# Chapter 1710: The Karmic Fire of Humanity
Ugly was dragged by one leg, his head scraping against the ground of the Netherworld Yuan Realm, bouncing and crashing along the terrain.
He suffered no physical injuries. His powerful Karmic Fire Golden Body allowed all wounds to his physical form to heal completely, and his soul was incredibly strong—arguably the most powerful primordial spirit in existence.
Yet he seemed to bear the heaviest wounds.
Void Heavenly Venerable's words and actions were like the most formidable divine abilities, attacking his Dao heart. Within his heart, they took his hopes of becoming human and his expectations of familial love and turned them all into karmic fire that tormented him!
This was the worldly karmic fire he had dreamed of, condensed from human emotions. But burning, it was so painful, so heart-wrenching.
If he endured it, he would become the Dao achiever of the Netherworld Great Way, reaching an accomplishment that even the previous Earth Lord could only gaze at from afar.
But if he could not endure it, he would turn to ash along with his soul in the karmic fire.
At this moment, however, Ugly was not thinking about whether he could achieve the Dao. He was thinking about the father and daughter.
Every thought he had intensified the karmic fire by one degree, and the pain grew more severe by one degree. Over the past eight hundred thousand years, he had endured endless karmic fire—the karmic fire of all living beings from the myriad realms—which had forged his Karmic Fire Golden Body.
That karmic fire, though it tormented him, also refined him. He could bear it.
But the karmic fire born from familial love struck directly at the deepest weakness of his Dao heart. It was so fierce that he could not bear it!
The weakest link in Ugly's Dao heart was the karmic fire of father-daughter love, and this karmic fire he could not resist.
This was also why Qin Mu had always sent Netherworld Heavenly Venerable to face Void Heavenly Venerable, avoiding any meeting between Ugly and Void Heavenly Venerable.
Because Qin Mu knew that Ugly's familial love for Void Heavenly Venerable had become his final inner demon. He had waited eighty thousand years, using the karmic fire of all living beings to forge his golden body, all for the sake of father-daughter love. How intense was that obsession?
The stronger the obsession, the more terrifying the karmic fire. It might even burn the Earth Lord to ashes!
Void Heavenly Venerable dragged Ugly's body, step by step, toward the Maple Valley of Eternal Peace. The divine cities of Maple Valley floated in the sky, and the great passes stretched for millions of miles, like a barrier blocking the ground.
Looking from the Netherworld Yuan Realm, both the divine cities and the passes became illusory, like shadow puppets projected onto a screen, flickering unsteadily.
The Netherworld Yuan Realm and the Yuan Realm existed in overlapping spaces. From here, Void Heavenly Venerable could see the Eternal Peace soldiers guarding Maple Valley, could see their life-and-death divine treasures, could see their physical bodies and primordial spirits.
On the Eternal Peace side, only those who had cultivated special divine eyes or had deep attainments in the Netherworld Great Way could see the Netherworld and Void Heavenly Venerable.
Such was the wonder of the Netherworld.
If the demon gods and monsters of the Netherworld attacked Eternal Peace, for the gods and demons of Eternal Peace, it would be like an invisible enemy striking. It would inevitably become a bloody slaughter, a one-sided massacre!
"Pastoral Heavenly Venerable is in the Heavenly Court camp. Netherworld Heavenly Venerable is blocking the Netherworld demon gods. Moon Heavenly Venerable and Langhuan have both dropped several realms. Only Lan Yutian is left to guard this place!"
Void Heavenly Venerable pulled Ugly the Earth Lord, forcefully striding toward Maple Valley, laughing: "Even Lan Yutian in the Netherworld cannot be my opponent! This Eternal Peace is nothing but an unguarded pasture for me. I can charge in and slaughter freely, feast to my heart's content! Father God, this is our power—the power you dare not use!"
A gleam of delight shone in her eyes, like a little girl filled with inner darkness, about to push over and shatter the porcelain she had always wanted to destroy. Her heart was filled with anticipation and excitement, along with a fierce desire for destruction!
"But I dare!" she laughed.
At this moment in Maple Valley, the Village Chief was preaching the Dao. Lan Yutian looked down and saw Void Heavenly Venerable dragging Ugly by the leg.
He stood up. If Void Heavenly Venerable broke into Maple Valley, no one there would be her match!
Only he could still fight her!
He was about to enter the Netherworld Yuan Realm when he suddenly stopped.
In the Netherworld Yuan Realm, Void Heavenly Venerable also stopped, releasing Ugly's foot. The karmic fire on Ugly was too heavy, burning her hand, causing her unbearable pain.
She turned around and saw Ugly's Karmic Fire Golden Body scorched black in the blazing flames, like a giant made of charcoal that had already been set alight.
"Father God, you still can't bear to part with the human race?"
