Heavenly Grand Ritual referred to all things in the world.
The Heavenly Grand Ritual was a ritual to offer sacrifices to everything in the world. It was used to pray for the alignment of the stars, the protection of the people, and the peace of the country.
A sacrificial ceremony of this scale usually required the power of a country to hold. There were only a few in history, and it was unheard of in recent years.
Now, only the people of the Blessed Enclave had the power to hold it.
In the past few days, although it was quiet near the Taoist Palace where I lived in Wangwu Grotto, the Wangwu Grotto had been preparing for this ceremony for two or three years.
The fat man and I left the Taoist Palace with Wang Can and went to another peak.
According to Wang Can, this mountain was called the Temple of Heaven Peak. It was said that in ancient times, Xuanyuan used to offer sacrifices to Heaven.
It was said that when Xuanyuan offered sacrifices to Heaven, the Goddess of the Ninth Heaven and the Queen Mother of the West gave him the Nine Cauldrons Divine Elixir Scripture and the Yin Talisman Strategy. That was how he defeated Chiyou and founded the Huaxia civilization.
Later, Wang Can's ancestor, the Lord of Xicheng, opened the Wangwu Grotto and covered the Temple of Heaven.
Later, Wang Can's ancestor, the Lord of Xicheng City, opened the Wangwu Grotto and covered the Temple of Heaven Peak.
Even so, the emperors of the later dynasties had to come here to offer sacrifices to Heaven. It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Di built the Temple of Heaven in the capital, imitating the layout of the Temple of Heaven Peak.
The Temple of Heaven Peak had a great reputation among the people, and it was even more famous among the Taoists.
Since ancient times, the Taoists had respected this place as the Taoists' Extreme Land, where the Gods and Immortals of the Five Sacred Mountains, the Ten Great Heavens, and the Thirty-six Minor Heavens met.
It was precisely because of this superb location that the Wangwu Paradise was able to flourish for thousands of years and firmly occupy the position of the top of the 10 great paradises.
Now that Wang Can's father had passed away, it was normal for the other Heavens to covet it.
When the three of us arrived at the bottom of the Temple of Heaven Peak, I saw that the surrounding mountains were covered with colorful cloths, and all kinds of sacrifices were made.
When we reached the peak, we were even more amazed.
The peak of the Temple of Heaven Peak was huge, covering thousands of acres.
At this moment, a gigantic tent had been built on top of the mountain peak that was several thousand acres wide. It was completely covered with multi-colored cloth. After entering, it was as if even the sun was isolated from the outside world.
Within this five-colored cloth, there were nine altars set up in the shape of an arc, worshiping all the gods of heaven and earth.
The top three altars were called Universal Heaven and were worshiped by the ten Heavenly Grottoes. The middle three altars were called Zhou Tian and were worshiped by the thirty-six Heavenly Grottoes. The bottom three altars were called Luo Tian and were worshiped by the seventy-two Blessed Lands.
The upper three altars were in the innermost area, the middle three altars were in the middle, and the lower three altars were in the outermost area.
There were a total of 7,200 Deity Positions, and in front of each Deity Position, there were several Daoists dressed in luxurious clothes and ceremonial crowns.
Officer Wang told me that the main rituals of the sacrificial ceremony included burning incense, opening the altar, inviting water, waving the banner, announcing the results, cleaning the filth, inviting the Holy Saint, summoning the Holy Saint, conferring the Star, presenting the Holy Saint, dropping the banner, sending off the Holy Saint, and so on.
When chanting sutras and worshipping, every Daoist priest had to walk the Yu Steps and Astral Steps.
In other words, during this sacrificial ceremony, the tens of thousands of people who rushed here from various grotto-heavens and blessed lands all had at least Glory of Consciousness cultivation!
A few days ago, when Wang Can took me to the banquet, I saw people from the Blessed Lands. There were only one or two hundred of them. Although their cultivation was high, I didn't think much of them.
Now, when tens of thousands of people appeared in front of me, I was shocked by the power of the Blessed Lands.
When I was in the Metaphysics Association, cultivators at the Glorious Consciousness Realm could be the vice president of the headquarters.
And now, tens of thousands of people in front of me had the Glorious Consciousness Realm. No wonder the people from the Blessed Lands didn't care about the cultivators from the outside world. Their strength was not on the same level.
With so many cultivators at the Glorious Consciousness Realm, it was normal for other Celestial Masters, Yang God Celestial Masters, and Wang Can's father to come from the Blessed Lands.
While I was sighing with emotion, Wang Can told me that the Heavenly Grand Ceremony would last for forty-nine days, and it would be divided into seven ceremonies, including the Blessing Ceremony, the Offering Peace Ceremony, the Emperor Ceremony, the Water Ceremony, the Fire Ceremony, the Nine Emperors Ceremony, and the Three Elements Ceremony.
After yesterday's ceremony, the people in charge of the Blessed Lands had to prepare for the Allheaven Competition. As for the remaining ceremonies, the Daoists from the Blessed Lands would complete them themselves.
The arena for the Allheaven Competition was set in the middle of the Heavenly Grand Ritual, which was the three altars of the ten Blessed Lands.
In the Grand Competition, each family would send out three people, namely the Yang God Celestial Master, the Seal Celestial Master, and the Glory of Consciousness realm. Among them, the Glory of Consciousness realm was still alright. When they fought, the damage caused was not too great. As long as the arena was set up a little bigger, there would generally be no problems.
However, when Seal Celestial Master and Yang God Celestial Master fought, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it was earth-shattering. Generally speaking, it was impossible to find an arena that could withstand the power of a battle between Celestial Masters.
However, the Blessed Lands had been around for thousands of years, so they naturally had countermeasures.
