Stay Put and Behave

The Primordial Land stretched vast and boundless.

With the end of the Beast Calamity, countless beasts had been slain. After the Sha Qi from the creation of the world and the turbid Qi had eased, life returned to the land.

Besides the illustrious Three Primordial Clans—the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin—many Innate divine beings had also emerged one after another.

At first, Xiang Dong and Nuwa took their time. After all, Mount Buzhou and the Eastern Sea were separated by at least hundreds of millions of miles. Even traveling at full speed, they would need a great deal of time to cover the distance at their cultivation realms.

That time was generally measured in Yuan Meetings, so there was no need to rush.

Xiang Dong had just comprehended the Light and Creation Principles. Like a child who had received a beloved toy, he was eager and excited to play.

Along the way, Xiang Dong kept trying to combine the Light Principle with the Space Great Dao, to see whether he could achieve faster-than-light travel in the physical sense.

In Nuwa's eyes, however, this so-called faster-than-light movement was simply Xiang Dong transforming into a beam of light and teleporting a short distance—or, one could also say, flashing.

Not only was the distance he covered each time short, but it was also quite taxing and had a cooldown. Yet Xiang Dong never tired of it.

Nuwa did not urge him on, either. She was enjoying her travels, observing the Primordial World's mountains, rivers, and terrain and sensing the presence of all living things. It was also beneficial to her Dao Path.

After playing around for a while, Xiang Dong got down to business.

He pulled all his sunflower avatars out of Nuwa's spirit field, leaving only three as a foundation—and to give Fuxi a headache while he was at it.

Whether Fuxi destroyed those three sunflowers or not, it would be good for Xiang Dong.

Now, Xiang Dong took all the sunflower seeds from the flower heads of the avatars in the spirit field.

Every one of those sunflower seeds contained a pure Innate Origin. This was Xiang Dong's foundation and what he relied on to remain undying and indestructible.

Normally, these sunflower seeds should have been carefully hidden where no one could find them. After all, they were all karmically connected to Xiang Dong, and a single slip could very well allow someone to use the Great Dao of Karma to strike at him from the shadows.

But Xiang Dong did just the opposite. Not only did he leave his avatars unattended, he even gave a handful of sunflower seeds to everyone he met, as if afraid others would not be able to get a hold over him.

What Xiang Dong did next was even more baffling to Nuwa.

Xiang Dong held a handful of golden sunflower seeds, light flowing across his palm.

He was actually diluting the Innate Origin contained in the sunflower seeds of his own accord. He was turning Innate into Acquired.

The golden radiance gradually dimmed, and the Innate charm of being born alongside heaven and earth rapidly faded. In the end, only an utterly ordinary Acquired presence remained.

By diluting their origins, he had forcibly downgraded those future Innate Spirit Roots one by one into Acquired Spirit Roots.

Though Innate and Acquired differed by only one word, they were as far apart as clouds and mud, separated by a chasm that was difficult to cross.

Even the finest Acquired Spirit Root could not compare to a low-grade Innate Spirit Root. In the Primordial World of this time, Acquired Spirit Roots were no different from weeds; no Innate divine being would spare them a second glance.

Every one of Xiang Dong's avatars was at the level of an Innate Spirit Root. Anything less could not hold his Primordial Spirit.

So was Xiang Dong cutting off his own arms by doing this?

Nuwa finally could not help asking.

"Turning Innate into Acquired—what is the meaning of this?"

"Shh, you don't understand."

Xiang Dong raised an index finger to his lips and merely smiled mysteriously without further explanation. Then he casually scattered the downgraded sunflower seeds by the roadside.

As soon as the seeds landed and came into contact with Innate Spiritual Qi, they quickly took root and germinated. Before long, tiny green shoots emerged.

And so, Xiang Dong became a tireless sowing machine, planting seeds as he traveled.

Whenever he reached a mountain range or a plain, he would scatter some seeds.

The origins of these Acquired sunflowers also contained traces of Primordial Xirang. They were not picky about their environment, and their vitality and adaptability were exceptionally tenacious. Before long, they had taken root across the Primordial Land.

Indeed, not long after Xiang Dong passed through, a patch had already sprung up behind him.

Nuwa watched in silence. She knew Xiang Dong must have his reasons for doing this, so she continued to observe quietly. Eventually, she gradually worked it out.

The greatest advantage of turning Innate into Acquired was that the demands of the growing environment and the length of the growth cycle were both reduced, allowing them to grow faster and occupy the Primordial Land.

What Xiang Dong sought was quantity, not quality.

In his own way, Xiang Dong was spreading his "roots" to every corner of the Primordial World.

These Acquired sunflowers might not be able to provide him with great power, but what if they were combined with the Principles he had used before?

He was laying plans—a scheme she could not yet understand, but one of immense scope.

Meanwhile, at the other end from the Eastern Sea, where Xiang Dong and Nuwa were headed, lay the Northern Sea.

A creature that blotted out the sky and sun rose from the ocean. After leaping above the surface, it transformed into a great peng that blotted out the sky and sun.

This was Kunpeng.

The Netherworld Blood Sea, formed from Pangu's navel, also began to surge. Then Ancestor Minghe emerged into the world, the Twelve-Petaled Red Lotus above his head and the two Innate killing swords, Yuantu and Abi, in his hands. He was known as the Primordial World's greatest homebody.

Emerging alongside him was the Blood-Winged Black Mosquito, one of the Five Insects of the Primordial World, likewise nurtured by the Blood Sea and known in later ages as Mosquito Daoist.

When Mosquito Daoist emerged, however, he concealed his presence, keeping Ancestor Minghe from discovering him.

Otherwise, Ancestor Minghe would surely have drawn his swords to kill him at once.

After that came Daoist Randeng, a man of extraordinary origins but a pitiful figure whose fortune had always been poor because his true form was the first Innate coffin.

There was, however, someone even more pitiful than him: Daoist Hongyun, the first Innate cloud, stained red by Pangu's heart blood.

Zhen Yuanzi, who had an excellent relationship with Daoist Hongyun as his sworn friend and bosom buddy, had taken form from the Ginseng Fruit Tree, one of the ten finest Innate Spirit Roots. He would later become the renowned Ancestor of Earth Immortals.

Besides these named figures who could claim a page in the history of the Primordial World, many other Innate divine beings also emerged one after another.

Most of these, however, were mere extras, insignificant passersby whose names had not even been handed down.

As the foremost of the Twelve Ancestral Witches, Di Jiang was naturally no nobody either, and he too was on the verge of emerging.

The cocoon of flesh in the blood pool was stirring restlessly, but his Innate Sha Qi had not yet been completely purged. Emerging now would do him no good.

So Xiang Dong could only have his alt in the blood pool suppress him.

Just because everyone else is emerging, you want to emerge too? You shouldn't follow the crowd. Stay put and behave, and don't give me more work.

Through his connection to his avatar, Xiang Dong had his alt draw on Pangu's Pressure to suppress Di Jiang.

His alt, nurtured by heart blood and jade marrow, had the authority to draw on Pangu's Pressure.