Supreme Pure held two fingers together like a sword. Spiritual energy gathered at his fingertips like water pouring through a funnel, slowly condensing into a speck of pure golden light. It seemed to contain the first ray of light from the birth of the Primordial World.
The speck turned slowly. Tiny as it looked, it radiated the Dao's essence of perfection, immortality, and eternal freedom. This was the core truth of the Golden Core Dao made manifest!
Yellow Dragon stared at the immortal radiance of the Golden Core and murmured, "So this is what it means to swallow a Golden Core and take my fate into my own hands, not Heaven's!"
Supreme Pure regarded the Golden Core glowing at his fingertips with a trace of satisfaction. "This is the Golden Core. Cultivating this method leads directly to the immortality of a Golden Immortal, and anyone can practice it."
Supreme Pure's expression was calm. His voice was not loud, yet it reached every ear as clearly as a mountain stream.
He spoke of the mysteries of the human body's innate Dao form, the breathing in and out of spiritual energy, the refinement of essence and qi, the nurturing of the three souls and seven spirits, and the guidance of the Primordial Spirit... Every word held profound truths of heaven and earth, drawing the Great Dao down.
"...Focus your mind on your lower dantian. Imagine a spark of true fire, like the newly risen sun, warm but not scorching..." Supreme Pure's voice carried a strange rhythm.
Drawn in by Supreme Pure's Dao Music, the dozens of humans around the Kindling entered a deep state of cultivation and enlightenment. They absorbed all the spiritual energy nearby in an instant. Seeing this, Yellow Dragon hurriedly used his divine powers to gather energy from ten thousand miles around. It formed a vortex above the tribe and poured into them like a funnel.
That day, Supreme Pure finished his sermon, and the listeners ended their cultivation. All several dozen reached the True Immortal realm. One member of the Innate Human Race even stepped into the Heavenly Immortal realm, yet his foundation was not the least bit unstable.
Supreme Pure looked at the human who had reached the Heavenly Immortal realm and smiled. "Xuandu, are you willing to join my school and become my disciple?"
The sudden joy clearly left the man at a loss. He dropped to his knees in a fluster. "Yes! Your disciple Xuandu is willing!"
Xuandu stayed beside Supreme Pure to cultivate. Suiren and the other two sent the remaining humans to different tribes to teach the others how to cultivate.
In just a few decades, the Golden Core cultivation method quietly spread to every place along the East Sea coast where humans lived.
One day, Xuandu and Yellow Dragon were listening to Supreme Pure's teachings when they felt his aura change abruptly. He seemed to merge with heaven and earth, as though he himself were the Primordial World.
Then Supreme Pure flashed into the air and stood in the void.
"Heavenly Dao above, I, Supreme Pure, establish a sect today!"
"I name it after humanity: the Humanity Sect!"
"I shall pass the Great Dao of the Golden Core to the Human Race and pursue the Dao of teaching and transformation! With the Primordial Treasure, the Supreme Ultimate Diagram, I shall secure its destiny!"
"Let the Humanity Sect be established!"
The final word rang out like the first thunderclap at the creation of heaven and earth!
RUMBLE—!!!
The entire Primordial World shook violently, like a calm sea suddenly rising in towering waves.
Beyond the highest heavens, boundless golden light filled with the very source of the Primordial World boiled and surged, gathering into an immeasurable cloud of merit that blazed with golden radiance!
The golden cloud churned, radiating a sacred, gentle, immortal presence that made the souls of all living beings tremble even as they yearned for it!
Suddenly—
Without warning, boundless golden light burst from the nine heavens, a hundred, a thousand times brighter than the sun hanging high above!
Pure and vast, it flew toward Supreme Pure with the power to soothe all things and cleanse the soul!
The entire Human Race—no, the whole East Sea coast—was bathed in that sacred light of merit!
The cloud of merit poured down like a river from heaven, engulfing Supreme Pure completely!
At the same time, an even brighter, vaster burst of merit erupted from the Grand Pure Dao Venerable himself and merged with the merit descending from the nine heavens.
Within the golden light, a streak of Violet Qi appeared, swift as a dragon. It carried the aura of the primordial cosmos at its first division and of the Great Dao Source—it was the Primordial Violet Qi, the foundation of Sainthood!
It became a bridge spanning heaven and earth. One end touched Supreme Pure, buried beneath the flood of merit; the other reached into the unknowable, unfathomable core of the Heavenly Dao.
At that moment, the Primordial World shook!
Atop Kunlun Mountain, Yuanshi and Shangqing Tongtian stood on a cloud platform, gazing excitedly at Supreme Pure within the Merit Golden Light. On Western Mount Sumeru, the Daoists Jieyin and Zhunti both raised their heads. The sorrow on their faces deepened as their fingers worked the Prayer Beads and they chanted scriptures without pause.
The boundless Blood Sea churned. Ancestor Minghe looked at Supreme Pure establishing his sect, then at the Rakshasa Race he had created in imitation of Nuwa within the Blood Sea, and let out a bitter sigh.
Beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, inside Nuwa Palace, Sage Nuwa sat upon a cloud couch. A faint smile touched her sacred face as she nodded toward the heart of the golden light.
"I, Supreme Pure, attain the station of Sage today."
In an instant, golden flowers fell from the void, and countless golden lotuses bloomed upon the earth.
Violet Qi stretched across the Primordial World.
A Sage had emerged, and heaven and earth celebrated!
A vast pressure swept out from the Human Race's Suiren Tribe like an invisible tide, engulfing the entire Primordial World in an instant!
Whether they were innate divinities born of heaven and earth, innate beings, or barely conscious spirits of grass and wood, billions of living beings felt a suppression deep in their souls, born of the most fundamental difference in their levels of existence!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
From the easternmost reaches of the Primordial World to the far west, from the nine heavens to the depths below, billions of beings bowed toward the heart of the golden light. Only a handful could remain standing under that pressure, and even they lowered their heads. The rest fell prostrate and cried out, regardless of race or cultivation!
"Congratulations to the Grand Pure Dao Venerable on attaining the station of Sage!"
Their voices rolled across the Primordial World like a tangible shockwave, proclaiming the birth of another Sage.
When Nuwa created humans, Yellow Dragon had provided her with Creation Origin, increasing the Human Race's potential. Afterward, he had watched over the newborn race for three thousand years, helping them through a difficult age.
When the Human Race built the Nuwa Sacred Temple, they carved Yellow Dragon's true form upon it, revered him as their Totem, and granted him five percent of their destiny.
Now that Supreme Pure had established the Humanity Sect and become a Sage, Yellow Dragon could clearly feel thirty percent of the Human Race's destiny split away and flow to the Supreme Pure Saint.
He cast a cautious glance at the Nuwa Sacred Temple, and an uneasy thought rose in his mind. Would Empress Nuwa come looking for the Supreme Pure Saint and pick a fight after he took half of her share of destiny?
And I was the one who led him here. With a body this small, I'm probably in for a beating.
Supreme Pure looked at Yellow Dragon's worried face and saw through his thoughts at once. He smiled faintly. "Don't worry. Junior Sister Nuwa is broad-minded. If she had minded, she would never have let me enter the Human Race's territory in the first place."
Hearing the Supreme Pure Saint's words, Yellow Dragon could only give a rueful smile. "Your disciple worried for nothing. I've made a fool of myself before you, Sage."
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