At this moment, Lu Yang felt a profound sense of shock.
"What Great Dao of Void Attainment? The Netherworld isn't a Great Dao of Void Attainment at all! Even if it is Void Attainment, what he attained wasn't a Dao Fruit; he was attaining Paramita itself!"
In an instant, Lu Yang disregarded everything else.
He practically threw himself onto the jade slip, hungrily devouring the knowledge within. Gradually, a magnificent blueprint began to form in his mind.
"The seven major components of the Netherworld."
"[Ghost Gates]: Governs the guidance of souls and the cycle of reincarnation. It is the gateway to the Netherworld."
"[Yellow Springs Road]: All residual true spirits of scattered souls are guided here. They then cross the [Bridge of Helplessness] and transform into complete dead spirits."
What were dead spirits?
Simply put, they completely severed all ties with the present world and were implanted with a unique mark of the Netherworld. From then on, only the Netherworld could control their life and death.
"Next, they must proceed to the [Home-Viewing Terrace]. From here, one can observe the present world from within the Netherworld. As long as it is an area touched by the mighty power of the Netherworld, it cannot escape the vision of the [Home-Viewing Terrace]. The residual true spirits can use this to find their scattered soul fragments, then guide them over to reconstruct their soul body."
"Then comes the [Three Lives Stone]."
"As the name implies, newly reconstructed souls are muddled and ignorant. The [Three Lives Stone] is perfectly used to reflect their past lives and awaken their memories, essentially bringing the person back to life."
Seeing this, Lu Yang found it simply unbelievable.
'This is fucking resurrection. Even souls that have been scattered and annihilated can be regathered and resurrected. I have never heard of any Golden Core Perfected Lord possessing such a method...'
Could a Great Perfected Lord do it?
Not necessarily!
Even if they could, it would absolutely require a massive gap in cultivation realms. However, the Netherworld was different. According to the blueprint, the Netherworld could even resurrect Great Perfected Lords!
This was terrifying.
Lu Yang took a deep breath and continued reading: "Resurrected dead spirits can freely choose to enter any of the [Four Great Ghost Domains] according to their preference."
What were the [Four Great Ghost Domains]?
"Mount Baodu, Mount Luofu, Mount Bozhong, and Mount Beifeng. The four great pillars of the Netherworld. The areas centered around these four pillars are the Four Great Ghost Domains."
"Under the design of the Netherworld, the system for all ghost cultivators is very simple: climbing the mountain."
"On the four great pillars, Qi Refining ghost cultivators are at the foot of the mountain, Foundation Establishment ghost cultivators are halfway up, and Golden Core ghost cultivators are at the peak. The act of climbing the mountain itself symbolizes a change in stature..."
Lu Yang was completely stunned.
What exactly was the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak trying to do? How was this system any different from the present world? He was trying to create a new light sea!
At this thought, Lu Yang instantly recalled the reward left by the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak in [Responding to Emperors]. It seemed to be called the [Nascent Light Sea]? Since there was "Nascent," was there also a "Mature" one? Could he have actually succeeded and applied it to the design of the Netherworld?
"No, there's more to it than that."
Lu Yang continued his research, pondering constantly: "This system is incredibly ingenious. Its ingenuity lies precisely in incorporating all living beings into the stature system!"
What was the structure of the original light sea?
The present world, the Foundation Establishment realm, the Sea of Bitterness, and Paramita—layered one on top of the other like a pyramid. However, the living beings within it played no role whatsoever.
In fact, they were a burden.
"Because of the existence of cultivators, when cultivators elevate their stature, it is equivalent to more and more people breaking away from the bottom and standing on the higher tiers of the pyramid."
In the short term, perhaps it wouldn't matter much.
But as more and more people reached the upper tiers, the bottom would become increasingly overburdened. One day, this pyramid would inevitably collapse completely!
However, the Netherworld solved this problem.
"Firstly, having the Netherworld fill in beneath the present world is equivalent to consolidating the foundation. This alone can delay the collapse in the short term."
"What's even more impressive is that, building on this foundation, the Netherworld designed a sustainable system to constantly drain the pond to catch all the fish. By continuously absorbing dead spirits and ghost cultivators and allowing them to grow stronger, it's equivalent to making those cultivators who originally stood on the higher tiers return to the bottom, further stabilizing the balance of the pyramid!"
