Kunpeng's Humiliation, Yuanshi's Arrogance

Hong Yun slowly rose to his feet and bowed deeply to Jieyin and Zhunti, a warm smile lingering on his face as he said brightly, "You two fellow Daoists have run about for the sake of the myriad spirits of the West, with such wholehearted sincerity. It is truly moving."

"Since you seek the Dao for all living beings and wish to draw near a Saint Realm being to hear true teachings, it is only right."

"Whether I sit on this mat or not makes little difference. I shall yield this seat to you two fellow Daoists."

His words were sincere, without the slightest hint of pretense.

"Fellow Daoist, you are truly benevolent! You are indeed the most compassionate sacred being in the Primordial World!" Jieyin and Zhunti were overjoyed upon hearing this.

"This favor of yours shall not only be engraved in the hearts of us two brothers; the hundreds of millions of suffering beings in the West shall also never forget it for all eternity!"

The sorrowful expressions of the two brothers temporarily faded. They repeatedly bowed to Hong Yun, their foreheads nearly touching the ground. There was not the slightest pride of an Innate Sacred Being in them, and their voices brimmed with earnest gratitude.

Such behavior was extremely rare in the Primordial World, where reputation mattered greatly.

—To say nothing else, just look at the later Apotheosis Calamity. The moment it became a dispute over face, they would fight tooth and nail!

"You are too polite." Hong Yun waved his hand, his smile still open and forthright. "We are fellow Daoists of the Primordial World. Why speak so formally? Being able to benefit all living beings is the proper destination for this mat."

After the two brothers had thanked him profusely, Jieyin supported Zhunti and quickly stepped forward, helping him settle onto the sixth Ultimate Bliss Mat.

Who would have thought that the moment Zhunti touched the seat, Jieyin's face would once again be painted with sorrow?

He pressed his palms together and bowed toward everyone in the hall, his voice choking with emotion:

"Many thanks to Fellow Daoist Hong Yun for his compassion in granting my junior brother a place to hear the Dao. Yet we two hail from the Western Lands and made our great vows together, swearing to ferry all living beings across. We should naturally cultivate and travel together. Now that my junior brother has a seat while I have nowhere even to stand, I truly have no face to meet the beings of the West..."

Before he could finish, he covered his face and began to weep.

After a long while, he stopped crying and turned his gaze toward Kunpeng, who sat with his eyes closed in quiet repose. He let out a long sigh.

"I have long heard that Fellow Daoist Kunpeng travels alone. If you would show great compassion and yield your seat to me, then when the two of us have delivered the West from all suffering and rescued hundreds of millions of living beings, would that not hold greater meaning than benefiting one person alone? At that time, Fellow Daoist would also receive a share of boundless merit. Might Fellow Daoist be willing to fulfill this?"

Clearly, a single mat was not enough to satisfy their appetite.

"This..." Hong Yun's eyelids twitched wildly at the sight, and an indescribable feeling rose within his heart.

"Precisely!" Zhunti immediately stood and chimed in. The Bodhi Pure Qi around him echoed from afar with Jieyin's Boundless Light Qi. Their auras connected, faintly forming a pincer-like pressure. "Fellow Daoist Kunpeng, please fulfill my senior brother's wish, and fulfill the wish of the myriad spirits of the West!"

Seeing the two press their advantage and actually set their sights on his seat, Kunpeng's eyes flew wide with fury. He slapped the mat with one hand and prepared to rise.

The laws of wind and water swirled around him, while Northern Darkness Cold Baleful Qi surged forth. He was about to fight the two.

"Hmph!"

A cold snort suddenly rang out, crisp and icy, drowning out every other sound in the hall.

Everyone followed the sound and saw Yuanshi standing proudly. Jade Pure Qi spread around him as his gaze swept over Kunpeng, filled with undisguised rejection.

"How can furred, horned creatures, those born damp and hatched from eggs, be worthy to sit in the front alongside us, Pangu's orthodox lineage?!"

The hall instantly fell silent.

Yuanshi valued origins and orthodoxy above all else, and he despised most those strange beings transformed from birds and beasts.

Kunpeng was an Innate Sacred Being, born carrying the fortune of heaven and earth, yet in Yuanshi's mouth he had become an unworthy creature born damp and hatched from eggs.

His contempt overflowed from every word.

Moreover, those words were not directed at Kunpeng alone.

Among the many great cultivators present, though all were Innate Sacred Beings, quite a number bore the forms of birds and beasts, scales and horns.

Such as Candle Dragon of the Eastern Sea,

such as the Fire Phoenix of the south,

and the Lunar Jade Rabbit, the Great Sun Golden Crow...

It could be said that with this one sentence alone, Yuanshi had offended many great cultivators and nearly provoked public outrage!

"Buzz."

Grand Pure One Laozi on the nearby Wind-Fire Mat still had his eyes half-closed and said nothing. Yet the Heaven and Earth Mysterious Yellow Exquisite Pagoda above his head trembled slightly, spilling down boundless golden light of merit and silently declaring the Three Pure Ones' united stance.

"Ah, forget it."

Though Tongtian felt that his second brother had gone too far and disdained such blatant favoritism, brothers were one body in the end. He merely sighed softly. Sword intent flowed around him and connected with the auras of Yuanshi and Laozi. The pressure of three Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals crashed down, bearing directly upon Kunpeng.

Among the seats at the front, only Nuwa and Fu Xi sat in silence, declining to involve themselves in the dispute.

Kunpeng's expression changed abruptly, shifting from red to green, then from green to white.

He was alone, without kin or friends. Among the foremost powers of the Primordial World, he was famously impoverished. Aside from his passable cultivation, he did not even possess a decent accompanying spirit treasure.

