Zhun Ti's face stiffened.
There was no helping it. Zhun Ti was not yet the future Sage Zhun Ti, who would hone shamelessness to perfection, so he still cared about his dignity to some extent.
Of course, it was also possible that he wasn't strong enough yet. There were still plenty of mighty figures who could beat him up, so he didn't dare go too far.
That was why, at the Monster Race's Dao Discussion Assembly, Zhun Ti had followed the principle that not taking advantage meant losing out. He brought along all the disciples under him and Jie Yin, whether they were direct disciples or outer disciples, and even the servants who swept the gates of Mount Sumeru.
In short, he'd come to eat his fill!
But since he wasn't completely shameless yet, he'd also tried to curry favor with Di Jun and Tai Yi by saying plenty of nasty things about the Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race.
No, among all the mighty figures who attended the Dao Discussion Assembly, Zhun Ti had been the one who cursed the loudest and spoke the most viciously.
The four most vicious words were the ones that had ultimately branded the Witch Race with its label: "source of calamity."
In other words, the Witch Race had earned its reputation as the source of calamity from Zhun Ti's own mouth.
Thinking of this, how could Zhun Ti dare suggest going to beg the Ancestral Witches?
He was absolutely certain that if he dared set foot anywhere near the Ancestral Land of the Witch Race, the Twelve Ancestral Witches would make sure he vanished from the Primordial World forever.
Forget claims that he was a Heaven-Appointed Sage or anything of the sort. Just those four words, "source of calamity," had already made his relationship with the Ancestral Witches and the Witch Race a fight to the death.
By the same logic, if someone said that he and Jie Yin were shameless enough to scrape the sky three feet higher, he and Jie Yin would wipe out that person's entire family too!
In the Primordial World, wasn't a good reputation all you had to rely on?
"If this won't work and that won't work, then what are we supposed to do? We can't just watch the Western World become a barren, lifeless wasteland, can we?"
Zhun Ti was so distressed he could have slapped himself twice. That's what you get for running your mouth!
Jie Yin sighed softly. "There's no other way. We can only go to our master now.
"Our master is the Dao Ancestor, and in the future, he will even become the Spokesperson of the Heavenly Dao. Surely he won't just stand by and watch the Western World become a barren, lifeless wasteland."
"Alas... I suppose that's all we can do!"
The Two Sages of the West were in a tight spot, but the Monster Race was in high spirits.
The reason was simple: they were certain the Witch Race truly had no intention of leaving the Ancestral Land. They had really decided to lie flat.
Mm...
The phrase "lie flat" had come from within the Witch Race. The one who'd said it seemed to be the Witch Race's real decision-maker now: Zhu Jiuyin.
Of course, whether Zhu Jiuyin had deliberately let this information out was a matter of perspective.
Regardless, to the Monster Race, the Witch Race that had repeatedly opposed them had all returned to the Ancestral Land. This was the best news imaginable.
At first, though, a good number of the Monster Race didn't quite believe it.
After all, who knew if the Witch Race was trying to lure them out? What if it was a trap?
So in the beginning, the Monster Race didn't dare make any major moves.
But things were different now.
The turning point came when they saw the Ancestral Witches gather the True Form of Pangu and create a Great Thousand World.
And that wasn't all. After the Ancestral Witches created the Great Thousand World, the hundreds of millions of members of the Witch Race outside their Ancestral Land—except for a small number who stayed in Pangu Hall—moved to the newly created world.
Together, these two actions sent a message that couldn't have been clearer.
The Witch Race was telling the world plainly that they no longer wanted to take part in the troubles of the Primordial World. They were going to shut their doors and live their own lives.
Under these circumstances, the Monster Race saw its contest for supremacy with the Witch Race end in a victory by default.
As a rule, when two sides fought for supremacy, the winner would usually wipe out the loser.
But this time, the situation was far too unusual.
Even if the Monster Race had a hundred times the nerve, they wouldn't dare provoke the Witch Race again.
They had witnessed with their own eyes how the Twelve Ancestral Witches had gathered the True Form of Pangu and created a Great Thousand World.
That was power on the level of a Sage.
Most importantly, the Great Dao had personally arrived afterward, bestowed Great Dao Merit, and personally gifted a Chaos Spiritual Treasure to Zhu Jiuyin, the Witch Race's current decision-maker.
In short, the Witch Race had grown so powerful that it was now far beyond the limits of what any member of the Monster Race could oppose—not even Di Jun and Tai Yi.
If you knew you couldn't win and still went out of your way to provoke your opponent, what else could you call that but stupidity?
Even someone as arrogant as Tai Yi wouldn't do something like that.
So from top to bottom, the Monster Race tacitly chose to let the matter of wiping out the Witch Race pass without a word.
With their greatest rival out of the picture and the Monster Race now unrivaled, naturally they began expanding with all their might.
Then the second victim of the Witch Race's decision to lie flat appeared.
In truth, the Monster Race itself was a bloodthirsty, brutal race.
The Witch Race seemed to devour flesh and feed on living creatures, but in the beginning, the creatures they ate were all monster beasts.
In the Primordial World, monster beasts, the Monster Race, and living beings were entirely different concepts.
The difference between monster beasts and the Monster Race was that monster beasts lacked intelligence, while the Monster Race possessed it.
The difference between the Monster Race and other living beings was that "Monster Race" was a term invented by Di Jun and Tai Yi.
Of course, Di Jun and Tai Yi had been rather arrogant to use the name "Monster Race" for the people they ruled.
In theory, the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Tribes could all count as part of the Monster Race. The future Human Race could count too, and even all the Innate Beings and Innate Demon Gods could theoretically be called members of the Monster Race.
Dragon monsters, Phoenix monsters, Qilin monsters—and even human monsters.
Of course, those "human monsters" had nothing to do with what the term meant in later generations.
If you wanted to take it a step further, Dao Ancestor Hongjun could also be called a monster. After all, his true form was a Chaos Earthworm. How could he not qualify?
Because monster beasts lacked intelligence while the Monster Race possessed it, their standing under the Heavenly Dao was entirely different.
In short, under the Heavenly Dao, the Monster Race had "human" rights, while monster beasts did not.
In theory, even if the Witch Race slaughtered every monster beast in the Primordial World, it wouldn't cost them a shred of merit.
After all, anything that hadn't developed intelligence didn't even qualify as a "person" under the Heavenly Dao.
It was just like how humans in later generations could eat cattle and sheep without losing even a bit of merit.
But in the eyes of the Monster Race, the Witch Race's actions were practically digging up the roots of the Monster Race.
That was because monster beasts could essentially be considered the Monster Race's reserve force. If fate smiled on one, even a pig could develop intelligence and become a pig monster.
That was the root cause of the conflict between the Witch Race and the Monster Race.
But now, the external conflict had disappeared, and all the internal tensions that had been suppressed by the Witch Race—the Monster Race's greatest rival—began to erupt all at once.
So often, the moment of victory was also the beginning of defeat!
Before you continue