At this, Hongjun furrowed his brow and glared at Xuanyuan.
The sermon at Zixiao Palace was originally destined by Heaven to have three thousand Zixiao Guests, corresponding to the Three Thousand Great Daos. But after Xuanyuan's disruption, there were now far more than three thousand—fully fifty-four thousand, far too many.
Suddenly, he lost all interest in continuing. He hurriedly announced that future sermons at Zixiao Palace would follow today's seating arrangement, then began the formal sermon.
As soon as Hongjun began to speak, boundless Daoist aura filled Zixiao Palace. In the void, chains of law formed from golden light appeared, displaying the majesty of a Saint.
In an instant, heavenly flowers rained down, golden lotuses sprang from the earth, dazzling light spread for tens of thousands of miles, and purple qi stretched across the sky.
The fifty-four thousand Zixiao Guests settled their minds and listened to the Sound of the Great Dao, immersed in boundless Daoist aura.
As Hongjun continued his explanations, everyone's cultivation rapidly advanced.
The six seated on the cushions—Sanqing, Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti—felt waves of warmth surging from beneath them and coursing through their bodies. In an instant, their minds cleared, and the Great Dao, once obscure and difficult to understand, seemed simple and clear.
All six felt deeply fortunate. The Saint Cushions truly were extraordinary!
Though they had paid with Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures and felt some regret, it had all been worth it.
Xuanyuan curled his lip. Saint Cushions? Compared to the Enlightenment Chair, they were utter garbage.
He summoned the Enlightenment Chair and enlarged it, letting Dijiang and the other eleven Ancestor Witches sit on it.
The Enlightenment Chair was also a Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, and its effect could only be better than that of the Enlightenment Cushions.
After all, the Enlightenment Chair had been crafted from an entire Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Root—the Enlightenment Tea Tree—while the Enlightenment Cushions had only been made from its branches.
There was no comparison!
Everyone was immersed in the profound Daoist aura and failed to notice Xuanyuan's little maneuver.
Only Old Ancestor Hongjun, seated high on his cloud bed, glanced over as he preached and couldn't help furrowing his brow.
Even he coveted the Enlightenment Chair, not to mention the Taiji Diagram Xuanyuan had shown earlier, and the six Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures he had traded from Sanqing, Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti.
That Xuanyuan fellow really did have a lot of treasures!
Fortunately, the Witch Clan were born with incomplete Nascent Souls. Even the Ancestor Witches had weak Nascent Souls.
They simply couldn't use magical treasures.
No matter how many treasures they had, they wouldn't be of much use to the Witch Clan.
As for Xuanyuan alone, how many spiritual treasures could he use at once?
Still, Hongjun had to find a way to get the Chaos Bell, the River Diagram, and the Luo Book.
The next calamity would be the Witch-Yaoguai Calamity. Without those two supreme treasures, the Yaoguai Clan's strength would plummet, leaving them unable to contend with the Witch Clan.
Time passed without notice in the Primordial World. In the blink of an eye, three thousand years had gone by.
After Hongjun finished preaching, he didn't interrupt the others.
Instead, he let them comprehend the Dao right there in Zixiao Palace.
As a Chaos Spiritual Treasure and a Saint's cultivation ground, Zixiao Palace was suffused with dense Innate Spiritual Qi.
It couldn't compare to Xuanyuan's Qianyuan Mountain, but it was still more than enough for these people to comprehend the Dao and break through.
After the sermon, Xuanyuan quickly put away the Enlightenment Chair, then pointed out the people immersed in their meditation to the Twelve Ancestor Witches.
"Sanqing, Nuwa, and Fuxi are all about to break through!"
"Dijun and Donghuang Taiyi, those two raggedy birds, are nearly there too!"
"The Primordial World is about to enter the Daluo Golden Immortal era!"
The Twelve Ancestor Witches looked at Xuanyuan, their hearts filled with gratitude.
The Ancestor Witches were born with incomplete Nascent Souls. Without the one hundred million Great Dao Merit Xuanyuan had provided to repair their Nascent Souls, Hongjun's sermon would have done little for them. On top of that, Xuanyuan had provided them with countless top-tier resources, allowing them to reach the Daluo Golden Immortal realm early.
Otherwise, when the Primordial World entered the Daluo Golden Immortal era, the Witch Clan would have faced an incredibly difficult situation.
Who knew how much time passed before the powerful cultivators in Zixiao Palace finally broke through one after another and began to gather the Three Flowers of Daluo.
The Three Flowers of Daluo and the Dao Fruit of Daluo belonged to the same lineage; they were among the defining marks of a Daluo Golden Immortal.
The Three Flowers of Daluo represented a cultivator's potential, while the Dao Fruit of Daluo represented their ultimate strength.
At that moment, the sound of flowers blooming rang through Zixiao Palace, and an endless fragrance spread through the air.
Most bloomed with five or six petals, already reaching their limit.
After all, a Six-Petal Bloom was already a mark of a mighty cultivator in the Primordial World—one among a million.
Just then, a chorus of gasps rang out.
Xuanyuan followed the sound and saw that East Duke and Xi Wang Mu had broken through at the same time, each achieving a Seven-Petal Bloom.
A Seven-Petal Bloom surpassed the vast majority of living beings and marked one as a top-tier powerhouse.
Among the crowd below, Six-Eared Macaque, Kong Xuan, and the others Xuanyuan had brought to Zixiao Palace gathered together, watching the powerful cultivators break through one after another with envy.
