Chapter 955: A Dilemma

Zhenyuanzi's identity is not simple; in terms of strength, he is a top-tier Quasi-Saint, and in the current Earth Immortal World, he is enough to rank in the top ten.

If he were to join the Human Race, the Human Race's strength would inevitably increase significantly.

More importantly, there is Zhenyuanzi's status; even if one does not call him the leader of the Taoist Sect, his influence on the Taoist Sect in the current Earth Immortal World is immense.

Although Zhenyuanzi has not established a sect like the Three Pure Ones and has no faction, his mere presence is enough to influence many immortals and gods.

Once he openly supports the Human Race, I fear that a portion of the gods and Buddhas filling the sky would inevitably be willing to follow him.

The title of Ancestor of Earth Immortals is no joke.

Across the Four Great Divine Continents, there are some immortals and gods who travel between the Three Teachings and the Heavenly Court; these people are considered Loose Cultivators, some have Taoist Sect Inheritances, and some belong to Heterodox Paths, yet the power of these people is also very strong.

And among these people, a portion have heard Zhenyuanzi preach.

Furthermore, behind Zhenyuanzi is the Spirit Root Race of plants and trees.

Cultivators who attained the Dao through Spirit Roots have great trust in Zhenyuanzi.

The Spirit Root Race is actually one of the Ten Thousand Races, and their strength is not bad; after all, ever since the birth of heaven and earth, there have been Spirit Roots that gained intelligence.

Especially the ten great Innate Spiritual Roots of antiquity.

It is just a pity that these Innate Spiritual Roots have poor Qi of Luck, or perhaps their true forms are too powerful, so most cannot take human form; otherwise, each one that took human form would likely be a Quasi-Saint in the future, or perhaps even a Saint.

After all, according to legend, the one who reached the Primordial Great Luo Golden Immortal realm a step before the Dao Ancestor was an Innate Divine Demon Spirit Root of a hollow willow.

Moreover, it is said that the two Saints of the Western Sect both have origins as Spirit Roots, specifically Innate Spiritual Roots.

One can imagine the power of the Spirit Race.

However, the Spirit Race of today has actually slowly declined; after all, the Spirit Energy of heaven and earth is becoming lower and lower, and it is very difficult for those Spirit Plants to gain intelligence.

Without intelligence, they are no different from those wild beasts.

In the past, when the Spirit Energy of heaven and earth was still Innate Spiritual Qi, it was actually easiest for all things in heaven and earth to gain intelligence, but now it is very difficult.

Not just the Spirit Race, but in reality, all of the Ten Thousand Races find it difficult.

This is also the reason for the Human Race's strength, because the Human Race is different from the other Ten Thousand Races; the Human Race is born with intelligence, though it is much harder for the Human Race to walk the path of transcendence than those Ten Thousand Races, and on top of that, the lifespan of the Human Race cannot compare to the Ten Thousand Races.

This is the shortcoming of the Human Race.

However, overall, the Human Race is still becoming increasingly powerful and can firmly suppress the Ten Thousand Races; if not for the gods and Buddhas filling the sky, the Human Race would have long since been the co-rulers of the Three Realms, and the Heavenly Court would also be ruled by the Human Race.

Now the Human Race has also begun to move, and the gods and Buddhas filling the sky are increasingly wary.

Yet, within those immortals and gods, they are each fighting their own battles.

Coupled with some indifferent immortals and gods, their desire to suppress the Human Race has gradually weakened over time.

Especially after the Investiture of the Gods, without Saints sitting in command, their strength has decreased a lot.

After all, without Saints, their confidence is a bit weaker.

Even the Chan Sect at that time would not have gone too far; if they had truly provoked Fire Cloud Cave, the Chan Sect at that time really could not have blocked Fire Cloud Cave.

Even if the Yuqing Saint used one of his Three Corpses, so what? Fuxi of Fire Cloud Cave would be enough to stop him, so who among the rest could block Dayu?

