Hongjun's First Sermon

Styx Ancestor had been born within the Nine Nether Blood Sea and was timid by nature, always fearing trouble. Seeing Primordial speak as Pangu's Primordial Spirit incarnate, he had already felt a trace of retreat in his heart. Then Mu Jizi followed up with a perfectly timed remark!

Thus, Styx Ancestor went with the flow, rose to his feet, and prepared to withdraw. Yet before leaving, his cold gaze swept over Red Cloud and Zhun Ti in turn. With a cold snort, he departed! In his heart, however, he had come to hate them both!

"Just at this moment!" Seeing Styx Ancestor leave, Zhun Ti and Kunpeng's eyes both lit up. Their hearts stirred, and they took a swift step toward the sixth purple jade cushion!

With a bang, the two collided, and a fierce struggle immediately broke out!

Mu Jizi and Jieyin were about to step in when suddenly—

"Dong!"

A resounding bell rang out at that moment. Immediately afterward, an ordinary old man appeared before the great mighty beings. He wore the Purple Firmament Limitless Crown and the Purple Firmament Limitless Robe, his face utterly expressionless, his figure seeming almost ethereal!

The sudden appearance of this man gave all the great mighty beings a slight start. Then they fell silent and promptly sat upright!

In an instant, none of them even dared to send messages through divine sense!

For a time, the hall was incomparably silent. Only the sounds of Zhun Ti and Kunpeng fighting over the purple jade cushion could be heard!

Needless to say, that ordinary old man was naturally Dao Ancestor Hongjun!

The two were wholly absorbed and had not sensed Hongjun's arrival in the slightest! Only after fighting over the seat for a while did they notice that the hall, which had been somewhat noisy, had suddenly become utterly quiet. They could not help stopping their struggle, their hearts filled with confusion as they turned to look at their respective elder brothers.

They saw Mu Jizi and Jieyin both casting sidelong glances toward the high platform!

At once, Zhun Ti and Kunpeng's hearts skipped a beat, and a bad feeling rose within them. Following Mu Jizi and Jieyin's gazes, they turned toward the high platform!

In an instant, an ordinary yet unsmiling face entered their sight!

If this was not Dao Ancestor Hongjun, who had become a Saint only a hundred years ago, then who else could it be?

At the sight of Dao Ancestor Hongjun, Zhun Ti and Kunpeng were dumbfounded. Such a humiliating spectacle of fighting over seats had actually been witnessed by a Saint. Hopefully, they had not left a bad impression in the Saint's eyes!

As the two trembled uneasily, not knowing what to say, Hongjun waved his hand. Another purple jade cushion appeared, and he placed it beside Jieyin!

Then Dao Ancestor Hongjun pointed at the eighth purple jade cushion and said, "Zhun Ti, sit here!"

After saying this, Hongjun spoke no more. Once Zhun Ti and Kunpeng had taken their seats, all the great mighty beings bowed and shouted, "May Teacher be well!"

"All of you who have come here possess great fortune and great destiny. I shall open the altar and expound the innate Grand Dao. I hope you will gain something and achieve something!" Hongjun nodded, seeming not to have noticed the earlier scene. He then said indifferently, "From now on, the seating shall remain as it is. Know that the Grand Dao is boundless, and each person receives their own share of fortune!"

The great mighty beings nodded, half understanding and half bewildered!

At this moment, with the trivial matters settled, Hongjun pushed up the Purple Firmament Limitless Crown atop his head. In an instant, purple light shot into the sky, hazy and indistinct, seeming real yet unreal. Streams of profound light slowly radiated outward, like chaos, like primordial mist, and like the ultimate truths of the Heavenly Dao—mysterious beyond mystery!

Nine streams of purple light rose like purple dragons, spiraling upward and tangling together. In less than an instant, they condensed into a mass of purple auspicious cloud. This purple cloud hovered above Hongjun's head, covering a full acre. Within it, mists rolled and churned like a stretch of primordial mist. Splendid radiance shone in every direction, purple qi surged into the heavens, and its mystery was beyond compare! Upon the purple cloud, hundreds of millions of purple lotuses rose layer upon layer. As they rolled and swirled amid cloud and mist, they appeared incomparably wondrous!

