Which Supreme Expert Didn't Have a Will of Iron?

Eastern Region of the Primordial World

"Master, where are we going?" A Bao asked curiously as he rode through the sky on a golden bridge formed from Yin Yang Two Qi.

"Home." Long Zang lay on A Bao's back with his eyes closed, his voice languid.

"Home? You mean Emperor Venerable Island, right?" A Bao grinned innocently.

Long Zang opened his eyes and shot him a look. "Are you thinking about my Yellow Middle Plum again?"

A Bao chuckled, making no attempt to deny it.

The Yin-Yang currents beneath his feet formed a golden bridge, carrying them swiftly across mountains and lands.

"Master, we've reached Buzhou Mountain," A Bao reminded him.

Long Zang opened his eyes and gazed at the ancient, mysterious mountain rising into the clouds. His expression shifted slightly.

Countless years had passed since he'd left this place.

He'd come back now because the situation in the Primordial World had temporarily settled down, giving him a chance to return home.

Long Zang jumped down from A Bao's back. A Bao immediately shrank and floated behind him.

Long Zang couldn't be bothered with the fool and headed straight into the depths of Buzhou Mountain.

He stepped into a chaotic, baleful space—the Primordial Turbid Qi Domain.

"Master, this place is terrifying..." A Bao immediately clung to Long Zang's leg.

"You never take your cultivation seriously. Now you're scared?" Long Zang rolled his eyes.

A Bao replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "But you're here, Master. What do I have to be afraid of?"

Long Zang was speechless.

Which of them was the master, and which was the mount?

If he hadn't been so powerful, this fool would have gotten him killed long ago.

Before them, Turbid Qi churned across the sky like a tide of destruction.

The area had been made extremely dangerous by repeated battles. Even a Grand Unity Golden Immortal could be completely corroded by it if he weren't careful.

At A Bao's current strength, falling into it would mean certain annihilation.

"Master, am I useless?" A Bao asked softly, still clinging to Long Zang's leg.

"..."

Long Zang couldn't be bothered to answer. He simply picked A Bao up and pressed forward through the Turbid Qi.

Before long, they reached a Bronze Ancient Palace floating amid the sea of Turbid Qi.

The hall resembled an ancient warship. No matter how the Turbid Qi surged around it, the palace remained unmoved.

The moment Long Zang stepped inside, he felt a blood-deep connection.

He walked into the depths of the hall. At its center, twelve enormous crimson cocoons floated in a Blood Pool.

Endless Turbid Qi poured into them, as though the twelve cocoons were black holes in the world itself.

"Master, what are those?" A Bao asked curiously.

"My younger brothers and sisters. They haven't been born yet." Long Zang's voice was calm.

"Oh..." A Bao blinked.

Long Zang gazed at the twelve enormous cocoons, his expression growing solemn.

The next moment, a golden light shot from his fingertip and transformed into twelve ancient scriptures, which sank into the cocoons.

...Great Dao Undying Body!

This cultivation method was one Long Zang had created himself, specially tailored for the Witch Clan. It was an ultimate art that fused the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique with the foundations of the Great Dao.

To cultivate it, one had to be born in control of a Great Dao and use it to forge an imperishable body.

Other races simply couldn't cultivate it. Only the Witch Clan had bloodlines naturally suited to it.

And the lives inside those twelve enormous cocoons were none other than the future...Twelve Ancestor Witches.

Each Ancestor Witch would wield a different Dao. Long Zang provided only the framework, without forcing his own "Devouring Great Dao" upon them.

He hoped they would each take their own innate Dao as their foundation and create their own Great Dao Undying Body.

As the scriptures entered the cocoons, the twelve began to tremble. The aura of laws surged around them, scriptures flowed, and Divine Light flashed.

A smile tugged at Long Zang's lips.

To raise the Witch Clan into the Primordial World's imperial clan, careful planning alone wouldn't be enough. They needed strength!

From this moment on, the Twelve Ancestor Witches who cultivated the Great Dao Undying Body would be qualified to reach the level of Sublime Saint, instead of remaining Quasi-Saint peak experts all their lives, as they had in the original history!

In the original history, the Twelve Ancestor Witches were later swept along by the prevailing tide and took the path of cultivating the Heavenly Dao.

It wasn't exactly wrong, but...it simply wasn't right for them.

