Senior, Please Wait; Bei Ming Ponders the Predicament

"Junior!"

With a low shout from the Destruction Demon God, the aura suppressed by the Formation around him involuntarily surged for an instant:

"You go too far! Could it be that, in your eyes, This Seat is some shameless old fool, a petty rat full of lies?!"

Bei Ming said helplessly, "It can't be helped, Senior. Who told me I'm the small one taking on the big?"

"Good! Good! Good!"

The Destruction Demon God said it three times in succession. For the sake of freedom, he was going all out.

In any case, Chaos Gods had always disdained lies. Proving himself would do no harm.

"Great Dao above, I, the Destruction Demon God, swear that since Chaos began, every word I have spoken has been true! Nor have I set any traps within my words!

Should even the slightest falsehood exist, may I immediately return to Chaos! Let the Great Dao bear witness!"

The Great Dao responded accordingly, sending down an intangible assent as vast aura rippled through the void.

The Destruction Demon God's True Spirit floated quietly, without the slightest disturbance.

Such composure was enough to prove that his words were not false.

"Junior," the Destruction Demon God said slowly.

"This time, you should be at ease, yes? Between you and me, we each rely on our own abilities!"

Hearing this, Bei Ming clasped his fists and bowed, with a trace of self-mockery on his face.

"Senior is right. This junior was narrow-minded just now. I ask Senior to rest and recover for the time being. Once my cultivation advances, I will return to fulfill the contract with Senior."

Though the Destruction Demon God was now only a True Spirit, Bei Ming still knew his limits;

to refine a being who had once ranked among the strongest in Chaos while only at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm was, in the end, a perilous path with nine chances of death and one of life.

This trip to the Purple Cloud Palace was a must.

Only by achieving Cutting off the Three Corpses and breaking through to the Quasi-Saint realm could his strength make a great leap.

As for subsequent cultivation, casting aside the Three Corpses might be difficult, but the Laws of Destruction should be capable of achieving it.

With that said, Bei Ming's figure shifted slightly, and he instantly left this hidden space.

Watching him depart so cleanly and decisively, a cold gleam flashed in the Destruction Demon God's eyes before fury surged forth.

The entire hidden space immediately shook violently, while dull booms echoed from the barriers of the void.

Yet the Three Immortal Islands outside remained as tranquil as before, without even a single ripple.

Even if the Destruction Demon God had once been one of the foremost powerhouses in Chaos;

now, however, he was merely a True Spirit. Suppressed by the Three Talents Formation, he could not even cultivate properly. The influence he could exert was truly limited.

Bei Ming appeared in the skies above the Three Islands. With a light sweep of his sleeve and a hand seal formed in his hand, he exercised the authority of both Island Master and Formation master, shrinking the space occupied by the Three Immortal Islands and storing it within the Returning Ruins to carry with him.

Such a method could only be used on semi-independent grotto-heaven Blessed Lands like the Three Immortal Islands.

They did not rely on Honghuang spiritual veins, nor were they constrained by the Qi situation of Heaven and Earth;

if it were one of those grotto-heaven Blessed Lands connected to spiritual veins, even moving it would require bearing the corresponding karma.

With the Three Immortal Islands obtained on this trip, the gains could truly be called abundant.

The next step was to return to the Honghuang Continent;

with so many Innate Gods making their entrance, how could he not make contact with a few?

Besides, there was still a troublesome matter that had been plaguing Bei Ming and needed resolving.

Although his current combat strength was no weaker than Tai Yi's, if they truly fought, it would probably end in a draw;

after all, Tai Yi held the Chaos Bell in his hands.

An Innate Supreme Treasure that combined offense and defense like this provided a terrifying boost to combat strength.

It would be difficult for the Hongmeng Measuring Ruler to break through the Chaos Bell's defenses;

but the Chaos Bell ultimately lacked the Pangu Banner's peerless offensive power, so breaking through the double defenses of the Pure World White Lotus and the Xuan Yuan Controlling Water Flag would likewise not be easy.

But the key was that Tai Yi did not fight alone;

even setting aside the future Ten Great Demon Saints and hundreds of millions of elite Demon Race members, he also had an Elder Brother, Di Jun, as close to him as his own hands and feet.

