a preliminary plan has also been drawn up.”

“Please review it, Your Majesty.”

Fang Yan took a golden memorial from his sleeve and presented it with both hands in deep reverence.