Nuwa, You Wouldn't Want...

After leaving Ancestor Minghe's blood-sea reception hall, which was both butt-numbing and eerie, Chen Song rode Big White, sparks and lightning flying all the way, and charged east without looking back.

"Run, run! Get away from this vast, sparsely populated treasure land of the west!" Chen Song urged, patting the dog's head.

Big White pumped his four paws like blazing wheels. "Woof! Boss, didn't you say we were destined for the west? Does this count as passing by without fate?"

"Fate my ass!" Chen Song spat. "That's a cursed fate of forced buying and selling! Hurry back to the prosperous eastern lands... ah, damn it, I mean the eastern lands!"

But as the saying went, what one feared most always came true.

Just as man and dog were about to leave the western region, when even the spiritual energy in the distance had begun to grow clearer and purer, boundless auspicious light suddenly blossomed in the void ahead... carrying a strange Dao rhythm that made one want to "let go of all attachments and enter our sect."

Two figures emerged slowly from the void amid familiar sorrowful sighs, as though they had been waiting there for a long time, blocking Chen Song and Big White's path.

On the left was Jieyin, sallow and gaunt, his brows knotted in misery as though the Heavenly Dao had docked ten thousand years of his wages.

On the right was Zhunti. Though he wore the same bitter, long-suffering expression, his eyes gleamed sharply like the most precise treasure-hunting radar, instantly locking onto Chen Song. They lingered especially long on the Earth Book duplicate seal at his waist and the merit aura around him that had yet to fully recede.

"Alas..." Jieyin sighed before speaking, his voice mournful and plaintive. "How bitter... It is rare indeed for such a young friend, upright in nature and blessed with deep fortune, to set foot in our western land. Young friend, you truly... are destined for the west."

Zhunti immediately followed up, piling on a smile of textbook professional sincerity. "Indeed, indeed! Martial Nephew Chen Song, after a thousand years apart, your bearing has only surpassed what it once was! Seeing merit swirl around you and treasure light hidden within, you must have obtained an enormous opportunity. As the saying goes, 'The Dharma vessel ferries those with destiny.' Why not come west with the two of us to seek the Great Dao, enlighten all beings, and share tranquility together? Though the west is poor and barren, it is precisely in need of a great talent like you to revitalize it!"

As they spoke, the pressure belonging to Quasi-Saints slowly spread like an invisible tide, as though declaring, "Whether you want this fate or not, you will have it today."

In the past, Chen Song might have humored them for a while.

But today was different! He, Chen Hansan, had a Saint to lean on! Even dogs would not go to the west!

Big White: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I really didn't want to go. I just wanted to follow the boss.

Chen Song jumped down from Big White's back and dusted off his Daoist robe, though there was no dust on it at all. Rather than fear, his face wore an outrageously exaggerated expression that mixed contempt, disgust, and a look that said, "I've seen through you."

He pointed directly at Jieyin and Zhunti's noses and came at them head-on.

"Oh my! Who did I think it was? So it's the two western Martial Uncles of 'destiny'!"

"Tell me, can't you come up with something new? 'Destiny, destiny' all day long. The Primordial World is so vast—every person, every dog, every blade of grass is destined for you? Is your 'destiny' wholesale-approved by the Heavenly Dao? Sold by the pound or by the bundle?"

"Seek the Great Dao together? Enlighten all beings? Pah!" Chen Song's spittle nearly sprayed Zhunti in the face. "You just want to con me into becoming free labor for that godforsaken western wasteland, don't you? Revitalize the west? By scamming? By robbing? With that skin on your faces so thick it could block the Chaos Bell?"

"Look at the way you act! If you're robbing people on the road, then just rob them on the road. Why insist on dressing it up like you're saving all beings? Wanting the glory and the profit—disgusting! Absolutely disgusting!"

"I'm telling you! I, Chen Song, have no fate with your west! Not even a penny's worth of fate! If you insist there is, then it's cursed fate! Fate from you trying to frame me!"

"You want to forcibly convert me? Come on! Do it! Make a move! Don't make me look down on you!"

While Chen Song cursed with flying spit and overwhelming momentum on the surface, his heart was frantically flooding with comments as his soul screamed toward Wa Huang Palace.

"Martial Uncle Nuwa! Save me! Your adorable Martial Nephew, the Human Race's revered Holy Father, is about to be forcibly made 'destined' by those two shameless westerners! Martial Uncle! If you don't come soon, you'll lose your most obedient and sensible Martial Nephew! Wa Huang Palace will be lonely! The human race will lose their handsome and dashing Holy Father!"

"Martial Uncle Nuwa! You wouldn't want... the human race you personally created to lose their Holy Father before they can even prosper, would you? Martial Uncle Nuwa!"

