The Witch Race Faces Total Annihilation

Zhen Yuanzi's gaze was deep, like an ancient well or a shadowed pool.

As for the secret discussion on the Sun Star—especially matters concerning Minghe's Blood God Sons, Lu Jun herding the stars, and even his own Ginseng Fruit Incarnation—he naturally could not reveal the slightest hint to outsiders.

Yet before Houtu, one of the rare reasonable figures among the Ancestral Witches, he could not remain entirely silent.

He needed to give the Witch Race a warning—a warning enough to make them halt their mad march.

At the same time, he wished to see whether this Ancestral Witch, who bore the power of the earth, could glimpse a sliver of Life Opportunity within it.

After a brief pause, his gaze seemed to pierce through the Clouds and Fog of Mount Longevity and fall upon the chaotic world of the Great Desolation.

When he spoke slowly, his voice carried the weathered weight of one who understood Karma.

"Dao Friend Houtu, forgive This Poor Daoist for being unable to say much about the hidden details of this matter. However, there is something concerning the survival, rise, and fall of the Witch Race that This Poor Daoist must make clear to you."

Houtu's expression turned grave. "Please speak, Dao Friend."

Zhen Yuanzi drew back his gaze and looked directly at Houtu, enunciating every word. "The deep-seated enmity between the Witch Race and the Demon Race, stretching on until today—its original root actually lies within your Witch Race itself!"

His words were like thunder exploding upon level ground. Even with Houtu's gentle temperament, a trace of displeasure and doubt instantly gathered between her brows.

Yet she forcibly suppressed her emotions and did not immediately retort. She merely said in a low voice, "Oh? I am willing to hear the details."

Unmoved, Zhen Yuanzi continued his analysis. His words were like a cold carving knife, slicing open the bloody reality.

"After the Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation, the Witch Race relied on its Pangu bloodline and formidable fleshly bodies, treating all living beings of the Great Desolation as blood food and prey, slaughtering them wantonly, incurring the wrath of Heaven and the resentment of all."

"If you had not been so tyrannical, treating all beings as grass and dust, why would Di Jun and Tai Yi have been driven to raise their arms in a rallying cry, gathering the living beings of the Myriad Races and establishing the Demon Race together for self-preservation? This was where the enmity began!"

Houtu fell silent.

Those savage years of eating raw flesh and drinking blood, when they had fed upon the Myriad Races, were indeed deeds of the Witch Race.

Though Pangu Hall kept the matter under wraps, how could she, as an Ancestral Witch, not know?

Seeing that she had no words, Zhen Yuanzi's tone grew heavier. "Afterward, the Dao Ancestor preached the Dao at Purple Cloud Palace, pointing out the path of the Quasi-Saint. Then the Six Saints emerged one after another, wielding Heavenly Dao Authority."

"From that point on, the Great Desolation Landscape had changed. The advantage the Witch Race relied upon—its fleshly bodies and the Great Array of the Stars of Heaven—had long since vanished completely!"

"This is the great tide of the Great Desolation! At such a time, the Witch Race should have reined in its edge, recuperated and built up its strength, and eased its conflicts with the Demon Race and even the Myriad Races. That would have been the way to survive!"

"In truth, before Kua Fu fell while chasing the sun—or rather, before Golden Crow Crown Prince Lu Jun underwent Nirvana."

Zhen Yuanzi deliberately named Lu Jun.

"Though the Witch and Demon Races had endless frictions, they still maintained a fragile balance."

"The demons ruled the heavens, the witches governed the earth, and each kept to its own domain."

"The Demon Race withdrew to the Thirty-Three Heavens, sheltering its core clans. As for the scattered living beings across the Great Desolation's lands, it had practically left them to their own devices, leaving them to the Witch Race as a 'hunting ground.'"

"This had originally been an unspoken understanding between both sides—a cruel peace!"

Houtu's heart sank slightly.

Every sentence Zhen Yuanzi spoke struck at the heart of the matter.

That relatively stable period before Kua Fu's fall and the Golden Crow Nirvana had indeed been a rare chance for both races to catch their breath and develop.

The Demon Race's retreat was helplessness born of shifting strengths, but it was also a compromise to some extent.

"However!" Zhen Yuanzi's tone suddenly sharpened, like thunder crashing down.

"Kua Fu's death, Da Yi shooting down the suns, the Golden Crow Nirvana! Not only did the Witch Race fail to use this chance to stabilize itself, it instead took this as the fuse and brazenly launched a new round of all-out war!"

"Who took the initiative to ignite these flames of war? The Witch Race!"

A hint of mockery entered Zhen Yuanzi's voice.

"As for the Demon Race, Di Jun and Tai Yi were deeply entangled in the secret of Nirvana, while Saint Nuwa had entered the River of Time and had yet to return."

"Those presiding over the overall situation were no more than Kun Peng, Fuxi, Bai Ze, and the others!"

"Precisely because of this, they merely defended passively, holding fast to the core of the Thirty-Three Heavens. They had long since handed over the Great Desolation's lands!"

"But what of your Witch Race? You still were not satisfied! You were practically venting boundless fury and a desire for destruction!"

