Yuanqing slowly ascended Mount Buzhou, using his senses to locate the Three Pure Ones. Their place of transformation was heavily guarded by formations.
Yuanqing searched Mount Buzhou for tens of thousands of years without success.
"System, why can't I find them?"
"Host, go to places where Pangu's aura is densest."
"Go and try. Why didn't I think of that?" After walking for several thousand more years, he finally found it. It was truly not easy—nearly one hundred thousand years had passed.
Yuanqing vaguely discovered a grand formation ahead.
"System, what kind of formation is this?"
"This is an innate formation that even Heavenly Dao cannot interfere with. Inside is the birthplace of the Three Pure Ones."
Even Heavenly Dao could not perceive it, for after all, the Three Pure Ones were Pangu's biological sons.
Born with exceptional endowments, the Three Pure Ones received the creation of heaven and earth. From the moment they began to transform on Mount Buzhou, they were top-tier innate great deities of the Primordial World.
When Pangu was heavily injured, his primordial spirit transformed into the Three Pure Ones. Had Pangu not been severely injured, with his cultivation at the Half-Step Dao Realm at the time, his primordial spirit would have at least reached the level of a Sage.
The twelve drops of Pangu's blood essence transformed into the Twelve Ancestral Witches, located in Pangu Hall within Mount Buzhou.
Back when Pangu cleaved the heavens, five-tenths of the Great Dao merit was infused into the Primordial World. Another three-tenths was divided among the Three Pure Ones, with each taking one portion.
The remaining two-tenths of the Great Dao merit were given respectively to the Hongmeng Measuring Ruler and the Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda.
The Hongmeng Measuring Ruler was an offensive supreme treasure, while the Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda was a defensive supreme treasure. Both were Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasures born with merit.
The Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda was given to the Three Pure Ones as their companion spirit treasure. However, because Taishang Laojun transformed first, Laojun claimed it as his own, making it his personal companion spirit treasure. This resulted in the second brother Yuanshi and the third brother Tongtian having no companion treasures of their own. Furthermore, because Laojun transformed first, he extracted one-tenth of the origin essence from both Yuanshi and Tongtian, using it to refine the art of transforming one breath into the Three Pure Ones. As a result, Yuanshi and Tongtian were congenitally deficient by one-tenth of their origin essence.
That was why, despite the Three Pure Ones sharing the same roots and origin, Taishang Laojun's cultivation was the highest—and would forever remain the highest—while Yuanshi Tianzun and Master Tongtian always lagged a step behind him.
Yuanqing let out a sigh. Taishang Laojun was cunning enough. He founded the Human Cultivation Sect, preaching the doctrine of ruling through non-action, yet he...
Yuanshi Tianzun had been utterly hoodwinked by Taishang Laojun, and the two of them targeted Tongtian at every turn. Yuanqing truly felt that Tongtian deserved much better.
Through this period of studying the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation, Yuanqing's comprehension of the laws of formations grew steadily stronger.
The Immortal Slaying Sword Formation was the premier killing formation between heaven and earth. Together with the demon race's Zhou Tian Star Dou Formation, the witch race's Twelve Heavenly Gods Fierce Array, and the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation, they were known as the three major formations of the Primordial World.
A notch below them were formations like the demon race's Hetu Luoshu Formation and Taishang Laojun's Yin-Yang Dust Formation.
"System, based on my current understanding of the laws of formations, I still cannot break through this grand formation protecting the Three Pure Ones."
"I leave it to you, System."
"Understood, Host."
The system then opened a spatial wormhole and entered the place of transformation of the Three Pure Ones. There stood three futons, upon which rested three auras arranged in the formation of the Three Powers, forming a triangle. Right in the center of the triangle sat the Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda.
The Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda, which originally stood tens of thousands of feet tall, gradually condensed into a small pagoda one foot high, consisting of forty-nine layers, perfectly matching the number of Heavenly Dao.
It radiated rays of merit that spread outward.
It was transformed from the primal yellow aura of the Primordial World, colored in dark yellow and black, exuding an archaic and heavy aura as if bearing the chaos and mystery from the very beginning of the creation of heaven and earth.
