Distributing Treasures

After pondering for a moment, Dijiang handed the purple-gold gourd—the Purple-Gold Red Gourd that had originally been meant for Laozi—to Zhu Jiuyin.

"Second Brother, this purple-gold gourd contains a world within it. It can take in people and objects, so keep it."

He then gave the purple-red Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd, which had originally been meant for Red Cloud, to Zhu Rong.

"Zhu Rong, this purple-red gourd contains the Flame Origin. It suits you best."

The purple-white Immortal-Slaying Flying Blade Gourd was given to Ru Shou.

The purple-cyan Demon-Summoning Gourd was given to Tian Wu.

The purple-yellow Water-Fire Gourd was given to She Bishi.

The purple-green gourd was given to Jumang.

As for the last remaining purple-black Primal Chaos Gourd, Dijiang kept it for himself.

"This gourd vine and the Nine Heavens Resting Soil are good things too. They cannot be wasted."

With a sweep of his hand, Dijiang uprooted the withered gourd vine and the Nine Heavens Resting Soil beneath it, storing them away in his spatial realm.

This gourd vine was the crucial item Nuwa would use to create humanity in the future. Naturally, he had to keep it firmly in his own hands.

"Let's go. Back to Pangu Hall."

With the eleven Ancestral Witches, laden with their spoils, Dijiang turned and returned to Pangu Hall.

Kunlun Mountain, Three Pure Ones Hall.

Bang!

Yuanshi Tianzun slammed a palm onto the jade table, sending the spiritual energy in the hall churning wildly.

"They've gone too far! They've simply gone too far!"

Yuanshi Tianzun's face was livid, his eyes brimming with humiliation and fury. "Those twelve bastards refuse to reason at all. They merely rely on their cultivation being half a step above ours, yet they dare humiliate us, the Pangu Orthodox Lineage, like this. They are no different from barbarians! Eldest Brother, I cannot swallow this insult!"

Laozi sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion. Though his expression remained calm, a trace of gloom flashed deep in his eyes.

"Second Brother, calm yourself."

Laozi spoke slowly. "Not only are those twelve profound in cultivation, they are also bound together as one. Twelve beings above the Great Luo realm joining hands—looking across the current Primordial World, other than the Dao Ancestor, who could contend with their edge?"

"Are we simply going to let this go?" Tongtian frowned deeply as well. Though he disliked Yuanshi's arrogance, having his opportunity snatched away in broad daylight naturally left him unhappy.

"Of course we cannot let this go."

A sharp glint flashed through Laozi's eyes. "The Dao Ancestor once said that the Violet Firmament Palace would reopen in thirty thousand years to teach the path of the Quasi-Saint. As long as we can break through to the Quasi-Saint realm during the next sermon, it will not be too late to settle accounts with them then!"

"Eldest Brother is right!" Yuanshi Tianzun ground his teeth. "Once I break through to Quasi-Saint, I will make that barbarian Zhu Rong pay the price!"

Wuzhuang Temple.

Red Cloud sat beneath the Ginseng Fruit Tree, holding a Ginseng Fruit in his hand and eating with great relish, as though the grievance he had suffered at Mount Buzhou had never happened at all.

"Old friend Red Cloud, your heart is far too broad, isn't it?"

Seeing Red Cloud's carefree appearance, Zhen Yuanzi could not help but sigh. "That was an opportunity involving a top-grade innate Spirit Treasure. Those barbarians simply snatched it away. Don't you find that a pity?"

"It is a pity, but opportunities are not things one can force."

Red Cloud swallowed the fruit in his mouth and smiled freely. "Besides, those twelve fellow Daoists are unfathomably strong. If a fight truly broke out, even the two of us put together would not be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth. Being able to keep our lives was already a blessing amid misfortune."

Though Zhen Yuanzi still felt somewhat indignant upon hearing this, he knew Red Cloud spoke the truth and could only shake his head helplessly.

Sun Star, Sun God Palace.

Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi sat facing one another, both wearing exceedingly grim expressions.

"Big Brother, just where did those twelve fellows come from? They did not even put the Three Pure Ones in their eyes!" Taiyi held the Chaos Bell in his arms, his eyes full of unwillingness.

"No matter where they came from, sooner or later, we will collect this debt!"

Ambition gleamed in Di Jun's eyes. "Taiyi, we must raise our strength as quickly as possible. We must continue gathering fellow Daoists who share our aspirations and establish a supreme hegemony. When that time comes, even those twelve barbarians will have to submit beneath our feet!"

"Good! We'll enter seclusion at once!" Taiyi nodded heavily.

Phoenix Perch Mountain.

Nuwa sat within her cave dwelling, her delicate brows faintly furrowed as an inexplicable sense of emptiness lingered in her heart.

"Little Sister, what is wrong?" Seeing this, Fuxi asked with concern.

"Elder Brother, for some reason, I always feel that the gourd vine on Mount Buzhou seems to share an immense karmic bond with me." Nuwa sighed. "Now that the twelve of them have taken that gourd vine away, I cannot shake the feeling that I have lost something important."

"Opportunities are decreed by heaven. Since you missed it, that only means the time has not yet come." Fuxi comforted her. "Little Sister, do not dwell on it. Cultivate in peace and prepare for the next sermon at Violet Firmament Palace."

Nuwa nodded, but the faint sense of loss in her heart remained impossible to calm for a long while.

Mount Buzhou, Pangu Hall.

After the Twelve Ancestral Witches returned to the hall, each took the gourd they had received and entered seclusion to refine it.

Though these seven gourds were embryos of top-grade innate Spirit Treasures, the innate restrictions within them were extraordinarily intricate. They required vast amounts of time and effort to refine and inscribe before they could be completely transformed into magical treasures suited to their respective laws.

Dijiang held the purple-black Primal Chaos Gourd and sent his divine sense into it.

He discovered that the Primal Chaos Gourd actually contained an incomparably vast Primal Chaos space within, one that constantly formed and perished.

"This gourd was practically made to measure for me."

Dijiang secretly rejoiced.

He already controlled the Space Law. For him, the Primal Chaos Gourd required hardly any alteration at all. He merely needed to refine the innate restrictions inside it to unleash an utterly terrifying power.

In just a hundred years, Dijiang completely refined the Primal Chaos Gourd.

With a thought, the Primal Chaos Gourd transformed into a streak of purple-black light and entered his brow, where it quietly nourished itself beside his Space Dao Fruit.

"By my calculations, it is time to give another sermon."

Dijiang rose to his feet. With a flash, he appeared above the Spirit-Gathering Formation at the foot of Mount Buzhou.

"Greetings, Lord Ancestral Witch!"

Seeing Dijiang appear, hundreds of billions of living beings below fell to their knees in unison, their cries shaking the heavens.

Dijiang nodded slightly, sat cross-legged, and began explaining the rudimentary mysteries of the Great Dao of Space.

A thousand years of preaching passed in the blink of an eye.

"This sermon ends here."

Dijiang stopped speaking and was just about to rise and leave.

"Lord Ancestral Witch, please wait!"

At that moment, a somewhat childish yet incomparably resolute voice rang out from a corner at the very edge of the crowd.

Dijiang followed the voice and saw that mud monkey which had caught his attention years ago kneeling on the ground, gazing at him with a face full of sincerity.

Though this mud monkey still looked like a monkey, the aura around it had undergone an earthshaking transformation.

In merely several thousand years, it had actually cultivated to the Golden Immortal realm!

What surprised Dijiang even more was that a thread of extremely faint yet incomparably pure Space Law fluctuations seemed to linger around the mud monkey's body!