Chapter 192

The next instant, a continuous stream of white light spilled out from Hongjun's physical body, and it soon condensed into a white ball of light the size of a thumb before him.

This white ball of light was the true form of the Heavenly Dao. After the Heavenly Dao was squeezed out of Hongjun's body, a wave of anger and fear radiated from the sphere.

"Hongjun, you are digging your own grave! Without me, how could you have achieved today's success? Without me, how could you possibly be a match for that Luohou? Without me..."

Hongjun ignored the Heavenly Dao entirely, focusing his full attention on squeezing the power of the Heavenly Dao out of his body.

As the power of the Heavenly Dao was expelled, the aura on his body grew weaker, yet increasingly pure, which caused a look of excited joy to appear on Hongjun's face.

He had not experienced this feeling for several Yuanhui; this sensation of being in control of oneself was truly wonderful.

Seeing that Hongjun was not listening to a word it said, the Heavenly Dao's fear was suddenly replaced by anger, which caused Pan Huang, standing to the side, to narrow his eyes.

"It seems the Heavenly Dao is about to make a final stand!" Pan Huang thought to himself.

Sure enough, the next second, the ball of light transformed by the Heavenly Dao dispersed and merged into the entire Zixiao Palace. Seeing this, Pan Huang's expression shifted slightly, and he vanished from where he stood, reappearing outside the Zixiao Palace.

"I didn't expect the Heavenly Dao to use the Zixiao Palace as a vessel. However, as Hongjun's dojo, having been nourished for so many Yuanhui by the power of the Heavenly Dao, the power of the Saints, and the power of Chaos, it is not an impossible choice for a vessel," Pan Huang said with a smile, looking at the glowing Zixiao Palace.

"Fellow Daoist Hongjun, the Zixiao Palace is now the true form of the Heavenly Dao, and you are currently inside it. What means will you use to come out?" Pan Huang looked at the Zixiao Palace before him with some curiosity.

Hongjun did not disappoint Pan Huang. Not long after Pan Huang's voice fell, he walked out of the Zixiao Palace in a grand manner. Upon seeing Pan Huang, Hongjun smiled and cupped his hands in greeting. Once the greeting was finished, the last trace of white light on Hongjun's body vanished.

"Hongjun! You will regret this, you will definitely regret this." Once the power of the Heavenly Dao on Hongjun's body had completely disappeared, the voice of the Heavenly Dao rang out from within the Zixiao Palace.

Hongjun smiled. "Regret? The thing I regret most is listening to your seduction back then and merging my body with the Heavenly Dao. Otherwise, how could my strength have remained stagnant for several Yuanhui? I even became an accomplice in your schemes against my Profound Sect. Now that I have cast off your shackles, this vast Chaos is mine to roam; how could there be any talk of regret?"

"Hmph!" Hearing Hongjun's words, the Heavenly Dao let out a cold snort.

Seeing the Heavenly Dao act this way, the smile on Hongjun's face remained bright. The next second, the aura of Hongjun, who was already at the peak of the Quasi-Saint realm, began to surge violently.

When Pan Huang saw this scene, his face remained expressionless, but his pupils contracted, indicating that his heart was far from calm.

Peak Quasi-Saint strength, and the aura was still surging—what did that mean? It meant Hongjun's strength was far beyond a simple peak Quasi-Saint.

Sure enough, before long, an aura that Pan Huang was extremely familiar with appeared on Hongjun. This was the aura of the Heavenly Dao, but it was not the aura of the Primordial Heavenly Dao; it was the aura of Hongjun's own Heavenly Dao. The reason Pan Huang was familiar with it was that the Heavenly Dao of his inner world possessed a similar aura.

"One step beyond the peak of Quasi-Saint should be the Heavenly Dao level. Perhaps that Yang Mei has already reached this realm," Pan Huang muttered to himself.

Deep in the Chaos, within a verdant, ancient hall, Yang Mei, who was in the midst of cultivation, suddenly opened his eyes.

"The aura of the Heavenly Dao. I didn't expect someone to break through to the Heavenly Dao realm. My path is not lonely!" Yang Mei said with a smile, and the next second, he vanished from the hall.

When Yang Mei reappeared, he had already arrived near the Zixiao Palace, and at a glance, he saw Hongjun before the palace.

At this moment, the aura on Hongjun's body directly pushed away the surrounding Chaos Qi, forming a vacuum environment around him.

"Heavenly Dao, this is all thanks to you. If you hadn't constantly suppressed my cultivation, I would never have achieved today's success. Hahaha!" Hongjun said with a loud laugh.

After speaking, the aura on his body began to retract, and in a moment, it returned to normal. At this time, Hongjun looked like an ordinary old Daoist at first glance, but the more one looked, the more one felt a strange charm about him. This must be the Dao charm brought by the Heavenly Dao realm.

