Chapter 141: Breakthrough Opportunity

However, the turning point of fate often hides within the cataclysmic changes of heaven and earth; among the Twelve Ancestral Witches, the most compassionate Hou Tu is about to sacrifice his true form as an ancestral witch to inaugurate a Reincarnation law that will alter the pattern of the Vast Wilderness World.

Since Pangu opened the heavens, after the billions of beings of the Vast Wilderness World fell, their souls drifted like rootless duckweed toward the Netherworld Sea of Blood.

This scarlet water, saturated with karma and resentment, bears incalculable unresolved causes and effects, like a fire‑red lotus of karmic flame hanging over the heads of all beings in the Vast Wilderness World.

Until a figure cloaked in mysterious yellow aura resolutely stepped into the depths of the Blood Sea, the entire Vast Wilderness World heard the Heavenly Dao send down a merit golden rain.

When the Six Realms of Reincarnation disc slowly rose within the Blood Sea vortex, the wandering residual souls in heaven and earth found a home for the first time.

This celestial marvel, evolved from the primal essence of the ancestral witch, not only refined the life‑and‑death law of the Vast Wilderness World, but also imperceptibly dissolved the karmic cause‑effect that had accumulated tens of thousands of the Great Calamity.

Zhou Yi gazed at the swirling Reincarnation purple aura toward the Netherworld, his fingertips unconsciously tallying the threads of heavenly mechanisms; even though he understood many ancient secrets, he could not discern whether Hou Tu's path to enlightenment was a calculation of the Heavenly Dao or an act of compassion by the Great Dao.

At this moment, Zhou Yi was no longer the naive cultivator who first entered the Vast Wilderness World.

As his comprehension of the heavenly and earthly laws deepened, he sensed numerous hidden threads in this world: Tai Qing Sheng Ren's seemingly effortless propagation of the Dao, the strange hue that flashed in Nüwa's eye corner when she repaired the heavens, and even the intervals between the three sermons of the Dao Ancestor, which aligned with a certain mysterious pattern.

These discoveries convinced him that the reincarnation opportunity of the Wan Huo Ancestor was far from the superficial simplicity.

When the Reincarnation purple light illuminated the seventh day‑night of the Netherworld, Zhou Yi laid the Steal Heaven, Change Day formation atop Kunlun Mountain.

He knew better than anyone that when the Reincarnation pathway became fully stable, that residual soul bearing the innate Cloud Spirit essence would...

It will follow the Jade Pure edict left by Yuanshi Tianzun, transforming into the clearest clouds atop Mount Zhongnan, where Yun Zhongzi, known as the True Immortal of Blessings and Virtue, is presently reshaping his Dao foundation deep within the Reincarnation.

As time flowed, Yun Zhongzi, through the method of accumulating merit and doing good, attained the Dao fruit and was honored by the three realms as a "Good Fruit Golden Immortal".

Cultivators of the Vast Wilderness World often cite the fate of the Wan Huo Dao Lord as a warning; the celestial bestowed Hongmeng purple aura was originally an eternal opportunity, yet entangled cause‑and‑effect invited a killing calamity, showing that the Heavenly Dao's cycle inherently maintains balance.

Zhou Yi stood on a cliff strewn with white bones, gazing at the crimson clouds roiling on the horizon. He was not in a hurry to seek the Great Witch Hou Tu, but instead chuckled at the void, saying, "The tide of the Blood Sea has risen; that one should now attain enlightenment."

He vaulted, becoming a streak of light crossing the void; wherever he passed, shadowy souls shrieked and fled, and he cleaved a golden trail through the blood‑filled mist.

This Netherworld realm has existed since Pangu's fall.

Legend says the creator god's navel eye bled, forming the towering Blood Sea; the twelve‑grade karmic fire red lotus took root within, devouring countless beings who mistakenly entered over a million years.

At this moment, Zhou Yi hovered at the sea‑sky boundary, witnessing a twisted human face emerge from the scarlet giant wave, only to be instantly torn apart by the vortex.

"What a central hub of the three realms' foul qi!" he swished his sleeve, dispersing the incoming fetid wind, which was laced with fine bone fragments.

Within a radius of ten thousand li no living creature could be seen; only putrid, flesh‑like miasma coalesced into clouds, tinting the heavens with a sickly dark violet.

Amid the sound of blood waves crashing ashore, ten thousand wronged souls' wails were hidden, and even the rocks beneath his feet oozed dark red blood pearls.

Zhou Yi did not venture deeper into the perilous terrain; instead, he built a hut on the blood‑colored beach. The Quasi‑Saint Gate loomed before him, and breaking through the Saint Body realm required massive accumulation.

