A year passed in the blink of an eye.
During this entire period, Ren Zu completely immersed himself in the relative tranquility of his life as the sovereign of the Northern Divine Region. When he wasn't cultivating or dealing with matters related to his position as ruler, he stayed by the side of Chi Wuyao, his wife, and the Nine Witches, his concubines. At nightfall, the routine almost always ended in long sessions of dual cultivation, which frequently extended for hours and, on some occasions, even lasted entire days.
Thanks to his efforts, all the women reached the peak of the Divine Master Realm, establishing themselves among the most powerful existences in the known universe. Among them, Chi Wuyao and Ye Li took an even greater step, breaking through the bottleneck and reaching the Divine Extinction Realm. Although they were still far from the true Divine God Realm, they could already be considered Semi-Goddesses—existences who had surpassed the limits of an ordinary Divine Master.
He also never neglected his own progress. A large part of that year was dedicated to refining the Primordial Chaos that resided within his body. The process was slow and extremely complex, requiring absolute control over every fragment of that power which preceded creation itself. After an entire year of uninterrupted refinement, he finally managed to assimilate about thirty percent of the Primordial Chaos! It was much faster than he had imagined...
During this period, he also ordered the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult to establish its main base in his homeland, the Blue Pole Star. This gave him the opportunity to visit his adoptive parents, his grandfather, and his aunt. The reunion was warm and emotional, but it was also during this visit that he discovered that, some time after his departure, Chu Yuechan had appeared there, bringing with her the daughter she had with the former Yun Che.
It was thus that he met Yun Wuxin.
The girl possessed extraordinary talent, endowed with an innate aptitude rare even by the standards of the Divine Realms. Upon seeing her, Ren Zu felt a slight weight in his heart. After all, it was he who had completely destroyed her father in the past. Although he did not regret his actions, he could not help but feel a certain responsibility toward the girl. For this reason, he decided to give her an opportunity. He personally took her to the Flame God Realm and introduced her to Feng Xue'er, making her his disciple, exactly as had happened in the original story...
Yes, he also reunited with Feng Xue'er and the Little Demon Empress.
Well, as for that event... there isn't much to comment on. After spending years without seeing him, his wives clearly decided to make up for all the lost time at once. For a month and a half, Ren Zu practically disappeared from the world. In practice, he was "kidnapped" by them and subjected to an incessant marathon of dual cultivation. If anyone asked where the most powerful man in the universe was, the answer would be simple: locked in his own room, working tirelessly for the "good of the family." Fortunately, with his invincible body, he managed to survive this ordeal... although, at certain moments, he concluded that facing the Ancestral Goddess would probably be less exhausting.
In the end, however, the results spoke for themselves. Thanks to the extremely intense dual cultivation with Ren Zu and the fact that he was already at the peak of the Divine Master Realm, the two also achieved an extraordinary breakthrough, shattering the Divine Master Realm bottleneck and reaching the Divine Extinction Realm. From that moment on, both were recognized as Semi-Goddesses, just like Chi Wuyao...
Speaking of which, the Devil Queen finally met her new sisters and, to Ren Zu's surprise, the coexistence between them flowed extremely naturally. With her charisma, intelligence, and almost absurd social skills, Chi Wuyao quickly won the sympathy of all of them. She even managed to convince the Little Demon Empress to accept her without major conflicts, something Ren Zu had never imagined possible.
Of course, this did not stop the Little Demon Empress from scolding him harshly for continuing to bring more women home. What was even more frightening, however, was discovering that she was not alone. Even his always sweet, gentle, and understanding Feng Xue'er crossed her arms and joined the lecture, looking at him with an expression of disapproval he had never imagined seeing on her face. Ren Zu simply let out a long sigh, completely resigned... It wasn't his fault for being such a sinful man, okay?
Speaking of which...
Since the Flame God Realm was close to the Snow Song Realm, Ren Zu ended up receiving a completely unexpected visitor during this period: the Queen of the Snow Song Realm herself, Mu Xuanyin.
She had come there because of him.
At first, even Ren Zu himself did not understand the reason. However, Chi Wuyao soon cleared up the doubt with an amused smile on her face.
Throughout that entire year, while engaging in incessant dual cultivation sessions with Ren Zu, Mu Xuanyin began to have extremely vivid dreams. In all of them, the woman by Ren Zu's side was not Chi Wuyao... but herself. The dreams were so realistic that, little by little, they began to blend with her own reality. The desire, shame, satisfaction, and even the sense of belonging she experienced within those dreams ended up taking deep root in her soul, gradually transforming into an almost uncontrollable obsession. By the time she finally realized it, she could no longer push Ren Zu out of her thoughts and came to believe that he should belong only to her. After searching for months, she finally found him by chance in the Flame God Realm...
Naturally, her arrival was not well received.
As soon as she set foot in the Flame God Realm, she was surrounded by Ren Zu's wives before she could even find him. The situation did not escalate into a confrontation only because Chi Wuyao intervened immediately. It was then that she revealed a secret that had remained hidden for more than ten thousand years.
At the time of the great battle fought near the border of the Northern Divine Region, when Chi Wuyao faced Zhou Xuzi, Tai Yu, Qianye Fantian, and a Brahma God simultaneously, Mu Xuanyin had also appeared to participate in the fight. However, before she could even alter the course of the battle, she was defeated and completely subdued by the Devil Queen.
Instead of killing her, Chi Wuyao decided to use her.
Before sending her back to the Snow Song Realm, she discreetly implanted about ten percent of her Nirvana Devil Emperor Soul into Mu Xuanyin's soul. The intention was simple: to use her as a pair of eyes within the Eastern Divine Region and, at the same time, maintain a certain degree of influence over her actions.
