"No."
"Hongjun's Dao doesn't suit us. What good would come of listening to him preach?" Xuanyuan shook his head without hesitation.
Seeing all his brothers and sisters looking at him, he went on to say a few more things:
"If we go to the Purple Firmament Palace, we'll be there to listen, not discuss the Dao. That means we can't call him a fellow Daoist; we'll have to address him as our teacher, making him the teacher of all living beings and earning him the title of Dao Ancestor of the Primordial World. We'd be taking on a teacher-student relationship for no reason and putting ourselves beneath him."
"Besides, none of our brothers and sisters has a treasure to suppress their fortune. Our Heaven-Opening Merit and fortune are sure to become targets of his schemes."
"Though we won't establish a clan or contend for supremacy, and have already resolved to stay away from this Kalpa Tribulation, if we cross paths with Hongjun, we won't be able to resist him when he uses his great divine powers and immense magical strength to scheme against us."
Xuanyuan's expression was grave, his voice ringing with conviction.
Go to the Purple Firmament Palace to listen to the Dao?
What a joke!
Ever since he'd emerged into the world, he'd worked so hard for one reason: to stay out of the Witch-Demon Tribulation.
Was he supposed to walk right into Hongjun's hands now and offer him the fortune of the World-Opening Calamity?
"Besides, Heavenly Dao Saints are indeed powerful. Their Primordial Spirits are entrusted to the Heavenly Dao, and compared with Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortals, they can achieve immortality. But they aren't free; they have to obey Heaven's will in everything."
"Though their status is supreme, at their core they're nothing more than puppets driven by the Heavenly Dao," Xuanyuan continued.
The Heavenly Dao Saint realm was a level above the Primordial Golden Immortal realm. In the Primordial World as it stood, it was a realm without precedent.
Those who entered this realm could be said to have proven the Dao of Hunyuan. In essence, they had reached the realm of Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal.
However, Heavenly Dao Saints were a rather special kind of Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal.
In any case, if Xuanyuan had to choose between the freedom of a Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal and the immortality of a Heavenly Dao Saint, he would definitely choose the former.
He didn't want to become a pawn driven by the Heavenly Dao. He didn't want to be like Sect Master Tong Tian, forced to watch helplessly as his disciples were slaughtered, converted, and treated as mounts. In the end, even he himself had no choice but to take a Saint-Slaying Pill...
There was another, more important reason: Heavenly Dao Saints had a ceiling.
That limit applied not only to their numbers, but also to their strength.
After Hongjun's Dao Integration, anyone who proved the Dao of Hunyuan as a Heavenly Dao Saint would never be able to transcend the Heavenly Dao—and would lose all hope of attaining the Great Dao.
With the Chaos Pearl and Primordial Measure Heaven Ruler protecting his Dao, and the Pangu Primordial Spirit and Ancestral Witch body to achieve the Dao, Xuanyuan had a genuine chance at the Great Dao. Why would he cut off his own path?
Once he became a Heavenly Dao Saint and Hongjun's disciple, he'd gain Hongmeng Purple Qi and all kinds of treasures—but he'd also incur a karmic debt.
Everything gained came with a price, unseen but certain.
Karma was a chain of destiny; fortune was the trajectory of heavenly numbers.
Until his cultivation was strong enough, keeping his distance from Hongjun was the wisest choice.
A wise man didn't put himself in danger.
Pangu Banner, Taiji Diagram, Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation... Xuanyuan wanted those treasures too, but he wouldn't accept them as payment for his life.
He wanted to stand tall and earn his fortune!
"Immortality..."
Gou Mang's heart stirred slightly as he heard this.
As the Ancestral Witch of Wood, he was one of the Twelve Ancestral Witches least fond of fighting. In his eyes, immortality was already the greatest thing one could hope for.
"So what if we can live forever? We're of the Pangu Orthodox Lineage. How could we take Hongjun as our teacher? That would bring shame upon Father God!"
"What is Hongjun, anyway? No matter how impressive his origins, wasn't he easily killed by Father God during the World-Opening Calamity?"
"I agree with Brother Xuanyuan!"
Gonggong thumped his chest, rose to his feet, and glared furiously.
"I'm with Fourth Brother this time too. He's right, and I agree with Brother Xuanyuan."
Zhurong shoved Gonggong aside with a shoulder.
"Immortality granted by someone else is nothing but a flower in a mirror, the moon reflected in water. You can see it, but it's still an illusion."
"The Dao Hongjun teaches can indeed lead one to prove Hunyuan. But in his hands, there are not only gifts, but shackles as well."
"Besides the Qiankun Bow and Zhentian Arrow, the Primordial World holds other rare treasures. One of them, the Saint-Slaying Pill, is in Hongjun's hands. Even a Heavenly Dao Saint will die if its poison takes effect."
"That being so, the so-called immortality of Heavenly Dao Saints is no more than an empty promise in Hongjun's presence."
Xuanyuan continued.
