After a fierce and grueling tug-of-war, Lin Fan ultimately ran away.
He had no choice! He simply couldn't handle it! This was the Primordial World, where ordinary people had deities watching three feet above their heads. But what about Lin Fan? He had the Heavenly Dao watching three feet above his head!
The ultimate boss of the Primordial World.
Getting entangled with the Wu Race? Wasn't that courting death like carrying a lantern in an outhouse?
If the Heavenly Dao were to jot his name down in its ledger, would he ever have a good day again?!
Glancing back at the Wu Race members who looked at him with such reluctant, tearful eyes, Lin Fan made a Daoist obeisance and fled without looking back.
Exerting his magical power to the absolute limit, he vanished from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye, without the slightest hesitation, leaving the members of the Wu Race standing in the wind in utter disarray.
Lin Fan ran breathlessly for hundreds of millions of miles, stopping only when he reached the far side of Mount Buzhou.
Even with his cultivation as a Daluo Golden Immortal, Lin Fan was left panting heavily from exhaustion.
He muttered to himself, "Damn, that was close! Motherfucker, I was just a hair's breadth away from getting on that pirate ship of the Wu Race."
"Good thing this Daoist ran fast, otherwise once the Tribulation of the Witch and Demon arrived, even Master might not have been able to save my little life."
"Who would have thought that the Wu Race right now are a bunch of lovable blockheads, completely unguarded against others? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, who would ever believe that these simple-minded blockheads will become the overlords of the Primordial World who dominate heaven and earth and share supreme rule with the Demon Race in the future?"
Recalling the sincere reluctance of the Wu Race at parting, Lin Fan felt deeply moved. But that was all it was—being moved. Compared to his own little life, such sentiments were nothing more than floating clouds to him.
Right now, the surroundings were completely deserted, devoid even of fierce beasts. Looking at Mount Buzhou close at hand, Lin Fan stood at the base of the mountain and could already feel the oppressive pressure of Pangu. Even the Heavenly Dao itself would likely be suppressed here.
It truly deserved to be the foremost mountain in the Primordial World. No wonder that during the Tribulation of the Witch and Demon, the Heavenly Dao would scheme to have Gonggong crash into and destroy Mount Buzhou; such an uncontrollable place was something the impartial Heavenly Dao could never tolerate.
Gazing at Mount Buzhou piercing straight into the firmament, a surge of heroic spirit to conquer the peak welled up uncontrollably in Lin Fan's heart.
Following the promptings of his heart, and filled with reverence for the Great God Pangu, Lin Fan headed toward the summit of Mount Buzhou.
For the first tens of thousands of meters, given Lin Fan's Daluo Golden Immortal cultivation, he paid little mind to the Pangu pressure at the base of the mountain. As he climbed, he even managed to collect various rare treasures along the way.
However, after tens of thousands of meters, the higher he went toward the summit, the heavier the Pangu pressure became. Even though Lin Fan was formed from the condensation of Pangu's heart blood and possessed the Dao attainment of a Daluo Golden Immortal, his pressure multiplied, and he lost his previous relaxed demeanor.
Lin Fan mobilized his magical power to the fullest, running the Nine-Turn Profound Art to resist the Pangu pressure.
Thus, another few years passed, covering another tens of thousands of meters. By this time, Lin Fan had to stop and rest for a while after every single step he took, circulating his profound art to adapt to the Pangu pressure.
To his pleasant surprise, over these past few years, his Nine-Turn Profound Art successfully broke through to the sixth turn, and his physical body reached the level of a Daluo Golden Immortal.
Lin Fan was confident that if he were to run into Gonggong again right now, his physical body alone would render him invincible.
This was the reason why Lin Fan had kept going despite making agonizingly slow progress on Mount Buzhou without giving up. Using Pangu's pressure on Mount Buzhou to cultivate the Nine-Turn Profound Art and break through to achieve a higher state could be considered an unexpected blessing.
Just like that, time slipped away imperceptibly. In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of years passed, and Lin Fan was only a few dozen meters away from the summit of Mount Buzhou.
Yet these few dozen meters felt like a natural chasm to Lin Fan, within sight yet utterly out of reach.
The closer he got to the summit, the heavier the Pangu pressure became. At this point, every step forward gave Lin Fan the feeling that he was facing the Great God Pangu directly.
With every single step, Lin Fan needed several years, or even a dozen or more, just to adapt to the Pangu pressure.
Now Lin Fan was climbing purely by dint of his own willpower. Reaching the summit of Mount Buzhou had become an obsession for him; if he were to give up halfway and leave behind a mental demon, his Dao attainment would never advance any further, extinguishing all hope of ever attaining the Dao in his lifetime.
"Hold on, just a little bit more."
"Just a little bit more, I'm almost there."
For nearly a thousand years, Lin Fan had constantly repeated these two phrases in his heart to encourage and numb himself.
Finally, after another tens of thousands of years, Lin Fan was only a single step away from the summit.
This mere step had trapped Lin Fan for several millennia. Today was the day his merit would be fulfilled, making him the very first person in the Primordial World to reach the summit of Mount Buzhou.
Lin Fan slowly stood up, lifted his foot, and drove his magical power to a frenzy to brace against the impending crushing pressure.
He took that step down, and the next second his figure appeared at the summit of Mount Buzhou.
"Boom!"
Subconsciously reacting in self-defense, Lin Fan poured out all his magical power in a torrent. Instantly, sand and stones flew across the entire summit of Mount Buzhou, and trees were uprooted, turning to fine powder in the blink of an eye.
At this moment, Lin Fan stood there completely dumbfounded, his face a mask of question marks.
"This isn't right!"
