A Lesson for Hongjun

Seeing the fate of Xi Qu, the beings around Zhou Mountain felt a sharp tremor in their hearts.

But then they let out a long sigh of relief.

Fortunately, they had been sensible and slipped away early.

Still, they were deeply astonished—just who was this Ancestor Yang Mei? His strength seemed far beyond that of a Golden Immortal.

At the very least, even they, as Golden Immortals, couldn't stop trembling and shuddering after sensing the aura Yang Mei had just released.

Even after both Hong Yuan and Yang Mei had left, they still didn't dare to breathe deeply.

At that moment, these beings all etched the name Ancestor Yang Mei into their memories.

The only pity was that they didn't know the name of the person beside Ancestor Yang Mei.

But even without knowing his name, they firmly committed Hong Yuan's appearance to memory.

After all, Ancestor Yang Mei's claim that the entire Primordial Wilderness was that friend's territory had given them quite a fright.

After Hong Yuan and Yang Mei left Zhou Mountain, Yang Mei decided to return to his dojo for a visit.

After all, so many years had passed, and he wanted to see if anything had changed there.

Hong Yuan heard this and didn't say much, simply parting ways with Yang Mei.

Then Hong Yuan set off alone on his journey of wandering.

Though there were already many beings in the Primordial Wilderness, compared to its vastness, they still seemed rather sparse.

So Hong Yuan encountered nothing particularly noteworthy along the way.

He did come across quite a few spiritual plants and treasures.

But for someone with the Universe Cauldron like Hong Yuan, they weren't worth mentioning.

Hong Yuan didn't even bother to pick them up.

Unless they were those famous treasures of later days, Hong Yuan might have some interest.

But those less renowned ones—he'd leave them for their destined owners.

Just then, a Giant Beast at the Golden Immortal realm suddenly appeared before Hong Yuan.

Roaring, it lunged straight at him.

Seeing this beast radiating overwhelming baleful and ferocious energy, a glint of interest sparked in Hong Yuan's eyes.

"An Evil Beast of the Fierce Beast kind—so they've already emerged, have they?!"

Facing the beast's attack, Hong Yuan merely released a sliver of his aura.

In an instant, heaven and earth changed color, as if the sun and moon had toppled.

It fell upon the Giant Beast like a great bell.

With a thunderous "Boom!"

The Giant Beast before him was crushed to the ground, unable to move.

Just as Hong Yuan released that trace of aura to suppress the Fierce Beast, Hongjun, tens of thousands of light-years away, suddenly changed expression drastically.

"That aura is a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin—it's Hong Yuan?!"

Hongjun never expected that Hong Yuan would appear here, so close to him. Could it be that he was trying to seize the fragment of the Jade Plate of Creation that Hongjun had sensed?

Hongjun wanted to deduce Hong Yuan's specific purpose.

But unfortunately, he was only at the Golden Immortal realm now.

The gap between them was like heaven and earth; even with the Jade Plate of Creation, he couldn't deduce a thing.

"Hm?" Hong Yuan suddenly frowned.

He slowly turned his gaze toward Hongjun's direction.

And directly slapped out.

"Pfft!"

That single slap instantly shattered half of Hongjun's body.

Sending him flying backward for billions of miles.

"Hongjun, This Venerable has no interest in you, old fellow. Don't dangle in front of me. This time is just a little lesson. If I catch you scheming against me again, don't blame This Venerable for showing no mercy!"

Faced with such an overbearing Hong Yuan, Hongjun didn't dare to retort. He simply gritted his teeth, abandoned any thought of the Jade Plate of Creation fragment, and dragged his half-shattered body away in a streak of rainbow light.

Only when he felt he had run far enough did Hongjun finally breathe a sigh of relief.

His expression was somewhat unpleasant. He had originally believed that, even if he couldn't deduce Hong Yuan's intentions with the fragments of the Jade Plate of Creation in his possession, he could at least obscure the heavenly secrets.

It wouldn't implicate him.

But he never expected that, despite his efforts to conceal the celestial mechanisms, Hong Yuan would still discover him immediately.

Now this was bad. Not only had he gained nothing, but he himself was severely wounded.

Recovery would take who knows how long.

Yet he never strayed too far.

At this moment, Hongjun still clung to a thought.

What if Hong Yuan's goal wasn't the fragment of the Jade Plate of Creation he had sensed earlier?

If so, he could retrieve that fragment after Hong Yuan left.

In truth, his guess wasn't wrong.

Hong Yuan's goal indeed wasn't the Jade Plate of Creation fragment. He knew well that this fragment had its own destiny, beneficial to the Primordial Wilderness, so even if he discovered it, he wouldn't take it.

Hong Yuan was merely somewhat interested in the Fierce Beast before him.

But that was under the premise that Hongjun hadn't schemed against him.

So, after some thought, Hong Yuan directly went to a mountain hollow and took that fragment of the Jade Plate of Creation.

Because Hong Yuan had also used the Jade Plate of Creation for cultivation during his time within the Chaos Green Lotus.

Coupled with his origin aura, not too different from Pangu's, taking the fragment was effortless.

Even the fragment itself offered no resistance.

Hong Yuan took the fragment precisely because he didn't want to leave it for Hongjun.

If he remembered correctly, Luohu should also obtain and refine a portion of the Jade Plate of Creation fragments.

It was precisely because of this that these two became the protagonists of the Dao-Demon conflict.

Because at the time of the world's creation, the remaining Jade Plate of Creation on Pangu's person directly merged into the yet-unformed Heavenly Dao after the world was split open.

Thus, no matter which of them won, the necessary step was to merge with the Dao, integrating the portion of the Jade Plate of Creation they had refined into the Heavenly Dao to complete it.

This Causality was sealed from the moment they began refining the fragments.

So Hong Yuan's plan was to deliver it to Luohu.

As for Hongjun, he would leave him to Luohu to deal with.

All he needed to do was ensure the Primordial Wilderness grew stronger day by day. He had no particular thoughts on matters like Kalpas.

After all, the Kalpas evolved by the Primordial Wilderness were meant to strengthen it.

It's like when your computer takes up too much memory—don't you have to regularly clear out the junk?

That's roughly the idea.

Periodically purge the waste tainted by evil qi and miasma.

For the healthy development of the Primordial Wilderness.

There was nothing inherently wrong with this.

But in the original trajectory, Hongjun, seeking transcendence, constantly meddled in the Kalpas behind the scenes, bombarding the Primordial Wilderness time and again, causing its gradual decline.

Originally, Hong Yuan didn't have much of an opinion on Hongjun.

After all, Hongjun was schemed against by the Primordial Wilderness from the moment he refined the Jade Plate of Creation fragments, forced to merge with the Dao, and then single-mindedly sought to transcend and seize the Primordial Wilderness's Dao Fruit. In truth, he couldn't be blamed.

Even if it were him, discovering he had been set up from the start would probably leave a bad taste in his mouth.

So Hong Yuan hadn't targeted Hongjun initially.

But since Hongjun knew it was him and still dared to scheme, then if Hong Yuan favored Luohu, Hongjun couldn't blame him.

Not to mention, in Hong Yuan's view, Luohu was far more interesting than Hongjun.

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