Golden Immortal City was encircled by Yuan City, Wu City, Fa City, and Hou City, and belonged to the metal element, making it extremely solid and sturdy.
Golden Immortal City was indeed the true imperial palace.
Inside the city, there were no soldiers or weapons, only six young Taoist apprentices responsible for serving the Heavenly Emperor.
Because the Heavenly Emperor had been in retreat for a long time, the apprentices had nothing to do and spent their days napping outside. Eventually, they even lost interest in dozing off.
Although Golden Immortal City appeared empty, it contained powerful formations.
However, due to the peace in the Immortal Realm, these formations had not been activated.
Shui Miao arrived at Golden Immortal City and headed straight for the palace where the false Heavenly Emperor, Xuan Chizi, was in retreat.
Upon reaching the palace entrance, the six little apprentices saw the Celestial Sage Zunjia returning and hurriedly ran out to greet him.
These little apprentices were truly pitiful! Shui Miao glanced at them and found them adorable and innocent. He crouched down and asked, “Now I’ll give you a chance. Tell me, where is the place you most want to go?”
“To the Mortal World! I want to go to the Mortal World!”
“I want to go there too…”
“Me, me, me too…”
The six innocent apprentices rushed to answer.
Shui Miao looked puzzled. “Why? Don’t you know that life in the Mortal World is full of hardship? Being a mortal is extremely tiring, especially being a good one.”
“But mortals live quite comfortably, don’t they? We heard that mortals spend their days sun-drying nets, fishing, loving their spouses, and composing poetry…”
“Can’t mortals also possess magical powers?”
“Why is being a mortal so tiring?”
The six apprentices knew nothing, as if they lived in a fairy tale world.
Sighing deeply, Shui Miao said, “That was a very long time ago. In today’s Mortal World, the first thing you drink after birth is toxic milk powder. Drinking breast milk filled with silicone is even worse. Then, at a very young age, you are forced under pressure to study knowledge, subjected to endless brainwashing education. After studying, you face endless work, needing to earn money—lots and lots of money. Without money, no one will respect you. When you finally have money, you’re already old, and because you’ve eaten unhealthy food all your life, various cancers and diseases strike, draining all your hard-earned money on medical treatment. Moreover, due to the terrible environment, you’ll never breathe pure spiritual energy or cultivate Daoism your entire life. Finally, when you die, your children will have to spend a fortune on your burial…”
…
Hearing Shui Miao’s description, the innocent little apprentices were instantly shocked and terrified.
Seeing the呆 expression on their faces, Shui Miao sighed again and said, “Remain in the Immortal Realm and behave yourselves. If you truly wish to go out, try spending a few days as free immortals in the Ninth Heaven. Now, leave this place. If you want to return, come to my Tianji Mansion. It’s much livelier there with many people around, far better than staying here and dying of boredom.”
“Go, go. First, go to Tianji Mansion and register with Vice City Lord Shui Tianyi.”
The Tianji Sage’s puppet also spoke.
The six apprentices hurriedly obeyed and rushed to Fa City.
Now, Golden Immortal City was completely empty, with only the false Heavenly Emperor, Xuan Chizi.
Shui Miao first went to the core formation of Golden Immortal City and directly dispersed Xuan Chizi’s soul, taking control of the city and activating the defensive formation.
Then, Shui Miao and the Tianji Sage’s puppet arrived at the meditation palace, directly unleashing their magical powers to open the palace door and seeing the false Heavenly Emperor Xuan Chizi sitting cross-legged inside.
Xuan Chizi now resembled the Heavenly Emperor, sitting steadily, his body like a jade statue.
Seeing the false Heavenly Emperor Xuan Chizi, Shui Miao did not act rashly but instead activated his magical treasures for defense and then fully unleashed the Dream Demon Heart Technique to sense Xuan Chizi.
“Ugh…”
After sensing for a moment, Shui Miao was greatly shocked.
This Xuan Chizi was fake—he was merely a puppet clone of Xuan Chizi.
Shui Miao’s mind stirred, immediately mobilizing all his strength to extract the Mirror Clone from within the puppet and used his magical powers to suppress the puppet, forcibly dispersing the faint soul left behind by Xuan Chizi.
This Xuan Chizi was indeed a formidable opponent!
Originally, Shui Miao was hidden while Xuan Chizi was exposed. Now, the situation had reversed, with Xuan Chizi in hiding and Shui Miao exposed.
No good!
He had to find a way to lure Xuan Chizi out and eliminate him with swift and decisive force.
Shui Miao’s thoughts raced, and he quickly devised two plans.
First, he would transform Golden Immortal City into a self-destructing prison, a trap to kill Xuan Chizi.
Second, he would accelerate the reform of the heavenly court, which would surely draw Xuan Chizi out. His goal in impersonating the Heavenly Emperor was to control the development of the Immortal Realm. If reforms began, he would definitely come out to disrupt them.
Thus, Shui Miao immediately took action.
First, he transformed the puppet of the false Xuan Chizi into his own puppet, embedding five self-destructing holy artifacts inside it, then letting it continue its retreat.
Second, in this Golden Immortal City itself, Shui Miao placed five more holy artifacts at the core formation. When Xuan Chizi returned to reclaim the city, it would self-destruct, killing him as well.
