Nüwa's Request for Guidance

"You said fellow Daoist Hongjun sent you to ask me for guidance?"

Ao Changsheng looked at Nüwa, surprise showing in his eyes.

Although his several dealings with Hongjun had all left him quite satisfied, surely their relationship wasn't that close!

"Yes! Teacher Hongjun said that Senior Changsheng is a great expert living in seclusion in the Primordial World, and that your cultivation is no less than his. He said that if we ran into any problems with our cultivation, we could come to you!"

Nüwa spoke respectfully to Ao Changsheng.

As for why she was so respectful to Ao Changsheng, this "Daluo of the Dragon Race," it was because Hongjun had once mentioned something to them:

Ao Changsheng's "strange predilection."

His true body cultivated in seclusion, while he liked to appear before others as a Daluo Golden Immortal incarnation.

At the thought, Nüwa couldn't help feeling a little odd. She recalled the time Dijun had come here and fought Ao Changsheng.

To have fought an incarnation of a Hunyuan Daluo-that was probably the crowning moment of Dijun's entire life!

Nüwa muttered to herself.

"Fellow Daoist Hongjun really does trust me!" Ao Changsheng looked at Nüwa, his gaze shifting slightly.

"There's no need to call me senior, fellow Daoist Nüwa. As fellow Daoist Hongjun's disciple, you're destined to become a Heavenly Dao Sage. You may simply call me fellow Daoist!"

"What questions do you have? I'll do my best to answer them!"

Ao Changsheng looked at Nüwa and spoke softly.

Although he wasn't a member of the Human Race in this life, Ao Changsheng still felt a little awkward being addressed as senior by the legendary Holy Mother of the Human Race.

"Senior Changsheng..." Nüwa had just begun to speak when she saw the look on Ao Changsheng's face, as though he would leave if she called him that again. She immediately corrected herself.

"Fellow Daoist Changsheng!" Nüwa said, sounding somewhat hesitant.

"I imagine you know about the slaughter the Witch Race inflicted on the Demon Race a million years ago."

As an Innate Divine Being, once Nüwa had changed how she addressed him, she no longer hesitated in the slightest and spoke at length about her views and thoughts on the Demon Race.

As he listened to Nüwa's explanation, Ao Changsheng gradually began to feel strange.

Never having truly interacted with the Quasi-Sages of the Demon Race, Ao Changsheng did not know their dispositions, so he could only make guesses based on the legends and the assessments of the sages in the Primordial World.

He had originally thought that the slaughter a million years ago had left an obsession not only in the hearts of Dijun and Taiyi, but in those of Fuxi and Nüwa as well.

The only ones Ao Changsheng had been uncertain about were Kunpeng and Xihe.

One of the two was rumored to be sinister and ruthless, and Ao Changsheng could not be sure whether the Demon Race's ordeal would have left him with a deep-seated obsession.

As for Xihe, he knew too little about her. She was the sun goddess, and she had joined the Demon Race only for Dijun's sake, so Ao Changsheng could not be certain about her either.

But now it seemed...

The slaughter back then had not left Nüwa with an obsession that hindered her cultivation either-or rather, the obsession it left had been too shallow.

There had been no need to exterminate the Witch Race; she had already moved past it over the course of that million years.

Was this what one should expect of a future Heavenly Dao Sage? That aptitude...

Ao Changsheng clicked his tongue inwardly. After all, Nüwa had severed her Evil Corpse in a fit of rage back then, which showed just how fiercely her anger had burned.

Even so, it had not affected her future Dao Path.

When he heard Nüwa say that she preferred cultivating on Mount Buzhou to handling the Demon Race's affairs,

Ao Changsheng asked in mild surprise, "You want to ask how to handle your relationship with the Demon Race?"

"No." Nüwa shook her head slightly. "I know where I stand with the Demon Race. What I wanted to ask you about, senior, is a problem with my cultivation."

"Mm."

Ao Changsheng nodded slightly, a hint of admiration entering his gaze as he looked at Nüwa.

When he saw Nüwa's untroubled expression as she mentioned the Demon Race, Ao Changsheng knew what choice she had made.

"Over the past million years, I've traveled the Primordial World, helping the Demon Race and helping the myriad races of the Primordial World recover their vitality. I've faintly sensed that somewhere among the myriad races and spirits lies a fortuitous opportunity connected to me."