Void Heavenly Venerable laughed, mocking: "To become human, you killed Mother, killed your children. Now, for the sake of the human race, you want to kill your only remaining daughter, right?"
Ugly slowly climbed to his feet. The karmic fire on him grew even more intense. The pain from his burning physical body was not even one ten-thousandth of the pain from his burning primordial spirit!
Yet the pain in his primordial spirit was not even one ten-thousandth of the pain in his Dao heart.
"My child, I wanted so much to protect you all..."
He turned his back to her, his shoulders trembling. He raised his hands to cover his face, and fiery tears flowed from his three eyes.
Ugly was not the Earth Lord.
Ugly was just a child who looked very much like the Earth Lord. Ugly was just an ugly-faced person with a kind heart.
A living, breathing person.
He was kind to others, helped his neighbors. The villagers were very afraid of him at first, but later they all accepted him, feeling he was a very good person.
He did not want his wife and children to suffer any harm. He wanted to risk his own life to protect them. When his elderly mother died, he wished he were the Earth Lord, possessing the power to revive the dead, to save his mother's life, to fulfill his filial duty, to care for her.
But he could not. He simply could not!
He was just a mortal who looked like the Earth Lord.
The Earth Lord possessed the most powerful primordial spirit in the world, had boundless power, but was bound by his identity as Earth Lord, unable to overstep the will of the Netherworld Great Way.
But Ugly was human.
As long as he possessed humanity, he could not possess the Earth Lord's power.
The hardships of life, the evil of the world, the ugliness of gods and demons, their oppression and slaughter—none of this made him abandon his identity as a human, abandon his humanity. He was the ugliest person in the world, his ugly exterior hiding the purest heart. He still held hope for the future, believing it would become beautiful.
When his wife and children left him one by one, when the demigods lifted his children and threw them off the cliff, when his children were smashed into meat patties before his eyes—
Ugly died.
His humanity died.
But it did not die completely.
His humanity turned into demonic nature. He gained power. At that moment, Ugly died.
The Earth Lord was reborn within his body, but the rebirth was incomplete.
Endless rage burned within him. The demonic nature and demonic energy of the Netherworld filled his body, filled his thoughts. Revenge was also a part of humanity. Revenge drove him to charge into the Heavenly Court, to destroy those who had caused him such suffering!
But there was another humanity within him—the love for his only daughter. Driven by rage and love for his daughter, he charged through the Southern Heavenly Gate, toward Jade Capital City.
Even though countless shackles of the Netherworld Great Way locked onto him, even though countless chains bound him, they could not stop him in the slightest!
But in the end, he was blocked by Grand Beginning Heavenly Emperor and beaten back to the Netherworld.
As he fell into the Netherworld, he saw his daughter fall into Grand Beginning Heavenly Emperor's palm.
His rage for revenge vanished. The Earth Lord was reborn, carrying his love and pity for his daughter. This was his remaining humanity, preserved in the Earth Lord's heart, taking root and sprouting.
To break free from the Netherworld Great Way, to become human—this became the Earth Lord's obsession. For this obsession, he had schemed until now.
His love and pity for his daughter made him unable to lay a hand on Void Heavenly Venerable. Ugly would never harm his own daughter.
This was the barrier he could not cross.
The karmic fire of familial love would burn him clean, destroy his physical body, incinerate his primordial spirit to ashes, completely shatter his Dao heart.
If he could pass this barrier, he would become the Dao achiever of the Netherworld, controlling the Great Way, controlling life and death.
He could not pass this barrier.
Ugly was just a person who looked like the Earth Lord, as ugly as the Earth Lord, but not the Earth Lord.
He was human.
But at this moment, he had to make a choice.
"My daughter..."
Ugly clenched his fists, roared to the heavens. The Netherworld Great Way was released from within him. The power of the Netherworld awakened. The Earth Lord within him revived once more.
His body kept rising, kept expanding. His physical form changed. The worlds destroyed in the war, the shattered Netherworld, the beings who died in the conflict—their grudges, their demonic natures, their sins and kindnesses from this life—all of it surged toward him!
The Earth Lord within Ugly awakened. The Netherworld Great Way surged toward him again.
He turned his head. Fiery red tears flowed from his three eyes as he looked at Void Heavenly Venerable and reached out his hand.
"My daughter, come home. I'll take you home."
Ugly suppressed the rules of the Netherworld Great Way, showing Void Heavenly Venerable an ugly smile: "Come home. Stop the slaughter. I can't suppress the Netherworld Great Way any longer..."
The Netherworld Great Way would not allow Void Heavenly Venerable to use Netherworld divine abilities to recklessly slaughter living beings.
If Void Heavenly Venerable insisted on destroying Eternal Peace, then the Earth Lord would enforce the law.
Ugly faced the same situation as before, but this time it was not for revenge—it was to protect the living beings of Eternal Peace.
