"Hahaha! Well said! I think this gourd has quite an affinity with you people from the West!" A rough voice exploded like thunder. Gonggong strode forward and pointed at the gourd, shouting at Di Jun and Taiyi, "Look at this gourd. Doesn't the white part look like your faces? Pale with anger! And doesn't the purple part look like your hearts? All bottled up! Hahaha!"
Zhurong also crowded over, flames surging around him. "Exactly! The West is already so 'poor.' Your demon clan has such a vast foundation—why compete with them? You have no generosity at all! I say this gourd should go to the West!"
Dijiang stood nearby with his arms folded, chuckling, while the other ancestral shamans joined in:
"Give it to the West! Give it to the West!"
"The demon clan is so stingy!"
"Di Jun, Taiyi, are you two sore losers?"
This bunch of muscleheads from the shaman clan might have been good at fighting, but they were even more professional at muddying the waters, taking sides, and making people sick. They did not care who got the gourd. As long as they could make Di Jun and Taiyi miserable, they would have gladly performed a chest-crushing boulder act right there on the spot!
Di Jun and Taiyi were so furious at these barbarians that their Three Corpses nearly leaped from their bodies. Yet before so many great powers, they could not truly make a move, and the Chaos Bell was not something to be rung casually. They held a breath in their chests, nearly exploding where they stood.
Chen Song almost laughed out loud from the sidelines. He hurriedly covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking. Inwardly, he showered the ancestral shamans with praise. Brilliant work! They deserve a reward! That assist was godly! As expected, watching the fun is the greatest productive force in the primordial world!
Amid the chaos, the final Purple-White Gourd seemed to have been confused by the disorderly energies at the scene and all the cries of "affinity." Or perhaps the shaman clan's soaring blood energy and baleful aura had jolted it. It began spinning wildly in midair.
It first swayed toward Di Jun and Taiyi. Their eyes lit up.
Then it turned toward the Two from the West, and Zhunti had already extended his hand to receive it.
Next, for no apparent reason, it drifted slightly toward Chen Song, who was watching the spectacle.
Chen Song's heart skipped a beat. Damn it? Not again? I don't want to get framed again! He instinctively shrank back, terrified that the gourd would give him another "precision delivery."
However, at the very instant the gourd hesitated—
"Swoosh!"
An extremely concealed streak of black light shot out from the distant void like a venomous snake striking from its lair, heading straight for the Purple-White Gourd in the air! It was Kunpeng! Seeing that all sides remained deadlocked, he had actually tried to seize the treasure by force!
"Kunpeng! How dare you!" Di Jun, Taiyi, and Zhunti shouted at the same time as they attacked! True Sun Fire and the radiance of the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree flared instantly!
At that critical moment, the Purple-White Gourd seemed to have been enraged by Kunpeng's sneak attack, or perhaps it sensed a fatal threat. It suddenly trembled, and Yin-Yang Energies erupted, instantly scattering the streak of black light! Then, as if frightened—or as if it had finally made its choice—it shot away with a whoosh, ignoring Di Jun, Zhunti, and everyone else as it transformed into a stream of light and flew directly toward the most upright and peaceful aura present, the place with the strongest defenses and the safest appearance—
Zhenyuanzi... and the Ancestor Hong Yun beside him!
Hong Yun had been happily admiring his Nine-Nine Soul Scattering Gourd when he suddenly felt his arms grow heavier. Looking down, he saw that the troublesome Purple-White Gourd had squeezed in as well, pressed against his crimson-red gourd and looking remarkably... obedient?
Hong Yun: "???"
Everyone: "!!!"
Di Jun, Taiyi, Jieyin, Zhunti, and Kunpeng were all dumbfounded!
After all that, the snipe and clam had fought while the fisherman reaped the reward? And the fisherman was that old good guy, Hong Yun?
Zhenyuanzi was stunned as well. Then his expression turned even more solemn. He pulled Hong Yun behind him, and the phantom image of the Earth Book, the "Heaven and Earth Appraisal," fully unfolded, radiating dense Earth energy. Good heavens, Hong Yun had become a mobile treasure vault now!
