A Chance Encounter with Kuafu

Bai Jing only realized how naive he had been after touching Yingzhou Immortal Island's formation. Even a Great Luo could only make contact with the island's innate grand formation; to break it, one would need at least the cultivation of a quasi-sage.

However, perhaps because Bai Jing had grown and taken form on Yingzhou Immortal Island, once his physical body reached the level of a Great Luo Golden Immortal, the island's innate restriction no longer prevented him from entering or leaving.

Bai Jing could even leave his own imprint within the innate restriction. Once his primordial spirit cultivation reached the Hunyuan Golden Immortal or quasi-sage realm, he should be able to completely control Yingzhou Immortal Island's innate restriction and turn this place into his Daoist sanctuary.

Bai Jing then left Yingzhou Immortal Island and appeared above the East Sea of the Primordial World.

At first, Bai Jing was somewhat nervous. He did not stray too far from Yingzhou Immortal Island, ready to retreat at any moment. He was a transmigrator, after all—who knew whether the Heavenly Dao might come looking for trouble?

The facts proved that Bai Jing had overthought things. He had taken form from the Twelfth-Grade Pure World White Lotus, which had grown from a lotus seed of the Chaos Green Lotus, and he also possessed the Primordial Measure of Heaven Ruler given by the great god Pangu. The issue of his identity had long since been resolved.

Bai Jing waited for a while. Only after confirming that the Heavenly Dao would not trouble him did he finally relax. With a thought, a white lotus platform appeared beneath his feet, and he rode it westward.

Bai Jing flew west because the East Sea Coast lay in that direction. He did not know how to get anywhere else, so he could only visit the East Sea Coast first and decide what to do afterward.

The Primordial World was simply too vast. At first, Bai Jing could still tell that he was flying west, but after roughly five hundred years of flight, he had completely lost his sense of direction.

Fortunately, he encountered quite a few sea beasts along the way. He caught several and had them guide him. After another thousand years of flying, he finally reached the East Sea Coast.

The East Sea Coast was where the human race would flourish in later ages. It was neither a famous mountain nor a great river, nor was it occupied by any powerful experts with profound cultivation.

Bai Jing wandered around the area, but found nothing interesting enough to catch his attention.

Just as Bai Jing was about to leave, he suddenly heard the sounds of battle coming from the southeast. He hesitated for a moment, then rode his lotus platform in that direction.

After crossing three mountain peaks, Bai Jing saw a battlefield. The two sides fighting were the Witch Clan and a group of demons that looked like sheep.

Bai Jing observed for a while and discovered that, rather than a battle, it was more like the Witch Clan was hunting. As the two sides clashed, the Witch Clan members below shouted, "Watch your strength! Don't damage the food!"

Perhaps to keep the food from escaping, or perhaps to protect those Witch Clan members, Bai Jing could sense a powerful member of the Witch Clan lying in wait beyond the mountain.

They treat demons as food? Could this way of life among the Witch Clan be one of the triggers for their conflict with the Demon Clan? Bai Jing thought.

Bai Jing watched the entire hunt. At the cost of one seriously injured and three lightly injured members, the Witch Clan wiped out the group of sheep demons, beat them back into their original forms, and left carrying their corpses.

Bai Jing shook his head and turned to leave.

"Fellow Daoist, why do you shake your head?" A figure suddenly appeared, blocking Bai Jing's path as he spoke.

Bai Jing had noticed this person's presence earlier, but he had not expected him to suddenly stop him.

Bai Jing looked the man up and down. He was tall and burly, with powerful muscles, two yellow snakes hanging from his ears, and a peachwood staff in hand. One glance at this appearance was enough to identify him as Kuafu.

After confirming the newcomer's identity, Bai Jing was just about to speak when his heart suddenly stirred. It was as though he had invisibly formed a thread of karmic connection with the Witch Clan.

Bai Jing frowned. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly understood.

