It was now less than nine thousand years until Hong Jun began lecturing. Qing Xuan had started wondering whether he should go and make himself known.
After all, being counted among the Zixiao Palace Guests would be a pretty good title in the future. At the very least, it sounded impressive.
But to reach Zixiao Palace, he would need to be able to travel through Chaos. Only a Great Luo Golden Immortal could withstand the Chaos Gale there.
Qing Xuan wasn't a true body that had undergone Form Transformation. He had condensed an Outer Incarnation instead, so his cultivation was only at the Golden Immortal level.
He was still a whole major realm away from becoming a Great Luo Golden Immortal. Breaking through in less than nine thousand years would probably be quite difficult.
So Qing Xuan spent the following stretch of time diligently cultivating. At most, he would Discuss Dao with Fu Xi, deepening his understanding of the laws.
As for Discussing Dao with Nuwa, he'd pass. If that girl didn't lead you astray, you had to have a particularly steady temperament.
Yet after two thousand years, Qing Xuan still hadn't managed to break through to Mid Primordial Unity Golden Immortal. If things continued at this rate, going to Zixiao Palace would remain nothing but an empty dream.
One day, Qing Xuan woke from cultivation and calculated that fewer than seven thousand years remained until the lecture at Zixiao Palace.
"If I keep shut away like this, I won't reach the Zenith Heaven Realm even with ten thousand years. Looks like it's time to go out and explore."
"But with my current cultivation, if I run into a Great Luo Golden Immortal, I probably won't even be able to protect myself. I'll likely end up killed and robbed, with no other way out."
"Maybe I should bring Nuwa along. With her as my bodyguard, I could probably walk all over the Primordial Wilderness."
With that thought, Qing Xuan stood up and looked at his true body, the Innate Gourd Vine. He felt it should be safe enough left behind on Phoenix Perch Mountain.
Then Qing Xuan gathered some Three Lights Divine Water from the Gourd Leaf and headed for Nuwa's residence to invite her on a tour of the Primordial Wilderness.
Nuwa was as opposed to hard cultivation as ever. At the moment, she was lying in the rocking chair Qing Xuan had made for her, basking in the sun.
When she saw Qing Xuan approaching, her eyes lit up. But she quickly concealed it.
She didn't look at him even after he came right up beside her. Only when Qing Xuan gave the rocking chair a push did Nuwa turn to him.
"How did you find the time to come see me? Aren't you, like my brother, devoted to hard cultivation?"
Qing Xuan could clearly hear the resentment in Nuwa's voice. It was probably because he'd been neglecting her lately.
He stood beside her, gently pushing the rocking chair, and said, "Cultivation is important, of course, but we can't spend every day cultivating. Wouldn't life become terribly dull otherwise?"
"I'm planning to travel around the Primordial Great Land and see the wonders of the Primordial World. I was wondering if you'd like to come explore with me."
Hearing that Qing Xuan wanted to take her traveling through the Primordial Wilderness, a spark appeared in Nuwa's eyes. She nodded at him without hesitation.
"Sure, sure! Let's go right now. Just don't let my brother find out, or he'll start nagging again."
As she spoke, Nuwa sprang out of the rocking chair. She waved a hand behind her, and the chair disappeared into storage.
Qing Xuan said helplessly, "Aren't you worried your brother will fret if you leave without telling Fu Xi? And why are you bringing the rocking chair? Is it going to help you fight?"
Nuwa rolled her eyes at him. "I'll leave my brother a Jade Slip telling him we've gone traveling around the Primordial Wilderness. There's no need to disturb his cultivation over something so trivial."
After speaking, she took out a Jade Slip, formed hand seals, and inscribed it for a while. Then she leaned close and whispered something to it.
Once she had set down the Jade Slip, Nuwa grabbed Qing Xuan and headed straight out of Phoenix Perch Mountain, afraid that if they dawdled, Fu Xi would stop them.
Qing Xuan couldn't help but feel a bit exasperated. Does this count as running off with Nuwa?
Qing Xuan remembered that besides his own Innate Gourd Vine, there was another Spiritual Root on Buzhou Mountain, called the Innate Banana Tree.