However, the plan never worked completely.
The Ice Phoenix Soul that resided in Mu Xuanyin fiercely resisted the invasion. Although it was unable to completely expel the Devil Emperor Soul, it managed to prevent Chi Wuyao from taking full control of her body. Even so, that fraction of the soul remained dormant within her for all those millennia.
And it was precisely here that the problem arose.
Whenever Chi Wuyao performed dual cultivation with Ren Zu, part of the emotions, sensations, and memories produced by that fraction of the soul ended up being unconsciously transmitted to Mu Xuanyin. At first, they were just disconnected dreams. Later, they became increasingly frequent, more intense, and more realistic, until they stopped being simple dreams and began to directly influence her feelings. After an entire year of reliving those experiences night after night, Mu Xuanyin ended up developing a deeply rooted obsession with Ren Zu, confusing memories she had never lived with desires she now considered genuinely her own...
After Chi Wuyao told the truth, Mu Xuanyin obviously tried to kill her, but she was too weak to do so...
This ended up being a huge headache for Ren Zu. Explaining the entire situation, dealing with Mu Xuanyin's obsession, calming his wives, and still understanding the unexpected effects left by the Devil Emperor Soul consumed a good amount of time. In the end, however, he decided to simply let nature take its course. Instead of trying to forcibly suppress Mu Xuanyin's feelings, he spent some time by her side while remaining in the Flame God Realm. Little by little, the artificial feelings caused by Chi Wuyao's influence blended with the real ones, until it no longer made sense to separate them. Before he knew it, Mu Xuanyin had officially become one more of his wives and had even forgiven the Devil Queen to stay by his side...
The situation became even more curious when her younger sister, Mu Bingyun, entered the story. After Ren Zu completely removed the poison that had afflicted her for so many years, she spent some time in the Flame God Realm. In the end, she was dragged by her own sister into that relationship, becoming yet another member of his growing harem. At least, all that confusion brought a considerable benefit: with Mu Xuanyin and Mu Bingyun by his side, the Snow Song Realm effectively came completely under his influence...
Anyway, the two sisters also benefited enormously from dual cultivation with Ren Zu. Thanks to the efforts of the three, both Mu Xuanyin and Mu Bingyun broke through their limits and reached the Divine Extinction Realm!
He also ended up obtaining the Ice Phoenix Legacy because of the dual cultivation, exactly as had happened when he slept with Feng Xue'er and received the Divine Phoenix Legacy. Not that it made much difference to Ren Zu at that point—he was about to reach a much higher level of existence, becoming the new Ancestral God.
Anyway, after spending approximately four months by his wives' side, Ren Zu returned to the Northern Divine Region accompanied by Chi Wuyao. There, he dedicated some time to his concubines, who were already complaining about his long absence and made sure to remind him of it whenever they had the chance. After satisfying some of their longing, he returned to focusing on his cultivation and his numerous political affairs. And so, almost without noticing, another entire year passed...
.
.
.
.
.
Finally deciding to begin his next plans, Ren Zu silently appeared in the vastest and most powerful of the four great regions of the God Realm.
The Western Divine Region!
The God Realm had forty thousand star realms, and the Western Divine Region comprised sixteen thousand of those star realms.
Among the seventeen King Realms in the God Realm, the Western Divine Region possessed six of them.
The strongest race in the universe, the dragon race, was concentrated within the Western Divine Region. The Dragon God Realm, where the monarch of the dragon race ruled and where the Dragon Gods themselves resided, was the leader of those six King Realms of the Western Divine Region, and was also the pinnacle existence in the entire God Realm—an existence to whom all the other sixteen King Realms had to bow their heads.
The six kings of the King Realms in the Western Divine Region were known by the designation "One Monarch, Five Emperors," who held dominion over the Western Divine Region, and four of them belonged to the dragon race.
The Dragon God Realm was incredibly vast, and not only was it the largest King Realm, it was also the largest star realm in the entire God Realm. Its aura was exceptionally primitive and dense. Moreover, the main difference between it and the King Realms in the Eastern Divine Region was that the Dragon God Realm was a completely open King Realm. Aside from the Dragon God Domain at its heart and several forbidden areas, one could enter and leave freely as one pleased.
Because of this, countless profound practitioners traveled to the Dragon God Realm every year.
Once he arrived in the skies above the Dragon God Realm, Ren Zu could not help but admire the grandeur of that place for a few moments. Even so, his contemplation lasted only a few seconds before he turned his full attention to the true objective of this visit. His purpose was simple: to subjugate the Dragon God Realm. However, there was another person who sparked his curiosity: Shen Xi, the famous Dragon Queen. If anyone in the God Realm discovered this thought, they would probably be shocked to the core.
After all, Shen Xi lived in the most mysterious and untouchable place in the entire Dragon God Realm. A territory considered absolutely sacred, where not even the Dragon Monarch himself had the freedom to enter and leave as he pleased.
The legendary Forbidden Land of Samsara!
___________________
(A/N: Good morning, everyone! Hope you're all doing well!
Just wanted to let you know that I'm still mentally recovering after writing a massive smut chapter for one of my other stories (anyone who's written this kind of chapter knows how much work it is lol).
So, rather than leaving you all without an update, I decided to keep focusing on the final stretch of this story for now. My priority is to give Ren Zu's journey the best conclusion possible, and if inspiration strikes later on, there's still a chance I'll write a few more smut chapters before the story ends.
As always, thank you all so much for your continued support. I hope you'll stay with Ren Zu until the very last chapter!)