Hearing Donghua's trembling words, Houtu swept her gaze over their surroundings, and her expression turned somewhat embarrassed.
There was no question that this was her tribesmen's handiwork. Although Donghua had told them to take anything that caught their eye, they couldn't take absolutely everything except the ground itself! Plucking feathers from every passing goose and stripping the hide from every passing beast-anyone who didn't know better would think their Witch Race was a bunch of Tushan Fox Demons!
"Come on, you lot, over here. Start digging!" Just then, a squad of Witch Race Soldiers arrived not far from them, each carrying a shovel. Their leader gave the others their orders.
"Yes!" the witches answered, then began shoveling earth.
Houtu: "..."
Donghua: "..."
The two froze. Several seconds later, Donghua stiffly turned his head toward Houtu and asked, "Ancestral Witch Houtu, what... are they doing?"
"Er..." Houtu opened her mouth but couldn't immediately find any words. Mostly, she wasn't sure what these tribesmen of hers were doing either. Could there be treasures buried underground? Surely not.
"Fellow Daoist, I'll go ask," Houtu told Donghua. Then her figure flashed, and she appeared before the squad of Witch Race Soldiers.
Seeing this, Donghua flashed with purple light and followed her.
"Greetings, Ancestral Witch!" The witches digging up the earth were startled by Houtu's sudden appearance. They immediately dropped to one knee and saluted her.
As for Donghua-sorry, they didn't know him.
"Rise, all of you. What are you doing?" Houtu raised a hand toward the witches before her and asked.
"Thank you, Ancestral Witch. Reporting to the Ancestral Witch, Great God Gungun ordered us to dig three hundred feet down and haul away the spirit soil once we've transplanted all the Spirit Plants on Penglai Immortal Island. It wants to build an orchard on Mount Buzhou, using Penglai spirit soil for all the soil it needs," the Witch Race squad leader respectfully answered.
Houtu: "..."
Donghua: "..."
At this answer, both immortals fell silent. After a long while, Donghua clenched his fists, his lips trembling as he said to Houtu, "Ancestral Witch Houtu, that Iron-Eating Beast of your race really does... have quite an appetite!"
"Ahem..." Houtu held a fist before her mouth and coughed softly.
"Ancestral Witch, should we...?" Noticing that something seemed off about the atmosphere, the Witch Race squad leader glanced at Donghua beside Houtu, then quietly asked her.
"Dig if you want to. Everything is gone, and now I have nothing but the breeze in my sleeves. I don't care if I lose a little soil as well," Donghua said, then turned to leave.
"Fellow Daoist." Houtu turned and raised an arm toward him.
"Ancestral Witch Houtu, there's no need to say anything. If not for you, it would have taken me at least ten thousand years to reconstruct my body. There would have been no guarantee that the Demon Race wouldn't find me during that time, and I wouldn't have been able to keep Penglai either. So... it doesn't matter." Donghua paused briefly, his voice hoarse, then continued walking away.
Watching Donghua's departing back, Houtu suddenly felt, for some reason, that he was terribly pitiful.
Honestly, he should have perished completely within the Lesser Stellar Formation. Yet he was still alive, and he could even continue using Penglai Immortal Island as his cultivation grounds. He ought to have been extraordinarily fortunate, but she still found him so pitiful.
"Ancestral Witch?" Seeing that Houtu still hadn't answered his question, the squad leader quietly asked her again.
"Do Hou Yi and Xingtian know about digging up the Penglai spirit soil?" Houtu asked.
"They do. Both Great Shamans agreed. They said that since the Eastern King no longer wishes to oppose the Demon Race, we needn't stand on ceremony when taking what we're owed. After all... we lost quite a few brothers in the battle against Bai Ze."
Hearing this, Houtu frowned and stood in silence for a long time. At last, the space around her rippled, and she vanished, leaving behind only a few words: "Then... dig."
"Yes, Ancestral Witch," the witches remaining there answered with bowed heads, then resumed digging.
Meanwhile, at Penglai's Spirit Spring Waterfall.
"Snore, snore, snore..." A black-and-white Iron-Eating Beast floated on the water, its great belly sticking up as it slept soundly.
Gungun had never managed to reach a definite answer to the question of whether Pingxin, who appeared after Houtu transformed her body into reincarnation, was still Houtu. In the end, it decided to stop thinking about it. Whatever happened, life had to go on. Since it couldn't change the future, it would live well in the present and not let those troubles spoil the happiness of its life.
As for Houtu... there would always be a way. There had to be!
"Hou Yi, how does Brother Gungun sleep so soundly every single time? And I only sleep once every thousand years, while it-heh, out of every hundred times I see it, ninety-nine are spent sleeping!" On the bank, Hou Yi and Xingtian were roasting a Spirit Deer to eat. Watching Gungun floating on the water, Xingtian asked Hou Yi with a smile.
At the question, Hou Yi cut himself a piece of venison and turned to glance at Gungun. A hint of a smile crossed his face as he said, "Brother Gungun mastered the Law of Silence while still at the Great Immortal realm, so barring anything unexpected, its Dao must be the Silence Dao. It's only natural for it to enjoy sleeping a little."
"Eating its fill, then sleeping; sleeping its fill, then eating. And it still managed to become a great immortal. In a certain sense, Brother Gungun really is remarkable," Xingtian sighed.
"Ha! Come on, bottoms up! Once we finish eating, we'll take a bath too." Hou Yi shook his head and raised the large bowl in his hand toward Xingtian.
"Good!" Xingtian replied, then raised his own large bowl and clinked it against Hou Yi's. Together, they drank the fine wine the Eastern King had kept for hundreds of thousands of years, which Gungun had fished out with the Treasure-Fishing Rod.
"Hum..." Suddenly, space rippled, and Houtu appeared.
"Ancestral Witch!" Having finished their wine, Hou Yi and Xingtian saw Houtu arrive and rose together, bowing their heads in salute.
"Sit, both of you," Houtu said softly, then sat down first. Seeing this, Hou Yi and Xingtian sat back down as well.
Looking at Gungun floating on the water before them, Houtu asked Hou Yi, "Is Gungun's stomach any better?"
"Rest assured, Ancestral Witch. The Eastern King's primordial spirit may be powerful, but Brother Gungun's physical body is no weak thing either. It's perfectly fine now," Hou Yi answered.
"Mm." Houtu nodded, then said with a trace of helplessness in her voice, "It certainly holds a grudge. It was partly in the wrong itself, yet it keeps wanting to teach the Eastern King a lesson. It even came up with that rotten idea and wanted you to... ah!"
"Brother Gungun was only talking. Its stomach was upset at the time, so naturally it was angry. It's fine now, and given its usual lazy nature, along with how much it gained here on Penglai, I imagine it'll forget all about this in a few days. It won't actually go looking for trouble with Donghua," Hou Yi said.
"Mm. Let's leave that aside. The Dao Ancestor has decreed that the Witch Race and Demon Race must not wage a major war for a million years. Hou Yi, Xingtian, you must make the most of this million years to drill our troops and commanders. Once that time is up, a decisive battle between the two races is inevitable. That battle... will determine who stands at the heart of the Primordial World!" Houtu instructed Hou Yi and Xingtian.
"Yes, Ancestral Witch!" Both Great Shamans bowed their heads and answered solemnly.
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