Witch Race

Biodata

Power Progression

Background

The Witch Race originated from Pangu’s Essence Blood mingled with the turbid Qi of heaven and earth. Its leaders inherited cultivation knowledge from Pangu and initially doubted that outside guidance could surpass this inheritance 9 10.

Dijiang described the race’s original purpose as protecting the world created by Father God, while acknowledging that outsiders regarded its actions as a bid for domination. Its rivalry with the Demon Race began early in the epoch, including clashes at Mount Buzhou over races that had joined Dijun’s faction 27.

During the long Witch-Demon conflict, an unwritten division of authority emerged: the demons ruled heaven, while the witches governed the earth. The Witch Race also maintained its own Ancestral Witch calendar; both its calendar and the Demon Race’s Heavenly Emperor calendar had passed thirty-eight thousand Yuanhui shortly before the final war 67.

The race’s dominance did not survive the tribulation. Eleven Ancestral Witches and countless Great Witches and ordinary witches fell, leaving the survivors concerned primarily with maintaining a foothold in the Primordial World 87.

Organization and Members

Twelve Ancestral Witches

The Twelve Ancestral Witches are the race’s original leaders and the foundation of its survival. Ao Changsheng considered the continued existence of even one Ancestral Witch sufficient to preserve a chance for the race’s future 26.

Houtu’s departure initially left eleven Ancestral Witches available for battle, with Kuafu occupying her place in the formation. The postwar survivors subsequently described all eleven as having fallen 66 69 87.

Great Witches

Great Witches possess combat strength comparable to Daluo cultivators and command ordinary witches in battle. Some surviving Great Witches later advance to the Ancestral Witch or Quasi-Sage level 34 38 104 136.

• Xingtian — Wields a shield and battle-axe; splits falling primordial stars during the second war. After the final war, restrains Xiangliu from recklessly attacking Fuxi and prioritizes the race’s survival. Later advances to the Ancestral Witch level and challenges the Heavenly Court over its prisoners, but is beheaded and suppressed by Haotian 38 87 104 105 129.
• Xiangliu — Uses nine enormous snake heads to crush and tear apart primordial stars. A follower of Gonggong and one of the race’s most ferocious survivors, he avoids administrative affairs in favor of secluded cultivation. His revenge campaign against the Human Race ultimately ends in eternal suppression 38 87 129 141.
• Hou Yi — Wields a ten-thousand-zhang bow; destroys stars and kills nine Daluo demon gods with divine arrows. After the Golden Crow princes destroy his tribe and family, he shoots down nine princes and subsequently dies following Dijun’s intervention. Dijiang judges that he had been close to transcending the Great Witch level and reaching Quasi-Sage 38 39 67 68.
• Kuafu — Uses a peachwood staff to smash incoming stars and protects Hou Yi from enemy attacks. Replaces Houtu in the ancestral formation through her Essence Blood, and later wounds the ten Golden Crow princes while attempting to capture them alive 38 39 66 67.
• Jiufeng — One of the three Great Witches identified among the immediate postwar survivors, alongside Xingtian and Xiangliu. Later reaches the Ancestral Witch level. Pingxin considers her capable of proving her Dao because her bloodline purity is second only to that of the original Twelve Ancestral Witches 87 104 148.
• Chiyou — A rare Great Witch of mixed human and witch blood and leader of the Jiuli Tribe. Allies with the witches against Xuanyuan, but is captured and later dismembered, with his remains suppressed across the Primordial World 103 129.
• Fengbo and Yushi — Great Witches who assist Chiyou at Zhuolu. The Mysterious Maiden of the Nine Heavens captures them and takes them for punishment under the Heavenly Emperor’s decree 103 104.

Sorcerers and Later Leadership

Although the witches do not cultivate Primordial Spirits or deduce heavenly secrets through the usual cultivator methods, their sorcerers excel at divination. They monitor the safety of the race and its Great Witches, with abilities described as no less effective than those of cultivators skilled in heavenly deduction 68.