These days he repeatedly simulated the Nine Secrets' profound mechanisms, only to discover that this technique inherited from the desolate heavens and earth possessed a level of mystery far beyond expectations.

Whenever the full moon rose, ancient witch incantations echoed from the depths of the Blood Sea, resonating strangely with the Ji Zi secret within his body.

After thirty cycles of cold and heat, on this day Zhou Yi was contemplating the profound meaning of the Dou character technique, when he suddenly felt the vast Blood Sea strangely calm.

The totem of the Twelve Dao Ancestor Witches rose from the sea surface, and at its center a woman in plain gauze stepped onto the waves.

She wore a bell fashioned from white bone hanging in her hair, a vermilion dot at her brow as vivid as weeping blood, and a pure aura around her that kept the filthy Blood Sea at a three‑zhang distance.

This was entirely different from Zhou Yi's expectations. Legends say the Wu Clan members stand twelve chi tall, with blue faces and fangs, yet the woman before him was as cold and clear as condensed moonlight.

What startled him further was that the Reincarnation Dao rhythm circulating around Hou Tu subtly balanced the Blood Sea's resentment. When she lifted her gaze, the reversal of the star river in her eyes made even the Quasi‑Saint Dao Heart tremble.

Beneath the blood‑colored heavens, scarlet seas roiled, and the plain‑clothed woman was surrounded by a faint golden halo. Zhou Yi waded ten zhàng out, discovering that the notorious ancestral witch, famed for her ruthlessness, was gazing intently at the wandering souls overhead.

"Companion of the Dao, you have lingered here for three days; have you encountered an unsolvable matter?" Zhou Yi raised his hand, sweeping away the attacking resentful spirits, deliberately letting his bronze sword at his waist emit a clear ring.

The figure within the halo trembled slightly; as she turned, the witch markings on her forehead flickered: "So a Human can traverse the blood miasma to reach this place?"

Hou Tu, barefoot, placed her foot on the wave crest; beneath her, the karmic fire red lotus flickered in and out, and she said, "Look at these residual souls—while alive they were merely herb‑gathering children or net‑weaving fisherwomen, yet now they are doomed to sink forever."

Zhou Yi watched the faint lights swirling around her fingertips; among them a residual soul of an old woman mechanically repeated the motion of spinning thread.

When a crystal‑clear tear fell into the Blood Sea, the rising mist blossomed into half a white lotus.

"Our tribe's thirty‑thousand lost souls are also within," Zhou Yi took from his bosom a cracked turtle shell, its Human Race totem heating up, and said, "They died defending the tribe, and now even rebirth is a luxury."

Hou Tu suddenly advanced, and the twelve Reincarnation phantom shadows swirled behind her: "Human Ancestor? The leader who led the Human Race to evade the Demon Court's pursuit?"

She examined the star patterns on his dark battle robe, remarking, "Without a Yuan Shen inheritance yet able to become a Great Luo Golden Immortal, if Di Qun were to learn…"

"Aren't the Wu Clan also seeking a method to break the calamity?" Zhou Yi let the blood waves soak his robe, pointing at the countless new souls falling through the cracks in the heavens, "When the Vast Wilderness World's killing calamity erupts again, these wandering souls may surge a hundredfold."

The Blood Sea beneath their feet suddenly roiled violently, and the twelve‑grade karmic fire red lotus fully manifested.

Hou Tu brushed the now materializing Reincarnation disc, her voice suddenly lightening: "So you came seeking me, hoping to find a path of life for the Human Race's lost souls?"

Zhou Yi's fingertips unconsciously brushed the hem of his robe, and Hou Tu's words rippled through his sea of consciousness.

At this moment the roar of the swirling Blood Sea seemed distant, and secret memories of the Wu Clan's Great Calamity resurfaced in his mind.

He noticed the slight frown at Hou Tu's brow, wondering if this earth‑wielding ancestral witch already sensed the impending cataclysm that would overturn heaven and earth.

Yet the Wu Clan, despite their powerful bodies, lack a Yuan Shen; even though Hou Tu's cultivation reaches the heavens, how can she fathom the mysteries of the Heavenly Dao?

"This cloud‑wandering was originally to seek a breakthrough opportunity…" Zhou Yi spread his palm, a strand of red‑hued residual soul flickering within like a wisp, "Who could have expected to encounter a Wan Huo Daoist outside the Wuzhuang Temple, suffering a calamity."

The fetid wind of the Blood Sea lifted his dark robe, and the residual souls reflected, causing a hazy crimson glow to spread three zhàng around him.

Hou Tu leaned forward slightly at his words, the Yu Qiang bone ornament in her hair jingling: "You speak of the Quasi‑Saint War a hundred years ago?" She clearly recalled the energy surge that once shook the Vast Wilderness World, when the snow atop Mount Buzhou fell for three months.