"Jie Sect disciples?"
The emotion Zhenyuanzi had been building up was interrupted. "Do you know which Personal Disciple of Jie Sect has come?"
Qingfeng and Mingyue both shook their heads and answered honestly, "Reporting to Master, the five who came are not Jie Sect's four Personal Disciples. Could they be ordinary named disciples trying to come to Wuzhuang Temple and mooch off a Saint's Great Sect?"
"Be cautious with your words. How could Fellow Daoist Tongtian's Jie Sect have such disciples?" Zhenyuanzi said. "Invite them in."
"Yes."
Qingfeng and Mingyue withdrew and invited Cangyuan's group of five into Wuzhuang Temple.
"Greetings, Senior Zhenyuanzi."
The moment he saw Zhenyuanzi approaching, Cangyuan knew who he was without needing to think.
Who else could it be but the future Ancestor of Earth Immortals, Zhenyuanzi?
"This junior is the fifth Outer Disciple of Jie Sect. This is my teacher's newly accepted Personal Disciple, while these three, like me, are Outer Disciples under our teacher."
Cangyuan introduced them.
Zhenyuanzi's expression flickered with surprise. His gentle, calm gaze moved between Cangyuan and Bai Lianxin. "You two disciple nephews possess extraordinary foundations. You are both Innate Divine Beings, no less impressive than the batch of fellow Daoists from our time."
"Brother Tongtian truly has great fortune, to have accepted two newly born Innate Divine Beings as disciples in this age."
Cangyuan humbly said, "Being able to take our master as our teacher is also an immense blessing for us."
"Mm." Zhenyuanzi nodded, then turned to Qingfeng and Mingyue. "Bring the Golden Striker and strike fi... ten Ginseng Fruits for the five disciple nephews to taste."
"Yes."
Qingfeng and Mingyue responded and withdrew.
They went to harvest Ginseng Fruits.
The Ginseng Fruit Tree was one of the ten Supreme Innate Spiritual Roots of the Prehistoric World. The Ginseng Fruits growing upon it took thirty thousand years to blossom, another thirty thousand years to bear fruit, and another thirty thousand years to mature, requiring a full hundred thousand years before they could be eaten.
They were exceptionally precious.
In the entire Prehistoric World, perhaps only the already fallen Old Ancestor Hongyun had treated Ginseng Fruits as ordinary fruit.
"A gift from an elder should not be declined."
Cangyuan did not refuse.
Their purpose in coming here to deliver Old Ancestor Hongyun was one matter; their secondary purpose was naturally these Ginseng Fruits.
While Qingfeng and Mingyue went to fetch the Golden Striker and harvest the Ginseng Fruits, Zhenyuanzi went straight to the point. "May I ask what important matter has brought you five disciple nephews to my Wuzhuang Temple? I presume you did not simply happen to pass through this place."
As he spoke, Zhenyuanzi's gaze fell upon the emerald-green sword on Cangyuan's back, as though it had been formed from a lotus leaf.
Qingping Sword!
Saint Tongtian's Dao Proving Spiritual Treasure.
How could Zhenyuanzi fail to recognize it?
What astonished Zhenyuanzi was what sort of matter could have moved a Saint to send out his own Dao Proving Spiritual Treasure to protect disciples of his sect on their journey to Wuzhuang Temple.
Cangyuan smiled faintly. He was not the sort to conceal things, and directly took out a crimson gourd brimming with extreme killing intent from the Cangyuan Realm!
Supreme Innate Spiritual Treasure—the Nine-Nine Soul Scattering Gourd!
The instant Zhenyuanzi saw the crimson gourd, his eyes immediately reddened. "Esteemed Brother Hongyun!"
A strand of crimson mist floated from the Nine-Nine Soul Scattering Gourd, slowly condensing into Old Ancestor Hongyun's damaged Primordial Spirit.
This was an injury to his origin left behind by self-destruction. Recovering from it would be anything but easy.
Old Ancestor Hongyun looked at Zhenyuanzi before him, swept his broad red robe aside, and softly said, "Zhenyuanzi, it has been a long time. I hope you have been well."
"I heard you were attacked and annihilated within the River of Time. I searched through the entire River of Time, yet could not find your true spirit. It pained me deeply that I could not protect you, my worthy brother."
Old Ancestor Hongyun also smiled with emotion. "Though I survived this great calamity, my situation was not much better. Had it not been for little friend Cangyuan, I fear I would still be drifting in the Layer between Primordial World and Chaos, not knowing when I might return to the Prehistoric World—or perhaps die beyond Heaven."