After the final war, Xingtian, Xiangliu, and Jiufeng recognize that their own survival is essential to preventing the race’s extinction. Xiangliu nevertheless leaves the management of surviving witches to others 87 129.

A much later account depicts the Twelve Ancestral Witches discussing Sun Wukong’s threat and Gonggong reporting to a figure titled the Witch God. The Witch God orders an investigation into the Demon Race’s background before deciding on further action 749.

Culture and Conduct

The witches revere Pangu alone and regard death as “returning to Father God.” This belief underpins their willingness to fight despite the possibility of their race’s decline 8 27 34.

Their arrogance does not exclude strategy or respect for superior strength. The Ancestral Witches deliberately obstructed their enemies rather than competing for sermon seats, and Zhu Jiuyin insisted on honoring Hongjun’s recommendation even when several siblings doubted its usefulness 8 10.

Hunting other living beings—including members of the Demon Race—is an established practice. The stream of demons passing Mount Buzhou on the way to the Heavenly Court became a ready source of prey. Such hunting helped motivate Fuxi and Nüwa to support the Demon Race 34 35 40.

Houtu differs sharply from her siblings over indiscriminate slaughter. Dijiang and the others concealed their large-scale massacre plan from her because she would not have approved; learning of its extent left her trembling during battle 34.

A love of combat and competition extends throughout the race, from the Ancestral Witches and Great Witches to young children. Houtu eventually grows so weary of the prolonged violence that she feels some aversion toward the Witch Race itself, questioning how its conduct could be reconciled with protecting Pangu’s world 61 62.

Witches ordinarily assume the form of Innate Dao Bodies. This shared outward form contributes to their familiarity with humans and permits human-witch marriages without reproductive barriers. Hou Yi and Chang’e are a prominent example, while Chiyou is a documented descendant of mixed human and witch blood 68 103 129.

The postwar survivors distinguish between willingness to die and responsibility to remain alive. Xingtian warns Xiangliu that a reckless attack on Fuxi could destroy the race’s last foothold, forcing the survivors to place preservation above vengeance 87.

Abilities & Skills

Great Dao Integration

The Witch Race’s Quasi-Sage path integrates a Great Dao into the physical body, transforming the physique and increasing its compatibility with that Dao 18 19 37.

• Gonggong’s breakthrough establishes the documented example: the Great Dao of Water fuses directly with his transformed body 18.
• Continued integration is exceptionally slow, rather than a rapid shortcut comparable to corpse-severing 37.
• Ao Changsheng projects that the resulting physique could ultimately become an extreme-Dao physique, greatly amplifying the power drawn from the same Great Dao 19.
• The race’s underlying cultivation develops the power already present in its Pangu-derived bloodlines. Witches are born with a Principle, gradually master it through repeated use, develop it into a Great Dao, and eventually integrate that Dao into their bodies to become Quasi-Sages 109.
• Because this process does not depend on conventional external Dao comprehension, the postwar disorder of the Great Dao does not obstruct witches in the same manner as ordinary cultivators. The benefits of racial fortune are also less conspicuous for them, both because of their cultivation method and because they possess great fortune from birth 104 109.

When establishing reincarnation, Houtu discovers errors and omissions in the race’s previous cultivation and identifies a method better suited to it. She transmits her insights to Dijiang before her transformation 63 104.

Ancestral Witch True Bodies

Ancestral Witch bodies combine exceptional physical strength, resilience, and regeneration 17 35 36.

• Ao Changsheng judges Gonggong’s body stronger than his own true dragon body at their meeting 17.
• Jumang and Xizi rapidly heal Dao wounds by driving their Great Daos at full strength 35.
• Rushou and Qiangliang withstand direct hits from Nüwa’s Red Embroidered Ball while retreating, healing the resulting wounds almost immediately 36.
• Their defenses are not absolute: Fuxi’s breakthrough allows him to break through Jumang and Xizi’s combined domain and injure them 35.
• Dijiang’s spatial abilities make him the swiftest of the original Ancestral Witches, allowing him to rush toward Houtu at the Netherworld Blood Sea with extraordinary speed 63.
• Advancement to the Ancestral Witch level does not necessarily reproduce the original twelve’s physique. Haotian judges Xingtian’s true form inferior to theirs despite his later breakthrough 105.