Zhen Yuanzi looked at Houtu's clenched fists, and at the trace of worry and helplessness she could not conceal deep in her eyes.

He knew his words had already touched her heart.

His tone softened, yet it carried an even heavier force.

"Dao Friend Houtu, when the Witch Race once again provoked war this time and threw caution to the wind, have you ever considered the final outcome?"

He did not wait for Houtu's answer, instead uncovering that blood-red curtain himself.

"The ending has long been decided! Even if, at this moment, you can rely on the Great Array of the Stars of Heaven to temporarily suppress the Demon Race and even attack the edge of the Thirty-Three Heavens—"

"But! Once Saint Nuwa returns from the River of Time and descends upon the world with the might of a Saint, the Witch Race's so-called advantage will vanish in an instant!"

"At that time, even if Di Jun and Tai Yi fail to break through via Nirvana, the Demon Race, with the Cosmic Star Array and a Saint overseeing it, will still be enough to crush the Great Desolation and utterly exterminate the Witch Race!"

Zhen Yuanzi's voice was like a funeral bell, tolling against Houtu's heart.

"Your fate will be even more miserable than that of the Dragon, Phoenix, and Kirin clans!"

"The Dragon, Phoenix, and Kirin still have bloodlines scattered abroad; their fortune has not yet been extinguished."

"And the Witch Race... the Pangu bloodline is far too domineering, far too conspicuous. Once defeated, you will surely be exterminated to the last, lest future trouble arise!"

"Do not bring up Pangu's Heaven-Opening Merit again!"

Zhen Yuanzi mercilessly pierced the Witch Race's final psychological crutch.

"That little merit has long since been worn away, seven or eight parts out of ten, by the Karmic Force you accumulated over Hundreds of Millions of Years of slaughtering all living beings and stirring chaos throughout the Prehistoric World, has it not?"

"Look at the Prehistoric World now! Living beings lie ravaged, resentment pierces the heavens, dead souls wander, and heaven and earth are filled with foul miasma and murky Baleful Intent!"

"If Pangu Father God still had a spirit, would he bestow merit to protect you in such a scene? He would only send down tribulation and punishment!"

"This war has only one outcome—the Witch Race's annihilation!"

Houtu's body gave an almost imperceptible shudder, the joints of her clenched fingers already white.

The fury and battle intent of her Elder Brothers within Pangu Hall, the blood-soaked slaughter of the Witch Race's sons across the Prehistoric World, and the despairing future Zhen Yuanzi had described intertwined, leaving her with a bone-deep chill.

She knew Zhen Yuanzi was not making alarmist claims.

Standing at the height of the Ancestor of Earth Immortals of the Prehistoric World, he saw Karma far more clearly than Ancestral Witches like them, who were deeply trapped within the game.

The Witch Race's path truly seemed to have reached its end.

Forcing down her roiling emotions, Houtu's voice carried a trace of barely perceptible hoarseness.

"Dao Friend Zhen Yuanzi, you have told me so much—analyzing Karma and exposing the crisis. Surely you have more left unsaid? Or rather, have you seen some possibility that we have not?"

Zhen Yuanzi gazed at Houtu, the sole Ancestral Witch who still retained the pure power of the earth upon her, and an imperceptible flicker of complex emotion passed through his eyes.

He slowly nodded. His voice sank low, yet carried a force that pierced the soul.

"Indeed. This Poor Daoist has told you all this because your Witch Race—including you, Dao Friend Houtu—has kept its eyes fixed solely upon the struggle for power and profit, the blood-deep enmity with the Demon Race."

"But do you know what goal lies at the heart of the Demon Race—what Di Jun and Tai Yi are pursuing?"

Houtu's pupils abruptly contracted. "What are they pursuing?"

Zhen Yuanzi enunciated each word like thunder exploding deep within Houtu's Sea of Consciousness:

"They have already begun exploring the path of 'One Attainment, Eternal Attainment'!"

Houtu suddenly raised her head, shock in her eyes. "One Attainment, Eternal Attainment?"

Zhen Yuanzi silently nodded.

Houtu drew a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart.

One Attainment, Eternal Attainment!

Every word seemed to weigh a thousand jun, crashing down upon her Dao Heart.

To her, this term was strange and distant, yet it possessed an indescribably terrifying allure—one that touched upon the Origin of the Great Dao!

It was not as though she did not know the realms of cultivation.

A Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal leapt free of the River of Time; a Quasi-Saint severed the Three Corpses and touched upon the laws of the Heavenly Dao.

Even Saints merely came into being by relying upon the Heavenly Dao. Only while the Heavenly Dao remained undying would Saints remain undying.

But "One Attainment, Eternal Attainment" pointed toward that legendary supreme realm!

Transcending the Heavenly Dao itself—one's own self becoming the Dao, becoming the law, Eternal and Undying!

The Demon Race had actually already begun climbing this ultimate path?

Overwhelming shock, like towering waves, instantly submerged Houtu!

The Demon Race had already set its sights upon that supreme path?

All at once, Houtu seemed to realize something. "So the changes in Tai Yi and Di Jun were all because they comprehended the Way of Nirvana?"