Chapter 622 - 353: Immortal Martial Contention

The lingering glow of the setting sun, a clear breeze under the bright moon.

The rosy clouds of dawn above a sea of mist, a vast sky over distant mountains.

The landscapes of Blue Star were as beautiful as a series of painted scrolls, utterly captivating.

Viewed from the distant starry sky, Blue Star was wreathed in swirling clouds and shimmering waters. Occasionally, flocks of birds would fly by, skimming across the surface of the sea and soaring through the vast sky.

Since Zhao Rui had made Blue Star his home, all of the planet’s Exotic Beasts had been driven back to the Pangu Continent.

The other continents of Blue Star regained their former vitality.

People began to rest and rebuild, living in peace and prosperity.

The foreigners who had once been displaced also began returning to their homelands to rebuild their nations.

Zhao Rui did not stop them. After all, those who are not of our kin are bound to have different allegiances. Since he couldn’t just kill them all, he drove them out, letting them return to their own lands to fend for themselves.

Central Asia had already become part of the Great Shang Kingdom, so there was naturally no question of returning it.

Furthermore, due to the relationship between the Mo Family and Zhao Rui, and because they shared the same ancestry, the two nations had already established completely open borders and relations.

With the kingdom stable, the people’s attention turned entirely to Cultivation.

Both Martial Dao and Immortal Dao Cultivation entered a grand and glorious new age.

One peerless Martial Dao genius after another emerged in just a few short years.

All of Blue Star pulsed with an unprecedented vitality.

As for Zhao Rui, he lived the leisurely life of a wealthy patriarch, spending his days traveling with his parents, wives, and children, enjoying a peaceful existence.

In the years that followed, Mo Ling’Er and his other wives also became pregnant one by one, bearing Zhao Rui’s children.

Although his family was growing, Zhao Rui’s household became increasingly low-key. He even deliberately had the mainstream media downplay his image as the Great Emperor.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, more than a decade passed.

A new societal dynamic had emerged on Blue Star: the conflict between the Immortal and Martial Daos.

With the explosive growth of the Immortal Dao, a large number of its experts emerged within just a few years. Among them were no fewer than ten Great Cultivators who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm.

These were all Dao Guardians from the previous era of high martial arts, individuals who had been obsessed with the path of immortality and had never wavered in their conviction.

When the path to immortality reopened, they reaped the first rewards, quickly reaching the level of Great Cultivators.

There were also a number of Buddhist masters whose strength had reached the level of Terrestrial Arhats, and even several mighty figures who had attained the Bodhisattva Fruit Position.

These individuals were all eminent monks from remote Buddhist Sects. They possessed a strong innate connection to Buddhist Teachings, and Buddhism has long had Cultivation Techniques for achieving Buddhahood on the spot, or in a single moment of enlightenment.

Now, with the Spiritual Qi Revival and the path to immortality restored, it was natural that they could break through numerous obstacles in a single moment of insight and master the orthodox Buddhist Teachings in one fell swoop.

The Martial Dao, meanwhile, had not fallen behind. Several of the original Domain Realm masters had already broken through to the next stage, reaching the Domain-Breaking Realm.

As for the number of Martial Arts Grandmasters who had achieved the Domain Realm, they were simply countless.

The flourishing of the Martial Dao was in no way inferior to that of the Immortal Dao; if anything, it was even greater.

Unfortunately, this prosperity was limited to the highest echelons of the Martial Dao. At the foundational level, the Martial Dao was losing, and losing badly.

The youth of today all yearned for the Immortal Dao and the Buddhist Sect, paying far less attention to the Martial Dao than in the past.

Out of every ten children, at most two or three would choose to pursue the Martial Dao.

The reason for this was twofold, stemming from the two great advantages of the Immortal Dao. First, immortal arts were dazzlingly diverse and incredibly powerful.

The Martial Dao was primarily about cultivating the self to break through the limits of martial prowess; it was the Cultivation of pure combat strength.

The Immortal Dao, however, involved a wide array of practices: ice magic, turning scattered beans into soldiers, invisibility, lightning arts, summoning wind and rain, Sword Techniques, Puppetry, and countless others.

Each one held its own unique appeal.

And in terms of power, they were in no way inferior to the Martial Dao.

However, this was not the most significant advantage. The greatest draw of all was longevity.

Those who cultivated immortality had one advantage over practitioners of the Martial Dao that was simply irresistible: a long life.

This was the primary reason why the Immortal Dao was flourishing and eclipsing the Martial Dao.