Seeing that everyone had quieted down, Ancestor Hongjun directly began his sermon. This time, he was expounding the Dao of Daluo. The Dao Ancestor began to speak: "The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. Nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth; named is the mother of all things. Therefore, constantly without desire, one observes its subtlety; constantly with desire, one observes its boundary. These two emerge together but are named differently; both are called the mysterious. The mystery of all mysteries is the gate of all subtleties..."
Instantly, within the Zixiao Palace, heavenly flowers imbued with the rhythm of the Dao fell in cascading showers, and golden lotuses radiating innate aura surged forth, surrounding the entire space.
For a moment, Ancestor Hongjun manifested a celebration cloud above his head, amidst which a tattered Creation Jade Disc floated up and down, evolving waves of profound mystery and leaving everyone below intoxicated.
Although the Creation Jade Disc was tattered, it belonged after all to a Chaos Treasure, within which three thousand Great Daos were derived, emitting waves of ethereal immortal music.
The Dao of Daluo was all-encompassing, containing the Dao of nature, the Dao of demon cultivation, and the Dao of heterodox paths. Fine threads of these descended upon the celebration clouds and three flower manifestations atop everyone's heads.
The three flowers floated within the celebration clouds, striving to absorb and comprehend the hard-won true meaning of the Dao. Everyone was immersed in the Dao rhythm of Ancestor Hongjun.
As the sermon deepened, the differing foundations and comprehension abilities of those below became apparent. Figures like the Three Purities, Jieyin, Zhunnti, Nuwa, Hongyun, Zhenyuanzi, and Fuxi all listened with sudden enlightenment, filled with irrepressible joy.
Kunpeng, Dijun, Minghe of the Sea of Blood, and others frowned slightly, pondering with all their might. However, other mighty figures understood nothing of what was being said, completely lost as to its profound meaning.
Some even let out painful roars, tearing at their hair and clothes—evidently having lost control of their true spirits, unable to properly comprehend, and thus unable to continue listening to the Dao expounded by the Dao Ancestor.
With a wave of his sleeve, Ancestor Hongjun swept these individuals—whose true spirits had slipped away—straight out of Zixiao Palace. Then, ignoring the various reactions of those who remained, he continued his expressionless sermon: "The Dao is empty, yet used it is never full. Abyssal, it seems to be the ancestor of all things. Blunt its sharpness, untie its tangles, soften its glare, unite with its dust. Dim, it seems to exist. I do not know whose son it is, it is older than the Emperor of Heaven..."
This discourse lasted for three thousand years. The moment time was up, Ancestor Hongjun stopped preaching, glanced at the crowd below, and said impassively: "Today's three thousand years of preaching have come to an end. Before the next session, I will notify you all. Go."
With these words, his figure vanished from the cloud platform as if he had never appeared at all. Yet everyone had watched with their own eyes—not the slightest ripple in space had been felt.
Not a single person had discovered how Ancestor Hongjun had left. The methods of a Sage were truly formidable; at that moment, everyone held an even deeper reverence for Ancestor Hongjun, wondering when they too might attain such profound cultivation.
By now, the great doors of Zixiao Palace stood wide open. Seeing this, the crowd no longer lingered and began to leave in groups of three or five.
As the Daoist Kunpeng departed, he cast a deep look at Hongyun and the Daoist Zhunnti. The hatred in his eyes was no longer concealed. Great Immortal Zhenyuan glanced at Hongyun, sighed softly, and thought, "Friend Hongyun, you were truly in the wrong this time."
At that moment, the Daoist Jieyin and the Daoist Zhunnti left directly alongside the rest of the crowd, not even sparing a thought to bid Hongyun farewell.
Great Immortal Zhenyuan felt a bitter resentment in his heart. His good friend really had helped the wrong person, and he let out another inward sigh. Judging by the behavior of those two from the Western Realm, when retribution eventually befell Hongyun, it would be fortunate if they didn't stab him in the back, let alone lend a helping hand.
Such monumental Karma was not so easily repaid. Since it could not be repaid, wouldn't it be better to simply make the Karma disappear? How to make Karma disappear? If Hongyun were to perish and his spirit scatter, then there would be no more talk of Karma.