Though Xuanyuan had brought them into Zixiao Palace and granted them the chance to hear Hongjun's sermon, they lacked a deep foundation. After three thousand years of listening, they had barely reached the threshold of the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, still a full major realm away from breaking through to Daluo Golden Immortal.
All they could do was hide in a corner and envy the others!
As they watched, they turned their eyes toward Xuanyuan, seated on a cushion.
They were deeply grateful to him.
After all, without Xuanyuan's help, they never would have had the chance to hear the sermon at Zixiao Palace. Let alone breaking through from the Golden Immortal realm to the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm in just three thousand years, they wouldn't even have hoped to advance to Daluo Golden Immortal.
They watched Xuanyuan, eager to see how many petals he would bloom when he broke through to Daluo Golden Immortal.
But they were destined to be disappointed!
Xuanyuan was laughing and chatting with the Twelve Ancestor Witches. He didn't look the least bit like he was about to break through!
Could even a mighty figure like him be unable to reach the Daluo Golden Immortal realm?
Six-Eared Macaque: "Could it be that the big shot broke through to Daluo Golden Immortal ages ago?"
Kong Xuan shook his head. "Absolutely impossible!"
Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird: "That's right. To break through to Daluo Golden Immortal, you have to gather the Three Flowers of Daluo. Earlier, outside Zixiao Palace, the big shot definitely wasn't breaking through to Daluo Golden Immortal!"
Sihuxiang: "He shouldn't be above Daluo Golden Immortal either. After all, the cultivation methods of the Primordial World have long been lost. Before Old Ancestor Hongjun's sermon, there were no cultivation methods beyond the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm. No matter how powerful the big shot is, he couldn't have managed that!"
Everyone shook their heads, bewildered. With Xuanyuan's talent, strength, and foundation, why hadn't he broken through yet?
They watched for a long while, but in the end, they could only give up and turn their attention to the other powerful cultivators who were still breaking through.
Even if they couldn't break through right now, they could still watch and broaden their horizons, preparing for their own future breakthrough to Daluo Golden Immortal.
"An Eight-Petal Bloom!"
"Donghuang Taiyi actually achieved an Eight-Petal Bloom!"
Everyone exclaimed again, turning their eyes toward Donghuang Taiyi.
An Eight-Petal Bloom—the child of destiny!
For a time, Donghuang Taiyi's fame eclipsed that of East Duke and Xi Wang Mu.
A commotion rippled through all of Zixiao Palace.
After breaking through, Donghuang Taiyi's first concern wasn't his elder brother, Dijun, but Xuanyuan and the Ancestor Witches.
Seeing that Xuanyuan and the others hadn't broken through at all, a trace of smugness crossed Donghuang Taiyi's face, and his eyes filled with contempt.
Barbarians were barbarians!
So what if they had been powerful before?
Unable to reach Daluo Golden Immortal, they were nothing but a joke!
After listening to the sermon for three thousand years, Donghuang Taiyi believed his understanding had improved immensely.
Three thousand years earlier, outside Zixiao Palace, Xuanyuan hadn't been breaking through to Daluo Golden Immortal at all.
After all, to break through to Daluo Golden Immortal, one had to gather the Three Flowers of Daluo above one's head.
Xuanyuan hadn't gathered them at all.
Everyone had been fooled by him for a full three thousand years.
If he hadn't been in Zixiao Palace, with Hongjun seated high on his cloud bed watching them, Donghuang Taiyi would have attacked right then and there.
Fools. Enjoy your smugness while it lasts. Once we leave Zixiao Palace, I'll make you pay!
Donghuang Taiyi made up his mind. He would not only reclaim the Donghuang Bell—the Chaos Bell—and the River Diagram and Luo Book, but also seize every treasure Xuanyuan possessed.
He'd make Xuanyuan's hard work come to nothing and let him prepare the spoils for someone else!
Not long after Donghuang Taiyi broke through, Dijun, Yuanshi, Tongtian, Nuwa, Fuxi, and the other powerful cultivators broke through one after another.
Every one of them achieved an Eight-Petal Bloom!
Gasps filled every corner of Zixiao Palace.
Exclamations rang out again and again.
The atmosphere instantly reached its peak.
On the cloud bed, Hongjun shifted his attention from Xuanyuan to these people and nodded repeatedly, deeply satisfied.
After the sermon, they would all be his disciples.
The more talented and powerful they were, the more they would help him in the future.
Time flew by. Those who could break through had already done so right there.
The others had no hope of reaching Daluo Golden Immortal anytime soon.
Now, only Taiqing Laozi remained immersed in the process of gathering the Three Flowers.
He had already achieved an Eight-Petal Bloom, but showed no sign of stopping.
Could he be about to achieve a Nine-Petal Bloom?
In the Primordial World, nine was the ultimate number.
As the saying went, the Great Dao had fifty paths, of which Heaven derived forty-nine, leaving one escape.
For cultivators, reaching the absolute extreme was nearly impossible.
Everyone looked forward to seeing whether Taiqing Laozi could break this limit.
Even Hongjun focused all his attention on Taiqing Laozi.
When Hongjun had broken through to Daluo Golden Immortal, he had only achieved an Eight-Petal Bloom.
If Taiqing Laozi could achieve a Nine-Petal Bloom, he would break the record of the Primordial World.
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