Di Jun's combat strength was not weak, but since he excelled in schemes and possessed the ambition to Reign over Honghuang;

then perhaps the problem could be resolved by a relatively harmonious method.

Tai Yi only needed to provide absolute martial support, while Di Jun had far more matters to consider.

Strengthening himself was the inevitable path, but if he wanted to achieve a leap in strength within a short time, aside from returning to try refining the Destruction Demon God, there was no other way.

But as things stood, Bei Ming estimated that between himself and the Destruction Demon God, the odds were at most twenty-eighty.

If brute force would not work, then he could only use his brain.

To resolve the future threat of the Demon Race, aside from finding a backer, he needed to make a few reliable Daoist friends.

Within Hong Huang Zhi Zhong, there were currently only two backers capable of holding down the Demon Race;

One was Hongjun, who had become a saint; the other was the Wu Clan, which stood opposed to the Demon Race.

Unless one regarded Hongjun as a hypothetical enemy, there was no absolute downside to taking him as a master;

but there was uncertainty involved. As for the conjecture about the Prayer Mats, Bei Ming would have to truly set foot in Purple Cloud Palace before he could put it to the test.

As for the Wu Clan, they had troubles enough of their own, and they were not easy to communicate with;

for a clan to become the enemy of all Ten Thousand Clans of the Primordial Wilderness, one could only say their courage was commendable.

Looking back, the rise of the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Three Clans had all been built upon their own direct lines before they expanded their forces;

only after separately conquering and ruling over the Scaled Creatures, Birds, and Beasts could they begin their earth-shaking history of contending for supremacy.

Di Jun and Tai Yi had no clan to rely on; they had practically started from nothing;

to establish forces, martial strength alone was not enough. They needed strategy and scheming, and they needed to win people's hearts.

Di Jun's definition of the "Demon Race" encompassed nearly all the major clans of the Primordial Wilderness;

besides the combination of martial strength and strategy, there was another, even more important external reason he could achieve this: the threat of the Wu Clan.

The Wu Clan's might, along with their enormous demand for blood food, had made them the Public Enemy of the Ten Thousand Clans of the Primordial Wilderness.

Though the Ten Thousand Clans each had their own conflicts, when the Wu Clan bore down upon them, they could only temporarily lay down their weapons and unite to defend against the enemy.

The external crisis had forcibly suppressed the internal strife.

Under such circumstances, the Ten Thousand Clans needed a leader;

Di Jun had taken the initiative to claim that position. Even if he had chosen to give it up, secluded himself on the Sun Star, and refused to come out no matter what, it would not have mattered—Dong Wangong could have taken on the role instead.

At first, the Demon Race could not defeat the Wu Clan either. During their first great war, it was Hongjun, after he had Merged with the Dao, who came to save the day;

Dong Wangong could not compare to Di Jun and Tai Yi, but at worst Hongjun could give him a little more help;

and as the Immortal Chief acknowledged by the Dao Ancestor, once he developed, he could even use his position to win over fellow Daoists who had listened to the Dao alongside him in Purple Cloud Palace and resist the Wu Clan together.

Among the three thousand Mortal Realm Guests, every one possessed the potential to become a Quasi-Saint;

even if Dong Wangong recruited only some of them, it would be enough to give the Wu Clan a headache.

By then, as the Immortal Chief, if he discovered the Thirty-Three Heavens, established the Heavenly Court, mastered the Zhou Tian Star Array, and added the Ten Thousand Immortals Array to the mix, he might well be able to fight the Wu Clan to mutual destruction.

Bei Ming weighed it silently in his heart:

'The Wu Clan cannot be relied upon, Hongjun is impossible to predict. The ones truly worth winning over are reliable fellow Daoists.'

The choice of fellow Daoists had to be made carefully.

That "saint" Hong Yun roamed the Primordial Wilderness all year round, doing good and giving generously, yet had consequently become entangled in countless karmic ties.

A person like that might have many friends, but when danger came, the only one who would truly stand at his side was Zhen Yuanzi.

As a friend, Zhen Yuanzi was beyond reproach. He dared face the Demon Race while its forces stood at their Peak Stage, ready to take a knife through both ribs for his fellow Daoist. Looking across the Primordial Wilderness, who else could compare?