Tricking Houtu

Qing Xuanzi arrived at the Blood Sea in an instant.

In midair stood a girl in a goose-yellow palace dress, her pretty face puffed up with anger as she pointed at Nether River. She looked like the girl next door.

Who else could it be but Houtu?

Looking closer—

She held a book in her left hand and a large brush in her right.

Qing Xuanzi's eyelids twitched. The Heavenly Dao had once again shattered the limits of shamelessness.

Shouldn't those things have condensed only after the Netherworld took shape?

Just to scheme against Houtu, it had forcibly brought them into existence ahead of time.

Originally, this was supposed to happen when the Witch Race and Demon Clan were nearing their second great war.

Only after Houtu saw the living beings of the primordial world suffering untold misery would she take pity on them.

In the end, she would transform herself into reincarnation.

That would completely render the Twelve Divine Demonic Array of the ancestral witches useless.

At the same time, it would truly turn Pangu into history.

Yet now, the Heavenly Dao had already begun laying its plans.

To lure Houtu into its trap, it had not hesitated to bring the Netherworld's supreme treasures into existence directly.

It seemed the Heavenly Dao had sensed something as well.

Its moves were getting faster and faster.

"Disciple, do not panic. The Heavenly Dao made a mistake in its haste and played a bad move. These two treasures may indeed lead Houtu down the path of no return ahead of time, but don't you still have yourself? They are treasures of the Nine Netherworld. With them, there is no need to search for the Nine Netherworld—you can enter it directly."

Hongjun's voice arose within Qing Xuanzi's mind.

Qing Xuanzi knew Hongjun had done this through the Creation Jade Plate Fragment.

The difference between this and voice transmission was that it was far more concealed.

It seemed Hongjun had also noticed that the Heavenly Dao was accelerating its plans, which was why he had taken the chance to set up the Creation Jade Plate Fragment at Shouyang Mountain.

"Houtu, look all you want, but what do you mean by dividing up my Blood Sea?" Nether River roared furiously.

"Hmph, what Blood Sea? It is clearly just a little stream."

"Houtu, don't push people too far!" Veins bulged on Nether River's forehead. If he had not caught sight of Qing Xuanzi standing nearby from the corner of his eye—

He likely would have already attacked.

Nether River had already been in a foul mood. His perfectly fine Blood Sea had, in the blink of an eye—

Turned into a little stream.

He had already realized that he had been caught in the crossfire for no reason at all.

The Heavenly Dao and Qing Xuanzi were fighting, yet he had become the victim.

Damn it, where was he supposed to go to argue this?

He had been holding that anger in all along.

Houtu's commotion made it erupt at once.

"Sister Houtu, come down first. We can talk this out," Qing Xuanzi hurriedly called out when he saw Nether River on the verge of losing control.

"Ah, Brother Qing Xuanzi, you're here!"

Qing Xuanzi rubbed his forehead. Was this silly girl's train of thought short-circuiting?

I've been standing here this whole time, and you only noticed now? How thick must your nerves be?

"Brother Qing Xuanzi, judge this fairly. I only took half of his Blood... little stream, and he actually wanted to attack me. Beat him up!"

Houtu flew down from midair and came to Qing Xuanzi's side, saying this with puffed-up cheeks.

When Nether River heard Houtu call it a "little stream," he nearly lost control.

I'm the victim here, all right, you two?

One was the culprit, while the other was rubbing salt into his wounds.

Neither of them was any good.

Left with no choice, Qing Xuanzi soothed her, "Sister Houtu, the Blood Sea is useless to us anyway. What do we need it for? It reeks of blood."

Houtu wrinkled her delicate nose. "But... but I need it."

Qing Xuanzi knew what Houtu meant.

Sigh, only Houtu—no, the entire Witch Race—is like this.

Try this with a member of the Demon Clan or any other race.

The Heavenly Dao could only fool the Witch Race.

Fortunately, Qing Xuanzi's skill at deceiving people was no worse than the Heavenly Dao's—perhaps even much better.

"Sister Houtu, I understand what you mean. But do you know this? If anything goes wrong with the Blood Sea, then what you want to do will also fail."

"Why?"

"Look, the Blood Sea is called the Blood Sea. The key word is blood..."

