Inside Houtu's Divine Temple.
The moment Houtu laid eyes on Xuanjian, she felt the subtle, faint presence of a Daluo aura emanating from him. "Brother Xuanjian, you've attained the Daluo Golden Immortal realm?" she asked in surprise.
Xuanjian nodded with a smile, not bothering to hide it. "Indeed. After a full yuanhui of seclusion, I was fortunate enough to attain it."
Concealing his breakthrough?
Playing the fool to catch the tiger?
There was no need for that.
He was no disciple of the cautious Dao, nor was he versed in stealthy survival.
Still, Xuanjian maintained a modest tone, using the word "fortunate."
Yet to Houtu's ears, those words were like a sudden thunderclap on a clear day. Her small mouth parted slightly, her eyes filled with shock as she stared at Xuanjian. "Attaining Daluo in just a single yuanhui? Brother Xuanjian, your innate talent is truly staggering."
For ordinary Taiyi cultivators, even Innate Sacred Beings, breaking through a single minor realm often required seclusion lasting hundreds of thousands or millions of years. The barrier between Taiyi and Daluo was an insurmountable chasm, stopping countless Taiyi cultivators in their tracks and leaving them stranded forever. Normally, the mere process of advancing from Taiyi Great Perfection to Daluo could take dozens or even hundreds of yuanhui.
Yet... Xuanjian had attained Daluo in a single yuanhui.
How could Houtu not be stunned?
"Wait..."
At that moment, something seemed to strike Houtu, making her even more incredulous. "Does that mean... you weren't a Daluo Golden Immortal before?"
Xuanjian shrugged and chuckled. "I never claimed to be a Daluo Golden Immortal back then."
Houtu continued, "Then... while you were still in the Taiyi realm, you fought Brother Zhurong and Brother Gonggong to a standstill single-handedly?"
A Taiyi fighting across realms against Daluo?!
This was a heaven-defying miracle that had never occurred since ancient times!
"Ah? They were actually fighting me seriously? If you hadn't mentioned it, I would've thought they were just tickling me or putting on a show for my entertainment," Xuanjian said with a sly grin, his expression hopelessly cheeky. "Though truth be told, Zhurong and Gonggong's hits lacked a bit of punch. Did they forget to eat breakfast that morning?"
Hearing this, Houtu gave Xuanjian a playful glare. "To treat the fists of Ancestral Witches as a massage, you're probably the only one in all of Honghuang who could do that. Now tell me, why are you really looking for me? You certainly didn't come just to show off."
Turning to serious business, Xuanjian reined in his smile and spoke solemnly, "I want to borrow the Wu tribe's manpower to help me conduct a sweep of the mountain to locate two Innate Spiritual Roots. However, neither I nor the Wu tribe possess a destined affinity with those two Innate Spiritual Roots. I don't know if such a crude method will actually yield any results."
In Honghuang, the word "destined affinity" was of paramount importance. Certain opportunities were fated to be yours, and you could not escape them even if you tried. Other opportunities were fated not to belong to you; no matter how fiercely you strove, you would never obtain them. Innate objects, in particular, operated strictly on the principle of destined affinity.
According to the Honghuang lore Xuanjian knew from his past life, taking the Innate Gourd Vine as an example—when it was born into the world, several individuals experienced a sudden moment of divine enlightenment and mental resonance. That was "destined affinity." Although the miraculous phenomenon accompanying the emergence of the Innate Gourd Vine attracted countless cultivators who scrambled toward it, in the end, those who walked away with a share were merely the few destined individuals.
When that thought first crossed his mind, Xuanjian had genuinely wanted to use Fifty-Fifty with Anyone to bind himself to Mount Zhou and throw down directly with the mountain itself. But on second thought, Mount Zhou was formed from the spine of Grand Father Pangu and might very well be the resting place of his residual will. If he truly infuriated Grand Father Pangu and got sent to see the Chaos Divine Demons with a single swing of the axe, he would suffer a catastrophic loss.
What? Level-one Fifty-Fifty with Anyone could contend with Saints at its peak?
That was a farce—even if Uncle Pangu had only a single breath remaining, he wasn't someone a Saint could afford to mess with.
Discarding that notion, Xuanjian settled on this crude method instead. If worst came to worst... he would wait until the two Innate Spiritual Roots emerged into the world, and then compete for them relying on their respective capabilities. At any rate, he was determined to get his hands on that purple-black gourd!
"A mountain sweep? That poses no problem at all."
