When the last ripple of Heavenly Dao law representing the three-thousand-year limit silently swept through Purple Cloud Palace, the demonic brainwashing BGM, the clatter of mahjong tiles, the sizzle of grilled skewers, the off-key singing, and the frolicking from the hot spring pool—mainly after certain Demon Race great powers had let themselves go—suddenly vanished, as though someone had hit pause.
All the Primordial Chaos great powers who had been "actively participating" in the team-building activities froze in unison.
It was over? The entire three thousand years of... torment—or perhaps degradation—had finally ended?
An indescribably complex emotion filled the hearts of every survivor, at least psychologically. There was relief, bewilderment, shame, absurdity, and even a trace of... reluctance to let it end?
Xiao Kuang let out a huge yawn, rolled off a hammock he had added later, and stretched. His bones cracked loudly.
"Ah—so comfortable! The first team-building event has concluded successfully!" He picked up the microphone, his voice carrying the laziness of someone freshly awake. "It seems everyone has gained greatly over these three thousand years. Fellow Daoists have deepened their friendships, and your spiritual outlook has been completely renewed! I am most gratified!"
The crowd below: "..." Gained greatly? They had gained mahjong skills and skewer-grilling techniques, perhaps? Fellow Daoist friendship? Did the grudges forged at the mahjong table count? Spiritual outlook? Their shamelessness had indeed been thoroughly renewed!
"All right, this seminar is now over!" Xiao Kuang waved a hand, and the heavy riveted doors swung open with a boom, revealing the still-churning chaos outside. "You may all go home and find your mothers! The next lecture will be... announced depending on my mood, as always! Meeting adjourned!"
The words "meeting adjourned" sounded like heavenly music!
The great powers, who had long been desperate to return home, no longer cared about poise, etiquette, or the bearing of mighty cultivators. In an instant, they transformed into streaks of light and surged toward the gates in a frantic scramble, like refugees fleeing disaster! They feared that if they were one step too slow, this Dao Ancestor would drag them back for a "Second Team-Building Event"!
For a time, the scene was utter chaos.
"Out of the way! I'm leaving first!" Di Jun, with the River Diagram and Luo Script above his head, rammed aside several Demon Saints. "Senior Brother, hurry! This is not a place to linger!" Zhunti grabbed Jieyin and squeezed through the crowd, his shoes nearly trampled off. "Tongtian! You still owe me three hundred Merit Points!" Primordial Lord of Heaven charged outside with a blackened face, yet still remembered to collect his debt. "We'll settle it at the next card game!" Sect Master Tongtian transformed into a streak of sword light and escaped the fastest. Empress Nuwa's robes fluttered gracefully, and she appeared composed, but her speed was no slower than anyone else's, as though Chaos Demon Gods were chasing her from behind. Houtu Ancestral Witch shook her head, sighed, and left with the crowd. Gong Gong let out a howl, directly revealed part of his true form, smashed open a path, and became the first to rush out of Purple Cloud Palace!
In only a few breaths, the once "lively and bustling" Purple Cloud Palace had become completely deserted. All that remained were mahjong tiles scattered across the floor, grilled-skewer sticks formed from spiritual energy that were slowly fading away, and a strange mixed odor lingering in the air.
Dragon Girl, Phoenix Girl, and the Kirin looked at the instantly empty hall. They exchanged glances, relieved, yet somehow... not quite used to it.
Watching their fleeing backs, Xiao Kuang curled his lip. "Tch, what an ungrateful bunch. I let them play for free for three thousand years." Then he flopped back into his massage chair. "Attendants, clean up the place! Then go do whatever you need to do!"
[Heavenly Dao: ...Detected the forced conclusion of the first lecture(?)... Calculating the feedback of all beings...] [Feedback data: Extremely chaotic... Dao heart damage rate 87.3%... cognitive deviation rate 99.8%... cultivation increase rate... Hm?! (Code lagging)] [Cultivation increase rate: Average 15.7%?! Karma reduction rate: Average 22.4%?! (Core code violently fluctuating)] [Conclusion: ...Unable to parse... logical conflict... recalculating... Zzz... (Choosing hibernation again)]
The Heavenly Dao crashed again from these contradictory results.
Meanwhile, the Primordial Chaos great powers fleeing Purple Cloud Palace raced onward until they had completely left the chaotic region Beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens and returned beneath the familiar starry skies of the Primordial Chaos. Only then did they dare slow down slightly and look back fearfully toward the depths of chaos.