Qing Xuanzi began spinning a load of nonsense, leaving Houtu utterly bewildered.

After all, Qing Xuanzi had been used to bragging in his previous life. This was nothing. Had she ever heard of keyboard warriors?

What about professional contrarians?

Once Qing Xuanzi unleashed his art of deception, let alone Houtu—hehe, there were probably few in the entire primordial world who would not be talked into limping.

Even Hongjun in the Purple Cloud Palace was left confused by Qing Xuanzi's performance.

Who am I? Am I still the Dao Ancestor of the primordial world?

How come I don't know any of the things Qing Xuanzi is talking about?

It was not just the primordial world that had been fooled.

The funniest part was that even the Heavenly Dao had been fooled.

Within the Heavenly Dao Space, a giant eye stared in disbelief at Hongjun's primordial spirit. "Is this some secret history of the primordial world?"

Without even lifting an eyelid, Hongjun replied, "Whether it is secret history or not, don't you know that in your own heart?"

"But why don't I remember such a thing? Did I forget? No, how could I, the Heavenly Dao, possibly forget anything? Then how do I explain what Qing Xuanzi said?"

The Heavenly Dao went from muttering to itself to doubting its very existence.

Qing Xuanzi talked until his mouth was dry. He had no idea that his rambling had actually managed to fool the Heavenly Dao.

It nearly caused the Heavenly Dao to crash outright.

Had he known, he probably would have changed his strategy immediately.

Damn it, if words could do the job, why bother fighting?

In the end, Qing Xuanzi concluded with, "So, the Blood Sea cannot be touched for the time being. I already have a plan for your matter."

He successfully coaxed Houtu into going back.

As for Nether River's wounded heart—

Qing Xuanzi's response was: What does that have to do with me? That was the Heavenly Dao's doing. If you have the ability, go find the Heavenly Dao.

After returning to the Ancestral Witch Land, Qing Xuanzi finally let out a sigh of relief.

Among the Witch Race, only Houtu controlled the Great Dao of Earth.

She was the natural candidate to pioneer the Earth Dao.

No one else could do it.

Therefore, as long as Qing Xuanzi kept a close eye on Houtu, everything would be fine.

A plan suddenly came to Qing Xuanzi. His eyes rolled as he said, "Sister Houtu, the matter you are thinking about can actually be accomplished in Pangu Hall."

"Ah, really? Hurry and teach me. I'll go try it!" Houtu jumped excitedly.

She had already been troubled over how she would face her brothers and sisters if this matter succeeded.

Now that she heard it could be done at home, she was overjoyed.

"Mm, give me the Book of Life and Death and the Judge's Pen first. After I spend some time performing a ritual and complete it, I will help you carry out your plans in the future." There it was—Qing Xuanzi had started deceiving her again.

"Okay, here you go. So these things are called the Book of Life and Death and the Judge's Pen? Why are their names so strange?"

Houtu had no primordial spirit, so she naturally could not refine spiritual treasures and had no way of knowing their names.

After hearing their names, she found them quite strange and also became somewhat doubtful about what she had been thinking.

At this point, she had merely realized that her mission was to perform an act of immense merit for the living beings of the primordial world.

She was not yet clear on what exactly it was.

Hearing Qing Xuanzi put it this way made her wary of the matter in her heart.

Originally, Houtu would only decide to transform herself into reincarnation in the future after being calculated against step by step by the Heavenly Dao.

If someone told her now that her mission was to transform herself into reincarnation and cease to be a member of the Witch Race from then on—

She would definitely slap them across the face.

By directly naming the spiritual treasures at this moment, Qing Xuanzi was planting a seed of distrust in Houtu's heart before she developed that line of thinking.

Slowly, he would let it sprout and grow within Houtu's heart.

That way, if the Heavenly Dao tried to fool Houtu again while Qing Xuanzi was not paying attention—

It would not be so easy to deceive her.

Just as Qing Xuanzi was considering how to keep Houtu from falling into the Heavenly Dao's scheme—

A flash of treasure light shot into the sky.

Under Qing Xuanzi's Taiji Divine Eyes, he saw it clearly.

Oh no, the Heavenly Dao is about to unleash its ultimate move.