Heaven-Reaching Jianmu

"Fellow Daoist, surely you know that Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi bear the mandate of heaven. The time has not yet come..." Hongjun said with a smile.

"You jest, Fellow Daoist Hongjun. The mandate of heaven lies with the Demon Race, not with Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi..." Ao Changsheng shook his head slightly and continued with a smile.

"Even if I killed Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi, new demon emperors would emerge among the Demon Race."

Hearing Ao Changsheng's words, Hongjun paused before continuing, "There would be too many uncertainties if we waited for new demon emperors bearing the mandate of heaven to emerge..."

"Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi are the demon emperors best suited to lead the Demon Race and keep the Witch Race in check!"

Ao Changsheng looked at Hongjun, smiling without a word.

He understood perfectly well what Hongjun meant.

This era belonged to the witches and demons.

The mandate of heaven lay with the witches, and the mandate of heaven lay with the demons!

But the two races held the mandate of heaven only for this era; they were not the eternal protagonists of the Primordial World.

So...

Hongjun needed to ensure that the Witch and Demon races fell into complete decline after this era, never again possessing the strength to become the protagonists of the Primordial World.

This was his "duty" as a Heavenly Dao Sage.

The Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World was not like those described in the imaginings of many novels, possessing a will like that of a living being. It was merely the instinct of the Primordial World.

It merely sensed instinctively that the witches and demons could only be the protagonists of this era, not the eternal protagonists of the Primordial World.

But as stated before, the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial World was not a living being, and it had none of a living being's joys and sorrows, schemes and calculations.

Since the Witch and Demon races were the protagonists of this era, it would not suppress them during this era.

Heaven unfolds forty-nine paths, leaving a thread of hope for all things in the world.

Thus, the Witch and Demon races might not necessarily fall into complete decline after this great tribulation.

So Hongjun, the Heavenly Dao Sage, was needed to handle such matters and maintain the workings of the Heavenly Dao.

He did not need to instigate conflict between the Witch and Demon races; he only needed to keep their forces in balance.

Then the final outcome would naturally play out bit by bit, just like a "script."

And two known, powerful demon emperors would be far easier to balance against the witches than demon emperors who emerged after these two fell.

Seeing the smile on Ao Changsheng's face, Hongjun finally sighed softly. "Fellow Daoist Changsheng, what will it take for you to spare Dijun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi?"

"I need Innate Spirit Roots that increase Law Power!" Ao Changsheng made no attempt to be polite.

Although he knew Hongjun had already distributed treasures at the Purple Firmament Palace, the wealth of the Primordial World's only Heavenly Dao Sage at this time was surely far beyond what most people could imagine.

"Innate Spirit Roots that increase Law Power..." Hongjun pondered briefly before shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, Fellow Daoist Changsheng, but I must disappoint you. Of the Innate Spirit Roots in my collection, only the Yellow Center Plum can increase Law Power."

"I already traded the Yellow Center Plum to you. As for the other Spirit Roots, none of them primarily increase cultivation or Law Power."

Ao Changsheng frowned slightly.

He naturally understood that when Hongjun spoke of increasing Law Power, he meant it would be effective for Daluo Golden Immortals, and even Quasi-Sages and those of the Hunyuan realm.

Otherwise, among the Innate Spirit Roots Hongjun had traded to Ao Changsheng last time, quite a few increased Law Power.

"How about this, Fellow Daoist Changsheng? I no longer have any Innate Spirit Roots that increase Law Power, but I do have another Spirit Root that might satisfy you."

Hongjun suddenly spoke to Ao Changsheng.

"Jianmu! I wonder if you know of it, Fellow Daoist Changsheng."

"Jianmu?" Ao Changsheng was slightly surprised, then quickly searched his mind and found scattered information about Jianmu.

Jianmu, also known as Heaven-Reaching Jianmu, was said to be a sacred tree that connected the heavenly realm and the mortal world.

However...

