Refusing to Hear the Dao, Not Bowing to Hongjun

"No."

"The path of Hongjun does not align with ours. What benefit is there in attending his lectures?" Xuanyuan shook his head decisively.

Seeing that all his siblings' gazes were fixed on him, he added a few more words:

"If we go to the Purple Firmament Palace, it will be to listen to lectures, not to debate the Dao. Thus, we cannot call him 'Dao Friend' but must address him as 'Teacher,' making him the teacher of all beings and earning him the prestige of the Dao Ancestor of the Primordial World. For no reason, we would bind ourselves with a master-disciple bond and lower ourselves beneath him."

"Moreover, none of you siblings possess treasures to suppress fate and fortune. The Heaven-Opening Merit and fortune will surely be schemed away by him."

"Though we do not establish clans, contend for supremacy, and have resolved to distance ourselves from this tribulation, if we encounter Hongjun, with his great divine powers and vast magical abilities, he will scheme against us, and we will have no power to resist."

Xuanyuan's face was stern, his tone resolute.

Go to the Purple Firmament Palace to attend lectures?

What a joke!

Since forming and being born into the world, he had made so many efforts—wasn't it all to avoid wading into the muddy waters of the Witch-Demon Tribulation?

Now, was he to deliver himself to Hongjun's doorstep and gift him the Heaven-Opening fortune?

"Furthermore, strong as the Heavenly Dao Saint may be, with their primordial spirit entrusted to the Heavenly Dao, they gain immortality and indestructibility compared to a Golden Immortal of the Origin, yet they lose their freedom and must comply with the will of Heaven in all matters."

"Though their status is supreme, at their root, they are merely puppets driven by the Heavenly Dao," Xuanyuan continued.

The Heavenly Dao Saint was a realm above the Golden Immortal of the Origin, a realm unprecedented in the Primordial World of this era.

Those who entered this realm could be said to have proven the Dao Hunyuan, and thus it was essentially the realm of the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin;

However, the Heavenly Dao Saint was a special variant of it.

In any case, between the carefree Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin and the immortal, indestructible Heavenly Dao Saint, if Xuanyuan had to choose, he would definitely pick the former.

Aside from his unwillingness to become a chess piece driven by the Heavenly Dao—like Sect Master Tong Tian, who could only watch helplessly as his disciples were slain, converted, or taken as mounts, powerless to act, and was even forced to swallow the Saint-Slaying Pill himself in the end...

Another, more important reason was that the Heavenly Dao Saint had an upper limit.

This limit was not only in number but also in the upper bound of their power.

Once Hongjun integrated with the Dao, anyone who proved Hunyuan as a Heavenly Dao Saint would never be able to transcend the Heavenly Dao, and thus would be forever cut off from the Great Dao.

With the Chaos Pearl and the Primordial Measure Heaven Ruler to protect his path, and with the Pangu Primordial Spirit and the Ancestral Witch's physical body to achieve the Dao, Xuanyuan's path to the Great Dao was entirely within reach. Why would he cut off his own Dao path?

If he became a Heavenly Dao Saint and a direct disciple of Hongjun, he would gain the Hongmeng Purple Qi and various treasures, but with them would come karmic ties.

Every gain had its price in the unseen.

Karma was the Chains of Destiny; fortune was the Trajectory of Heavenly Numbers.

Before his cultivation was sufficient, it was wise to stay as far away from Hongjun as possible.

Remember, a gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall.

The Pangu Banner, the Taiji Diagram, the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation... Xuanyuan wanted these treasures too, but not at the cost of buying his life.

He would earn his money standing tall!

"Immortal and indestructible..."

When Gou Mang heard this, his heart stirred slightly.

He was the Ancestral Witch of Wood, one of the Twelve Ancestral Witches least fond of conflict. In his view, immortality and indestructibility were already the greatest pursuit.

"Immortal and indestructible, so what? We are the Pangu Orthodox Lineage. How could we bow to Hongjun as our teacher? That would bring shame to Father God!"

"What is Hongjun anyway? No matter how strong his roots, during the World-Opening Calamity, wasn't he easily slaughtered by Father God?"

"I agree with Brother Xuanyuan!"

Gonggong slapped his chest and stood up, his eyes blazing with anger.

"This time, I'm backing the fourth brother. The fourth brother is right. I agree with Brother Xuanyuan too."

Zhurong bumped into Gonggong, shoving him aside.

"Immortality and indestructibility granted by another are nothing but flowers in a mirror or the moon's reflection on water—visible, yet illusory and intangible."

"The Dao that Hongjun preaches can indeed allow one to prove Hunyuan, but in his hands, besides rewards, there are also shackles."

"Aside from the Qiankun Bow and the Zhentian Arrow, there are other extraordinary treasures in the Primordial World. One of them, named the Saint-Slaying Pill, is in Hongjun's possession. Even a Heavenly Dao Saint, once they take it, will be poisoned and fall."

"Thus, the so-called immortality and indestructibility of the Heavenly Dao Saint become meaningless before Hongjun," Xuanyuan continued.

