Blunt Awakening, Fishing

The mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.

Feng Xi locked onto his prey, sharpening his blade and preparing to make a huge windfall.

However, there was a saying that fit this situation perfectly—

Before beating a dog, one had to consider its owner!

And so, he was done for.

Completely and utterly done for.

A club came crashing down on his head. He had no ability to resist and immediately passed out.

Yet the last thought that flashed through his mind before he blacked out was about the work he had taken on.

"Damn it, damn it!"

"I'm carrying everyone's entire fortune on me!"

"If I lose it... I'll have to bear the resentment of everyone who placed their hopes in me..."

Feng Xi regretted it deeply.

If he had not been drawn in at the start, greedily pursued it, and brought about this unexpected complication... how could such a miserable situation have occurred?

Along the road of life, all kinds of temptations constantly made people stray from their original goals. In the end, they made one wrong move after another and could never turn back.

Only by exercising self-restraint, remaining true to one's principles, and staying unwavering could one walk toward success.

That abrupt blow to the head had certainly knocked Feng Xi flat, but it had also helped correct the course of his life.

A crisis was both danger and opportunity.

Of course, he would have to wake up before there was any chance to put this insight to use.

If he died right then... it would become a bowl of poisonous chicken soup, a tragic example used by those who came after him to educate others.

No one knew how much time had passed.

Feng Xi, who had been unconscious, regained awareness.

Although the process had been extremely arduous, his hazy consciousness seemed to glimpse a great divine being—

Ancestral Witch Houtu!

And the scene behind Ancestral Witch Houtu was something Feng Xi would remember forever, something he could never forget.

It was the palace hall in the background of the moment when he had been tricked into joining the Witch Clan and fighting for the Human Race's position as Protagonist of Heaven and Earth!

What did this mean?

The world after death!

The methods of that unknown existence were truly terrifying... One blow had sent his Three Souls out of his body and his Seven Spirits into the heavens, nearly sending him straight to his grave.

However, the psychological trauma Ancestral Witch Houtu had left him with back then, along with the reappearing threat of reincarnation, instantly scared his Three Souls and Seven Spirits back into his body. They settled as firmly as a mountain, breaking free of death's pull.

Only then did he regain consciousness and control of his own body... Feeling the vivid force of life within him, Feng Xi nearly burst into tears.

Of course, he did not show it.

He had not forgotten what had caused him to pass out... The situation was unclear at the moment, so he had to remain still and quietly determine his condition and safety.

Maintaining his unconscious state without the slightest change, Feng Xi cautiously sensed and investigated, starting with his own condition.

My hands? Still here.

My feet? Still here, too.

Have my heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys been cut out?

Thank goodness... All those parts are still in my body, safe and sound.

Hiss... Other than the spot on my head where I was struck being painful, I'm actually completely intact?

Feng Xi was somewhat astonished, then inexplicably relieved.

This was excellent news—despite him having been utterly unable to resist, his attacker had not finished him off. The situation could hardly be called bad.

Still, it would be even better if the Cosmic Mustard Seed he carried, containing everyone's entire fortune, was still there!

People die, but their money remains unspent... That's a very sad thing.

But if people live and their money is gone... That's damn well even sadder!

Could there be anything sadder than that?

Yes!

People live, their money is gone, and they're deeply in debt, owing astronomical sums...

The moment he imagined hundreds of thousands of Witch Clan members staring at him with resentment in their eyes... Feng Xi's mind began racing, and he started considering whether he should flee.

Even if the enraged Witch Clan warriors jointly petitioned the Ancestral Witches to use their divine abilities to shout throughout the Primordial World—

"Bastard Feng Xi, you ran off with the money! Despicable and shameless... Give us back our hard-earned money! Give us back our hard-earned money!"

He could not worry about that anymore.

Of course... if he could avoid such a situation, that would be best.

After all, in a world with Great Luo cheats like that, how far could he possibly run?

He probably would not get far before the Ancestral Witch reset time itself, look at him with a cold smile, and say, Go on, run again.

The situation probably isn't that bad yet... They say killing for treasure, but if someone had really robbed me of such a huge sum, why would they let me live?

Besides, the existence who attacked me knocked me down so effortlessly. His cultivation realm must tower far above Golden Immortal. The wealth of hundreds of thousands of Golden Immortals probably wouldn't matter to someone like that, right?

Thinking uneasily, Feng Xi did not dare open his eyes, but he raised his hearing to its absolute limit.

The Witch Clan did not cultivate the Primordial Spirit and lacked an investigative method like spiritual sense, but that did not mean their sensory abilities were weak.

—They possessed incredibly powerful five senses and six perceptions!

With a single opening of their eyes, they could see through things, observe in every direction without blind spots, gaze up at the sea of stars, and look down into the Nine Serenities.

With a twitch of their ears, they could hear the Great Dao's voice and distinguish all kinds of vibrations throughout the universe.

Their five senses and six perceptions were astonishingly powerful!

When pushed to the extreme, they could trace their bloodline back to Great God Pangu. The ancient, present, and future would all lie before their eyes, while the prayers of the myriad heavens would resound in their hearts.

