The Second Lecture at the Purple Firmament Palace

Feeling Gonggong's pressure, which far surpassed that of a Daluo Golden Immortal, the Ancestral Witches all froze and stared blankly at the utterly arrogant Gonggong.

"Gonggong, you... you broke through to Quasi-Sage?" Zhurong's eyes went round with disbelief.

If anyone present knew Gonggong's strength best,

it had to be him, the Ancestral Witch of Fire, who fought Gonggong at every opportunity.

But... this wasn't right!

"That's right, Zhurong. You're no match for me now!" Gonggong looked at Zhurong smugly, his eyes eager for a fight.

Clearly, he now had the urge to give his own brother a good thrashing.

"Gonggong, you found the reclusive mighty figure the Dao Ancestor spoke of." Suddenly, Zhu Jiuyin, who was standing nearby, thought of something and hurriedly spoke.

"Hehe, that's right!" Gonggong nodded and immediately grinned smugly. "I tempered myself at Senior's place for a hundred years, and after bitter cultivation, I finally broke through to Quasi-Sage."

"I only just came out of seclusion and heard the news that the Dao Ancestor was giving a lecture. Otherwise, how could I possibly have forgotten to return and meet up with the Witch Race?"

At the end, Gonggong added another excuse.

"Save it. Even if you hadn't broken through, you'd definitely have forgotten." Zhurong, whom Gonggong had been staring at with ill intent, immediately retorted.

"How could that be..." Gonggong had just been about to argue back.

But Dijiang interrupted him and asked with a hint of urgency, "Gonggong, did you just say those two mangy birds Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi passed by?"

"Yeah!" Gonggong nodded in surprise. "Just now, right after they entered Chaos, I saw you, so I didn't go up and start a fight with them."

"Why did you stop when you saw us? You should've charged up and stopped them!" Dijiang's face filled with frustration.

Gonggong froze.

Beside him, a few Ancestral Witches, including Zhu Jiuyin, also realized what had happened and looked frustrated.

"This time, Dao Ancestor Hongjun is teaching the method of breaking through to Quasi-Sage in the Purple Firmament Palace. We don't need that Quasi-Sage method, which we don't even know if we can use, but those two mangy birds do!"

"With your Quasi-Sage cultivation, even if you couldn't beat all of them working together, you could have charged up and held them off until we arrived!" Dijiang said in frustration.

"We could have stopped Dijun, Eastern Emperor Taiyi, and those fellows from the Demon Race from attending the lecture. That was a perfect chance to finish them off for good!"

"This..."

Gonggong froze, then his face filled with frustration too. He really hadn't thought of that just now. Otherwise...

With his Quasi-Sage strength, there would have been no need to wait for them to arrive, as Dijiang had said. Even if one punch each couldn't kill those two mangy birds protected by supreme treasures and spirit treasures,

not one of the fellows following behind them would have survived.

"Is there still time for us to chase after them now?" Xuanming, the Ancestral Witch of Rain, who had remained calm all this time, asked in a low voice.

"It's too late! You know how chaotic it is in Chaos. If we had chased after them as soon as we arrived, we might have caught up, but now..."

It was Zhu Jiuyin, the Ancestral Witch of Time, who answered. Unlike the other Ancestral Witches, he was somewhat disappointed but not overly frustrated. Instead, he continued, trying to persuade them.

"All right, we've missed the chance, so let it go. The urgent matter now is to head for the Purple Firmament Palace and see if Gonggong's Quasi-Sage speed can let us intercept them halfway."

"Even if we can't stop them, we can't let them listen in peace at the Purple Firmament Palace."

For those last words, Zhu Jiuyin did not even speak aloud, switching to voice transmission instead.

After all, he was talking about making trouble in a Sage's Dao field, so naturally he could not say it outright.

Only after hearing Zhu Jiuyin's advice did Gonggong manage to suppress his frustration. He unleashed his divine power and sped through Chaos with his brothers and sisters.

At the same time, he told his brothers and sisters about what had happened at Ao Changsheng's Dao field in the East Sea.

Of course... a little artistic embellishment was unavoidable.

Inside the Purple Firmament Palace.

The Three Purities-Laozi, Yuanshi, and Tongtian-as well as Nüwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti had all arrived early.

Each sat on a cushion at the very front, eyes closed, waiting calmly for the lecture to begin.

Behind them, mighty figures such as Fuxi, Hongyun, Zhenyuanzi, Kunpeng, and Minghe had also arrived.

Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi, like those mighty figures, sat waiting on cushions in the second row.

As for the other Daluo they had recruited, they were scattered among the thousands of cushions in the Purple Firmament Palace.

"Sure enough, we didn't make it in time."

Having entered the Purple Firmament Palace, the Twelve Ancestral Witches looked at Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi, who had long since taken their seats, and were filled with frustration.

Gonggong blamed himself most of all among the Twelve Ancestral Witches. After all, he was the one who had missed the best chance to stop these great enemies.

But no matter how frustrated they were, they did not dare strike openly here in the Purple Firmament Palace, a Sage's Dao field.

They could only go to their seats and sit down, glaring at the two men's backs with ill intent.

In front of them, Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi immediately felt as though needles were pricking their backs.

After all, they had learned their lesson in the Purple Firmament Palace last time. So even though they knew full well that this was a Sage's Dao field, they kept their divine senses spread over their surroundings at all times,

on guard against a suicidal attack from the Twelve Ancestral Witches that could come at any moment.

Seeing the state the two men were in, the Twelve Ancestral Witches' eyes lit up, as though they had discovered something. Then...

One ill-intentioned gaze after another turned to the Daluo whom Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi had recruited over the years.

At once, quite a few Daluo nearby understood what the Twelve Ancestral Witches meant.

The Witch Race could not cultivate the Great Dao Hongjun taught. They had not come to listen to the lecture at all.

They had come to target the Demon Race faction Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi had established.

As for the Daluo who were the targets of the Twelve Ancestral Witches' stares, they even felt a faint regret at having accepted Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi's recruitment so early.

That was right: they regretted agreeing so early, not joining the Demon Race.

In this era, anyone who could cultivate to Daluo, even those innate divine beings who were Daluo Golden Immortals, was bound to have a steadfast Dao heart.

How could they regret their own decision over a few looks from the Twelve Ancestral Witches?

Of course, that was only for now...

Several thousand years passed in the blink of an eye, and before anyone knew it, the ten-thousand-year deadline Dao Ancestor Hongjun had spoken of was drawing near.

The cushions in the Purple Firmament Palace were also nearly filled with Daluo.

"Dong!"

Outside the Purple Firmament Palace, a Dao bell suddenly rang.

The sudden chime immediately roused the spirits of the assembled mighty figures, and they looked up toward the high platform.

Sure enough, purple qi surged around the platform, and Dao Ancestor Hongjun had appeared upon it at some unknown time.

Facing the eager gazes of the mighty figures below, Hongjun remained calm and spoke directly.

"This lecture will last three thousand years and concern the path to attaining the Dao beyond Daluo Golden Immortal. You must listen carefully."