Within the human Domain, in the Wind Kingdom of the seventy-two Ancient Kingdoms.
In a small village on the edge of the Wind Kingdom, the land was almost completely barren. The heavens and earth were parched and waterless, the trees had shed all their leaves, leaving everything bare and desolate. It had been several months without a drop of rain.
The rivers that passed by the village had dried up, leaving behind cracked riverbeds.
The fearsome drought placed immense pressure on the village and the townships within hundreds of li. The crops in the fields were on the verge of death. The villagers were on the brink of despair, constantly kowtowing to the heavens. They even invited Daoist priests, slaughtered pigs as sacrifices to the gods, and prayed to the heavens, yet still not a single drop of rain fell.
The great drought had lasted eight months!
On this day, a deity descended, his body wreathed in divine radiance. With a wave of his hand, the wind and clouds changed color, dark clouds gathered, and thunder and lightning crackled.
Soon after, a torrential downpour descended, completely enveloping this small village and the land for a hundred li around, covering the vast heavens and earth.
However, not a single villager returned to their houses to take shelter from the rain. On the contrary, they happily let themselves be bathed in the rain, laughing joyously. One by one, they kowtowed towards the deity in the sky above, believing they had moved the heavens, which had finally sent the rain.
But the deity who had come declared that he did not represent the heavens, but rather the Holy Sect. Everything was the will of the Holy Sect's master, Qian, to do good in the mortal world and bring relief to the world.
"We thank the supreme Qian for sending a divine envoy to bring down this sweet rain, saving our village. This great kindness and virtue will be remembered by our Willow River Village for generations to come."
In the rain, the village chief led hundreds of villagers, braving the heavy downpour, in kowtowing and prostrating themselves.
In the void invisible to the naked eye, an invisible strand of Faith Power flew from the forehead of each villager, soaring towards the higher heavens, rushing towards the Holy Sect.
From other villages within hundreds of li, strands of Faith Power also flew out.
...
The Black Smoke Mountain Range was a forbidden land within the Xia Kingdom of the seventy-two Ancient Kingdoms. There resided five notorious great villains, each possessing Super Divine Transformation cultivation. They had committed countless atrocities in the southeastern region of the Xia Kingdom, earning the deep hatred of the common people, who were powerless against them.
Even when the Xia Kingdom had once dispatched its Forbidden Army to suppress them, it had failed. Even a powerful Demi-Saint from the Ancient Kingdom, ordered to hunt them down, had been evaded, his efforts fruitless.
Long-term, these five villains had been utterly vicious, committing all manner of evil deeds, making people within ten thousand li unwilling to provoke them. The locals dared to be angry but not speak out.
On this day, as the morning sun rose in the east, people discovered five bloody heads hanging high on the city gates of the major cities in the southeastern region of the Xia Kingdom, their eyes wide open in death.
Looking at their faces, they were unmistakably the five great villains.
A super powerhouse wreathed in divine radiance swept through the sky, leaving behind a single sentence: "Acting on the will of the Holy Sect's master, Qian, these five villains deserve execution."
Afterwards, stone statues of the Holy Sect's master, Qian, appeared in many places throughout the southeastern region of the Xia Kingdom, receiving the veneration of countless people in that area.
...
Similar incidents were not just one or two, but kept occurring.
This group of powerholders, bearing the banner of the Holy Sect, walked the mortal world, acting on behalf of the Holy Sect's will.
They governed the heavens and earth, resolved various conflicts and wars, and hunted down notorious fugitives and murderers. At the same time, they manifested various divine miracles to the world: restoring water to dried-up rivers, bringing moisture to parched lands, curing many patients suffering from severe illnesses...
Originally, the Ancient Emperor Continent, especially the human Domain, was usually filled with turmoil. Friction was rife between the great nations, often escalating into large-scale military campaigns with heavy casualties, rivers of blood, and countless families shattered, wives separated from husbands and children from parents.
But after the Holy Sect's powerholders emerged and walked the mortal world, all major forces had to be wary of them. With their intervention, they no longer dared to lightly start wars.
Furthermore, those individuals or forces that had committed countless evils were uprooted, eliminating scourges for the people.
Because of their appearance, the Holy Sect rapidly spread throughout the mortal world. People began to worship and have faith in the Holy Sect, and even more so, in the Holy Sect's master—Qian!
Within the Central Heavenly Palace, a thirty-three-layered Dao Pagoda floated. However, it did not release myriad strands of primordial Chaos Qi. Instead, visible to the naked eye, streams of hazy power ignored spatial distance, traversing the void to arrive.
It was Faith Power, transforming into a mysterious halo, resembling a vast ocean, radiating sparkling, crystalline radiance as it floated above his head, profoundly mysterious.
In truth, ever since the day Ye Chen became the Uncrowned Sovereign, Faith Power had begun flying towards him, bestowing itself upon him. He had released it all, condensing it within the Human Sovereign Pagoda.
After the Holy Sect was established, the Faith Power coming from all directions increased even more.
However, Ye Chen felt the process was slow. Therefore, he dispatched those people to promote the Holy Sect's maintenance of world order, making the people grateful and indebted. The resulting Faith Power suddenly increased many times over.
Three months later, the accumulation of Faith Power within the Central Heavenly Palace had already reached an astonishing level, not inferior to the portion of Faith Power Ye Chen had previously brought. It had transformed into a vast ocean of Faith Power.
Because the Ancient Emperor Continent was so vast, larger than both the Ancient Divine Continent and the Gu Lan Continent. Just the human race alone had thirty-six empires and seventy-two Ancient Kingdoms, with countless smaller states besides. The population numbered in the billions. The condensation of Faith Power was naturally faster and greater.
Moreover, during these days, as Ye Chen spread the maintenance of world stability, willpower also began to appear within the Faith Power.
Now, the Holy Sect appeared increasingly prosperous and powerful, surpassing imagination.
At this moment, his purpose was finally revealed. Establishing the Holy Sect was not only to form an alliance to confront future changes, but also to obtain the power of fortune, Faith Power, and willpower—all special forms of power.
The power of fortune could enhance cultivation, bestowing great luck upon oneself.
Faith Power could be transformed into combat power and could elevate perception and thoughts.
Willpower, when reaching a certain level, could communicate with the essence of the Ancient Emperor Realm and could also impose causality upon enemies.
These three special powers, originating from the masses, continuously converged, bestowing themselves upon the Holy Sect's hall, becoming a great momentum.
Whether it was the imperial clan or the three Sacred Lands, by the time they discovered this point, it was already too late, far too late.
Those forces that had attended the imperial clan's banquet were reluctant to agree. They had not insisted either. Regarding Ye Chen's establishment of the Holy Sect, they had adopted an attitude of cold observation. On one hand, they neither knew nor believed that Ye Chen could gather the world's fortune, faith, and willpower.
On the other hand, they also harbored wariness towards Ye Chen.
On the Ancient Emperor Continent, with the power of rules, Ye Chen was basically invincible. Even if the imperial clan and the three Sacred Lands had supreme powerholders, they could not exert their full power on the Ancient Emperor Continent.
They never expected that at this moment, Ye Chen would manage to intercept it.
In the Nine Heavens, super powerholders from the four major forces appeared, each with blurred silhouettes, Dao marks swirling around their bodies, extremely powerful.
From a commanding height, one of them spoke coldly: "What a fine Holy Sect. You actually dare to secretly gather the masses' willpower, Faith Power, and the power of fortune behind our backs. Are you seeking death?"