Qing Xuanzi had never expected to be ambushed here.
Caught completely off guard, he was immediately knocked over.
In his haste, he saw Houtu's pretty face filled with fury.
After rolling aside and dodging Houtu's attack, he raised the ruler in his hand to block her and asked in confusion:
"Fellow Daoist Houtu, what is this about? Even if I must die, at least let Qing Xuanzi die knowing why."
"You thief, and you still have the nerve to ask? Take this!"
Houtu paid no heed to Qing Xuanzi's words. She swung her fists and unleashed a storm of attacks.
After dodging several blows, Qing Xuanzi's temper flared, and he transformed directly.
This time, he still assumed the Human Ancestor True Body, but the unseen laws of Pangu Hall restricted the size of his body.
Though his body had not grown larger, the power behind it was worlds apart.
For some unknown reason, Qing Xuanzi's transformation seemed to frighten Houtu badly, leaving her standing there in a daze.
She seemed completely deaf to the whistling fist rushing toward her.
Unable to bring himself to strike her, Qing Xuanzi stopped his fist abruptly, letting it graze past Houtu's face.
"Y-you... How could you transform here?" Houtu's expression changed drastically.
The other ancestral witches also stared at Qing Xuanzi as though he were some kind of monster.
Seeing that Qing Xuanzi said nothing, Houtu stamped her foot and ran to Dijiang, saying aggrievedly, "Big Brother, this Qing Xuanzi bullied me. Help me beat him up."
Qing Xuanzi finally understood what it meant to say women were impossible to raise. Damn it, even goddesses were the same.
Then say it! Why did you suddenly attack me? Damn, this is killing me!
As if someone had heard Qing Xuanzi's inner thoughts, someone came to Houtu's side and comforted her softly:
"Sister Houtu, tell Sister Xuan Ming what grievance you have. If that bastard truly bullied you, I'll beat him to death."
"Sister Xuan Ming, seven thousand years ago, I took that broken ruler to the tribe to measure land. I forgot to take it back, and then I saw him trying to steal it. I caught him and drove him away. Now he's openly come for it again. Tell me, isn't he bullying me?"
Xuan Ming nodded. "Yes, this is his fault."
After saying that, she turned and glared at Qing Xuanzi. Her meaning was clear: Hurry up and apologize. If you could not transform here, I would beat you until you could not take care of yourself.
Qing Xuanzi more or less understood what she meant, but he had also finally realized that the Witch Race hardly had any brains. The ancestral witches were no exception.
Could it be that they...
Suddenly, Qing Xuanzi had a bad premonition. Trembling, he asked, "Does any of you know how long it has been since the human race came into being?"
"It must have been several hundred thousand years," Dijiang said. Those words finally drove Qing Xuanzi to despair.
Damn it, not a single ancestral witch was normal.
Well, that was that. What should have been an easily explained matter had now been completely confirmed.
After all, someone like Houtu basically recognized people by their clothes and faces. As long as someone looked remotely similar, she would decide they were the same person.
So long as she wanted to, she could consider anyone of the same species to be the same person.
The divide between the Witch Race and the Demon Clan was probably more than half, if not entirely, the Witch Race's fault.
Just as Qing Xuanzi was considering how to get away, a heavenly voice rang out. "I checked. The human race has existed for less than five thousand years."
Case closed. Qing Xuanzi's eyes lit up at those words, and he nearly pounced on Zhu Jiuyin and took a couple of bites out of him.
Fortunately, among the ancestral witches was an ancestor of time who could inspect scenes from the flow of time whenever he wished. Otherwise, Qing Xuanzi feared he would never have been able to explain himself.
"Ah, Zhu Jiuyin, is what you said true?" Dijiang asked somewhat embarrassedly.
"Yes, Big Brother. I checked. It has indeed been less than five thousand years."
Houtu refused to accept it and immediately shouted, "Maybe I remembered the time wrong. Perhaps it was three or five thousand years ago."
