Fortune Goes to Those Destined for It; Hongjun Sighs in Violet Firmament Palace

As the first lecture at Violet Firmament Palace came to an end, Hong Yun and Zhen Yuanzi returned together, entering the Primordial World.

Hong Yun had originally attained the Dao as the first innate fire cloud. Ever free-spirited and fond of roaming the mountains and rivers of the Primordial World, he clasped hands in farewell to Zhen Yuanzi and set off alone.

Who would have thought that after Kunpeng lost his cushion at Violet Firmament Palace, the knot in his Dao heart would remain unresolved, nearly driving him into qi deviation.

He could not afford to offend the Three Pure Ones, nor could he defeat the inseparable Jieyin and Zhunti. Thus, he poured all his venomous resentment onto Hong Yun. Following him in secret all the way, he truly caught Hong Yun alone.

He immediately burned his blood essence and, borne upon towering hatred, lunged forward in a life-or-death attack.

Though Hong Yun was also a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal with one of the finest origins in the Primordial World, he had never excelled in battles of life and death. Startled into disorder by Kunpeng's desperate onslaught, he fell into the disadvantage within a few exchanges, on the verge of perishing on the spot.

At that critical moment, Zhen Yuanzi followed the lingering traces of Hong Yun's aura and arrived. With the Earth Embryonic Membrane, he firmly blocked Kunpeng and urgently shouted for Hong Yun to flee.

Still shaken to the core, Hong Yun did not dare return to his Eastern Fire Cloud Cave dojo. Instead, he headed straight for Mount Longevity at the boundary between east and west.

He thought to himself:

Back when I gave up my seat at Violet Firmament Palace, Jieyin and Zhunti thanked me profusely and promised to repay the favor. Should anything truly happen, I can seek their help.

When he reached the foot of Mount Buzhou, Hong Yun suddenly sensed innate spiritual energy soaring from deep within its summit. Brilliant and majestic, it stirred his own origin. He followed the trail inside and, by sheer accident, stumbled into the secluded valley where the Innate Gourd Vine was emerging.

When heavenly treasures and earthly materials emerged in the Primordial World, fortune came first, virtue second, and cultivation last.

As the saying went, "The virtuous possess it; those destined obtain it." When a spiritual root emerged, the laws of the Great Dao naturally guarded it. Layers of time and space wound around it, while strands of karma intertwined.

Those with fate could pierce the illusion at a glance and behold the supreme treasure;

Those without fate, even if their power reached the heavens, would enter the valley and see only an ordinary barren ravine—seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing.

Hong Yun raised his eyes and saw the Innate Gourd Vine gleaming atop the Nine Heavens Breath Soil. Auspicious light flowed around its seven gourds. His eyes immediately lit up, and he clapped his hands with laughter. "Wonderful! This poor Daoist has already benefited greatly from hearing the Dao at Violet Firmament Palace, and now I have encountered the birth of this Innate Spiritual Root. This truly is heaven-sent fate!"

He stepped forward slowly. With a sweep of his divine sense, he understood the origins of the vine—

The vine had originally grown in the sea of Chaos qi, nourished by Yin-Yang qi and the origins of the Five Elements. Yin-Yang formed its framework, and the Five Elements its body; it had once been a top-grade spiritual root of Chaos. Yet when Pangu opened heaven and earth, it was caught in the shock of that world-opening might. Its origin was damaged and its grade fell. Following Pangu's clear qi into the Primordial World, it rooted itself within the Nine Heavens Breath Soil of Mount Buzhou, ranked among the ten great Innate Spiritual Roots of the Primordial World.

Hong Yun's gaze moved across the vine, only for his mind to be instantly drawn to the purple-red gourd at its foremost tip.

The gourd stood nine inches and nine tenths tall and weighed four liang and nine qian. Crimson light flowed over it, and it felt warm and smooth in his hand. Starlight seemed to circulate within, containing endless sand of stars. It emanated a murderous Dao rhythm capable of annihilating Primordial Spirits, faintly resonating with his Cloud Dao, where water, fire, and wind fused as one. It was plainly the treasure most compatible with his Dao!

