However, according to the Great Dao's classification of world tiers, this Great Thousand World could at most be considered a lower-grade Great Thousand World.
Of course, for the Ancestral Witches as they were now, using the True Form of Pangu to carve out a Great Thousand World was already the limit.
Carving out a Great Thousand World was a feat only experts in the Hunyuan Realm or the Sage Realm could accomplish. And yet the Ancestral Witches had managed it while still at the Primordial Origin Golden Immortal Realm.
Was that not defying the heavens?
Everyone knew that beneath the Sages, all were ants. That was no empty saying.
Before a Sage, even an expert at the peak of the Quasi-Sage Realm was no more than an existence that could be crushed to death with a single finger.
And yet the strongest Ancestral Witches had not even reached the peak of the Quasi-Sage Realm. Some of the weaker ones were at most in the middle stage of the Primordial Origin Golden Immortal Realm, but they had still succeeded in creating a Great Thousand World.
Honestly, at that moment, even Tongtian—the most forthright of the Three Pure Ones—could not help feeling a little jealous.
"Father God, Father God, you really..."
Tongtian could not bring himself to finish.
Because he had suddenly remembered that Pangu had left them, the Three Pure Ones, no less than he had left the Ancestral Witches.
The Ancestral Witches had the Twelve Capital Divine Gods and Demons Formation, and the Three Pure Ones had the Three Pure Ones Creation Profound Origin Formation.
Just as the Twelve Capital Divine Gods and Demons Formation could manifest the True Form of Pangu, the Three Pure Ones Creation Profound Origin Formation could manifest Pangu's Primordial Spirit.
Unfortunately, his eldest senior brother and second senior brother had always feared that once they manifested Pangu's Primordial Spirit, it might draw the will of Father God Pangu, allowing him to return to the Primordial World through that Primordial Spirit.
Would that not mean Pangu could possess the Three Pure Ones?
Because of that concern, the Three Pure Ones had never used the formation since they first appeared.
It would have been one thing if they had simply never used the formation.
They had a Spiritual Treasure but did not know how to use it, and in the end, they had even taken it apart.
Yes, he meant the 24th-Grade Creation Green Lotus.
He did not know whether it was because the Three Pure Ones had never worshipped Pangu after their emergence, because Pangu sensed that they had abandoned him and instead chosen to honor Hongjun and the Heavenly Dao, or for some other reason. In any case, ever since their emergence, the Three Pure Ones had known that the 24th-Grade Creation Green Lotus was an incomparable treasure, yet they had been unable to activate even the tiniest fraction of its power.
That continued until they met Hongjun.
As his disciples, of course they had to ask their teacher whenever they ran into a problem.
Hongjun did not answer them directly at the time. He simply gave them one line: "Red flowers, white roots, green lotus leaves—the Three Pure Ones were one family from the start."
When they returned to Kunlun Mountain and looked at the 24th-Grade Creation Green Lotus again, those words sprang into their minds.
Then they understood what Hongjun meant.
What did it mean that the Three Pure Ones had been one family from the start?
It meant that they had once been brothers, but in their hearts, they had never truly regarded one another as brothers.
Without their hearts in accord, naturally they could not activate a Spiritual Treasure that required all three of them to work together.
In truth, Laozi and Yuanshi had understood Hongjun's meaning the instant he spoke.
But Tongtian had not. What could he do? He was straightforward by nature.
Being straightforward sounded good when you said it meant being open and direct, and acting without beating around the bush. Put less kindly, it meant having no guard against others—especially those close to you.
So Laozi and Yuanshi fed him a string of excuses, and in the end, Tongtian agreed with their suggestion: since they could not activate this Spiritual Treasure together, why not take it apart and divide it into three?
In truth, Laozi and Yuanshi had guessed right. The 24th-Grade Creation Green Lotus really could be taken apart.
That made sense. If the Three Pure Ones needed to work together to activate it, then this Chaos Spiritual Treasure must also have a part each of them could control.
And just like that, a perfectly good Chaos Spiritual Treasure—one whose power even surpassed that of Pangu Hall—was dismantled!
Before, Tongtian had not thought much of it. Since the three of them could not activate the Spiritual Treasure together, then taking it apart was no big deal.
But now, the Ancestral Witches had shown them the truth as plainly as iron: they could have activated the Spiritual Treasure Pangu had left them after all.
As for why the Ancestral Witches could activate theirs while the Three Pure Ones could not?
That was a hard one to guess.
He, Tongtian, might be a little too straightforward, but he was no fool.
Obviously, Laozi and Yuanshi had never truly regarded him as a brother in their hearts.
At that thought, Tongtian could no longer sit still.
"Eldest senior brother, second senior brother, I don't want us to go on like this, putting on a show of harmony while stumbling along in confusion. Starting today, the three of us are splitting up!"
Those words struck Laozi and Yuanshi like a bolt from the blue.
"Tongtian, what exactly do you mean? Are you showing disrespect to eldest senior brother, or are you dissatisfied with me, your second senior brother?"
Yuanshi sprang to his feet in fury and pointed at Tongtian as he shouted.
But this time, Tongtian, who usually loved to challenge Yuanshi, did not fight back. Sadness filled his eyes, yet his expression was utterly resolute. "Think whatever you want. I've made up my mind."
"You—I'll knock some sense into you!"
In a fit of rage, Yuanshi even brought out the Pangu Banner Hongjun had bestowed upon him not long before.
That was enough to anger Tongtian as well.
"Then come at me! You think I'm afraid of you?"
In a flash of anger, Tongtian brought out the Four Swords of Immortal Execution.
"You want to fight me to the death?!"
At that moment, flames practically shot from Yuanshi's eyes.
He valued rank and order above all else. Tongtian daring to attack him filled him with fury and shock.
"Enough! Are you going to tear Kunlun Mountain apart?"
"What, is the Three Pure Ones making fools of ourselves across the Primordial World not enough already? Put your weapons away!"
As he spoke, Laozi brought out the Taiji Diagram, locking onto Yuanshi's Pangu Banner and Tongtian's Four Swords of Immortal Execution.
As the three experts, each in the late Quasi-Sage Realm, brought out their three supreme treasures, fierce gales swept across Kunlun Mountain, and killing intent filled the air. It was as if heaven and earth themselves were about to turn upside down.
At that moment, countless living beings throughout Kunlun Mountain, including those in West Kunlun where Queen Mother of the West resided, trembled beneath the full force of the three men's confrontation.
Queen Mother of the West, who was also a mighty Quasi-Sage, did not dare say a word.
As if! She was only a mid-stage Quasi-Sage, and all she had was one top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, the Kunlun Mirror. Picking a fight with the Three Pure Ones would be suicide.
Seeing Laozi intervene, Yuanshi and Tongtian managed to suppress some of their anger.
Laozi looked at Tongtian. "You really are leaving?"
"I am."
"Why?"
"Do eldest senior brother and second senior brother really not understand?"
"Ah..." Laozi let out a long sigh. "If you want to leave, who could stop you?"
"Perhaps the time has truly come for the Three Pure Ones to split up."
"Leaving may be for the best. Go on, then. Go in peace, go in peace."
Before you continue