"Enough, Sister Houtu. Brother Qing Xuanzi can assume the ancestral witch true body. It definitely could not have been him," Dijiang concluded decisively.
Phew. Qing Xuanzi let out a breath of stale air. Though he had no idea how Dijiang had concluded that someone capable of assuming the Human Ancestor True Body could not have done it, at least the matter had been settled.
"Um, Brother Dijiang, this ruler is what I came for." Qing Xuanzi waved the ruler in his hand.
He had long since infused it with mana and confirmed that it was the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler.
"Take it, take it. We of the Witch Race cannot use this thing. Since you can use it, consider it a gift," Dijiang said generously with a wave of his hand.
Only Houtu remained unwilling, sulking to herself. She still believed that person had been Qing Xuanzi.
That was why, when a woman—especially a capable woman—became convinced of something, even if she knew she was wrong, she would never turn back.
She would only wait for others to apologize before reluctantly letting the matter go.
Clearly, Qing Xuanzi was not that sort of person, so Houtu probably began to see him differently.
Had no one else been present, it would likely have turned into a chaotic brawl.
Qing Xuanzi stayed with the Witch Race for over a hundred days when a jade disc beside him suddenly shattered.
Tian's cry for help came from the broken jade disc: "Honored Master, the human race is under attack."
Damn it! A surge of rage rose within Qing Xuanzi. He had just suffered Houtu's nonsense and had nowhere to vent it.
Someone actually dared target the human race!
"Brother Dijiang, you heard that too. I'm leaving." With that, Qing Xuanzi took one step and vanished from where he stood.
Dijiang froze for a moment, then flew into a rage. "Which suicidal fool dares attack my brother's people? Brothers, move out! Time for a fight!"
The ancestral witches howled as they revealed their ancestral witch true bodies and raced across Buzhou Mountain toward the human race's territory.
With a single step, Qing Xuanzi arrived at the mountaintop where the Human Race Dao Palace stood.
Looking out, he saw the Three Thousand Congenital Humans forming the Great Three Talents Formation. Unfortunately, they were all merely Earth Immortals and Heavenly Immortals.
They could only hold on bitterly.
At the sight, Qing Xuanzi's fury shot straight to the top of his head, and vast mana poured into the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler.
Activated by mana for the first time, the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler bloomed with golden radiance that filled the sky and shot into the heavens.
Qing Xuanzi shouted, "Dong Wanggong, you are courting death!"
The Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler flew into the air, transforming into a massive ruler that smashed down toward Dong Wanggong.
Before the attack even reached him, Dong Wanggong felt a suffocating pressure.
The radiance emitted by the Dragon Head Crutch was nowhere near enough to withstand that pressure.
He had never imagined that Qing Xuanzi possessed such a powerful treasure. The attack had not even arrived, yet he could no longer endure its mere pressure.
"Form the array!" Dong Wanggong roared. Before the several protector-like figures at his side could form a grand formation—
The Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler's attack arrived.
A deafening boom rang out. When the dust settled, where was anyone to be seen?
Only Dong Wanggong's primordial spirit remained, panicked and trying to flee, when he discovered that the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler was descending again.
"Qing Xuanzi, I was personally appointed by the Dao Ancestor—"
Dong Wanggong's shriek ended abruptly. This time, the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler effortlessly destroyed both his soul and spirit.
"Appointed my ass! I'm the Dao Ancestor's Closed-Door Disciple!" Still not satisfied, Qing Xuanzi cursed loudly.
The other so-called members of the Immortal Court scattered in all directions the moment they saw Dong Wanggong forcibly exterminated.
"Hmph, now you think of running? No chance." Qing Xuanzi raised the Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler and smashed it toward the fleeing crowd.
"Junior Brother, wait." A Seven Treasure Tree blocked Qing Xuanzi's Hongmeng Measuring Heaven Ruler, and Zhunti stood before him with a smile on his face.
Before you continue