"Wonderful!"

Hong Yun was overjoyed, thinking to himself: A single gourd is already a Supreme-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure. If I can pluck all seven gourds and assemble them into a set, would their power not rival an Innate Supreme Treasure? Then, even if I am not skilled in combat, I will have a means to protect myself and guard my Dao. I will no longer need fear Kunpeng's pursuit!

Without further hesitation, he raised a hand and gently waved, plucking the purple-red gourd into his grasp. It was none other than the famed Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Red Gourd of later days.

"Bang!"

When he reached for the other gourds, his fingertips had barely touched one gourd's skin before an innate restriction fiercely flung him away, leaving his palm throbbing with pain.

He tried the remaining five in succession, with the same result each time.

No matter how he circulated his mana, he could not move them in the slightest. He immediately understood: fate was ordained by heaven. What was not his could not be forcibly sought.

"Only one gourd per person..." He shook his head, and Zhen Yuanzi, his friend who had shared life-and-death bonds with him, immediately came to mind.

Such an Innate Spiritual Root was something one could encounter but never seek. Since he had gained this opportunity, how could he forget his dear friend?

Zhen Yuanzi had attained the Dao from innate Wu Earth essence and possessed extraordinary origins. Perhaps he had some fate with the remaining gourds. Even if he did not, bringing him to witness this spiritual root of Chaos would still be a fine thing.

Hong Yun no longer tried to pluck any gourds. He turned and left the valley, intending to find Zhen Yuanzi.

"Hum."

Yet just as his foot stepped beyond the secluded valley's boundary, the surrounding time and space suddenly twisted. An irresistible force of the Great Dao swept over him. The scene before his eyes blurred, and the innate restriction directly sent him billions upon billions of miles away.

"How could this happen?!" Hong Yun was aghast. Having finally found such an opportunity, how could he let it slip away like this?

At once, disregarding the danger of Kunpeng's pursuit, he fully activated the Fire Cloud Escape Art. Transforming into a crimson streak, he raced back toward Mount Buzhou like wind and lightning, charging for the valley he had just left.

But when he returned to the spot and looked up, all he saw was an utterly ordinary wilderness of rocky hills and ravines, jagged stones scattered everywhere and weeds growing thick. There was no Innate Gourd Vine or Nine Heavens Breath Soil, not even the slightest trace of innate spiritual energy.

He spread out his divine sense and carefully searched the surrounding million miles, yet he could never find the faintest trace of any time-space layer. It was as though that extraordinary encounter had truly been nothing but an illusion.

Only the purple-red gourd clenched in his hand sent out warm, gentle Dao rhythms, reminding him that everything had been real.

"Fortune has its own destined course. It cannot be greedily sought, much less forcibly seized." Hong Yun stood there in a daze. Only after a long while did he let out a deep sigh and utterly abandon the thought.

Remembering that Kunpeng still watched him like a tiger behind him, he did not dare linger. He put away the gourd, identified the direction of Mount Longevity, and transformed into a fire cloud speeding away.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Only moments after Hong Yun departed, three streams of clear qi descended from the horizon into the valley. They were the Three Pure Ones.

The three had been transformed from Pangu's Primordial Spirit, their origins immensely powerful. The moment they arrived, they saw through the illusion of time and space, and the hidden Gourd Vine and remaining six gourds all appeared before them.

"Two worthy brothers, each of you may take one treasure."

Laozi's gaze was tranquil. With a light sweep of his horsetail whisk, the purple-gold gourd, which governed the earth-element origin and bore the profound virtue of Wu Earth, fell into his hand. He gave a slight nod and named it the Purple-Gold Red Gourd.

"Good."

Yuanshi nodded, his gaze cold and clear. He reached out and took the purple-black gourd that governed Lunar Yin water and contained a small Chaos world within. He named it the Chaos Gourd.

"This treasure is destined for this poor Daoist."

