How Should We Ultimately Choose?

To say Fu Xi, he truly lived up to his reputation as the founder of the Innate Bagua. In merely a few years, Fu Xi had already mastered the Innate Bagua thoroughly.

He even prepared to cast a divination for himself, but Qing Xuan stopped him. "Fu Xi, think thrice. Once this hexagram is cast, regardless of the outcome, you will be entangled in worries."

"I am a living example. Do you wish to follow in my footsteps? To struggle desperately to change something, only to be unable to overcome the correction force of the Heavenly Dao?"

"If you are worried about your future and need to make a choice, cast a hexagram for yourself to know which path to take. That is enough."

Fu Xi nodded after hearing this. "Thank you, Qing Xuan, for pointing out the confusion. Otherwise, I would have made a grave mistake."

Then Fu Xi began discussing the Innate Bagua with Qing Xuan. Relying on his memories of later generations, Qing Xuan could hold a conversation with Fu Xi.

This discussion lasted a full forty-nine years, allowing Qing Xuan to gain a deep understanding of the Innate Bagua as well.

However, compared to Fu Xi, who had already comprehended the Great Dao Deduction Law, Qing Xuan's insights were somewhat insignificant.

When the discussion reached a joyful point, Fu Xi would not forget to take out the Fu Xi Qin and play a tune, infusing his understanding of the Innate Deduction Dao into the melody.

One day, Fu Xi was still playing the qin under the gourd trellis, and Qing Xuan listened in rapt ecstasy. The gourd leaves seemed to dance in the wind.

Nuwa, who had left Phoenix Perch Mountain for hundreds of years, finally appeared before Fu Xi and Qing Xuan again. An irrepressible smile bloomed on her face.

Nuwa ignored Fu Xi as well and ran straight to Qing Xuan, shaking the Pure Bottle in her hand as she asked him.

"Little Gourd Vine, do you know what I brought back for you?"

Saying this, Nuwa turned the Pure Bottle upside down. Drops of Three Lights Divine Water dripped from the bottle, continuously nourishing the gourd vine.

At the same time, Nuwa took out a certain amount of Nine Heavens Breathing Soil and buried it like fertilizer at the roots of the gourd vine. Then she poured all the remaining Three Lights Divine Water from the Pure Bottle onto it.

"To get the Three Lights Divine Water and the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, I stayed in the Ancestral Witch Hall for a full two hundred years."

"Finally, without using any magic treasures, I fought Houtu to a draw. Only then were Houtu and Gonggong willing to give me the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil and Three Lights Divine Water."

"But this is all there is. If you ask me to find more for you, I don't know where else to look."

At this moment, Qing Xuan was truly moved. The Twelve Ancestral Witches were all warmongers. Even Houtu, who was slightly better than the other eleven, was still incomparable to other races.

Thinking about what Nuwa must have gone through in those two hundred years to defeat Houtu, Qing Xuan couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow.

A gourd vine slowly reached down from above, swaying its gourd leaf, gently fanning Nuwa to express its gratitude.

Seeing the gourd leaf fanning her, Nuwa's face lit up with a brilliant smile. She finally noticed Fu Xi beside her.

"Elder Brother, you've finally come out of seclusion?"

Fu Xi rolled his eyes helplessly at Nuwa and said, "Two hundred years ago, when you brought Qing Xuan back, I had already come out of seclusion."

"Not only did I come out, but I greeted you. Yet your heart was entirely on Qing Xuan, and you didn't even pay attention to me."

Seeing Nuwa's awkward expression, Qing Xuan smiled and said, "So you are Nuwa. You really fooled me badly."

"If I had known you were Nuwa, I would never have come back with you. Now I've truly walked right into the tiger's mouth."

Nuwa looked puzzled. "Weren't you the one clamoring to see the Primordial First Beauty, Nuwa? Now that you've seen her, why do you look so hopeless?"

Fu Xi pulled the pouting Nuwa to sit on a stone stool under the gourd trellis. Then he began to tell Nuwa about the bits and pieces of his two hundred years with Qing Xuan.

When Nuwa heard that the gourd vine would lose its last chance of survival in her hands, tears nearly fell from her eyes.

