How could Hongjun have known that the reason Nuwa, Fuxi, and Yang Hui had reached the Purple Heaven Palace so smoothly, without a hitch, was—
entirely because Tianlu had close ties with all three of them?
Nuwa and Fuxi were close friends Tianlu had made while discussing the Dao, while Yang Hui had been subdued by Tianlu and had become his subordinate, her life in his hands.
When Tianlu cut down their luck, he had deliberately left the luck of all three untouched.
At that moment, Hongjun's brows were tightly knit. The Fragment of the Jade Plate of Creation turned slightly in his hand, and only after a round of divination did he finally understand what was going on.
To his shock, the luck of every Daluo divine being—including the Three Pure Ones, Di Jun and Tai Yi—had somehow vanished in a bizarre fashion, dispersing into the Primordial World with no trace of where it had gone.
As a result, these divine beings now had severely depleted luck and were even beset by misfortune.
In Chaos, losing the protection of luck was tantamount to becoming an outsider rejected by the laws of Chaos. Only after enduring trials that brought them within a hair's breadth of death might they reach the Purple Heaven Palace.
But when Hongjun looked through the Heavenly Secrets, he saw the Chaos calamities wrapped around the Three Pure Ones and the others—and there were far too many of them. They were far too terrifying!
These weren't trials. They were trying to kill them!
Hongjun knew full well that if these core divine beings didn't come to hear his teachings, how could he spread the Mystic Immortal Dao throughout the Primordial World?
And how could he, the Heavenly Dao Spokesperson, merge with the Dao?
With no other choice, Hongjun could only intervene in secret himself.
He swept his Whisk, and an invisible force of the Heavenly Dao pierced through the Purple Heaven Palace, descending straight into the region of Chaos where the Three Pure Ones and the others were. In an instant, it destroyed the endless calamities that had been closing in around them.
Hongjun had thought that once he cleared away these obstacles, they would finally be able to reach the Purple Heaven Palace safely.
But as soon as his power of the Heavenly Dao withdrew, the currents of Chaos in that stretch of empty space went berserk again. Even more violent gales, thunder, and fire sprang into being, trapping the Three Pure Ones and the others all over again.
Seeing this, Hongjun was utterly baffled. What in the world was going on?
With no other choice, Hongjun could only intervene in secret once more.
He formed hand seals and forcibly opened a spatial tunnel straight to the Purple Heaven Palace in front of the Three Pure Ones and the others, hoping to use the pull of the spatial turbulence to sweep them directly inside.
Who could have guessed that as soon as the spatial tunnel opened, before the Three Pure Ones and the others could react, the surrounding Chaotic Gales would surge inside like sharks catching the scent of blood?
The Chaotic Gales, powerful enough to tear apart entire worlds, swept through the tunnel and ground it to pieces, scattering fragments of space across the sky.
At the sight of this, Hongjun, who had always carried himself with immortal grace, finally lost his temper.
"What in the world is going on?!"
Hongjun sprang up from his Cloud Bed, his face so dark it looked ready to drip water.
His methods as a sage had suffered one setback after another in Chaos. If word got out, where would that leave his dignity as the Immortal Ancestor?
With no other choice, Hongjun sat cross-legged and fully unleashed his sage's divine sense, joining forces with the Heavenly Dao Will to perform divinations with all his might.
He was going to find out which mighty being had dared to lay out such an astonishing scheme in Chaos, and why all these absurd things were happening.
Then the Fragment of the Jade Plate of Creation above Hongjun's head blazed with brilliant light, mingling with the boundless power of the Heavenly Dao as it slowly conjured a clear image in the empty space.
The image revealed neither a Chaos Demon God hiding from the world nor some peerless formation capable of destroying the heavens and earth.
There was only a golden Pixiu, leisurely standing on a colorful Cloud Treasure and floating quietly in the depths of Chaos.
Yawning as he slowly wandered through Chaos in search of the Purple Heaven Palace, he looked worlds apart from the Three Pure Ones and the others in the distance, who were struggling on the very brink of life and death. The contrast was stark and jarring.
At that moment, as Hongjun looked at the familiar Pixiu in the image, how could he not understand?
This was all Tianlu's doing!
Hongjun sucked in a sharp breath, and a storm surged through his heart.
Though he didn't know what heaven-defying method the other had used to silently cut down the luck of every Daluo divine being, thereby leaving every divine being in the Primordial World stranded in Chaos, unable to advance even an inch—
he thought that even if Great God Pangu, who had once created the world, came back to life, he might not possess such bizarre abilities: manipulating the paths of all living beings with such precision and provoking such precisely targeted outbursts of Chaotic Gales, thunder, and fire.
"This second-generation Child of the Great Dao truly has such terrifying power?!"
Hongjun muttered to himself, a deep wariness and helplessness flashing in his eyes.
He had thought that by concealing the Heavenly Secrets and making Tianlu lose his way in Chaos, he could take the edge off the Pixiu.
Who could have guessed that the other wouldn't play by the rules at all? He had simply flipped the table and drained everyone's luck dry!
If you wouldn't let me have my way, I'd make sure your Purple Heaven Palace sat empty!
Hongjun let out a long sigh and shook his head with a bitter smile.
Enough. Enough.
When it came to matching wits with this shameless, overbearing Pet of the Great Dao, it was always the Heavenly Dao Spokesperson who ended up losing out.
If this standoff continued, not only would the auspicious hour for his lecture pass, but half the divine beings of the Primordial World might truly perish in Chaos.
Then Hongjun swept his sleeve, removing the concealment over Tianlu's location. He also opened a broad, level passage before Tianlu, its path to the Purple Heaven Palace glowing with golden light to welcome him.
Meanwhile—
Tianlu had been wandering through Chaos until he was nearly asleep. Suddenly, he blinked his golden eyes.
He felt the currents of Chaos before him twist, and then a vast, majestic Purple Heaven Palace, filled with boundless Dao resonance, appeared in front of him without warning.
Looking at the palace before him, wreathed in purple energy and radiating the overwhelming might of the Heavenly Dao, Tianlu's golden lips curled into a sly smile.
He murmured leisurely to himself.
"I won, didn't I?!"
Deep inside the Purple Heaven Palace, Hongjun lay high atop his nine-tiered Cloud Bed. Hearing those unhurried words drift in, his face, usually full of immortal grace, instantly turned black as the bottom of a pot.
Yet he was powerless to do anything about it.
The other was a second-generation Child of the Great Dao, blessed with such profound fortune that even the Heavenly Dao found him troublesome. He also wielded the unfathomable Law of Luck.
If he truly angered the Pixiu and the other cut off the luck of every divine being in the Primordial World, his grand plan to hold lectures in the Purple Heaven Palace would likely be stillborn.
Tianlu gave a smug couple of snorts, controlled the Cloud Treasure beneath his feet, and swaggered through the gates of the Purple Heaven Palace.
The moment he crossed the threshold, a thought stirred in Tianlu's mind.
A tiny bit of the vast, ocean-like magic power within him was expended, and an invisible ripple of the Law of Luck spread out from him.
In an instant, the immense luck of the Innate Divine Beings that he had forcibly severed and scattered throughout the Primordial World seemed to receive some supreme command. It crossed endless stretches of time and space and gathered once more.
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