Tongtian laughed loudly and plucked the purple-yellow gourd, whose Bing Fire and Ren Water shared the same root and whose Yin-Yang balanced each other. It contained twin water-and-fire spirits, peerless in slaughter. He immediately named it the Water-Fire Gourd and claimed it for his own use.

After the three brothers each took a spiritual treasure, they did not remain. Transforming into three streams of clear qi, they departed. Only the Gourd Vine and the remaining three gourds swayed gently atop the Breath Soil, quietly awaiting the other destined ones.

Within Violet Firmament Palace, Lingxiao still sat opposite Hongjun. Together, they discussed the profound mysteries of the Calamity, and after several exchanges, both gained immensely.

Hongjun lightly moved his fingers, and the Creation Jade Slip above his head once more bloomed with mysterious light. Within its projection, the sealed history of the Dragon-Han Calamity was peeled back layer by layer:

Rahu hid within Mount Sumeru, repeatedly sowing discord among the three clans in secret. The hatred between the scaled, feathered, and furred clans deepened by the day, and their karmic slaughter grew ever heavier.

At that time, Yang Mei was wholly devoted to proving the Dao, secluded on Abbot Island and indifferent to worldly affairs. Hongjun obtained a fragment of the Creation Jade Slip and comprehended the Three-Corpses Severing Path to Sainthood. He secluded himself on Jade Capital Mountain to sever his corpses, while also befriending the three Ancestors Heaven-Earth, Yin-Yang, and Five Elements, waiting only to protect the Primordial World when heaven and earth overturned.

At last, the contradictions among the three clans erupted completely. They fought their decisive battle across the Western Lands, slaughtering until sun and moon lost their light and mountains and rivers shattered.

After that battle, all three clans suffered grievous losses:

The Ancestral Dragon used his own body as a seal to suppress the East Sea Eye, and the Dragon Clan withdrew to the Four Seas; Yuan Feng used his broken body to seal the Undying Volcano, and the Phoenix Clan contracted into the Southern Lands; Primordial Qilin sacrificed himself to stabilize the central Earth Veins, and the Qilin Clan thereafter withdrew from the world, becoming auspicious beasts of the Primordial World and never again involving themselves in conflict.

With the three clans brought to their close, Rahu emerged from behind the curtain. He nailed the Five Elements Ancestor to death with the God-Slaying Spear, killing a chicken to scare the monkeys. Hongjun Ancestor was enraged beyond measure, and the War of Dao and Demons immediately erupted.

Rahu blood-sacrificed the Four Swords of Immortal Slaying with the blood of countless living beings from the three clans, laying down a killing formation that "could not be broken without four Saints." Hongjun joined forces with the two Ancestors Heaven-Earth and Yin-Yang, and also invited Yang Mei Ancestor to break the formation together.

In the battle within the formation, the three Ancestors Heaven-Earth, Yin-Yang, and Yang Mei were successively slain, but the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation also revealed a fatal flaw.

Hongjun Ancestor made a decisive choice. Using his Three Corpses incarnations to replace the three Ancestors, he completed the number of the four poles, drew upon the power of the Heavenly Dao, shattered the formation in one stroke, and took the Four Swords of Immortal Slaying.

At the moment of his defeat and death, Rahu remained unwilling to accept it. He self-destructed, destroying the ancestral vein of the Western Lands, which became barren from that day onward. He also made the great oath of the Demonic Dao, opening the Outer Heavenly Demon Realm and becoming the ancestor of the Outer Heavenly Demons. From then on, when Dao declined, demons flourished; when demons declined, Dao flourished. The reincarnation of the Demonic Dao would never perish.

The projection froze upon the sight of the Western Lands collapsing and their spiritual veins withering away. The treasure light of the Creation Jade Slip slowly receded, returning to Hongjun's sleeve.

"Alas."

Silence returned to Violet Firmament Palace. Only Hongjun's long sigh, carrying endless compassion for the heaven and earth of the Primordial World, slowly echoed through the hall.