The Rogue Pixiu, Hongjun's Shock

Tianlu sneered inwardly upon hearing these words.

Hand over the Creation Green Lotus?

Did he really think he could make a Pixiu spit out a treasure once it had entered its belly?

Keep dreaming!

Relying on his status as a favored child of the Great Dao, the unbridled nature deep within Tianlu's bones erupted instantly.

Far from retreating, he retorted with righteous indignation.

"The Immortal Ancestor is mistaken! If this Creation Green Lotus truly has a destined owner, then that destiny must be me, Tianlu!"

"I have already taken this opportunity into my hands and even refined all Thirty-Six Innate Restrictions. If this opportunity doesn't belong to me, then to whom?"

Tianlu grew more spirited as he spoke, his chin held high, his face full of arrogance.

"Furthermore, in the Primordial World, opportunities have always belonged to those with the fortune to claim them and the ability to keep them!"

"I, Tianlu, am the very first Pixiu in heaven and earth—an auspicious beast recognized by the world, born with the fortune to attract wealth and treasures!"

"Wherever I walk becomes a blessed land, and whatever I set my eyes upon becomes my good fortune!"

"Those so-called destined individuals who cannot hold onto their own opportunities simply lack the necessary fortune!"

"Being robbed of an opportunity by an auspicious beast like me is merely a disguised way of shielding them from disaster; it is their honor!"

"They should be thanking me for bestowing such immense fortune upon them!"

Tianlu rambled on with his twisted logic, his shameless and self-righteous demeanor pushing the logic of a bandit to its absolute limit.

Hongjun stood where he was, listening to Tianlu's bottomless rhetoric and watching that face of unparalleled shamelessness, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

He had lived for countless epochs and had seen the arrogant and the overbearing, but this was truly his first time encountering someone so brazenly shameless yet able to speak with such refined detachment.

Hongjun knew that reasoning with such a rogue was futile; this little Pixiu was clearly determined not to hand over the Creation Green Lotus.

Since words were useless, he had no choice but to use force to suppress him.

A cold, sharp glint flashed in Hongjun's eyes, but the moment he prepared to strike, an intense sense of life-and-death crisis suddenly surged from the depths of his heart.

In the dark, a terrifying backlash hung over his head.

It felt as if the moment he dared to harbor even a shred of killing intent toward this Pixiu, an unspeakable catastrophe would descend—one that even the Heavenly Dao could not shield him from.

Hongjun was horrified and hurriedly dispersed his gathered magic power.

He was filled with confusion: what was going on?

How could he, a dignified Golden Immortal of the Origin at the peak of his cultivation, feel such fear toward a mid-stage Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal beast?

Without changing his expression, he pinched a spell in his sleeves, secretly activating the fragments of the Jade Plate of Creation.

Mysterious laws of the Heavenly Dao swirled at his fingertips as countless threads of karma intertwined within his deductions.

Could this Pixiu be the "One that Escaped"?

Was he an anomaly that existed beyond the Heavenly Dao?

"That's not right..."

Hongjun frowned, calculating in his heart.

"If he were the One that Escaped, the heavenly secrets should be a chaotic void, impossible to deduce."

"Yet, I can clearly calculate the origin and background of this little Pixiu; he is simply the first Pixiu of heaven and earth, not some indescribable existence."

Just as Hongjun was utterly baffled, the light of the Jade Plate of Creation's deduction suddenly touched a trace of origin deep within Tianlu's soul.

In an instant, an aura of supreme, vast, and ancient power surged along the threads of karma, striking directly at Hongjun's spirit.

Wait, what is this aura?!

Hongjun's pupils contracted sharply, and his heart churned with massive waves.

He sensed a trace of the Great Dao emanating from this smug little Pixiu.

As a reincarnation of an Immortal Dao Demon God who had once gestured within the chaos and mastered the laws of the Immortal Dao, Hongjun was all too familiar with this aura.

He recalled the past: when the Great God Pangu held the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe to shatter the chaos and slay the three thousand Demon Gods, was it not this very same, pure aura of the Great Dao that radiated from him?!

Hongjun gasped, a conclusion forming in his mind that made his scalp tingle.

"This Pixiu... is he actually the second-generation Child of the Great Dao, a true favorite of the Great Dao?!"

Hongjun's heart was in turmoil, unable to calm down for a long time.

The Great Dao retreats, and the Heavenly Dao stands—this was the iron law of the Primordial World.

Yet, who could have imagined that before the Great Dao retreated into the depths of chaos, it had left behind such an heaven-defying anomaly.

No wonder the Heavenly Dao had summoned the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning but hesitated to strike; no wonder he, a dignified Golden Immortal of the Origin at the peak, wielding fragments of the Jade Plate of Creation, had felt a fatal crisis the moment he harbored killing intent.

The other party's background was simply not within the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Dao; he was directly protected by the Great Dao itself.

Tianlu watched Hongjun stare blankly, feeling a bit impatient.

He didn't have the time to stand here and stare down with Hongjun.

The Primordial World was vast and boundless, filled everywhere with ownerless opportunities and spiritual roots waiting for a beast of good fortune like him to grace them with his presence and bestow blessings. How could he waste his time here?

"Immortal Ancestor, if you have nothing else to say, this beast of good fortune is leaving."

"I still have to go deliver blessings to all living things in the Primordial World; I don't have time to stare blankly at you here."

Tianlu curled his lip, kicked off with his four paws, and steered the mid-grade innate spiritual treasure cloud beneath his feet, intending to bypass Hongjun and continue flying toward Mount Buzhou.

"Little friend, wait!"

Seeing that Tianlu was about to leave, Hongjun instantly snapped out of his shock, his figure turning into a streak of light as he blocked Tianlu's path once more.

Since brute force would not work and the rules of the Heavenly Dao could not constrain this Pixiu, he would have to appeal to reason and entice him with benefits.

"Little friend, that Twenty-Four Petal Creation Green Lotus is a fixed constant in the operation of the Heavenly Dao, involving immense karma for the future of the Primordial World."

"For you to claim it as your own and forcibly alter the destiny of Heaven is truly inappropriate."

"With such vast karmic retribution, even with your deep blessings, you will inevitably face setbacks in the future."

"How about this? I shall exchange a supreme spiritual treasure with you for that Creation Green Lotus, how does that sound?"

Hongjun persuaded him with earnest words.

Upon hearing the word "exchange," Tianlu was instantly amused. He looked Hongjun up and down, his eyes filled with skepticism.

"Exchange? What could you possibly use to exchange?"

"That is the Twenty-Four Petal Creation Green Lotus, a supreme treasure containing the complete Law of Creation!"

"What kind of treasure could you possibly have on you that compares to my Creation Green Lotus?"

"Even if you did have a treasure of that level, would you really be willing to part with it?"

Faced with Tianlu's rapid-fire questioning and disdainful gaze, Hongjun took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to slap the brat to death.

He waved his wide sleeve, and suddenly, the void was filled with the sounds of chanting and a fragrant scent.

A lotus flower radiating endless, brilliant golden light slowly drifted out from his sleeve, hovering in mid-air.

This lotus had twelve petals and appeared as if cast from solid gold, with profound innate Dao patterns inscribed upon every petal.

The moment it appeared, a vast golden light of merit soared into the sky, dyeing the firmament for tens of thousands of miles a sacred gold.

Visions of heavenly flowers falling and golden lotuses springing from the ground faintly accompanied it, and a terrifying aura of immunity to all magic and the power to suppress the heavens began to permeate the air.