Another choice, a honey trap?

At Tongtian's Dao Field, Xu Tong finished refining the heavenly pillar and resumed cultivating in seclusion.

As the tribulation of heaven and earth unfolded, Xu Tong felt increasingly pressed for time.

In the blink of an eye, a hundred years had passed since Houtu left.

Relations between the Witch Clan and the Demon Tribe had also grown exceptionally tense.

It seemed that the slightest spark would set off these two powder kegs.

But none of that was Xu Tong's concern.

His task was to cultivate peacefully in seclusion and keep his head down until he became invincible.

Just then, however, the system could no longer sit still.

Inside the Dao Field, the system's long-absent voice suddenly rang in Xu Tong's ears again.

"Ding! Increasing friction between the Witch Clan and the Demon Tribe detected. Demon Emperor Fuxi is in danger. Will you leave seclusion to rescue him? Host, please make your choice."

"Option one: leave seclusion immediately and save Demon Emperor Fuxi. Reward: Great Dao-level divine ability, World-Destroying Divine Thunder."

"Option two: inform Nuwa in advance. Reward: a Heavenly Marriage, with Nuwa as your partner."

"Option three: refuse to leave seclusion. Fuxi's life and death have nothing to do with me. Reward: Innate Spiritual Treasure, Merit Creation Pool."

On his Prayer Cushion, Xu Tong slowly opened his eyes.

"Fuxi is going to die?"

That should not happen. The witches and demons had not gone to war yet, so how could Fuxi die out of nowhere?

Xu Tong could not quite figure it out.

He did not know that, because he had still not become a Sage, Hongjun had extended the Witch-Demon Tribulation by a thousand years.

During that time, the Demon Tribe had suffered endless oppression at the hands of the Witch Clan. Now that the Demon Tribe finally had a Sage, they naturally wanted to settle the score for all their past grievances.

And Fuxi was very likely to become a casualty of that.

But Xu Tong did not think that deeply about it.

He looked at the system's three options.

The first two would undoubtedly allow him to save Fuxi.

The first offered a Great Dao-level divine ability, Great Dao Divine Thunder.

"System, you're deliberately messing with me, aren't you?"

Xu Tong silently grumbled.

Although he had already become a primordial Daluo golden immortal, he still lacked a powerful offensive Spiritual Treasure or spell.

The Law of Strength was formidable, but the thought of still having to swing his fists in battle after eventually leaving seclusion really did take some of the shine off his image.

Yet this damned system simply refused to give him what he wanted.

Want a powerful offensive treasure? No problem. Leave seclusion, and everything would be available.

That made Xu Tong, who wanted nothing but to cultivate quietly without leaving seclusion, utterly miserable.

As for the second option...

After pondering it for quite some time, Xu Tong finally began to see what was going on.

"Don't tell me this Heavenly Marriage is between me and Nuwa?"

The more Xu Tong thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

He would save his brother-in-law-pah, pah, pah!

Why had he suddenly started calling him that?

If he saved Fuxi, would Nuwa secretly develop feelings for him out of gratitude?

That sounded like a pretty good story... like hell it did!

If he really entered a Heavenly Marriage with Nuwa, could anything good come of it?

Although Nuwa was indeed beautiful, she was the weakest of the Sages and got bullied in practically every tribulation.

Then there were the Human Race and the Demon Tribe to consider.

If he really married Nuwa, would he not have to deal with all their affairs?

Then Hongjun would casually scheme a little, make him establish the Interception Sect, and have him shelter the defeated Demon Tribe.

Would that not put him right back where he started?

The thought sent a chill through Xu Tong.

"Damned system! You really are trying to screw me over. When tempting me with Spiritual Treasures fails, you resort to a honey trap!"

As for the system's third option, Xu Tong was quite familiar with that one.

He would simply continue cultivating in seclusion. The problem was that the reward was of little use to him.

