The Eerie Power, Mysterious Tree

Hongjun suddenly appeared before everyone.

Everyone present instantly stopped paying attention to Jie Yin and Zhun Ti, turning all their attention to Hongjun.

To their shock, they could not sense Hongjun's cultivation realm at all.

Hongjun sat upright upon the raised platform, an ethereal, intangible aura emanating from him. With a slight lift of his right hand, he directly forced back the probing power of every great mighty one.

The crowd grew even more astonished.

No one dared probe Hongjun again, and they all settled down obediently.

Hongjun sighed bitterly within.

He had not wanted to appear at this moment.

After all, Jie Yin and Zhun Ti had failed to obtain Futons. If he began expounding the Great Dao now, it meant he could no longer repay the karmic debt he owed the Western Lands by granting them two saintly seats.

But for some reason, Styx had actually taken a Futon—and had even shut Jie Yin and Zhun Ti up so thoroughly that they did not dare speak.

If that were all, Hongjun naturally would not have appeared so readily.

At worst, he could secretly lend Jie Yin and Zhun Ti another hand and directly knock Styx and Kunpeng off their Futons.

Yet that thought vanished completely after Hongjun sensed the dense aura of the Heavenly Dao upon Styx.

At present, Hongjun was merely a spokesperson for the Heavenly Dao. Put another way, he was just a hired hand.

Discovering that Styx carried such a dense Heavenly Dao aura was like a minor manager in the workplace suddenly realizing that one of his subordinates had deep ties to his own superior.

Tell me, would Hongjun still dare touch Styx?

Left with no choice, Hongjun could only think of another way to repay the karmic debt owed to the Western Lands.

Though countless thoughts raced through his mind, none showed on Hongjun's face.

He swept his gaze across the myriad beings of the Primordial Wilderness.

Then he spoke leisurely.

"This humble Daoist is Hongjun. Favored by the Heavenly Dao, I have attained the fruit of Sainthood. I shall now expound the Great Dao three times. Each session will last three thousand years, with intervals of ten thousand years."

Just as expected, Styx thought.

There was no extremely famous line: "The seating shall remain thus from now on, and may not be altered."

It was likely because he and Kunpeng had seized the places that should have belonged to Jie Yin and Zhun Ti.

Ignoring Kunpeng's grateful gaze from beside him, Styx too sat primly and solemnly, fully prepared.

"In this session, this humble Daoist shall expound the Dao of the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal and all realms beneath it."

Hongjun formally began his exposition.

As expected of a Saint expounding the Dao—lotus blossoms spilled from his mouth the moment he spoke. It seemed he had truly come to the right place this time!

Styx could not help sighing inwardly.

Unfortunately, that thought changed the very next instant.

For at the instant Hongjun began expounding the Dao, a strange force suddenly swept Styx away.

Styx was greatly shocked.

Yet beneath that force, he had no ability to resist whatsoever.

But in the eyes of everyone else within Purple Cloud Palace, Styx remained seated upon his Futon, listening attentively to the Dao.

Only Hongjun vaguely sensed something, yet he could not deduce what had happened. He could only dimly perceive that it seemed to be an action of the Heavenly Dao.

In the end, he could only let it go.

His wariness toward Styx even deepened.

Before he had sufficient strength to turn against the Heavenly Dao, he still had to rely on it to survive.

He still did not know what relationship existed between the Heavenly Dao and Styx.

Thus, unless he figured that out, Hongjun likely would not wish to have any dealings with Styx for a long time to come.

Hongjun temporarily set aside the matter of Styx and the Heavenly Dao, and calmly continued expounding his Dao.

No matter what, expounding the Dao was his foremost priority now.

Styx was swept by that strange force into a peculiar space.

Everything here was a vast expanse of white.

There was not a single living creature.

Styx's first reaction upon arriving was to bring out his spiritual treasures, to grant himself at least a little sense of security.

But even stranger, his spiritual treasures showed no response whatsoever.

He could clearly sense that all his spiritual treasures were within his Sea of Consciousness.

Still, what gave Styx a slight measure of comfort was that the jade talisman the Heavenly Dao had previously left him finally reacted.

Without being activated by any mana, the Heavenly Dao Jade Talisman flew out of his Sea of Consciousness on its own, then headed in a certain direction.

Styx followed without hesitation.

Suddenly arriving in this unfamiliar place, with the Heavenly Dao Jade Talisman now giving him a direction, he could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive.

After following the Heavenly Dao Jade Talisman for who knew how long, Styx finally saw that the endless expanse ahead was no longer a blank white void. At last, a huge tree appeared.

The moment he saw this tree, Styx could not help but marvel.

This was undoubtedly the largest tree he had ever seen in both his lives.

Even at a glance, Styx could not see where its crown truly lay.

All he could see were its branches stretching upward without end.

Once it had guided Styx here, the Heavenly Dao Jade Talisman stopped and flew back into his Sea of Consciousness.

A sharp gleam flashed through Styx's eyes.

"Could this be the fortune bestowed upon me by the Heavenly Dao?"

The jade talisman had been bestowed by the Heavenly Dao.

The strange power from earlier and this bizarre place both inevitably reminded Styx of a mysterious location from the legends of the Primordial Wilderness—the Heavenly Dao Sea.

Legend had it that the Heavenly Dao Sea was where the Heavenly Dao had been born.

Other than the Heavenly Dao itself, even Hongjun before Harmonizing with the Dao had never been here.

No one knew what lay within.

Some said this was where Pangu had truly fallen; others claimed it was the dwelling place of whoever controlled the workings of the Heavenly Dao from behind the scenes.

Opinions abounded, yet no conclusion had ever been reached.

Styx looked around.

He found no sign of any living being.

Other than this huge tree, there was nothing.

He could not even sense the power of the Heavenly Dao here.

It could be called a realm of utter nothingness.

Styx did not dare say whether this was truly the Heavenly Dao Sea.

But compared to that, what concerned Styx more was how he was supposed to leave.

Though he continuously urged the Heavenly Dao Jade Talisman within his Sea of Consciousness, it no longer gave him any response at all.

Styx could only turn his gaze back to the tree before him.

Though this tree towered into the clouds, its full extent impossible to see, for some reason, Styx could clearly make out three thousand branches upon it.

The number three thousand made Styx ponder for a moment.

This number held a unique place in the Primordial Wilderness.

There were precisely three thousand Laws, corresponding to the Three Thousand Great Daos.

Styx would never believe that a tree appearing in such a strange place happened to possess exactly three thousand branches by coincidence.

Without hesitation, he leaped onto the huge tree.

For some reason, the moment he landed on it, Styx felt all the mana in his body temporarily sealed.

This tree truly held a secret!

Styx proceeded along one of the branches. Every branch of this tree was incomparably thick, so carrying Styx posed no problem whatsoever.

At the end of the branch, Styx saw a leaf unlike the others.

Just as he was about to touch it, Styx clearly sensed the power of a Law!

Just as he thought!

This tree was connected to the Three Thousand Laws!

A smile appeared on Styx's face.

He had been worrying over how he would walk the path of Law Proving Dao in the future, and now, just as he was dozing off, someone had brought him a pillow.