Ever since the Great Demon Tao understood the path of self, melting all techniques, he decided to use the corpse of the ancient tribulation immortal Taixuan Immortal of the Search God Realm as spiritual material, and began to command millions of heavenly demons to practice the Taishang Limitless Demon Subduing Abyss Array.

Three years passed by in a flash.

On this day, in the depths of the Earth Orifice in Taoyuan Country, a remarkable scene was unfolding:

A "Divine Human Bodhisattva," surrounded by various divine light phenomena, was watching the changes inside a bronze coffin, which resembled a small world, with a face full of expectation and a smile.

The face of this divine person, though exceptionally handsome and holy, occasionally displayed a cunning and deceitful look.

Who else could it be but the Great Demon Tao?

Just by looking at the overwhelming and invincible mana fluctuations inside him, the visible celestial fog and Buddha light surrounding him, and his aura as if towering over all heavens, one could understand how abundantly he had gained over the past three years.

Indeed, in the past three years, the influence of All Heavens Buddhism had been growing steadily.

Taoyuan Country, as a "Submitting to the Buddha Country," received a lot of benefits, and the "Peach Blossom Pure Land Bodhisattva" who held power in this country was becoming more and more prosperous.

The country's territory was second only to the likes of Tang, Zhou, Song, and Ming, filled with Bodhisattva temples, and the believers all chanted the Ultimate Happiness Scripture.

For three entire years, there had been no disturbances, and with utmost devotion and a clear Buddha heart, the Great Demon Tao had fully gained the trust of the Buddhas on Ling Mountain.

Usually, he often hosted "Welcoming Buddha Banquets," "Ten Thousand Buddha Festivals," and "Merit Dharma Assemblies," befriending White Dragon Venerable, the Eight Heavenly Dragons, and other Buddhist followers, effortlessly browsing through all the Buddhist texts on Little Ling Mountain.

In terms of calculations, Tao Qian, as the Peach Blossom Bodhisattva who realized the "Great Joy Dao," was quite a notable figure on Little Ling Mountain.

Pity none of the Buddhas, including the Golden Cicada Saint Monk, knew that this Great Demon Tao, using the abundant resources they provided, was engaging in self-serving activities, becoming fully satisfied over three years.

Laying other topics aside, take the "Ten Thousand Refinement Spirit God Method" for instance.

This scoundrel had cultivated it nearly to perfection and had consecutively obtained five rare and hard-to-find innate aliens like Yin Yang Xuan Light, Netherworld Corpse Vein, Undying Divine Marrow, Taixuan Dao Bone, and Merit Buddha Flame. For other cultivators, obtaining just one would smoothen their Dao path significantly and consider them talents.

But for the Great Demon Tao, blessed with supreme fortune and having undergone indescribable suffering, he gained so much.

In the long history of the Secret Demon Sect, regarding this cultivation method, he had reached the pinnacle.

Only one more crucial alien needs to be birthed before this unprecedented great method is perfected, at which point his power is feared to surpass that of the Tao Master's Spirit Treasure Sublime Body.

As to what this alien is, the Great Demon Tao vaguely had a sense, so he is not in a hurry.

There's also the "Emotion Tribulation," where over the past three years, this scoundrel deliberately or inadvertently provoked his own master Golden Cicada, seemingly dissatisfied with the severity of arranged tribulations, most of which were from immortal divine forces, offering no threat and making it hard for him to be perfect.

The saint monk, of course, wouldn't indulge this rogue, constantly arranging more emotional tribulations concerning evil god demon forces for this good disciple.

Thus, over the past three years, courting disaster, Tao Qian successively became an in-law of significant forces like the Great Yellow Heavenly Divine Palace, Ten Evil Hall, Motherly Sect, Xiu Family, Demon Buddha Temple, and Gu God Cave.

Just from the names, one knows these forces are newcomers, attracted by the "Heavenly Dao Banquet" and having successively settled in the Search God Realm over these three years.

Behind them stands at least one innate god demon.