Ordinary witches also possess enormous true bodies and innate Divine Abilities. In the final war, their forces summon winds and rain and command thunder and lightning while charging the Demon Race’s much larger army 69.

Combined Dao Domains

The Ancestral Witches can interweave manifestations of their respective Great Daos into defensive and restraining domains 35 36.

• Jumang’s Wood and Xizi’s Lightning domains jointly trap Fuxi before his breakthrough 35.
• All twelve create an intricate domain capable of resisting full-strength attacks from six Quasi-Sages 36.

Twelve Heavenly Gods and Devils Great Formation

The Twelve Ancestral Witches combine their bodies, Blood Qi, and innate black-and-red Sha Qi to manifest a colossal Pangu-like form 36 38.

• Its power brings the Demon Race’s leaders close to destruction during the first war 37.
• It can summon the Pangu Axe and tear open the Zhou Tian Star Dou Great Formation 39.
• Its axe strike contaminates six heavens with Sha Qi, leaving territory that the demons estimate would require at least six million years to cleanse 39 40.
• Hongjun can stop its attack and disperse the manifestation 37.
• The Three Purities reject it as Pangu’s actual return, describing it as a puppet with his appearance and a trace of his power 39.
• Houtu leaves a drop of her Essence Blood specifically to permit an earth-attribute Great Witch to replace her. Kuafu successfully takes that position, with the blood bearing the formation’s pressure and preserving its power through a full day and night of fighting 63 66 67.
• In the final war, its axe strike kills Dijun, Taiyi, Xihe, Fuxi, the ten great Demon Marshals, and more than ten thousand Daluo Demon Gods before piercing the enemy formation and striking Mount Buzhou 70.
• A later deployment at Zhuolu summons Gonggong’s true body rather than the full Pangu-like manifestation, but is overcome by the Mysterious Maiden of the Nine Heavens 103.

Cultivation and Recovery Limits

• Immortal Dao incompatibility: Absorbing pure Qi through Hongjun’s Immortal Dao would damage the witches’ turbid-Qi-derived bloodline 9.
• Limited treasure benefits: Most Innate Spirit Roots and cultivation materials offer little or no benefit to their physiques. Many Innate Spirit Treasures are useful to them only as physically sturdy weapons 25 37.
• Slow population recovery: Their reproduction cannot match the Demon Race’s, making large battlefield losses especially damaging 39 40.
• Battlefield endurance: The Demon Race’s regenerating stars and replenished fighters can exhaust even Great Witches over a prolonged engagement 38 39.
• Damage to the cultivation foundation: Beheading or dismembering a Great Witch can prevent the true body from becoming whole, ruining its foundation and making further cultivation and breakthroughs impossible. Xiangliu regards the punishments imposed on Xingtian and Chiyou as worse than death 136.
• Nine Provinces Barrier: The barrier suppresses Xiangliu’s Great Dao of Poison, prevents him from assuming his Great Witch form, and renders his blood unable to corrode the ground. His attempts to breach it with floods and fierce winds also fail 129 130.

History

Hongjun’s Sermons and the Search for Guidance

At Hongjun’s first sermon, the Twelve Ancestral Witches prevented Dijun and Taiyi from taking two front cushions, then sat farther back to watch their frustration. The act continued an already established rivalry between the two factions 8.

After discovering that Hongjun’s Immortal Dao was unsuitable for her race, Houtu publicly requested guidance. Hongjun directed her toward a secluded sanctuary on the East Sea. Dijiang and Zhu Jiuyin also recognized a diplomatic benefit in her question: it reduced the risk of the witches being treated as hostile outsiders solely because they followed another cultivation path 9 10.

Gonggong’s encounter with Ao Changsheng led to his imprisonment inside an embryonic universe and his subsequent Quasi-Sage breakthrough. He returned convinced that Ao Changsheng had deliberately guided him, and the other Ancestral Witches later reached the same realm during Hongjun’s second sermon 17 18 20 23.

