Zixiao Palace

"Late-stage Great Luo Golden Immortal physical body—just one step away from the peak!" Bai Jing said excitedly after sensing the state of his body.

In truth, a single drop of Di Jiang's essence blood, combined with that huge mass of blood from the blood pool, was enough to create a Great Witch. Bai Jing had effectively absorbed the physical essence of an entire Great Witch, so such a tremendous increase in his body's strength was only natural.

"It was time to leave seclusion and head for Zixiao Palace!" With that, Bai Jing rose, stretched lazily, and pushed open the door.

The moment Bai Jing emerged from seclusion, the first thing that met his eyes was an enormous field of millet stretching beyond sight.

Sweeping it with his divine sense, Bai Jing discovered that the millet planted at the foot of Mount Buzhou was all at least mid-grade postnatal spiritual root quality. The closer one got to the central area, the higher the grade of the millet. The several hundred stalks at the very center were all top-grade postnatal spiritual roots.

That stalk of low-grade innate spiritual root millet, however, was not planted here.

"How was the growth of this millet, Fellow Daoist Bai Jing?" As the voice spoke, an earthy-yellow flash streaked past, and Houtu appeared before Bai Jing.

"Very good. Fellow Daoist Houtu, how much low-grade postnatal spiritual root millet has the Witch Clan cultivated over these ten thousand years?"

"Nearly ten million stalks."

"Even more than I expected!"

Houtu smiled. "We distributed all the low-grade postnatal millet to the Witch Clan tribes beyond Mount Buzhou. The millet here on Mount Buzhou is all mid-grade postnatal quality or above.

"We continuously use this millet to cultivate low-grade postnatal spiritual root millet, then send it to our clansmen beyond Mount Buzhou. At the same time, we help these clansmen plant millet. Because of this, our Witch Clan has also received a considerable amount of Heavenly Dao merit."

Bai Jing was not surprised to hear this. Reclaiming farmland and planting millet already counted as agricultural production. It was perfectly normal for the Heavenly Dao to grant rewards.

"Then, over these ten thousand years, have there been any conflicts between the Witch Clan and the Demon Race?"

Houtu sighed. "There have been no major conflicts. At the very least, neither side has openly declared war on the other, but there have still been minor frictions.

"Especially after our Witch Clan began sheltering some weak races looked down upon by the Heavenly Court, some demons who had originally joined the Heavenly Court came to us seeking protection for some reason.

"As long as these races are willing to provide some blood food every hundred years, Eldest Brother accepts all comers. This has slowed the Demon Race Heavenly Court's expansion considerably.

"I heard that Taiyi has voiced quite a few objections to this. Dijun, on the other hand, seems indifferent—he probably looks down on races of such ordinary strength as well.

"I also think that so long as no powerful demon race leaves the Demon Race and defects to us, the two sides should not erupt into a major conflict over this matter.

"And with these races joining us, our Witch Clan can harvest vast amounts of blood food in addition to millet. It is enough for our people to be self-sufficient, and they no longer need to go hunting.

"Over these ten thousand years, the Witch Clan's casualties have numbered fewer than a thousand. It is all thanks to Fellow Daoist Bai Jing's plans for our Witch Clan. Houtu is deeply grateful."

"You are too polite, Fellow Daoist Houtu! I was doing this to repay the karmic debt I owed Great God Pangu. Besides, the Witch Clan has already given me a gift of thanks. My physical body's strength has risen by a great deal because of it."

Only after hearing Bai Jing's words did Houtu notice that his physical body had already reached the late stage of Great Luo Golden Immortal.

A flicker of astonishment passed through Houtu's eyes. In merely ten thousand years, his body's strength had risen from newly entering the Great Luo realm to the late stage of Great Luo Golden Immortal. That rate of improvement was far too fast.

From the moment she and her brothers and sisters were born, they had grasped all manner of law powers, and their physical bodies had also been at the level of newly entering the Great Luo realm.

More than a dozen epochs had passed before her brothers and sisters raised their physical strength to the equivalent of the peak Great Luo Golden Immortal realm. Only Eldest Brother's body had reached the level of Primordial Golden Immortal.

Yet Bai Jing had made such enormous progress in only ten thousand years. He truly seemed to be one blessed with great fortune!

With that thought, Houtu felt even more strongly that she should build a good relationship with Bai Jing. Smiling, she said, "Fellow Daoist Bai Jing, there are only five thousand years left until Zixiao Palace's sermon. It is time for us to depart, isn't it?"

"It is."

After Houtu informed the ancestral witches, she flew toward Zixiao Palace, with Bai Jing close behind her.

Zixiao Palace lay beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, where endless chaotic astral winds and spatial rifts existed. Those below Great Luo Golden Immortal could not remain there for long; at any moment, they might be torn to pieces.

Therefore, those able to reach Zixiao Palace were basically all Great Luo Golden Immortals. This was, in fact, also Hongjun's test. Those below Great Luo were not qualified to hear his sermon.

For someone like Six Ears, who relied on an innate divine ability to eavesdrop on the sermon, Hongjun naturally would not permit it. Otherwise, he would not have uttered the words, "The Dharma shall not be transmitted to Six Ears."

Along the way, Bai Jing saw quite a few Great Luo Golden Immortal experts holding spiritual treasures over their heads as they passed through the astral winds and spatial rifts toward Zixiao Palace.

Houtu and Bai Jing both possessed formidable physical bodies. They could withstand the chaotic astral winds and spatial rifts through their bodies alone. The two flew upward all the way, and after an unknown length of time, they finally caught sight of a magnificent palace, suffused with purple qi as immortal melodies drifted through the air.

Bai Jing and Houtu landed before the palace. Its great doors were tightly shut, and above them hung a plaque bearing three words: Zixiao Palace.

The three words on the plaque alone contained endless Dao resonance. One could not help but become deeply immersed in them after a single glance.

Bai Jing looked around and found that a scattered group of people had already gathered outside the entrance.

Three people stood closest to the doors. One had the innate Dao body of an elderly man and held a flat staff. One had the innate Dao body of a middle-aged man and held a jade ruyi in one hand. The last had the innate Dao body of a young man and gripped a treasured sword.

Even from far away, Bai Jing could sense a feeling of closeness from the magical treasures in their hands. The missing origin within him urged him to seize those three treasures.

Bai Jing was certain that if he devoured those three magical treasures, the missing origin within him would basically be fully restored.

But Bai Jing knew his own limits. The three before him were clearly the famed Three Pure Ones. They were not people he could afford to provoke.

At this moment, the Three Pure Ones also noticed Bai Jing's gaze.

"Eldest Brother, why does this person keep staring at us?" Tongtian sent a voice transmission to Laozi.

After performing a calculation, Laozi replied, "He is not looking at us, but at the spiritual treasures in our hands. His origin should be the Twelfth-Grade Pure World White Lotus taking form. It shares the same root and origin as the Twenty-Fourth-Grade Creation Green Lotus. The spiritual treasures in our hands were transformed from the Twenty-Fourth-Grade Creation Green Lotus, so he probably feels a resonance."

"So that was it."

"For the Twelfth-Grade Pure World White Lotus to take form is quite a rare foundation indeed," Yuanshi said with a trace of approval.

While the Three Pure Ones were exchanging voice transmissions, Bai Jing had already suppressed the stirring in his heart. He nodded to the three in greeting, and Tongtian returned his gesture with a smile.