On the surface, the Witch Clan didn't cultivate their Primordial Spirits like other cultivators. In truth, though, they were still following the Heavenly Dao's path.

It was the era when Hongjun became a Sage and the Heavenly Dao rose to power. Cultivating Immortality became the mainstream in the Primordial World. Naturally, the Witch Clan was swept along by the prevailing tide and gradually took that "mainstream path."

That wasn't particularly surprising.

But Long Zang would never let that happen again.

The Great Dao Undying Body was the cultivation gift he had prepared for his younger brothers and sisters who had yet to be born...the Twelve Ancestor Witches.

The greatest difference between cultivating the Heavenly Dao and cultivating the Great Dao was this:

Cultivating the Heavenly Dao had a "threshold." Without Hongmeng Purple Qi, no matter how powerful you became, you would remain stuck below the Quasi-Saint realm, unable to enter Hunyuan.

What about cultivating the Great Dao? There was no threshold of qualification, but it demanded immense perseverance, endless time, powerful Divine Abilities, and luck worthy of the Heavenly Mandate.

In other words, ordinary people simply couldn't follow that path.

Of course, this comparison only mattered for the highest-level beings. For ordinary creatures, it made no difference which Dao they cultivated. They couldn't reach the heavens either way.

Look at the Golden Immortals of the Chan Teachings in later generations. Even as disciples of a Sage, they ultimately reached no higher than Grand Unity Golden Immortal.

And across the entire Primordial World, nearly everyone who had reached the Quasi-Saint level had been among the three thousand guests at the Purple Heaven Palace.

So, for ordinary people, the Heavenly Dao or the Great Dao—it all came to much the same in the end. Their fate was set either way. Why bother choosing?

But Long Zang was different.

He wanted to support the future strongest imperial clan in the Primordial World...the Witch Clan!

He had returned to the Primordial Turbid Qi World this time specifically to lay the groundwork in advance, preparing for the Witch Clan's birth.

If he waited until the Witch Clan had truly emerged before setting them straight, it would be far too late.

Among the Twelve Ancestor Witches, only Dijiang, Zhujiuyin, Xuanming, and Houtu had much sense. The rest? They were all reckless brutes.

Whenever something happened, they charged straight in. Human or god, foe or friend—they didn't care. They just fought.

So Long Zang had planned from the start to put them through some serious training.

He didn't expect them to become masters of political schemes, but at the very least, he wouldn't let them be used as pawns without even realizing it, as they had been in the original history.

"Cultivate well," Long Zang said quietly.

The twelve enormous cocoons trembled slightly, then gradually fell still again.

Long Zang smiled with satisfaction and left the Primordial Turbid Qi World with A Bao.

"Master, can we please not come back to a place like this?" A Bao asked with a pained expression.

"You never take your cultivation seriously. Now you're scared?"

"Heh." A Bao gave an awkward chuckle.

Long Zang shot him a look but couldn't be bothered to say more.

"Where to next?"

"The Southern Region of the Primordial World."

A Bao immediately activated the Yin-Yang Divine Light and carried Long Zang toward the south.

Dragon Clan ancestral land, Southern Region of the Primordial World

Deep in the boundless sea, Ancestor Dragon was in seclusion, cultivating hard.

His last fight with Long Zang had left him deeply dissatisfied.

It wasn't that he couldn't accept losing. It was just a terrible feeling...he hadn't even been able to force Long Zang to show his full strength.

Though he wasn't as competitive as Yellow Heaven, he still couldn't swallow this humiliation.

Since then, Ancestor Dragon had all but shut himself away to cultivate, handing all clan affairs over to the Council of Elders.

Meanwhile, inside the cave dwelling of the Dragon Clan's Seventh Elder...

Demonic Qi surged. The space within hardly looked like a "cave dwelling" at all; it was more like a Small World of its own.

A colossal Demonic Dragon coiled within, its eyes gleaming with bloodlust and madness.

"Luohu..."

Ambition blazed in the Seventh Elder's eyes.

He, too, was a true Supreme Expert, with extraordinary strength.

At that moment, he was waiting...for Luohu's secret arrangements.

"Don't disappoint me, Luohu."

Though he had acquired a Demonic Nature, he hadn't fully fallen into the Devil Dao. At his current level, he remained clear-headed even with Demonic Qi coursing through him.

At this level, no one could force you to enter the Devil Dao unless you chose to do so yourself.

Which Supreme Expert didn't have a will of iron?