Taiyi Dao Fruit-Chapter 1267 - 46: Star Division, Redefining the Nine Provinces

"Is this an attempt to undermine the foundation of My dynasty?"

Jiang Li noticed that after these devil cultivators were sent out of this sea area, they were swiftly moving underwater to infiltrate the Nine Provinces. Additionally, there were other devil cultivators flying from the other side toward the Nine Provinces. He couldn't help but laugh and said.

The lands of the Nine Provinces, with a significant part bordering the sea, include the largest contact areas with Yangzhou and the East Sea, followed by the Yellow Sea bordering Qingzhou and Xuzhou, and the South Sea neighboring the East Sea.

At this moment, the East Sea was shrouded in a great formation, making it difficult to approach. So, the Great Venerable and the Queen Mother of the West moved the devil cultivators to other sea areas to attack from another direction.

Due to the constraints of these two forces, the ten suns were now halted at the East Sea, unafraid of being incinerated by the sun's radiance.

"The Queen Mother probably forgot that there is still a Daoist Lord guarding in the Divine Country," Jiang Li laughed.

In the intertwined brilliance of fierce light and blood-like thunderclap, the Queen Mother of the West stood aloft, any blood light approaching her was obliterated by the ferocious light.

She was not surprised that Jiang Li had discerned her identity. With a calm expression, she said, "Of course, I know that there is a Daoist Lord cultivating 'One Qi to Three Pure Ones,' but I am also aware that the Great Heavenly Venerate will not let him act easily. The Great Heavenly Venerate is probably eyeing the Dao Fruits of Fellow Daoists Gouchen and Changsheng now."

As fellow Heavenly Court Emperors, the Great Heavenly Venerate might not harbor goodwill towards Emperor Gouchen and the Emperor of Longevity of Nanji.

Not to mention that both of them are also Emperors, sharing the same need for Dao Fruits as the Great Heavenly Venerate, their Dao Fruits are indeed what the Great Heavenly Venerate must obtain.

The more Divine Fruits the Investiture of the Gods carries, the stronger its power, and various divine skills of the Dao Fruits can also be utilized by the Great Heavenly Venerate. Among them, the Emperor's Dao Fruit naturally has the greatest effect on the Investiture of the Gods.

The Dao Fruits of the Emperor of Longevity of Nanji, Emperor Gouchen, and Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole, obtaining any one of them can greatly enhance the power of the Investiture of the Gods.

If they could include these three, along with the Earth Deity's Dao Fruit of the Earth Goddess, in the Investiture of the Gods, its power would likely rival a First Grade Dao Artifact.

The Great Heavenly Venerate stays hidden partly because his injuries have not yet healed and because he is contemplating seizing the Four Emperors' Dao Fruits.

The Daoist Lord, knowing the aspirations of the Great Heavenly Venerate, will certainly be on guard. That is why, even though the ten suns patrol the East Sea and the Queen Mother of the West has appeared, the Daoist Lord does not come to assist.

The Daoist Lord must now guard the Daode Sect and watch over the Yuxu Temple to prevent the Great Heavenly Venerate from taking advantage.

Mentioning the Daoist Lord, Jiang Li was actually using a strategy to deceive the enemy. Unfortunately, such a trick was still futile against an existence like the Queen Mother of the West.

Meanwhile, the Great Venerable expanded the Array Plate, further enveloping this realm.

Their cooperation with the Queen Mother of the West could not be said to be seamless, but at least it would not err, and their objective was quite evident—to hold Jiang Li. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Jiang Li, using the Heavenly Mirror remotely, found himself in a standoff with the Great Venerable and the Queen Mother of the West, unable to disengage while another self was pursuing the Karma Tathagata together with Ye Ru. The last self remained seated in the Divine Capital, maintaining the pure and impure transformation.

Counting like this, he was now just like the Daoist Lord, too occupied to disengage.

Now, it was a situation of king against king, general against general.

Beyond the Second Grade, a separate battlefield was opened, where both sides' Third Grades would also face off.