Ao Changsheng’s Warning

Gonggong and Houtu presented Ao Changsheng with more than a hundred Innate Spirit Treasures and Innate Spirit Roots as thanks. When Houtu again asked about cultivation, he told her that the Twelve Ancestral Witches had to open their own path 25 26.

Ao Changsheng warned that the witches and demons were destined to be both the epoch’s protagonists and the central participants in its calamity. He advised them to consider what they could contribute to the Primordial World rather than merely what they could gain from it. Houtu continued reflecting on these words after returning to her siblings 26 27.

First Witch-Demon War

When the Heavenly Court was established, Dijiang restrained Zhurong’s demand for an immediate attack, ordering the witches to master their cultivation and inherited formation first 33.

During Hongjun’s third sermon, Great Witches exploited the absence of the Demon Race’s powerful cultivators. Beginning roughly one hundred years into the sermon, they led approximately 3,900 years of slaughter across the Heavenly Realm and the Primordial World, targeting races and factions affiliated with the demons 34 35.

The returning demon leaders fought the Ancestral Witches. Fuxi and Nüwa severed their evil corpses in battle, upsetting Dijiang’s plan to hold the supporting leaders at bay while eliminating Dijun and Taiyi. The witches then deployed their Pangu formation, only for Hongjun to intervene and disperse it 35 36 37.

Hongjun confined the entire Witch Race within Mount Buzhou for a million years. Ao Changsheng judged that the massacre had ultimately strengthened the Demon Race’s position: its principal leaders survived, while fear of the witches encouraged the remaining races to unite beneath the Heavenly Court 37.

Second Witch-Demon War

When the confinement expired, Dijiang immediately led another assault on the Heavenly Court. The rebuilt Demon Race enclosed the attacking witches within the Zhou Tian Star Dou Great Formation 38.

The witches suffered devastating losses against endlessly restored stars and replenished enemies. After three days and nights, Houtu persuaded her siblings to retreat. Their Pangu manifestation summoned its axe, opened an escape route, and enabled the Great Witches to evacuate the survivors 38 39.

Before withdrawing, the manifestation struck the Heavenly Palace and polluted six heavens with Sha Qi. Dijun proclaimed victory, but observers regarded the outcome as mutual devastation: the witches had suffered heavier casualties, while the demons lost Daluo fighters and access to a sixth of the Heavenly Realm 39 40.

Continuing Conflict

Large formation battles subsequently recurred every few hundred thousand years. By one later confrontation, Ao Changsheng had lost track of whether it was the forty-sixth or forty-seventh; smaller clashes were too numerous for either race to count 43.

When the Eastern King Duke attacked the Demon Race at the East Sea, Dijiang led the Ancestral Witches toward the Heavenly Court to obstruct reinforcements. They withdrew after learning that the battle had ended 47 49.

Houtu eventually left the race to clear her mind. During tens of thousands of years of wandering, she found that Witch-Demon hostilities and the wars of their subordinate races extended almost everywhere living beings gathered. The relative quiet surrounding the Netherworld Blood Sea made her question how far the witches had strayed from their original purpose 61.

Houtu’s Sacrifice and the Replacement Formation

At the Netherworld Blood Sea, Houtu observed Minghe’s Asura Race and the remnant souls trapped beneath the sea. Watching Minghe create Asuras from souls and Blood Sea water led her to understand her mission, comprehend the complete Great Dao of Earth, and reach Quasi-Sage Perfection. She then offered her body to complete reincarnation 62.

Dijiang rushed to her side, but Houtu entrusted him instead with her insights into the Witch Race’s cultivation and a drop of Ancestral Witch Essence Blood. She instructed him to find an earth-attribute Great Witch who could use the blood to take her place in the formation. Her establishment of the Six Paths of Reincarnation brought her to Sagehood and transformed her into Pingxin 63 64.