His earlier willingness to challenge Jieyin and Zhunti had merely been an impulsive act born of overwhelming rage.

Now that the Three Pure Ones had openly taken sides and the pressure of three great powers descended together, he suddenly came to his senses.

With Jieyin and Zhunti eyeing him like tigers as well, even if he possessed heaven-reaching abilities, he would have no chance whatsoever against five opponents alone!

At this point, Kunpeng naturally understood that he could not keep this mat today, no matter what.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Kunpeng laughed in extreme anger, gritting out the three words until his teeth itched. His gaze first viciously gouged at Jieyin and Zhunti.

Then he swept it venomously over the utterly bewildered Hong Yun, who still had no idea that he had already become entangled in heaven-reaching karma. Finally, his gaze settled on the Three Pure Ones as he said coldly, "What fine Western thieves, what fine Three Pure Ones of Pangu!"

As his words fell, he flung his sleeve and rose sharply.

Sha Qi billowed around him like a tide. Without looking back, he strode to the most secluded corner at the rear of the hall and sat down cross-legged.

His eyes shut tightly, and he withdrew every trace of his aura. Only that resentment, nearly solid enough to take form, lingered and swirled around him.

He swore in his heart: he would repay today's humiliation someday!

Thirty thousand years in the North Nether, thirty thousand years in the Southern Darkness—today, they had humiliated him because he stood alone and without support, stripping him of his face. This karma would one day be repaid a hundredfold!

Now, Kunpeng possessed an escape art divine ability known as Free and Easy Travel, whose true meaning said:

North of the barren expanse lay a dark sea, the Heavenly Pool. There was a fish there, thousands of li across, and none knew its full extent. Its name was Kun. There was a bird there, named Peng, with a back like Mount Tai and wings like clouds hanging from the sky. Riding the whirlwind upward for ninety thousand li, it pierced the clouds and bore the azure heavens upon its back; only then did it set its course south, bound for the Southern Darkness...

Kunpeng was born in the North Nether and migrated to the Southern Darkness, tempering his divine ability through this journey.

"Many thanks, Fellow Daoist, for yielding your treasure!" Seeing Kunpeng retreat, Jieyin was naturally beside himself with joy. He hurried forward and settled onto the fifth Annihilation Mat.

He first saluted the Three Pure Ones from afar in thanks, then bowed deeply to Hong Yun and thanked him profusely once more.

Hong Yun still wore that gentle and candid expression. He waved his hand and repeatedly said, "It is nothing."

Yet he was wholly unaware that, through one moment of kindness, he had already formed a monstrous ill fate with Kunpeng. Nor did he know that today's yielding of a seat would bring him a fatal calamity in the future.

Zhen Yuanzi beside him frowned deeply. From the moment Hong Yun rose to yield his seat, he had repeatedly tugged at his sleeve and signaled him with his eyes, opening his mouth several times as if to speak.

But seeing Hong Yun's joyful expression at having helped another fulfill his wish, he ultimately swallowed his words. In the end, they turned only into a heavy sigh as he looked away.

He and Hong Yun were friends who would live and die together, and he understood this friend's temperament best.

Over the years, Hong Yun had traveled across the Primordial World, treating others generously and kindly, delighting in good deeds and charity. He was a well-known softhearted good man in the Primordial World.

Once his compassion had been stirred, even Zhen Yuanzi had no power to change his mind.

"What unwavering hearts in pursuit of the Dao."

Lingxiao gave Yuanshi a deep look, then turned toward Jieyin and Zhunti, silently sighing within.

People all said that Jieyin and Zhunti were shameless.

But in the Primordial World, where face and dignity mattered only less than life itself—and at times more than life—they could cast aside the bearing of Innate Sacred Beings for the sake of the West, weeping publicly and begging for seats while enduring others' contempt and criticism.

Setting all else aside, such hearts in pursuit of the Dao were truly rare in this world.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

Just as everyone in the hall harbored their own thoughts, and some great powers still stirred restlessly, wishing to contend once more for the opportunities in the front, two figures slowly approached from the side of the hall.

On the left was a Daoist boy in golden robes, his face like polished jade and eyes like bright stars. Tall and straight, he held a whisk with a deer-tail tuft. Clear Qi curled around him, giving him a steady and proper air.

On the right was an immortal girl in plain white robes, beautiful beyond the dust of the world, with a gentle and tranquil bearing. She held a white jade purification vase filled with a verdant willow branch.

Haotian and Yaochi.

These two were Dao children beneath Hongjun Ancestor, transformed from two Innate stubborn stones touched by Chaos Qi. They normally managed the miscellaneous affairs of Violet Firmament Palace.

Though their cultivation was not remarkable, when the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals and Primordial Golden Immortals in the hall saw them, they all restrained their pressure and no longer dared make the slightest clamor. Even their restless thoughts were completely suppressed.

Haotian and Yaochi walked to either side of the lotus dais on the high platform, then bowed together and saluted the empty lotus dais.

"Buzz."

The next instant, a supreme and unmatched sacred might of the Heavenly Dao abruptly enveloped all of Violet Firmament Palace.

Light and shadow flowed above the lotus dais. An elderly man with white hair and beard, dressed in a plain Daoist robe, appeared out of thin air. Sitting cross-legged upon the Twelve-Petaled Merit Golden Lotus, he was none other than Hongjun Ancestor, who had only just attained the Saint Realm.

As the old white-haired man before him gradually overlapped and aligned with the figure he had vaguely glimpsed before, Lingxiao's pupils suddenly contracted.

"It really is him!"