The Merit Creation Pool could wash away a cultivator's karmic burden.

However, it required a corresponding amount of merit to offset it.

The problem was that he had been cultivating ever since his birth and did not carry a trace of karmic burden. On the contrary, he had plenty of merit.

What was he supposed to do with this thing? Take a bath?

Xu Tong was speechless.

If only he could swap the first or second reward with the third.

Pah, pah, pah! Not the second one. That's a honey trap. An upright man like me would never fall for it. Just the first one.

At that thought, Xu Tong gritted his teeth and said,

"System, I choose three. Cultivate quietly in seclusion."

"Ding! The host has made his choice. Distributing reward."

A golden pool appeared before Xu Tong.

But Xu Tong was in no mood to look at it.

At that moment, only one sentence remained in his heart.

Goodbye, little sister Nuwa. Goodbye, Great Dao-level divine ability.

With a sorrowful expression, Xu Tong put away the Innate Supreme Treasure.

"This is all Hongjun's fault. Once my cultivation surpasses yours, I'll blast you with Great Dao Divine Thunder every day and make you give back my Spiritual Treasure, my Nuwa, and my freedom!"

In the Purple Cloud Palace, Hongjun had no idea that he had unwittingly offended Xu Tong.

On his Cloud Bed, Hongjun suddenly shivered.

"How strange. Why did I suddenly shiver?"

At the foot of Buzhou Mountain, inside a Witch Tribe, a demon general from the Demon Court wore an arrogant expression as he actually demanded that the witches who had always lived there withdraw immediately.

Otherwise, he would slaughter them to the last soul after three breaths.

Yet no sooner had he finished speaking than a burly man a hundred feet tall stepped out from behind the crowd.

"Let's see who dares cause trouble in my Witch Clan's tribe!"

The newcomer was none other than Kuafu, one of the Witch Clan's great witches.

Kuafu held a Witch Artifact that resembled a walking stick.

Unlike other Innate Spiritual Treasures, Witch Artifacts did not possess all sorts of wondrous functions.

Refining a Witch Artifact was comparatively much simpler.

The criteria for grading Witch Artifacts were also very simple: their hardness and the damage they could inflict on the primordial spirit.

Only something sufficiently hard could withstand the Witch Clan's freakish strength.

Their ability to damage primordial spirits, meanwhile, was aimed at the cultivators of the Primordial World.

A mere touch from a Witch Artifact would leave a cultivator either dead or injured.

Moreover, it inflicted damage on both the primordial spirit and the physical body at once.

The sight of the burly man gave the demon general a fright as well.

But he quickly remembered that Empress Nuwa of the Demon Tribe had already become a Sage.

He was also at the foot of Buzhou Mountain, with Fuxi and Nuwa, two high-ranking members of the Demon Tribe, up above. Surely nothing could happen to him here. The demon general grew bold once more.

"Hmph! This is Buzhou Mountain's territory. A Sage's Dao Field stands above us. What kind of disgrace is it for barbarians like you witches to turn this place into a foul, smoky mess?"

"If you know what's good for you, leave at once. Killing is inappropriate at a Sage Dao Field."

"Otherwise, I'll take action."

The demon general looked down on them with an air of superiority.

Anyone who did not know better might have thought he was the Sage himself.

After hearing the demon general's words, Kuafu tightened his grip on his walking stick.

"My Witch Clan are barbarians? And you want us to leave the place where we've lived for generations? Who the hell do you think you are!"

As he spoke, before the demon general could react, the walking stick in Kuafu's hand flew straight at him.

With a bang, the demon general spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward like a kite with its string snapped.

By the time the demon general regained his senses, Kuafu had somehow already reached him and planted his massive foot on his chest.

A muffled thud rang out.

A scream, accompanied by the cracking of bones, rang in everyone's ears.

"Aah!"

"You-you dare attack me! The Demon Emperor won't spare you! Neither will the Sage!"

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