"It seems I must also hurry to improve my strength. Once my inner world grows a bit more, it will be time to upgrade it," Pan Huang thought to himself.

"Congratulations to Fellow Daoist Hongjun for taking a step further!" Pan Huang cupped his hands toward Hongjun.

"This is all thanks to the help of Fellow Daoist!" Hongjun also cupped his hands toward Pan Huang and said.

"I dare not accept the credit; I didn't do much," Pan Huang quickly waved his hand.

"Fellow Daoist cannot say that. If it weren't for your various schemes, the Heavenly Dao could not have been weakened. If the Heavenly Dao were not weakened, I could never have transcended it," Hongjun said with a serious expression.

Pan Huang smiled, then turned slightly to reluctantly accept Hongjun's bow. Pan Huang knew that Hongjun did not want to be entangled in karma with him. Now that he was at the Heavenly Dao realm and Pan Huang was only at the peak of the Quasi-Saint realm, Pan Huang could not normally accept a bow from him. But since there was karma between them, by accepting the bow, the karma between them would cease to exist.

"Congratulations to Fellow Daoist for ascending to the Heavenly Dao realm!" Just as Pan Huang was thinking this, a light laugh appeared beside them.

Hongjun and Pan Huang turned to look, and Yang Mei revealed his figure from the shadows.

"Greetings, Fellow Daoist Yang Mei!" Hongjun and Pan Huang bowed to Yang Mei and said.

"Congratulations to Fellow Daoist for breaking free from your shackles. I wonder if you would be willing to visit my dojo to discuss the Dao?" Yang Mei extended an invitation to Hongjun.

"Then I shall impose upon you," Hongjun said with a smile after hearing Yang Mei's invitation.

Yang Mei's cultivation had long been at the Heavenly Dao realm. If he could discuss the Dao with Yang Mei, it would be of great help to Hongjun, who had just ascended. Of course, he could not refuse, nor could he afford to.

"In that case, I shall not disturb the two of you," Pan Huang said with a smile.

"Fellow Daoist, I think highly of you. This is the second time I have met you. This time, I invite you again, hoping you can travel the Chaos with us and explore it!" Yang Mei looked at Pan Huang and said.

"Fellow Daoist Yang Mei, the time is not yet ripe. When I also reach the Heavenly Dao realm, I will naturally come to find you. I hope you will be willing to discuss the Dao with me then," Pan Huang said with a smile.

"Hahaha, good! Then I shall wait for the day you achieve the Hunyuan Heavenly Dao realm," Yang Mei nodded with a smile.

Pan Huang nodded, then cupped his hands toward Yang Mei and Hongjun, and departed.

As for the Primordial Heavenly Dao, it had not spoken since Hongjun ascended to the Heavenly Dao realm, as if it had tacitly accepted the situation.

"Fellow Daoist, let us go!" Yang Mei looked at Hongjun and said.

Before leaving, Yang Mei cast a meaningful glance at the Heavenly Dao, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, and then he and Hongjun vanished from before the Zixiao Palace.

The Heavenly Dao naturally knew this Yang Mei; it was even more familiar with him than Hongjun was.

This Yang Mei had existed even earlier than the Primordial world. It is said that his true form was the Chaos Demon God of the Hollow Willow. When the three thousand gods and demons tried to stop Pangu from opening the sky, Yang Mei knew it was their tribulation, so he left behind one of his original branches before going to besiege Pangu. This branch is the current Yang Mei.

"Hmph!" After Yang Mei and Hongjun left, a cold snort came from the Zixiao Palace, and then the entire Chaos fell into silence once again.

The Primordial world, Central Imperial Continent, Mount Buzhou, Pangu Temple.

When Hongjun transcended the Heavenly Dao, the Pangu statue in the Pangu Temple suddenly lit up, and the divine charm on the statue seemed to grow a bit richer. However, there were no members of the Wu Clan left here, so no one discovered the anomaly.

When Xuanzang attacked Mount Ling, a portion of the Wu Clan had left the mountains. After the battle between Xuanzang and Mount Ling ended, the Wu Clan remained in the Primordial world. Later, all the Wu Clan members from the Central Imperial Continent appeared in the Primordial world. The place where they currently live is the former base of the Demon Race in the North Sea Continent.

As for the Demon Race, they all returned to the Demon Court, because that was originally their place.

As for those Demon Race members who were not qualified to enter the Demon Court, since they were not qualified to enter, they naturally were not qualified to stay in the North Sea Continent.

As for whether the Wu Clan would mind? They had already let go of it by now; these were all schemes of the Heavenly Dao, and both the Wu Clan and the Demon Race were merely pawns of the Heavenly Dao.