Take the seemingly inconspicuous "Motherly Sect" for instance; it seems like a righteous sect, but behind it stands a prominent and ferocious evil god with a female form in the Great Abyss Origin Sea, almost comparable to Emperor Wa or Doumu Yuanjun, known by the bizarre divine name "Motherly."

It's rumoured that numerous evil spirits and wicked gods wandering in the Great Abyss are offspring of Motherly.

Intentionally infiltrating these infamously notorious forces as a "spy son-in-law," one can imagine the consequences once discovered?

Even the usually fearless Tao Qian's original form regretted sending the demon body to the Search God Realm, seeing how the chaos was escalating, he couldn't help but send a sound transmission advising:

"You scoundrel, it's about time you stop!"

"That Golden Cicada is deluded by 'Dao Tribulation Qi,' acting recklessly and without restraint, why accompany this folly... Remember, after it's exposed, don't mention 'Tao Qian.' I've already suffered enough damage to my reputation over these past three years from you, many immortal gods in the Daoist sects hold grudges against this True Monarch."

"If not for the grand name of the Spirit Treasure Sect, I'm afraid the threshold of Ascending Immortal Island would have been trampled through."

"You provoke immorals and it's tolerable, but so many evil gods? Not a single one is easy to deal with. Just recently I found out that behind the 'Xiu Family' are ancient evil spirits with power comparable to innate gods and demons. The true form of the Xiu family members, all appear as filthy green mud, your appetite seems unmatched..."

Clearly, Tao Qian was thoroughly exasperated by the actions of the demon body, hence he rarely nagged like this.

His venting not only addressed the actions of the Great Demon Tao in the Search God Realm over the past three years but extended to other causes and effects.

The incident stemmed from the Ten Thousand Gods Array currently being cultivated inside the "Taixu Copper Coffin." Three years ago, Demon Child made grand promises to his underlings among millions of Heavenly Demons, causing the demons to swarm out to harass the realms of All Heavens and collect spiritual materials.

The Heavenly Demons act without any hesitation, especially those who have been trained by Tao Qian over the years.

Unfortunately, Tao Qian hadn't anticipated that his indulgence would ultimately ruin his long-standing good reputation.

A few heavyweight incidents alone revealed how notorious Tao Qian, the Spirit Treasure Subduing Evil True Monarch, had become.

"In the Great Abyss, there exists an Innate God and Demon known as the 'Hundred Worlds True Monarch,' who for years nurtured an Innate Divine Embryo, hiding it within a secret realm world, where it could have been left in peace. But inside the divine embryo flowed 'Innate Divine Blood,' this rare spiritual material."

"Thus, Tao Buddha's son commanded a hundred thousand demon heads to join forces and dragged in a Breaking Realm Demon from the Heavenly Demon Great Realm, forcefully breaching the realm and extracting one-third of the divine embryo's source blood, provoking the true monarch to fury."

"Upon discovering that the shameless Heavenly Demons were related to Tao Qian, the true monarch personally went to Penglai Sea demanding an explanation. If not for the Spirit Treasure Sect Master's mediation and compensating with a considerable amount of potions, Tao Qian would have had to spar with a Tribulation Immortal."

…

"To refine the Ten Thousand Demons Array Stone requires a large amount of 'Innate Thunder Essence.' Such spiritual material is most abundant in the Shenxiao Sect, where the cultivators are willing to barter, specifying an Outer Realm Heavenly Demon named 'Thunder Sand Demon' as the exchange item. However, this type of demon is very rare, compelling the needy Heavenly Demons to hatch a deceitful plan. They captured numerous inferior demons, collectively casting spells to temporarily transform them into Thunder Sand Demons, exchanging fake goods for genuine materials. After the incident, Shenxiao Sect pursued the issue, and Tao Qian had to pay a hefty price to settle the matter.

There have been quite a few similar incidents over the past three years, but Tao Qian, after all, is a luxurious True Monarch and barely managed to cope.

After all, it's also for the sake of the Dao; if the price is higher, so be it.