Every great power wore the dazed expression of someone who had survived a calamity.
"Finally... we're out..." a Demon Saint muttered, nearly weeping with joy. "Three thousand years... it was like a nightmare..." An ancient immortal rubbed his forehead, feeling even his primordial spirit tremble.
They examined one another. Seeing skewer grease perhaps still staining their bodies, paper-strip marks not fully peeled from their faces, or the lingering sulfur smell of hot springs on them, they all felt indescribable shame and absurdity.
If word of this got out, would they, the foremost great powers of the Primordial Chaos, have any face left?
Yet once they steadied their minds and began examining themselves, every one of them froze.
Their cultivation... had truly improved considerably?! And it was remarkably stable! Their primordial spirits... seemed more condensed and lucid? Although their way of thinking seemed to have gone a little off track? More importantly, the karma that had troubled them for so long, accumulated since the Dragon-Han Calamity or even earlier, had actually been reduced by a substantial amount! Their Dao paths seemed far brighter!
"Why... why is this?" Zhen Yuanzi looked at Hong Yun, his face filled with disbelief. "We clearly did not seriously cultivate or comprehend the Dao in Purple Cloud Palace. We spent our days... our days playing and fooling around. Why did we instead..." Old Ancestor Hong Yun scratched his head and hesitated. "Could it be that the Dao Ancestor's 'Dao of Slacking' and 'Heart Sutra of Giving Up'... were not complete nonsense? Could they truly contain profound principles we failed to comprehend? Could relaxing actually align with some natural Dao?"
The moment they realized this, every great power who had noticed it shuddered violently!
Could it be that behind the Dao Ancestor's seemingly absurd and nonsensical actions lay such an unfathomably deep design? That he had guided them through a method they could not understand at all?
Thinking back on every moment of those three thousand years, though they had been absurd, they seemed to have... truly let go of some obsessions and shattered some of their fixed mental shackles? Their reduced karma had even made their connection with the Heavenly Dao slightly clearer?
"Terrifying... truly terrifying!" Laozi said gravely and slowly. "This Dao Ancestor acts unpredictably and harbors profound intent. To think he could guide all beings in such... such an inconceivable manner, nourishing things silently... His realm likely far exceeds anything we can imagine."
Although Primordial Lord of Heaven's face remained unpleasant, feeling his improved cultivation and reduced karma left him with no choice but to fall silent. Could even being struck by lightning have been part of the guidance? He refused to believe it!
Di Jun Tai Yi exchanged glances, their eyes flickering. No matter how outrageous the process had been, the result was good. The Demon Race's overall strength had risen by a significant margin, which was crucial to their future plans.
Old Ancestor Kunpeng's gaze shifted uncertainly. He felt that his schemes—no, his wise strategies—might need to evolve in a more "unreliable" direction.
Empress Nuwa fell into thought, feeling that perhaps her Dao of Creation could incorporate a little... "imperfection" and "spontaneity."
The Western duo had already begun considering how to incorporate "mahjong" and "singing" into the doctrines of the Western Teachings, developing them into "special activities" to attract believers...
Every great power's feelings were complicated to the extreme. Toward that salted-fish Dao Ancestor, they felt fear and hatred, yet could not help but harbor reverence—strange reverence—and even the faintest trace of... gratitude?
These conflicting emotions tormented them. Their Dao hearts seemed to have been forcibly torn apart, then glued back together, becoming tougher... and stranger.
They looked back once toward the chaos, then transformed into streaks of light and vanished into the starry skies of the Primordial Chaos at speeds even faster than when they had arrived, never looking back.
They had to hurry home and enter seclusion! Not to digest what they had learned from the lecture, but to process the psychological trauma and the blow to their worldview brought by those three thousand years! And, incidentally... to stabilize their inexplicably increased cultivation.
The impact of Purple Cloud Palace's first lecture—team-building event—was like a stone cast into a lake. Though the process had been bizarre, the ripples it created had already begun quietly spreading through the hearts of the Primordial Chaos beings, subtly changing many things.
Inside Purple Cloud Palace, Xiao Kuang had his feet up and was enjoying the rare peace and quiet. "They've finally all left. They were noisy as hell," he muttered. "The next lecture... hmm, at the very least, it can wait until I clear the new game!"
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