Di Jiang was no longer the commanding leader of the Ancestral Witches. He was more like an Elder Brother desperate to learn the truth.
"Yes, Sister, stop scolding us!" Zhu Rong grew anxious as well. There was less violence in his voice now, replaced by urgency. "We... we only wanted what was best for the Witch Race!"
"Houtu, tell us. What exactly happened?" Xuanming could not help but speak, her cool voice filled with inquiry.
Seeing that Elder Brother and Sisters' faces no longer held only rage and indifference, but had been replaced by enormous doubt and a faint, nearly imperceptible wavering—
The crushing pressure in Houtu's heart seemed to ease by the slightest degree.
She let out a deep sigh, one that carried far too much exhaustion, helplessness, and a trace of resolve.
She looked around at the crowd. Her voice returned to calmness, yet it carried earthshaking force.
"You know that when I went to see Zhen Yuanzi... afterward, I also went to see someone else."
"Who?" Di Jiang immediately pressed, a vague sense of foreboding rising in his heart.
Houtu's gaze swept across the tense, bewildered faces. At last, she clearly spoke the name that made every Ancestral Witch's pupils contract and their killing intent explode.
"The Sixth Prince of the Demon Race... Lu Jun."
Boom!!!
"What?"
"Lu Jun?"
"That feathered mongrel?"
"Houtu, have you gone mad? Why did you go see him?"
It was like ice water splashing into boiling oil. Pangu Hall erupted once more!
But this time, it was no longer rage directed at Zhen Yuanzi. It was fury, shock, and killing intent toward their fated mortal enemy—the Demon Race—hundreds of times more intense!
The Ancestral Witches' auras erupted uncontrollably, and the entire Pangu Hall trembled violently!
Di Jiang's face instantly turned livid. The space around him warped inch by inch, and his terrifying pressure seemed to freeze time itself!
"You... explain yourself!" Di Jiang's voice sounded as though it had been forced from the icy depths of the netherworld, each word laden with disbelief and towering fury.
Watching the shock, rage, and killing intent before her erupt so fiercely that they nearly overturned Pangu Hall, the helplessness on Houtu's face deepened.
This was her people. These were her Elder Brothers and Sisters.
Whenever they encountered a problem, their first response was always rage, always slaughter!
It was as though fists and baleful energy were the only ways they knew how to solve anything.
"Do you know what that Sixth Prince Golden Crow is doing right now?"
Houtu's voice pierced through the violent baleful energy with an unusual calmness as she asked a question that left the enraged Ancestral Witches slightly stunned.
Zhu Rong was the first to roar. His scarlet eyes seemed ready to spew flames.
"What does it matter what he is doing? What does it have to do with our Witch Race? He is a demon! He is our mortal enemy! Houtu, when you met him, did you not kill him on the spot?"
Gong Gong's cold voice was steeped in bone-deep hatred. "It was that damned Nirvana of his!"
"If not for that, the ten Golden Crows would have perished long ago! How could those two feathered mongrels, Di Jun and Tai Yi, have used it to walk that damned path of Tongtian? He is an irreconcilable enemy of the Witch Race!"
"That's right! He is the life-and-death enemy of our Witch Race! Meet him? You should have destroyed his soul outright!"
Lightning flashed explosively over Qiang Liang's entire body, his baleful energy soaring into the heavens.
Xuanming said nothing, but the icy killing intent radiating from her body had already made her stance clear.
Di Jiang's gaze was even more like a tangible blade as it locked onto Houtu, awaiting her explanation.
Going to see Lu Jun was, in itself, an act that had touched the Witch Race's most sensitive nerve!
Listening to them speak over one another, every word revolving around killing and mortal enemies, the small hope that had just loosened in Houtu's heart sank again, becoming deeper exhaustion.
She let out a long, long sigh, as though it had drained all strength from her body.
"He is... Herding the Stars of All Heavens."
Houtu's voice carried an indescribable complexity.
"What?"
The Ancestral Witches did not understand at first.
Houtu raised her hand, recreating that breathtaking scene.
"With boundless power, he is sorting out the chaotic paths of the stars and drawing in shattered stellar fragments, like a shepherd tending a flock."
"He is expanding this Great Desolation Heaven and Earth created by Father God! He is restoring order to chaotic rivers of stars and returning Life Opportunity to silent Star Domains!"
"And I saw it with my own eyes! Father God... Pangu Father God! He bestowed vast merit upon him! Golden light shone brilliantly, illuminating Chaos! It was Father God's recognition and reward for what he had done!"
Boom!!!
This silence was more complete than any before it.