Undermine its foundation and reduce the Emperor Jiang's formidable stats before truly dealing with him.

Jiang Li could divide and conquer the enemy, and similarly, the Queen Mother of the West and the Great Venerable devised strategies against Jiang Li. While Jiang Li initially held the initiative, the enemy was trying to seize it back.

Ultimately, who will have the upper hand remains to be seen, depending on whose skills prove superior.

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"Interesting."

In the Divine Capital, beneath the ginseng fruit tree, Jiang Li casually remarked: "I was originally thinking of defeating the enemy, but unexpectedly, these two have given me such a surprise. Seems this battle will indeed take place."

As his words fell, the starry sky spread out, then suddenly gathered, as two figures walked out on starlight—it was Tianxuan and Gongsun Qingyue finally deciding the victor from their confrontation.

You could also say that upon realizing the situation here, Tianxuan stopped pretending, directly drawing star power from the Celestial Map to suppress the inflated evil disciple.

The two walked from the Magic Realm one after the other, Tianxuan in a moon white palace dress, plainly attired but with a noble demeanor, exuding an air of the Eastern Palace; whereas Gongsun Qingyue, in a phoenix robe with a golden phoenix crown, dressed in royal attire, now carried the aura of defeat.

The outcome was decided, and Gongsun Qingyue was defeated once again.

In front of Jiang Li unrolled the Jiangshan, Sheji map, its light and shadow flickered, simultaneously displaying the scenes of the Yellow Sea and the South Sea. On one side, water demons were stealthily attacking, with thousands of flying boats on the sea surface; on the other side, various cultivators traversed the sky, while a vast demon energy freely spread through the sky.

"Tianpeng."

With a single glance, Tianxuan immediately recognized the source of the vast demon energy—it was the Third Grade Great Demon Tianpeng rampaging over the South Sea.

Then there's no need to think further about who is commanding the water demons on the other side—it must be the Xuanwu King of the Dragon Palace.

"Those flying boats should mostly belong to the Immortal Palace, it seems the Immortal Queen plans to take action as well," Tianxuan estimated the opponent's approximate combat power and said, "This time, they aim to strike at your foundation and wound you fundamentally."

With the great war reigniting, even if victorious, the forces under Jiang Li would suffer heavy casualties, possibly even some of the third-grade ranks might fall.

The loss of troops and national power would weaken the augmentation of Jiang Li's divine skills. Conversely, the opponent is not affected by losses, as at least the depletion of external forces does not impact their core strength.

This can be considered a non-weakness weakness of Jiang Li.

At least on the surface, it appears so.

"It's not that easy to undermine my national power," Jiang Li, however, showed no sign of worry as he calmly said, "The Great Venerable now stands in opposition to us, unable to coexist, yet he is even more incompatible with the Great Heavenly Venerate. For now, it's fine that the Great Heavenly Venerate remains hidden, but should the Great Venerable reclaim the Fuxi Dao Fruit, do you think he'd still wish to fight to the death with me?"

Compared to Jiang Li's side, the alliance of the opposition is quite fragile.

The Great Venerable and the Great Heavenly Venerate have conflicts in ideology and interests, far less unified than Jiang Li's side with the Daoist Lord and Karma Tathagata.

Just on this point alone, the opponent's chances of winning significantly decrease.

However, the Great Venerable is adept at strategy; he previously surprised the Great Heavenly Venerate, and this time he might pull off another unexpected move.

At least in Jiang Li's view, the Great Venerable surely has a contingency plan.

Tianxuan understood Jiang Li's meaning, lightly smiled, and then said: "As for the Immortal Queen, if I appear, she will certainly come looking for me, perhaps this can be utilized."

Having previously teamed up with the Princess and the Master of Rain decades ago to obstruct the Immortal Queen, later on scammed the East King's Dao Fruit alongside Jiang Li in a deceitful maneuver devoid of ethics, the Immortal Queen's resentment towards Tianxuan is at its peak.