Void Heavenly Venerable's eyes showed some confusion, but then hatred clouded her heart. Without another word, she urged the Styx River Long Whip to sweep toward him, shouting: "Hypocrite! I won't go back with you! I am Void Heavenly Venerable, the exalted Void Heavenly Venerable! All living beings will submit to me, fear me! You are willing to be poor, willing to be humiliated—I am not!"
The Styx River Long Whip swept toward Ugly, but then became gentle, drifting around him.
Void Heavenly Venerable turned and charged toward Maple Valley, toward Eternal Peace.
More fiery tears flowed from Ugly's three eyes, spreading like butterfly wings. Although the Earth Lord had awakened, his familial love remained, his love and pity for his daughter remained.
This love became a blazing karmic fire, a fire he could not stop, burning everything about him.
He reached out to grab Void Heavenly Venerable. Any Netherworld divine ability, any Netherworld Great Way she used had no effect on him!
Boom!
The moment he grabbed Void Heavenly Venerable, the karmic fire suddenly became incredibly fierce, incredibly violent. The blazing flames engulfed both him and Void Heavenly Venerable!
The sins Void Heavenly Venerable had committed were also ignited by the karmic fire on him, burning wildly. The grudges of countless wronged souls who had died by her hand pushed the karmic fire to its extreme!
"Grand Beginning was right. I would achieve my wish. But I never thought the result would be like this..."
Before Maple Valley, in the Netherworld Yuan Realm, the karmic fire was beyond imagination. It was as if the karmic fire of all living beings accumulated over an entire cosmic epoch was burning and exploding all at once.
"Earth Lord!"
Netherworld Heavenly Venerable turned to look at the boundless karmic fire. Within the flames, two figures were burning, disintegrating.
This karmic fire was so fierce that even he could not step into it, or he would be burned to ashes, ceasing to exist.
"Abandon your humanity! Become the true Earth Lord!"
Netherworld Heavenly Venerable rushed over, stopping outside the disaster, shouting: "Erase the last of your familial love! You can survive!"
In the distance, Qin Fengqing, controlling the Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Wheel, also felt something. He looked at the blazing karmic fire, fiery tears filling his three eyes: "Big guy, what are you hesitating for? Do it!"
In the sea of karmic fire, everything turned to ashes. The flames slowly subsided, the momentum of the fire gradually calming.
In a daze, Netherworld Heavenly Venerable saw Ugly again—an ugly but sturdy man walking through the sea of fire. On his shoulder sat a little girl with two small horns on her head, innocent and adorable.
Ugly in the sea of fire turned back and smiled at Netherworld Heavenly Venerable. Ahead of him, a mountain village appeared faintly. An elderly mother sat in front of the house, a woman washed clothes, and a pair of children ran around joyfully.
Ugly took the little girl and walked toward them, disappearing together with the peaceful mountain village, turning into a dream, a bubble, a shadow.
---
Thank you to all fellow cultivators for your support. The Record of the Shepherd God has finally become the fourth five-star work. There will be a small chapter later to thank everyone!
The Record of the Shepherd God has become a five-star work! Thank you, everyone!
Yesterday, many fellow cultivators made donations, forcefully elevating The Record of the Shepherd God to a five-star work.
At noon, when Night Cat called to ask me, I told him not to spend too much. By the end of this month or the beginning of next month, the points for The Record of the Shepherd God should naturally reach the level of a five-star work.
He agreed.
Then he went to the Alliance Leader group and other reader groups to organize things. By evening, he called me excitedly again, saying that The Record of the Shepherd God was already a five-star work, with dozens of new Alliance Leaders. Many readers had sponsored and pooled resources. In one day, they achieved what would have taken a month!
The emotion in my heart is beyond words. I can only thank everyone here!
In no particular order, thank you to these fellow cultivators!
Alliance Leaders: Qiaqiahaohaohao, whytony, Jingyue, JiubanXiaohui, eee555, Chuankongshi, ShenchaoYouruo, Xiuluozhimu, ShenchaoMenggui, Badouyao, Yuyucool, QingjiuXiansheng, ShuaiXiaogang, FuQingfeng, kevindurant, ShenchaoBeiji, Banlanzhishi, ZongranRencao, ShenchaoQinger, Wuduan233, QieyiWenrouDaiCisheng, Shuyou20180607122227775, JiangdongZicheng.
Sponsoring readers: ShijiuBumaiJiu, QingjiuXiansheng, ChuangkuaAichiRou, Array[], HeiniunaiGG, DiDao, Zimu, QuancunDiYiShuai, FengyelinZhongDeGuShi, KuZhanTian, JiMoRuYan, YemaoKull.
The ending of The Record of the Shepherd God is not easy to write. With everyone's encouragement, Zhai Zhu will use all his heart to complete this work!