That day, the three of them reached a sheer cliff halfway up Mount Buzhou.
Houtu, who had kept her eyes closed as she sensed the surroundings, suddenly stopped. A flicker of surprise flashed through her beautiful eyes. "Big Brother, the Earth Origin here is incredibly dense. It seems... something is calling to me."
At her words, Dijiang's eyes narrowed slightly, silver Space Law churning wildly in the depths of his pupils.
A moment later, a smile curved his lips. "A natural innate concealment formation. No wonder it escaped divine sense. Take half a step back."
As soon as he spoke, Dijiang formed a sword with two fingers. A heart-palpitating power of Space Severing coiled around his fingertips as he lightly slashed at the seemingly empty void before him.
"Riiip—"
A sound like tearing silk rang out, and the tranquil space was forcibly ripped open into a crack several dozen feet long.
Dense innate spiritual energy, nearly liquefied, mixed with the aura of creation and surged out from the rift.
The three stepped through the crack, and the scene before them suddenly opened up.
This was a hidden innate grotto-heaven. At its center lay a small pool formed from gathered Three Lights Divine Water.
Beside the pool was a mound of incomparably heavy soil that radiated Mystic Yellow light.
"Nine Heavens Resting Soil!" Houtu cried out, her eyes filled with delight. This was a supreme earth-element treasure, perfectly suited to her Earth Law.
Yet Dijiang's gaze passed over the Nine Heavens Resting Soil and fixed firmly on a vine growing atop it.
It was a vine that had only just sprouted tender shoots. Faint seven-colored divine light—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet—flowed over it. Though it was still extremely frail, the Dao charm of an Innate Spiritual Root could not be mistaken.
"Primordial Gourd Vine..." A storm of shock rose in Dijiang's heart.
He knew all too well that this Gourd Vine would one day bear seven Innate Gourds renowned throughout the Primordial World. They would respectively fall into the hands of the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Eastern Emperor Taiyi, Hong Yun, and others. The vine itself would become the crucial sacred relic Nuwa used to mold earth and create humanity!
"Big Brother, this vine seems extraordinary. Should we transplant it?" Xuanming's cool voice sounded beside him.
Dijiang took a deep breath, suppressing the tremor in his heart, and shook his head. "No. It has not yet matured. Forcibly transplanting it may damage its origin and ruin this immense opportunity."
A calculating glint flashed through his eyes.
The three clans were currently battling for supremacy, and Hongjun had yet to emerge. Since he had discovered this Gourd Vine first, its future ownership would no longer be for Heaven's Way to decide!
With that thought, Dijiang's mind stirred as he secretly activated the Creation Jade Disk within his sea of consciousness.
Threads of exceptionally pure aura of creation flowed from his fingertips and silently entered the Gourd Vine's roots.
Afterward, he had Houtu take only half of the Nine Heavens Resting Soil and Three Lights Divine Water, leaving the other half behind to continue nourishing the Gourd Vine.
With this strand of aura of creation, it would be enough to support the Gourd Vine until it bore fruit.
Next, Dijiang formed hand seals and tightly layered a Triple Spatial Maze Array over the outside of the innate formation.
Just as they were preparing to leave the grotto-heaven, Xuanming, who had remained silent all along, suddenly walked toward a dark corner in its depths.
There was no spiritual energy there. Instead, an incomparably pure, hair-raising aura of slaughter and extreme cold permeated the area.
Xuanming extended her slender white fingers, brushed aside the broken stones, and pulled a jet-black fragment of a blade from the soil. It was neither metal nor stone.
The instant the broken blade emerged, the temperature in the grotto-heaven plummeted. A terrifying Baleful Energy, as though it wished to massacre all living beings, shot into the sky, only to be swiftly suppressed by Dijiang beneath a space barrier.
"This is..." Dijiang's eyelid twitched as he looked at the fragment.