The Innate Banana Tree had four leaves, each one an Innate Spiritual Treasure, and each corresponding to one of the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind.
So Qing Xuan didn't hurry to leave Buzhou Mountain. Instead, he and Nuwa began climbing it on foot.
Phoenix Perch Mountain lay at the foot of Buzhou Mountain. Even the Ancestral Witch Hall was in its lower reaches, while the middle section was already close to the limit most cultivators could reach.
However, after Hong Jun began lecturing, cultivators of the Primordial Wilderness started practicing the Path of Severing Three Corpses. The Pangu Pressure on Buzhou Mountain also grew increasingly faint.
By the end of Hong Jun's Three Lectures, any Great Luo Golden Immortal could reach the summit of Buzhou Mountain. By then, almost none of the Pangu Pressure remained.
After the Witch-Demon Calamity, Gonggong would crash into Buzhou Mountain and break it. By then, there would be no need to speak of Pangu Pressure—the mountain itself would become the Sky-Overturning Seal.
Even so, the Sky-Overturning Seal still retained a trace of Pangu Pressure. That was why it could stand against Innate Spiritual Treasures without falling behind, despite being only a Houtian Spiritual Treasure.
But now, the lecture at Zixiao Palace hadn't yet begun. So Qing Xuan and Nuwa's climb up Buzhou Mountain was also a test of their physical bodies.
At first, they didn't feel much. But once they reached the middle section of Buzhou Mountain—the area where the Innate Gourd Vine had originally grown—the pressure began to increase exponentially. It took them a full hundred years to climb only about a thousand li.
Nuwa was a Mid-stage Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, so it was only natural that she could withstand the immense Pangu Pressure. But Qing Xuan was only a Golden Immortal, yet he could keep pace with Nuwa. That was certainly intriguing.
Nuwa, however, paid no attention to that. Instead, she cheerfully followed Qing Xuan as they began to scour Buzhou Mountain.
Because so few people could climb Buzhou Mountain at the time, it was still rich in treasures. In just a thousand li, Qing Xuan and Nuwa found several Innate Spiritual Roots.
Most were only mid-grade, but after the Witch-Demon Calamity they would become rare treasures coveted by every faction. Naturally, Qing Xuan wasn't about to leave them behind.
Anything that caught Qing Xuan's eye went into the Purple Gold Gourd. Of the Seven Gourds, only the Purple Gold Gourd possessed the law of space.
In the original Primordial World Trajectory, the Purple Gold Gourd fell into Laozi's hands, and he used it to hold the Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir.
During the Journey to the West Calamity, the Purple Gold Gourd had truly shone. The line, "Sun Wukong, I call your name—dare you answer?" had become an enduring classic.
Unfortunately, no matter how loudly Qing Xuan called, the Spiritual Roots couldn't answer. Otherwise, he would have liked to try the thrill of calling someone's name and capturing them.
Unfortunately, apart from the Innate Spiritual Roots, Qing Xuan and Nuwa hadn't found a single Innate Spiritual Treasure.
"Considering Buzhou Mountain was formed from the spine of Pangu, it shouldn't be so poor. How could there not be even one Innate Spiritual Treasure?"
Nuwa dug up a Lingzhi that had grown for more than a hundred yuanhui and casually remarked to Qing Xuan as she did.
"During the Dragon-Han Initial Tribulation, my brother and I hadn't undergone Form Transformation yet. We'd only just gained consciousness. I once saw a Daoist climbing Buzhou Mountain, so the Innate Spiritual Treasures were probably all taken by him."
Hearing Nuwa's words, Qing Xuan thought of Hong Jun. "That's right. Hong Jun had enough treasures to hand out at Treasure Distribution Cliff. He must have had countless Innate Spiritual Treasures."
"Where else could those treasures have come from but from searching the Primordial Wilderness beforehand? And with his cultivation, climbing Buzhou Mountain would've been no problem."
Once Qing Xuan understood the situation, he lost interest in climbing any farther. After all, he had no desire to clean up after someone else.
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