If they still held grudges now, it would mean the Heavenly Dao's scheme had succeeded. Therefore, when Pan Huang said they could settle in the North Sea Continent, they did not object at all.

Just like that, the Wu Clan appeared in the eyes of the Primordial world once again. Because the Wu Clan and the Demon Race had buried the hatchet, the Demon Race and the Human Race were now actively communicating and had achieved certain results.

The Human Race now relied on Demon Race bloodlines for cultivation. Previously, when the relationship between the two races was poor, the Human Race practiced the Wu-Demon Transformation, which basically relied on hunting the Demon Race.

But now, they no longer needed to. The Demon Race would provide the Human Race with the bloodlines they needed, but the Demon Race also had their own conditions: they were allowed to spread their faith among the Human Race.

After the Human Race ancestral land and the Holy Court discussed it, they nodded in agreement. However, the Holy Court also gave the Demon Race a warning: if any Demon Race member dared to do anything detrimental to the Human Race, all Demon Race members spreading their faith would be beaten to death.

The Great Golden Crow agreed on behalf of all the Demon Race, and he even swore by fortune that if any Demon Race member did such a thing, they would be expelled from the Demon Race, and the Demon Court would lose all the fortune of that clan.

With the Holy Court receiving such a response, the Human Race and the Demon Race began to get along, and the entire Primordial world showed a scene of prosperity.

But what the beings of the Primordial world did not know was that the Great Golden Crow was a clone of Pan Huang. This indirectly meant that the Demon Race also belonged to Pan Huang, and the Wu Clan had already been on good terms with the Human Race. Calculating this, the Demon Race, the Wu Clan, and the Human Race were all related to Pan Huang. Pan Huang's layout had finally begun to show results.

After Pan Huang returned to the Primordial world, he found that the Primordial world had become a bit different. How to put it? Previously, he felt the Primordial world was not active at all—yes, not active—but now, Pan Huang felt the Primordial world was much more active. This was his most real feeling at the moment.

"Could this be a remedial measure by the Heavenly Dao?" Pan Huang stroked his chin and said.

This was truly possible, because Laozi falling from the Saint position had caused damage to the Heavenly Dao, and coupled with Hongjun transcending the Heavenly Dao, it was adding insult to injury for the Heavenly Dao.

If the Heavenly Dao wanted to obtain more power, it could only obtain it from the beings of the Primordial world. How to obtain it from the beings of the Primordial world? This should be one of the methods.

Pan Huang also noticed that Ancestor Minghe, Great Immortal Zhenyuan, and Ancient Buddha Randeng, these old-school Quasi-Saints, were all very active recently, and their strength was improving rapidly. This should also be a scheme of the Heavenly Dao.

Because these people were all candidates with the potential to become Saints, if one of them became a Saint with the help of the Heavenly Dao, the Heavenly Dao would immediately support them to replace Laozi's position. In this way, the Saints in the Primordial world would remain the same, and the power of the Heavenly Dao could recover some more.

Thinking of this, Pan Huang shook his head. He originally wanted to remind Zhenyuan and Minghe, but thinking that this was the temptation of the Saint position, even if they knew it was a trap, they would likely jump into it without hesitation for the sake of the Saint position, so Pan Huang eventually acted as if he had heard nothing.

After returning to Mount Shouyang, Pan Huang announced his seclusion. The affairs of the Ren Sect were left to Changxi and Xihe. Zhao Gongming and the others were still in seclusion; in a few years, they would be able to come out of the Dark Abyss, and then they could help Changxi and Xihe.

Pan Huang's seclusion was mainly for cultivation. He prepared to upgrade the level of his inner world. If he could upgrade it to a Small World, his strength would logically become early-stage Heavenly Dao realm. But currently, Pan Huang's inner world could at most be considered a slightly larger secret realm; it could not yet be called a world. After upgrading to a Small World, it could nurture the most basic life.

Time flew by, and ten years passed. Zhao Gongming and the others walked out of the Dark Abyss. This punishment did not cause their strength to regress; instead, it improved quite a bit. Because there was no spiritual energy in the Dark Abyss for them to recover, they had to make good use of every bit of magic power to resist the erosion of the demonic energy in the Dark Abyss. In the ten years, everyone had achieved meticulous control over their own magic power.

Their strength did not seem to have improved much, but now they could unleash the strongest attacks with the least amount of magic power. This was their growth over the ten years.

After returning to Mount Shouyang and learning that Pan Huang had gone into seclusion, Zhao Gongming and the others very skillfully took over the affairs of the Ren Sect. After all, even when Pan Huang was not in seclusion, he did not interfere too much in the affairs of the Ren Sect. The affairs of the Ren Sect had always been managed by Zhao Gongming and the others, so they were quite comfortable with it.

(End of chapter)