Witch-Demon Truce! Peace!

Lu Jun's question was like a thunderclap from the nine heavens, exploding deep within Houtu's consciousness.

That sentence, "Can you represent the entire Witch Race?" carried a cold edge that precisely pierced through her previous unhesitating guarantee, striking straight at the reality she was most unwilling to face deep in her heart.

Houtu fell silent.

Her massive form seemed to solidify into an eternal boulder amidst the Chaos Gas Flow.

Those eyes, once filled with anticipation and wisdom, were now occupied by a heavy haze and an unprecedented sense of trepidation.

Lu Jun's question was like a key, instantly opening the floodgates of her cognition regarding the nature of the Witch Race, which she had deliberately avoided.

Is the Witch Race worthy of trust?

Big Brother Di Jiang's ambition and hegemony, his declaration that the Prehistoric World was merely a hunting ground for the Witch Race, still echoed in her ears.

Zhu Rong's fiery violence, Gong Gong's unruliness, She Bishi's vengeful nature...

How could she easily erase these imprints carved deep into their bloodlines with a mere "they are worthy of trust"?

Golden Crow Patrols the Sky, Ten Suns Across the Sky, scorching the earth, causing heavy casualties among the sons of the Witch Race—this blood feud had long since seeped into the bone marrow of every Great Witch and Lesser Wu.

The flames of hatred could never be extinguished by a single strategic retreat; they were more like a forcibly suppressed volcano that, once granted greater power, would only erupt with even more terrifying force!

She could even clearly "see" what Di Jiang, Zhu Rong, and the others would do if the Witch Race gained the blessing of Earthly Dao fortune through her Incarnation Reincarnation and their strength skyrocketed.

They would view this as the favor of Pangu Father God, a heaven-sent opportunity for the Witch Race to completely dominate the Prehistoric World!

They would view the Demon Race's retreat as weakness, the perfect moment to settle old scores once and for all and wipe the Demon Race from the map of the Prehistoric World!

Bullying the weak!

Exterminating the race!

Lu Jun's concerns were by no means groundless; that was the inevitable trajectory driven by the instincts of the Witch Race's bloodline!

Can she represent the entire Witch Race?

This thought sent a bone-chilling coldness and a sense of powerlessness through Houtu.

She was one of the Twelve Ancestral Witches, holding a revered position, but the Witch Race was not a place where one person's word was law.

Major decisions, especially those involving relations with a life-or-death enemy like the Demon Race, required the consensus of the Twelve Ancestral Witches and even the support of numerous Great Witches.

Di Jiang's prestige, Qiang Liang's ferocity, Xuanming's cold sternness...

Which of them would easily abandon their hostility toward the Demon Race?

Which of them would accept peaceful coexistence with a "sworn enemy"?

She, Houtu, though compassionate, was precisely the most "moderate" among the Twelve Ancestral Witches.

Her voice appeared so thin when it came to issues involving the fundamental interests and blood feuds of the race.

She could not represent them!

This realization was like a heavy millstone, crushing the glimmer of hope that had just arisen.

If she could not even persuade the other Ancestral Witches to stop hunting the Demon Race, how could she guarantee they wouldn't become even more ruthless after she underwent Incarnation Reincarnation and the Witch Race gained power?

Her so-called guarantee was as pale as a phantom in the face of the cruel collective will and bloodline instincts of her race.

Having understood all this, the way Houtu looked at Lu Jun changed completely.

The shock and admiration had not vanished, but had settled deeper, replaced by a profound, empathetic understanding.

She finally understood where Lu Jun's deep hesitation and the heavy, agonizing struggle in his eyes came from.

This was not merely a concern for her personal fate, but a terrifying deduction regarding the entire layout of the Prehistoric World, the struggle between Heavenly Dao and Earthly Dao, and the survival of billions of living beings!

What Lu Jun carried was a karma ten thousand times heavier than she had imagined.

He had to worry not only about the backlash from Dao Ancestor Hongjun's Heavenly Dao and the potential involvement of the entire Demon Race.

He had to worry even more that the Earthly Dao power he kindly pointed out and helped strengthen would ultimately become the butcher's knife for the Witch Race to annihilate the Demon Race, becoming a tool for Dao Ancestor Hongjun to kill with a borrowed knife, accelerating the collapse of the Prehistoric World!

This insight and foresight filled Houtu with a sense of reverence amidst her trepidation.

"How can I make the Sixth Prince believe in my Witch Race?"

Houtu's voice lowered, carrying an unprecedented solemnity and a trace of imperceptible pleading.

She no longer attempted to offer pale verbal guarantees, but sought a practical and feasible path.

