However, Yuan Yan suddenly recalled Hongjun's Three Corpse Severing Technique.
The Three Corpse Severing Technique could sever the three thoughts of good, evil, and obsession, entrust them to Innate Spiritual Treasures, Innate Spiritual Roots, or Primordial Spiritual Objects, and transform them into three independent Dao Bodies.
These three Dao Bodies could cultivate and comprehend the Dao on their own, or accompany one in battle. Moreover, once the Three Corpses achieved unity, one could attain the Hunyuan Great Firmament.
If he could comprehend the mysteries of the Three Corpse Severing Technique, perhaps he could derive a method suited to himself for cultivating independent Dao Bodies. His true body would focus on the Yin-Yang Dao, while the three Dao Bodies would respectively focus on the Reincarnation Dao, World Dao, and Mind Dao, fulfilling his wishes.
As for the claim in many Primordial World novels that Hongjun was the ultimate villain, plotting to use Calamity Cycles to weaken the Primordial World before devouring it to achieve himself—
The Three Corpses Severing Method supposedly had a tremendous flaw: the treasures entrusted with the three corpses had to share the same root and origin before the three corpses could unite, allowing one a chance to attain the Hunyuan Great Firmament. This was supposedly part of Hongjun's scheme against the Innate Divines of the Primordial World.
He was skeptical of that!
It was not because Yuan Yan believed in Hongjun's character or thought he would not be so utterly deranged.
Rather, this Primordial World was unusual. Something was off!
A Great Firmament Golden Immortal gathered past, present, and future into one. So long as even the slightest trace remained in the past, present, or future, they had not truly perished and would one day revive and return.
If even Great Firmament Golden Immortals were like this, then what of Pangu?
The Primordial World itself was the strongest proof of Pangu's existence. Leaving aside whether Pangu had truly fallen, even if he had, he would one day revive and return.
Who was Pangu? A supreme powerhouse at the Half-Step Great Dao level, a peerless madman who had slaughtered three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons alone in pursuit of attaining the Great Dao.
How much fake liquor had Hongjun drunk to dare plot to weaken and devour the Primordial World for his own advancement? Even if he truly wanted to do so, he had to consider whether he could withstand Pangu's Heaven-Opening axe strike.
Furthermore, great cultivators such as Hongjun, Rahu, Yang Mei, Yin-Yang, and Qiankun were not, as many Primordial World novels described, reincarnations of Chaos Gods and Demons.
They might have been connected to Chaos Gods and Demons, perhaps transformed from the remnants of Chaos Gods and Demons combined with different origins of the Primordial World, but they absolutely could not be reincarnations of Chaos Gods and Demons.
Because once a Great Firmament Golden Immortal attained the Dao, that attainment was eternal. This was even more so for those above the Great Firmament.
If they had been reincarnations of Chaos Gods and Demons, they could have leapt through several realms in a short time. They would never have been stuck at Primordial Golden Immortal Fullness. They would have long since attained the Hunyuan Great Firmament, perhaps even broken through to greater realms.
As for the supposed tremendous flaw in the Three Corpses Severing Method—that the treasures entrusted with the three corpses needed to share the same root and origin before they could unite and break through to the Hunyuan Great Firmament—
After making a brief deduction, he found that such flaws simply did not exist.
The Great Dao encompassed all and tolerated all. Though he had never cultivated the Three Corpses Severing Method, he had some conjectures regarding the final step of Three Corpses Unity.
One should use one's own Dao to integrate the Dao contained and carried by the three corpses. If one could thoroughly comprehend and integrate them, allowing one's own Great Dao to transform and ascend, the three corpses would naturally unite. If one could not, then there was nothing to say. If the person was inadequate, they should not blame the road for being uneven.
Therefore, rather than saying that the Three Corpses Severing Method required Innate Spiritual Treasures of the same root and origin, it was better to say that it required Innate Spiritual Treasures compatible with one's own Dao and complementary to it.
Otherwise, if the Daos clashed, integrating the Dao carried by the three corpses through one's own Dao would be extraordinarily difficult.
There were also those who cited the fact that after the Calamity of Witches and Demons, aside from the Heavenly Dao Six Saints and Houtu attaining the Dao through Merit, no one had used the Three Corpse Severing Technique to attain the Hunyuan Great Firmament, claiming this proved there was a problem with the method.
But when one thought about it carefully, there was nothing wrong with that either!
Which Innate Divine in the Primordial World dared claim that their foundation and comprehension surpassed Hongjun, Rahu, or Yang Mei? Not even the Three Pure Ones would dare say so; at most, they were their equals.
