Billions of miles away, in an unnamed valley, muffled groans and violent coughing rang out one after another. Di Jiang's attack had, by a stroke of luck, brought them all together again.
Blood trickled from the corner of Taiqing's mouth, and his Daoist robe was torn. The Heaven and Earth Profound Yellow Qi above his head had dimmed somewhat. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he wore an expression more solemn than ever as he silently circulated his energy to heal his wounds.
Yuqing was in a sorry state too, his hair in disarray and his face ashen. Coughing up blood, he growled, "Such a shameful disgrace! What a shameful disgrace!" He had roamed the Primordial World for so long—when had he ever been treated like this?
Shangqing wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, but a flicker of shock and lingering fear passed through his eyes. The power of the Five Elements Divine Light had made him truly feel the threat of death. Even now, remembering it left him shaken, so he kept silent.
Di Jun and Taiyi supported each other. Their Solar True Fire flickered fitfully, and they had clearly suffered serious internal injuries. Their faces were so grim they seemed ready to drip water.
The siblings Nuwa and Fuxi were also weak and drained. Two strings on the Fuxi Qin had snapped, and it would need time to recover.
Hong Yun was in the worst shape. He had only avoided passing out on the spot because Zhenyuanzi protected him with the power of the Book of Earth. Zhenyuanzi himself was also left with surging qi and blood, and could only shake his head with a bitter smile.
Nine mighty figures renowned throughout the Primordial World were now all injured and covered in dust, each looking utterly wretched. After expending a great deal of energy, they had barely managed to stabilize their injuries and gather in a relatively safe place.
Shame, anger, resentment, and a fear they could hardly put into words lingered in every heart.
"Who, exactly, was that?" Di Jun broke the silence, his voice hoarse.
Taiyi gritted his teeth. "Whoever he was, he never went to the Purple Sky Palace to listen to the Dao. That makes it hard to learn his identity!"
That meant their opponent either arrogantly disregarded the Saints' Great Dao, or was confident that his own Dao was no weaker than a Saint's. Either possibility was unnerving.
"We didn't even see his face, yet he beat us into this state. If word gets out, what will become of our reputations?" Yuqing said bitterly.
Taiqing slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and said gravely, "We can't let this go. At the very least, we need to find out his origins."
Nuwa nodded, her beautiful eyes glimmering. "Exactly. Someone so powerful, who occupies Mount Buzhou, cannot be a nobody. We may not know who he is, but someone might."
Fuxi picked up the thread. "We might find the answer in the Purple Sky Palace."
Everyone's eyes lit up. Of course! Dao Ancestor Hongjun was a Saint of the Primordial World. He would surely know who the mysterious lord of Mount Buzhou was!
"When the Purple Sky Palace next holds a lecture, we must ask the Saint for an explanation!" Shangqing clenched his fists.
"At the very least, we need to find out who beat us up!" Hong Yun added weakly. He had voiced what they were all thinking.
They had been thoroughly beaten, yet couldn't even find out their assailant's name or origins. That frustration was almost harder to bear than their injuries.
They would remember this grudge. Though they couldn't do anything to their opponent for now, they would at least get to the bottom of who he was.
And so, carrying their pain and frustration, the nine mighty figures returned to their respective abodes to heal. They also swore to themselves that the next time they saw Dao Ancestor Hongjun, they would demand the whole truth.
Not long after casually getting rid of those noisy mighty figures, Di Jiang felt a stir in his heart. From another part of Mount Buzhou came an unusually strong and pure surge of spiritual energy, intermingled with several distinct innate Dao auras.
With a flash, he appeared at the source of the spiritual energy. In a misty mountain hollow, an emerald-green vine covered in Dao patterns wound across the ground, its roots sunk into Nine Heavens Breathing Soil that radiated a profound aura of creation.
Seven gourds hung from the vine, each a different color and shimmering with precious light: purple-gold, crimson, water-blue, amber, jade-green, deep black, and a seventh, still immature, whose color was a chaotic blur. The first six gourds had ripened, giving off alluring Dao auras and spiritual pressure. Only the seventh still needed time.
Di Jiang swept the vine with his divine sense and found that the innate Gourd Vine itself had developed only the faintest trace of intelligence, as helpless and innocent as a newborn infant.
"So it's this."
Di Jiang understood, but unlike ordinary cultivators who would have rushed to pluck the treasure, he watched with interest, curious to see how long the seventh gourd would take to ripen.
But then, a sudden change occurred! The seventh gourd seemed to have reached its most critical stage, and its need for spiritual energy became terrifying. It began devouring the surrounding spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth, even consuming the Dao auras spilling from the six ripe gourds beside it. Yet it was still like a drop in the ocean, nowhere near enough to meet the enormous demands of its final maturation.
