Hongjun Lost His Composure! Even If It Was True, You Couldn't Go Around Telling Everyone!

Li Yi's words hit like a thunderclap!

The crowd below, quiet until now, erupted.

Since the Three Yuan Assembly, cultivators across the Primordial Continent who had heard the two men discuss the Dao had argued, openly and in private, over which was stronger and more orthodox: the Law Dao or the Three Corpses Severing Dao.

Of course, no one had reached a conclusion.

To ordinary Great Firmament cultivators, both paths were difficult. And if both led to becoming a Quasi-Saint, surely they were equally powerful!

But today, the Heaven-Earth Dao Ancestor had personally settled the matter!

Becoming a Sage through the Law Dao was better than doing so through the Three Corpses Severing Method! What was more, the Three Corpses Severing Method was a dead end!?

Of everyone present, Yuanshi, Zhunti, and their two companions were the most alarmed!

All four had used the Three Corpses Severing Method to become Quasi-Saints! It was too late to switch to the Law Dao now!

And this Heaven-Earth Daoist was saying their path was a dead end?

In an inconspicuous corner of the crowd, a Black-Robed Daoist's face was dark as the bottom of a pot.

Hongjun glared at Li Yi on the Jade Platform, so furious his beard bristled. The words had struck a nerve.

He had seen that all four of his disciples had come here. Figuring that the Heaven-Earth Daoist would probably discuss the Sage Dao today, he had sent an incarnation disguised as a Golden Immortal to slip in.

And now the Heaven-Earth Daoist had publicly declared that his Three Corpses Severing Method was inferior to the Law Dao—and a dead end!?

Hongjun knew Li Yi was right. But even if he was right, did Qiankun have to tell everyone? In front of this many people? Wasn't he ruining the Dao Ancestor's reputation?

Besides, Hongjun had derived the Three Corpses Severing Method from the Creation Jade Disc. It had its flaws, but how had the Heaven-Earth Daoist learned of them?

Or was he... making it all up to slander him?

On the platform, Li Yi cleared his throat and began to explain.

"The Three Corpses Severing Method requires three Innate Spiritual Treasures to sever your Kind Corpse, Evil Corpse, and Self Corpse! To become a Sage, you must ultimately reunite all three with your body!"

"That last step is the problem. For Three Corpses Unity to succeed, the three treasures housing your benevolent thoughts, evil thoughts, and sense of self must share the same origin! Otherwise, that final step can never succeed!"

"Even Hongjun would struggle to gather three such treasures. Where, then, are you supposed to find them?"

His words shook the crowd even more. Many began exchanging private messages.

"Three Innate Spiritual Treasures are hard enough to find! And they have to share the same origin?"

"I've never even heard of treasures like that still existing in the Primordial World!"

"Before the Demon Calamity, the Great Supernatural Being Yin-Yang Daoist seemed to have a set of Supreme-Grade Spirit Treasure Array Banners that shared an origin! But that set has been lost for ages!"

"Before the Calamity Cycles, perhaps we could have searched for some. After several of them, almost no complete, matching sets remain!"

"Hongjun hid this from us? Outrageous! If I'd severed my Three Corpses using his method, I really would have fallen for that old fraud's trick!"

"I considered following that path before. Luckily, I decided to understand the Law Dao the Heaven-Earth Dao Ancestor spoke of and compare the two before choosing! Looks like my caution saved me."

"Bah! You've got some nerve boasting. Are you sure you didn't come here because you couldn't find any Innate Spiritual Treasures?"

"Ahem!"

As the murmurs continued, some began to gloat.

"I hear Yuanshi and Laozi of the Three Pure Ones have already become Quasi-Saints through that method! They always looked down their noses at us because of it. Now it turns out their own paths are cut off!"

"Taoist Tongtian of the Three Pure Ones never looked down on us for being Pangu Orthodox. He became a Quasi-Saint through the Law Dao. He's the one with a future!"

Hongjun listened to Li Yi from below. His lips moved faintly, but all the rebuttals bottled up inside him refused to come out.

The Heaven-Earth Daoist actually knew that secret!?

Hongjun had derived it with the Creation Jade Disc, a Spirit Treasure born from primordial chaos! How could Li Yi possibly know?

While everyone else reacted with alarm, shock, anger, or schadenfreude, Laozi and Yuanshi felt their hands and feet turn cold. Despair welled up inside them.

Laozi remembered the exhilaration of severing his Three Corpses, when the Supreme Sage Dao had seemed within reach. Then he thought of the secret he had just heard from the Heaven-Earth Daoist. The pain nearly made him cough up blood.

"I used the Supreme Unity Whisk to sever my Kind Corpse, while Second Brother used the Jade Ruyi for his. Doesn't that mean both our Sage Paths are completely cut off?"

His Supreme Unity Whisk, Yuanshi's Jade Ruyi, and Tongtian's Green Duckweed Sword all shared the same origin!

But he had already entrusted his Kind Corpse to the Supreme Unity Whisk, and Yuanshi had done the same with the Jade Ruyi! In effect, each had cut off the other's Sage Path!

Yuanshi had clearly realized it too. His face flushed red, and he was so angry he nearly coughed up blood.

How proud had he always been? Yet now those Great Firmament Golden Immortals beside him, ants in his eyes, were gloating that he had no hope of attaining the Sage Dao!?

They were not the only ones. In the crowd, Jieyin and Zhunti were furious enough to feel their heads ache.

The two brothers were even poorer than Yuanshi and Laozi! They owned only a few Innate Spiritual Treasures, and the ones housing their Kind Corpses were merely Mid-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures!

When they arrived, they had been full of confidence, believing they had gained true freedom and that becoming Supreme Sages would be no trouble at all!

And now they were a laughingstock?

Purple Cloud Palace.

Li Yi had spent five hundred years explaining the Primordial Unity Dao. Hongjun's Dao Discussion had ended long ago.

The other attendees had already left. Laozi, Yuanshi, Zhunti, and the other direct disciples had stayed to ask Hongjun about problems they had encountered in cultivation.

Suddenly, Laozi and Yuanshi's expressions changed mid-question. News had reached them through their incarnations, and resentment toward Hongjun flared within them.

This was their path to Sagehood! Even if Hongjun had been their own father rather than a master they had only recently accepted, they would have turned against him for cutting it off!

Nor were Laozi and Yuanshi alone. A flash of bitter hatred appeared in the usually "serene" eyes of the brothers Zhunti and Jieyin.

The brothers had cultivated to their current level in the barren West. Serene as they might appear, both were confident in their own abilities!

And now they had learned that their paths to the Sage Dao were cut off?

Hongjun, seated above them, had evidently received word from his incarnation as well. His expression stiffened slightly. Before he could speak, Yuanshi looked up, his face blazing with anger.

"Teacher! Third Brother just sent me word that the Three Corpses Severing Method is a path that cannot succeed!"

"Is it true?"

Laozi, Zhunti, and Jieyin also raised their heads and looked at Hongjun.

Feeling four gazes fixed on him as though their owners wanted to devour him alive, Hongjun's face went numb.