Hongjun's Mentality Collapsed, This Might All Be Pangu's Chess Game

"No, this is bad. This is enough Great Dao Merit to instantly elevate thirty beings with zero cultivation to the Chaos Realm. Could it be that from this moment on, the Twelve Ancestral Witches will achieve the Chaos Realm?"

At this moment, Hongjun truly felt as if he were falling apart.

Twelve powerhouses at the Chaos Realm, and specifically ones like the Twelve Ancestral Witches whose combat prowess was blatantly terrifying—just thinking about it made Hongjun's heart, liver, and entire body twitch uncontrollably.

Not to mention that the Ancestral Witches still possessed the heaven-defying Twelve Capital Divine Gods and Demons Formation.

One had to remember that back when the Twelve Ancestral Witches were merely Golden Immortals of the Origin, they had relied on this Twelve Capital Divine Gods and Demons Formation to manifest the True Form of Pangu, which possessed the strength of a half-step Chaos Realm at the third heaven.

What would happen if the cultivation of all twelve Ancestral Witches broke through to the Chaos Realm?

Bang!

At this point, Hongjun completely abandoned his image as the Dao Ancestor. He collapsed heavily onto the golden bricks of the Purple Heaven Palace.

"To hell with the Dao! I can't merge with it at all! Just wait for death!"

There was no helping it; Hongjun hadn't even merged with the Dao yet. Even with the combined support of the Jade Plate of Creation and the Primordial World's Heavenly Dao, and even if he pushed himself to the limit, he could only exert the strength of a fifth-heaven Chaos Realm powerhouse at most.

Once the Ancestral Witches manifested the True Form of Pangu with Chaos Realm cultivation, how powerful would that True Form of Pangu be?

Eighth heaven? Ninth heaven? Perhaps even a half-step Heavenly Dao Realm.

If it truly reached the half-step Heavenly Dao Realm, it could trade blows even if the Heavenly Dao itself descended. What was he, Hongjun, in comparison?

When the gap in strength reached such an extreme, there was simply no way to play the game.

However, in the next second, Hongjun stood up abruptly.

"No, something is wrong! This merit seems to be strengthening the foundations of the Ancestral Witches, not boosting their cultivation."

"It can continue. This game of chess can still be played!"

Hongjun stood up suddenly, his previously desperate mood slowly becoming fervent once more.

But suddenly, Hongjun's expression shifted drastically.

A smile appeared on his face—one filled with reverence, extreme resentment, unwillingness, and even terror, yet tinged with self-mockery.

"Pangu, oh Pangu, you are truly worthy of being the man who stood at the very pinnacle of the three thousand Chaos Demon Gods. I, Hongjun, am indeed not even worth a single strand of your hair."

It was only because, at this moment, Hongjun clearly understood many things.

This Great Dao Merit was never intended to boost the cultivation of the Ancestral Witches from the very beginning.

Although Great Dao Merit was a supreme spiritual treasure of the Chaos world and would be of great assistance even to an existence like Pangu, who was at the half-step Great Dao Realm, using Great Dao Merit to force an increase in cultivation had always been a waste of heavenly treasures and a method that encouraged growth by pulling on the sprouts.

On the path of cultivation, the further one progressed, the less one could tolerate even a hint of vanity or flaw.

It was just like constructing a building that reached infinitely into the sky.

If it were just a hole in a thirty-story building, the consequences might only result in a slight tilt.

But what if the building's height reached three hundred, three thousand, or even thirty thousand stories?

The higher the building, the more even the slightest instability at the foundation could lead to catastrophic collapse.

Cultivation was the same; only the cultivation one attained step by step through one's own efforts truly belonged to oneself.

Power gained through external forces was ultimately unstable.

This instability would manifest at the Chaos Realm and would absolutely become a stumbling block for any Chaos Realm powerhouse attempting further breakthroughs, or even reaching the Chaos Realm in the later stages.

In fact, in the myths of the Primordial World, the Three Pure Ones, the Two Sages of the West, Nuwa, and even Houtu herself had all, to varying degrees, felt the drawbacks brought about by merit.

Because they had achieved sainthood suddenly through merit, it was inevitable that their Hunyuan Dao Fruit would be incomplete.

This incompleteness was the root cause of why the Six Sages of the Heavenly Dao had essentially made no major breakthroughs in their cultivation after becoming saints.

The reason Hongjun's mood was so complex was that he had vaguely sensed that Pangu might have known of his existence all along.

Pangu might have even been aware that he was plotting against the Ancestral Witches and the Three Pure Ones.

Yet, Pangu simply never intervened.

"He was using me as a whetstone for the Ancestral Witches and the Three Pure Ones."

Hongjun smiled bitterly.

He even had a thought that made him shudder.

"They say Pangu was a powerhouse at the half-step Great Dao Realm, but was he really only at the half-step Great Dao Realm? Even if he was, creating a top-tier, infinite world like the Primordial World shouldn't have been enough to cause a half-step Great Dao powerhouse to fall.

If nothing else, it isn't difficult for me, Hongjun, to create a Great Thousand World now, and I certainly wouldn't die from it!

So, is it possible that the Primordial World is actually just a stage for Pangu to temper the Ancestral Witches and the Three Pure Ones, and I, Hongjun, have been nothing more than a whetstone for their growth from the very beginning?

Even if I, the whetstone, grind the blade until it breaks, it doesn't matter; to Pangu, it would simply be a matter of starting a new game."

Thinking of this, how could Hongjun not be terrified? His mentality had collapsed.

If everything about him had been arranged long ago, then what was the point of all his efforts and schemes?

"No, that won't do. I have nowhere left to retreat!"

But immediately after, Hongjun reached a sudden realization.

"Even if I know I am nothing but a whetstone, so what!

If I continue to play my role now, it proves that I still have value to be utilized. As long as I have value, it proves that I can continue to survive under Pangu.

If I no longer have any value, that will likely be the moment of my true demise!

No, I wouldn't even die; Pangu would simply need to restart the game.

Hahaha... Pangu, oh Pangu, you are ruthless enough!"

At this moment, Hongjun was both weeping and laughing. With his hair disheveled and his face streaming with tears and snot, he no longer possessed a shred of the Dao Ancestor's ethereal grace. If any living beings from the outside world were to see him, they would likely think of him as nothing more than a decrepit beggar.

"Fine, if you, Pangu, want to put on a show, then I shall play my part well and perform the true demeanor of a Dao Ancestor!"

Hongjun was, after all, Hongjun. Even at this stage, he never once considered giving up.

Of course, Hongjun was mostly harboring a sense of wishful thinking; perhaps all of this was merely his own persecution complex.

"No, I cannot scare myself. Pangu must truly be dead, and I, Hongjun, am the one who will be the true master of the Primordial World in the future!"

After forcefully suppressing the wild thoughts in his mind, Hongjun began to seriously consider his next move.

Meanwhile, a very serious problem had arisen on the side of the Ancestral Witches: Zhu Jiuyin discovered that the distribution of the Great Dao Merit this time was not equal.

The Great Dao Merit, which should have been divided equally among the twelve, had unexpectedly granted him thirty percent on its own.

In other words, the Great Dao Merit he received alone was almost equivalent to the sum of the Great Dao Merit of five other Ancestral Witches combined.

"This, this isn't right. Why did I receive so much Great Dao Merit!"