Dry Tinder Meets a Raging Fire
The western part of the Primordial World was famously barren, its Spirit Veins sparse and its Spiritual Qi so thin that birds wouldn't even shit there.
But that came after Luohou detonated the Spirit Veins of the western lands. The west of the present was actually not much inferior to the east.
Even so, compared with the east, a blessed land of outstanding people and misty immortal Qi, the west, stronghold of the Demon Dao and the Devil Ancestor Luohou, seemed somewhat more desolate.
This was especially true of Mount Sumeru, the Devil Ancestor Luohou's cultivation ground. It was forbidden to all living beings except the Devil Race.
Luohou naturally felt the Heavenly Dao's suppression too. Moreover, among those targeted, he was the one it suppressed most fiercely.
After all, the path he followed was the Demon Dao. If the Immortal Dao created by Hongjun meant severing the seven emotions and six desires, acting in accordance with Heaven, and carrying out justice on its behalf,
Then Luohou's Demon Dao meant acting as he pleased, with all five poisons—greed, anger, delusion, doubt, and arrogance—in full measure.
Anyone who angered him would be killed, slaughtered until not a scrap of armor remained. Even if it were the Heavenly Dao, so what? He would kill his way straight up to Heaven, from the Southern Heavenly Gate to the Northern Heavenly Gate, without batting an eye.
Thus, unlike Yangmei, who felt helpless and conflicted, he did not feel especially resistant to becoming a Heavenly Dao Sage.
But he was the Devil Ancestor. How could he possibly submit meekly to such treatment? A fiercer ambition rose in his heart, and he too had a third path in mind.
"Heavenly Dao... order... rules?"
A cold smile curled Luohou's lips, and his voice echoed through the empty palace.
"Only the strong can make rules and establish order. If Pangu were still alive, I'd have nothing to say. But what gives you the right to rule the Primordial World and make its rules?"
He could leave the Primordial World and attain the Dao in Chaos, but then he would never be able to return. Even if he could return, he could only stay for a short time; once his visa expired, he would be driven out.
What would that make him, then? A homeless cur?
He was Luohou, the reincarnation of the Devil God of Destruction and the current progenitor of the Demon Dao. Did he not care about his dignity?
Becoming a Heavenly Dao Sage and entrusting his Primordial Spirit to the Heavenly Dao was an even greater joke. How was that any different from becoming the Heavenly Dao's puppet?
He would not gain power under the rules. He would break them, then become the one who made them.
It was one thing to be unable to defeat Pangu. But this Heavenly Dao, born after Pangu split Heaven and Earth apart, was nothing more than a wet-behind-the-ears brat in his eyes. Did it really think it could keep him under its thumb?
"Follow Heaven without becoming a Sage, and I'll be suppressed. Defy Heaven and attain the Dao through strength, and the path ahead is already severed." A mad light flickered in Luohou's eyes. "Then... only one final path remains."
Take control of the Heavenly Dao!
It was a mad idea. Even Yangmei had not thought of doing such a thing, yet Luohou was determined to do it.
Still, he was Luohou, so it was only to be expected that he would make such a choice.
He would become a Heavenly Dao Sage, then take control of the Heavenly Dao, and ultimately the entire Primordial World.
What Luohou did not know, however, was that someone else had thought of doing the same thing. That person had already gained the Heavenly Dao's favor and was far ahead of him.
And that person was Hongjun, whom he had never thought much of.
Luohou did not know this, so he continued making his preparations step by step.
Since he wanted to control the Heavenly Dao, he first had to weaken it, throw it into disorder, and create an opening.
And a good opportunity lay before him.
Luohou slowly rose to his feet and stood atop Mount Sumeru, gazing toward the eastern continent.
The fortunes of the Dragon Clan, the Phoenix Clan, and the Qilin Clan were now at their zenith, like three blazing suns shining over the entire Primordial World.
But extremes gave way to their opposites. Amid those fortunes at their zenith, wisps of black Qi were quietly taking shape.
It was Tribulation Qi.
As the three clans continued to expand, friction grew more frequent. Their struggles inflicted casualties not only on the three clans themselves, but also caused considerable harm to countless living beings and even to Heaven and Earth in the Primordial World.
Hatred, resentment, killing intent, and more gathered among living beings, forming a force that was difficult to detect, formless and intangible, yet undeniably real.
This was the root of a Kalpa—Tribulation Qi.
To the living beings of the Primordial World, Tribulation Qi was a colorless, odorless poison. Once entangled in it, those affected lightly would find their cultivation obstructed, unable to advance even half an inch. In severe cases, their minds would be clouded, making them impulsive and quick to anger. In the end, they would become cannon fodder in the Kalpa, their painstaking cultivation over countless years reduced to tribulation ash.
But to Luohou, this Tribulation Qi bore some resemblance to his Devil Qi, different means producing a similar effect.
Perhaps he could make some use of it.
With a thought, he released a black Qi from his body, purer and stranger than Tribulation Qi. It intertwined with the Tribulation Qi and spread between Heaven and Earth.
It was the Qi of the Demon Dao that Luohou had created. It could stir up the desires in a living being's heart, magnifying negative emotions such as greed, jealousy, and hatred bit by bit. It changed a living being's temperament through subtle influence, while that being remained unaware.
If Tribulation Qi was dry tinder, then Luohou's Devil Qi was the flame.
Now that dry tinder had met a raging fire, all it took was a spark.
On the shore of the East Sea, a true dragon on patrol discovered a faint, multicolored glow from a spirit treasure shining through a newly formed coral reef.
This was Dragon Clan territory, so the treasure rightfully belonged to the Dragon Clan.
But just then, a squad of Qilin Clan scouts also discovered the place.
This should have been a small matter. A spirit treasure went to whoever had the affinity for it; they could simply fight, and the winner would take it.
But under the twin influence of the invisible Tribulation Qi and Devil Qi, this small clash escalated into a major dispute.
"Dragon Clan, you're nothing but lowly reptiles, yet you dare act so brazenly before our Qilin Clan?"
"This is the border of the East Sea, our Dragon Clan's territory. It's not your Qilin Clan's place to run wild here."
The two juniors came to blows, drawing their seniors into the fight, which was followed by a clash between elders.
A fire phoenix found a parasol tree that was ten thousand years old, only for it to have long been occupied by a Jiaolong. The Jiaolong had even reached the stage of transforming into a true dragon.
The fire phoenix originally had no desire to come into conflict with this Jiaolong. It was just a place to rest, and although she was picky, it wasn't as though there were no others.
But the Jiaolong did not see it that way. It was at a critical point in its transformation, and relations between the Dragon and Phoenix Clans were strained. If she struck it, wouldn't its painstaking cultivation over several Yuanhui all go to waste?
So it had to strike first. A fierce clash erupted between them, phoenix fire and dragon lightning tearing through the sky amid the clouds.
Similar scenes played out again and again in every corner of the Primordial Land.
Under the combined influence of Tribulation Qi and Devil Qi, members of the three clans became increasingly belligerent and irrational.
Minor clashes rapidly escalated into bloody conflicts. Small-scale conflicts grew ever fiercer and continued to escalate, while the grudges accumulated by the three clans grew like a snowball, rolling ever larger.
And amid these bloody conflicts, hatred and Tribulation Qi were nourished and continued to spread.
It was a vicious cycle, one that kept growing until, in the end, even the three clan leaders—Ancestral Dragon, Primordial Phoenix, and Primordial Qilin, three mighty Quasi-Saints—were drawn into it, caught in the Kalpa and sliding into the abyss.