Bai Jing had been able to safely take form in the Primordial World and possess a spiritual treasure like the Primordial Measure of Heaven Ruler entirely because of the Chaos Green Lotus and the great god Pangu. In the terms of the Primordial World, he owed karmic debts to both of them.

The Chaos Green Lotus had already disintegrated. Among the spiritual treasures formed from her body, Bai Jing was the only one with consciousness. It was equivalent to the Chaos Green Lotus already being dead, so there was naturally no need to repay this karmic debt.

The great god Pangu, however, was different. Setting aside whether he had truly fallen or not, Pangu's descendants undeniably still existed: the Three Pure Ones and the Witch Clan.

Later, the Three Pure Ones would take the Dao Ancestor as their master, and their status as Pangu's legitimate lineage would no longer be quite so legitimate. The Witch Clan, on the other hand, had always disrespected Heaven and Earth and revered only Pangu. It was only fitting for this karmic debt to fall upon them.

With that thought, Bai Jing's words gained a trace of sincerity as he said in a serious tone, "I merely feel that the Witch Clan's way of hunting is like draining a pond to catch fish. It is not conducive to sustainable development."

"What does draining a pond to catch fish mean?"

"It means emptying all the water from a pond to catch the fish."

"Fellow Daoist means that my Witch Clan makes no long-term plans, caring only for immediate gains and leaving no room for the future?"

"When it comes to hunting, that is indeed the case."

Kuafu clearly did not like Bai Jing's words. He snorted coldly. "Fellow Daoist, your words are rather alarmist. The Primordial World is so vast. We merely kill some animals to fill our clansmen's stomachs. What karmic consequences could there possibly be?"

"Alas! The animals you speak of are members of the Demon Clan!"

"So what if they are Demon Clan? Does my Witch Clan fear them?"

"The Witch Clan naturally does not fear them, but there is no need to provoke conflict, is there? Besides, when the Witch Clan goes out hunting, your clansmen will inevitably be injured, and may even perish because of it. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Fellow Daoist to follow them in secret. Am I wrong?"

Kuafu did not refute Bai Jing after hearing this. Ever since those two mongrel birds, Dijun and Taiyi, established the so-called Heavenly Court, hunting had become increasingly difficult for the Witch Clan. There were frequent casualties, and the Ancestral Witches had no choice but to dispatch Great Witches like him to accompany and protect the clansmen who went hunting.

Kuafu did not care about conflicts with the Demon Clan, but he cared about his clansmen. Thus, he cupped his hands toward Bai Jing and asked, "Does Fellow Daoist have a solution?"

"I do. I possess a low-grade innate spiritual root called Millet. After planting it, the spiritual root will bear millet grain. Plant those millet grains again, and you will obtain top-grade acquired spiritual root millet.

"By planting it generation after generation, within ten thousand years, even a conservative estimate would yield several million stalks of low-grade acquired spiritual root millet.

"The millet from low-grade acquired spiritual roots can be harvested for more than a dozen crops without issue. Even if its grade later declines, as long as this low-grade innate spiritual root Millet remains, it can continuously cultivate low-grade acquired spiritual root millet.

"With the millet grown from low-grade acquired spiritual roots alone, it would be enough to feed the entire Witch Clan." Having said that, Bai Jing took out the spiritual root Millet he had gathered on Yingzhou Island and handed it directly to Kuafu.

Kuafu accepted the Millet instinctively. He knew very well that if Bai Jing's method worked, it could indeed spare his clansmen from having to go out hunting. The value of this innate spiritual root would be immense, and there was no way he could refuse it.

"Oh, and if the Witch Clan's members wish to eat meat, you can also offer protection to certain weaker animal tribes. The condition for that protection would be for them to provide the Witch Clan with meat. I imagine plenty of tribes would be willing to accept the Witch Clan's terms. After all, the Demon Clan's Heavenly Court is not such an easy place to live in either."

Bai Jing's words made Kuafu feel as though a great weight had been lifted from his mind. The Ancestral Witches had previously been troubled by the severe casualties suffered while their clansmen hunted, but now it seemed that everything had been resolved.