"The most brilliant part is that this is cultivable!"
"The Dao of the Netherworld equally possesses growth potential. If the Netherworld can spread to the entire light sea, it can even become the reverse side of the light sea!"
Like a mirror.
Using the present world as a foundation: the front side goes upwards, ascending all the way to Paramita; the reverse side goes downwards, sinking all the way to the Netherworld. One would never have to worry about the collapse problem again.
"This..."
Seeing this, Lu Yang suddenly froze: That's right. With so many benefits to the existence of the Netherworld, why did the Four Dogs of the Immortal Nexus choose to stop it back then?
Seeking an answer, he continued flipping through the information.
"The final and most core component of the Netherworld, the [Palace of the Netherworld Lord]. This is the only part the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak prepared for himself."
As the name implied, once a Golden Core ghost cultivator stood at the peak of the [Four Directional Ghost Domains], they could begin seeking the Dao. The process was identical to a Great Perfected Lord in the present world seeking [Paramita]. The Golden Core ghost cultivator needed to seek the [Palace of the Netherworld Lord]. As long as they could successfully occupy it, they could become the Dao Lord of the Netherworld!
Lu Yang wasn't surprised by this.
After all, if the Netherworld didn't offer a way for someone to become a Dao Lord, [Sky-shrouding] wouldn't be interested. However, a second later, Lu Yang's gaze froze.
Because he saw an even more critical piece of intelligence:
"Like [Paramita], the [Palace of the Netherworld Lord] has no limit on numbers. Whatever number of Dao Lords [Paramita] can accommodate, the [Palace of the Netherworld Lord] can accommodate as well?"
More than one!
In a flash, Lu Yang understood everything. He understood why the Four Dogs of the Immortal Nexus had to kill the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak, and the reason they had to suppress the Netherworld's growth.
'It's simply unbelievable.'
'Everyone else is just eating the cake and dividing the cake. Only the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak... he was actually making the cake! He turned one cake into two cakes!'
It was just a pity he was born at the wrong time.
Heaven is jealous of heroic geniuses; he had the misfortune of running into the Four Dogs of the Immortal Nexus.
"How could Nascent Soul Dao Lords ever allow entities on the same level as themselves to emerge from the Netherworld? To them, making the cake bigger is completely meaningless."
Quickly, Lu Yang pieced together the sequence of events in his mind.
"With Paramita collapsing and the number of Dao Lords being too high, the pressure from Paramita spread to the present world, causing the entire light sea to show signs of collapse."
"So the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak stepped forward, creating the Netherworld in an attempt to hold back the collapsing sky, even intending to eradicate this hidden danger from the root... And in the early stages, he likely received the support of the Dao Lords. But in the later stages, ideological differences arose between him and the Dao Lords—the Dao Lords didn't care much about eradicating the hidden danger from the root."
"They cared more about the Netherworld producing a bunch of competitors."
"The result was the death of the first-generation Master of Beast Taming Peak, while the Netherworld was restricted to only performing its most basic original function—temporarily alleviating the collapse of the light sea."
"That is why the Netherworld has always only existed in the Immortal Nexus and never leaked outwards."
Thinking of this, Lu Yang's face darkened:
'Even so, the Netherworld successfully nurtured a Dao Lord position... No wonder all the Dao Lords didn't hesitate to descend with their true bodies in my past life just to fight for it!'
But here came the question.
'Are the Dao Lords really willing to choose this method of drinking poison to quench thirst? Aren't they worried that problems will arise in the future, Paramita will collapse, and they themselves will fall from grace?'
'Or is it that they only wanted to buy time all along? As long as they can stall for a period of time, they wouldn't even care if Paramita collapsed and the light sea was completely destroyed? What could make the Dao Lords act like this... taking a step further? That's right, it can only be an opportunity to take a step further!'
Finally, Lu Yang figured it out.
"These Dao Lords, for the sake of their own Dao paths, don't care about the life and death of the light sea at all. So they would rather kill the goose that lays the golden eggs than leave a way out..."
You opened your umbrella, so you want everyone else to get drenched in the rain?
"They're all fucking bastard!!!"
(End of Chapter)