At a newly opened massive fault layer on Buzhou Mountain, the project had reached its most critical stage.
"Pangu Divine Concrete, pour!"
At Zhurong's command, enormous freshly made blocks of Divine Concrete, flowing with a mysterious yellow radiance, were precisely cast into the fault by the mighty Witch Clan laborers.
[Rumble—!] At that moment, an earth-shattering boom erupted from the deepest part of the fault!
A pitch-black malevolent qi, carrying bone-piercing cold and endless resentment, burst skyward like an erupting volcano!
"Ah!"
Several dozen Witch Clan warriors at the front did not even have time to scream before the black qi swept over them. Their tall, robust bodies instantly shriveled, their eyes turned crimson, and they began madly attacking their companions.
"Careful! This malevolent qi can corrupt the mind!"
The supervising great shaman roared a warning, but the malevolent qi spread far faster than anyone had imagined.
Wherever it passed, even the surface of the newly poured Pangu Divine Concrete let out a corrosive sizzle, and fine cracks appeared across its sturdy structure.
The project was forced to halt.
A line of blood-red text appeared before Xuanzheng in the Manual:
[Regional minor BUG detected: Pangu_D019, Geomantic Malevolent Qi Accumulation Point.]
"Get the hell back!"
Zhurong was the first to arrive. Seeing his contaminated clansmen and the damaged project, he was furious beyond measure.
Southern Bright Lihuo turned into a sea of flames and engulfed the malevolent qi vent.
Yet the flames, hot enough to melt metal and iron, vanished like mud sinking into the sea the instant they touched the black qi. The malevolent qi swallowed them with ease, without even causing a ripple.
"What?!" Zhurong froze.
"I'll do it!"
Gonggong followed close behind. Nine Heavens Weak Water became towering waves, attempting to wash away and dilute the malevolent qi.
When the black malevolent qi came into contact with the weak water, it was not dispersed. Instead, it stained even the pitch-black water with an ominous ash-gray hue, and a decayed stench spread through the air.
"This thing can contaminate my source water!" Gonggong's expression changed drastically, and he immediately withdrew his divine ability.
"Watch this!"
Qiangliang descended from the sky, countless bolts of lightning forming a net that crashed fiercely into the malevolent qi.
[Boom! Crackle!] Lightning flashed, and a great deal of the malevolent qi was indeed blasted apart. But the scattered black qi turned into countless threads and spread in every direction even faster, expanding the contaminated area instead.
Several ancestral witches took turns making their moves, yet all were helpless.
This malevolent qi vent had formed from the resentment, malevolent qi, and ruined fate of countless powerful beings who had died here during the Dragon-Han Calamity, accumulating for hundreds of millions of years. It was filthy beyond measure and bitterly cold, like an incurable festering sore upon the primordial land.
Zhurong could not keep his composure. "Damn it, I refuse to believe this nonsense!" He was about to activate his source true fire again.
"Don't waste your strength." Gonggong stopped him. "This thing is rooted in the earth. You can't burn it away or wash it apart."
"Then what do you suggest? Just stand here and watch?" Zhurong's fiery temper flared.
Xuanzheng slowly walked to the edge of the malevolent qi vent. He glanced at his helpless elder brothers, then turned his gaze toward Houtu, who had arrived late and was observing the scene with furrowed brows.
"Sister Houtu."
Houtu turned around, her gentle face filled with worry. "Thirteenth Brother, this malevolent qi is far too foul. It has already damaged the very foundation of the earth veins."
"This is not a vicious evil, but a chronic illness of the earth." Xuanzheng's expression remained "innocent" as he pointed at the deep pit constantly spewing black qi. "The root of the sickness lies in the soil, so naturally, the cure lies in the soil as well. I have a method that may transform this waste malevolent qi into Spiritual Earth Treasure Qi, but... it will require Sister's help."
"Oh?" Houtu was somewhat surprised. "What can I do? My power can only suppress it temporarily. I cannot eradicate it."
"Sister only needs to suppress and sort it out."
Xuanzheng was confident. He turned and cupped his hands toward Jumang. "Brother Jumang, please cooperate by growing a batch of Malevolent Qi Devouring Vines around this vent to absorb the toxins leaking out."
Jumang looked at the terrifying malevolent qi vent, then at Xuanzheng, and nodded. Though Xuanzheng was asking him to exert himself again, he did not refuse when such an important matter was at stake.
"And then?" Houtu pressed.
