Investiture of the Gods: A Lighthearted Edition

In ancient times, humanity was immensely powerful, nearly equal in status to the gods. That all changed one day when King Zhou, the foolish and tyrannical ruler of the human race, blasphemed Empress Nuwa. Enraged, she wanted to punish him, but bound by the will of Heaven, she could only send a thousand-year-old nine-tailed white fox to infiltrate his court, cloud his mind, and bring down his kingdom. At that time, the Immortal Realm was in turmoil, with the Chan and Jie Sects each staking out their own territory and refusing to yield. To restore order, the three great sect leaders, Laozi, Yuanshi Tianzun, and Sect Master Tongtian, drew up a pact: the Investiture of the Gods. It decreed that those who cultivated immortality but failed to attain the Dao would lose their physical bodies, their souls entering the Investiture of the Gods to be imprisoned forever by the Heavenly Court. Lured by the nine-tailed fox, King Zhou welcomed many Jie Sect cultivators into his ranks and waged war against Xiqi, whose forces were led by the Chan Sect. The Jie Sect was ultimately defeated. The battle drained the Shang Dynasty’s fortune and robbed humanity of the spiritual energy it once possessed, leaving it unable to stand as an equal to the gods ever again. The Heavenly Court divided the gods: those who attained the Dao entered its ranks as immortals and ruled the Three Realms. Those who lost their bodies in the great Investiture of the Gods War entered the list as deities, to be worshipped and revered by mortals. Empress Nuwa had finally taken her revenge on humanity. When the nine-tailed white fox reported back to her, Nuwa said that she had gotten what she deserved. But to ensure the fox would die without regrets, Nuwa granted the Nine-tailed Fox Clan permission to live apart from the Three Realms from then on.