However, Yuanshi had never been one to turn his frustrations inward.
What was more, deep down, Yuanshi had always had the rather serious mindset of "I'm not just afraid my brothers will have a hard life; I'm even more afraid they'll drive a luxury car."
So, partly to shift the blame and partly out of jealousy and indignation, Yuanshi said bitterly, "If you ask me, it's all the Ancestral Witches' fault. Why on earth did they have to show off Pangu Hall for no reason? Hmph!"
"But, Second Brother, that's because..."
Tongtian was a straightforward man. He didn't think the Ancestral Witches were to blame.
Besides, Tongtian had actually been firmly against dismantling the 24th-Grade Creation Green Lotus in the first place. But Yuanshi had insisted on taking it apart, while Laozi had seemed neutral even though he was actually on Yuanshi's side.
Outnumbered two to one—and facing both his elder brothers—Tongtian had ultimately been forced to grit his teeth and accept it.
But now that something had gone wrong, Yuanshi wasn't reflecting on his own mistakes. Instead, he was foisting the blame onto the Ancestral Witches. What kind of logic was that?
"Third Brother, are you saying all of this is my fault?!"
Yuanshi was getting worked up.
Seeing this, Laozi's brows lifted. If they kept arguing over the matter, wouldn't he, as their eldest brother, bear some responsibility too?
"Enough, both of you. It's already happened. What good will it do to keep arguing? Can you restore the 24th-Grade Creation Green Lotus by shouting at each other?"
At Laozi's words, Yuanshi and Tongtian both fell silent.
True. It had already happened. They could argue until the sky fell, and it still wouldn't help.
Only Yuanshi vaguely sensed that in the last few clashes between him and Tongtian, Laozi had subtly taken his side.
That's a good thing. But Tongtian is far too stubborn, and he's disagreed with Eldest Brother's decisions more than once. He should know Eldest Brother's temperament. He seems unconcerned with worldly affairs, but he's actually quite petty!
Leaving the Three Pure Ones' schemes aside, the True Form of Pangu, controlled by Zhu Jiuyin, had reached a crucial stage in its creation of the Great Thousand World.
Under the suppression of Pangu Hall, a newly formed Great Thousand World had taken shape. But this was only the beginning. It was still far from being a true Great Thousand World.
"Metal, wood, water, fire, earth—the origins of the Five Elements, emerge!"
With another mighty shout from the True Form of Pangu, the laws of the Five Elements, which formed the material foundation of the world, sprang into being.
The moment the Five Elements' laws took shape, countless signs of life and creation blossomed throughout the Great Thousand World, which had once been empty, lifeless, and devoid of vitality.
The sight sent a shock through the hearts of the countless mighty figures watching the Ancestral Witches.
All at once, endless insights began to well up within them.
In truth, this was almost equivalent to a Hunyuan Realm expert demonstrating the process of creating a Great Thousand World for them. Under Zhu Jiuyin's control, the True Form of Pangu was now no weaker than a half-step Third Heaven of Hunyuan expert. With the semi-illusory Pangu Axe it had condensed, it could even fight an early-stage Third Heaven of Hunyuan expert.
To these mighty figures, watching such an existence evolve a Great Thousand World and demonstrate all kinds of laws and profound truths normally wielded only by Hunyuan Realm experts was hardly inferior to hearing Hongjun preach the Dao.
But there was one fatal problem.
This was the Primordial World—the Primordial World where cause and effect mattered above all.
When Hongjun preached the Dao, these mighty figures had paid back the immense favor by treating him as their master and honoring him as the Dao Ancestor, thereby establishing his supreme status as the Spokesperson of the Heavenly Dao.
So how would they repay the cause and effect they now owed the Ancestral Witches?
What could they possibly offer in return?
In truth, in the Primordial World, you could owe anything you liked. Just don't owe someone a debt of cause and effect.
When the powerful owed the weak, it was easy enough to repay.
But when the weak owed the powerful? They could only wait and see.
It was like giving someone ten thousand yuan when they were destitute and on the verge of starving to death, so they could survive and get back on their feet.
Years later, if that person was worth several billion while you were still an ordinary person, then paying you back a few hundred thousand or a million would already be quite generous. It would be fair by any measure.
But what if you were the richest person in the country?
Could they really settle a life-saving debt by paying you back a few hundred thousand or a million?
That was the position the other mighty figures were now in with the Ancestral Witches.
With Zhu Jiuyin's intervention, how could the heights the Ancestral Witches would reach in this life be something the ordinary mighty figures of the Primordial World could aspire to?
And it wasn't just these mighty figures.
When it came to the creation of a Great Thousand World through the True Form of Pangu, what living being could gain more than the Twelve Ancestral Witches, who were right there inside it?
Zhu Jiuyin in particular, as the one controlling the True Form of Pangu.
The other mighty figures were merely copying what they saw. For the Ancestral Witches, it was as if the True Form of Pangu were guiding them by the hand, personally demonstrating every law and truth of the Hunyuan Realm through them.
Put simply, under the True Form of Pangu's demonstration, all the Ancestral Witches—including Zhu Jiuyin—now understood the path ahead, including how to break through from Ancestral Witch to Wu Saint.
Cultivation was like building a road. The hard part wasn't laying it; the hard part was having no direction or destination.
Now the True Form of Pangu had pointed out their destination. This fortune was greater even than the Grandmist Violet Qi.
"Alas, Father God had already arranged everything long ago. But in the Primordial World's legends, both we Ancestral Witches and the Three Pure Ones abandoned the root and chased the branch, wrecking the path to the heavens Father God had laid out for us until it was shattered beyond repair."
Thinking of how the Ancestral Witches in the legends of the Primordial World had been violent and combative, without even grasping the true meaning of the Twelve Capital Divine Gods and Demons Formation—acting like a bunch of reckless fools with no brains—
Then thinking of how the Three Pure Ones had abandoned Pangu and honored Hongjun, the Heavenly Dao, nearly discarding the name of the Pangu Three Pure Ones altogether...
Zhu Jiuyin felt that if he were Father God Pangu, and he truly knew of the Ancestral Witches' and the Three Pure Ones' deeds, he probably wouldn't want to return to the Primordial World either.
What a disgrace.
Zhu Jiuyin suddenly remembered a line he had read among the books in the Library in his modern life: "You're not afraid of a rich second-generation heir eating, drinking, and fooling around. You're afraid of one with grand ambitions who recklessly makes a mess of everything."
In fact, Zhu Jiuyin still had the leisure to let his mind wander because he had realized that as the Great Thousand World was created, he had lost control of the True Form of Pangu.
At this moment, the one controlling the True Form of Pangu was probably that faint will of Father God Pangu, hidden somewhere beyond reach.
After the origins of the Five Elements evolved, the material foundation of the world was established. Next came wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, which, under the guidance of the laws of weather, established the world's energy circulation system.
As the saying went, the Five Elements laid the foundation for earth, water, fire, and wind; wind, rain, thunder, and lightning set the cycles of heaven and earth in motion. Together, they formed the complete laws governing the workings of heaven and earth.
By this stage, the Great Thousand World had more or less taken shape.
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