The Demon Race interpreted her absence as an opportunity to test the witches’ strength. Dijiang reassured his siblings that Houtu had become a Sage and remained responsible for reincarnation, then gave her Essence Blood to Kuafu. The resulting formation proved no weaker than before and endured a full day and night of battle, prompting the demons to withdraw 66 67.

Golden Crow Attack and the Final War

The ten Golden Crow princes escaped Tang Valley and entered Witch Race territory, violating the longstanding understanding that demons ruled heaven and witches governed the earth. Their True Sun Flame destroyed tribes and killed tens of thousands of witches in a single initial attack, followed by further devastation 67.

Kuafu confronted and wounded the princes, intending to capture them alive. Hou Yi, whose tribe and family had been destroyed, arrived and shot down nine of them before Dijun saved the last. Hou Yi subsequently died, and Dijiang returned with Kuafu and Hou Yi’s bow. Dijiang privately recognized that the failure of the race’s sorcerers to foresee Hou Yi’s death indicated either concealed heavenly secrets or the onset of an extraordinary calamity 67 68.

Hundreds of millions of witches then fought a Demon Race army numbering in the trillions. Eleven Ancestral Witches and Kuafu faced the demon leadership while observers discovered that heavenly secrets had become chaotic 69.

During the decisive clash, the witches formed their Pangu manifestation against the demons’ formations. Their final axe strike killed the principal demon leaders and vast numbers of elite fighters, broke through the formation world, and struck Mount Buzhou. A small black vortex appeared beside the Witch forces as the catastrophe unfolded 70.

Hongjun later attributed Mount Buzhou’s fall to the Demon Race’s extraction of its origin and detonation of its great formation. The Sages understood that the destructive choices of both races had been made under the influence of Immeasurable Tribulation Qi 75.

Postwar Survival

The Witch Race emerged from the war without eleven of its original Ancestral Witches and with countless other losses. When Xiangliu learned that Fuxi had survived and become Human Emperor, he wanted revenge, but Xingtian struck him with the side of his axe and warned that their remaining strength could not be squandered. At that gathering, only Xingtian, Xiangliu, and Jiufeng remained of the Great Witches under discussion, and all three recognized the danger of the race being erased entirely 87.

Over the following hundreds of millions of years, surviving witches continued cultivating. Xingtian and Jiufeng attained the Ancestral Witch level, benefiting from the cultivation corrections Houtu had discovered when establishing reincarnation 104.

Zhuolu and Conflict with the New Heavenly Court

Chiyou, leader of the Jiuli Tribe and a descendant of both races, opposed Ji Xuanyuan’s unification of humanity. He enlisted Fengbo and Yushi and used the Twelve Heavenly Gods and Devils Great Formation to summon Gonggong’s true body. Ao Changsheng regarded bringing the Witch Race into a Human Race civil war as the mistake that sealed Chiyou’s defeat 103.

The Heavenly Court’s Mysterious Maiden of the Nine Heavens captured Chiyou, Fengbo, Yushi, and the summoned true body. Chiyou asked Xuanyuan to treat the Jiuli people well and ordered his tribe to surrender after Xuanyuan declared himself Human Emperor 103.

Xingtian demanded the Great Witches’ release and fought the Mysterious Maiden. His strength and divine axe revealed the progress he had made since the ancient war, but Haotian subsequently beheaded and suppressed him. Chiyou was torn apart by five horses and had his remains suppressed across the Primordial World 104 105 129.

Xiangliu’s Revenge and Suppression

After emerging from seclusion, Xiangliu learned of Xingtian’s and Chiyou’s punishments and directed his fury against both humanity and the Heavenly Court. He entered the Nine Provinces Barrier but found his poison, strength, and transformation suppressed. Pingxin had intervened to temper him, provoking Jiufeng to accuse her of abandoning the race’s remaining Great Witches 129.

Unable to break the barrier, Xiangliu prepared a prolonged campaign of floods and other disasters. He summoned eight split-off python bodies to supply water and resolved to continue attacking for as long as necessary 130.

