The Summit of Buzhou Mountain

"Brother?"

Nuwa looked at Fuxi's solemn face, at a loss.

"Little sister, stay here. Don't go anywhere. I'll go take a look."

Fuxi gave her those instructions in a tone that brooked no argument. Then he waved his hand, turned into a streak of light, and shot toward Buzhou Mountain.

Nuwa stood where she was, looking in the direction Fuxi had disappeared. In the end, she said nothing, merely turning and walking over to the spirit field.

There were quite a few Spirit Roots in the field, including more than a dozen sunflowers. They had grown from the sunflower seeds Xiang Dong had given Nuwa before, which had taken root and sprouted after he self-destructed.

Even Xiang Dong probably hadn't expected Nuwa to plant them in her own spirit field, let alone tend them so well, using Xirang as the soil.

Nuwa brushed her fingers over a flower head and murmured, "Was the strange change on Buzhou Mountain caused by you, Xiang Dong?"

At that moment, on Buzhou Mountain,

Hongjun quietly arrived from the east.

Luohou slipped in silently from the west.

Soon after came the south, the north, the center... the light of the Five Elements, Yin-Yang Qi, the Dao resonance of Heaven and Earth...

These different clusters of light represented the current strongest combatants in the Primordial World, appearing in different locations.

Though they were hundreds of millions of miles apart, their Divine Sense allowed them to sense one another as if they were close at hand.

Since they all had the same goal, there was no need to keep anything hidden. Everyone turned their gaze to the enormous mountain before them, which radiated endless majesty.

Pangu's Pressure was heavy, but one could resist it with one's cultivation and strength, or counteract it with a Secret Method. None of those present were ordinary figures; each had their own means.

A cursory investigation failed to yield the information they wanted, so they all made almost the same decision: climb the mountain and reach its summit.

Step by step, they would use their own eyes and knowledge to judge for themselves.

Had Pangu awakened? Was he still alive?

Carrying the God-Slaying Spear, Luohou used the supreme innate treasure to break through Pangu's Pressure and became the first to reach the summit.

Hongjun, Five Elements, Heaven and Earth, and Yin-Yang followed close behind. Their Secret Methods collided with Pangu's Pressure, throwing off spots of light as they arrived one after another.

But after Xiang Dong had been swept into the blood pool to undertake his great purification, Pangu's will had dissipated once more, leaving no movement at all.

Thus, Buzhou Mountain was still the same Buzhou Mountain as before, with nothing amiss. Even after these Chaos Demon Gods and innate divine beings exhausted every means at their disposal, they found no trace of anything unusual.

"Fellow Daoist Luohou, you were the first to reach the summit. Did you discover anything?"

"Hmph!" Luohou snorted coldly. "Why should I tell you?"

Luohou wouldn't have shown any of the people before him a friendly face, much less Hongjun, who had been the one to speak.

The struggle for supremacy between the three races led by Ancestral Dragon, Primordial Phoenix, and Primordial Qilin had yet to begin. Though minor clashes continued, their fighting had not yet reached a boiling point. But the conflict between Luohou and Hongjun over the Dao had already begun to show signs.

Their opposing ideals of immortals and demons had already placed them on opposite sides.

But Hongjun was not the only one opposed to Luohou. Five Elements, Yin-Yang, and Heaven and Earth also disagreed with his ideals.

After all, Luohou had formerly been the Demon God of Destruction. He wielded the Principle of Destruction and advocated destroying everything.

Though he was no longer so extreme, he now intended to prove his Dao through slaughter. As for whom he would kill, that was hard to say.

But Luohou, who possessed the supreme innate treasure of slaughter and wielded the Principle of Destruction, was far too great a threat. When they had killed Shen Ni, Luohou had been their undisputed main force.

None of them could defeat Luohou one-on-one, so they had no choice but to huddle together for warmth.

"We all came here to confirm the cause of the strange change on Buzhou Mountain and whether Pangu has come back to life. Our goal is the same. Sharing information and working together would benefit us all, wouldn't it?"

"Work together?"

Luohou regarded those words with disdain.

"Back when Pangu split open the heavens, how many of us worked together to stop him? And didn't we fail to stop anything all the same?"

"Things are different now."

Qiankun Ancestor stepped forward and offered those words, only for Luohou to fire back at once.

"But your fear of him hasn't diminished. On the contrary, after experiencing the opening of the heavens and becoming living beings of this Primordial World, your fear of him..."

"Has grown deeper!"

Those words, "grown deeper," were an irrefutable fact, and they left the Chaos Demon Gods silent.

After an unknown length of silence, Hongjun raised a question.

"Where is Fellow Daoist Yangmei? Why haven't we seen him?"

Yin-Yang Ancestor clapped his hands.

"We haven't seen him at all. Perhaps he's in seclusion. In any case, Yangmei ranks among the top three of us. Perhaps he's at a critical juncture in a breakthrough and has no attention to spare for anything else."

Yin-Yang Ancestor's words made sense. Yangmei's cultivation had indeed always been ahead of theirs. But Hongjun merely nodded in agreement; in his heart, he thought nothing of the sort.

How could Yangmei fail to react to something as momentous as Pangu awakening?

Even if he were at a critical point in a breakthrough, he ought to come over and take a look. For all they knew, it might even have been caused by his breakthrough.

Besides, he was the Space Demon God. Even if a breakthrough had delayed him for a while, he shouldn't have fallen so far behind them.

Even with Pangu's Pressure suppressing him on Buzhou Mountain and preventing him from tearing through space to teleport, he should have arrived by now with the means at his disposal.

Yet Yangmei was still nowhere to be seen. There was a ninety percent chance, or even a hundred percent chance, that something was wrong.

The unease in Hongjun's heart grew.

"Since we can't find out anything useful, I won't waste any more time here with you."

Seeing that he truly could not uncover anything useful, Luohou decided to be the first to leave.

It might have been fine elsewhere, but this was Buzhou Mountain. Resisting Pangu's Pressure alone took them considerable effort, leaving them unable to divide their attention to cultivate.

Rather than stand around staring blankly at one another, it was more worthwhile to return to their own cultivation grounds.

If he seized the time and worked hard, he might prove his Dao the very next moment. Then, even if Pangu's will were stronger still and he truly came back to life, Luohou would be able to lock arms with him.

The most important thing was to be strong oneself. After all, there were no laws in the Primordial World, and things like morality, dignity, and face could all be cast aside at any time.

As long as you were strong enough and your fist was big enough, you held the final say.

Seeing Luohou leave, the other Demon Gods departed one after another, leaving Hongjun behind.

He was still somewhat unwilling to give up and wanted to search more carefully.

He didn't know whether the others had any means of getting to the bottom of it, but he was confident he still had some chance.

That confidence came from the Creation Jade Disc.

The Creation Jade Disc was a supreme Chaos treasure, but unfortunately, it too had shattered under the backlash from the opening of the heavens. Though Hongjun had obtained the largest fragment, it was still incomplete.