Chapter 80: Yan Emperor Manifests, Houtu Gives Instructions

In the Houtu Holy Hall, the atmosphere was somewhat quiet.

After the Ancestor Witch called his name, he said nothing more, merely sizing up Fengxi from head to toe.

Fengxi didn't understand, yet he dared not question—you are a big shot, your happiness is all that matters.

But as time passed, he felt something was off.

Although…… Fengxi is handsome, suave, and extraordinary; as long as he doesn't open his mouth and spout twisted reasoning, there is no doubt he will be the paragon of handsome men.

Yet, the Houtu Ancestor Witch's gaze lingering on him…… is far too long!

Too long to be normal.

Fengxi does not feel that this Ancestor Witch would be infatuated.

Moreover, crucially, Houtu's gaze!

That gaze is so penetrating that Fengxi feels as if he were streaking naked under the great sun…… no, even worse than that.

Clothes cannot block this gaze; flesh, blood, and bones are laid bare.

Even the sea of memories, the true spirit's imprint, and the origin of the soul will be thoroughly inspected by this Ancestor Witch.

Fengxi shivered, uneasy to the extreme.

Yet he could do nothing but let this Ancestor Witch uncover his past life's childhood bedwetting incidents, even the dirty laundry of eighteen generations of ancestors, crystal clear.

"Do all the mighty ones of the Honghuang world have such a bad habit?" Fengxi thought bitterly, "Di Jiang Zu Wu is like this, Fuxi the Great Sage is like this…… they constantly probe people's origins and roots, leaving this poor wretch with no privacy at all……"

He kept muttering, with a hint of malicious speculation, "Such a tacit consensus behavior—could it be that in some older era, some fortunate mighty ones were screwed over by hidden spies and undercover agents lurking beside them?"

"So that's why we have 'past events not forgotten, future events as teacher'?"

"Fragile nerves, sensitive reactions…… what profound lesson must this be?"

Fengxi's thoughts wandered, yet he obediently stood still, accepting the examination.

——Ah!

Life is like that, you can't resist, you can only silently accept.

Moreover.

Is the leader's scrutiny of you an infringement?

It's concern, it's routine procedure before assigning work, you know?

As the saying goes, "Heaven will bestow a great mission upon this person, first he must suffer……"

When Fengxi's thoughts turned, even he himself didn't know where they had gone.

In fact, regarding the Houtu Ancestor Witch's behavior, he isn't particularly worried——

Fengxi, having been jointly approved as a pure little witch by the two current great divine ability masters, Di Jiang Zu Wu and Fuxi the Great Sage, is not the same as those flirtatious lowly scoundrels who suddenly "attain enlightenment" and are Great Luo Trumpets.

Not the same!

Recalling the past, Fengxi's inner projection showed tears of bitterness on his face.

If heaven could give him a chance, he also wishes he had a tremendous reliance behind him……

"Hmph!"

Suddenly, a cold snort sounded, coming from the Houtu Ancestor Witch.

This heroic female leader rose abruptly, the divine light between her eyes almost condensing into substance at this moment, shining upon Fengxi's true spirit.

A sudden change, at this very instant!

"Om!"

In Fengxi's originally clear and pure true spirit imprint, a point of starry firelight appeared out of nowhere!

That firelight flashed and vanished, appearing and disappearing with such speed and abruptness.

Even an ordinary Great Luo, let alone a casual great divine ability master, would probably be unable to perceive or grasp it.

Unfortunately, standing here now is Houtu, the Houtu exerting all her strength, the Houtu who can govern the past, present, future, and all beings' reincarnation in the Myriad Heavens and Ten Thousand Worlds, standing at the pinnacle of true spirit research!

Gazing across the entire Honghuang universe, how many could deceive her when she exerts her full power?

Fengxi's deepest true spirit alteration ultimately could not escape her methods.

"Appear from nothing, hidden invisibility? Good! Good! Good!" Houtu's face showed no joy or anger, "The signature ability of a Taiyi Great Luo…… if I weren't arranging some important work, to prevent problems, using peak power to repeatedly examine every detail, I truly wouldn't be able to find a trace."

"Heh…… it seems I will have a chance to mock Di Jiang and Fuxi these two fellows later." Houtu smiled faintly, "Although this is a non-combat fault, their nickname of 'blind as a bat' can be pinned on them."

"As for you…… let me see, who exactly is your true form!"

The Ancestor Witch stepped forward.

At this moment, Fengxi felt both great terror and great intoxication.