In his memory, there were six rare treasures he knew of.
Besides the Qiankun Bow and Zhentian Arrow, which had formed from Pangu's Ribs, and the Myriad Heavenly Cloud, which had formed from Righteous Qi, the most famous of the other three was the Saint-Slaying Pill.
There were three Saint-Slaying Pills, and two accounts of their origin. One claimed that Hongjun had refined them from three drops of Pangu's blood.
That was pure nonsense.
Rare treasures, also known as Heavenly Dao rare treasures, possessed the wonder of anomalies beyond the Heavenly Dao's control. They had nothing to do with the Heavenly Dao itself; they weren't innate, nor did they belong to later ages.
Refining was not the same as refining for one's own use. If Hongjun had made them, they'd be Acquired Treasures. How could they be rare treasures?
Besides, near the end of the original Investiture of the Gods Calamity, the Three Pure Ones had been forced to take the three Saint-Slaying Pills. If they really had been made from Pangu's blood, could they have harmed those who possessed the orthodox Pangu Primordial Spirit?
So Xuanyuan was more inclined to believe the second account.
During the World-Opening Calamity, after the Three Thousand Demon Gods had fallen, their three treasures of Essence, Qi, and Spirit had transformed into the three Saint-Slaying Pills.
As the name suggested, the Saint-Slaying Pills were mainly meant to keep Saints in check.
Under normal circumstances, they could help a Heavenly Dao Saint stabilize their cultivation. But if they triggered a restriction planted in advance, even an immortal Saint would instantly fall from the Saint Position and die as the pill's power took effect!
Once triggered...
The pill's markings swirled, the Hunyuan Saint Body cracked, and the Heavenly Dao Primordial Spirit shook;
The pill's power erupted, boundless karmic fire burned the soul, and Demon God resentment invaded the spirit platform;
The pill's might spread, the void condensed into Saint-Slaying Chains, and the heavens unleashed a Saint-Annihilation Thunder Tribulation. Even a Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal would struggle to escape the destruction of both body and soul!
In short, after taking a Saint-Slaying Pill, obey Hongjun and nothing would happen; it could even help with cultivation.
But disobey him, and all that remained was to wait for death.
"I'll listen to Brother Xuanyuan too."
Gou Mang came around as well, and completely gave up on going to the Purple Firmament Palace to listen to the Dao.
Xuanyuan was right. The Ancestral Witches cultivated their bodies and their Indestructible Will. No matter how powerful Hongjun was, his cultivation method simply didn't suit them.
Besides, the greatest advantage Heavenly Dao Saints had over Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortals was their immortality.
But now they'd learned that this so-called immortality wasn't absolute. They might as well choose the free and unrestrained path of a Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal!
"Brother Xuanyuan, what are the other rare treasures you know of? If it's possible, we could try to get one or two to bolster our foundations."
The vicissitudes of time flickered in Zhu Jiuyin's eyes. He looked up, gazing through the Mysterious Female Gate at the living beings within a thousand miles of Kunlun Mountain, all crushed beneath the might of the Heavenly Dao Saint. His heart couldn't help but burn with anticipation.
Even such a powerful Heavenly Dao Saint could be destroyed by a Heavenly Dao rare treasure like the Saint-Slaying Pill.
If his brothers and sisters managed to get one or two, they'd have something to rely on if they ever clashed with old monsters like Old Ancestor Five Elements.
They couldn't just bring out the Great Heavenly God-Demon Array every time trouble arose, could they? What if some of their brothers and sisters happened to be away?
"Of the rare treasures I know, besides the Qiankun Bow, Zhentian Arrow, and Saint-Slaying Pill, there are the Myriad Heavenly Cloud, Heaven Suppressing Coffin, and Six Souls Banner."
"Come to think of it, all of you have actually seen the Myriad Heavenly Cloud. It's that mass of Righteous Qi floating above Pangu Hall."
Xuanyuan spoke in a low voice.
Of the six rare treasures, the Myriad Heavenly Cloud was the only one meant to protect its wielder and their Dao.
After Hongjun took it, he continued to use it for protection.
Like Xuanyuan, the Twelve Ancestral Witches had begun gestating at the Beginning of Heaven and Earth, but they hadn't emerged into the world in their transformed forms until after the Demon Dao Struggle ended.
When Di Jiang had said they were too late, he had been referring to how Hongjun had already obtained this treasure during the Demon Dao Struggle.
The Myriad Heavenly Cloud hovered above Pangu Hall; it wasn't inside it. Otherwise, Hongjun wouldn't have been able to take it.
During the Demon Dao Struggle, Luohu had slain one powerful cultivator after another, his demonic might reaching the heavens. It wasn't until Hongjun joined forces with three friends that they managed to kill him.
But those three friends had all died within the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation. Only Hongjun survived, becoming the last one standing.
That was because the Myriad Heavenly Cloud had protected him, blocking the Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi and the attacks of the Innate Supreme Treasure God-Slaying Spear.
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