Moreover, compared with spiritual sense, an investigative ability that had to be actively released and was easily noticed by others, the Witch Clan's abilities were activated entirely within themselves and possessed an extremely high degree of concealment.

At that moment, Feng Xi's hearing was the sharpest. He drew every sound from the mountains and rivers spanning millions of miles into his mind... the howling of the gale, the roar of a great river rushing onward, and the crunching sound of what seemed to be some strange beast gnawing on something...

As well as an indignant voice—

"How outrageous... How outrageous!"

"The Phoenix Lineage... has fallen!"

"And those Feathered Clan members... Where's their backbone? Where did it all go?"

"Someone gives them a big stick, then offers them a sweet date... and they just hand over all the information without hesitation?"

It was a very clear female voice, yet she used the fiercest words to condemn them, berating the Phoenix Lineage and the Feathered Clan until they were utterly worthless.

Feng Xi was very curious.

Just who was this mighty figure, to curse so confidently?

All the Great Luo members of the Phoenix Clan in Phoenix Perch Mountain had been implicated, their names included among the targets of her criticism.

"Don't be angry, don't be angry..." another gentle voice sounded, trying to persuade her.

Feng Xi's entire body trembled—the voice belonged to the existence who had knocked him down with a single blow.

And he did not know whether it was an illusion, but the voice sounded strangely familiar...

I feel like I've heard a very similar voice somewhere before... A thought flashed through Feng Xi's mind.

"You can't put all the blame on those youngsters!"

"They aren't lacking in backbone. Someone was holding Kong Xuan's feather and representing the will of the future successor of the Phoenix Lineage... What could they do?"

"If they devoted themselves to their duties, they risked offending Kong Xuan... Their bones might be hard for the moment, but who knew when a resentful superior might hold a grudge and send them to charge into danger and take the blame in the future?"

"If they didn't devote themselves to their duties, then the moment something went wrong, they would become targets to be sacrificed as a warning to others."

"It's difficult... This is the sorrow of insignificant people. Why bother criticizing them?"

After those words, the female voice fell silent.

Feng Xi gave a thumbs-up in his heart—he rarely encountered an existence so understanding and considerate of those under them.

That definitely deserved a like!

After a long silence, the female voice sounded again.

This time, however, she changed the subject and vented her complaints at Kong Xuan.

"That child Kong Xuan... He's far, far too naive!"

"Someone fooled him with a couple of sentences, and he just muddleheadedly fell into their trap!"

"With that kind of mentality, how can he inherit the great undertaking of the Phoenix Clan in the future?"

"You can't put it that way..." the other person said indifferently. "Who hasn't passed through a naive phase?"

"How long has it been since Kong Xuan was born? Such a reaction is perfectly normal."

"At the very least, he's much better than someone was back then..."

"You still have the nerve to say that?" The female voice suddenly rose. "You..."

"All right... Don't be angry. Don't get worked up." The other person changed the subject. "Look, look... A fresh big fish has taken the bait!"

"Tsk... Another unregistered transmigrator."

"Hmm, let me see. What good stuff did this one bring?"

"Huh?" The voice sounded surprised. "Dragon essence blood?"

"Ha! The Black Hand manipulating this transmigration put down quite a lot of capital!"

"A drop of a Grand Unity True Dragon's essence blood... Once this fellow transmigrates and cultivates for some time, he'll become a Taiyi!"

"Come, come... Here's your snack. See if it suits your taste."

"Don't change the subject! I'm telling you..." Discontent colored the female voice as she continued muttering, but soon it turned into an "Awooo!" "Huh? It actually tastes pretty good?"

"Of course..." someone said cheerfully. "The aura in this drop of essence blood looks very familiar... It seems to belong to that fellow, the Ancestral Dragon."

"Heh... Looks like that Old Dragon isn't content to sit still either."

"Downstream in time, he activated Great Luo authority, traced through spacetime, and placed a piece in the past... What is he trying to overturn? Or change?"

"I've been fishing here all these years. I've caught at least eighty drops of Dragon Clan essence blood, if not a hundred!"

"Ancestral Dragon... Hmph, that fellow is still as restless as ever." After satisfying her appetite and remembering the matter at hand, the female voice calmed down as well. "But he doesn't seem to realize... How many vicious beatings has he taken, and how many pitfalls has he walked into?"

"The more something is out of reach, the more desperately one wants to change it... Especially after staking all one's capital, when victory is only one final step away." The other person chuckled. "The Human Race... Heh! The Human Race!"

"The kings of the Human Race have an unspoken understanding and are playing a grand game of chess."

"Poor Old Dragon. His life as a dragon is so tragic... Who knows when he'll finally get a chance to turn things around?"

"You, the fisherman, have no right to say that, do you?" There was a hint of disdain in the female voice. "Who's the one fishing here, sealing off the eras of time, and plucking away the pieces Old Dragon arranged one by one?"

"An accident... It was all an accident!"

"I put out the bait, and the big fish took it. What could I do?"

"But I've used up all the bait now... Hmm, no, that little Lesser Witch over there pretending to be unconscious looks like he'd make suitable bait?"