These were myths and legends from Ao Changsheng's previous life. In the Primordial World, there seemed to be little knowledge of Jianmu.

Perhaps seeing that Ao Changsheng did not know much about it, Hongjun swept his right hand through the void before him, and a passage through the void appeared in front of them.

"This..."

At Ao Changsheng's cultivation ground, his true body suddenly opened his eyes and stared in utter astonishment at the passage through the void outside.

"What... is this?"

A look of shock and suspicion flashed in Ao Changsheng's eyes. His inner world was trembling, yearning for the presence coming from the other end of the passage.

"Fellow Daoist Changsheng, please follow me and see for yourself!" Hongjun invited Ao Changsheng's incarnation, then stepped into the passage.

Ao Changsheng's incarnation followed without hesitation.

To be honest, if he could, he even wanted to end his seclusion immediately and follow in his true body. What the passage revealed was simply too powerful a lure for him.

"This is..."

Ao Changsheng's incarnation passed through the void passage, and his gaze was immediately drawn to the sight before him.

In the distance stood a gigantic tree that reached from heaven to earth. From nearly a million kilometers away, even with the eyesight of Ao Changsheng's Daluo Golden Immortal incarnation,

he could not see the top of the tree.

Ao Changsheng instinctively circulated his Law Power and activated the Eye of the Candle Dragon to enhance his eyesight. Only then did he finally see the top of the giant tree.

Its height could not even be described in hundreds of millions of li; it had to be measured in light-years.

This was not like Ao Changsheng transforming and using Law Power to make himself gigantic. The giant tree's true form was several hundred light-years tall.

And the place where the giant tree stood was just as extraordinary. Ao Changsheng looked up into the sky with the Eye of the Candle Dragon, and only after looking tens of thousands of light-years upward did he see the top of the place. It was rock.

The place where Jianmu stood was plainly not an open-air location like a valley, but an underground cavern or the interior of a mountain.

It was tens of thousands of light-years high and stretched nearly a hundred thousand light-years across.

Even though Ao Changsheng had long known how unimaginably vast the Primordial World was, seeing a cavern nearly as large as the Milky Way from his previous life still left him somewhat shaken.

He returned his gaze to the Heaven-Reaching Jianmu, and after a brief pause, found a similar divine object among the information in his mind.

"This... this Jianmu is actually a tree that holds up the heavens, a Tree of the World!" Ao Changsheng could not help exclaiming. He looked at Hongjun.

"Indeed!" Hongjun nodded, a smile appearing on his face. "This Jianmu is a World Tree sapling."

"A sapling?"

Although Ao Changsheng had already known this when he recognized Jianmu's origin, hearing Hongjun say it still left him speechless.

A sapling several hundred light-years tall...

"It is a pity. This Jianmu should have sprouted and grown in Chaos, absorbing endless Chaos Qi, then borne countless worlds and grown into a true Tree of the World."

Hongjun continued, a look of regret appearing on his face.

"Unfortunately, by a coincidence, this Jianmu's seed fell into the Primordial World and began to sprout and grow by absorbing the Primordial World's origin..."

"If the seed had fallen into an ordinary world, that would have been one thing! But the Primordial World..." Hongjun shook his head slightly as he spoke.

Ao Changsheng understood what Hongjun meant. He had learned about the divine World Tree from the Inner World Creation Cultivation Method.

If a World Tree, or rather this Jianmu, did not take root and grow in Chaos but fell into a world instead,

it would absorb the world's origin to grow. Once it had absorbed more than half of the world's origin,

regardless of how much the World Tree had grown by then, it would become a tree that held up the heavens and supported the world.

Its roots, branches, and leaves would then grow beyond the world and begin absorbing Chaos Spiritual Qi, nourishing the world in return and growing alongside it.

Although this would cause a few problems for a world in the early stages, it was definitely not a bad thing. On the contrary, it was a tremendous blessing.

But... the Primordial World was different.