"Then comes the crucial step." Xuanzheng's tone became solemn. "Please draw upon the Great Earth Mother Qi from the depths of Buzhou Mountain's earth veins."
"Great Earth Mother Qi?!" Houtu's expression changed. "That is the essence of the Origin of the Great Earth. It is incomparably precious! Wouldn't using it on something so filthy be a terrible waste?"
"Have you forgotten the Pangu Divine Concrete?" Xuanzheng asked. "Metal and stone oppose one another, yet they can still be harmonized into one through the power of wood and fire. The malevolent qi and Great Earth Mother Qi both ultimately evolved from the pure and turbid qi of Pangu Father God. Why can't malevolence be transformed into spirit?"
His voice was not loud, yet all the ancestral witches present were stunned.
Transforming Malevolence into Spirit?
The idea was far too unimaginable, practically a fantasy.
Xuanzheng continued to patiently guide them. "We shall treat this malevolent qi as a special supplementary material. With Great Earth Mother Qi as the main ingredient and Sister's Origin of Earth as the furnace, we will carry out an entirely new fusion refinement. If it succeeds, this wasteland will become a Spiritual Earth Spring Eye that nourishes all things."
Houtu's heart shook violently.
She looked into Xuanzheng's clear eyes, then at the bottomless malevolent qi vent.
The risk was enormous, but if she succeeded...
Feeling the waves of mournful cries coming from the earth, an innate sense of duty surged within her.
"Alright! I believe you!"
Houtu hesitated no longer. She flew up and hovered above the malevolent qi vent, forming hand seals with both hands.
"Great virtue bears all things, Origin of the Great Earth, suppress!"
A vast, heavy yellow divine light descended from her body like an invisible sacred mountain, forcibly pressing the violently erupting malevolent qi back down.
Meanwhile, Jumang waved his hand and scattered countless emerald-green seeds. The seeds took root the instant they touched the ground, rapidly growing into a ring of dark-green, strange vines that tightly encircled the malevolent qi vent and greedily absorbed the leaking black qi.
"Thirteenth Brother, what next?" Houtu's voice was strained. Clearly, suppressing this immense malevolent qi was taking a heavy toll on her.
"Draw in the Great Earth Mother Qi as though unraveling silk from a cocoon, and slowly inject it! Wrap the malevolent qi, rotate it, grind it down!" Xuanzheng loudly instructed from the side, while the Script Mirror rapidly calculated the optimal energy ratio.
Houtu did as he said.
A strand of yellow earthen qi, purer and more primordial than Mysterious Yellow Mother Qi, was drawn by her from the depths of Buzhou Mountain's earth veins and carefully extended into the malevolent qi.
[Hum—!] The instant the two forces made contact, a violent tremor erupted within the malevolent qi vent!
The violent malevolent qi frantically lashed back. Houtu's body shook intensely, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
"Hold steady! Treat it as an unruly stone. You only need to grind down its edges, not shatter it!" Xuanzheng's voice rang like a great bell, striking Houtu's heart.
Houtu gritted her teeth, her divine sense sinking into the earth as the Law of Earth circulated with unprecedented intricacy.
She no longer resisted it by force. Instead, she transformed the Great Earth Mother Qi into a massive spiral millstone, gently yet resolutely enclosing the malevolent qi within it, grinding it away layer by layer and slowly assimilating it.
Time passed second by second.
The originally ink-black malevolent qi slowly began to fade, shifting from jet black to dark gray, then light gray... until threads of pure spiritual qi began to precipitate from within!
It worked!
Under the stunned gazes of all the ancestral witches, the malevolent qi vent that had been polluted for hundreds of millions of years was truly transformed completely!
A spring eye erupting with pure spiritual earth qi appeared before them.
Wherever the spring water flowed, the withered ground regained its vitality, and immortal flowers and Spirit Grass bloomed in eager profusion.
[Boom!]
Above the Nine Heavens, an incomparably pure and immense golden light of Heavenly Dao Merit descended with a crash, completely entering Houtu's body!
Houtu trembled from head to toe. Her understanding of the Great Dao of Earth instantly rose to an entirely new level, and the bottleneck in her cultivation faintly loosened.
Feeling the ease of merit settling upon her, she slowly opened her eyes and looked down at Xuanzheng. Her gaze was filled with unprecedented shock and conviction.
"Thirteenth Brother, your ability to turn waste into treasure... is truly divine!"
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