Perhaps Chen Song's inner cries were too "devout," or perhaps Saint Nuwa had already been watching the movements of this "Human Race Holy Father."

Just as Chen Song had cursed himself hoarse, and Jieyin and Zhunti's faces had turned from sorrowful to livid as they prepared to disregard appearances and seize him directly—

"Buzz—"

A vast, peaceful, yet supremely majestic Creation Saint's might descended upon this stretch of heaven and earth without warning!

The sky seemed to be dyed in seven colors, with countless rays of sunset glow and streams of auspicious energy. Endless Dao rhythms swept through like a spring breeze, instantly dissolving the spatial confinement Jieyin and Zhunti had laid down.

A peerlessly elegant, holy, and dignified figure silently appeared before Chen Song. It was Saint Nuwa!

Her gaze swept calmly over Jieyin and Zhunti, and her voice was ethereal and detached.

"Jieyin, Zhunti. Chen Song is my Martial Nephew and also the Human Race Holy Father. What do you two intend?"

Jieyin and Zhunti's expressions instantly became wonderfully complicated. Before Nuwa, who had already become a Saint, their little Quasi-Saint cultivation was simply not worth mentioning.

"Senior Sister Nuwa..." Jieyin spoke with difficulty, and the misery on his face this time was genuine. "We... we merely saw that Martial Nephew Chen Song was destined for the west and wished to invite him to discuss the Dao. We had no other intentions..."

Zhunti also hurriedly forced out a smile uglier than tears. "Exactly, exactly! It's all a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding! We'll leave at once, leave at once!"

Having said that, neither of them even bothered with polite formalities. They bowed to Saint Nuwa, then transformed into two somewhat panicked streaks of golden light and fled toward the depths of the west without looking back.

Watching the direction in which they vanished, Chen Song let out a long breath of relief. Then he turned to Nuwa with an incomparably brilliant smile. "Martial Uncle! You came at exactly the right time! You were a beacon in the darkness, sweet spring water in the desert! My admiration for you..."

"Enough." Nuwa interrupted him flatly, looking at him with a hint of helplessness. "You cause trouble all day long. Did you enjoy that scolding just now?"

Chen Song chuckled and scratched his head. "It was satisfying, but a bit rough on the throat."

Nuwa did not take the bait. Her gaze seemed to pierce through endless void, landing upon the human tribes struggling to survive on the Primordial World's land. She sighed softly.

"Little Pine Tree."

"Yes! I'm here. What orders do you have, Martial Uncle?"

"As the Human Race Holy Father, do you know the human race's current circumstances?" Nuwa's tone carried a trace of barely perceptible worry. "They were newly born and frail, without sharp fangs or claws, without magical power or divine abilities. On this primordial land, where ferocious beasts lurk and demons appear in secret, survival is exceedingly difficult."

Hearing this, the playful look on Chen Song's face faded somewhat. Of course he knew. The human race right now was the lowest-level group of "newbie village" players in the Primordial World.

"Martial Uncle means..." Chen Song vaguely guessed Nuwa's intentions.

Nuwa looked at him expectantly. "Since you are the Human Race Holy Father, enjoying their fortune and bearing their karma, you should seek a path to survival for them. Your mind is quick, and you often have strange ideas. Can you find a way for the human race to strengthen themselves and stand on their own, so that they may truly take root and survive in this Primordial World?"

The moment Chen Song heard this, he began complaining bitterly inside.

Wonderful. He had just chased off two robbers, and now his own Saint Martial Uncle was assigning him the job of "chief engineer of the human race" and "survival consultant!"

But seeing the look in Nuwa's eyes that said, "Figure it out," and recalling his title as "Holy Father," Chen Song knew he could not refuse this job.

He scratched his head and began desperately squeezing the pitiful scraps of "ancient survival knowledge" he had brought from the modern world.

Building houses? Making fire by drilling wood? Making clothes?

It seemed... those were the only things he could offer?

Forget it. He would treat a dead horse like a living one!

With a tragic expression that said, "I shall bear the banner for the race," Chen Song cupped his hands to Nuwa. "Rest assured, Martial Uncle! This disciple... this disciple will certainly do his utmost to plan for the human race! I'll go find some clever humans and teach them a few... well, 'small' survival skills!"

Nuwa nodded slightly, and her figure slowly faded away, leaving behind only one sentence. "Good. I shall await good news."

Watching Saint Nuwa depart, Chen Song's face fell. He kicked Big White, who was still baring his teeth toward the west.

"Let's go, stupid dog! We've got work to do! We're going to... build infrastructure for the human race and level up the tech tree!"

"Woof? What's infrastructure? Is it some new breed of chicken? Is it tasty?"