Zhu Jiuyin had never imagined that most of the clanspeople had actually wanted to return to the Ancestral Land for a long time.
For more than half of them, the fundamental reason they didn't want to stay outside the Ancestral Land was that absorbing the Turbid Qi of the earth was simply too painful.
Another four tenths felt that the living beings outside the Ancestral Land generally kept their distance from the Witch Race, or even treated them with hostility. How could any living being enjoy living for a long time in an environment filled with cold violence and even hatred?
As for the remaining less than one tenth of the Witches, they were the small minority who didn't particularly want to return. But their problem was far more serious than that of the other two groups.
Nearly two tenths of the Witches had already begun to adopt a throw-caution-to-the-wind attitude, worn down by the constant torment of Turbid Qi and the outside world's unrelenting ostracism and hostility.
Their thinking was simple: You living beings are always saying that the Witch Race is cruel and bloodthirsty, that we feed on the flesh and blood of other beings. Fine. Since that's what you say, we Witches might as well do exactly as you imagine.
In that moment, Zhu Jiuyin suddenly understood why the Witch Race would ultimately face near-annihilation.
The First War of the Witches and Demons had only ended recently, and Hongjun had given his second lecture. Hundreds, even thousands, of Yuanhui still stood between them and the Final War of Witch and Demon.
Over those hundreds or thousands of Yuanhui, this throw-caution-to-the-wind mindset could gradually spread throughout the entire Witch Race.
By then, the Witches who originally made up less than one tenth could swell to four tenths, five tenths, or even more. Worse still, they might well turn their thoughts into action.
Just imagine it: if more than four tenths of the Witch Race were slaughtering Primordial World beings in a frenzy, then no matter how much merit the Witches possessed, they couldn't withstand such a root-destroying drain.
At that moment, Zhu Jiuyin felt deeply relieved, while also realizing just how childish and laughable his own management and rule had been, along with Dijiang's and the other Ancestral Witches'.
As the Witch Race's strongest, highest-ranking, and most authoritative Ancestral Witch, he hadn't even understood what most of his clanspeople were thinking. In the history books Zhu Jiuyin had read, that was plainly a sign that a dynasty was doomed.
The beginning of the fall of any dynasty in history was always the same: the central government could no longer effectively receive and deal with information and problems from the regions.
Once orders from above could no longer reach below, and reports from below could no longer reach above, the central government would struggle to keep the regions under control. Then the regions would begin to split off and govern themselves.
From there, the dynasty's destruction would naturally begin its countdown.
It had been the same from Qin and Han through Ming and Qing.
In fact, when Zhu Jiuyin sent the relevant information to the other Ancestral Witches, Zhurong and the other Ancestral Witches who rarely concerned themselves with affairs took it relatively well. Dijiang and Houtu, however, were genuinely shocked and afraid.
Because they had managed the Witch Race, they understood some of the taboos of the Primordial World very well.
They could therefore see that if this way of thinking were allowed to spread unchecked, the lower and middle ranks of the Witch Race would inevitably begin slaughtering beings from other races on a massive scale. Such a heinous act would outrage both Heaven and humanity, and its consequences would surely exhaust the merit the Witch Race had inherited from Pangu.
The day the Witch Race's merit was exhausted would also mark the beginning of its downfall.
"It all fits together now. It all fits!"
Dijiang couldn't help exclaiming to Houtu.
"That's right. I can hardly imagine what Second Brother saw in the River of Time. Without Second Brother turning the tide during this time, if things had gone on like this, the fate of us Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race would have been self-evident."
While Dijiang and Houtu were sighing in awe and lingering fear, a big round face leaned in. "Big Brother, Sister Houtu, what are you two whispering about?"
It was Zhurong speaking.
Faced with Zhurong's somewhat adorable, foolish-looking face, brimming with curiosity, Dijiang and Houtu felt for the first time just why Zhu Jiuyin, though he could have explained everything openly, had ultimately chosen this exceedingly complicated approach.
You just couldn't get through to him.
"Second Brother... this is so hard!"
Dijiang and Houtu sighed in unison.
In the blink of an eye, thirty thousand years passed.
For most beings in the Primordial World, those thirty thousand years were undoubtedly the most peaceful and carefree since the Innate Beings first appeared.
First, the countless Witches had all been summoned back to the Ancestral Land, and none had come out again.
As for the Demon Race, with Di Jun, Tai Yi, and the other high-ranking members of the Demon Race all in seclusion, it too entered a period of peaceful development.
The mighty figures of the Primordial World, apart from the two races, were also cultivating in seclusion, doing their utmost to absorb the essence of Hongjun's second lecture and turn it into nourishment for breaking through to the next level.
With the Witches and Demons causing no trouble and the mighty figures of the Primordial World all in seclusion, the world naturally became peaceful and carefree.
Yet beneath that peace and ease, dangers lurked, unnoticed by anyone.
No one noticed that the Turbid Qi between Heaven and Earth was slowly growing more abundant.
Turbid Qi was, in essence, a negative aura left behind in the Primordial World after Pangu and the Chaos Demon Gods perished.
Opposed to the Clear Qi, which brimmed with creation and vitality, it represented destruction and slaughter.
For living beings, Turbid Qi not only clogged their meridians and tainted their bodies, but also corroded their souls and clouded their minds. It severely disrupted cultivators' resonance with the Heavenly Dao, making it difficult for them to comprehend the laws and advance their cultivation. If they remained in Turbid Qi for a long time, they could even be "demonized," becoming fiends who knew nothing but slaughter.
If it merely affected living beings, that would be one thing. More seriously, Turbid Qi also had an enormous adverse effect on the Primordial World itself.
Where Turbid Qi spread, Clear Qi vanished and spiritual energy dried up. Over time, once-blessed grotto-heavens and paradises would be polluted into lands devoid of spiritual energy, where even ordinary grass and trees could no longer grow.
Most importantly, Turbid Qi also increased the Karmic Force between Heaven and Earth.
Karmic Force was a kind of sinful power that even Sages and the Heavenly Dao avoided at all costs.
Once it exceeded a certain threshold, even the Primordial World might face an onslaught of Chaos Karmic Fire. At best, the world would decline and fall to a lower level. At worst, the entire Primordial World could be burned to ashes by the Chaos Karmic Fire.
However, the Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race had always absorbed the Turbid Qi between Heaven and Earth of their own accord, ever since before they awakened their minds. As a result, although the beings of the Primordial World knew how terrifying Turbid Qi was, they had never truly experienced the catastrophic consequences of its spreading everywhere.
In the myths of the Primordial World, the Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race had come first. After they were gone, Houtu transformed into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, which could convert the Clear and Turbid Qi between Heaven and Earth.
But in this life, Zhu Jiuyin had been fortunate enough to cross countless ages and reach the downstream reaches of the River of Time. He had also, more fortunately still, read a few novels about the Primordial World. Because of that, many things had truly changed.
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