Journey Through Buzhou Mountain

Bai Jing first returned to the Witch Clan with Houtu. The Witch Clan was located at the foot of Mount Buzhou, and climbing Mount Buzhou from there was also a good choice.

However, Bai Jing did not leave immediately. At Houtu's invitation, he went with her to Pangu Hall.

Houtu had asked Bai Jing to come because she had no primordial spirit and could not make calculations. If she had misunderstood anything Hongjun had said, it would be troublesome.

With Bai Jing there, he could promptly point out any errors or omissions in her account.

Thus, before Bai Jing, Houtu told the other ancestral witches about the three methods of attaining Dao and becoming saints.

"Of these three paths, the only one our Witch Clan may have is Father God's path of proving the Dao through strength," Di Jiang said after pondering for a moment.

"Big Brother is right. Our Witch Clan has no primordial spirits, so the corpse-severing method is certainly impossible for us. As for becoming saints through merit, according to Hongjun, that means becoming Heaven Dao's lackeys. Our Witch Clan reveres only Father God Pangu. How could we become saints in such a manner?" Zhu Jiuyin said.

The other ancestral witches voiced their agreement as well.

"It is simply that the path of proving the Dao through strength is likely extremely difficult," Houtu said with a sigh.

Hearing this, Bai Jing thought, "What method of becoming a saint is easy?

Take the Three Pure Ones, for example. They severed the Three Corpses, then relied on the legacy of the creation of heaven and earth, along with the merit of establishing teachings. Only through the combined effect of all these could they successfully attain the Dao!

Strictly speaking, this method of becoming saints could barely be considered the Three Corpse Severing method of attaining the Dao.

The Three Pure Ones had already gone far enough down this path. They only needed to merge the Three Corpses to become saints. Things such as the merit from establishing teachings merely accelerated the process of attaining the Dao, in a sense—they were shortcuts.

Jieyin and Zhunti of the West lacked sufficient foundations, and their innate origins were inferior to those of the Three Pure Ones. Without the legacy of creation, they took even more shortcuts and owed Heaven Dao an immense amount of merit. Thus, the two Western Saints were weaker than the Three Pure Ones.

Zhunti in particular was universally acknowledged as the weakest saint later on. That was the price of taking shortcuts.

As for becoming a saint purely through merit, that was not easy either. One had to move Heaven Dao with boundless merit, move all the Great Dao with one's deeds, and attain sainthood through utmost benevolence.

It required immense merit, vows, and fortune to directly stir the Great Dao's vast will and break through one's own shackles.

Then, by refining the foundation of the Great Dao, the Primordial Violet Qi, and entrusting one's primordial spirit to Heaven Dao, one could attain the Primordial Unity. Saint Nuwa had attained the Dao in this manner, and the source of her immense merit was the great merit of creating humankind.

Just how enormous would the amount of merit needed to attain sainthood have to be? How could it possibly be obtained so easily?

Moreover, immense merit alone was not enough. What one did also had to genuinely benefit the Primordial World, so as to conform to Heaven Dao and even make up for what Heaven Dao lacked.

Many great cultivators in the Primordial World saw Saint Nuwa attain sainthood through merit in this way.

The one who had conceived a similar idea and put it into action was Minghe.

Minghe first imitated Saint Nuwa and created the Ashura Clan from the endless Sea of Blood. Heaven Dao responded by bestowing merit, greatly advancing Minghe's cultivation, but he still failed to become a saint.

Later, after seeing the Three Pure Ones and the two Western Saints establish teachings and become saints, Minghe founded the Ashura Sect. He likewise obtained a great amount of merit. Although this took him extremely far along the path to attaining the Dao, far beyond ordinary quasi-saints, he still failed to truly step into that realm. He remained only a single step away.

Yet that single step was an insurmountable chasm, the difference between heaven and earth! Beneath saints, all were ants. Minghe was no exception."