When Human Race fighters, Jinling, and Guiling were forced outside the barrier, Xiangliu regained his full nine-headed form and attacked them with poisonous Law Power. He framed the mutilation and suppression of the Great Witches as an assault on the whole race and accused humanity of helping the Heavenly Court build its prestige by trampling the witches 136.

Ao Changsheng ultimately acted through the Savage Wilderness Giant, Fuxi’s karmic golden dragon, and the power of the Nine Provinces to suppress Xiangliu forever. Those present believed Fuxi had intervened. Jiufeng grieved the loss and blamed Fuxi, while Pingxin mourned her inability to become Houtu again and protect the witches as before 141.

Pingxin’s Efforts to Preserve the Race

Pingxin later asked Ao Changsheng to accept Jiufeng as a disciple, emphasizing her exceptional bloodline and potential to prove her Dao. He declined because Jiufeng could not cultivate his special method, explaining that he would already have accepted her if she possessed the necessary aptitude 148.

Their discussion also concerned Pingxin’s arrangements for the surviving Great Witches and the prevention of Chiyou’s and Xingtian’s further advancement during the Immeasurable Tribulation. Pingxin regretted that the ancient witches had valued the Quasi-Sage method they received from Ao Changsheng while neglecting his accompanying advice; she believed their decline need not have brought them so close to extinction 148.

After becoming a Sage, Pingxin also understood that eliminating Dijun and Taiyi earlier would not have prevented the race’s decline. The epoch’s fortune would have elevated other demon emperors to oppose the witches, making the tribulation more fundamental than the survival of any particular rival 171.

Later Confrontation with Sun Wukong

In a much later confrontation, Sun Wukong defeated Xuanming after a grueling battle. The Twelve Ancestral Witches discussed the threat he posed, and Gonggong reported the matter to the Witch God. Concerned by the Demon Race’s influence, the Witch God ordered an investigation before deciding how to respond 749.

Relationships

• Pangu — Progenitor and sole object of religious reverence. The witches claim his inheritance and regard themselves as protectors of his world 8 9 27.
• Demon Race / Heavenly Court — Mortal enemies. Early territorial clashes and hunting escalated into massacres, major wars, and repeated formation battles. Their final war destroyed the ancient demon leadership and devastated the Witch Race, while much later accounts still depict confrontations between the two factions 27 34 43 70 87 749.
• Ao Changsheng — Outside benefactor in the witches’ eyes, credited with Gonggong’s breakthrough. He regards their association as transactional and develops deep loathing for the race after its massacre of the demons. Later, he refuses Pingxin’s request to teach Jiufeng because she cannot cultivate his method, and secretly carries out Xiangliu’s eternal suppression 20 25 37 141 148.
• Hongjun — Initially approached for cultivation guidance; later stops their attempted destruction of the demon leadership and imposes their million-year confinement. He preserves Dijun and Taiyi as a counterbalance to the witches 9 31 37.
• Three Purities — Rival claimants to Pangu’s legacy. They condemn the witches’ massacre as a stain on Pangu’s name and deny that the formation’s manifestation is his true form 35 39.
• Houtu / Pingxin — Former Ancestral Witch, Sage of reincarnation, and continuing protector of the race’s prospects. She leaves cultivation insights and Essence Blood to preserve its formation, but her later restraint and inability to act as Houtu once did create painful divisions with Jiufeng 63 66 129 141 148.
• Human Race — Initially treated with consideration out of respect for Nüwa and familiarity with the Innate Dao Body; intermarriage produces mixed descendants such as Chiyou. Relations deteriorate through Zhuolu, the punishment of prominent Great Witches, and Xiangliu’s revenge campaign 68 103 129 136.
• Fuxi — Ancient enemy who later becomes Human Emperor. His survival after the Witch-Demon War enrages Xiangliu and Jiufeng, and he is mistakenly credited with Xiangliu’s eternal suppression 87 141.
• Haotian’s Heavenly Court — A later adversary distinct from the ancient demon-led court. Its intervention at Zhuolu and punishment of Chiyou, Fengbo, Yushi, and Xingtian deepen the surviving witches’ resentment and damage their remaining cultivation prospects 103 104 105 129 136.

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