When Lu Jun heard Houtu say, "The Witch Race knows only slaughter and is utterly unworthy of being the Demon Race's enemy," his heart jolted. Even his movements guiding the stellar power paused almost imperceptibly.
Could everyone in the Demon Race be thinking this way?
The thought was like a bucket of ice water over his head, instantly putting him on guard.
Definitely.
Otherwise, why would even a guard casually assigned to him by his uncle hold such arrogant views?
The Witch Race was unworthy of being the Demon Race's enemy?
They really dared to think that.
Lu Jun's thoughts churned violently.
More than anyone, he knew that if not for his butterfly wings forcibly altering the course of Destiny, the Demon Race and the Witch Race would have been equally bloody and mad, neither any better than the other.
Nine of the Ten Golden Crows had fallen. In his grief and rage, Di Jun forged the Witch-Slaying Sword. How tragic had that been?
The Human Race, created by Saint Nuwa, should have been Empress Wa's "subjects," a branch of the Demon Race. Yet to forge the Witch-Slaying Sword, the Demon Race itself had slaughtered them until they were nearly extinct.
Such fratricidal slaughter, such self-destruction of their own foundation, was even crueler than the Witch Race's brutality!
The struggle between the two races was, in the end, all for dominance over the Prehistoric World. The difference in their methods could not conceal the sameness of their essence.
The Demon Race only appeared "restrained" now because Nuwa, Di Jun and Tai Yi, their peak combatants, had not acted, and the Great Array of the Stars of Heaven had yet to be completed.
If they truly possessed overwhelming power, would the Demon Race's butcher's blade be any more merciful when it fell than the Witch Race's?
Every one of these changes stemmed from his arrival and efforts.
Yet the Demon Race seemed to have developed a dangerous misconception, a sense of moral superiority over the Witch Race.
This was practically a sign of courting their own destruction!
Thus, when Houtu once again asked in a tone carrying self-reflection while subtly implying that the Demon Race had already surpassed the Witch Race, Lu Jun felt deep concern and a trace of helpless distaste.
"Senior."
Lu Jun let out a long sigh. He looked at the enormous figure with a complicated expression, his voice carrying a heavy force that pierced through all else.
"If this notion exists throughout the Demon Race, you will surely suffer a great loss someday."
Houtu's brows furrowed. Her massive body stood unmoving beneath the Chaos Gale, and her voice held a probing note.
"Suffer a loss? What loss will the Demon Race suffer in the future?"
She keenly caught the certainty and concern in Lu Jun's tone. This was certainly not baseless.
Lu Jun fell silent for a moment.
Facing this "guard sent by the Eastern Emperor," he could neither speak freely and reveal the Heavenly Secrets nor ignore the need to pour cold water over the Demon Race, which was steeped in its "superiority," and sound a warning bell.
In the end, he chose an angle that was relatively vague yet contained enormous implications.
"You must understand." Lu Jun's voice was low and solemn, as though he were stating an eternal truth.
"The Witch Race ultimately received Heaven-Opening Merit. They are beings capable of contending with the Three Pure Ones for the title of Pangu's True Lineage."
"The Three Pure Ones received Heaven's favor, obtained the Primordial Violet Qi, and attained the positions of three Saints. Then among the Twelve Ancestral Witches, could there truly be no opportunity for sainthood at all?"
He paused, allowing the weight of his words to settle.
His gaze swept over the stars still in gestation, as if drawing some kind of strength from them.
"The Heavenly Dao is impartial. Even without something like the Primordial Violet Qi, the foundation for sainthood, if the Witch Race is willing to make a genuine sacrifice, abandon something of vital importance, and make a contribution to the Great Desolation Heaven and Earth great enough to complete the Great Dao and benefit countless generations..."
Lu Jun's tone became immensely profound, each word seeming to strike Houtu's heart. "Then why would attaining a Saint's position be impossible?"
He could not explicitly mention Reincarnation, much less say Houtu's name.
Once it was revealed, whether the Demon Race hunted down the Ancestral Witches in advance to prevent it, or the Witch Race forcibly pushed Houtu to transform into Reincarnation to seize the initiative, it would inevitably trigger a slaughter far beyond anything occurring now!
