Chapter 1: Fellow Daoist, do you want a succubus? [New book, seeking collections]

Guest-starring as a villain, only to be exposed on the spot by an acquaintance.

Is there anything more awkward than this?

A complex mix of emotions—surprise, panic, embarrassment, confusion, regret, and shame—surfaced on Jing Yao's face.

"It's you, Fellow Daoist An Yao!" The countless words in Jing Yao's heart finally dissolved into a sigh—a sigh of utter despair.

Xiang Xuanqing felt the other party was on the verge of shattering.

"Looks like more practice is needed." Xiang Xuanqing whispered. He wasn't talking about Jing Yao's skill at digging pits, but the thickness of his skin.

Fellow readers who transmigrate often know that as innate gods, one doesn't die easily; there are plenty of chances to start over.

If the pit-digging fails this time, just be more careful next time.

Regardless, one's skin must be thick; one must never be as honest as Jing Yao is right now.

Honest to the point of nearly shattering, yet still insisting on bringing his true body over to greet him.

Watching Jing Yao materialize from void to reality at a visible speed, Xiang Xuanqing confirmed that he had come in his true body.

Wearing a star crown, cloud-soled shoes, a robe of purple clouds and auspicious mist, holding a jade slip in his left hand and pressing a seven-star treasure sword with his right.

Clearly, Lord Jing Yao Zi Qi was also attending the meeting in formal attire.

"Why is Fellow Daoist here?" Jing Yao looked at Xiang Xuanqing, forcing himself to stay calm, trying his best not to recall what just happened.

"I'm here for the meeting," Xiang Xuanqing answered naturally.

Jing Yao stiffened his face and whispered, "But this is the Southern Heaven Star Domain; the Weiyuan Society is in the north."

Xiang Xuanqing nodded, "I know. I figured everyone hadn't arrived yet, so I was just wandering around the starry sky."

【So... so casual. As expected of An Yao.】 Jing Yao couldn't help but complain in his heart.

The Primordial Land is as vast as the starry sky of the Heavenly Cycle.

Xiang Xuanqing's "wandering around" was no less than traveling from the Northern Darkness to the Southern Sea.

Not only that, but in such a vast starry sky, amidst so many traps, Xiang Xuanqing had precisely "caught" him.

Was this intentional or accidental?

Seeing the tangled look on the other's face, Xiang Xuanqing guessed what he was thinking but didn't explain.

He asked instead, "You mentioned earlier that you lacked materials for alchemy? Have you researched any new products lately?"

"Of course!" Jing Yao suddenly looked up, his eyes shining.

At the mention of alchemy, his spirit changed abruptly; the face that had been tense just a moment ago instantly brimmed with a brilliant smile.

He straightened his back, curled his lips, held his head high, and said spiritedly: "Nine Heavens Ten Earths Thousand Spirits Myriad Transformations Supreme Great Soul Pill."

"What?"

"The name, the name of the new pill!"

Jing Yao was overjoyed and explained, "Nine Heavens Ten Earths are the materials, Thousand Spirits Myriad Transformations is the effect, Supreme is the quality, and as for the Great Soul Pill—"

At the end, Jing Yao's tone paused, glancing at Xiang Xuanqing with a subtle look: "—Great Soul Pill can be used as an abbreviation!"

Great Soul Pill is Great Soul Pill, why are you looking at me?

Accustomed to Jing Yao's inexplicable black-bellied nature, Xiang Xuanqing couldn't be bothered to point it out.

Seeing him silent, Jing Yao had to pretend to be calm and continued, "The 'Nine Heavens Ten Earths' required for this pill are not real heavens and earths, but two of the three souls!"

"The Heaven and Earth souls are often outside, while only the Life soul stays in the body. The Heaven and Earth souls of the gods are often in a wandering state, and my Great Soul Pill needs nine strands of Heaven soul and ten strands of Earth soul as medicine, so I left a mark here with the Soul-Falling Bell, intending to catch a few unlucky souls. I didn't expect..."

"Didn't expect to run into me?"

"Yes." Jing Yao gave a sheepish smile. Recalling what happened earlier, he still felt a bit apologetic, so he offered compensation:

"A few days ago, I refined a furnace of Heavenly Cycle series pills..."

Before Jing Yao could finish, Xiang Xuanqing's expression changed. He put on a look of shock and quickly raised his hand:

"Stop, stop. Your pills are even less reliable than the spiritual treasures I refine; I dare not eat them. If you want to find someone to test your medicine, find another god!"

