At Mount Hua.

  On the yin-yang stone altar, four human-sized cauldrons situated there at the square edge. Each contained many colorful flames, blue, red, green, and gold.

  No smoke came out of the flame since they were not physical flame. In fact, these colorful lights were the spirits that Lilim created to maintain the stability of this world.

  In the middle of the altar, the yin-yang formation diagram looked like a stone sculpting art, made by men. However, several gears rotated left and right as if they were alive.

  *Click*

  *VHOOM*

  White light flashed above the altar, and two humanoid figure manifested. One was the white hair sage in a daoist robes. As for the other, it was a red-face warrior, whose wounds were all over his body.

  Zuo Ci and Guan Yu appeared on a yin-yang altar. The former took the latter here per Lilim’s order.

  "He’s here, goddess," Reported Zuo Ci.

  The long wavy blond hair woman in modern clothing descended. Her black t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans did not suit this ancient world.

  This was Lilim, the troublemaker that messed with everyone’s life for the sake of repairing the incomplete dimension.

  Lilim nodded to Zuo Ci, "Take him to your abode and treat his soul. Once he’s healed, persuade him to swear allegiance to me. You can bait him with revenge. If he accepts, take him to me. If he doesn’t, throw him back to the mortal world, but don’t let Zhang Tong or Li Feihong kill him."

  "…… I see. So our priority is to nurture a demon king and a messiah?"

  "Indeed. We need those two for our new netherworld. I don’t want them to get entangled by another chain of karma."

  "Is that really necessary? Once they get to 10 wings like you, they can forcefully tear off their karma chain by themselves."

  "Karma made by 8-wing immortals are deadly. Zuo Ci, you haven’t seen the karma snake of an 8-wing demon yet. I’ve seen the karma snake of Morning Star and Michael. Those two almost died trying to break through their 13th wing and failed because of those snakes."

  Zuo Ci gulped. Although he had not faced the karmic tribulation yet, he learned many things from Lilim.

  The first 8 virtuous souls or the souls of sins could be obtained by having a strong constitution. However, breaking through the ninth wing or higher required the help of their karma.

  Merits and good deeds came into play in the cultivation world at this stage. Positive karma became the most precious asset to cultivators, which was the reason why Morning Star valued Tong so much.

  \r \r \r

  Getting tied by a chain of karma lowered their breakthrough chances while having positive karma raised their luck. Still, even if ones had positive karma but they had unpaid debts, they might have to pay back for those favors and grudge first.

  If someone forcefully attempted to obtain the 9th wing or higher without solving their old debts or favors, the karmic snakes would manifest from the karma chains, and they would attack the immortal with the strength of the tier, which the immortal attempted to breakthrough.

  For example, if Zuo Ci attempted to obtain his 9th virtuous soul by using a system awakening process, bypassing the standard cultivation method, he would be attacked by the snakes with the power of a 9-wing angel.

  To avoid this, Zuo Ci had to cut all karmic ties that bound him with others, such as Lilim’s favor, Liu Yang’s grudge, and Tong’s debts.

  The debt karma was easy to solve since Zuo Ci only needed to pardon them for what they had owed.

  The grudge karmic knot was also easy to revoke. Zuo Ci’s good deeds and merits had to surpass what he had sinned in the case that what he did was justified. Or, he could tear it apart by overpowering the karma chain, just like how Lilim did with Liu Ping’s karma snake.

  However, favors were challenging to deal with.

  Favor karma knot was impossible to break by force. Unless the debt owner pardoned them for the favor, the debtee would not be able to advance their ranks.

  Lilim stabilized this incomplete dimension and made Zuo Ci an immortal, who could use a bit of dimension law, the system, so he had to return this favor by working under her for the time being. Until the goddess was satisfied, Zuo Ci could not break free from this karmic knot.

  Medusa was the same as She also had encountered this karmic knot obstacle during her time in Hell. Since Medusa owed Morning Star her life, she worked for him and ended up becoming his adopted daughter, hoping to get rid of this debt one day.

  To all immortals, favor karma was the same as slavery!

  "Understood. I shall inform Guan Yu when he wakes up."

  Zuo Ci retreated along with the unconscious Guan Yu.