That would run entirely counter to his original intention of changing Destiny and reducing sacrifices.
He could only offer a directional hint in this near-prophetic manner.
"Think about it," Lu Jun added at last, with an almost cruel comparison.
"Even Imperial Father Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Tai Yi have hope of attaining the realm of the Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal through the Nirvana Method."
"The Witch Race possesses Pangu bloodline, and the Twelve Ancestral Witches together can shake Heaven and Earth. Could it truly be that not one of them can walk that supreme path?"
Rumble!
Lu Jun's words were like thunder from the nine heavens, exploding within Houtu's heart as an Ancestral Witch!
Her massive body swayed almost imperceptibly in the void, and even the Turbid Qi of earth extending beneath her feet rippled with a trace of disorder.
Abandon herself?
Make a great contribution?
Attain a Saint's position?
Every one of those words precisely pierced the deepest part of her heart, where a thought had only just sprouted but was already incomparably firm!
Incarnation Reincarnation, completing the Prehistoric World!
Was that not the most complete abandonment of her own Ancestral Witch body and Great Dao?
Was that not a contribution great enough to benefit all generations and allow the cycles of Heaven and Earth to continue forever?
And this Sixth Prince Golden Crow had actually said that it might allow her to attain a Saint's position!
Shock!
Ecstasy!
Disbelief!
The possibility was too astonishing, too subversive of everything she knew!
Could one become a Saint even without the Primordial Violet Qi?
Could the Witch Race also have its own Saint?
If it was true, then the Witch Race truly had hope of continuing on, perhaps even of Rebirth from Fire!
They would no longer face the fated destruction foretold by Zhen Yuanzi!
But immediately afterward, an icy chill replaced her ecstasy, plunging her into an ice cave!
How did the Sixth Prince Golden Crow know?
This thought gnawed at her reason like a venomous serpent.
The idea of becoming Incarnation Reincarnation had only arisen and solidified after she witnessed the Prehistoric World's tragic state and heard Zhen Yuanzi's prophecy!
Before that, she had never considered it, nor had she ever heard of the concept of "Reincarnation"!
No second person could possibly know of this!
Even the other eleven Ancestral Witches knew nothing!
Yet this Demon Race Crown Prince before her had not only precisely pointed out the Witch Race's possible "path to sainthood."
The core of his description—"abandon oneself and make a great contribution"—perfectly matched what she had been thinking!
This was no longer speculation or encouragement. It was simply... simply like he was recounting the most secret decision in her heart!
A terrifying conjecture, like a giant axe splitting open Chaos, viciously cleaved into Houtu's sea of consciousness.
One Attainment, Eternal Attainment!
Could he... could he have already walked the path of One Attainment, Eternal Attainment in the future?
According to legend, one who attained One Attainment, Eternal Attainment gathered all Timelines into one, holding both past and future within their grasp!
What he said now, the concerns he felt at this moment, his earlier worries over the Demon Race's "arrogance"...
Could those have come not from his judgment, but because the future was influencing the present?
If he truly was already an existence of One Attainment, Eternal Attainment, then his very presence here meant that the Demon Race must have achieved some degree of "victory" or "eternity" in the future!
At the very least, he himself had already transcended the shackles of time!
Otherwise, how could he so confidently predict the Witch Race's possible path to sainthood?
How could he so precisely strike upon a thought that had only just been born within her and could never have been leaked?
Unless, among the endless possibilities of the future, more than one being of One Attainment, Eternal Attainment was playing a game?
But even so, Lu Jun before her had to be one of them, and he had already seen some crucial future concerning the Witch Race, concerning her, Houtu!
Excitement and terror clashed violently within Houtu.
What excited her was that the Witch Race's hope of becoming Saints no longer seemed illusory. It made her resolve to become Incarnation Reincarnation burn even fiercer, even carrying a sacred sense of mission!
What terrified her was that someone in the Demon Race might already have set foot upon that legendary path to eternity, while everything about her seemed to lie beneath his "gaze"!
Houtu's eyes flickered fiercely in the void like stars brightening and dimming.
"Whether he is truly One Attainment, Eternal Attainment or not, I'll know after testing him!"
Before you continue