The events that forced Tao Qian to give up coping and resort to self-abandonment were the following two infamous acts:

"In another major world within the Great Abyss, the Ghost Realm, there exists an Innate Treasure, the 'Six Paths Reincarnation Plate,' containing six divine patterns, housing the secret of reincarnation. Over time, it gave birth to numerous special life forms named Six Paths Ghosts, existing between life and death, elusive and illusory, possessing great utility. These are indispensable spiritual materials for refining the Ten Thousand Demon Abyss Array. To steal out the 'Six Paths Ghosts,' a bunch of demon heads clandestinely bribed Tao Qian's friend, Xiao Hua Daoist, successfully infiltrated the Ghost Realm through the No Food Ghost Country, and stole ten 'Six Paths Ghosts,' causing the Ghost Realm's reputation to suffer greatly."

"If not for the No Food Country Master being the master of the Ghost Realm and the Innate God and Demon Earth Mother's direct disciple, this matter would have been difficult to pass."

…

"The cultivators of the Longevity Realm all know one thing: the Taishang Daoist Sect Master enjoys alchemy. Therefore, he specially requested a wisp of Innate Source Fire from the accompanying treasure Pill Furnace of Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad himself. The might of this furnace's fire far surpassed Tao Qian's True Fire of Suppressing Evil countless times over and is also one of the indispensable spiritual materials for refining the Abyss Array. Although not the complete source fire, collecting a bit of the 'Taishang Source Fire Essence' would generate endlessly."

"To accomplish this task, millions of demon heads gathered together, attempting countless methods in turns until, finally, they succeeded while the Taishang Daoist Sect Master went out visiting guests. They knocked out two guardian children and stole the fire essence."

"The theft of a bit of fire essence is insignificant to the Taishang Dao, even the dignity is hardly cared for by the extremely Dao-skilled Taishang Sect Master. Upon discovery, he merely chuckled faintly and commented on the unruly juniors, glossing over without pursuing."

…

A million heavenly demons sound quite formidable.

But when zoomed out to encompass the entire Great Abyss, they are mere speck of dust, hardly anything.

In the Heavenly Demon Great Realm, demon heads are countless, like grains of sand.

Precisely because of this, Tao Qian had not grown vigilant, who would have thought these little things would cause so much trouble in three years. Initially, the turmoil was limited to gathering spiritual materials like Ten Thousand Demons Essence and Hundred Evil's Calamity in the Demon World and Evil World, which Tao True Monarch didn't care about his reputation among the Evil Demons.

Later, the demon claws stretched towards the righteous immortal gods, many of whom were Tao Qian, Spirit Treasure Sect, and his friends and old associates.

Seeing trouble escalating, Tao Qian had no choice but to admit defeat and publicly declare:

"Tao Qian of the Spirit Treasure Sect faced cultivation troubles, splitting a Tao Buddha's son from his body, which couldn't be suppressed and fled, stealing all his Ten Thousand Demon Gourd and other demon treasures, joining the Secret Demon Sect. His original self now remains trapped within the Ascending Immortal Star Acupoint, completely unable to control this Demon Child Body."

"My original self accepts half of the consequences of all the calamities caused by the Demon Child Body."

"The remaining half is assumed by the Secret Demon Sect."

This kind of responsibility-shirking proclamation initially couldn't placate the large number of victims.

Yet, unexpectedly, Secret Demon Sect jumped out, seemingly as a revenge against the destruction of their mountain gate years ago, or maybe arrogance is typical of the Secret Demon Sect.

The second-generation ancestors of Secret Demon Sect directly issued provocations and mockery from the depths of the Great Abyss towards various Daoist lines and the divine demons who were the victims:

"The Ancestor Land Demon Son is our Sect's hidden hand, a future candidate for Sect Master, merely nurtured through the Spirit Treasure Daoist's body."

"Any karma or calamity caused by him will be entirely borne by the Secret Demon Sect."

"If anyone is dissatisfied, let's have another Tao Struggle and see if you can destroy the Secret Demon Sect this time?"

…