Chapter 1585: The Heavenly Court and Underworld, On the Verge of Paralysis
The Great Sage's words stunned Ye Zichen.
When he thought about it, although the Red Packet Server had been there on his phone this whole time, it had been a long time since he'd last checked on those immortals' conversations.
The new Red Packet Server formed after Ye Zichen's tweaking was still at the top of his chat log, and on a day to day basis, Ye Zichen saw an endless stream of new messages there, but he hadn't clicked on the group to read them all this time.
The situation in the Upper Three Realms being what it was, aside from chatting with the great emperors in the war prep chat, Ye Zichen rarely had free time to lurk in the Red Packet Server and joke around with the immortals.
Back in the Modern Realm, he'd loved nothing more than lurking and sniping the odd red packet.
But when he really fell into the thick of things, discovering his status as the Yellow Emperor's reincarnation, and especially after the demons' invasion encased the Modern World in a seal of ice, he'd spent a lot less time chatting with the immortals. He barely even had time to lurk and read their chat logs.
He just had far too many matters to attend to, to the point that he'd practically overlooked the friends who'd once given him endless joy.
When the Great Sage brought up the Red Packet Server, Ye Zichen couldn't help but self-reflect.
He slowly took out his phone and opened the Red Packet Server.
The group was much the same as in the past. There were still immortals of the Underworld and Heavenly Court sending the odd message back and forth, but the messages came at a lower frequency than in the past.
There was nothing for it. The immortals who'd once been the most active had all ascended.
Take Yang Jian and the Great Sage. They were once regulars, but now, they were both at Ye Zichen's side, taking care of matters both big and small.
Only Idealism: How is everyone?
Ye Zichen wanted to give the atmosphere a bit of a boost, so he sent a few messages. In the past, whenever he sent a message, it was no exaggeration to say that in a breath of time he'd get hundreds of responses.
But to his surprise, even after he sent his message, he couldn't stir up the lurking immortals or bring them to the surface.
Immortality Peach Fairy: Long time no see, Big Brother. I missed you!
She followed up with a whole line of crying emojis.
The Barefoot Immortal: Emperor Ye, where'd you get the time to chat?
Wu Gang: Hmph! My rival in love! Give Chang'e back to me!
After that, a few heavenly soldiers replied too, but former regulars of the ground chat like the Mother of Lightning, the God of Thunder, the Ten Yama Kings, Horse Face and Ox Head, Black and White Impermanence, and other high status immortals didn't make an appearance.
Strange.
The cold emptiness of the chat stunned Ye Zichen. He instinctively glanced at the Great Sage. He just said he went to the Heavenly Court. Could it be that something happened there?
He couldn't quite believe it, so he directly sent off a few red packets.
The red packets vanished in an instant. When he clicked to see who'd sniped them, Ye Zichen instantly lost his former calm.
Most of them were just heavenly soldiers and ghost messengers. There were only a few ranked immortals in the mix.
None of the group's former frequent lurkers had made an appearance.
Immortality Peach Fairy: Wah, a red packet! It's been so long since someone last sent a red packet!
Immortality Peach Fairy: Thanks, big bro!
Wu Gang: Hmph, return my fairy Chang'e!
Even after accepting the red packet, the messages were pitifully sparse. Ye Zichen frowned and sent the Immortality Peach Fairy a direct message.
Only Idealism: @ Immortality Peach Fairy, why is the chat so dead? Did something happen to the Heavenly Court and the Underworld?
Immortality Peach Fairy: Everyone ascended!
Only Idealism: Ascended? All of them?
Queen Mother: Emperor Ye! What a rare guest. I'm surprised to see you here.
Only Idealism: Queen Mother!
Barefoot Immortal: She's not the Queen Mother any longer. She's now the commander-in-chief of the Heavenly Court and Underworld.
Only Idealism: Ah?
Ye Zichen was stunned. The highest executive of the Heavenly Court had been the North Pole Emperor when he left, while the Underworld was under the Fengdu Emperor of the North's command. Not much time had passed, but the Queen Mother had taken charge of both realms?
What was going on?
It was a shocking volume of information in just a few short messages. Ye Zichen couldn't process it all right away.
After a bit of a daze, he responded.
Only Idealism: The Queen Mother has become the commander in chief? Then, the North Pole Emperor and the Fengdu Emperor of the North....
Queen Mother: They all ascended.
Queen Mother: It's not just them. The God of Thunder, the Mother of Lightning, Ox Head, Horse Face, Black and White Impermanence, the Ten Yama Kings... All of the great immortals have ascended.
Queen Mother: Now, only the few of us remain behind. Our bases are practically empty figureheads.
Queen Mother: Being commander-in-chief at a time like this has been really...
The Queen Mother couldn't help but sigh. So many immortals had ascended. This wasn't good news for her. Both factions' administrators had disappeared, and if they didn't find suitable replacements, it was no exaggeration to say that both factions' operations would stall indefinitely.
She was undoubtedly worried about finding suitable replacements to fill all those empty posts. But for so many immortals to ascend so quickly...
It was a little too strange, wasn't it?
It wasn't like Ye Zichen had never returned to the lower realms. When he visited, he'd had a great banquet with the God of Thunder and other old friends. Based on their auras, they'd yet to become immortal kings.
Only three years had passed since then, but they'd already gone from sky immortals to immortal kings, then ascended.
Progressing at that rate was difficult even in the spiritually dense atmosphere of the Upper Three Realms!
"Great Sage, what exactly happened down there?" Ye Zichen turned and glanced at the Great Sage, then looked back down at his phone.
Only Idealism: All of them ascended?
Queen Mother: Give or take. Regardless of whether you look at the Heavenly Court, Underworld, Immortal Region, or Endless Beast Region, most of their experts ascended to the God or Yao Realms. Also, this trend shows no sign of slowing down. People are still ascending one after the other.
Queen Mother: If things continue like this, our operations will stagnate.
Queen Mother: I asked the Great Sage to come down here, but even with his breadth of experience and keen eyes, he couldn't tell what was going on!
Immortality Peach Fairy: Many of the Immortality Peach Garden's immortal sisters left too. Nezha doesn't talk in the group chat anymore. The chat's gotten super duper boring!
Kitchen God: It's been really boring here. I don't even need to make dinner for those great immortals anymore.
Heavenly Soldier A: It's been three days since Commander Lightning ascended. We miss him.
Heavenly Soldier B: After Yue Lao left, his disciples started tying couples together randomly and without reservation. Love and marriage are in chaos throughout the lower three realms. There are love triangles, love squares, love pentagons...
Ghost Messenger A: Who knows how many people have died as a result? Our workload has increased.
Ghost Messenger A: But we've still yet to choose new Yama Kings, so we don't know what to do with all the new ghosts. @ Queen Mother, I hope you can hurry and choose new judges for us.
Queen Mother: @ Only Idealism: See? This is the current Heavenly Court.
Queen Mother: I won't say any more. There's far too many matters for me to attend to. Ack, the Profound Lady of the Ninth Mountain ascended too. It's really getting lonely down here.