  Lilim looked at both departing Zuo Ci and sighed. This matter did not only relate to Zuo Ci’s karma knot, but it also helped Lilim for her advancement.

  The path of immortal cultivation was complicated.

  At first glance, everyone should have cultivated in secret without contacting anyone, so they would not get entangled by karma. Yet, the cultivation breakthrough conditions forced their hands.

  In the beginning, virtuous souls and demonic souls were easy to acquire since everyone could just perform certain good deeds over and over again until the soul hinted that it existed.

  But the requirement for getting the 11th soul and 12th soul was harder than the 9th and 10th. Being worshiped by mortals and obtaining an oath of loyalty from either a 10-wing god or a 10-wing demon was the key. To become a real god, one needed at least one vessel with the power of 10 wings.

  However, all gods were known to be arrogant and prideful. They refused to bow their heads for others.

  Secondly, giving a sacred oath to swear allegiance to the others was an act of giving up cultivating and their breakthrough rights.

  Moreover, their lives would bind with their liege for the rest of eternity. If their lord got injured, the god could transfer their injury to the oath subordinate, making them a scapegoat. In addition, the lord gods could make their oath subordinates die instead of themselves. On the contrary, if the oath subordinate was harmed, the lord would not suffer the same injury.

  The relationship was not fair. No one wanted to be someone else’s vessel and give up their future.

  This was something that stopped all gods and demon gods from ascending to the same level as the first generation archangels.

  Even Lilim also got stuck at a 10-wing tier for a long time. Although she satisfied with her position as a 10-wing demon goddess, it would be a lie if she said that she did not want to get the same tier as Michael and Morning Star.

  It was questionable how Lilith obtained 16 wings through crimes and atonement. Even Lilim, the favorite daughter of Lilith, did not know about the details. Moreover, the mystery about Morning Star waging war against the Heaven was illogical from her point of view since he would have committed more sins and got entangled by other gods’ karma.

  Something was going on at the other dimension, which Lilim feared that it might connect to the creator’s plan or her mother’s secret.

  Still, Lilim had backup plans. The experiment of dual-wing immortals, Sun Quan and Liu Yang’s daughter, was one of them. Once Lilim got the result of this research, she might acquire a method to surpass her mother and the creator.

  Next, Seducing Tong or Li Feihong scheme was on the way. As long as one of them swore allegiance to her, Lilim could break through her bottleneck, becoming a 12-wing demon goddess.

  Lilim sighed again, "Getting Tong on my side isn’t going to be easy. Should I just disguise myself as a mortal and be his wife?"

  She groaned as she spied on Tong, contemplating the plan to gain his favor.

  Then, her eyes panned toward a semi-transparent monitor beside her, which was displaying Hua Shi, aka Sun Shangxiang’s daily life.

  As usual, Sun Shangxiang was in a bad mood as she did not want to be treated like a baby. Moreover, she was pissed that Tong had too many wives.

  "Kekeke. Well, I can’t get Tong’s favor, but I can always trick this girl. She’s usable. Well, once I get her to 10 wings, I can make her my vessel easily."

  Then, she turned toward the other monitors, which were broadcasting the other individuals with exceptional talent in cultivation. These men were foreigners, the Roman Empire’s officers, the Parthian Empire’s princes, and the queen of the Yamato Kingdom.

  Lilim had more options. Since this dimension was isolated, she could exploit it without interference from the creator and the jealous gods.

  She could easily brainwash and fool the local cultivators here into becoming her followers. If she was lucky, a 10-wing angel or a demon might be born among the vessels, and Lilim would achieve her goal of completing this dimension as well as becoming a 12-wing immortal.

  A system message from Tong’s clan system warned Lilim that Tong was checking the clan’s privilege, the system that Lilim had long banned all sinners from using it.

  It included the system shop, clan level, and many other cheat skills.

  At first, Lilith planned to let them buy all the cheats they had created, so it could spice the live show and pleased the spectators.

  But after Lilim had taken over, she banned them since it caused the domain instability. Creating objects from thin air consumed too much lifespan from the universe.

  Now, Lilim managed to obtain a billion years of lifespan from the taxes, cultivating, converting unused planets to lifespan, and harvesting from the recycling center, aka the river of reincarnation. She had a bit of room to add a few features for Tong and others.

  "Right. I can use this tactic, don’t I?"