Hearing this, Zhenyuanzi looked at Cangyuan across from him and said gratefully, "Thank you, disciple nephew Cangyuan."
"Qingfeng, Mingyue, don't harvest five. Bring fifty Ginseng Fruits!"
In the rear courtyard, Qingfeng and Mingyue, who were harvesting Ginseng Fruits with the Golden Striker, were so startled by their Master's words that they nearly fell from the clouds.
What exactly had those Jie Sect disciples done for Master to order them to harvest fifty Ginseng Fruits at once?
Not even a Saint would receive such treatment.
In the front courtyard.
Zhenyuanzi's face turned somewhat fierce as he asked in a deep voice, "Esteemed Brother Hongyun, who exactly attacked you?"
Old Ancestor Hongyun sighed. "It was Kunpeng, Dijun, and the others from the Heavenly Court. They sealed off the Heavenly Secrets beforehand and laid down a Heavenly Net and Earthly Net. While I was traveling the Prehistoric World and seeking an Opportunity to become a Saint, they launched a secret attack against me!"
"The Heavenly Court!"
The kindness in Zhenyuanzi's eyes abruptly turned sharp. He raised his head and gazed through the air toward the Heavenly Court atop Mount Buzhou, as though he would rush there the next moment to kill and avenge Old Ancestor Hongyun.
Old Ancestor Hongyun hurriedly tried to dissuade him.
"Zhenyuanzi, do not act rashly. The Heavenly Court is powerful, beyond what you and I can resist. Do not let me bring disaster upon you."
"But!" Zhenyuanzi narrowed his eyes and said solemnly, "The last strand of Primordial Violet Qi is in your possession. Dijun and the others certainly will not let this go. Once they divine that you are in Wuzhuang Temple, the Heavenly Court's great army will surely arrive together."
In a one-on-one fight, so long as he did not encounter Taiyi, Zhenyuanzi feared none of the Heavenly Court's Quasi-Saint experts.
But... the Heavenly Court would not fight him one-on-one for Primordial Violet Qi.
If the Heavenly Court's Quasi-Saints swarmed him, even Zhenyuanzi, a Great Supernatural Being famed for ages, would not be able to withstand them.
"What should we do?"
Zhenyuanzi anxiously paced back and forth.
Esteemed Brother Hongyun had only just managed to return to his side. He absolutely could not stand by and watch Esteemed Brother Hongyun suffer calamity.
Beside them, Bixiao blinked her watery eyes at her second sister Qiongxiao. The two women's lively eyes kept blinking, as though they were conversing through their gazes.
Yunxiao sat beside Cangyuan with dignified elegance, quiet and composed. She knew this was not an occasion for them to speak.
Bai Lianxin tilted her little head, still wondering what the Ginseng Fruits tasted like.
Only Cangyuan was thinking about serious matters.
"Something isn't right. Legend says Zhenyuanzi controls the Supreme Innate Spiritual Treasure—the Book of Earth. The Book of Earth links countless earth veins throughout the Prehistoric World to form an incomparably defensive great array. Even Saints would not dare attack Zhenyuanzi lightly. Why, then, would he fear those Quasi-Saints from the Heavenly Court now?"
Zhenyuanzi's Earth Vein Great Array had another name: the Great Array of Moral Coercion!
The Book of Earth connected with countless earth veins throughout the Prehistoric World, forming a great array. If the array were broken, the earth veins linked by the Book of Earth would also shatter and be destroyed. Then sins would arise on their own, Heaven and Earth would backlash, and Karma would burn one's body.
Look at Dao Ancestor Hongjun. Back then, because he forced Demon Ancestor Luohu into blowing up the earth veins of The West, he directly bestowed two Saint Fruit Positions upon The West to repay that karma, only then eliminating the karmic consequences of the destroyed earth veins.
That was why even Saints did not dare casually attack Zhenyuanzi while he possessed the Earth Vein Great Array.
If the Earth Vein Great Array collapsed and all the earth veins of the Prehistoric World were destroyed, even if all six Saints bore that monstrous Karma together, they would be cast down from their Saint Positions!
That was just how ruthless it was.
This was also why Zhenyuanzi could later become the transcendent Ancestor of Earth Immortals.
"Could it be... that Zhenyuanzi at this time has not yet thought of linking the Book of Earth with the Prehistoric World's earth veins to form a great array?"
Before you continue