Chapter 1140: The Gap

Proving the Dao through luck and becoming a Saint through merit—these were the final paths, and currently, the most viable paths in the Primordial World.

That Haotian wanted to rely on proving the Dao through luck.

Of course, there were also many supreme beings who wanted to walk the path of becoming a Saint through merit.

Becoming a Saint through merit was not proving the Dao, but walking the path of a fruit status. This was the path Nuwa walked at the beginning: with supreme merit, she achieved the fruit status of a Saint.

Yet she didn't expect that because of the Primordial Purple Qi, she ultimately communicated with the Heavenly Dao and became a Heavenly Dao Saint. A Heavenly Dao Saint was actually a kind of fruit status, acting on behalf of the Heavenly Dao to exercise the authority of the Heavenly Dao laws. Within the world, their strength exceeded that of a Merit Saint.

A Merit Saint was a kind of fruit status, exceeding an ordinary half-Saint, but they hadn't broken through to the realm of a Saint on their own.

Saint was a realm in the Primordial World, created by the Dao Ancestor. The Saint realm was the Primordial Great Luo Golden Immortal, but a Primordial Great Luo Golden Immortal was not necessarily a Saint.

In the Chaos world, there was only the Primordial Dao; in the ancient period, there were actually no Saints.

A Merit Saint was the weakest, but they were still a Saint, at least exceeding a half-Saint. However, to become a Saint through merit, the merit required was immeasurable.

In the entire Honghuang Sanjie, to become a Saint through merit, there were only a few people: the opening-heaven merit that came with the Three Pure Ones' Primordial Spirits, Nuwa's merit in mending the heavens and creating the Human clan, and the Ancestral Witch Houtu's merit in transforming into reincarnation.

Finally, there was the Great Immortal Zhenyuanzi, the Ancestor of Earth Immortals, with the merit of opening the Dao of Earth Deities.

However, among these few, only Zhenyuanzi was still a half-Saint, but he had already opened up his own Dao Fruit, and he was not far from becoming a Saint or achieving the Primordial Dao Fruit.

Naturally, there was no need to become a Saint through merit.

Naturally, Zhenyuanzi would not choose to become a Saint through merit.

Even if another world suddenly appeared, somewhat disrupting Zhenyuanzi's cultivation progress, he would not choose to become a Saint through merit because of this sudden world.

Merit belonged to the Primordial heavens and earth. Once he chose to become a Saint through merit, he would be bound to the Primordial heavens and earth, which meant connecting karma with heaven and earth.

In the Primordial heavens and earth, he was a Saint fruit status, but if he wanted to leave the Primordial heavens and earth, he would first have to cut off the karma, and secondly, his cultivation would decrease.

Merit was useful for the weak, but for a supreme Saint powerhouse like Zhenyuanzi who had already opened up his own Dao Fruit, it no longer had any effect.

Of course, it was not bad to bless it onto a spiritual treasure.

Even if he left the Primordial world, the power of the spiritual treasure would not drop much; after all, when it came down to it, this merit was the world's origin.

In reality, Zhenyuanzi did indeed bless his own merit onto the Earth Book, and even a portion of the merit was blessed onto the Ginseng Fruit tree to enhance its foundation.

The Earth Book itself was vaguely reaching the level of an Innate Supreme Treasure. After merit was integrated into it, it not only became an Innate Merit Spiritual Treasure but also promoted the speed of the Earth Book's advancement.

Of course, outsiders did not know this; only Su Fan had once entered the Wuzhuang Temple and noticed something unusual in Zhenyuanzi's cave dwelling.

Of course, this was also because Zhenyuanzi did not hide it; otherwise, it would have been very difficult for Su Fan to discover it.

Returning to the Wuzhuang Temple again, Su Fan's perception of the Wuzhuang Temple changed once more.

Especially when he came to the side of that Ginseng Fruit tree, Su Fan's spiritual sense felt that this Ginseng Fruit tree was different.

As for what the change was, he couldn't say.

But soon, Su Fan no longer focused his gaze on the Ginseng Fruit tree; after all, there was still a period of time before this thing bore fruit.

Because Zhenyuanzi's words attracted all his attention.

"What? Teacher, you went to the Heavenly Court?"

Su Fan was somewhat surprised.

"Indeed, it was Haotian who invited me."

"Was it for that world?"

Su Fan instantly had a guess.

"Indeed! That mysterious world suddenly appeared, so Haotian also invited us to discuss it together."

"According to our calculations, the two worlds have already begun to merge. A complete fusion might take twelve epochs."

An epoch was 108,000 years; twelve epochs were nearly over a million years.

This time, for Zhenyuanzi and the others, was actually not long; perhaps a single closed-door session would last a dozen epochs.

But Su Fan had cultivated until now and hadn't even exceeded the number of one epoch.

One could imagine how long a time over a million years was. Of course, Su Fan also knew that as his cultivation became higher, time for him would only be a number.

Over a million years—in the original main world, there were not many sects with such a long history.

So for the two worlds to completely merge, Su Fan didn't have much of a feeling.

Perhaps by that time, he would have already left the Primordial world.

After all, before this, he had traveled through many worlds, and the longest was only a few decades or a hundred years; it was just a lifetime.

Now in the Primordial World, he had already stayed for over thirty thousand years; this time was already extremely long. Cultivators at the Primordial Spirit stage in the main world only had a lifespan of ten thousand years.

A Great Emperor of the *Shrouding the Heavens* great world only lived for ten thousand or tens of thousands of years in one lifetime.

So over a million years—this number was truly too large.

So large that Su Fan directly ignored it.

"However, after the two worlds merge, a passage through the barrier will appear. I fear it won't be long before the living beings of the two worlds can 'communicate'."

When Zhenyuanzi said the last two words, his tone also deepened a bit.

Su Fan also understood; he feared the passage between the two worlds had almost appeared. By then, whether it was the other side coming over or this side going over, when the two sides met, a great war would be inevitable.

He feared it wouldn't take over a million years; the Honghuang Sanjie would soon fall into chaos.

"The worlds have merged. The future Primordial World will inevitably enhance its origin. For the living beings, this is a good thing, but the living beings of the two worlds are not of the same root after all. So, in the future, when the world becomes one, I think you can imagine it."

"Competing for the right to speak and the dominant position in the world?"

Su Fan pointed it out in one sentence. Zhenyuanzi nodded with a smile. He naturally knew that this "cheap" disciple of his was not like Qingfeng and Mingyue, who didn't understand the great trend and the ways of the world.

This disciple of his, although he hadn't taught him much, had experienced a lot.

Especially that Sword Sect—although others had helped build it, to be able to build the Sword Sect to its current level, his ability was certainly not bad.

If placed in the Heavenly Court, he could also become a First-Rank Emperor Lord.

"Then, Teacher, your trip to the Heavenly Court this time was to discuss matters of dealing with that world?"

"Indeed!"

Zhenyuanzi nodded.

"It seems there was no harvest this time," Su Fan said again after hearing this.

Zhenyuanzi nodded, then shook his head.

"To deal with that world, and even to defeat the opponent in the future and obtain the dominant position in the new world, then first, we must unify our strength here and not be scattered."

"However, I imagine that this time, you all didn't discuss anything."