In his field of vision, heaven disappeared, earth disappeared, everything originally around him vanished.

In their place, an endless vast river flowed, undulating with the waves of time.

He strained to widen his eyes, focusing his gaze, yet saw the river rise and fall, the endless Myriad Heavens undergoing birth and death, worlds forming, dwelling, decaying, emptiness, life being born, growing, perishing…… the cycle of creation and ending, a song of creation resonated!

Creation turns all things, expounding all things.

This is like the broadest, greatest soil, silently nurturing all things, breeding all things.

This is the Dao!

Fengxi drunkedly sank into it…… at this moment, he finally understood why the saying "hear the Dao in the morning, die content in the evening" had spread.

When the supreme ultimate you painstakingly pursue is placed before you like this, how many can remain calm?

If one can remain calm, it can only mean that in fact you never truly liked or pursued it.

Of course.

Even if one immerses in the Dao and is willing to sacrifice for it, there is still a time process.

Morning and evening, it is a slow death.

When that Dao, carrying all it has evolved, rushes toward Fengxi…… that is to execute death immediately.

No matter how deep the decline, it was also startled awake.

"Ah!"

Fengxi's soul was terrified, wanting to retreat and dodge…… but it was useless, he had nowhere to escape.

He could only watch helplessly as an infinite, boundless mighty force surged forth, as if it would grind him to dust.

At that very moment!

"Boom!"

The fleeting sparks began to burn.

This burning was extremely mysterious.

It seemed to consume nothing existing or real, entirely evolving firewood from utter nothingness, becoming its own power source, therein expounding the most dreamlike and mysterious principle.

In Fengxi's dazed moment, a Great Dao was forged.

As soon as the Great Dao appeared, it attacked the Dao of Houtu Ancestral Witch.

If one says, the Dao of Houtu Ancestral Witch is like the thick earth that creates and nurtures all things, then this Dao is burning, is flame, is vigorous vitality, is the passing of the fire!

Flames, burning all things, consuming everything—this is ultimate destruction, but certainly not only destruction!

All things burned, leaving a handful of ashes, harboring the hope and expectation of future great life.

In the dark, it seemed as if a great hand was pushing, those ashes gathered, nourishing some seeds deliberately left stored, letting them grow……

The Great Dao of Houtu Ancestral Witch cycles of birth and death, endless reincarnation, cannot be cleansed by a single fire.

The earth nurtures vitality, destroyed things reappear, mixed among those seeds like weeds, interfering and hindering their growth.

"Sigh……"

A lofty, ethereal voice seemed to come from the deepest reaches of the River of Time, controlling everything, changing everything.

That Dao, thus changing, turned into knives, sickles, hoes, axes, quietly and patiently removing weeds, carefully nurturing the seeds until harvest——

A seven-colored rice stalk!

At this moment, Houtu Ancestral Witch's complexion shifted, becoming unprecedentedly solemn, gazing at the rice stalk, no longer the previous casual ease.

"Yandi!" her eyes unblinking, "Your Dao does not match any great power's Dao of the present age…… Are you not in the present, but standing in the future?"

"Indeed, this little fellow…… is one of the rafts you positioned!"

"Heh……"

In the void, a faint laughter seemed to come, neither admitting nor denying, merely pushing the Dao's circulation on its own.

With a blow of the wind, the rice stalk fell.

A single seed now, at the next harvest, will become thousands, tens of thousands!

One after another, people toiled with sweat, slash-and-burn, silently cultivating them, relying on them, to challenge the bloody law of the vast, ancient heavens and earth, breaking the balance between mere hunting and being hunted, the weak and strong, the so-called ecology, attempting to tear apart the chains etched in their bodies when the world gave birth to all things, to decide their own desired future!

A belief, a Dao…… like vigorous flames burning, remaking the world, invading the cosmos, seeking to overturn the Great Dao of Houtu Ancestral Witch!

"Heaven and earth endure, all things birth and perish……" Houtu's gaze sank, a single thought turning, and it was heaven collapsing, earth fissuring, seas turning to fields.

One unexpected calamity after another could overturn that seed representing hope.

"Sigh."

A soft sigh, carrying a hint of emotion and helplessness…… then the Great Dao began to collapse, a point of spark fading out.

Fengxi felt a rise of sorrow and regret.

He inexplicably perceived the clash between the two supreme beings, regretting the existence behind that point of spark.