"But after hundreds of thousands of years, I still haven't been able to grasp where that opportunity lies."

As Nüwa spoke, her brows furrowed slightly. It was an opportunity she could clearly sense, one that seemed as though a single poke would pierce through to it.

Yet she had wandered outside it for hundreds of thousands of years. Even with the state of mind of a Quasi-Sage, she truly found the feeling distressing.

"That's why I came here to ask for your guidance, fellow Daoist Changsheng," Nüwa said, looking earnestly at Ao Changsheng.

"A fortuitous opportunity?"

Ao Changsheng's eyes flickered slightly. Although Nüwa had not said outright what kind of opportunity she had sensed,

it was an opportunity that had driven a great Quasi-Sage to search painstakingly for hundreds of thousands of years, and even come to ask an outsider like him for guidance.

The only thing Ao Changsheng could think of was an opportunity to become a Sage!

Fate really toys with people! Ao Changsheng sighed inwardly, his feelings exceedingly complicated.

Compared with the million years of this life, the mere ten or twenty years of his previous life were far too insignificant.

But to Ao Changsheng, those were extremely important memories.

Suppressing the complicated feelings in his heart, Ao Changsheng looked at Nüwa again, a solemn expression appearing in his eyes as he spoke.

"Fortuitous opportunities depend on both chance and fate. How could someone else point the way to one? But since you've already sensed the opportunity and yet can't find it..."

"Perhaps fate has brought it to you, but the time is not yet right. Or perhaps your cultivation has not yet reached the level needed to obtain it."

"Perhaps, even, this opportunity is not something you need to find, but something you need to comprehend." As Ao Changsheng spoke, a serious expression appeared on his face.

Nüwa had felt a little disappointed when she heard the first part of what Ao Changsheng said, but the latter part left her abruptly stunned.

"The time isn't right? My cultivation isn't high enough? It doesn't need to be found? It needs to be comprehended..."

Nüwa murmured the two sentences under her breath, and the frustration in her heart was swept clean away.

Though she did not know why, Nüwa instinctively felt that this was the reason the opportunity she had sensed had yet to appear.

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior Changsheng!" Overjoyed, Nüwa immediately cupped her hands and bowed to Ao Changsheng, even switching back to calling him senior.

Ao Changsheng watched Nüwa's retreating figure in the distance, then looked at the great pile of treasures she had left behind.

Though none of them were particularly precious, there were several Innate Spirit Roots that would be of some use to Ao Changsheng.

"Are... are all of them really coming here just to deliver treasures?" Ao Changsheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Shaking his head slightly, Ao Changsheng cast the thought aside, his expression growing somewhat grave.

He looked up at the sky, his gaze seeming to pierce through the Primordial World to the Purple Firmament Palace, which rose and sank in the Chaos beyond it.

"Fellow Daoist Hongjun, just what... are you planning?" Ao Changsheng thought of the strand of Primordial purple Qi he had just seen within Nüwa's Primordial Spirit.

Within his cultivation grounds, with his own heart taking the place of the heavens' heart, Ao Changsheng was a Sage who was not a Sage. Naturally, the Dao resonance of that strand of Primordial purple Qi within her Primordial Spirit had not escaped his notice.

Its Dao resonance was so rich it nearly burst forth. With just one look, Ao Changsheng could feel a faint increase in his own affinity with the Great Dao of the World.

Unfortunately... the Great Dao of the World that Ao Changsheng comprehended was already incomparably compatible with the world within his body.

The Dao of the World he had comprehended would itself affect the world within his body, allowing him to unleash the full power of the Great Dao of the World he had mastered.

Even so, this Primordial purple Qi was enticing enough!

Unlike a supreme treasure such as the Jade Disc of Creation, which aided comprehension of the Heavenly Dao, this Primordial purple Qi was clearly a supreme treasure for merging with the Dao, one capable of increasing affinity with the Great Dao.

Moreover, it did not only affect the Primordial Spirit; it also worked on the body.

If an Ancestral Witch obtained a strand of Primordial purple Qi and merged it into their body, the speed at which their physique merged with the Great Dao would increase dramatically.

In all likelihood, it would take less than a few tens of thousands of years to complete the transformation of their physique and attain Quasi-Sage Perfection.

Unfortunately... this Primordial purple Qi was not pure.