"Whatever great merit it may be, I only know that Little Gourd Vine is willing to talk with me. And he is willing to give me everything he has. So I will never let anything happen to him."

Hearing Nuwa's words, Qing Xuan felt a little relieved. It seemed that his efforts to win her over back then had paid off.

At the very least, he was now a friend in Nuwa's heart, and a close friend willing to give everything.

Just as Qing Xuan was about to thank Nuwa, he suddenly felt his primordial spirit being pulled by some force, spreading uncontrollably through the entire gourd vine.

This process caused Qing Xuan to feel the pain of his primordial spirit being torn. The gourd vine began to shake incessantly, nearly shaking the seven gourds off the Jianmu tray.

This worried Nuwa, but a smile appeared on Fu Xi's face. He took out the Three Lights Divine Water he had collected from the gourd vine during this time and handed it to Nuwa.

"Little Sister, if I'm not mistaken, Qing Xuan's primordial spirit has now begun to fully merge with his main body."

"He needs strong nourishment as support now. Hurry and pour this Three Lights Divine Water onto his roots to help him complete the fusion of his primordial spirit and main body."

Nuwa took the Three Lights Divine Water but did not immediately follow Fu Xi's instructions. Instead, she hesitated and said.

"Elder Brother, Little Gourd Vine is a Top-grade Innate Spiritual Root. If he truly merges his primordial spirit with his main body, it will be even harder for him to undergo form transformation."

"After all, even Daoist Zhun Ti could not accomplish this. From the beginning until now, only Yang Mei Old Ancestor has succeeded in transforming by using his main body, the Empty Heart Willow, as a foundation."

"Why not take this opportunity to let Little Gourd Vine use the gourds he has grown as a vessel. Let his primordial spirit escape his main body and borrow the gourds to transform."

Nuwa was right. Daoist Zhun Ti's main body was also one of the Ten Great Innate Spiritual Roots, called the Geng Jin Bodhi Tree.

Unfortunately, his transformation was not based on the Bodhi tree itself. Instead, he chose the Bodhi seeds on the tree, which allowed him to transform successfully.

This is also why Daoist Zhun Ti has the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree. Because the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree was refined from the Bodhi tree.

So Nuwa naturally hoped that Qing Xuan would learn from Daoist Zhun Ti. Because that method would have a higher success rate and be more stable.

But Fu Xi had a different view. He shook his head at Nuwa and said, "Daoist Zhun Ti managed to transform by borrowing the Bodhi seed, but his cultivation is the weakest among the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals."

"If he hadn't refined his main body, the Geng Jin Bodhi Tree, into the Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree, with his cultivation, he wouldn't even be able to defend Mount Sumeru in the West."

"Do you really want to see Qing Xuan cripple his own foundation? To become someone who can be bullied by anyone in the future?"

Nuwa shook her head. "Elder Brother, you don't know. These seven gourds are about to ripen. Once the gourds ripen, Little Gourd Vine will lose seventy to eighty percent of its essence."

"By then, no matter how good the Little Gourd Vine's Roots were, it wouldn't have a chance at Form Transformation. Besides, with Little Sister here, she would never let the Little Gourd Vine be bullied."

At this moment, Qing Xuan actually felt a flicker of temptation. In his memory, of the seven gourds he had taken, only six matured; the final Purple-Black Gourd never ripened.

Among the six mature gourds, five were refined into Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures. Only the Purple Yellow Gourd obtained by Tongtian, because it had birthed a trace of spiritual awareness, was enlightened by Tongtian into Water Fire Boy.

"Could it be that in the original Primordial World Trajectory, the Innate Gourd Vine really chose this method? And that Water Fire Boy is the Innate Gourd Vine itself?"

"Is this the Innate Gourd Vine's fate, then? Even as a transmigrator, I can't change it?"

"What if I split my Primordial Spirit into seven parts, attach each to the seven gourds, and then have the seven gourds merge together—could I succeed in Form Transformation?"

At this moment, a childhood image surfaced in Qing Xuan's mind: he had turned into the Diamond Gourd Baby, wearing a white vest and shorts.

Qing Xuan quickly extinguished that impractical thought and began seriously considering how he should choose.

After all, with one misstep, his journey as a transmigrator might very well come to an end.