The Three Pure Ones shuddered, their Auspicious Clouds churning above their heads as their fortunes surged severalfold.
They straightened their robes with solemn faces and bowed deeply.
"Your disciples thank you for granting us this teaching, Master!"
Hongjun then turned his gaze to Nuwa on the fourth futon.
"Nuwa, great Creation and great merit await you. You shall be the last of my Daoist Sect's direct disciples and receive a Sage Position."
The Dao Ancestor pointed with a sweep of his sleeve. A fourth strand of Primordial Purple Qi shot through the air
and entered Nuwa's sea of consciousness.
Overjoyed, Nuwa bowed.
"Nuwa thanks you, Master!"
Four Sage Positions had been assigned. The cultivators filling the hall watched with eyes red from longing.
Hongjun's gaze fell on Hong Yun, seated on the fifth futon.
Back during the first lecture at Purple Heaven Palace,
Li Qingxiao had held Hong Yun in place by force,
severing the chain of cause and effect that would have led Hong Yun to give up his seat. Hong Yun had remained firmly seated on the futon destined for him.
With the course of the Heavenly Dao set, that fate was difficult to change.
Hongjun's eyes were inscrutable as he spoke calmly.
"Hong Yun, you have kept your seat and share a bond with the Daoist Sect. You shall be a registered disciple of my sect and receive a Sage Position."
At his words, the fifth strand of Primordial Purple Qi emerged.
It circled once in midair, then plunged into Hong Yun's crown!
Hum!
Hong Yun's sea of consciousness roared. He felt himself connected to the laws of the Primordial World.
Trembling with excitement, he thanked the Dao Ancestor,
then turned to Li Qingxiao, his eyes brimming with gratitude.
Had Li Qingxiao not stepped in outside the palace gates and guided him time and again,
how could such a heaven-sent fortune have fallen to him?
Hongjun then looked at Zhunti on the sixth futon.
"Zhunti, you too have kept your seat. You shall be a registered disciple of my Daoist Sect and receive a Sage Position."
The sixth strand of Primordial Purple Qi entered Zhunti's body.
Overjoyed, Zhunti bowed repeatedly in thanks.
But when he turned
and saw his senior brother Jieyin beside him, empty-handed and sorrowful,
his joy gave way to anxiety and dread.
"Have mercy, Master! Please, have mercy!"
Jieyin and Zhunti exchanged a glance, then burst into tears in the hall and knelt without rising.
Zhunti knocked his head against the floor and pleaded through his sobs.
"Master, you know what happened! During the Dao-Devil Calamity, Demon Ancestor Luohu detonated the Western Ancestral Vein, bringing ruin to countless lives in the West. Its spiritual energy has remained depleted to this day!"
"My senior brother Jieyin has exhausted himself trying to restore the West. He has shown great compassion, yet its people still suffer!"
"For the sake of the countless beings of the West, I beg you to take pity on it and grant my senior brother a path forward!"
Their anguished cries echoed through the hall.
Di Jun and Taiyi watched coldly, contempt plain on their faces.
The Three Pure Ones remained expressionless.
Most of the gathered experts felt only disgust, taking the pair for shameless men trying to wear down a Saint.
But Dao Ancestor Hongjun, seated upon the cloud dais, had a complicated look in his eyes.
In the Dao-Devil War, he had fought Luohu in the West.
Their battle had destroyed all its spiritual veins.
That immense karmic burden still weighed on the Daoist Sect's fortunes.
If he did not settle it now, he would struggle to achieve perfection when he merged with the Dao.
"So be it."
Hongjun sighed. The Creation Jade Disc blazed once more.
He drew an ever-changing strand of purple qi from deep within the disc.
Unlike the six before it, this strand flickered in and out of sight,
possessed of an elusive spirit that seemed to escape all bounds.
Hongjun swept his gaze over the immortals in the hall and spoke slowly.
"Heaven's Evolution of Forty-Nine leaves one hidden by the Great Dao."
"This is the seventh strand of Primordial Purple Qi, the last foundation for attaining sainthood in this world."
"It has no master and shall settle the Heavenly Dao's karmic debt. As for who receives it... let fate decide."
With a flick of his finger, Hongjun released the restrictions holding the strand.
Hum—!!
Freed from the Saint's pressure,
the seventh strand of Primordial Purple Qi surged like a dragon off its leash.
A dazzling streak of violet light, it raced wildly beneath the hall's vaulted ceiling!
"A Sage Position! The last Sage Position!"
"Get it!!"
The silent hall erupted!
Heavenly Emperor Di Jun roared, and the River Chart and Luo Writing swept upward amid a skyful of stars.
Eastern Emperor Taiyi activated the Chaos Bell, its terrifying sound waves locking down space itself.
Kunpeng of the Northern Underworld spread his wings and cried out, then lunged for the strand as the vast shadow of a black roc.
Ancestor Minghe of the Blood Sea glared with bloodshot eyes.
His twin killing swords, Abi and Yuantu, shot skyward as crimson streaks!
Dozens of Quasi-Saints and experts at the peak of Great Luo struck at once.
Their violent power nearly tore apart the space within Purple Heaven Palace!
Yet the wandering strand of Primordial Purple Qi seemed uncannily aware.
It made several abrupt leaps through space,
somehow evading Taiyi and Di Jun as they closed in.
Then, as though sensing the one in the hall with the deepest reserves and purest fortune,
it gave a joyful, crystalline ring and plunged like a waterfall from the heavens,
straight toward Li Qingxiao, who sat below!
The purple qi descended toward the crown of Li Qingxiao's head!
Every expert in the hall froze.
Countless gazes, burning with envy and outrage, snapped toward Li Qingxiao.
Yet faced with an opportunity that could drive gods and demons mad,
Li Qingxiao showed no reaction.
He knew that Primordial Purple Qi was a chain forged from the Heavenly Dao's laws.
Refining it would let him draw on the Heavenly Dao's power to become a Saint,
but it would make him a puppet on its strings, with no path forward.
He pursued Supreme Dao Primordial Unity through his own power. How could he submit to heaven?
"Go."
Unruffled, Li Qingxiao stirred the power of the Twelfth-Grade Purifying White Lotus within him.
A gentle, milky-white Purifying Light rose from his crown in the shape of a white lotus.
The power of Supreme Dao Primordial Unity rippled outward.
Crack!
The seventh strand of Primordial Purple Qi hurtled toward him, bearing immense fortune,
but the instant it touched the White Lotus's light,
an overwhelming force pushed it away!
He would not take it!
He would not even touch it!
To him, a Sage Position ordained by heaven was worthless!
That resolve to stand beyond heaven's rewards
brought another flicker of keen interest to Dao Ancestor Hongjun's eyes atop the cloud dais.
The rebuffed strand of Primordial Purple Qi tumbled violently through the air.
Its course changed abruptly, sending it toward a corner of the hall.
Beside Zhunti, Daoist Jieyin sensed his chance. His eyes shone brighter than ever!
"Heavenly Dao above! The West suffers. I shall save its people!"
Jieyin cried out and formed the Western Nirvana Seal with both hands.
He burned the golden light of compassion cultivated over ten thousand years
and drew upon his karmic ties to Mount Sumeru and the remnants of the Western Ley Lines.
Then he opened his arms, forming a boundless Pure Land that closed around the veering strand!
Boom!!
The purple qi entered his body, and golden light flared!
The seventh, wandering strand of Primordial Purple Qi
had entered Jieyin's sea of consciousness by the narrowest of margins!
The experts throughout the hall stared, rigid with shock, their eyes nearly bleeding.
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