"Pfft!"
At the border between the Beyond Lands and the Primordial World, Hongjun suddenly appeared and spat out a sword of blood.
As that sword of blood sprayed from his mouth, his aged figure seemed to stoop a little further.
Though his body had grown more hunched, the coldness in Hongjun's eyes, vast as a mist-shrouded sea, completely dissipated, giving way once more to serene detachment.
He glanced at the Hongmeng Heart in his hand, which radiated an inscrutable aura, and a faint smile appeared on his aged face.
Then his figure abruptly vanished. When he appeared again, he had already arrived at the Purple Heavens Palace.
"Dao Ancestor?"
Outside the Purple Heavens Palace, Haotian and Yaochi had been nodding off. At Hongjun's sudden appearance, both jolted awake, scrambled to their feet, and bowed to him from afar.
"Your disciples pay their respects to the Dao Ancestor."
Haotian and Yaochi had both entered the quasi-saint realm by now, but they still looked like children.
"Mm."
Hongjun nodded slightly, then tossed the Hongmeng Heart wreathed in its inscrutable aura into Haotian and Yaochi's hands.
His voice suddenly sounded beside their ears.
"Go to the Heavenly Court and deliver this to Daochen."
With those words, Hongjun abruptly vanished and returned to sit cross-legged on the Dao Platform inside the Purple Heavens Palace, his entire body shrouded in Chaos qi.
Yet as his eyes, which seemed to hold the vicissitudes of eternity and boundless wisdom, turned toward the Demon Emperor Palace beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, a faint smile touched his lips.
"This is all I can do. The rest will depend on your fortunes."
After a long while, Hongjun's aged voice sounded within the Purple Heavens Palace. Once he finished speaking, the entire palace sank into an age-old stillness, and his figure quietly