Above those purple lotuses was another mass of chaos light, as large as a bushel. The chaos light was shaped like a droplet, and within it, a crystal-clear jade butterfly radiated hundreds of millions of rays of brilliance! The jade butterfly was hazy and incomplete, with only a little more than half remaining. Yet even so, the aura it emitted was enough to make the great mighty beings' hearts tremble!

When Mu Jizi saw that crystal-clear jade butterfly, he became even more excited! Needless to say, that jade butterfly was the legendary creation divine artifact, the chaos supreme treasure—the Creation Jade Butterfly!

The auspicious clouds rolled, purple lotuses surged, and as they turned, the Creation Jade Butterfly rose and fell, sending streams of profound light scattering outward!

At once, all the great mighty beings felt that amid the haze, the ultimate truths of the Heavenly Dao were being nurtured within. Countless laws appeared clearly before them, while endless profundities came rushing in like a swarm. They could not help becoming intoxicated, sinking into those illusory and ethereal truths of the Heavenly Dao, unable to extricate themselves!

"Before Heaven and Earth first opened, there was something formed from chaos, born before Heaven and Earth. Silent and empty, it stood alone and did not change; it moved in cycles without exhaustion. It could be called the mother of Heaven and Earth."

"I do not know its name, so I force a name upon it: Dao. I force a designation upon it: Great. Great means passing on; passing on means reaching afar; reaching afar means returning. Thus the Dao is great, Heaven is great, Earth is great, and humankind too is great."

"Within the realm are four greats, and all living beings occupy one of them. Living beings follow Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows what is natural."

"Beneath the Grand Dao, Heaven and Earth are the framework, and all existence is Dao. Thus, the so-called Grand Dao exists everywhere, and Dao too exists everywhere..."

A Saint's exposition of the Dao was truly extraordinary. As it deepened, all the great mighty beings felt as though they had come from within clouds and gone into mist. In their muddled state, they gained some understanding. It seemed as if the ultimate truths of the Heavenly Dao were right beside them, within reach of a hand; yet it also seemed as if they had become the truths of the Grand Dao themselves, becoming part of it!

Yet with that came even more things they did not understand!

The higher one stood, the farther one saw. The more one understood, the more there naturally was that one did not understand!

It was a feeling that could not be explained or spoken aloud—wanting to grasp it, yet having nowhere to begin; wanting to comprehend it, yet not knowing where comprehension should start! It was truly profound beyond compare!

For a time, golden lotuses condensed from magical power surged upward like springs, while countless heavenly flowers rushed forth like a tide. These golden lotuses and heavenly flowers were formed from pure magical power. They could be absorbed without refinement, and by absorbing one, any of the great mighty beings could save a hundred years of painstaking cultivation of magical power!

After the golden lotuses came strange fragrances. Endless purple qi rose and drifted through the hall. Then celestial maidens descended to scatter flowers, immortal cranes cried out and danced, and white clouds slowly rose. It was truly a place of immortal paradise!

Naturally, all these phenomena were condensed from magical power!

"The Dao has form yet no shape, no form yet emotion; its transformations are unfathomable, and it connects with all spirits and living beings..."

Sentence after sentence of the Grand Dao's ultimate truths flowed from Hongjun's mouth. His voice crossed chaos and resounded throughout the Primordial Wilderness. For a time, endless heaven-and-earth spiritual qi leaped and stirred, while countless principles of law faintly emerged. All transformed into human figures, cheering and bowing, cheering and floating!

All living beings received immeasurable benefits. In their hazy, drifting state, they seemed to see Dao Ancestor Hongjun teaching the Dao within Purple Cloud Palace in chaos. One by one, they involuntarily knelt and cried out, "Dao Ancestor's great law! Dao Ancestor's great law!"

Hongjun's voice spread across the Primordial Wilderness. For a time, countless living beings came to understand the cycles of the Heavenly Dao and karmic retribution!

From that day onward, when Dao Ancestor Hongjun gave his first sermon after the opening of Heaven, the countless living beings of the Primordial Wilderness broke free from their former state of knowing only single-minded cultivation and stepped onto the true path of seeking the Dao! Taoism thus entered the mainstream of the Primordial Wilderness...