There was not the slightest aura of creation on the broken blade, only destruction and slaughter in their purest forms.
Considering the current point in the Primordial World's timeline, this was the remnant of a killing treasure that had yet to appear in the Primordial World!
"Big Brother, I... really like this thing."
Xuanming held the broken blade, and a rare trace of fascination appeared in her cool eyes.
She already controlled the Ice Law and Rain Law, with extreme killing intent contained within her. The aura of this broken blade suited her as though it had been made for her.
"Keep it safe and nurture it closely with your primordial spirit, but before your cultivation advances further, do not casually use the killing origin within it." Dijiang warned solemnly.
Xuanming obediently nodded and stored the broken blade within her primordial spirit.
Only after carefully inspecting the Triple Spatial Maze Array he had set up did Dijiang quietly leave this innate grotto-heaven with his two younger sisters.
The farther upward they went, the heavier the pressure became. All three were only Daluo Golden Immortals, and this was already their limit, so they began descending along Mount Buzhou's slopes.
As they gradually moved away from Mount Buzhou's core region, the oppressive pressure began to weaken.
Yet at the same time, the originally clear innate spiritual energy in the air gradually became mixed with a cloying, bloody sweetness and a violent aura that stirred irritation.
"Such dense Baleful Energy. It is even more frenzied than what we have in Pangu Hall." Houtu furrowed her brows slightly and instinctively circulated her primordial spirit. Strands of earthen-yellow law light flowed over her body, blocking the murky aura that tried to invade her.
Xuanming merely snorted coldly. Frigid air radiated from her body, and before the Baleful Energy could approach, it froze into gray-black ice crystals that fell with soft rustles.
"This is the Tribulation Aura of the great calamity."
Dijiang stopped, his gaze piercing through layers of clouds toward the vast, boundless Primordial Wilderness beyond Mount Buzhou.
Above the heavens, dark-red tribulation clouds faintly rolled, while an air of slaughter and oppression filled heaven and earth.
"Now that the Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Clan are fighting over the Fortune of heaven and earth, they have already killed themselves into a frenzy.
"This Tribulation Aura will not only obscure heavenly secrets, but also erode cultivators' minds.
"Once one becomes deeply trapped within it, even a Daluo Golden Immortal will become a madman who knows only slaughter, ultimately dying and having their Dao scattered."
Dijiang took the opportunity to instruct his two younger sisters.
As he spoke, the distant sea of clouds suddenly churned violently.
"Rumble!"
Accompanied by deafening thunder, three enormous figures smashed through the clouds and fought their way down from the skies toward the foot of Mount Buzhou.
They were three colossal beasts, each tens of thousands of feet in size.
One was a horned true dragon covered in azure scales, one a pure-blooded Scarlet Phoenix wreathed in Southern Bright Flame, and one an Ink Jade Qilin treading upon Mystic Yellow Aura.
All three pure-blooded divine beasts exuded the formidable aura of Peak Primordial Unity Golden Immortals. Yet at this moment, they possessed none of a powerhouse's bearing. Their eyes were bloodshot, their bodies soaked in blood, and every strike was a ruthless move meant to take the enemy down with them.
"Roar! The Dragon Clan discovered this Nine-Leaf Swordgrass first! You are courting death!" Azure Dragon roared, opening his mouth to spew Gui Water Divine Thunder across the sky.
"Bullshit! All birds, beasts, and creatures belong under the Phoenix Clan and Qilin Clan's rule. How could a damp-born, egg-hatched wretch like you be worthy of laying claim to it?"
Scarlet Phoenix shrieked, beating his wings as a sea of flames poured down from the heavens.
Ink Jade Qilin, meanwhile, said nothing. He directly unleashed his innate divine ability, drawing upon the power of the earth and turning it into countless earthen spikes that tore toward the other two divine beasts.
The violent aftershocks of their power swept in all directions like a hurricane, instantly leveling several nearby mountaintops.
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