Pacify the Interior Before Repelling the Exterior

"Sky Patrol Office, has the Witch Clan shown any unusual movements lately?"

The court assembly began.

Heavenly Emperor Di Jun looked toward the Sun Patrol God and Night Patrol God among the three hundred and sixty-five demon gods.

These two gods were not the vicious day-and-night gods of later generations.

They were great demons of the Primordial World.

Born from Sun-Moon Essence and cleansed by Heavenly Dao Merit,

they had now reached the Great Luo Realm.

Thus, whenever the two took shifts, they worked with exceptional diligence.

Patrolling the heavens on Heaven's behalf was merit.

It was unknown how many times faster than cultivating on their own.

"Reporting to the Heavenly Emperor, the Witch Clan is as it has always been, cowering within Mount Buzhou and refusing to emerge."

The two patrol gods did not dare be disrespectful and hurriedly answered with utmost deference.

Over the past two thousand years,

the great demons who had entered the Heavenly Court had gained boundless benefits.

Their cultivation soared skyward like they had boarded an airplane.

Yet at the same time, they were also bound by Heavenly Emperor Di Jun.

The Demon-Summoning Banner!

Otherwise, with the Demon Race's nature of natural selection and the strong devouring the weak, they would have long since rebelled against Heaven.

Where there were gains, there were restraints.

"Looks like that battle two thousand years ago truly beat the Witch Clan into submission."

Heavenly Emperor Di Jun grinned at his second brother, Tai Yi.

"They do not cultivate the Primordial Spirit or comprehend the Great Dao."

"So what if their fleshly bodies possess Laws? In the end, they are merely a pack of reckless brutes."

Tai Yi smiled confidently.

After two thousand years of development, he had also advanced from the Mid-Stage Quasi-Saint to the late Quasi-Sage stage.

"Since that is the case, everyone should discuss how to deploy defenses across the stars filling the heavens!"

The sky was vast—vaster even than the earth.

It had no gates and no borders.

Yet Di Jun harbored an ambition: to bring the entire sky into his grasp.

Not merely its territory.

He wanted to truly hold the entire sky in his hands.

Just as he would arrange formations throughout his own palace.

He could open them whenever he wished and close them whenever he wished.

Naturally, this was an unimaginably vast undertaking, not something one person could accomplish.

At present, heaven and earth had not yet been divided into three.

Nor did the Primordial World possess the notion that one day in heaven equaled one year on earth.

Another thousand years passed.

The Witch Clan did not appear to change much on the surface, but the Twelve Ancestor Witches had undergone earth-shaking transformations.

"Ah, it has already been a thousand years. Whenever the wind blows or rain falls, my whole body aches so badly I feel half-dead."

"Having one's soul pulled out and marrow ripped away would be no worse than this. We are truly pitiful; living feels no different from dying."

"Isn't that so? Eldest Brother, shouldn't you show us a little consideration?"

The eleven Ancestral Shamans came calling.

The moment they saw Dijiang, their eyes lit up.

Each of them rubbed their hands together.

Their petty, market-stall manner could not be hidden at all.

They were no different from common street folk.

Ever since they had contributed their Pangu Essence Blood, a full thousand years had passed.

Even with the formidable constitutions of the eleven Ancestral Shamans, they now looked alarmingly sickly.

"I told you to cultivate your Primordial Spirits, not sell vegetables at the market."

Dijiang, who was refining pills, rolled his eyes at them.

It was true that he had drawn out their Pangu Essence Blood, but he had also given them a secret art for cultivating their Primordial Spirits.

Their current miserable appearance was nothing but an act to swindle pills from him.

One had to know that every pill he had refined over the past two thousand years had gone into their stomachs.

They might look pitiful now, but the Primordial Spirits inside them were more vigorous than the last.

And with fleshly bodies plus Primordial Spirits—Primordial Spirits cultivated through Pangu's Secret Method, no less—

as well as the Dharma Treasures he had refined for them,

their strength had only grown stronger, never weaker.

"Enough, enough. Instead of wasting time here, you might as well cultivate in my Heaven-Controlling Bottle."

At that moment, Zhu Jiuyin strode over.

The instant the other Ancestral Shamans heard about Zhu Jiuyin's Heaven-Controlling Bottle, they shrank their heads back in fright.

