Under the Primordial Land

After Luohu had finished digesting his insights, he opened his eyes, his heart filled with doubt. He calculated for a long while, only to find that the Western Land had stabilized and its origin had strengthened, yet he had no idea why.

"Strange. This happened not long after I left the west. What exactly caused it? Or has someone been scheming?" Luohu thought to himself. He silently considered those reincarnated Chaos Gods and Demons like himself, yet could not think of anyone whose scheme would benefit him. After all, they were all plotting against one another, but their ultimate goal was to steal Pangu's Dao Fruit and take another step forward.

Nor did they wish to see the Primordial Land grow stronger. If its origin became too powerful, their chances of stealing it would diminish. Besides, no one knew whether Pangu had left behind contingencies—or how many. What if the origin of the Primordial Land grew strong enough to revive Pangu? Or to let Pangu's Dao Fruit take that final step?

After all, the strong never truly perished. So long as the Dao remained, they remained alive. That was what the Chaos Gods and Demons were unwilling to see, yet it was also what they longed for.

"Those capable of such a scheme, aside from Hongjun, are likely only Shichen, Causality, and Fate. Oh! Right! There is also World Destruction! It could be him. After all, if he could destroy the Primordial Land, perhaps he could take that step even without Pangu's Dao Fruit. Or perhaps he thinks the Primordial Land's origin is not yet strong enough, so he intends to strengthen it first before destroying it?"

Luohu secretly became vigilant. These Chaos Gods and Demons had reincarnated into the Primordial Land because the Great Dao had told them their paths lay here. That was why they had come—to seek their own Dao. There was cooperation, but each had their own calculations. Though Luohu still did not know who had made the first move, he had no time to calculate further. The most important matter now was attending the Dao discussion in the north. Besides, his intuition told him this matter would not harm him. He could only make plans after returning.

Within Wuyi Mountain Grotto-Heaven, Zhou Jun returned the instant he saw merit descend. He absorbed the merit and comprehended the laws, condensing the merit into a Golden Wheel of Merit. Once the Golden Wheel of Merit had formed, Zhou Jun's divine sense became far clearer. Places he had once failed to understand now revealed a direction, and he seized the opportunity to enter enlightenment.

Heaven and earth spiritual qi surged toward him, while countless laws coiled around him. During this process, Eight Directions Earth Kun, the cultivation method Zhou Jun had created, became even more complete. He also comprehended several divine abilities, and his cultivation rose from the early stage of the Grand Unity Dao Fruit to the middle stage. Moreover, influenced by the novels he had read in his previous life, Zhou Jun's Grand Unity realm was unlike that of other Primordial Land cultivators, who had Three Flowers Gathering at the Top. Instead, he fused essence, qi, and spirit into one, growing a Dao Flower. Yet it had not bloomed; he would slowly deepen his comprehension and cultivation, allowing the Dao Flower to blossom, until it finally opened into twelve petals.

Although Zhou Jun's ambitions were immense—he even wished for his flower to bloom into thirty-six petals, rivaling the Chaos supreme treasure, the Primordial Jade Lotus—the moment he tried to create it, he sensed an incomparably terrifying Calamity Qi enveloping him. The instant he dared continue deducing it, he would undoubtedly be reduced to ashes. It was simply too heaven-defying; even the Great Dao could not tolerate it.

After the flower bloomed into twelve petals came the nurturing of the Dao Fruit—or, in other words, walking one's own Dao. In the end, the Dao Fruit would emerge, and one would become a master of a Dao, able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Saints. Since Zhou Jun had been keeping a low profile all this time and had never come into contact with other living beings, he did not know how they cultivated. Thus, he had no idea whether his own Dao path was correct.

After all, this path had been created from the various cultivation theories and knowledge found in countless novels from his previous life. He had not even memorized the Tao Te Ching like the protagonists of other novels! At most, he remembered those few lines that appeared most often in novels. (Other than the beginning, who remembers much of the rest? ( ･⊝･∞))

He had pieced it together himself, patching east and west into a summary. It was only because he himself was an Innate God and Demon, with such a high starting point, that he did not need to consider the lower stages. He had basically begun directly with laws, and thus had stumbled his way this far. Otherwise, Zhou Jun himself doubted whether he could have reached this point if he had been a weak cultivator.

After all, if that had been the case, he would not have had Innate Spirit Treasures such as the World-Purifying White Lotus, the Heaven Measuring Ruler, and the Willow Whip to aid his comprehension. The Dao charm contained within his body would likely have been pitifully scarce as well. By then, he would truly have been just one member of the countless living beings.