The Heavenly Grand Ritual before us had tens of thousands of Glorious Consciousness Realm cultivators communicating with heaven and earth to worship 7,200 gods. The power inside was incomparably terrifying.
The arena for the Allheaven Competition was placed in the middle of the three altars. Its purpose was to use the power of the worship to form a barrier. No matter what happened on the arena, let alone Yang God Celestial Master, even if Xia Ju Celestial Master fought, it wouldn't affect the outside.
This was also the fundamental reason why the Heavenly Grand Ritual was held to determine the ranking of the blessed lands.
As Officer Wang introduced the arena to us, he led us through countless worship positions. From the three lower altars to the three middle altars, then to the three upper altars, and finally to the innermost area.
There was a huge arena here that was no less than ten acres in size. It was square and surrounded by many areas.
Each area was a family of the Blessed Lands.
The east side was divided into ten areas for the people of the ten Blessed Lands.
The other three directions were densely packed, each divided into thirty-six regions.
The west side was the 36 Small Heavens, while the north and south sides were the 72 Blessed Lands.
When we arrived, the people of the other Blessed Lands had already taken their seats. Since Wangwu Grotto-Heaven was ranked first among the ten Blessed Lands, we attracted everyone's attention as soon as we appeared.
Officer Wang didn't say anything else. He led us to the center of the east side, where Wangwu Grotto-Heaven's area was.
Fu and the others were already seated. When they saw us, they stood up and saluted.
After we sat down, Wang Can told me the rules of the tournament in detail.
Although the Blessed Lands were divided into large and small Grotto-Heavens, the rest of the Blessed Lands were different.
However, in the cultivation world, heroes weren't judged by their birth.
That was why the ranking competition for the next ten years would be the fairest.
The ten Great Grotto-Heavens, 36 Small Grotto-Heavens, and 72 Blessed Lands added together, there were 118 families.
Due to their status, the ten Great Grotto-Heavens enjoyed slight preferential treatment and didn't need to participate in the first round of competition. After the other 108 families finished the first round of competition, the remaining 54 families would advance to the next round. At that time, the ten Great Grotto-Heavens would join the competition, and the 64 families would move on to the next round of competition.
They would fight each other to decide who was the strongest family.
Since every competition had its own ranking, the matches in each round would be based on the previous competition's ranking. The matches would be arranged from the beginning to the end, ensuring fairness to the greatest extent.
After the final winner was decided, there would be additional matches for those who had been eliminated. Finally, there would be a new ranking.
For the ten Great Grotto-Heavens, their attention was naturally focused on the competition for the strongest. Their goal was to at least enter the top eight, and even get a share of the highest honor.
As for the weaker clans in the 72 Blessed Lands, they did not even have a Yang God Celestial Master, so they were destined to lose a match. Therefore, their goal was completely placed in the subsequent matches. As long as they could rise a few ranks compared to the previous years, they would have achieved their wish.
Of course, in the previous Allheaven Competitions, there had been many families that had defeated the stronger ones. Even the ten Great Grotto-Heavens had been defeated by the families from the 72 Blessed Lands.
In this competition, because of Wangwu Grotto-Heaven's unprecedented weakness, not only had the ten Great Grotto-Heavens targeted it, but some of the families from the 72 Blessed Lands had also set their sights on Wangwu Grotto-Heaven.
As long as they passed the first round, if they could encounter Wangwu Grotto-Heaven and enter the top 32, they would be guaranteed a place in the 36 Small Grotto-Heavens.
If they were lucky, they could encounter Wangwu Grotto-Heaven in the third round, and enter the top 10 Grotto-Heavens.
Therefore, in everyone's eyes, Wangwu Grotto-Heaven was a big piece of meat, and they wanted everyone to come and take a bite.
One could imagine how much pressure Wang Can was under.
Even though he had invited me and the fatty to help him, Wang Can still frowned when he talked about the current situation. Obviously, he was still not optimistic about his future.
It wasn't his fault for being cautious. Although there were several Yang God Celestial Masters among the Wang family's servants, only Fu had cultivated to the peak of Yang God.
Moreover, the Wang family cultivated Witchcraft Qi, so they weren't as proficient in Taoist Qi cultivation methods as the other Grotto-Heavens. In addition, Fu was already old, so he didn't have any advantage over the Yang God Celestial Masters sent by the other Blessed Lands.
In the Seal Celestial Master Realm, many people could be sent, but in the same way, the Seal Celestial Masters of the other family servants were not good enough. Only Wang Can and I could fight.
One of us was at the Middle-stage of the Heaven Master Realm, and the other was at the Early-stage of the Heaven Master Realm. Although we both had the four-word seal, it was hard to guarantee that there were no talented people in the other Grotto-Heavens, such as Zhao Hao, who was an extremely difficult opponent.
In the Glory of Consciousness realm, Wang Can didn't know much about the fatty's cultivation. Even if he was really strong, he was just a mortal cultivator. In the Blessed Lands, with thousands of years of history, there was no shortage of talented people, let alone powerful cultivation methods. With such a lineup, Wang Can certainly wasn't sure what the final result would be.
However, I was quite calm.
Although the scale of the Blessed Lands was far beyond my imagination, in terms of fighting capacity, I was confident that I was not inferior to Zhao Hao. As for the fatty, he could set up a formation to resist the attack of the Yang God Celestial Master. In the Glory of Consciousness realm, he might not be invincible, but at least he could fight against everyone.
The only thing I wasn't sure about was Fu. However, the Allheaven Competition was a best of three competition. As long as the fatty and I could win, it would be enough.
As I was about to comfort Wang Can, the people from the 36 Small Paradises and the 72 Blessed Lands had already gone to the arena. They received their tokens and were ready to start the first round of the competition!
Then, Officer Wang and I stopped talking and looked at the arena.