The body of the pagoda was etched with mysterious patterns and runes that seemed to contain profound truths of the Great Dao and the rules of heaven and earth. They flickered with a faint glow, highlighting its extraordinary nature.
The precious crown at the peak of the pagoda symbolized its supreme majesty and formidable power, while the base was solid and steady, giving an unbreakable impression as though it were rooted deeply between heaven and earth, merging completely with the entire Primordial World.
Yuanqing let out a sigh of admiration. As expected of the premier acquired treasure of merit, it was truly wondrous beyond compare.
Yuanqing's first impulse was to seize the acquired merit treasure, the Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda, and make it his own.
After a moment of thought, Yuanqing abandoned the idea. If he were to do that, Pangu's will likely would not permit it.
The Three Pure Ones were figures of great merit, blessed from their very inception by the Qi Luck of heaven and earth, and protected by the merit of creating the heavens. Had it not been for the schemes of Heavenly Dao—which plotted to seize the creation merit of the Three Pure Ones so they would become Sages of Heavenly Dao—even without the Grand Purple Qi, the Three Pure Ones were bound to attain Sainthood. It was simply a pity that Heavenly Dao meddled.
Even if the Three Pure Ones failed to attain Sainthood, relying solely on the merit of creating the heavens that they carried, no one would dare lay a finger on them.
Yuanqing sighed, thinking that the Three Pure Ones were top-tier talents indeed. If he were to take one of them as a disciple and pass down his orthodoxy, their future prospects would be truly boundless.
[Ding dong~~~ Detecting that the Host has the intention to take disciples, the following options are now provided:]
[Option One: Take Taishang Laojun as a disciple, and receive the Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure, the Southern Ground Flame Light Flag, as a reward.]
[Option Two: Take Yuanshi Tianzun as a disciple, and receive the Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure, the Western Plain Cloud Boundary Flag, as a reward.]
[Option Three: Take Shangqing Tongtian as a disciple, and receive the Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure, the Twenty-Four Sea Suppressing Pearls, as a reward.]
[Option Four: Take all of them as disciples, and receive the Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure, the Northern Profound Origin Water-Control Flag, as a reward.]
[Option Five: Take none of them as disciples, and receive the Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure, the Central Apricot-Yellow Flag, as a reward.]
"System, I choose option three: take Shangqing Tongtian as a disciple."
In truth, Yuanqing had considered this for a long time. He felt that Tongtian was a pitiful figure, bullied by his eldest brother Taishang Laojun and his second brother Yuqing Yuanshi, completely stripped of any dignity.
[Ding dong~~~ Selection successful. The Top-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure, the Twenty-Four Sea Suppressing Pearls, has been deposited into the Host's system space. Please check and confirm.]
Following this, Yuanqing cast a defensive formation around Tongtian to prevent Taishang Laojun from transforming prematurely and seizing Tongtian's origin essence.
He also imprinted a memory mark upon Tongtian's aura cluster.
This would make it convenient for Tongtian to find him after transforming.
Yuanqing muttered to himself, "Tongtian, come find me after you transform. Entering my sect, you shall be my chief disciple."
After that, the aura cluster belonging to Tongtian grew quiet.
Yuanqing thought to himself that if it weren't for his arrival, had any other innate great deity stumbled upon this Pangu primordial spirit and the top-grade acquired merit treasure—the Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda—they would have immediately snuffed out the consciousness within the aura cluster and seized the pagoda. After all, Pangu's primordial spirit was a supreme tonic.
Yet the three aura clusters seemed to sense danger, causing Yuanqing to chuckle bitterly. These Three Pure Ones were top-tier mighty figures of the Primordial World, yet look at them now.
"Don't worry, little fellows. I won't harm you. Even if I wanted to, Pangu's lingering will wouldn't allow it."
Yuanqing reflected that the Three Pure Ones currently lacked complete consciousness, so there was no point in dwelling on it.
Yuanqing probed the Three Pure Ones' current state. They already possessed the cultivation of the Peak Taiyi Golden Immortal; wouldn't their transformation place them at Peak Daluo?
Yuanqing sighed with emotion. Truly, they were Pangu's biological sons.