She knew that empty words were useless; in the face of the terrifying future landscape revealed by Lu Jun, only substantive action could pry open that heavy door of trust.

Lu Jun watched the complex light flickering in Houtu's eyes; the Nascent Star flickering at his fingertips seemed to stabilize slightly.

He spoke slowly, his voice still hoarse, yet carrying an unquestionable clarity:

"If you want me to believe you, at the very least, you must have the qualifications to persuade the Witch Race to cease hostilities."

"Not a temporary retreat, not a strategic avoidance, but a consensus for a true, or at least long-term, truce."

"You need to let His Majesty Di Jun and His Majesty Tai Yi see a clear desire for peace from the highest level of the Witch Race, at least from the majority of the Ancestral Witches."

"This is the foundation, the minimum threshold to prove that the future actions of the Witch Race might be controllable."

He paused, the star at his fingertips spinning faster, as if calculating infinite variables.

"As for what follows... whether I disclose the secret of Incarnation Reincarnation to you, or how to assist you in perfecting the Earthly Dao without triggering an even greater catastrophe, I must ponder this further."

"After all, this matter is of immense consequence; pulling one hair affects the entire body. I need time, and I need to see more possibilities."

Houtu lowered her massive head slightly, falling into deep contemplation.

Persuade the Witch Race to cease hostilities?

The difficulty of this was no different than forcing Buzhou Mountain to bow its head.

Yet she understood that this was indeed the only starting point that could allow Lu Jun to see a glimmer of possibility.

This was something she had to attempt—for the sake of reincarnation, for the sake of all living beings, and for the sake of another potential future for the Witch Race.

"I understand. I will go and persuade the Witch Race. I will do everything in my power to make them understand the stakes involved."

Houtu's voice carried a sense of burning her bridges with resolute determination; she lifted her head, her gaze firm.

This was her responsibility, a step she had to take as an Ancestral Witch and as a great power who held the common people in her heart.

Lu Jun gazed at her, not immediately responding to her resolve, but instead asking the final, most fatal question, his tone light yet seemingly heavy with a thousand catties of pressure:

"And what if you cannot persuade them?"

Houtu's gargantuan body shuddered violently, as if struck by an invisible, colossal hammer.

Those massive eyes, which had just ignited with a spark of determination, were instantly consumed by a vast, bottomless void of confusion and chaos.

Cannot persuade them?

This hypothesis was like the coldest Nether Cold Spring, instantly extinguishing the courage she had just gathered and dragging her into a deeper abyss.

Yes, what if... she could not persuade them?

The stubbornness of Big Brother Di Jiang, the volatility of Zhu Rong, the bone-deep hatred the clansmen held for the Demon Race... the hope of success was already as slim as a candle flickering in the wind.

If she exhausted all her strength, gambling everything to persuade them, only to be met with a cold rejection at the Ancestral Witch Council, or perhaps even Di Jiang's disappointed rebuke and Zhu Rong's furious roar...

What then?

The Great Dao of Reincarnation was right before her eyes, the wails of Vengeful Souls seemed to ring in her ears, yet she was held fast by her own kin, unable to move an inch!

Incarnation Reincarnation was her only path to salvation, yet it might vanish into thin air because she could not restrain her own people.

It might even, as Lu Jun predicted, trigger an even more terrifying calamity...

She could not abandon reincarnation!

This was the mission bestowed upon her by her Pangu bloodline, the instinct driven by her compassionate heart!

But if the Witch Race insisted on war, her sacrifice and her reincarnation might ultimately become the catalyst that accelerated the destruction of the Demon Race, or even led to the total imbalance of the three Daos of the Great Desolation Heaven and Earth!

In that case, was she, Houtu, a savior or an accomplice to the destruction of the world?

She also could not betray the Witch Race!

That was the root of her bloodline, her brothers and sisters!

She could not imagine herself standing in opposition to the will of her entire race.

Two diametrically opposed yet equally immense forces tore and collided deep within her soul.

On one side were the hundreds of millions of living beings awaiting salvation, the future of the Great Desolation Heaven and Earth.

On the other side was her kin, bound by blood and shared honor, the camaraderie of the Twelve Ancestral Witches forged over Hundreds of Millions of Years of fighting side by side.

The immense sense of contradiction threatened to tear her apart.

Her heart had never been as chaotic as it was in this moment.

It was as if countless voices were shrieking and arguing within her sea of consciousness; the Chaos Gas Flow seemed to sense the monstrous waves in her heart, churning and roaring violently around her, forming a chaotic storm domain.

In the midst of this chaotic storm, her massive figure appeared unprecedentedly lonely, lost, and helpless.

"I... I do not know, but... I will give it my all!"