It was not due to disparity in strength, the Dao having superiority…… purely because that one could not descend here, fighting away, making it hard to oppose Houtu.

This is still the era of the witch-demons!

Fengxi's nose felt a bit sour.

Yet at this very moment, Houtu Ancestral Witch withdrew, no longer pressing forward, instead sending out a divine thought: "Dao friend, please stay!"

"No need to stay……" similarly a divine thought came, "This battle, Houtu Dao friend has the upper hand by one move."

"Since you, Dao friend, want it, I will give you this chip…… whether to kill or cut, entirely up to you."

The divine thought gradually faded, ultimately disappearing without trace.

In Fengxi's true spirit, that point of spark dimmed, no longer showing any brilliance.

Houtu furrowed his fine brows, somewhat displeased.

Fengxi, however, was dumbfounded.

"Yandi big boss! Shennong big boss!"

"When you just leave, could you take me along?"

"You've shown off enough now, yet you left me behind…… and still say 'do as you wish, kill or cut'?"

"Ancestor!"

"Can we stop screwing people over, okay?!"

"You usually don't give me cheats, I don't blame you…… but at this crucial moment, don't send me to the guillotine!"

Fengxi's eye corner shed crystal-clear liquid, feeling sorrow and bleakness.

At this moment, he felt he was the most pitiful offspring under heaven.

"Heavens!"

"Earth!"

"Right now, Houtu Ancestral Witch is looking at me with a strange gaze…… what should I do?"

"Should I commit suicide?"

"Or should I struggle a bit, then be slapped to death?"

"Waiting online! Urgent!"

Fengxi mournfully awaited Houtu's judgment, his ears seemingly hearing phantom sounds—

"No hope! Just wait to die! Goodbye!"

However, just as he was feeling hopeless...

"Don't be so nervous… the innocent are blameless."

Houtu Ancestor Witch looked at him and calmly offered a reassuring sentence.

"Huh?"

Fengxi stared up in shock, yet he saw that Houtu Ancestor Witch had never been as great and divine as now… no, that's wrong, Houtu Ancestor Witch has always been great and divine.

"I've long known your situation inside out…" Houtu Ancestor Witch sat down again, "Just now, I was merely testing a bit."

"Don't look at me like that…" Houtu glanced at Fengxi, appearing confident, "If not for that, how could Chisongzi have originally shielded you from calamity and resolved heavenly will?"

"Do you really think those in the Great Luo are just idling about?"

Fengxi said nothing, listening honestly.

Houtu Ancestor Witch then said, "Little guy, you don't need to worry about anything… you're not just connected to Shennong, are you?"

"Heh…… in our Wu Clan, there's not much else, but we have a lot of Great Luo trumpets."

"Pull out the top hundred lesser witches from each domain of every major region, gather them together, then casually throw a brick in… you'd probably hit two or three Great Luo trumpets."

"Isn't it just adding one more of the Five Directional Gods? Isn't it just capturing traces of Yandi suppressing the Ancestor Witch Zhurong? Normal! Normal!"

Houtu Ancestor Witch said this offhandedly, but Fengxi listened with his heart pounding.

"Really, if you're not trying to scare me, tell me not to be nervous… why bring up the Five Directional Gods?"

Amidst such muttering, Fengxi merely kept his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, daring not to speak or ask anything.

Houtu Ancestor Witch didn't mind either, flipping a hand on the table, "And you, being connected to Yandi… that's actually a good thing."

"Because, the organization has a daunting task to assign to you… I was originally worried your foundation was too shallow, that even taking partial responsibility for the work would be a bit risky."

"But now, I'm not worried." Houtu smiled slightly, "I just don't know… are you willing or not?"

"May I ask what the work is?" Fengxi felt a chill rise behind him.

"You should still remember this." Houtu Ancestor Witch pondered, "Our Wu Clan's origin…… we seized countless resolute talents from endless time and space, breaking through time, forging the false into true to become the Wu Clan."

"Enlisting and fighting, striving for humanity's place as the protagonists of heaven and earth."

"But… human hearts are made of flesh." Houtu sighed, "Far from our homeland, struggling in an unfamiliar era… each of our warriors bears a tremendous psychological and spiritual pressure."

"Such emotions need to be guided."

"Like the Great Fuxi Clan Alliance, the Zhuanxu Origin Alliance…… these are actually spontaneous elaborations of such guidance."

"Considering the cries of the myriad lesser witches, I have decided to emphasize this ideological and spiritual work."

"So…"

(End of chapter)