Hongjun Takes Action, Primordial Purple Qi

"Eldest Brother, Third Brother, why are you doing this? That is the opportunity to become a saint."

Yuanshi caught up to Laozi and Tongtian.

He truly could not understand how the two of them could disregard even an opportunity to become saints.

Was cultivation not for the sake of attaining the Dao?

Without even turning his head, Laozi said, "Our earlier injuries were inflicted by him."

"What?"

Yuanshi halted involuntarily, staring at the two of them with utter disbelief.

Inflicted by a saint?

How was that possible?

Yuanshi asked instinctively, "How did you offend the saint?"

Laozi: "..."

Tongtian: "..."

Come to think of it, who would have imagined that a saint would attack them for no reason?

Though it could not exactly be called for no reason.

Hongjun clearly had some scheme concerning them, but that senior had exposed it, which was why he had disregarded his saintly bearing and attacked them.

They were Pangu's true heirs, yet they had been reduced to pieces on another's chessboard. How could Laozi and Tongtian possibly accept that?

Nuwa caught up to them at that moment as well. "Would you two like to join me?"

Laozi and Tongtian had clearly also received guidance from that senior, and their fates were much the same as hers. Perhaps they could work together and travel together.

Laozi nodded. "Good."

Tongtian looked at Yuanshi and said, "Second Brother, you should return to Mount Kunlun first. As for the matter of destroying the Wu, I advise you not to take part."

Yuanshi's expression darkened at those words.

For some unknown reason, his eldest and third brothers had offended the saint. By rights, he should have stood with them and faced it together.

But... that was an opportunity to become a saint.

Laozi and the other two paid little heed to the struggling Yuanshi. Once they entered the Primordial World, they parted ways with him.

Upon reaching an uninhabited place, the three exchanged glances.

The three of them bowed deeply toward the void in unison, their voices respectful yet unable to conceal their urgency. "Laozi/Tongtian/Nuwa requests an audience with Dao Venerable Wuchen."

"Hmph!"

A bone-chilling snort abruptly exploded beside their ears as three concentrated purple beams, almost solid in substance, shot down from the Ninth Heavens.

The three did not even have time to circulate their mana to block them.

The purple qi instantly pierced their protective spiritual radiance and plunged straight into the depths of their brows, silently merging into the source of their Primordial Spirits.

"It is Hongjun!"

Nuwa clenched her pearly teeth, forcing those three words out through gritted teeth. Her eyes churned with towering fury and wariness.

Though she did not know what that purple qi was, Hongjun's actions surely concealed sinister intent.

Laozi and Tongtian also frowned tightly. Even the Dao rhythm surrounding them became sluggish, while the air around them seemed to freeze solid.

Secretly, they circulated all their mana, doing everything in their power to expel the purple light from their Primordial Spirits.

Yet no matter how they urged their mana, the purple light did not budge in the slightest.

Like a stubborn stone rooted in their Primordial Spirits, it had not shifted even a fraction. Instead, it faintly seemed poised to strike back.

"Buzz!"

Just as the three were at a loss, a spatial vortex suddenly emerged before them.

Spiritual light swirled within the vortex. Dao Venerable Wuchen, clad in a lustrous white immortal robe, sat cross-legged upon the phantom of a lotus platform on the other side, his eyes slightly closed.

A faint, clear aura of laws lingered around him. Detached from worldly strife, yet carrying an inviolable majesty of its own.

The three exchanged glances, each seeing urgency and hope in the others' eyes. Without further hesitation, they stepped into the spatial vortex together.

In the next instant, the scene around them changed abruptly. They had arrived on Fangzhang Immortal Isle, within Wuchen Palace.

"We pay our respects to Dao Venerable Wuchen."

Laozi and the other two did not dare show the slightest negligence. They bowed deeply in unison, their bearing respectful and their eyes filled with pleas for help.

"Rise."