There would be no need to mobilize Xuanyuan; one Dayu would likely be enough to finish off the remaining second-generation disciples of the Chan Sect.

During the Investiture of the Gods, the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect were beaten by the Jie Sect until they had no power to fight back; if the Yuqing Saint had not personally entered the fray, those Twelve Golden Immortals would have been finished long ago.

The only one, the Vice Cult Leader Randeng, had some strength, but it turned out he was a turncoat.

So in reality, after the Investiture of the Gods, the Chan Sect kept a much lower profile; after all, a portion of their disciples betrayed the sect, causing the Chan Sect's vitality to be severely damaged.

It can be said that the Western Sect gained the most from the Investiture of the Gods.

Of course, the power of the gods and Buddhas filling the sky is still very strong, which is why Fire Cloud Cave has not come forward all this time, only secretly accumulating strength.

And they have also been constantly and secretly winning over those immortals and gods to prepare for the future.

The immortals and gods all know this, yet they are unable to stop it; after all, the Human Race is also one of the Ten Thousand Races, and saying they are also immortals and gods is not a problem.

Are those in Fire Cloud Cave not immortals and gods?

They also have the possibility of ruling the Three Realms.

Therefore, a portion of the immortals and gods are willing to have contact with the Human Race.

But Zhenyuanzi is different; he is a great power within the Taoist Sect.

So after discovering this, many in the Heavenly Court became anxious.

After all, if Zhenyuanzi were truly allowed to join the Human Race, then with this increase and decrease, the Heavenly Court's strength would not just be weakened by a little, while the Human Race would increase by a lot.

So many of them were unwilling to see this situation, frantically performing divinations, and then learned that all of this was related to Su Fan.

Therefore, many people decided to get rid of Su Fan first.

By then, even if Zhenyuanzi blamed them, as long as there was no bridge like Su Fan, Zhenyuanzi would likely not truly participate in the Human Race.

The Heavenly Court also has some old-timers who have a good relationship with Zhenyuanzi.

Precisely because of this, several Great Luo-level powerhouses were dispatched from the Heavenly Court, but they were all blocked by people from Fire Cloud Cave.

Fire Cloud Cave had been prepared for a long time.

Zhenyuanzi's appearance was merely an accident; Fire Cloud Cave is even clearer about Su Fan's role for the Human Race.

It can be said that Su Fan is the Saint of the Human Race; after the future kalpa ends, a Great Luo or even a Quasi-Saint could appear.

In terms of strength, that is nothing; the key is that Su Fan's knowledge has shown the powerhouses of Fire Cloud Cave a new direction for the Human Race.

It let them see another direction for the Human Race to rule the world.

Especially later, when Heavenly Sovereign Fuxi and the others combined the power of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and began to use this to divine the future, they really managed to divine a glimpse of it.

That glimpse of the future is very unfriendly to the gods and Buddhas filling the sky, and even for them, it is not good.

But for the Human Race as a whole, it is a good thing.

That glimpse of the future also caused the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to be shaken in their hearts.

And all of this is related to Su Fan, which also makes them attach even greater importance to Su Fan's safety.

Of course, they also attach increasing importance to Su Fan's identity; they had long since divined that he was an anomaly.

However, for them, it did not matter what an anomaly was, as long as the other party was of the Human Race.

To heaven and earth, existence itself is reasonable.

Moreover, things like anomalies had appeared before.

They did not care; what they cared about was the future of the Human Race, and if in a corner of the future the Human Race could become the sole master of heaven and earth, that would be enough.

Therefore, a few more experts were secretly protecting Su Fan, not just Yinglong, but also several Ancestors of the Innate Human Race.

These people had survived from ancient times and were all practitioners of Martial Dao with astonishing combat power; their stepping forward was enough to signal the intentions of the Fire Cloud Cave.

Thus, after several battles, the Heavenly Court gradually extinguished the idea of wanting to kill Su Fan.

After all, they had not yet made the decision to go to war with the Human Race.