"What happened to the crushing pressure?"
"What's going on? Why is it so calm? There's nothing here at all?"
"I fucking made full preparations and unleashed my full power."
"The result?"
"Just this?"
Lin Fan couldn't help muttering inwardly.
Just as Lin Fan was standing there in a daze, a streak of light flashed and merged into his heavenly spirit in the blink of an eye.
Lin Fan was startled at first, but it was immediately replaced by an expression of wild ecstasy. Disregarding everything else, he sat cross-legged right there on the summit of Mount Buzhou and entered seclusion.
Within moments, the traces of the Great Dao flickered around Lin Fan's body, and Dao rhythm circulated over him. A halo of auspicious clouds half an acre wide appeared behind his head, three green lotuses swayed gracefully, the five qi within his breast converged back into the origin, and his Dao attainment slowly rose.
One could well imagine what sort of heaven-defying fortune that stream of light had been!
Meanwhile, the Primordial Land did not grow calm just because it lacked one Lin Fan. On the contrary, stoked by malicious instigators, the hundreds of thousands of years of accumulated conflict and hatred among the three clans erupted like a volcanic eruption, spinning out of control and growing increasingly fierce.
The Primordial Land was scarred everywhere by magical powers and divine arts clashing; baleful qi soared into the sky, wails echoed everywhere, and not a shred of peace was to be found.
Even many of those high-level practitioners who had kept their abodes tightly sealed were dragged into the great tribulation against their will.
In the East Sea, the base camp of the Dragon Race, tens of thousands of divine dragons soared into the sky on this day, blotting out the sun and sky.
At the head of the countless divine dragons, a nine-clawed golden dragon tens of thousands of meters long roared toward the heavens, fully displaying imperial majesty.
It was none other than the master of the Dragon Race, and also the master of all scaled beasts in the Primordial World—Zu Long.
Zu Long looked up and proclaimed loudly: "Our Dragon Race, upholding the mandate of heaven, rules the four seas and governs the Primordial World as the overlords of heaven and earth. Yet the Phoenix Race and Qilin Race repeatedly oppose our Dragon Race and refuse to submit to our rule, causing unending tribulation and ceaseless strife."
"Now, in the name of the master of all scaled beasts, I lead the entire clan to wage war against the Phoenix and Qilin races, to vindicate our Dragon Race's rightful status as the masters of heaven and earth."
"Roar..."
Tens of thousands of dragons roared toward the sky, their roar shaking the heavens. Even in the inner lands of the Primordial World hundreds of millions of miles away, it could be clearly heard, and its mighty pressure forced countless primordial fierce beasts to prostrate themselves on the ground, trembling in terror.
At the same time, in the south of the Primordial World, at the Undying Volcano, countless flying birds gathered in front of the Phoenix Palace. The leader of the avian clan, Tianfeng, stood proudly and declared with majesty: "Now that our avian clan has been recognized by the Heavenly Dao to control the skies of the Primordial World and govern heaven and earth, the Dragon and Qilin races refuse to accept civilization, vainly attempting to act against the Mandate of Heaven, and repeatedly making things difficult for our avian clan."
"My mind is now made up: we shall march on the Dragon and Qilin races to prove the orthodox status of our avian clan as the masters of heaven and earth."
"Lads of the avian clan, follow me into battle to destroy the Dragon Race and pacify the beasts."
The exact same scene was playing out within the Qilin Race. In the center of the Primordial World, before the Qilin Sacred Mountain and the Zulin Hall, the Five-Elements Qilin stood stepping on yin and yang and the five elements before the myriad beasts.
With a majestic and deep voice, he addressed the myriad beasts: "Our beast clan has been recognized by the Heavenly Dao to master the earth of the Primordial World and govern the Primordial World. Now the Dragon and Phoenix races vainly attempt to defy heaven, causing ceaseless tribulation and denying peace to the Primordial World."
"Today, our beast clan shall act on behalf of heaven to punish the Dragon and Phoenix races, so as to restore peace to heaven and earth and disperse the baleful qi of the tribulation."
"Follow me into battle to destroy the Dragon Race and slay the Phoenix Race."
...
As the three clans made their oaths to heaven, the great tribulation was pushed to its absolute peak. Gazing upon the mighty and formidable armies of the three clans, those hidden high-level practitioners in the Primordial World either shook their heads and sighed or gloated over their misfortune, displaying every attitude imaginable.
Perhaps intentionally orchestrated by the Heavenly Dao, the armies of the three clans happened to meet on the Primordial Land at the very same moment.
Instantly, a heaven-shaking battle erupted. Without wasting words, the three clans clashed in slaughter the moment they met, holding nothing back.
After all, everyone knew this was the final battle: win, and they would become the masters of heaven and earth, enjoying the Qi Fortune of the Primordial World; lose, and their bodies would perish and their souls scatter, turning to dust.
In the war of the three clans, beings at the Daluo Golden Immortal level perished every single moment, while those at the Golden Immortal and Taiyi Golden Immortal levels fell in vast, continuous swaths.
As time passed, even the top experts among the three clans—those at the Quasi-Sage level—sustained no small injuries.
As for the high-level practitioners swept up by the three clans, they gradually fought their way into a true frenzy, striking with ruthless lethality.
In an instant, the Primordial World was filled with a soaring aura of blood, and the qi of the great tribulation permeated everywhere. This tribulation qi in turn warped the minds of those in the three clans, making them bloodthirsty by nature. Everyone's eyes turned red, and even Zu Long, Tianfeng, and the Five-Elements Qilin were affected by the tribulation qi, their eyes stained crimson, with only a single thought echoing in their minds: to slaughter their enemies.