The Secret of the System

Hongjun brought Taotie back to Yujing Mountain. Taotie slumped on the ground, his eyes unfocused, having completely abandoned all struggle.

Hongjun remained silent for a moment before reaching out to press his hand onto the crown of Taotie's head.

Taotie's entire body shuddered; he wanted to resist, but found that his body refused to obey his commands. He only felt an irresistible force surging into his sea of consciousness, beginning to leaf through his memories.

Scene after scene flashed before Hongjun's eyes. He saw Taotie's life before his arrival and gained information regarding the Primordial World.

The Dao-Demon struggle, where he found the Five Elements and Daoist Yin Yang joining forces on an unnamed island to kill Luo Hou.

The sermons at Purple Heaven Palace, where he, Hongjun, sat high upon the cloud platform, conferring saintly positions and governing the Primordial World.

The Witch-Demon Calamity, the Investiture of the Gods Calamity, the Journey to the West Calamity—one calamity after another, all orchestrated by his own hand.

He saw himself incarnating into the Heavenly Dao, becoming devoid of emotion and desire from that point on, yet no longer being himself.

Hongjun withdrew his hand and remained silent for a long time.

"Interesting... the plans I had to unite with others to deal with Luo Hou all match up," he said slowly, his voice carrying a complex tone.

"Is this the original future of the Primordial World?"

He looked down at his own palms, then at the slumped Taotie, his gaze profound.

"I just didn't expect it to be the Five Elements and Yin Yang."

"As for me becoming the Dao Ancestor later, conferring the Six Sages, and governing the Primordial World... that sounds quite good. Pity, that was the original future."

A smile curled the corners of his lips:

"Now, I belong under the seat of Dao Venerable Shichen. Even if the Fate Demon God were to arrive in person, he would not dare to easily disturb my thread of fate."

Fate is something that can determine whether you can pick up money when you go out today and how much you can pick up, while Karma determines the reason why you picked up that money within the scope of fate.

But now, his thread of fate had been covered by Shichen's vast River of Time. Let alone the Fate Demon God, even if the Great Dao were to take action personally, it would have to ask Shichen for permission before it could alter his fate.

Hongjun's gaze fell upon Taotie's dantian:

"As for that thing inside you..."

"It involves too much. It is better to leave it for Dao Venerable Shichen to handle."

He raised his hand and waved, a beam of immortal light wrapping around Taotie. Utilizing the spatial laws of the Great Dao within the Pseudo-Creation Jade Disk, he hauled Taotie away toward the Hundun.

Meanwhile, within the Time Domain, Shichen was looking at Pangu before him with a helpless expression.

"Why have you become like that monkey? You look for a fight with me at every turn." Shichen rubbed his temples, his tone filled with resignation.

Pangu sat opposite him, speaking with righteous indignation:

"Who else in the entire Hundun can trade blows with me? If I don't look for you, who do I look for?"

"Last time, that fellow Fate couldn't even take three of my axe strikes; it wasn't satisfying at all. Not to mention Yang Mei—the moment he heard I wanted to fight him, he banished himself into the boundless space to hide."

Shichen: "..."

He remained silent for a long time before squeezing a few words through his teeth: "So, because you can't find anyone to fight, you come to torment me?"

"What else?" Pangu said as if it were a matter of course.

Shichen took a deep breath, telling himself not to lower himself to the level of this brute.

Just then, Hongjun's voice came from outside the Time Domain:

"Dao Venerable Shichen, Hongjun requests an audience."

Shichen seemed to have found a savior; he hurriedly raised his hand to open a portal in the Time Domain's grand formation.

Hongjun walked in, dragging Taotie. Seeing the two, he bowed in greeting:

"Dao Venerable Shichen, Dao Venerable Pangu."

Pangu waved his hand in return. His gaze fell upon Taotie, and he examined him with curiosity:

"Is this the anomaly from outside the realm?"

"Indeed." Hongjun nodded, then briefly recounted Taotie's situation.

Taotie, whose eyes had already become numb, widened them in shock the moment he heard the names Shichen and Pangu.

He raised his head to look at the two figures before him.

Shichen? Pangu?

Wasn't Shichen supposed to have died when the world was created? Wasn't Pangu supposed to have transformed into all things after creating the world? How could the two of them be alive? And standing together?!

Taotie felt his worldview collapsing. He had read so many Primordial World novels before he transmigrated, but everything was completely different!

Shichen ignored Taotie's devastated expression, walked up to him, looked down, and pointed a finger.

A green light flashed, and a ball of light flew out from Taotie's dantian. The ball was completely transparent, and countless streams of data seemed to be flickering within it.

Shichen reached out to grab the ball of light and examined it for a moment:

"Is this a system?"

As soon as his voice fell, the ball of light trembled violently. Immediately after, a voice with a distinctly sycophantic tone emerged from it:

"I... I greet Dao Venerable Shichen!"

Shichen raised an eyebrow: "Hmm? Dao Venerable? You know me?"

"I know! I know!" The system's voice was hurried and fawning, as if it feared speaking too slowly.

"The moment I saw you, I understood. You are the sole master who controls the River of Time of the main world. All the heavens and myriad realms look up to your magnificent figure. Every moment, they chant your honorable title, just for you to cast that single glance..."

It spoke incessantly, its tone incomparably pious.

Hongjun and Pangu had strange expressions upon hearing these words.

Pangu scratched his head and leaned toward Shichen's ear, whispering: "Shichen, is this guy afraid you'll crush him, so he's buttering you up?"

Shichen couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this blockhead, his gaze remaining on the system:

"Interesting. The heavens and myriad realms... give me a reason to keep you."

The system hurriedly said: "Great..."

"No nonsense, speak directly." Shichen interrupted.

The system choked for a moment, then hurriedly said: "I have coordinate anchors for several other worlds! Moreover, I can obtain origin energy by having my host complete tasks and feed it back into the Hundun world!"

Having said that, fearing Shichen wouldn't believe him, he hurriedly transmitted the coordinates of several worlds.

After Shichen sensed them, a smile curled the corners of his lips.

He had promised the Great Dao earlier that he would find new sources of origin energy for the Hundun world, but he had had no leads. He hadn't expected one to be delivered to his doorstep.

"Very good. Are there many systems like you?"

The system hesitated, but seeing Pangu beside him baring his teeth in a grin, it hurriedly spoke:

"Many. We were all created by the God of Systems to find hosts in different worlds and then plunder the origin energy of those worlds to feed it back to it."

He glanced at Taotie on the ground and said to Hongjun:

"Hongjun, create a space and put it inside. Let this system issue tasks there specifically to feed origin energy back to the Hundun."

Hongjun's eyes lit up, and he immediately bowed: "Hongjun understands."

He picked up Taotie and turned to leave the Time Domain.

Pangu watched Hongjun's departing back and rubbed his hands together:

"Shichen, do we have something to do now?"

Shichen nodded, his gaze looking toward the depths of the Hundun:

"The Hall of Gods has just been repaired. Let us summon the three thousand Demon Gods and discuss matters."