Chapter 601

At the foot of Mount Buzhou lies Pangu Hall.

Inside the hall, the colossal Pangu's Heart, spanning billions of zhang in size, emits a deep, powerful throb.

With each beat, the earth veins of the Great Wasteland resonate in sympathy.

Yet now, the atmosphere within the hall is so heavy it seems ready to drip water.

The Twelve Ancestral Witches are gathered together.

Just moments ago, they personally witnessed the phenomenon above the Nine Heavens, comparable to the act of cleaving heaven and earth.

The Wuji Innate Mysterious Yellow Merit and Virtue Golden Light tore through the firmament, and purple qi streamed eastward for thirty thousand li.

Heaven rained millet, and ghosts wailed at night.

That vast force, representing the highest endorsement of the Heavenly Dao, caused even the Ancestral Witches who cultivated Pangu's fleshly body and scorned the Heavenly Dao to feel a tremor rising from the depths of their souls.

What they could not accept even more was that, of the merit descending from the heavens, a full twenty percent transformed into a rainbow streaking straight toward the Yao Clan's Heavenly Court in the Nine Heavens above!

"Roar——!"

The Fire Ancestral Witch Zhu Rong slammed his fist onto the basalt pillar before him, and the violent Nanming Lihuo instantly burned the pillar, requiring ten men to encircle it, into a pool of lava.

"On what grounds?! Just because those mud-men drew a few demonic talismans, the Heavenly Dao bestows such an immense amount of merit? What did Di Jun, that bald-feathered beast, do to deserve a share of two-tenths?!" Zhu Rong's eyes burned crimson, his rugged face twisted with fury.

Gonggong also wore a grim expression, black water surging around his body: "Elder Brother! Once that merit enters the body, the Yao Clan's qi luck golden dragon has grown noticeably larger! We painstakingly established the Asura Sect, barely suppressing them, and now it's all for nothing!"

Inside the hall, the Ancestral Witches were stirred to warlike fervor, clamoring to tear up the rule of "Great Luo Does Not Descend" and directly assault the Thirty-Three Heavens.

"All be silent."

A low, icy voice, yet carrying unquestionable majesty, rang out.

Di Jiang sat seated in the place of honor, his usually composed and in-control face now grim and terrifying.

He fixed his gaze intently on the Earthly Turbid Evil Map floating in the hall's center, his eyes locked on the fifty blood-marked regions in the Western Wasteland.

These were the human tribes recently slaughtered to near extinction by the Asura Clan.

"Elder Brother..."

Zhu Rong wanted to say more, but Di Jiang's icy stare forced the words back down his throat.

"We have been deceived." Di Jiang's voice was hoarse, as if rubbing sandpaper.

He slowly rose, walked to the map, and traced the tiny light points representing the human tribes with his fingertips.

"The Heavenly Court established the 'Human Teaching,' declared protection of the human tribe, and we thought it a joke, believed he was lowering his own status.

We mocked him, even went along with the flow, established the rule of 'Great Luo Does Not Descend,' and allowed the Asura Clan to slaughter those ants, intending to deal a heavy blow to the Heavenly Court's face."

"But what was the result?"

Di Jiang suddenly turned, his eyes like blades sweeping over all the Ancestral Witches.

"Fifty tribes slaughtered, hundreds of thousands of the human tribe died miserably. Did the Heavenly Court deploy troops? No. They only sent a few Taiyi Immortal demon officers to go through the motions. Then, that human youth, in dire straits, invented characters, and attracted vast merit!"

"Don't you understand yet?!"

Di Jiang's voice suddenly rose, carrying a barely concealed tremor: "The human tribe are fundamentally not ants! They are personally crafted by the Nüwa Shengren, and are the Heavenly Dao-acknowledged future protagonists of heaven and earth!"

Upon these words, the entire Pangu Hall fell into deathly silence.

All the Ancestral Witches widened their eyes, faces filled with utter disbelief.

"Heaven and earth... protagonists?" Zhu Rong stammered, "Just based on those mud-men that topple at a breath of wind?"

"Yes, just based on them."

The ever-silent Hou Tu sighed softly, her eyes filled with compassion now brimming with bitterness.

"Elder Brother speaks correctly. That vast merit is the clearest signal given by the Heavenly Dao.

