"Phew..."
Zhou Ming exhaled a breath of Turbid Qi, his gaze falling on the twelve enormous blood cocoons inside the hall.
The consciousnesses of the Twelve Ancestor Witches had successively awakened. Under his guidance and with the assistance of the Dao Origin Divine Pearl, they had begun instinctively circulating the Nine Revolutions Sha Quenching Art.
This was a good sign.
But Zhou Ming knew that relying solely on the Blood Pool Essence within Pangu Hall, along with the cultivation art's automatic circulation to refine the baleful energy, was still far too slow.
Although the baleful energy inside Pangu Hall was dense, it was finite, after all.
As the Ancestral Witches' consciousnesses awakened, their instinctive thirst for energy grew stronger by the day, and the speed at which they refined the baleful energy also increased.
"We can't rely on this little bit of stock inside Pangu Hall..." Zhou Ming stroked his chin and fell into thought.
"Outside, the Dragon-Phoenix-Qilin Calamity has just ended. The boundless baleful energy and resentment produced by the struggle among the three clans haven't completely dissipated yet. Judging by the timing, the Dao-Devil War is probably about to begin as well."
"This baleful energy is deadly poison to other living beings, but to me and the Witch Clan, it's a miraculous elixir."
A bold idea rose in his heart: go outside and collect the baleful energy!
He could use the Dao Origin Divine Pearl to gather the baleful energy, bring it back to Pangu Hall, and provide it as "nourishment" for the Twelve Ancestor Witches to refine.
This would not only greatly accelerate their cultivation speed, but perhaps...
"By organizing the baleful energy of the Primordial Wilderness and eliminating the aftermath of the Tribulation, maybe I can even earn some merit?"
Merit was hard currency in the Primordial World, with endless wondrous uses!
Although it was dangerous, it was worth a try!
The Primordial World had just experienced a great war, and the experts had suffered heavy losses. As long as he restricted his activities to the area around Buzhou Mountain and acted cautiously, there should not be much of a problem.
After making his decision, Zhou Ming did not act immediately.
First, he inspected the condition of the Twelve Ancestor Witches, making sure that the Nine Revolutions Sha Quenching Art was circulating steadily and that the protective imprint left by the Dao Origin Divine Pearl remained as firm as ever.
Then, he adjusted his condition to its peak and urged the Dao Origin Divine Pearl to protect his entire body. Only then did he cautiously leave the area around Pangu Hall.
The moment he stepped out of Pangu Hall's protective barrier, an extremely dense, almost tangible stench of blood and baleful energy surged toward him!
Even though the Dragon-Phoenix-Qilin Calamity had ended and the three clans had sworn to withdraw from the stage,
the baleful energy and Karma produced by the deaths of billions upon billions of living beings still permeated the world of the Primordial Wilderness.
He did not venture deep into the heartland of the Primordial Wilderness. He merely moved around at the foot of Buzhou Mountain, near Pangu Hall.
Zhou Ming activated the Dao Origin Divine Pearl and began slowly absorbing the baleful energy drifting nearby.
This baleful energy was mixed and violent, filled with negative emotions such as slaughter, resentment, and unwillingness.
The Dao Origin Divine Pearl trembled softly, drawing the mixed baleful energy inside. Using the power of laws, it slowly erased the negative wills within and refined them into relatively pure energy.
The process was not fast, but it was effective.
Zhou Ming did not dare to be greedy. Each time, he collected only an appropriate amount of baleful energy before immediately returning to Pangu Hall.
He carefully guided the energy refined by the Dao Origin Divine Pearl toward the twelve blood cocoons, helping them circulate the Nine Revolutions Sha Quenching Art.
With the replenishment of the baleful energy from outside, the Twelve Ancestor Witches' speed of refining it clearly increased by a significant margin!
The life force within the blood cocoons also became more vigorous.
Zhou Ming could even sense that the immature thoughts transmitted by Dijiang and the others contained a little more joy and dependence.
"It works!" Zhou Ming was delighted, and his motivation grew even stronger.
Thus, Zhou Ming began living a routine that ran between Pangu Hall and the foot of Buzhou Mountain.
On one hand, he worked hard at cultivation and improved his own realm. On the other, he regularly went out to collect baleful energy and "feed" his Twelve Younger Siblings.
As Zhou Ming absorbed and refined the baleful energy, merit descended from heaven and earth, merging into his Primordial Spirit and the Dao Origin Divine Pearl.
"So this is merit?"
There was not much of it, but many small gains added up. It was a good thing, at least.
In the Primordial World, years went unrecorded, and cultivation knew no passage of time.