It was a spacetime where neither sun nor moon could be seen.

Cultivating within it, one could not sense the passage of time outside.

Of course, that was not the most terrifying part. What truly horrified the Ancestral Shamans was that

time inside ran at a ratio of ten to one compared to the outside.

Ten days within equaled only one day outside.

The Ancestral Shamans were naturally restless.

They loved movement and hated stillness.

Making them sit cross-legged and cultivate their Primordial Spirits was difficult enough.

Yet now they were to be locked in a sunless, moonless space where they could not even sense time.

That kind of torment was more agonizing than having their bones pulled out and tendons stripped away.

But it was precisely because of this

that a thousand years produced the effect of ten thousand years of cultivation.

Otherwise, no matter how many pills Dijiang refined, he would not have been able to supply the eleven Ancestral Shamans.

After all, Dijiang himself was cultivating as well.

And his cultivation was even more terrifying.

The essence blood of the eleven Ancestral Shamans had directly allowed him to construct the Law of Strength within his body.

Of course,

the credit still belonged to Pangu's Primordial Spirit.

Without the accumulation and foundation of Pangu's Primordial Spirit, if Dijiang had instead possessed the Primordial Spirit of another Mid-Stage Quasi-Saint,

then even with twelve drops of Pangu Essence Blood, he would never have glimpsed the shadow of the Law of Strength.

Beyond that,

Dijiang had also refined eleven divine abilities of incarnation. Together with his own incarnation,

he had recreated the Twelve Ancestor Witches one-for-one.

The other Ancestral Shamans had been utterly shocked when they saw them.

"Jiuyin, have you come to see me over some urgent matter?"

Dijiang looked at Zhu Jiuyin.

Ordinarily, if there was nothing pressing, Zhu Jiuyin would not come disturb him.

"Eldest Brother, we can barely keep our clansmen suppressed any longer."

Zhu Jiuyin gave a bitter smile.

Looking at the state of his own subordinates was like seeing themselves a thousand years ago.

He felt both helpless and enraged.

Yet

they neither possessed Dijiang's talent for acting nor Pangu's Primordial Spirit.

And the secret art for cultivating Primordial Spirits absolutely could not be leaked.

Once it was exposed,

it would surely draw the siege of all the saints.

No member of the Witch Clan could bear such a crime.

Thus, ever since the eleven Ancestral Shamans began cultivating the Primordial Spirit Secret Art,

they had not been allowed to take even a single step outside Pangu Hall.

Pangu Hall could shield them from the workings of Heaven.

Let alone the saints, even Heavenly Dao Hongjun could not divine the situation here.

This place was formed from Pangu's skullcap.

Even after cultivating Primordial Spirits, they could not fathom its mysteries.

"They must remain suppressed, even if they cannot be!"

Dijiang frowned.

To repel threats from without, one must first pacify the interior!

They had stabilized the big ones, only to forget the little ones.

"Eldest Brother, aren't you making things difficult for us?"

Zhu Jiuyin immediately began spitting grievances.

Since the Witch Clan had been designated by Heaven as protagonists of the Immeasurable Tribulation, how could their rate of reproduction possibly be slower than the Demon Race's?

One had to know that the Twenty-Six Heavens of the Heavenly Court were nearly unable to contain the Demon Race. One could imagine just how terrifying their numbers were.

How could the Witch Clan, standing alongside the Demon Race, be any worse?

Their population had long since spread across the entire Primordial Wilderness.

Those on Mount Buzhou were easy enough to handle; Zhu Jiuyin could forcibly suppress them.

But what about those beyond Mount Buzhou?

As the saying went, when generals were in the field, they need not obey every military order.

What was more, because the Witch Clan cultivated their fleshly bodies with Qi of Earth Sha,

they did not possess divine consciousness, did not cultivate Primordial Spirits, and had no hope of calming their hearts and nurturing their tempers.

Their tempers were explosive.

They could be ignited at the slightest spark.

Though the Demon Race remained in the sky for now, frictions still occurred often.

"This truly is a major problem!"

Listening to Zhu Jiuyin's complaints, Dijiang knew that if they did not find a solution,

then the current minor clashes would sooner or later escalate into a war between the two races.