Chen Song let out a long breath and patted his chest. "Good, good. At least it didn't frame me this time... But Senior Hong Yun is under immense pressure now. A man is guilty because he possesses jade..."
He looked at Hong Yun, who was blankly holding two gourds, then at Di Jun and Taiyi's ashen faces, Kunpeng's venomous gaze, the ancestral shamans who had failed to obtain a gourd but were happily high-fiving each other after successfully frustrating their rivals, and the Two from the West, whose expressions seemed to say, "Though we did not obtain the treasure, disrupting the situation is victory enough..."
This gourd distribution conference had truly been... full of twists and far too many elements!
In the end, all seven gourds found their owners, with Hong Yun claiming two alone. After producing every gourd, the Innate Gourd Vine exhausted its spiritual energy and rapidly withered into flying ash. Only a dried section of root remained, sinking deep into Buzhou Mountain.
Something's wrong!
Chen Song thought, Wasn't this gourd vine supposed to be taken away by Nuwa? She still needed it later to create humans and become a saint! Could this be the butterfly effect caused by my transmigration? Also, logically speaking, wasn't Hongjun supposed to appoint East King Duke and West Queen Mother as the Male Immortal Leader and Female Immortal Leader? Why hasn't that happened?
Beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, Hongjun, who had completely merged with the Heavenly Dao, processed the immense and complicated data stream of the primordial world with the efficiency of a supercomputer.
"Hmm? This task still hasn't been done?"
"Oh... It was originally supposed to be issued after the first sermon. It got delayed until now. Anyway, it only serves as a nominal standard and symbolic balance... Forget it. I'll just consider this a patch."
"Buzz—"
Just as Chen Song was still pondering his butterfly effect, a fluctuation far more vast and imposing than when the gourd vine had matured, as though it came from the will of the world's very origin, descended upon Buzhou Mountain without warning!
It was the Heavenly Dao! Or rather, it was Dao Ancestor Hongjun, who had just merged himself with the Dao and become the "system administrator"!
All the great powers preparing to leave—whether the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Di Jun and Taiyi, the Two from the West, or the ancestral shamans who had been about to celebrate their successful irritation of their rivals with arms slung around one another's shoulders—froze and looked up in astonishment, focusing on the message from the source of the Heavenly Dao.
Even Hong Yun, still blankly holding two gourds, was pulled by Zhenyuanzi into a solemn stance.
No figure of Hongjun appeared in the void. Only an indifferent and majestic Taoist Sound, devoid of even a trace of emotion, rang out like a decree of the Heavenly Dao and echoed in the hearts of all living beings:
"The Heavenly Dao has order, and the immortal path must be established. Observing that the cultivation of the primordial world's beings is without order and lacks governance, I hereby issue an Imperial Edict: East King Duke shall be the Male Immortal Leader of the primordial world, commanding the pure Yang energy, managing the registers of male immortals, and residing upon Penglai Immortal Island in the Eastern Sea. The Golden Mother of West Kunlun, West Queen Mother, shall be the Female Immortal Leader of the primordial world, commanding the essence of supreme Yin, managing the registers of female immortals, and residing in the Jade Pool Immortal Realm of West Kunlun. May you faithfully fulfill your duties, regulate Yin and Yang, and not fail Heaven's grace."
When the Taoist Sound faded, the fluctuations of the Heavenly Dao slowly subsided, as though they had never appeared.
Yet what remained at the scene was an eerie silence and countless bewildered faces.
East King Duke? West Queen Mother? Who were these two? Hardly anyone had heard of them! How had they suddenly been designated by the Dao Ancestor—no, by the Heavenly Dao—as the Male Immortal Leader and Female Immortal Leader? What was this supposed to mean?
After a brief moment of shock, Chen Song nearly burst out laughing again. He quickly pressed a fist to his mouth, inwardly ranting.
Holy crap! I almost forgot about this! The chairman's first "system announcement" after merging with the Dao was actually a personnel appointment? And the kind he casually issued the moment he remembered? East King Duke and West Queen Mother...
This position sounds impressive, but no matter how I look at it, it's a target meant to draw fire! Especially Brother East King Duke. I remember he died an absolutely miserable death later on...
Before you continue