Reverend Ecstasy

Heaven—at some point in time, all cultivators dream of becoming immortals and ascending to Heaven. But Heaven isn't a place, rather it is the entity in which the Celestial Paradise dwells. And while that Celestial Paradise doesn't discriminate between mortal and upper realm immortals, the factions that compose it don't see kindly to the ascension of mortals—often seen as riddled with the polluted bodies and cultures of the "lower" realm.

Xinzi wasn't a huge fan of the Celestial Paradise. It had its charm but stayed trapped in a permanent stasis that turned the initial splendor into a dull landscape. Nothing ever happened in the Celestial Paradise. The occasional birth of eminent talents would trigger some heavenly phenomenon, and whenever immortals rose from lower worlds, they'd get captured by various clans and factions and turned into Divine Mine Slaves, or Farm Slaves for those that had it good. In the case of mysterious beasts, they also had the opportunity to become mounts or gate decorations.

Yes, in their quest for the so-called Immortal Ascension, myriad cultivators were desperately competing for the right to become slaves. Of course, this didn't apply to the scions of spirit clans, even minor clans such as the Fire Spirit clans, who'd receive the protection of their respective pantheon—so long as they showed at least Immortal Emperor potential.

After all, in the Celestial Paradise, under the Immortal Emperor realm, one couldn't get more than servant work.

All people born in the Celestial Paradise possessed a Dao Egg. Upon eclosion, that egg would grant the child varied levels of Dao comprehension and an early-stage Immortal Foundation, enabling them to start cultivating Immortal Qi. This means that in Heaven, the lowest cultivation realm is comparable to the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

But while the Immortal Foundation seemed like a much shorter cultivation path than what mortals went through, it built on one injustice: wealth. Each level of the Immortal Foundation required outrageous quantities of energy accumulations—far more than anything that mortal cultivators ever had to consider. Talent mattered, but wealth was indispensable.

There was no way around it. Take Xinzi for example. Following Yongye's completion of the Zhen-body and Xinzi's descent on the Great Desolation World, our monk spent a few decades to reach the late-stage of Immortal Foundation. His unrivaled talent helped massively, but without the wealth, treasures and oddities that Yongye provided in advance, he'd have needed 1,000 years to reach that level. As for late to peak? Count an extra 9,000 years—maybe a bit more.

The phenomenal costs of going from the late to the peak of Immortal Foundation made it necessary for various Gods to involve themselves in their clan prodigies' upbringing. Celestial Lords, especially, received the attention of all allied deities. But Xinzi aside, Heaven had not seen a Celestial Lord in the last 100,000 years.

Qingxin was born in a lower world, and so didn't count.

Crossing the Void Cluster, Xinzi passed through the Hengye clan's personal channels, avoiding the myriad dangers that an ascending immortal had to go through to step into the Night Eden.

The Celestial Paradise subdivision followed a pyramidal structure. At the top, the Dao Eden, from which the Divine Dao Spirits and the Heavenly Emperor administrated the Celestial Paradise, passing and enforcing Heaven's Laws. Then came the five Revolving Edens, which as the name implied, orbited the Dao Eden.

These were the Night Eden, Solar Eden, Void Eden, Jade Eden and Nature Eden—respectively ruled by the five Divine Pantheons and their Primeval Deities: Yongye, Yanglong, Doumu, Yudi and Wahuang.

Under the Divine Pantheons, the 12 Great Planes and their respective pantheons—including the Ice, Wind and Thunder Pantheons—acted as a wall between the Void Cluster and the Six Edens. Then in the Void Cluster, one could find the 3,600 Elemental Worlds, all dedicated to worshiping the Primevals of the Celestial Paradise, who then redistributed a portion of their Faith Energy revenues between their vassals.

The existence of the 3,600 Elemental Worlds is the fundamental reason why the Gods of the Celestial Paradise aren't interested in the worship of the Great Desolation World's mortals. They just weren't worth the trouble. Ordered circles of stars lit up that sky, reminiscing of Xinzi's Night Flower City.

Exiting the channels, Xinzi landed in an infinitely large territory where darkness stretched as far as the eyes could see.

A flying fortress pierced through the stars, shimmering with boundless divine light.

Underneath him, an onyx platform stretched far and wide, large enough to cover the average mortal state. A cluster of bells hovered above that platform, with a white stele that routinely engraved and erased various names. As soon as Xinzi appeared, one bell rang, and a voice echoed from the platform:

"Ascendent from the lower realm, declare your identity."

Xinzi ignored that voice. One stellar beam dropped from the central star in the night sky, slamming into the stele, and writing Xinzi's name: Hengye Zhen. Instantly, all bells above the platform, over 100,000, rang at the same time, with millions of palm-sized blue orbs rising from the platform to brighten the scenery.

"Welcome back, clan master. The Divine Ancestor has been preparing for your return and has already gathered the Celestial Assembly in the Highest Heaven Palace. The Divine Ancestors, Heavenly Officials, 12 Generals, 4 Heavenly Kings, and even the three Dukes, have gathered to welcome you."

Divine Ancestor is a title granted to pantheon founders, a title that fails to represent the gaps between the various founders. High Gods could all create Lesser Pantheons. Sovereign Gods created Great Pantheons, and Primevals gave birth to Divine Pantheons. Pantheons couldn't be duplicated, and there could only be one High God in a Lesser Pantheon, one Sovereign God in a Great Pantheon, and one Primeval per Divine Pantheon.

This made it so that, though High Gods such as Abbot Qingxin could theoretically create pantheons of their own, since all feasible ideas had been explored already, they had no room to build new ones. Instead, they occupied various official or military positions, serving as representatives of their pantheon's interests in the Celestial Assembly.

"Imperial Lord Yanglong and the three Heavenly Dukes are there as well?" Xinzi hadn't seen this one coming. In the past, just like Yongye, Yanglong stood in complete opposition to the three Heavenly Dukes—only humans to occupy positions of great power in the Celestial Paradise.

But ever since Yongye took control of Shenzhuo, her cultivation base improved tremendously. After Shenzhuo, Yongye had always been the strongest Primeval. But the gap was never such that two Primevals would have to unite just to resist her. Now, however, even if the four Primevals united their strength, they couldn't face Yongye's fist. This abrupt shift in the Celestial Paradise's power balance forced Yanglong to ally with the three dukes and some hidden powers of the Celestial Paradise.

Led by Yanglong, that faction opposed Yongye at every turn, so Xinzi never expected them to join his breakthrough banquet—a place where they'd have to bring gifts.

Needless to say, they came to cause trouble.

"Yes, clan master. Even the Divine Ancestor didn't expect that Imperial Lord Yanglong, Duke Kaitian, Kongtian and Tongtian would make an appearance. But clan master has nothing to fear. Before the Divine Ancestor, all are ants."