Suspicions of a Conspiracy Theory

But suddenly, Yuan Yan 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 spirit treasures, innate spirit roots, or innate spiritual objects, and transform them into three independent Dao bodies.

These three Dao bodies could cultivate and comprehend the Dao on their own, or fight alongside their creator. Moreover, once the three corpses merged into one, one could attain the Hunyuan Daluo Dao.

If he could grasp 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 could focus on the Yin-Yang Dao, while his three Dao bodies respectively focused on the Dao of Reincarnation, the Dao of Worlds, and the Dao of the Mind, fulfilling his wishes.

As for how, in many Primordial World novels, Hongjun was always the ultimate villain, scheming to use the calamities to weaken the Primordial World and devour it to achieve himself—

He was skeptical of that!

It was not because Yuan Yan trusted Hongjun's character or believed he would not be so utterly deranged.

Rather, this Primordial World was unusual. Something was wrong!

A Great Luo Golden Immortal gathered past, present, and future into one. So long as even the faintest trace remained in the past, present, or future, they had not truly perished and would one day return to life.

That was true even for Great Luo Golden Immortals, let alone Pangu.

The Primordial World itself was the strongest proof of Pangu's existence. Never mind whether Pangu had truly fallen; even if he had, he would one day return to life.

Who was Pangu? A supreme powerhouse at the half-step Great Dao level, a peerless savage who sought to attain the Great Dao and single-handedly hacked down three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons.

How much counterfeit liquor had Hongjun drunk to dare plot to weaken and devour the Primordial World for his own achievement? Even if he truly wanted to do that, he had to consider whether he could withstand Pangu's axe strike.

Furthermore, great cultivators such as Hongjun, Rahu, Yang Mei, Yin-Yang, and Qiankun were not, as many Primordial World novels claimed, reincarnations of Chaos Gods and Demons.

They might be connected to Chaos Gods and Demons, perhaps formed from the remnants of Chaos Gods and Demons combined with different origins of the Primordial World, but they could never be reincarnations of Chaos Gods and Demons.

Because once one attained Great Luo, one remained Great Luo forever. This was even more true above Great Luo.

If they were reincarnated Chaos Gods and Demons, they could have leaped through several realms in a short time. They would never have been stuck at the perfected Hunyuan Golden Immortal realm. They would have long since attained Hunyuan Daluo, perhaps even broken through to higher realms.

As for the claim that the Three Corpse Severing Technique had a grave flaw, that the treasures entrusting the three corpses needed to share the same origin before they could merge and break through to Hunyuan Daluo—

After making a brief deduction, he found that such flaws did not exist at all.

The Great Dao encompassed all and tolerated all. Although he had never cultivated the Three Corpse Severing Technique, he had some conjectures about the final step of merging the three corpses.

One should use one's own Dao to integrate the Dao contained and carried by the three corpses. If one could fully comprehend and merge them, allowing one's own Great Dao to transform and ascend, the three corpses would naturally merge into one. If one could not, then there was nothing more to say. If the person was inadequate, they should not blame the road for being uneven.

Therefore, rather than saying that the Three Corpse Severing Technique required innate spirit treasures of the same origin, it would be more accurate to say that it required innate spirit treasures that suited one's own Dao and complemented it.

Otherwise, if the Daos opposed each other, it would be extraordinarily difficult to use one's own Dao to fully integrate the Dao carried by the three corpses.

Some also used the fact that, after the Calamity of Witches and Demons, apart from the six Heavenly Dao Saints and Houtu, who attained the Dao through merit, no one had attained Hunyuan Daluo through the Three Corpse Severing Technique as proof that the technique was flawed.

But upon careful thought, there was nothing wrong with that either!

Which innate divine being in the Primordial World dared claim that their foundation and comprehension surpassed Hongjun, Rahu, or Yang Mei? Even the Three Pure Ones would not dare say so. At most, they were their equals.

Hongjun possessed the Jade Disc of Creation, a supreme treasure for comprehending the Dao, the Pangu Banner, a supreme treasure of creation, as well as an enormous number of innate spirit treasures. His providence and fortune were exceedingly profound.

Yet even so, during the Calamity of Ferocious Beasts, he had been one of the main forces in slaying Beast Sovereign Shen Ni, gaining immense merit and providence. Later, he won the Dao-Demon Strife during the Dragon-Han Calamity and obtained boundless providence. Only after experiencing two calamities did he attain sainthood. (He should have attained Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal before attaining sainthood, though it was also possible that he could not attain Hunyuan Daluo because the Western earth veins had been destroyed.)

And what about the great cultivators of the Primordial World who had not attained sainthood?

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 regard could any of them compare to Hongjun?

Whether the Purple Firmament Palace's teachings could offset Hongjun's advantage from possessing the Jade Disc of Creation remained uncertain. They had neither the Heavenly Dao nor the Earthly Dao giving them cheats, nor did they possess immense merit or providence. Why should they attain the Dao within one or two calamities?

Moreover, after the Calamity of Witches and Demons and the Investiture of the Gods, the heavens and earth of the Primordial World became increasingly desolate, and the environment increasingly harsh. Without merit or providence to aid them, naturally, it became even more difficult for them to attain Hunyuan Daluo Golden Immortal.

It was precisely because of this that he did not take such claims seriously or suspect everything to be Hongjun's scheme. That was why he intended to contend for the position of Heavenly Dao Saint.

As for why the Primordial World had declined further after Hongjun merged with the Dao, and whether some conspiracy lay behind it, he did not know either.

He could only proceed step by step, neither accepting one-sided accounts nor viewing Hongjun through tinted glasses.

Of course, one should not harbor the intent to harm others, but one must guard against others! Naturally, he would not trust Hongjun without reservation merely because he felt it was not Hongjun's scheme!

What if Hongjun had really lost his mind?

After letting his thoughts wander for a while, Yuan Yan immersed his entire mind in 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 art was no longer how to create it, but finding the right idea 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.

Though much of it was wrong, some of it was still of great help to him.

Very quickly, in less than ten epochs, Yuan Yan deduced a simplified version of the Three Corpse Severing Technique. This also gave him new conjectures about Hongjun's version of the technique.

Hongjun's Three Corpse Severing Technique probably required not only comprehending one's thoughts of good, evil, and obsession, but also seeing through them before one could successfully sever them.

Only in this way could one's mental cultivation greatly improve with every corpse severed. By severing the three corpses at the peak of Great Luo Golden Immortal, one could break through the bottleneck and advance to the Quasi-Saint realm.

But an obsession was called an obsession precisely because it was something difficult to abandon or see through. If it were easy to abandon and see through, could it still be called an obsession?

Thus, good and evil were easy to sever, while obsession was difficult to sever.

His simplified version of the Three Corpse Severing Technique only required comprehending where one's good, evil, and obsession lay. There was no need to see through them.

Although there were no longer cultivation restrictions on severing the three corpse bodies, making them easier to sever, one also lost the breakthrough in mental cultivation. It could only grant one three independent corpse Dao bodies.

Furthermore, in Hongjun's version, after comprehending and seeing through good, evil, and obsession, one could entrust them to innate spirit treasures or innate spirit roots and instantly sever the three corpse Dao bodies.

But his simplified version could not. After comprehending and severing one's three thoughts of good, evil, and obsession, then entrusting them to innate spirit treasures or innate spirit roots, they had to slowly cultivate their own innate true spirits and innate primordial spirits. Only after cultivating to a certain level could they transform into Dao bodies.