Hongjun possessed the Dao-comprehending supreme treasure, the Jade Disc of Creation; the Heaven-Opening Supreme Treasure, the Pangu Banner; and a vast number of Innate Spiritual Treasures. His Fortune and blessings were immensely profound.
Yet even so, he first slew Beast Sovereign Shen Ni as one of the main forces during the Calamity of Ferocious Beasts, gaining Great Merit and Virtue and Great Fortune. Later, he won the Dao-Devil War during the Dragon-Han Calamity and gained Immeasurable Fortune. Only after experiencing two Calamity Cycles did he attain the Dao and become a Saint. (He should have attained the Hunyuan Great Firmament Golden Immortal before becoming a Saint, though it was also possible that the destruction of the Western Earth Veins prevented him from attaining the Hunyuan Great Firmament.)
And what about the great cultivators of the Primordial World who had not attained the Dao and become Saints?
Aside from the Purple Firmament Palace's teachings clearing away most of the obstacles on their Dao paths and allowing them to advance by leaps and bounds in a short time, in what aspect could any of them compare to Hongjun?
Whether the Purple Firmament Palace's teachings could offset Hongjun's advantage of possessing the Jade Disc of Creation was still uncertain. They had neither the Heavenly Dao nor the Earthly Dao granting them advantages, nor did they possess Great Merit and Virtue or Great Fortune. On what basis could they attain the Dao within one or two Calamity Cycles?
Moreover, after the Calamity of Witches and Demons, and then after the Investiture of the Gods, the Primordial World grew increasingly desolate and its environment increasingly harsh. Without Merit or Fortune to assist them, attaining the Hunyuan Great Firmament Golden Immortal naturally became even more difficult.
It was precisely because of this that he did not take such claims seriously. He did not suspect that all of it was Hongjun's conspiracy and calculation, which was why he intended to compete for a Heavenly Dao Saint Position.
As for why the Primordial World had grown increasingly weakened after Hongjun's Dao Unification, and whether some conspiracy lay behind it, he did not know either.
He could only proceed step by step, neither blindly accepting nor blindly rejecting anything, and not view Hongjun through tinted glasses.
Of course, one should not harbor the intent to harm others, but one must guard against the intent of others to harm oneself! Naturally, he would not place unreserved trust in Hongjun simply because he felt it was not Hongjun's conspiracy.
What if Hongjun had truly lost his mind?
After pondering for a while, Yuan Yan immersed all his thoughts into deduction, deducing the Three Corpse Severing Technique and a method suited to him for cultivating independent Dao Bodies.
At his level of cultivation, the hardest part of deducing and creating a supreme secret technique was no longer how to create it, but the underlying ideas and direction.
Yuan Yan had read many Primordial World novels, so he naturally possessed a deep understanding of the ideas and direction behind the Three Corpse Severing Technique.
Although much of it was incorrect, some of it was still of immense help to him.
Very quickly, in less than ten Epochs, Yuan Yan deduced the Simplified Three Corpse Severing Technique. From this, he also formed a new conjecture about Hongjun's Three Corpse Severing Technique.
Hongjun's Three Corpse Severing Technique likely required one not only to comprehend one's three thoughts of good, evil, and obsession, but also to see through them before one could successfully sever them.
In this way, every corpse severed would greatly elevate one's cultivation of the heart. Only by severing all three corpses at the peak of the Great Firmament Golden Immortal realm could one break through the bottleneck and advance to Quasi-Sage.
But obsession was called obsession precisely because it was something in one's heart that was difficult to relinquish or see through. If it were easy to relinquish and see through, could it still be called obsession?
Thus, good and evil were easy to sever, while obsession was difficult to sever.
His Simplified Three Corpse Severing Technique, however, only required comprehending where one's good, evil, and obsession lay. There was no need to see through them.
Although there were no cultivation restrictions on severing the three corpses, making them easier to sever, this also meant there would be no breakthrough in cultivation of the heart. One could merely gain three independent Three Corpse Dao Bodies.
Furthermore, with Hongjun's version, once one comprehended and saw through good, evil, and obsession, one could entrust them to Innate Spiritual Treasures or Innate Spiritual Roots and instantly sever the Three Corpse Dao Bodies.
His simplified version could not do that. After comprehending and severing one's three thoughts of good, evil, and obsession, then entrusting them to Innate Spiritual Treasures or Innate Spiritual Roots, they had to slowly cultivate Primordial True Spirits and Primordial Souls on their own. Only after cultivating to a certain degree could they transform into Dao Bodies.
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