The Gourd Vine's faint intelligence sensed the danger! It instinctively realized that if things continued this way, not only would the seventh gourd fail to ripen, but its own main vine might wither from the exhaustion of its reserves.
To protect itself, the Gourd Vine made a cruel, instinctive choice: it began drawing the seventh gourd's essence and vitality back into the main vine!
Before their very eyes, the seventh gourd grew dimmer and shriveled, while the main vine barely managed to stay alive.
Di Jiang watched in silence without intervening. This was the spiritual root's own law of survival. Just then, the Gourd Vine's feeble intelligence seemed to sense the vast, oceanic power within Di Jiang, and the fortune he possessed as the lord of Mount Buzhou.
As if grasping at its last lifeline, it sent a halting thought into Di Jiang's mind, full of desperation and pleading:
"Help... help me... take form... I'll... give you... a top-grade... treasure..."
Left with no choice, the Gourd Vine offered the six ripe Top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure gourds hanging from its vine as payment, begging Di Jiang to help it take form!
At its words, a flicker of surprise passed through Di Jiang's eyes, but he did not agree at once. The Gourd Vine had an extraordinarily noble origin: it was a top-tier innate spiritual root, and its path to taking form would be exceptionally difficult. Perhaps it had borne the seven gourds in the first place to let them shoulder some of its essence and karmic burden, easing the difficulty of taking form.
Unfortunately, it had botched things in his past life: the gourds had been plucked, and it had failed to take form. In this life, my Five Elements Great Array protected it from outside calamities, but the other problems remained.
More importantly, deep down, Di Jiang did not want the Gourd Vine to take form.
He looked at the vine as if it were a rare potted plant in his own courtyard. What then, once it took form? How would he deal with a being with an independent mind and unknowable intentions?
Should he let it stay on Mount Buzhou? He didn't know what kind of temperament it had, and whether it would bring fortune or disaster. Drive it away? That would create needless resentment and karmic debt. Better to prevent the possibility from the start than risk a future tale of "brothers turning against each other" or "the farmer and the snake."
"You're better off staying a vine and knowing your place."
Di Jiang had made up his mind.
And so, while the Gourd Vine's faint intelligence waited anxiously for his answer, a fierce glint flashed in Di Jiang's eyes. Without hesitation, he unleashed a beam of divine law-light!
The power of law, carrying a force that could suppress all things, struck straight into the Gourd Vine's core essence!
"Bzzzz—!"
The Gourd Vine shuddered violently. Under the pure, overbearing force of the law, its faint intelligence couldn't even struggle before it was completely erased! All its pleading, hope, and fear vanished into nothingness.
With its intelligence gone, the Gourd Vine became an innate spiritual root that grew purely on instinct. And with no intelligence to guide it, instinct took over. It no longer clung to the idea of taking form, nor did it distinguish between what was primary and what was secondary!
Survival and growth became its only goals. It instinctively began absorbing the immense spiritual power and Dao auras contained in the six ripe gourds, as well as the remaining essence of the seventh, which had withered before ripening!
The six glowing gourds visibly dimmed and shriveled as the main vine greedily absorbed all their essence. The main vine began growing thicker and longer at an astonishing rate. The Dao patterns on its emerald-green surface became denser and more profound, and its vitality swelled to even greater heights.
This was exactly the effect Di Jiang wanted! With a sweep of his hand, he invoked the Earth Law and transplanted the entire Gourd Vine, along with the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil beneath it, to the lowest reaches of Mount Buzhou, near the core of its earth veins.
"Grow. Grow to your heart's content! Climb Mount Buzhou, and let your branches become the first natural barrier protecting my mountain!"
Guided by Di Jiang's will and nourished by Mount Buzhou's abundant spiritual energy, the Gourd Vine had lost its intelligence and retained only the instinct to grow. It began spreading its branches wildly, like green dragons winding their way up the majestic mountain, climbing with relentless determination...
It was easy to imagine that before long, this innate Gourd Vine, having absorbed the essence of all seven gourds and replenished its reserves, would drape Mount Buzhou in natural green armor, becoming the first powerful line of defense around this Heavenly Pillar of the Primordial World!
Di Jiang watched, satisfied. He wasn't short on spiritual treasures. A useful, obedient "living formation" and "mountainside ornament" that would never betray him was far more valuable to him.
It wasn't that Di Jiang hadn't considered plucking the six gourds. After all, they were six innate spiritual treasures. But doing so would greatly diminish the Gourd Vine's quality and, naturally, its defensive power. Mount Buzhou was his foundation. Not even six Top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasures—let alone six Innate Supreme Treasures—could compare to it!
As long as Mount Buzhou existed in the Primordial World, he would always be the safest person in it. More importantly, the Gourd Vine had not only survived, but also retained its essence!
The Gourd Vine hadn't lost out here. As for Di Jiang, he'd made a fortune!
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