Once Tianxuan makes an appearance, the Immortal Queen is sure to come seeking her to settle old scores.

However, Jiang Li shook his head and said, "This time, senior sister, you will coordinate from the center, while Yuan Xi, you stay in the Divine Country."

While speaking, he gently waved his hand, and the scenes on the Jiangshan, Sheji map faded away, replaced by the terrain of the Nine Provinces.

"The division of the Nine Provinces corresponds to the heavenly stars. I intend to reassign the star constellations anew to determine the Nine Provinces, thereby aligning with my divine skill [Stabilize Nine Provinces]. Leveraging the revitalized spiritual mechanism, I aim to establish the Divine Land Barrier. This allows further manipulation of the spiritual mechanism, while suppressing external enemies, hence is significantly beneficial both internally and externally."

"And the only one capable of executing this task is you, who are proficient in Yi Dao and have assimilated the Doumu Yuanjun Dao Fruit."

The sizes of the Nine Provinces are not uniformly distributed, even vastly different. Large ones like Liangzhou and Yong Province, smaller ones include Qing State and Xuzhou, with the former being more than twice the size of the latter in some cases.

Such disparate provincial divisions are actually due to the arrangement of the heavenly constellations.

The distribution of the Nine Provinces corresponds directly to the arrangement of the star constellations; changes in the constellations signal corresponding regional changes, an embodiment of Star Division, using heavenly stars to define the Nine Provinces.

Yu King cast the Nine Cauldrons to stabilize the Nine Provinces, both to suppress the earth veins of the Nine Provinces and align with the heavenly stars, invoking the power of the stars, causing the cosmic trend to harmonize. In this manner, non-human races within the Nine Provinces remain subdued, governed primarily by humans.

Yet, the constellations do move over time, and previous divisions of the Nine Provinces might not fit the present. Not to mention having endured the End of Dharma, where the Five Turbid Evil Worlds descended, the cosmic trend has already disconnected, the current Nine Provinces are hard to correspond to the heavenly stars.

Thus, Jiang Li now seeks to redefine the Nine Provinces, further consolidating control over them, while using earth movements and essence qi as a link to unite with the star constellations.

"Although I left a mark in the Heaven, it essentially only covers the region where the Heavenly Court is located; should I extend my mark across the stars, I can further master the Heaven, amplifying the divine skills of [Heavenly and Man Respect]," Jiang Li continued.

Though the Heavenly Court is the core of Heaven, it doesn't entirely cover it.

Leaving aside everything else, let's start with the South Heavenly Gate.

The portal to the Heavenly Court is called the South Heavenly Gate, not because it is the southern gate of the Heavenly Court, but because the Heavenly Court itself is located in the southern part of Heaven, hence its gate is the South Heavenly Gate.

As for the north, it belongs to the territory of Emperor Ziwei of the North Pole.

Indeed, Emperor Ziwei's domain is independent of the Heavenly Court.

Otherwise, why is Emperor Ziwei known as the "Second-in-command of the Three Realms"? Because his domain is only second to that of the Jade Emperor.

The stars surround the North Pole; the northern part of Heaven is governed by Emperor Ziwei and Emperor Gouchen, as the Second-in-command of the Three Realms and the Four Emperors of the Heavenly Court, truly living up to their name.

Jiang Li intends to use the Star Division to correspond to the heavenly stars, through Tianxuan, who accommodates the Doumu Yuanjun Dao Fruit, to extend his reach into the cosmos.

Thus, it is said that only Tianxuan can achieve this.

The Queen Mother of the West and the Great Heavenly Venerate are both seizing opportunities to restore their powers. The three Tathagata of Buddhism also aim to rely on the Amitabha Buddha Dao Fruit to return to full strength, so Jiang Li naturally won't lag behind.

Even when currently enjoying an advantage in strength, Jiang Li remains vigilant, always eager to improve and secure his position at the pinnacle of power.

"This endeavor indeed requires my personal oversight,"

Tianxuan nodded in agreement, yet she frowned, "But will this not weaken our forces on the frontline?"