This leopard was truly one of a kind.

Moving effortlessly between the Teaching and Severing Sects, repeatedly jumping back and forth between the two sects, yet growing more valuable with each jump.

Perhaps this was the charm of “job-hopping.”

Li Changshou carefully observed Nine Dragon Island for some days, not rashly crossing its formation. Soon he let this paper human sleep at the sea bottom, shifting his consciousness elsewhere.

Since paper humans could be made by other paper humans, and their magical power could be charged through formations, Li Changshou had lost count of how many paper humans he had spread throughout the Primordial World.

It was just average, barely sufficient.

In the Southern Continent, those nineteen ancient demon soldiers had already been secretly arranged by Li Changshou to go to the Three Thousand Worlds, temporarily avoiding the Five Continents.

They had participated in the previous Heaven Campaign and had deep connections with him, making it easy for the Heavenly Dao to take notice and use them as chess pieces against him.

In the Three Thousand Worlds, they were relatively less observed by the Ancestral Master of the Dao’s gaze. If that didn’t work, they could still hide in Xuandu City outside the heavens.

Shen Bao’s beginning contact with Severing Sect immortals was a landmark event, but its impact on the bigger picture was no longer too significant.

Nothing else to it.

By reducing Jiang Shang’s influence on the great catastrophe and taking back the Divine Investiture Roster and Demon-Beating Staff to the Heavenly Court, Li Changshou reduced Jiang Shang to a backup manager of divine investiture.

Shen Bao who should have opposed Jiang Shang and felt Master Uncle Yuan Beginning Heaven was biased, thus lost his motivation to incite Severing Sect immortals to cause trouble for Jiang Shang.

Unless Shen Bao’s return to the Severing Sect this time had Second Master Uncle’s orders behind it, making him a lubricant and catalyst for the great catastrophe…

Though this possibility wasn’t high, it did exist.

The future developments would reveal the general situation.

For some well-known reasons, Li Changshou still kept more attention on Jiang Shang.

Although Jiang Shang had just come down the mountain and learned the ways of governing and pacifying the nation for many years on Mount Kunlun, he did have some magical powers and several performance-worthy spells.

Using spells and divination, Jiang Shang quickly settled in Chaoge City and made several good friends.

During this time, someone introduced Miss Ma to Jiang Shang for marriage, but Jiang Shang looked at Miss Ma and very calmly smiled in polite refusal.

After all, he had had thirty-two wives and concubines as beautiful as flowers and of ordinary exceptional beauty – he had this much standard.

As time passed, Jiang Shang gained some fame in Chaoge City through his Dao arts, attracting the attention of some officials and nobles.

But what made Li Changshou slightly regretful was that the pipa spirit hiding beside Daji showed no movement in daily life.

Most likely, the scene of Jiang Shang burning the pipa spirit to death with true fire wouldn’t appear.

No help for it, Master’s reincarnated body’s cultivation was truly…

Truly…

[When encountering that pipa spirit, completely not her match!]

Li Changshou’s consciousness swept across various parts of the Southern Continent. The current Southern Jambudvipa Continent was aflame with war.

After Daji entered the palace, King Zhou’s temperament became increasingly tyrannical, even could be called stubborn, but his achievements were quite eye-catching.

He had become somewhat proud and self-satisfied.

Wen Zhong had thoroughly merged into the role of Grand Preceptor, completely halting his cultivation, constantly rushing about for Great Shang.

This pair of rulers and ministers, King Zhou and Wen Zhong, now disregarded pressure from outside the Southern Jambudvipa Continent, boldly pushing forward Shang Kingdom reforms.

In King Zhou’s eyes, if the Shang Kingdom hadn’t made one desperate attempt, it would have been difficult to continue after his hundred years.

In Wen Zhong’s eyes, if Shang Kingdom hadn’t made one desperate attempt now, there would be no chance later.

Seizing one thread of survival hope for the Shang Kingdom was the path finally chosen by this third-generation disciple of the Severing Sect.

Under Wen Zhong’s planning, the two great banners of cutting external threats and suppressing internal ones were raised together, catching Great Shang’s internal old forces off guard.

Newly promoted slave and commoner generals repeatedly established military merits in external conquests, advancing upward without obstacles.

Many feudal lords were fence-sitters, most now not daring to speak of “resisting tribute,” fearing Wen Zhong would lead the army and appear before their cities in just a few days.

But no matter how broadly Wen Zhong managed, he couldn’t directly interfere with King Zhou’s harem matters.

Moreover, Wen Zhong was long busy outside, and Daji had Lady Nuwa’s decree protection. Wen Zhong’s weakened version of the celestial eye couldn’t see Daji’s origin, so he didn’t interfere much in this matter.

Speaking of this matter, Li Changshou truly needed to grab a plate of melon seeds to properly appreciate it.

Well, purely appreciate the war within the harem.

Waves were constant within King Zhou’s harem.

After several reprimands from Queen Jiang, Daji finally couldn’t endure.