In his memory, he knew of six such extraordinary treasures.

Besides the Qiankun Bow and Zhentian Arrow, which were transformed from Pangu's ribs, and the Myriad Heavenly Cloud, which was transformed from a breath of Righteous Qi, the most famous among the other three was the Saint-Slaying Pill.

There were three Saint-Slaying Pills in total, and there were two accounts of their origin. One said they were refined by Hongjun from three drops of Pangu's blood.

That was utter nonsense.

Extraordinary treasures, also known as Heavenly Dao anomalies, possessed mysteries beyond the Heavenly Dao's control. They had nothing to do with the Heavenly Dao itself, were neither innate nor acquired.

Refining was different from refining into a treasure. If Hongjun refined them, they would become acquired treasures. How could they still be extraordinary treasures?

Moreover, at the end of the original Investiture of the Gods Calamity, the Three Pure Ones were forced to take the three Saint-Slaying Pills. If they were truly refined from Pangu's blood, how could they harm the orthodox roots of the Pangu Primordial Spirit?

Therefore, Xuanyuan leaned toward the second explanation.

During the World-Opening Calamity, after the Three Thousand Demon Gods fell, their Essence, Qi, and Spirit transformed into these three Saint-Slaying Pills.

As the name suggested, the Saint-Slaying Pill's main function was to restrain Saints.

Ordinarily, it could help a Heavenly Dao Saint stabilize their cultivation, but once it touched a pre-set prohibition, even an immortal and indestructible Saint would instantly fall from their Saint Position, the pill taking effect and bringing death!

Once triggered...

The pill's patterns swirled, the Primordial Saint Body cracked, and the Heavenly Dao Primordial Spirit trembled;

The pill's power erupted, boundless karmic fire scorched the soul, and the Demon Gods' grudges eroded the spiritual platform;

The pill's might spread, the void condensed Saint-Slaying Chains, and heaven and earth summoned the Saint-Annihilation Thunder Tribulation—even a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin could hardly escape Form and Spirit Annihilated!

In short, after taking the Saint-Slaying Pill, obeying Hongjun meant not only safety but also aid in cultivation;

But if one disobeyed Hongjun, they could only wait for death.

"I'll follow Brother Xuanyuan's lead too."

Gou Mang also snapped back to his senses, completely abandoning the idea of Listening to Dao in Purple Firmament Palace.

Xuanyuan was right—they, the Ancestral Witches, cultivated their physical bodies and Indestructible Will. No matter how strong Hongjun was, his methods of cultivation simply didn't align with theirs.

Moreover, compared to a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin, the greatest advantage of a Heavenly Dao Saint was immortality and indestructibility.

Now that they heard this so-called immortality wasn't absolute, wouldn't it be better to just choose the free and unfettered path of a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin?

"Brother Xuanyuan, I wonder what other extraordinary treasures there are. If feasible, we should scheme for one or two to bolster our foundation."

Zhu Jiuyin's eyes flickered with the vicissitudes of time. He looked up, his gaze passing through the Mysterious Gate of the Feminine, and saw the countless living beings within millions of miles around Kunlun Mountain crushed by the Heavenly Dao's Saintly might. A surge of heat rose in his heart.

If such a powerful Heavenly Dao Saint could be destroyed by a Heavenly Dao treasure like the Saint-Slaying Pill, Then if his siblings obtained one or two more, they'd have some confidence when clashing with old things like Old Ancestor Five Elements in the future.

They couldn't just activate the Great Heavenly God-Demon Array every time trouble arose, could they? What if the other siblings happened to be away?

"The extraordinary treasures I know of, besides the Qiankun Bow, Zhentian Arrow, and Saint-Slaying Pill, are the Myriad Heavenly Cloud, the Heaven Suppressing Coffin, and the Six Souls Banner."

"Speaking of which, you siblings have all seen the Myriad Heavenly Cloud before—it's the Righteous Qi suspended above Pangu Hall."

Xuanyuan said in a grave tone.

Among the six great treasures, the Myriad Heavenly Cloud was the only one used for self-defense and protection.

After Hongjun took it away, he had always used it for his own protection.

Like Xuanyuan, the Twelve Ancestral Witches had begun gestating at the Beginning of Heaven and Earth, but only took form and were born after the Demon Dao Struggle ended.

What Di Jiang had said earlier about being a step too late referred to the fact that during the Demon Dao Struggle, this treasure had already been claimed by Hongjun.

The Myriad Heavenly Cloud enveloped Pangu Hall from above, not within it—otherwise, Hongjun wouldn't have been able to take it.

During the Demon Dao Struggle, Luohu had killed one Great Divine Power after another, his demonic might overwhelming the heavens, until Hongjun invited three friends to join forces and finally slay him.

Yet those three friends all died within the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, leaving only Hongjun to survive and become the ultimate victor.

That was because the Myriad Heavenly Cloud had protected him, blocking the attacks of the Immortal-Slaying Sword Qi and the Innate Supreme Treasure God-Slaying Spear.