Wuchen lightly swept his sleeve, and a gentle clear aura lifted the three of them. His gaze passed over them, and he could not help shaking his head softly.

"It seems that the three of you ultimately still failed to escape his control."

With a single glance, he saw through their cultivation. All three had reached the peak of the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm. Clearly, they had only just returned from listening to the Dao at Purple Cloud Palace.

And the moment they left Purple Cloud Palace, they had hurried to seek him out. They certainly had not gone there willingly; most likely, Hongjun had forcibly taken them away.

Hongjun truly did not care at all for a saint's image.

Nuwa raised her head and bowed again. "Dao Venerable, your insight is clear. Hongjun suddenly attacked just now, sending down three purple beams and forcibly merging them into our Primordial Spirits. We have no way to expel them. May I ask, Dao Venerable, what exactly are those three purple beams?"

Wuchen was slightly stunned by her words, a trace of surprise flashing through his eyes.

He had never expected Hongjun to be so decisive as to forcibly stuff the Primordial Purple Qi into the three of them ahead of time.

It was an opportunity to become a saint, but it was also the Heavenly Dao's most unbreakable shackle.

Once tainted by it, one could no longer break free, only becoming a piece upon the Heavenly Dao's chessboard, controlled by Hongjun.

After pondering for a moment, Wuchen slowly spoke, his voice carrying a hint of gravity.

"That is Primordial Purple Qi. It is an opportunity to become a saint, but also the Heavenly Dao's shackle. Once it merges with the Primordial Spirit, it will become closely linked to the Heavenly Dao.

"From then on, every word and action, every movement you make, will be controlled by the Heavenly Dao, controlled by Hongjun. You will no longer possess the right to govern yourselves."

"What?!"

At those words, the faces of Nuwa and the other two instantly turned pale as paper. Their expressions twisted abruptly, their eyes overflowing with boundless unwillingness and despair.

They had cultivated bitterly for countless years, all in pursuit of breaking free from restraints and attaining the Great Dao.

Yet now Hongjun had plotted against them, forcibly placing the Heavenly Dao's shackles upon them. Their path to attaining the Dao had become a mirage, and they might even lose their own freedom.

Suppressing the tumult in his heart, Laozi cupped his hands and asked, "May I ask, Dao Venerable, is there still a way to break this? I beg Dao Venerable to point us out of this maze."

His tone was earnest, and even the Dao rhythm around him trembled faintly.

Tongtian also looked at Wuchen with eyes full of expectation.

As Pangu's true heir, he had his own pride. How could he willingly become another's puppet—especially the puppet of his Father God's mortal enemy?

Looking at the despair on their faces, Wuchen sighed softly within.

He slowly raised a hand. A gentle clear aura of laws flowed from his fingertips before entering Laozi's brow.

He wanted to see whether the Primordial Purple Qi was truly as formidable as the legends claimed.

Laozi did not resist.

The clear aura of laws slowly seeped into Laozi's Primordial Spirit, Wuchen's divine sense following close behind as it cautiously touched the Primordial Purple Qi.

But the instant his divine sense came into contact with the purple light, an immense and boundless Heavenly Dao pressure suddenly erupted, striking back along his divine sense.

That pressure was cold and tyrannical, bearing an irresistible will, as though it sought to crush his divine sense to pieces.

Wuchen frowned tightly and hurriedly circulated all his mana to withstand the backlash.

At the same time, he increased the output of his divine sense, attempting to shake the foundation of the Primordial Purple Qi and even strip it from Laozi's Primordial Spirit.

Yet no matter what he did, the Primordial Purple Qi remained as steady as Mount Tai.

Dense Heavenly Dao power swirled around the Primordial Purple Qi like walls of bronze and ramparts of iron, utterly impossible to shake in the slightest.

And not only that.

The Primordial Purple Qi seemed to possess awareness of its own. Once it sensed his intentions, it abruptly unleashed an incomparably powerful force of the Heavenly Dao.