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Zhou Jun awoke from his enlightenment with a smile on his face. This time, his gains had been tremendous. Not only had he acquired merit, but because he had sorted out the earth veins and strengthened the Western Land, he had gained one-tenth of the west's fortune. It could be said that he was now one of the west. The moment he received that information, Zhou Jun knew his plans for the west were secure. This was only half of the Western Land; if he sorted out all of it, he would likely gain even more fortune. By then, he might even become the west's spokesperson.

Furthermore, Zhou Jun had comprehended a divine ability: Vein Condensation. It could create earth vein nodes. Some earth vein nodes lay extremely far apart, and even after the veins had been cleared, their flow might still be impeded. If he could add a node between them, he could prevent such a situation. Moreover, if it were based on formations, it could both strengthen the land and better channel the spiritual qi of the earth veins, nurturing all things upon the earth.

After comprehending this divine ability, Zhou Jun dearly wished that he knew the Great Formation of the Stars. If he carved that formation across the land, who knew how powerful it would be? Perhaps it could even nurture treasures of the starry sky from the earth itself.

"Later, I'll have Earth Kun go exchange ideas more often. It would be best if he could comprehend some Innate Formations. Then I'll carve them all into the earth veins. By then, perhaps the Earthly Dao could directly contend against the Heavenly Dao the moment it emerges! For now, I should first go to Mount Sumeru and connect the entire mountain."

Earth vein spiritual qi wrapped around Zhou Jun's body as he merged into the earth. In the blink of an eye, he arrived at Mount Sumeru, as though he had become part of the land itself. No one noticed him at all. This was one of the gains Zhou Jun had obtained from his recent work, far stronger than his previous vein-merging traversal.

Zhou Jun nodded in satisfaction, took out the Willow Whip and the Green Lotus Hoe, and began communicating with the nodes on Mount Sumeru. Thinking that it was, after all, the Western Ancestral Vein, he also created new nodes at several weak points in the earth veins, strengthening the entirety of Mount Sumeru.

After one yuan would pass, he had finally sorted out and reinforced all of Mount Sumeru. Looking at it now, the Dao charm of the entire mountain had grown much stronger. Zhou Jun sat cross-legged at the center beneath Mount Sumeru, pondering his next plan.

Zhou Jun's original plan had been to use Mount Sumeru as the center and connect the surrounding areas. After all, sorting out the land outward from the ancestral vein was not so difficult. The entire Western Land was connected to the ancestral vein, and only certain weak points or places damaged by living beings needed attention. That would save a great deal of time.

"There are far too many unknown places in the Primordial Land. Heaven has thirty-three layers, beyond which lies the Primordial Starry Sky, and only then comes chaos. Then the earth should also be divided into many layers. In my previous life, aside from the Netherworld Underworld beneath the ground that Empress Houtu transformed into, few Primordial Land novels ever wrote about what lay underground. Even novels about sorting earth veins kept things simple, treating it as merely the planet's surface, at most reaching the crust.

"They all say the Ferocious Beast Tribulation came from the Resentful Energy of Chaos Gods and Demons. Then where did that Resentful Energy come from? The greatest possibility is underground. And during the World Creation Calamity, I saw that the corpses of Chaos Gods and Demons had all been suppressed within a layer of Netherworld Soil. Perhaps that was where the Netherworld Underworld would be opened. The entire underworld suppresses the corpses of gods and demons, while the Resentful Energy it absorbs is crushed apart by the Six Paths of Reincarnation—or filtered? Or perhaps the Eighteen Levels of Hell absorb the Resentful Energy, which is why souls laden with heinous sins are needed to neutralize it?"

"Damn it, why do I feel like the more I think after coming to the Primordial Land, the more terrifying it becomes!? They all say the Heavenly Dao schemes endlessly, which is why the Earthly Dao and Human Dao cannot emerge. But now I feel that it is not that the Earthly Dao cannot emerge—it is being used to suppress the corpses of Chaos Gods and Demons. And perhaps because the reincarnation Empress Houtu transformed into is incomplete, or because the Netherworld Underworld is not as powerful as the Thirty-three Heavens evolved by the Heavenly Dao, it has eased some of the Earthly Dao's burden but still cannot do much.

"After all, how could the origin of one Ancestral Witch possibly be stronger than the origin of the Heavenly Dao? And perhaps the Blood Sea played a part as well. Otherwise, why establish reincarnation at the Western Blood Sea? Mount Zhou is the pillar supporting the heavens of the Primordial Land, the place where Pangu held up the sky. The Heavenly Court evolved above it, so the underworld should have evolved below it! And the Twelve Ancestral Witches were all born there. It is hard to say that such a possibility does not exist."