Houtu saw nothing improper about sweeping the mountain. The entire world of Honghuang was a hunting ground prepared for them by Father God. Retrieving their prey from Mount Zhou was something Father God would surely not mind. Spiritual roots? Those were merely side dishes Father God left to cleanse their palates. Living beings? Those were just meat and blood Father God left for them to feed on.
To the myriad races, Mount Zhou was the pillar supporting the sky, a sacred mountain spanning heaven and earth that could not be offended, desecrated, or disrespected. To the Wu tribe, however, Mount Zhou was their ancestral land, a legacy left behind by their ancestor. Wasn't it only natural to come and take a few items?
"We can treat those two Innate Spiritual Roots as targets to search for without forcing the issue, but... we mustn't let a single other treasure slip past us!"
"Very well!"
...
Three thousand years later.
The doors of Zixiao Palace were tightly shut, preventing anyone outside from peering inside in the slightest. The First Zixiao Palace Sermon officially commenced.
At the same time.
Upon the vast continent of Honghuang.
Mount Zhou, the Wu tribe's territory.
Hundreds of millions of Wu tribe warriors had assembled!
Awaiting only the order from the eleven Ancestral Witches, they would pour forth like a tide, flooding into Mount Zhou to strip the mountain clean of every treasure within.
Yet the sheer vastness of Mount Zhou defied description. Standing at the absolute center of Honghuang, it connected heaven and earth, supporting the azure sky above and pressing down on the Nine Netherworlds below. Its mountain body was unimaginably massive, indisputably the supreme ancestral vein of Honghuang. Looking up at it, one felt as small as a speck of dust, mind and soul awestruck by its ancient, desolate, and overwhelming majesty that suppressed all of Honghuang, to the point where even breathing became constrained.
Even with hundreds of millions of Wu tribe members rushing into the mountain, they occupied only a tiny, tiny... minuscule fraction of its expanse. To thoroughly explore the entirety of Mount Zhou? Without hundreds or thousands of yuanhui, it would be a sheer impossibility.
"Lads!"
Standing at the very forefront of the vast Wu array, Ancestral Witch Dijiang stepped on void, looking down from on high at the Wu warriors. His voice rang loud and clear as he roared, "Tell me, what is our slogan this time?!"
"Sweep the mountain! Sweep the mountain! Sweep the mountain!"
Dijiang roared, "And what else?!"
"Search for spiritual roots! Search for spiritual roots! Search for spiritual roots!"
Hundreds of millions of Wu warriors shouted near-screaming bellows. Though un-synchronized, their fierce, brutal aura and thunderous roars combined into a force capable of rending the sky!
"Excellent."
"Move out!"
At Dijiang's command, hundreds of millions of Wu tribe members swarmed into Mount Zhou.
"The Ancestral Witch has ordered it! Once we enter the mountain, take whatever you see! It's all the legacy left to us by Father God!"
"You don't need to tell us! It's not like this is our first time carrying stuff out of the mountain. Did you think we'd feel guilty about it?"
"Hahahahaha!"
The Wu tribe's objectives were simple: spiritual roots, spiritual ores, divine materials, spiritual herbs, spiritual treasures, and so forth.
Whether innate or acquired...
They wanted them all!
Like a plague of locusts sweeping across the land, crop after crop of heavenly materials and earthly treasures were brought out, piled high on the ground into literal mountains. The vast majority consisted of spiritual herbs and spiritual ores, followed by divine materials and spiritual roots. Spiritual treasures were exceedingly rare, generally residing in areas protected by innate arrays or innate restrictions.
Over the course of a thousand years, even with the Wu tribe's frantic mountain-sweeping, they encountered only three innate arrays. The Ancestral Witches stepped in to shatter them, obtaining three Innate Spiritual Treasures, along with numerous Acquired Spiritual Roots and a small quantity of Innate Spiritual Roots. Yet in this first millennium, the search for the Innate Gourd Vine and the Innate Four Elements Plantain Tree yielded no results.
In the second millennium, they discovered only two innate restrictions. Upon breaking them, they obtained merely two Low-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasures. Those two Top-Grade Innate Spiritual Roots still yielded no results.
In the third millennium, they discovered five innate arrays and innate restrictions. After shattering them, they actually found a High-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure among the rewards—and it was none other than the Innate Wood Spirit Pearl from among the Five Innate Spirit Pearls!
Counting this Wood Spirit Pearl, Xuanjian now possessed two of the Innate Spirit Pearls. If he could gather the remaining three, he could assemble the full set into a Top-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure!
However, in this final millennium...
Rate on N.U.
