The Demon Race's Dao Discussion Assembly lasted a full ten thousand years.
Throughout those ten thousand years, not only had the upper echelons of the Demon Race, including Di Jun and Tai Yi, kept an eye on the Witch Race's every move, but the mighty beings and the vast majority of living creatures throughout the Primordial World had watched them as well. Even Hongjun had been keeping an eye on the Witch Race.
They discovered that ever since the last batch of the Witch Race had entered the Ancestral Land of the Witch Race five thousand years ago, it had become like a forbidden place that swallowed everything whole. Not a single member of the Witch Race had emerged since.
"What on earth is the Witch Race up to?!"
That was the question on the minds of every living creature who knew what the Witch Race was doing, from Hongjun above to the lowliest creature below.
In truth, the upper echelons of the Demon Race, including Di Jun and Tai Yi, had spent the past ten thousand years tossing and turning, unable to sleep or eat in peace. They had even made several glaring mistakes while lecturing at the Dao Discussion Assembly.
Of course, no living creature had dared mock the Demon Race's upper echelons, including Di Jun and Tai Yi. It wasn't as if they hadn't made mistakes themselves.
At this point, the minds of the upper echelons of the Primordial World, Hongjun included, were all fixed on what the Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race were planning.
It was like the saying, "When a child suddenly goes quiet, they're bound to be up to mischief." They feared that the Witch Race would do nothing for ages, then make one big move that would leave them reeling.
But ten thousand years passed, and the Witch Race still made no move.
That left the Demon Race's upper echelons in an awkward spot.
Every assembly had to end eventually. The fact that they had managed to keep so many mighty beings in the Demon Court for ten thousand years was already the limit for both the Demon Court and its guests.
After all, with all those mighty beings staying there, the Demon Race had to host them.
And if they were going to host them, they had to serve them in style.
But once you reached the Daluo Golden Immortal or even Quasi-Sage realm, ordinary spirit fruits and materials simply weren't good enough.
So after ten thousand years, the Demon Race's treasury, which had once been incredibly well-stocked, was nearly empty.
The Demon Race couldn't hold out any longer, and neither could those mighty beings.
No matter how nice the Demon Court was, it wasn't home.
Anyone with a home of their own would get tired of living at someone else's place forever.
Besides, cultivation was still the main pursuit of the Primordial World.
Hongjun had made it perfectly clear that he would preach at Purple Heaven Palace only three times, with three Yuanhui between each sermon.
And the ten Yuanhui during which Hongjun would preach were undoubtedly a period when the Innate Demon Gods' cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds.
They had already wasted ten thousand years on the Demon Race. If they wasted any more time, it would start to affect their cultivation.
By then, it was clear that neither side could keep going, so the Dao Discussion Assembly had no choice but to come to an end.
When Di Jun, Tai Yi, and the other upper echelons of the Demon Race finally took stock of their supplies, they nearly burst into tears.
"Hundreds of millions of years of accumulation, wiped out in a single stroke! Why is life so hard for our Demon Race?!"
Di Jun had always been as tough as iron, but when he saw the Demon Race's treasury—nearly empty enough for mice to run through—it was more than he could bear.
"Could the Witch Race have done this on purpose? Used some vague, half-real, half-false trick to scheme against us, all so they could drain our treasury dry?"
Nuwa voiced her thoughts with a hint of hesitation.
But before Di Jun could reply, Tai Yi waved his hands emphatically. "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
In fact, Tai Yi wasn't the only one worked up. Di Jun, Kunpeng, and Fuxi were just as agitated.
Come on. For the upper echelons of the Demon Race, including Tai Yi, it was already humiliating enough that they couldn't defeat the Ancestral Witches.
At least they could tell themselves, and the Demon Race and the mighty beings outside it, that the Ancestral Witches only won through sheer numbers. One-on-one, they could hold their own against any of them.
But when it came to strength, if they admitted that Nuwa was right, wouldn't that prove the Ancestral Witches had rubbed their faces in the dirt intellectually, too?
Everyone knew the Ancestral Witches were practically synonymous with brawn and stupidity.
And yet the Demon Race's upper echelons, Di Jun and Tai Yi included, had been fooled by them?
That shattered them. In that moment, even the mildest of them, Fuxi, felt utterly crushed.
Even so, though they refused to admit it, a voice deep in their hearts seemed to whisper that Nuwa might be right.
"I—I'm going into seclusion to cultivate. I won't emerge until I've severed the Three Corpses and reached the late Quasi-Sage realm!"
Tai Yi gritted his teeth and forced out a twisted, savage smile. Then he hurried toward the Eastern Emperor Palace in the Demon Court, turning into a streak of rainbow light.
"Ah! Ancestral Witches! Witch Race! I'll kill you all!"
Tai Yi's furious roar echoed across the Demon Court, like the Sun Star erupting with endless True Sun Fire.
Di Jun, Kunpeng, and Fuxi exchanged glances, then clenched their teeth hard.
"Let's call it a day!"
With his spirits somewhat crushed, Di Jun waved his hand wearily.
While the outside world buzzed with commotion, the Ancestral Land of the Witch Race was remarkably peaceful.
Zhu Jiuyin had thought that urgently summoning every member of the Witch Race back to their Ancestral Land, then announcing the decision to abandon all territory beyond it, would meet with widespread opposition from the rank and file.
But to his surprise, when the people received the news, they were angry and resentful, yet in the end they silently accepted his decision.
After being steeped in over a million modern books, Zhu Jiuyin was no longer the same as before.
He took the initiative to seek out members of the Witch Race from the lower and middle ranks and ask what they thought.
"I just feel that if all twelve Ancestral Witches decided on this together, then it must be the right decision."
"The tribe I used to belong to was in the western part of the Primordial World, where Turbid Qi is most abundant. Little Witch, I'm not afraid you'll laugh at me, Ancestral Witch. Every time I absorbed that Turbid Qi, it really hurt. The pain went right down to my bones, even into my soul. So if I can be relieved of that thankless task, I'm willing."
"Ancestral Witch, even though I, Hou Ji, have no soul and a rough, violent nature, I'm no fool. I can tell that the living creatures around me in the Primordial World generally keep their distance from us, or even despise us. If they don't welcome us, why should we keep staying there and absorbing the Turbid Qi in those places for them?"
"Hou Ji is right! Ancestral Witch, you tell us—isn't it true that if we didn't have to absorb the Turbid Qi of the earth, our Witch Race wouldn't need to hunt those demon beasts? But whenever we go after them, the Demon Race always jumps out and attacks us first, claiming they're avenging their people."
"Exactly! I can understand why the Demon Race hates our Witch Race. But we've never attacked any of the living creatures outside the Demon Race. So why do they keep their distance from us and despise us, too?"
This was the first time an Ancestral Witch had personally sought out members of the Witch Race from the middle and lower ranks to hear their thoughts, so Zhu Jiuyin was warmly welcomed by countless members of the tribe.
At last, an Ancestral Witch was willing to listen to them.
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