To achieve sagehood, the fastest and most hopeful method was undoubtedly to acquire a strand of Hongmeng Purple Qi oneself.
The very last strand of Hongmeng Purple Qi remaining now was with Hongyun.
Therefore, wanting to become a sage required Hongmeng Purple Qi, and wanting Hongmeng Purple Qi meant seizing it from Hongyun.
Dijun quickly straightened out his thoughts and began plotting.
Meanwhile, in the Netherworld Blood Sea, within the Blood God Palace, Minghe was in closed-door cultivation.
Having long since sorted out his path to proving the Dao, he understood the keys and mysteries of Dao Proving Through Laws.
Minghe progressed extremely quickly in his cultivation, his physical body and primordial spirit absorbing various laws every single moment, tempered by them all.
At the same time, sitting cross-legged in the Blood God Palace, streams of incomparably massive blood essence surged toward Minghe from all directions, pouring frantically into his body to nourish his physical body and primordial spirit.
This was also Minghe's uniquely blessed advantage, the reward for occupying this domain of the Blood Sea.
The essence energy within the Blood Sea seemed endless, and after Minghe refined the Blood Sea, there was no need for further refinement at all; it converted directly into his cultivation base, causing his physical body and primordial spirit to begin advancing by leaps and bounds.
Not only that, but Minghe had recently begun swallowing the drop of Pangu's Essence Blood he had obtained.
This drop of Pangu's Essence Blood was different from the Pangu's Essence Blood that had nurtured the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
The Pangu's Essence Blood that nurtured the Twelve Ancestral Witches was mixed with turbid qi, causing the resulting Twelve Ancestral Witches to be unable to form primordial spirits.
Minghe's drop of Pangu's Essence Blood, however, was untainted by turbid qi, no different from the blood within the Blood Sea.
The only difference was that the energy contained within this drop of Pangu's Essence Blood was simply too terrifying.
Refining less than a tenth of this drop of essence blood, Minghe felt his physical body and primordial spirit achieve tremendous progress, growing even more robust than before.
This also allowed his physical body and primordial spirit to accommodate more laws and Dao.
On this day, after cultivating for a full thirty thousand-odd years, Minghe's body finally trembled.
Just like water flowing to form a channel, his cultivation finally broke through, reaching the realm of the mid-stage Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
Moreover, even so, Minghe had still refined less than half of Pangu's Essence Blood.
It was only around three-tenths.
If he completely refined this drop of Pangu's Essence Blood, Minghe estimated he could reach the late-stage Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
He might even advance in one go to the completion of the Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
Just shortly after Minghe's cultivation broke through, while he was still in closed-door cultivation refining Pangu's Essence Blood,
on this day, a system prompt rang out in Minghe's mind.
Ding, it is detected that Demon Empress Xihe has given birth to ten Golden Crow eggs. The host may make the following choices. Option 1: Travel to the Thirty-three Heavens Heavenly Court to offer congratulations to Dijun, and obtain the reward: the Method of Solar True Fire. Option 2: Sneak into the Heavenly Court and steal at least one Golden Crow egg, and obtain the reward: the Su Se Yun Jie Flag. Option 3: Ignore the matter, and obtain the reward: the Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Tree.
Hearing the system prompt, Minghe's heart stirred, and he opened his eyes.
Xihe gave birth to ten Golden Crow eggs? So these were Dijun's ten little sons being born?
They were still ten bird eggs for now.
Well, Minghe felt that the species relationships in the Primordial World were somewhat chaotic.
After all, Dijun's true form was a Three-legged Golden Crow, while Xihe's true form should be a Lunar Toad.
It was one thing for completely different species to mate, since both sides could transform into Dao bodies.
Yet how could a proper Lunar Toad give birth to ten bird eggs?
Of course, if one overlooked these issues, a conclusion could still be drawn.
That was that Dijun's Three-legged Golden Crow bloodline was formidable indeed. Truly worthy of being the Heavenly Emperor!
Returning to the choices themselves, Minghe considered the three options one by one.
First, offering congratulations to Dijun would yield the reward of the Method of Solar True Fire.
This was roughly similar to the Dutian Divine Thunder, allowing him to acquire the divine ability to control the Solar True Fire.
However, this was not particularly necessary for Minghe. Even if he learned to use the Solar True Fire, it was impossible for him to surpass Dijun or Taiyi.
As for the second choice, stealing at least one Golden Crow egg, the reward was the Su Se Yun Jie Flag.
This was undoubtedly tempting him to commit crimes yet again.
Robbing bird babies—the crime committed in doing so would be massive. Dijun would likely go mad and haul the Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Array over to block his doorway.
And Taiyi would also constantly strike that funeral bell for him: dong, dong, dong, dong, sounding just like a junk collector.
Minghe thought about it, and that mental image was simply too wonderful!
Good as the Su Se Yun Jie Flag was, Minghe simply wasn't in a rush. He didn't have obsessive-compulsive disorder anyway.
It wasn't as if he absolutely had to get his hands on all five flags.
After all, even with the Plain Cloud Banner, wasn't the Blue Lotus Treasure Flag still missing?
The Green Lotus Treasure Banner was currently in the hands of the Two Sages of the West, Jieyin and Zhunti.
How was he supposed to get his hands on that?
Wouldn't it still be four against one when the time came?
Minghe shook his head, recited silently in his heart, and spoke to the system: System, I choose option three.
Prudent Minghe still chose to lay low. After all, although his cultivation was already considered extremely profound now,
and sneaking into the Heavenly Court imperceptibly to steal a Golden Crow egg wasn't impossible,
if his divine abilities were incomplete and he ruined the grand plan for the sake of a mere lingbao, that would be inadvisable.
Therefore, Minghe still chose stability.
Stability led to everything. Now was not the time to galavant around.
As Minghe made his choice, the system's reward was soon issued.
The Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Tree.
That's right, part of what was mentioned earlier was only a partial reason; the biggest reason was simply because the reward of this final choice was the most enticing one!
Like the Enlightenment Tea Tree and the Five-Leaf Pine Needle, the Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Tree was a top-grade Innate Spiritual Root.
It was only a fraction inferior to the Ten Top Innate Spiritual Roots.
Yet the Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Tree also possessed its own unique traits. Minghe watched as he took out this spiritual root.
This spiritual root was wreathed in starlight all over, pitch-black in color throughout, with seemingly countless stars hidden within it.
It resembled the starry sky of the Primordial World.
The most wondrous thing was that this Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Tree happened to have three hundred and sixty-five branches, upon which grew three hundred and sixty-five flower buds.
These three hundred and sixty-five branches and three hundred and sixty-five flower buds undoubtedly corresponded to the Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Main Stars within the starry sky.
Once the flower buds turned into fruits, they would become three hundred and sixty-five star fruits with distinct attributes.
Consuming these fruits allowed one to transform one's own body into the star body of the corresponding star, obtaining countless unimaginable benefits for one's cultivation.
However, Minghe was in no rush to deal with the Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Tree right now. What he needed to do now was still to completely refine Pangu's Essence Blood first.
This was also one of the reasons why Minghe did not plan to go out and stir up trouble. Obediently staying put allowed him to increase his strength, so only a fool would go galavanting outside.
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