Heaven and Earth Stir, and an Old Acquaintance Is Met Again

The ground was littered with the corpses of Chaos Fiends, piled into small mountains. After the ancestors rested for a while and regulated their breaths, they each went to a different direction to gather the fiends.

In the end, they formed a circle and piled the corpses within it. Hongjun was the first to speak. "Everyone, ignite your Dao fires, burn the Dao laws, offer them to the Primordial World, and thus perfect the Great Dao!"

The ancestors spoke in unison. "Excellent." They drew upon the unique power of the Great Dao each had cultivated, as though igniting a grand feast of raging Dao fire!

The flames were blazing and brilliant, encircling the mountain-like heaps of countless, seemingly endless Ferocious Beast corpses as they burned fiercely without cease.

Though the blaze was so intense, it was strangely clear. Tens of thousands of Dao laws flashed and danced within the firelight like dazzling stars in the night sky.

Even more astonishingly, the inferno did not produce the slightest wisp of black smoke. Its flames were as pure as a lake clear to the very bottom.

This was the legendary World-Cleansing Dao Fire! It exuded an aura of peace and serenity, yet beneath that calm lay the dreadful power to burn even Dao laws to nothing.

The once savage and terrifying fiend corpses gradually diminished beneath the scorching World-Cleansing Dao Fire until they vanished completely. Not even the slightest trace of residue remained on the ground; instead, an unusual fragrance filled the air, refreshing the heart and clearing the mind.

Everyone looked closely and saw a mass of multicolored Dao law origins intertwining and fusing together, like a brilliantly colored flower slowly blossoming.

As time passed, that mass of Dao law origin continued to gather and grow, becoming ever more dazzling.

At this sight, the ancestors were overjoyed and once more increased the output of their flames.

They focused wholeheartedly, controlling the World-Cleansing Dao Fire with all their strength in an effort to make this Dao Origin Essence purer and more powerful.

Thus time hurried by. A full forty thousand years passed before every Ferocious Beast corpse was finally burned away completely.

By then, the Dao Origin Essence forged through those long years had become incomparably pure and radiant, like a brilliant pearl set within the dark universe.

It seemed to contain thousands upon thousands of profound truths, pointing directly to the origins of all things and clearly revealing the most fundamental mysteries of their respective Great Daos.

Hongjun raised his hand and offered up the Creation Jade Disc. Heaven-Earth Daoist set forth the Heaven-Earth Cauldron, Yang Mei nodded and offered up a willow branch, Lady Violet Light hung the Celestial Star Map in midair, and Yin-Yang Daoist spread open the Yin-Yang Diagram. Each of them drew upon the origin of the Primordial World. The Primordial World Womb Membrane swelled ever more, its aura continuously strengthening as though it were reviving.

They poured the power of their supreme treasures into the Creation Jade Disc. It was a supreme treasure of creation, the dwelling place of the true meaning of the Great Dao; using it to strengthen the Primordial World's origin was all the easier.

The mass of five-colored Dao Origin eagerly drifted toward the Primordial World Womb Membrane, continuously absorbed and consumed until it finally merged into it.

With a BOOM, the Primordial World seemed to expand. The heavens became brighter, the earth grew heavier, and the growth of all things seemed to accelerate. The Primordial World's origin had strengthened once again!

Its rules became more complete, and the void more stable.

This world's capacity to bear things grew broader.

Then five streams of pure Great Dao qi shot out from the Primordial World and floated toward the five figures from before. Each of them received one stream of qi, their faces brimming with delight, with no trace of weariness left.

When the Primordial World's origin strengthened, Zhen Yuanzi, who was heading toward Five Villages Temple, sensed it as well.

He had been traveling, with Fire Luan carrying him onward and Nailing attending and protecting him at his side, while his mind wandered beyond the heavens in contemplation of the Great Dao.

All at once, he discovered that the origin of the Earthly Dao had strengthened. The earth rejoiced, and even his own mana grew somewhat stronger, while his compassionate nature deepened further.

Zhen Yuanzi performed a divination with his fingers, only to find the heavenly secrets unclear, as though shrouded from sight. He then used the Earth Book to deduce the matter, but still received no information.

He could not help but speculate inwardly. What could have caused the origin of heaven and earth to increase at this time?

It was truly strange. Even he could not calculate it.

Many people of the Dao within the Primordial World also sensed the changes in heaven and earth and began making calculations, yet none knew the reason.

As for the five initiators of this change, they had long since returned to their respective abodes to cultivate. How could they spare any thought for the calculations of others?

After Zhen Yuanzi discovered that the Earthly Dao's origin had strengthened, he found that the gestation of Earthly Dao deities seemed to have accelerated. Even Nailing's companion spirit treasure within Tang Mountain was being nurtured faster; in no more than a few million years, it would be able to enter the world.

This delighted him even more. He rejoiced that many Earthly Dao beings like himself would soon be born; he rejoiced that all living beings would become increasingly free and harmonious; he rejoiced that all living beings would gain the possibility of life.

At the same time, he grew even more eager to return. With such changes in heaven and earth, who knew what changes might have occurred within his Five Villages Temple?

He had only just increased his speed when Fire Luan beat its wings with all its strength and surged toward its utmost velocity.

When they neared the place where Hun'e had been slain years ago, Zhen Yuanzi gently tugged the silk ribbon tied around Fire Luan's neck, signaling it to stop. He dismounted and went to the old site to reminisce once more.

After Hun'e's death, the countless fragments of stone in this place had long since turned into a hundred thousand mountains, with forests spreading everywhere.

It had long become utterly different from what it had been. Had Zhen Yuanzi not formed a bit of karmic affinity with this place in those years, how could he have known just how greatly it had changed?

He then saw a clear spring in the mountains, limpid and filled with pure spiritual energy. It turned out to be the other half of the spring source Zhen Yuanzi had left behind in those days, which had now become a spring of incomparably pure water.

No sooner had Zhen Yuanzi arrived than a breeze swept toward him, curling around his sleeve as though acting coyly. It refused to disperse, and Zhen Yuanzi remembered—it was the breeze he had summoned long ago.

This wind still remembered him. That truly was not easy.

Back then, when Zhen Yuanzi had summoned this breeze to repair the earth veins along the edge of Undying Volcano, he had used it to blow away miasma. He had also used the wind to dissolve pure water and wash away foul qi. It had followed him for tens of millions of years, and when Zhen Yuanzi's Merit reached fulfillment, this breeze had also been touched by a trace of Merit, nourishing its spirit.

It had originally intended to continue south with Zhen Yuanzi, but after Heaven-Earth Daoist arrived, his aura was vast and unfathomable. Qingfeng did not dare approach him, and so it followed Zhen Yuanzi's lingering aura instead.

In the end, it discovered Zhen Yuanzi's aura at the place where he had slain Hun'e years ago, and so remained here to cultivate.