The Yao Clan is not protecting ants; they are investing in the future of the Great Wasteland. They passed down the fire seed, awakening human spiritual awareness; now humans have invented characters, and civilization initially appears. The Yao Clan has already bound itself completely to the future protagonists of heaven and earth."

Hou Tu gazed at the blood-marked regions, her voice trembling slightly: "And what about us? What have we done?"

"The Asura Clan was forged from Pangu Essence Blood and Earthly Turbid Evil. They slaughter heaven and earth's protagonists—this boundless karmic retribution, this towering blood debt—will the Heavenly Dao reckon it upon whose head?"

Boom!

As if a heavenly thunderclap from the Nine Heavens exploded in the mind.

Zhu Rong, Gonggong, Qiangliang... all the warlike Ancestral Witches, at this moment, broke out in a cold sweat.

Karmic retribution!

Asura kills, karmic retribution belongs to Asura, yet cause and effect clutches tightly to the Wu Clan's heads!

They thought they were striking the Yao Clan's face, yet never imagined they were personally pushing the Wu Clan toward opposition to the Heavenly Dao, toward an abyss of eternal calamity!

Di Jiang clenched his fist tightly, dark-gold Ancestral Witch blood dripping to the ground.

He finally understood the Heavenly Court's strategy.

The Heavenly Court cares nothing for the life or death of those fifty tribes' hundreds of thousands of humans.

He even wished for the Asura Clan to go kill!

For only slaughter, only deep enmity in the blood sea, could make the human tribe utterly turn toward the Heavenly Court, could force out the human tribe's potential in dire straits, and could make the Wu Clan bear the eternal infamy of slaughtering heaven and earth's protagonists!

"Great Luo Does Not Descend?"

This rule, now seen, is nothing less than a noose the Wu Clan has tied around its own neck!

"Elder Brother, what now?" Xuánmíng asked anxiously, the chill around her body somewhat disordered from fear.

"Cease hostilities! Must stop immediately!"

Di Jiang made a decisive decision, speaking with firm conviction: "Issue orders to Minghe, let the Asura Clan immediately withdraw from the Human Clan Territory! Absolutely no more killing of mortals!"

"But..." Zhu Jiuyin furrowed her brow, "Will that old thing Minghe heed us?"

Di Jiang's eyes turned cold, killing intent laid bare.

"If he dares not to obey? The foundation of the Asura Clan lies in our hands. If he dares defy orders, I will personally go to the Blood Sea and level his Youming Palace!"

……

Youming Blood Sea.

The dark red seawater churned violently, like boiling lava.

The pungent stench of blood and the soaring baleful qi intertwined, forming a forbidden zone of death that even Great Luo Golden Immortals dared not lightly set foot in.

Yet at this moment, this death forbidden zone had fallen into an unprecedented revelry.

Roar—!

An Asura King towering ten thousand zhang, with four heads and eight arms, burst forth from the Blood Sea.

His whole body was covered in dark red scales, and on his four faces simultaneously appeared smiles of ferocity, greed, brutality, and satisfaction.

He waved his great hand, and countless shattered corpses and wailing nascent souls were dumped into the Blood Sea Underworld like dumplings dropped into a pot.

These were all spoils plundered from those fifty Human Tribes in the Western Wasteland.

As these flesh and nascent souls merged in, the Blood Sea's expanse actually expanded outward by a ring at a speed visible to the naked eye.

And that Asura King's aura also surged violently therewith, faintly touching the threshold of a Great Luo Golden Immortal.

Deep within the Youming Palace.

Minghe Laozu sat cross-legged upon the Twelve-Grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus Seat, eyes slightly closed, his face full of intoxication.

"Wonderful... truly too wonderful..."

He took a deep breath, as if savoring the sweetest immortal brew in the world.

Human flesh and blood, though the spiritual qi they contained was minuscule, yet within their souls lay a kind of extremely special pure power that even Minghe could not comprehend.

That was the Innate Dao Origin bestowed by the Heavenly Dao upon the future protagonist!

With each Human devoured, the Asura Clan's foundation strengthened by a fraction, and the Blood Sea's karma grew purer by a fraction.

And as the Asura Sect's Holy Lord, Minghe, whose cultivation had stagnated at the Peak of the Half-Step Saint Realm, actually began a slight loosening!

"Sanctification... this is this seat's opportunity for Sanctification!"