If it were anything else, Jing Yao wouldn't argue, but when it came to his alchemy level, he immediately protested.

He argued, "How can you slander a god's innocence out of thin air? Can you call alchemy unreliable? That's called side effects!"

"Every medicine has three parts poison; that's the rule. When taking pills, isn't it reasonable to have some unpredictable side effects?"

"One yin and one yang is called the Dao; fortune and misfortune are interdependent. This is the principle of the Great Dao!"

Xiang Xuanqing remained unmoved. If he hadn't seen too many accidents caused by pills, he might have believed him.

Once, Jing Yao refined a furnace of Heavenly Cycle Myriad Phenomena Pills, claiming that eating one could gather the power of the Heavenly Cycle's myriad phenomena, which would have miraculous effects in battle.

A fellow Daoist used it during a fight, only to summon ten thousand Chaos Divine Elephants.

The opponent was instantly trampled to death, but that Daoist was also nearly sent to his grave.

The second example was that same Daoist.

After that incident, he received a Supreme Clone Pill from Jing Yao as compensation, which was promised to refine a unique clone technique in the Primordial World.

As a result, after eating it, that Daoist shattered on the spot, his body breaking into four hundred and eighty million pieces.

If not for the strong vitality of innate gods and Jing Yao's timely rescue—stuffing the four hundred and eighty million divine fragments back into the alchemy furnace to reshape them—the joke would have been truly massive.

Seeing Jing Yao righteous and aggressive, looking like he wouldn't stop until the pill was given away, Xiang Xuanqing considered the other's "track record." He thought for a moment and said, "Does Fellow Daoist have any Divine Cherry Wood?"

Jing Yao was stunned: "Divine Cherry Wood? I do have some..."

"I happen to need this. If you really want to give me something, just give me a piece of Divine Cherry Wood." Xiang Xuanqing breathed a sigh of relief.

"That works too." Jing Yao reached into his sleeve, took out a branch, and handed it to Xiang Xuanqing.

Xiang Xuanqing put it away and smiled: "With this, my materials for refining tools are almost collected."

"What kind of spiritual treasure does Fellow Daoist intend to refine this time?" Jing Yao asked curiously. Among the gods attending the Weiyuan Society, Xiang Xuanqing was famous for refining tools.

The items he refined were characterized by novelty.

They were useful, but the side effects were bizarre, sometimes no better than his pills.

"I just happen to have an inspiration."

Xiang Xuanqing pinched his fingers to calculate, sensing the meeting time was near, and casually pulled Jing Yao onto the Bridge of Time.

A brilliant silver light sped through the starry night.

"By the way, this is for you."

Xiang Xuanqing casually threw over a wooden box.

"What is this?" Jing Yao caught it.

Xiang Xuanqing said casually: "The Earth souls of a few unlucky souls, picked up at my doorstep." Although reincarnation had not yet emerged in this era and the Netherworld was not yet the destination for all spirits, it was simple to use the River of Forgetfulness to fish out a few incomplete souls.

"As for Heaven souls, you might want to talk to Fellow Daoist Yue Yao."

"Yue Yao?" Jing Yao was stunned, almost blurting out: "Do souls grow at Fellow Daoist Yue Yao's doorstep too?"

Xiang Xuanqing laughed loudly: "They grow! How could they not!"

He looked at the bright moon high in the Nine Heavens. As the right eye of Great Pangu, existing on par with the Sun God Star, there were too many gods who wanted to explore it.

And the Moon Goddess was not someone to be trifled with.

Not to mention that the Lunar Star was protected by the lingering might of the Pangu Dao.

Xiang Xuanqing dared to bet that many gods had fallen in the space outside the Lunar Star.

Jing Yao, thinking it over, started laughing along.

Outside the Weiyuan Society, a golden light streaked across the night sky, coming from the west, spanning seven hundred thousand miles, containing supreme killing intent.

"You two arrived quite early!"

A golden-shining innate god holding a Geng Metal long sword nodded slightly to Xiang Xuanqing and Jing Yao, as a greeting.

"We're close by."

Xiang Xuanqing and Jing Yao said the lie in unison.

"Is that so?" 【Lord Venus Taibai】 raised his sword-like eyebrows, noncommittal.

The Comrade Ji Du God Star and the Zi Qi God Star are not in the same direction, right? What kind of "close" is that?

Xiang Xuanqing looked at the direction Jin Yao came from; it was undoubtedly the Venus God Star.

He and Jing Yao exchanged a glance.