"Kid, I heard you're planning to Journey Through Buzhou Mountain?" Xuanming's words interrupted Bai Jing's thoughts.

Bai Jing nodded. "I do have that intention."

"As repayment for helping our Witch Clan, I'll give you a piece of advice. Mount Buzhou is covered by a vast and majestic Great Dao pressure that isolates everything. Every step upward is extraordinarily difficult. Even an ordinary Great Luo, protected by an innate spiritual treasure, would reach their limit after climbing one-third of the way.

"But your cultivation method is somewhat similar to that of our Witch Clan. Your physique is strong, and with your late Great Luo Golden Immortal body, you should be able to reach roughly halfway up the mountain. Go any higher, and the Great Dao pressure will crush you to pieces."

A trace of surprise flashed through Bai Jing's eyes. He clearly had not expected Xuanming to tell him this.

Still, out of courtesy, Bai Jing thanked Xuanming.

The next day, Bai Jing left the Witch Clan and began climbing Mount Buzhou.

Mount Buzhou was the pillar supporting the heavens, standing at the very center of heaven and earth. Just as Xuanming had said, Mount Buzhou was shrouded in Great Dao pressure. With every step Bai Jing took, he could feel that pressure grow stronger.

This pressure was somewhat helpful in strengthening Bai Jing's body, so he immediately took out some ore and began gnawing on it.

As he gnawed, he circulated the Spirit Devouring Art and used his ability to purify all things, cleansing the useless impurities from the ore. Then, with the Great Dao pressure on Mount Buzhou, he quickly fused the ore's energy into his body and strengthened it.

Thus, Bai Jing climbed the mountain while chewing ore. After roughly a thousand years, he reached the midpoint of Mount Buzhou, and the strength of his body broke through to the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm.

Next, if Bai Jing wanted to raise his body to the Primordial Golden Immortal level, he would need to continue strengthening it on one hand and deepen his comprehension of the Devouring Law on the other. Once both reached a certain level, he could complete the sixth turn of the Profound Art and use that opportunity to break through to the Primordial Golden Immortal level.

Neither could be accomplished overnight, so Bai Jing stopped devouring ore and instead wandered around the midpoint of Mount Buzhou.

As Mount Buzhou had been formed from Pangu's spine and was guarded by Great Dao pressure, few could reach this place. After searching around, Bai Jing harvested quite a few high-quality spiritual herbs.

"Huh? Is this an innate restriction?"

Bai Jing looked at the great formation before him, which was suffused with endless innate aura, and revealed a delighted expression.

Within the formation lay a world of its own. The earth-element aura here was also extremely dense, and vigorous vitality filled every inch of the space.

"Judging by this, it is even somewhat stronger than the innate restriction where I found those three high-grade innate spiritual roots on Yingzhou Immortal Island.

"In other words, there must be at least one high-grade innate spiritual root or high-grade innate spiritual treasure within this formation." At that thought, Bai Jing's eyes lit up, and he began breaking the innate restriction here.

With Bai Jing's current peak Great Luo Golden Immortal body, this innate restriction was not particularly difficult to break. In just a hundred years or so, Bai Jing shattered the restriction.

When Bai Jing entered the formation, the earth-element aura within transformed into all things between heaven and earth—mountains, boulders, and weapons of every kind—and blasted toward him.

Bai Jing neither dodged nor evaded, nor did he summon the Primordial Measure of Heaven Ruler. He directly withstood the attacks with his body.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! A series of dull, thunderous impacts rang out.

The various objects formed from earth-element aura could not injure Bai Jing, nor could they even break through his body's defenses.

Before long, Bai Jing pushed through the barrage of earth-element aura and arrived at the center of the formation. A blue-gold cauldron floated there.

It drew in and expelled the formation's earth-element aura, continuously strengthening itself.

Bai Jing reached out and grasped one of the cauldron's legs, and information about the cauldron appeared in his mind.