Chapter 11
A single statement determined the seating arrangement in the palace.
The Sage said nothing further—
Clang!
Along with the heavy doors of Zixiao Palace closing shut, the Sage's body radiated the boundless Dao rhyme of the Great Dao. At the same time, the Sage opened his mouth, and the sound of the Dao permeated the entire Zixiao Palace.
The lecture—
began.
The Sage's lecture was naturally extraordinary. Every conceivable wonder appeared: divine music lingering in the air, myriad auspicious phenomena, and auspicious clouds descending from the heavens. The entire Zixiao Palace was transformed into an ocean of the Great Dao and divine manifestations.
Fuguang was also completely immersed in the state of comprehending the Dao and sudden enlightenment.
Although upon taking human-like form Fuguang's cultivation was already at the Early Daluo Golden Immortal stage—the same as Di Jun and Taiyi after their separation—in truth, Fuguang's foundation was vastly superior to theirs.
After all, he had been transformed from a complete Sun Star Golden Flame, the sole Sun Star Golden Crow, rather than one of the only two three-legged Golden Crows in the Great Wilderness Universe.
At this moment—
Fuguang plunged straight into the state of comprehending the Sun Dao and the Fire Dao, the two fundamental DAOs that were most suited to him.
...
In the blink of an eye, three thousand years of lecturing time passed.
Inside Zixiao Palace.
The Sage, who had been lecturing with great vigor, suddenly stopped abruptly. The Dao rhyme surrounding his body was reined in, and the wondrous phenomena and true intent of the Dao within the palace completely dissipated, returning to their initial pristine and tranquil state.
The Three Thousand Guests who had been listening to the lecture gradually awoke one by one.
Each of them wore an expression of lingering reluctance; clearly, they felt they had not heard enough.
However, since the Sage refused to continue speaking, there was naturally nothing they could do. They could only regretfully exit the state of listening to the Dao.
Fuguang felt a trace of regret as well—
He was just a hair's breadth away.
Just a tiny fraction more, and both his primary DAOs—the Sun Dao and the Fire Dao—would have reached perfection. His auxiliary DAOs, including Time, Space, Deduction, and formations, had also made tremendous progress in various ways.
Of course.
There was still some distance to go before complete perfection!
Returning to the Sun Star to enter seclusion for a period of time should allow both his primary and auxiliary DAOs to reach perfection.
And then—
He would prepare to contend for the Hunyuan Golden Immortal Dao Fruit!
Yes.
At the crucial crossroads between walking the Quasi-Sage path of Severing the Three Corpses and cultivating the path of the Hunyuan Golden Immortal, Fuguang chose to walk the path of the Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
For no other reason.
Simply for peace of mind!
As everyone knew—
There were three paths in total to attain the Dao.
First, by relying on one's own immense perseverance, boundless magical power, and vast Qi Fortune, to cultivate until one single-handedly mastered a boundless Great Dao in order to become a Sage.
The Hunyuan Golden Immortal who succeeded through this method of attaining the Dao was the most powerful.
The representative figure of this path was none other than the Patriarch Yangmei, who had already left the Primordial World.
Second, to sever the three corpses to become a Quasi-Sage, and then merge the three corpses to attain the Dao.
The Hunyuan Golden Immortal who succeeded through this method was slightly inferior to the first type, but still immensely powerful.
The representative figure of this path was none other than the Sage-Daozu Hongjun on the lecture platform.
Third, attaining the Dao through Merit.
Regardless of what kind of Merit it was, as long as one accumulated a massive, boundless amount, one could directly pile up one's cultivation with Merit and attain the Dao as a Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
The Hunyuan Golden Immortal who succeeded through this method was the weakest.
Yet this weakness was only relative.
Even the weakest Sage was countless times stronger than ants like those beneath the Sages.
Now, in the Primordial World, after Sage-Daozu Hongjun finished his third lecture, he would transform into the spokesperson of the Heavenly Dao. Once he perfected the Heavenly Dao, even if the first path was not completely blocked off, it would become infinitely more difficult than before.