Half an hour later, Shui Miao and the Tianji Sage’s puppet left Golden Immortal City.
Without delay, Shui Miao hurried to the grand hall of Fa City to discuss the reform plans with Xingtian Fazun and Leibu Fazun.
Xingtian Fazun worked efficiently. He first approached Leibu Fazun, Chong Yuanzi, explained the situation, and then separately invited the three city lords of Yuan City, Wu City, and Hou City.
When Shui Miao arrived, Xingtian Fazun was explaining the intent of the Tianji Sage’s reform to everyone.
Chong Yuanzi had long been dissatisfied with the current system of the heavenly court and had no objection to the reform.
However, Chong Yuanzi was somewhat surprised, feeling that the Tianji Sage was not the kind of person to act like this. This behavior was very strange.
The other three city lords also shared Chong Yuanzi’s doubts.
The Yuan City Lord, Shui Shengzun, was an elderly scholar who controlled the water sources of the Three Realms and the vitality of all living things.
Wu City managed various formation developments and celestial texts, related to scholarly matters. Its city lord, Wenchang Dijun, was a learned scholar dressed in black.
Hou City’s ruler, Tianyi Dejun, appeared extremely loyal and approachable, managing all matters not covered by the other three cities.
As Xingtian Fazun was speaking, the Tianji Sage’s puppet arrived with Shui Miao and Shengmu Shui Tianyi.
“Hehe, Brother Tianji has arrived…”
“Tianji City Lord…”
“…”
As soon as the Tianji Sage entered, everyone stood up to greet him.
“Hehe, everyone, please continue the discussion. I’ll first listen to everyone’s opinions. Oh, by the way, these two are my vice city lords of Fa City. Please get to know them.”
The Tianji Sage directly took the main seat.
Shui Miao and Shui Tianyi merely bowed to everyone without much conversation and sat down on either side of the Tianji Sage.
Xingtian Fazun was good at arrangements, and the seats had already been prepared, so everyone could sit down directly.
However, these seats were arranged according to rank, and Shui Miao and Shui Tianyi were clearly seated ahead of everyone else, which immediately caused some discontent. Everyone was puzzled—why did the Tianji Sage appoint two people with relatively little experience as vice city lords? It seemed somewhat against the rules.
Once everyone was seated, no one spoke.
The grand hall was very quiet, with everyone lowering their heads, deep in thought.
Seeing that no one was speaking, Shui Miao stood up directly and said, “Reform is a monumental matter that affects the well-being of all beings in the Three Realms. I hope everyone can cast aside all irrelevant thoughts and innovate for the benefit of all beings, ensuring that the Three Realms flourish and improve.”
After Shui Miao finished speaking, he sat back down.
The Tianji Sage’s puppet then said, “Today, I have a celestial revelation to share with all of you…”
“A celestial revelation!”
At these words, everyone immediately became attentive.
The Tianji Sage’s puppet nodded and recounted the ancient immortals’ great battle between the Immortal and Demon Realms, the Demon Realm’s great victory, and the many things the Demon Realm had done to influence the development of the Immortal Realm, etc., indicating that the Immortal Realm faced a great calamity and that this was the best opportunity for reform and rise.
The Tianji Sage’s puppet’s words immediately stirred complex emotions among everyone.
“I support the reform. Our current system indeed has many problems. If Brother Tianji trusts me, I am willing to come up with a perfect reform plan within three days. However, I need to know the bottom line of Brother Tianji’s reform,” said Wenchang Dijun, the city lord of Wu City, standing up first.
The Tianji Sage looked at Shui Miao, who stood up and said, “There are two plans. First, there is no bottom line—whatever benefits the Three Realms and strengthens the heavenly court to no longer be suppressed by the Demon Realm, we can do it. Second, the plan you personally envision. Now, I will create a Time Tower for you, Lord Dijun. Once you obtain the Time Tower, reverse the time within it and fully develop these two complete plans.”
After speaking, Shui Miao closed his eyes. Within just a dozen breaths, he forged a new Time Tower and activated it. After a burst of radiant light, Shui Miao presented the newly forged Time Tower to Lord Wenchang. “Not bad, it’s a supreme holy artifact.”
“A supreme holy artifact Time Tower! This is for me?”
Everyone present was deeply moved.
Lord Wenchang was also stunned. A supreme holy artifact was a treasure only the Heavenly Emperor was entitled to. Now Shui Miao was giving it to him?
But even more shocking to others was that Shui Miao could forge a supreme holy artifact in such a short time—it was truly terrifying!
“Yes, it’s for you. The first step of the heavenly court’s reform is to reward merit and punish faults. We will never be stingy with those who have contributed.” Shui Miao handed the Time Tower to Lord Wenchang, along with enough crystals stored inside.
Lord Wenchang, deeply moved, bowed and immediately entered the Time Tower without hesitation.
“Brother Tianji, I’m curious to know about this Vice City Lord Shui Miao’s background,” unexpectedly, Shui Shengzun, the Yuan City Lord, suddenly stood up and spoke in a rather unfriendly tone. “There are rules in the heavenly court. The appointment of a vice city lord is a major matter—shouldn’t that be the Heavenly Emperor’s decision?”
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