Very Good, Full of Spirit
A breeze blew past, and the golden specks of light scattered across the ground took root and sprouted right where they lay.
It was quite a spectacular sight. As the sun rose and the moon set, an unknown number of days and nights passed, and another sea of flowers came into being.
Amid the sea of flowers, one flower's disk formed a human face. This was Xiang Dong.
"Holy crap, is Fuxi a siscon too?"
"Other people come to blows at the slightest disagreement, but I barely got two words out before he blew me up. Seriously."
"And he's supposed to be the future Demon Emperor? I think he's one of the Three Sovereigns too. He's got no manners at all. Just you wait, I'll park my Ghost Fire scooter downstairs from your house and let out a good, nasty fart."
After muttering to himself for a while, Xiang Dong began to take form.
Xiang Dong, the two-meter-tall giant of light, was back online.
But Xiang Dong couldn't take this newly formed sea of flowers with him, because it was at the foot of Buzhou Mountain, within the mountain's domain.
With his current strength, he couldn't even use teleportation or shrinking the ground to an inch here, much less the more advanced feat of cutting and folding space to create a small pocket of his own.
If he used any such Divine Ability or Law Technique, the omnipresent pressure wouldn't mind turning Xiang Dong into a brilliant firework once again.
If he couldn't take it, he'd leave it. It didn't matter.
"Getting down to business is what counts. The most important thing right now is to add my own bricks and tiles to the cause of purifying the Primordial World. The Primordial World is my home; making it beautiful takes everyone. If nobody else will do it, I'll shoulder the burden. I'll sacrifice myself so that countless households may benefit."
That was what he said, but after taking a look at the sea of flowers, Xiang Dong felt that actually sacrificing himself would be rather difficult. It was a task with a heavy burden and a long road ahead.
After all, two self-detonations had produced two seas of flowers. He had fully and vividly demonstrated what it meant for one of him to fall and thousands upon thousands of him to rise.
And so, Xiang Dong began his long journey to find Pangu Hall on Buzhou Mountain.
As far as he knew, the Twelve Ancestral Witches and the Witch Clan had all been nurtured in the blood pool inside Pangu Hall, while Pangu Hall itself had been formed from Pangu's heart and lay in the heart of Buzhou Mountain.
By that reckoning, his objective seemed clear enough, but in reality, that wasn't the case at all.
Buzhou Mountain was simply too enormous. Put Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth, here, and it wouldn't even count as a little mound of dirt.
It was vast and tall, and Pangu's pressure covered the mountain.
So he could only rely on his own two legs and climb, one step at a time.
That climb took almost an entire Yuanhui. Even if it hadn't, at least tens of thousands of years had passed.
Never mind Pangu Hall; he hadn't encountered the Innate Gourd Vine and its seven Gourd Babies, or the Innate Banana Tree, or anything like them either.
He had gained absolutely nothing, doing nothing but rack up his WeChat step count on Buzhou Mountain.
What was more, the higher he climbed on Buzhou Mountain, the heavier the pressure became. With Xiang Dong's current strength, he had only just managed to get beyond the foot of the mountain; he couldn't cross the mountainside at all.
After squandering a great deal of time and undergoing the baptism of Pangu's pressure every day, Xiang Dong's mind had cleared considerably. A flash of inspiration struck, and he finally understood the crux of the matter.
"Buzhou Mountain has lots of good things, but until the time comes for them to emerge, they won't give off the slightest trace of their presence. Unless you have a great fortuitous opportunity with them and can sense them, you can't find where they are or locate the innate formations protecting them."
Before innate Spirit Roots and Innate Spirit Treasures finished being nurtured and emerged, they were all protected by innate formations.
Only when they were fully nurtured and their presence leaked beyond the formations would anyone discover them.
Xiang Dong had actually been protected by an innate formation too, but he had destroyed it long ago. He didn't even know how many years it had been, and he had long since put the matter out of his mind, only recalling it now.
"Pangu Hall is the Witch Clan's headquarters. Its defensive innate formation should be even more advanced, and it might have something to do with Pangu's pressure. At this rate, even if I had a dozen or more Yuanhui, I still wouldn't find it. I couldn't even locate its foundation."
Then he could wait. Once the Twelve Ancestral Witches were fully nurtured and emerged, Pangu Hall would naturally reveal itself as well.
But Xiang Dong immediately rejected that idea.
He couldn't just waste his time like this, standing on Buzhou Mountain like a stone woman waiting for her husband.
If he really waited for the Twelve Ancestral Witches to pop out on their own, it wouldn't just be a case of the daylilies having gone cold; he wouldn't have protected anything at all.
So...
"I have to find a way to make Pangu Hall appear ahead of time."
Xiang Dong rubbed his chin, pondering how to make Pangu Hall appear of its own accord.
"But I'm an outsider. I have neither Pangu's bloodline nor a Primordial Spirit to guide me. How can I make Pangu Hall appear before me of its own accord?"
Xiang Dong soon thought of a method commonly used in later generations: worship!
Worship one's elders, ancestors, great figures and deities, and convey one's wishes and prayers to them.
Strictly speaking, Buzhou Mountain was also the place closest to Pangu's spirit in heaven.
Yes, the logic was perfect, without a single flaw.
Xiang Dong slapped his thigh and immediately set to work.
He picked out the largest bluestone slab to serve as an altar.
An offering required tribute, but there really wasn't anything good nearby, so Xiang Dong could only ask his clones to make a little sacrifice.
He ruthlessly laid hands on the flowers, pulling a few of the best-growing sunflowers from his origin space and arranging them neatly on the bluestone slab.
Then he stir-fried several different flavors of sunflower seeds on the spot and painstakingly arranged them into a huge smiling face.
"Mm, very good, full of spirit."
Xiang Dong clapped his hands. He was extremely pleased with his masterpiece, so much so that he became immersed in his own art, unable to pull himself away.
Then, with a thud, he dropped to both knees and knocked his head solidly against the ground.
"Great God Pangu, you split heaven and earth and transformed your body into all things. Though I was not formed from your Primordial Spirit, nor nurtured from your Essence Blood, in the end I was still born because of you. I honor you as the father of all things, so I dare to address you as Father God."
Xiang Dong was earnest and serious as he said this. He genuinely looked up to Pangu.
"So, Father God above, please accept Xiang Dong's bow."
After bowing, Xiang Dong first explained why he had come.
"Father God, your twelve drops of Essence Blood should be nurturing the Twelve Ancestral Witches in Pangu Hall right now, shouldn't they? Your Primordial Spirit became the Three Pure Ones and joined with the Three Pure Ones' Qi, and they all have the merit of creating heaven."
"But look at the Twelve Ancestral Witches. Not only do they have no merit of creating heaven and none of the Creation-Heaven Three Treasures, all they have is the Sha Qi from the creation of heaven. Though that stuff can strengthen their bodies, it's just like Sanlu milk powder: it leaves their brains underdeveloped and their cerebellums completely undeveloped. It erodes their souls, leaving them unable to cultivate Primordial Spirits."
"I know you want to look after them, Father God, but can't, so I've taken the liberty of offering to help you look after them. Now all I need is for you to open a door for me."