Whether influenced by the great catastrophe or if that harem environment could truly change a fox spirit’s personality, she took King Zhou as her heaven and earth, beginning to counterattack Queen Jiang.

Seeing this, King Zhou was naturally quite delighted.

He subsequently went with the flow, showing even heavier favor to Daji while having Fei Zhong regularly offer her strategies, even occasionally bringing her to court, sitting beside the royal throne.

As the favor reached its peak, Queen Jiang’s dissatisfaction with Daji also reached its peak.

How could Daji understand any royal art of ruling? Following Fei Zhong’s strategy, she publicly presented torture instruments to King Zhou, which he happily adopted, finding excuses to confiscate several great clans within days.

For a time, Chaoge City’s people were panic-stricken, all saying Daji was an ill star, a witch.

But Shang King Zhou’s prestige gained tremendous promotion through such severe punishments.

At this time, King Zhou made an unexpected move.

[Recruiting slaves within Chaoge City’s range to renovate the royal palace.]

Slaves participating in this project could all obtain opportunities to escape slave status, receive treatment secondary to merchants, and relocate to cultivate wasteland on Shang territory’s outskirts.

Once this measure came out, Chaoge City immediately became bustling with noise.

Many old ministers angrily submitted memorials and were one by one put on the burning pillar.

During that period, Chaoge City’s sky was extremely dark, and various feudal lords were also panic-stricken.

The Shang people were slightly dissatisfied with this but chose to support their king.

According to Fei Zhong’s calculations, this method of liberating slaves would only need to continue for ten years for Shang territory’s core territory to expand forty percent outward. The royal army could obtain more military sources and more provisions each year.

By then, what worry would the feudal lords be?

King Zhou felt this quite reasonable, already envisioning scenes of Shang national power reaching its peak again.

However, Li Changshou had not the slightest appreciation for King Zhou’s actions.

The step taken was simply too large.

This was already somewhat disregarding practical situations, stubbornly walking a path of universal opposition!

If within and without the Shang Kingdom, there truly appeared such a trend of liberating slaves, it would naturally be possible to go with the trend, gaining great prestige and leaving a name in history.

The current Shang Kingdom didn’t possess such conditions – slaves were still the main labor force, objects of exploitation and oppression.

Sure enough.

After just months, East Earl Jiang Huanchu jointly petitioned with three hundred feudal lords, requesting King Zhou to retract his order.

King Zhou was greatly angered.

Seeing King Zhou unhappy, Daji whispered suggestions on his pillow, luring Jiang Huanchu to Chaoge City to kill him.

This matter was transmitted by the palace people to Queen Jiang. Queen Jiang wanted to kill Daji but was bewitched by Daji’s demon arts. Daji had long harbored hatred for Queen Jiang and made Queen Jiang attempt assassination before King Zhou’s carriage.

King Zhou killed his first wife in response, anger rising from his heart, raising his sword wanting to behead the two sons, Yin Jiao and Yin Hong, cutting off the Jiang family’s hopes.

Yin Jiao and Yin Hong received help from Royal Uncle Bigan, luckily escaping with their lives, being respectively taken as disciples by Guangchengzi and Chijingzi who came upon hearing the news.

After several more days, before news could reach the Jiang family, Jiang Huanchu was surrounded by Chaoge City’s military guards and killed by raised swords while the edict was being proclaimed. The Eastern Road feudal lords all rebelled against the Shang king from this point.

Of the eight hundred feudal lords around the Shang Kingdom, nearly half had already rebelled!

When King Zhou personally ended Queen Jiang, torrential rain fell on the royal palace, and that azure dragon representing King Zhou’s fortune turned blood red…

Compared to these, Li Changshou was more concerned about whether Jiang Huanchu’s soul safely reached the netherworld and was detained in the underworld prison.

Later during divine investiture, this was also a character to be listed. Why not directly collect these “human way souls” into the Divine Investiture Platform?

Very simple – Li Changshou had secretly changed the rules.

If following the Heavenly Dao’s logic, those who followed Heaven and opposed Shang should be invested as good deities. Then what kind of people would be invested in the Heavenly Court’s righteous deity positions?

In King Zhou’s eyes, they were Shang Kingdom’s chronic ailments, privileged who understood how to oppress others.

No one understood better than them how to consolidate their interests.

For this, even if Li Changshou let the human way positions in the Heavenly Court remain empty, he didn’t want to put these privileges up there, thereby affecting the Heavenly Court’s “purity.”

He wanted to find officials of loyal and virtuous character, and also find mortals of outstanding ability.

Like Bigan, Shang Rong, and Huang Feihu – their character alone was sufficient to directly enter the Divine Investiture Platform, and their ability to handle government affairs was also quite good.

Of course, according to Li Changshou’s current deduction, the person finally standing on the Divine Investiture Platform managing all this might not be himself.

But he could set down the required rules while all this was still under control.

For the Heavenly Court, it was quite painstaking.

Previously threatening the Ancestral Master of the Dao with the Heavenly Court was also an unavoidable move.