Zhu Jiuyin Laughed, Hongjun Jumped with Impatience

"Feeling better?" Zhu Jiuyin chuckled, patting Zhurong and Gonggong on the shoulders. "We Ancestral Witches are broad-minded; we never bicker with these walking corpses."

Zhurong, Gonggong, and the other Ancestral Witches who heard Zhu Jiuyin's words laughed in unison.

Truth be told, when the day finally came that the Primordial World's turbid energy hit its breaking point, it would be the Witch Race laughing last.

After all, while turbid energy was a lethal poison to other races and even top-tier Innate Demon Gods like the Three Pure Ones, it was nothing of the sort to the Ancestral Witches and their kin.

Because the Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race had long since adapted to the properties of turbid energy through their day-in, day-out, year-after-year absorption of it.

It was much like modern society: nuclear radiation would deal a devastating blow to any plant or animal, but what if a creature had survived within that radiation and lived there all along?

Was this not the Primordial version of survival of the fittest?

"Oh no!"

At this moment, while the Ancestral Witches laughed, Hongjun, far away in the Purple Heaven Palace, and the great powers who heard Zhu Jiuyin's words were thrown into a panic.

Clearly, Zhu Jiuyin had done this on purpose.

It wasn't that Zhu Jiuyin was being kind; rather, he intended to keep Hongjun, those great powers, and indeed all living beings of the Primordial World in a state of panic and dread.

Did you really think that because you forced us Ancestral Witches to retreat to our Ancestral Land, and even schemed to nearly wipe out our race in the myths, that I would just let it slide?

A cold sneer tugged at the corner of Zhu Jiuyin's mouth.

Compared to dying suddenly without knowing or feeling a thing, watching an inescapable fate of death descend while trapped in fear and anxiety was the ultimate despair.

"Isn't it said that the fate of the Witch Race is near-extinction? Then I, Zhu Jiuyin, will tell every living being in the Primordial World: if that is the fate of our Witch Race, then the fate of the entire Primordial World will certainly not be any better."

"If the Witch Race ceases to exist, what use is there for the Primordial World?"

Zhu Jiuyin had vaguely seen a similar line in the books at the library, and he felt it was quite classic.

And sure enough, Zhu Jiuyin and the Ancestral Witches present could clearly sense that, at this moment, the vast majority of the great powers were truly panicked.

In the past, they hadn't paid any attention to the issue of turbid energy because, previously, it hadn't been a problem at all.

But now, after Zhu Jiuyin had tossed this information out with almost no defense, they could no longer ignore it.

Hongjun possessed the greatest strength, so his deductions were naturally the fastest and most comprehensive.

"This... the turbid energy of the Primordial World has surged by thirty percent in a mere thirty thousand years."

"If this trend continues, in just ten million years, all living beings in the Primordial World below the Golden Immortal realm will be wiped out. In one hundred million years, all beings with cultivation below the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm will be wiped out."

"If it develops for another billion years, there will be no living beings left in the entire Primordial World, save for the Sages."

At this moment, Hongjun stood up abruptly, horrified.

There was no helping it; let alone reaching the point of a billion years where everything but the Sages would perish.

Even the standard of ten million years—where all beings below the Golden Immortal realm were wiped out—was something the Heavenly Dao and Hongjun could not endure.

To put it another way, if one were to treat the Primordial World as a massive corporation:

Pangu was the founder of this company, but he died on the very day it went public.

Of course, although Pangu died, he had descendants—and quite a lot of them. In the context of the Primordial World, these were the Innate Demon Gods.

This was the reason why, as long as they didn't fall, these Innate Demon Gods would one day reach the Quasi-Sage or Golden Immortal of the Origin realm; they held the original shares of the Primordial World.

After Pangu, let us speak of the three Daos: Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

Pangu died, and his descendants were essentially born without sentience. In today's terms, these Innate Demon Gods were like newborn children, minors, and naturally, they had no qualifications to manage the company in the eyes of the Great Dao.

Therefore, the Great Dao appointed the Heavenly Dao as the General Manager of the Primordial World to handle all affairs, large and small.

To prevent the Heavenly Dao from becoming too powerful, the Great Dao established the Earthly Dao and Humanity Dao as Deputy General Managers to act as checks and balances.

However, in the vast majority of cases, the boss held the highest authority. Coupled with the fact that the Earthly Dao and Humanity Dao had yet to fully recover, the Primordial World was essentially a dictatorship under the Heavenly Dao.

This wouldn't have been a major issue, as the Great Dao only cared about two things: first, that the Primordial World didn't suffer major problems, especially those caused by the Heavenly Dao itself; and second, that the Heavenly Dao and Hongjun had at most the power to punish the Innate Demon Gods, but absolutely no power of life and death over them.

But the problem now was that while a General Manager could run a dictatorship, if the company ran into trouble, the General Manager was the one primarily responsible.

After all, with great power comes great obligation and responsibility.

So, one could hardly blame Hongjun for being so anxious he was ready to jump out of his skin.

As the spokesperson for the Heavenly Dao, Hongjun's fate was inextricably linked to it; they would prosper together and perish together.

If the Heavenly Dao grew stronger, Hongjun's strength would grow accordingly.

If the Heavenly Dao were punished by the Great Dao, or even destroyed by it, Hongjun would undoubtedly suffer grievous wounds or even have his soul returned to nothingness.

The current situation was that if the turbid energy were allowed to spread, in at most ten million years, all living beings below the Golden Immortal realm would be wiped out.

What kind of concept was that?

Although there was a famous saying in the current Primordial World that "Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals walk the earth like dirt, and Golden Immortals are no better than dogs," that was only in reference to the great powers of the world.

In reality, if one Golden Immortal could be born out of every hundred million beings, that was considered good.

And that was only under the current conditions where the Primordial World was rich in innate spiritual energy and full of spiritual charm. If one looked at the time after the two great calamities—the Lich Tribulation and the Tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods—it would be rare indeed for one Golden Immortal to be born out of every trillion beings.

But regardless of whether it was one in a hundred million or one in a trillion, it meant that beings below the Golden Immortal realm made up the vast majority of the Primordial World.

One could imagine that in ten million years, with only one-hundred-millionth of the current population remaining...

If they all died, the Great Dao would surely smash the Heavenly Dao into dust, and Hongjun would have his true spirit obliterated, only to be tossed into the Origin Thunder Domain to suffer eternal death without hope of reincarnation.

In modern terms, it would be like taking a company valued at tens of trillions and driving it into bankruptcy. You can guess what would happen to that General Manager.

Hongjun's speed was the fastest, but the other great powers were not far behind. After all, this was a deduction based on facts with no other variables; even a Golden Immortal could barely manage to calculate it.

And then, they were completely panicked.