Zhou Ming could no longer remember how many times he had made this round trip.
He only knew that the condition of the Twelve Ancestor Witches was growing better and better, and that the day they transformed into human form did not seem far away.
As for Zhou Ming himself, his accumulation in the Mid-stage Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm was also growing increasingly profound.
On this day, Zhou Ming was cultivating inside Pangu Hall when, suddenly, a tremor spread throughout the Primordial World.
The world's energy currents once again became oppressive and violent, even more suffocating than during the Dragon-Phoenix-Qilin Calamity!
"The Dao-Devil War... has begun!" Zhou Ming's expression turned solemn.
Hongjun and Luohu! The ultimate battle that would determine the future ownership of the Primordial World's orthodox tradition!
Although he had anticipated it long ago, when this great battle that would determine the structure of the Primordial World truly arrived, Zhou Ming still felt immense pressure.
He had no intention of joining in the excitement.
At that level of battle, with his current cultivation, he could be shaken to death by the aftermath even if he watched from far away.
"Lie low! Keep lying low!"
Zhou Ming took a deep breath and forced himself to calm his mind before continuing his seclusion.
As long as the fighting outside did not affect Pangu Hall, it had nothing to do with him for the time being.
Increasing his strength was the true path!
On this day, Zhou Ming was guiding the Dao Origin Divine Pearl to help the last few Ancestral Witches, whose consciousnesses had been born later, organize their baleful energy.
Suddenly, a voice resounded throughout the Primordial World!
"Great Dao above, I, Luohu, make this oath here. I am willing to transform into the Demonic Path. From this day onward, when the Dao rises one foot, the demons rise ten feet; when the Dao expands, the demons wither, and when the demons flourish, the Dao declines. The Demonic Path is established!"
Immediately afterward.
Boom—!!!
A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering explosion came from the distant West!
The entire Primordial World trembled violently!
In the distant sky of the West, an incomparably thick pillar of black demonic energy pierced through heaven and earth. Like the final roar of a dying giant beast, it exploded with a crash!
Immediately afterward, an energy capable of destroying heaven and earth swept madly across the entire western land!
Mountains collapsed, the earth caved in, and countless living beings were instantly reduced to ashes!
The Western Spirit Vein was forcibly blasted apart by nine-tenths under this terrifying self-detonation!
"Luohu!!!" A cold and furious voice rang throughout the Primordial World!
It was Hongjun!
"Hongjun! You want to attain the Dao? Even if my body dies and my Dao vanishes, I absolutely will not let you have your way! Hahaha!" Luohu's crazed and venomous laughter echoed through heaven and earth.
To stop Hongjun—or rather, to make things difficult for him—
Demon Ancestor Luohu had actually been willing to self-detonate and destroy the foundation of the western Primordial World!
The West was completely ruined now! It would probably take countless Kalpas to recover its vitality.
This earth-shaking battle between the Dao and demons ultimately ended with Luohu's defeat and self-detonation, while Hongjun emerged with a miserable victory.
The price was the exhaustion of the spirit veins throughout the entire western world. In addition, apart from Hongjun and Yang Mei, nearly all the top Quasi-Saint experts in the Primordial World had perished in this Dao-Demon Tribulation!
Although Hongjun had seized victory, the Western Ancestral Vein had been destroyed, and he himself had expended tremendous energy.
After confiscating the Four Swords of Zhu Xian and its formation diagram and suppressing the rampaging demonic energy in the West, he returned to Yujing Mountain and entered secluded cultivation, preparing to break through into the final Hunyuan Realm.
After enduring the successive baptisms of the Longhan Era and the Dao-Demon Era's two great Tribulations,
the high-end combat strength of the entire Primordial World entered an unprecedented vacuum period.
The Tribulation's baleful energy permeating heaven and earth finally began to slowly dissipate following Luohu's death and Hongjun's suppression.
Although the West had become barren and devastated, the entire Primordial World unexpectedly welcomed a brief and precious period of peace.
Inside Pangu Hall, Zhou Ming sensed the atmosphere outside gradually settling down, but he did not relax in the slightest.
He knew that this was merely the calm before the storm.
Dao Ancestor Hongjun was about to attain the Dao, the Zixiao Palace lecture was about to begin, and the Primordial World was about to enter a brand-new era.
Meanwhile, the Witch Clan and the Demon Clan, the two rising overlords that had inherited the Destiny of the Primordial World, were also about to step onto the stage of history.
"To change the fate of the Witch Clan, I have to become stronger." Zhou Ming murmured to himself, his gaze once again falling on the twelve blood cocoons.