Within Pangu Hall, every violent energy and trace of baleful aura froze.
The rage, killing intent, and shock on the Ancestral Witches' faces all stiffened, replaced by utter, bewildered disbelief!
Herding the Stars of All Heavens?
Expanding the Prehistoric World?
Father God bestowing merit?
Upon Lu Jun, the Sixth Prince of the Demon Race?
"No... impossible!" Zhu Rong was the first to cry out, his voice cracking.
"Herding the Stars of All Heavens? Who does Lu Jun think he is? He is nothing but a feathered beast! What gives him the right? This is absolutely impossible!"
Gong Gong's face went pale, his lips trembling. "Father God... how could Father God... how could he bestow merit upon him?"
"This... you must have seen it wrong! It must be some illusion cast by the Demon Race! How could Father God favor the Demon Race?!"
He could not accept that Father God's glory would shine upon their mortal enemy.
Qiang Liang flew into an even greater rage. "Absurd! Utterly absurd! Father God's eyes... how could Father God do such a thing?"
He forcibly swallowed the words "gone blind," but the shock, fury, and doubt on his face were undisguised.
Di Jiang's pupils contracted violently, and the Power of Space around him surged, revealing the turbulent waves in his heart.
He stared fixedly at Houtu, his voice hoarse. "Houtu... are you... sure?"
Houtu's eyes passed over one face after another, all marked by "impossible" and "I don't believe it." The final spark of hope in her heart was extinguished completely, leaving only cold disappointment.
She slowly raised a hand and pointed at her deep eyes, which carried the weight of earth and the compassion of Reincarnation. Her voice was cold and clear, filled with unquestionable resolve.
"This is me! Houtu! I saw it with the eyes of an Ancestral Witch and heard it with the heart of the earth!"
"That vast Golden Light of Merit cannot be faked! The changes in the stars' paths cannot be faked! You do not get to question Father God's will!"
"And I am telling you this because I want you to see what the Demon Race—our mortal enemy—is doing now!"
"They are expanding the Heaven and Earth left behind by Father God! They are earning Father God's recognition! They are doing things beneficial to the Prehistoric World! And what about us?"
Houtu's gaze stabbed at every Ancestral Witch like a sword. "Where is our attention? Still doubting! Still raging! Still thinking about how to kill!"
"Have you ever thought about what our Witch Race is doing? What have we done for this Heaven and Earth left behind by Father God?!"
This question struck straight at their hearts, leaving every Ancestral Witch speechless. Their faces alternated between green and white.
Houtu no longer looked at their embarrassed faces. She took a deep breath, as though she wanted to expel all the heaviness and frustration in her chest.
Her voice became low again, but it carried an even more suffocating despair.
"Have you not always wanted to know what Zhen Yuanzi told me?"
"Fine. I will tell you now."
Her gaze slowly swept across Di Jiang, Zhu Rong, Gong Gong, Qiang Liang, and Xuanming...
"Zhen Yuanzi said that our Witch Race... has already reached a dead end! Or rather, we are heading toward one!"
"He told me that the Demon Race has Saint Nuwa! Though she has yet to return to the Prehistoric World for certain reasons, she is the Demon Race's Saint!"
"As long as the Demon Race's fate has not run out, she will return one day! She is a true Heavenly Dao Saint!"
"The True Body of Pangu summoned by our Twelve Heavenly Gods and Demons Array can barely contend against one Saint, but can it contend against two at once?"
"And that is assuming Di Jun and Tai Yi have not yet successfully achieved Nirvana!"
"What if the two brothers also find some opportunity and, like Lu Jun, complete Nirvana and take that step?"
Her words were like an icy Iron Hammer, striking the Ancestral Witches' hearts again and again.
"By then, the Demon Race will possess Saint Nuwa, along with two emperors who have successfully achieved Nirvana and possess Saint-level combat power!"
"And what does our Witch Race have? Only the Twelve Heavenly Gods and Demons Array! How long can it hold? How many can it stop?"
"Zhen Yuanzi declared that, without an unforeseen change, the Witch Race will certainly perish! And it will likely happen in the near future!"
A deathly silence filled Pangu Hall.
Houtu's words chilled them far more deeply than Lu Jun receiving merit ever had.
It was not as if they had never considered this question.
What shocked them was that even an outsider had long since seen through everything.
Perhaps the Witch Race's predicament had already become common knowledge to the world!
Di Jiang's face had darkened like the sky before a storm.
He remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking, his voice low and suppressed, carrying a trace of unwillingness.
"Had we not already discussed this matter with those two Saints of the Western Lands?"
Before you continue