Zhu Jiuyin: I Want the Ultimate Decision-Making Power

From that moment on, the Ancestral Witches and the billions of the Witch Race within the ancestral land of Mount Buzhou discovered that the Time Ancestral Witch, Zhu Jiuyin, had completely changed.

In the past, although Zhu Jiuyin was the Time Ancestral Witch, his personality did not differ much from the other Ancestral Witches; he was just as fierce, crude, impulsive, and overbearing. However, after digesting the hundreds of thousands of books stored in his memory, Zhu Jiuyin was entirely different.

His personality began to grow calm, indifferent, and composed, and coupled with the characteristics of the Law of Time, he gained an air of profound, mysterious, and unfathomable depth.

To reiterate, if not for the sense of closeness and familiarity born from their shared origin within Zhu Jiuyin's bloodline, as well as the Merit of Opening the Heavens that repelled all evil and remained impervious to all laws, Dijiang and the other Ancestral Witches would have feared that Zhu Jiuyin had been possessed by some supreme power.

Conversely, this change in personality meant that Zhu Jiuyin did not share everything he knew with the other Ancestral Witches.

Pangu Hall could shield them from the perception of Heavenly Dao and Hongjun, but the Ancestral Witches would eventually have to leave the hall, and given the personalities of the others, it was far too difficult to expect them to keep a secret.

Having clearly realized that Heavenly Dao and Hongjun were targeting the Witch Race—and even intended to eradicate the entire race—Zhu Jiuyin felt that no amount of caution was excessive.

It was from that moment that Zhu Jiuyin began to repeatedly emphasize that the Witch Race should cease their struggle for hegemony with the Demon Race, ignore the turmoil outside the ancestral land of Mount Buzhou, and simply lie flat.

Clearly, as soon as this opinion was proposed, it was met with unanimous opposition from the other eleven Ancestral Witches, including Houtu, and there were few within the entire Witch Race who stood on his side.

Regarding this, Zhu Jiuyin felt neither dejected nor disappointed. As an Ancestral Witch, he understood the philosophy of the others and the entire Witch Race all too well: "We Ancestral Witches are the Orthodox Pangu Lineage, the closest descendants of Pangu, bearing the duty of dispelling the Turbid Qi of the Primordial World and grooming its ley lines; therefore, we should rightfully be the masters of the Primordial World."

It could be said that the former Zhu Jiuyin had also subscribed to this philosophy, but only after leaping beyond the original cognition of the Ancestral Witches did he understand how ridiculous such a concept was.

There was a fatal problem here: the Ancestral Witches, and indeed the entire Witch Race, seemed never to have considered what would happen if Heavenly Dao and Hongjun did not agree.

In the hearts of the Ancestral Witches, they were the Orthodox Pangu Lineage, born with massive amounts of the Merit of Opening the Heavens. In the entire Primordial World, aside from the Three Pure Ones, there were no Innate Demon Gods with a foundation stronger than theirs.

As long as they could defeat the Demon Race, even if Heavenly Dao and Hongjun were dissatisfied, they would have no choice but to watch helplessly as the Witch Race became the masters of the Primordial World.

How should one put it? Perhaps only Houtu, hundreds of epochs later, would understand how laughable such thoughts were.

Seeing that his dissuasion and suggestions were opposed by the Ancestral Witches, including Houtu, and almost the entire Witch Race, the now-changed Zhu Jiuyin did not force his views. Instead, he switched to a more subtle yet effective method: "If you won't listen to me, what if I can accurately predict the future trends of the Primordial World every single time?"

Often, facts speak louder than words.

So, when Zhu Jiuyin successively predicted that Hongjun would preach three times in the Purple Cloud Palace, that Zhun Ti and Jie Yin would swindle and seize the holy positions of Hong Yun and Kunpeng, that the Witch Race would gain nothing from listening to the sermons at Purple Cloud Palace, that Nuwa, Fuxi, and Kunpeng would join the Demon Race, and that Hongjun would take the Three Pure Ones and others as disciples and bestow upon them holy positions—a series of major trends...

Even Dijiang, the most dominant among the Ancestral Witches, Zhurong, the most hot-tempered, and Gonggong, the most reckless, slowly began to value and believe in Zhu Jiuyin's predictions.

Throughout this process, Zhu Jiuyin consistently chose to propose at every gathering of the Witch Race that they should abandon their struggle for hegemony with the Demon Race.

As ironclad facts continued to prove Zhu Jiuyin's correctness, the attitude of Dijiang and the other Ancestral Witches, along with the billions of the Witch Race, shifted from initial firm opposition to slow, skeptical hesitation.

Only then did the Ancestral Witches, including Dijiang and Houtu, realize that Zhu Jiuyin must have seen something within the River of Time; otherwise, there was no explanation for such a massive change in his attitude toward the struggle between the two races.

Whether it was the Ancestral Witches or the Witch Race, they lacked a Primordial Spirit and could not calculate the secrets of heaven, and coupled with the influence of the Turbid Qi, they appeared brainless in the end. However, this did not mean that the Witch Race, including Dijiang and Zhurong, were fools.

Could fools compete with Di Jun, Tai Yi, and the trillions of the Demon Race for the position of masters of the Primordial World?

The Ancestral Witches were straightforward by nature, so they naturally said whatever was on their minds.

But when faced with the inquiries of the Ancestral Witches, including Dijiang, Zhu Jiuyin settled all questions and doubts with a single sentence: "This is all the arrangement of Father God!"

Well!

At this, even Dijiang, the leader of the Twelve Ancestral Witches, had nothing left to say.

There was no help for it; in principle, the Ancestral Witches should not have been swayed by a single sentence from Zhu Jiuyin, but the problem was that the principles now rested with him.

Of course, the most important factor was that Zhu Jiuyin had consistently used ironclad facts to prove his correctness.

Just imagine if Zhu Jiuyin had declared from the very beginning that all of this was the arrangement of Father God—see how many, including the Ancestral Witches, would have believed him.

Principles are principles, but facts are the foundation!

However, when principles and facts were combined, it became an almost irrefutable iron law.

At this stage, the entire Witch Race was effectively prepared to follow Zhu Jiuyin's advice—to abandon the struggle for hegemony with the Demon Race!

But at this very moment, Zhu Jiuyin refused.

Are you kidding? When I earnestly tried to persuade you, you were a hundred times disbelieving and ten thousand times unwilling. Now that ironclad facts have proven my correctness, you think you can dismiss me with a mere sentence about agreeing to abandon the struggle?

Sorry, that was the price from dozens of epochs ago.

So, Zhu Jiuyin directly raised the stakes: "What I want now is no longer just your agreement to abandon the struggle with the Demon Race; what I want now is that when the Witch Race makes decisions in the future, I must have the final say."

As soon as this demand was proposed, the Ancestral Witches present, as well as hundreds of Great Witches, looked in unison at Dijiang.

Clearly, Zhu Jiuyin's words could almost be seen as a direct challenge to Dijiang as the leader of the Witch Race.

And Dijiang himself, at that moment, blankly pointed at himself, thinking to himself: Oh no, this is aimed at me.