As for the second path, although there was a pioneer who had walked it before him.
With the precedent of the Heavenly Dao rush mats, it was hard not to suspect whether the method of Severing the Three Corpses might be a trap!
Of course.
Daozu Hongjun perhaps had no need to resort to petty tricks that would prevent anyone from successfully attaining the Dao through Severing the Three Corpses.
Yet, given Fuguang's cautious personality, the moment he sensed something amiss, he immediately dismissed the idea of walking the path of Severing the Three Corpses.
Being a Hunyuan Golden Immortal was quite good enough.
Even if he needed to attain the Dao in the future—
He would only ever walk the safest path of attaining the Dao through Merit!
That being the case—
There was no difference whether these three corpses were severed or not; he was going to attain the Dao through Merit anyway.
Once all the Three Thousand Guests had withdrawn from their states of listening to the Dao and cultivation.
The Sage on the high platform remained silent, instead casting his gaze upon the six people seated before him.
The Pangu Three Pure Ones.
Nuwa.
Jieyin and Zhunti.
Although the Three Thousand Guests listening to the lecture within Zixiao Palace could all address him as master while inside these walls, his true disciples were only these six before him.
Imparting the Dao to the Three Thousand Guests was a task assigned by the Heavenly Dao.
The subsequent answering of questions—
was the fortuitous encounter exclusive to his own disciples.
Seeing this.
The Three Thousand Guests in Zixiao Palace were stunned for a moment, and then each of them realized that those six special rush mats truly held greater fortuitous encounters.
Hongyun, who had been forced to give up his seat, wore an extremely stiff expression. Kunpeng, who had been implicated, turned pale with fury, his resentful gaze shifting toward Hongyun.
If not for Hongyun—
He, Kunpeng, would never have been driven off that seat—the one that allowed him to interact closely with the Sage—by those two outsiders from the Western Sect!
Of course.
No one cared about the reactions of Hongyun and Kunpeng.
At this moment,
joy blossomed across the faces of the six individuals seated upon those six rush mats.
Taiqing Laozi was the first to react, stepping forward to pose a doubt he had encountered in his cultivation.
Logically speaking—
The Pangu Three Pure Ones were a single entity; the question raised by Taiqing Laozi alone represented the questions of all three Pangu Three Pure Ones.
The second question should have belonged to Nuwa.
However, Yuanshi clearly had no intention of letting go of this opportunity to ask a question, and directly raised the second one.
Seeing his second older brother act thus, Shangqing Tongtian likewise posed a question of his own.
The questions of the Three Pure Ones had all been answered by the Sage.
After that, the Sage showed no intention of continuing to answer questions.
The remaining three—Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti—were left unable to ask anything.
This turn of events—
caused the brows of the latter three to knit tightly together!
The Pangu Three Pure Ones were acting rather ungratefully!
The question-and-answer session concluded.
The Sage swept his gaze across the Three Thousand Guests.
He spoke:
"One epoch renews, and all things are restored!"
"Today, the Great Wilderness Universe has regained its vitality. Living beings have multiplied and thrived for many long years; order is gradually descending into chaos, and chaotic omens are about to manifest."
"At such a time, powerful beings should step forward to guide the world, quell the chaos, distinguish Yin and Yang, and wield authority over order."
"..."
The Sage's words caused the expressions of the Three Thousand Guests to instantly shift in shock, followed immediately by a restless commotion among them.
The meaning of these words was not difficult to decipher—
The Sage intended to appoint powerful beings to reorganize the order of the Primordial World and govern all immortals and living beings of the cosmos!
This was supreme authority—
Naturally, it caused the hearts of many to surge with restless ambition.
Of course.
While some cared deeply, others remained entirely unmoved.
Everyone simply waited for the Sage's subsequent words.
Since the Sage had spoken, it meant the Sage already had candidates in mind in his heart, and they only needed to listen.