Seeing that Hongyun still wore his usual honest and oblivious expression, Zhenyuanzi sighed and said, "Hongyun, come back to Wuzhuang Temple with me. We can use the opportunity to mutually verify the Great Dao preached by our teacher this time."
Hearing Zhenyuanzi's invitation, the Daoist Hongyun naturally had no objections. He had always loved wandering the Primordial World and making friends, and he would never refuse Zhenyuanzi's proposal. Thus, the two departed together.
Hongyun was originally transformed from the very first red cloud in heaven and earth, possessing a free and unrestrained nature, acting entirely on impulse. Otherwise, he would never have been moved by the tearful cries of the Daoist Zhunnti. Yet he did not know that this act of yielding had given away enough monumental Karma to cause his complete destruction.
Ever since his transformation, Hongyun had been cultivating in the "Huoyun Blessed Land," the foremost of the thirty-six grotto-heavens and seventy-two blessed lands. Such an opportunity—lacking any supreme treasure to suppress its Qi fortune, devoid of great magical power to protect oneself, and unaccompanied by great merit—would only slowly erode one's own Qi fortune, proving disadvantageous in the end.
Across the Primordial land, Zhang Qing arrived one day at the extreme northern region. Amidst a stretch of low, undulating hills, the environment looked entirely different from everywhere else in the Primordial World.
Elsewhere, either tall and dense trees were shrouded in innate spiritual Qi, or rare birds and exotic beasts frolicked by deep, clear mysterious pools, or bizarre and perilous peaks stood firm.
Yet this expanse of low hills presented a scene of barren mountains and noxious waters. Forget innate spiritual Qi; even ordinary vegetation looked sickly and withered.
Sitting cross-legged upon the broad back of a Moon-Gazing Rhinoceros as it flew overhead, Zhang Qing found the sight peculiar and had the rhinoceros lower its clouds, landing beside a pitch-black pool in this desolate valley.
As he cast his divine sense into the pool, he instantly felt a bone-chilling cold rise along with it. One had to know that although Zhang Qing's surface cultivation was only early-stage Taiyi Golden Immortal, his divine sense and physical body had already reached the peak Daluo Golden Immortal realm.
To make even his divine sense feel extreme cold, just how low must the temperature be? Suppressing the bone-piercing chill, Zhang Qing pushed his divine sense downward until it reached a depth of a hundred zhang before hitting the bottom.
He sensed a pitch-black giant dragon coiled at the bottom of the water. This blackness was different from the black of a Black Dragon—a Black Dragon merely had black scales and claws, while its teeth, tongue, and the inside of its mouth remained normal.
Yet this "pitch-black giant dragon" in his divine sense was pure black, black from the inside out, down to its teeth. Had Zhang Qing's divine sense not been formidable, he would have nearly missed the creature in the pitch-black depths of the water. Was it dead or alive?
The Dragon-Han Calamity had already passed, and the few surviving dragons, regardless of color, should have retreated into the water domains to lick their wounds.
Could this one have hidden itself here? But that didn't make sense either. Even if it wanted to hide, with the vastness of the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern seas, wouldn't any body of water have sufficed? What was the point of hiding in a desolate place like this?
Perplexed, Zhang Qing probed his divine sense toward the head of the pitch-black giant dragon, wanting to see if there was any living soul reaction. No sooner had he probed than the giant dragon suddenly opened its eyes—even the eyeballs were pitch-black. A roar rang out, whipping the water in the dark pool into towering surges.
Accompanied by this dragon roar, the giant dragon surged straight out from the hundred-zhang-deep pool. Breaking the surface, it coiled in mid-air, its belly claws boasting five digits. In one of its claws, it actually clutched a small purple-black banner.
"The Black-Tortoise Water-Control Banner?" Zhang Qing said in surprise, never expecting to encounter one of the five Innate Flags here—the Black-Tortoise Water-Control Banner. The five Innate Flags were transformed from the five largest lotus leaves of the Chaos Green Lotus, serving as supreme defensive treasures.