【This guy is pretending quite well.】

Just as there is no Lord Comrade Ji Du in the Comrade Ji Du God Star, there is no Lord Zi Qi in the Zi Qi God Star.

Upon first meeting, neither he nor Jing Yao needed to probe to know that the other was using an alt account.

By the same token, the true body of Lord Venus Taibai was definitely not one of the Heavenly Cycle Star Gods.

Or rather, there were few serious star gods in the Weiyuan Society; they were all just a bunch of guys looking for fun!

"Let's go, the other fellow Daoists are almost here." Seeing several streams of light in the chaos heading toward the Weiyuan Society, Jing Yao urged softly.

"Alright!"

As the three stepped into the Weiyuan Society, space and time shifted.

Dong~~

The silent star curtain emitted a soft sound, like a water droplet falling into a deep pool, and the ripples of time spread out layer by layer.

In an instant, heaven and earth inverted, the eight directions reversed, and the stars shifted.

The three gods stood side by side, stepping across the boundary between illusion and reality as if strolling in a courtyard.

"It seems the three of you arrived earliest again."

A soft laugh reached the ears of the gods. Xiang Xuanqing looked up; the boundless chaos was churning. In an instant, indescribable Dao and principles intertwined in the void, brilliant and world-shaking; a single wisp of light could fill the universe.

Countless rules formed a vast dome, covering the four directions, with eleven eternal stars circling above, manifesting the infinite might of the Great Dao.

In the blink of an eye, Xiang Xuanqing and the others were in a magnificent and ancient palace.

"We're the earliest again?" Jing Yao looked at the two sides of the long table in the hall; the ten seats were empty.

Only the seat at the head had a bright moon hanging high, with a goddess sitting there, quietly watching them.

Lord Moon Taiyin.

The host of this Weiyuan Society meeting.

"Why is everyone so unenthusiastic about meetings?" Xiang Xuanqing shook his head and sighed. I even deliberately timed my arrival, yet I'm still the earliest?

"Next time, I'll just leave my sword at the Weiyuan Society and let it attend the meeting for me."

His figure disappeared from where he stood, and the next moment he appeared in the second seat to the left of Lord Moon Taiyin.

"The next master of the Weiyuan Society is yourself. Are you sure you want to let the Comrade Ji Du Sword host the meeting?" Lord Venus Taibai reminded him as he walked toward the second seat on the right.

"Do you think Fellow Daoist Yin Yao will come this time?"

【Lord Jing Yao Zi Qi】's seat was third on the left. He looked at the seat on the first left representing 【Yin Yao Luo Hou】, "Yin Yao has missed three meetings in a row."

"Him? He mentioned it once, supposedly going to the upper reaches of the River of Time to see the magnificent scene of the world's creation. He won't be back for a while."

Xiang Xuanqing recalled that Luo Hou had wanted to invite him along at the time.

Yes, that's right, this Luo Hou is the Ancestor of the Demon Dao, Luo Hou.

Years ago, when Xiang Xuanqing was bored and pulled everyone together to form the Weiyuan Society, he happened to run into the Demon Ancestor who was traveling in the starry sky.

In the spirit of "since you're here," the Demon Ancestor casually grabbed a star, named it Luo Hou Star, and joined the Weiyuan Society.

At the time, Xiang Xuanqing was silent for a long time—why would the Demon Ancestor "go online with his real name"?

"Yin Yao wants to see the creation scene? It's more like the 'skull-cracking' scene!" To the left of Lord Taibai, Lord Sun Taiyang suddenly appeared, just in time to hear Xiang Xuanqing's words.

He couldn't help but complain: "Fellow Daoist Yin Yao is either getting carried away or thinks Great Pangu can't crack skulls anymore? Who knows, that axe light might just come hacking down along the timeline, and we'll all be finished!"

"Creation Axe? Where is the Creation Axe?" A god in a deep blue robe appeared in the fourth seat on the right.

Lord Shui Yao Chenxing smiled: "If you guys are looking for the Creation Axe, remember to bring me along!"

The gods: "..."

Seeing that everyone was silent, Lord Chenxing flashed to the first seat on the left and winked hard at Xiang Xuanqing.

Seeing this, Xiang Xuanqing leaned slightly to the side.

Lord Chenxing leaned over and whispered mysteriously: "Fellow Daoist An Yao, do you want a succubus?"

Xiang Xuanqing: "..."

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The eyes of several gods were glowing.

Wow~

It seems I just heard something incredible!

Note 1 【Eleven Great Yaos】: Namely the Seven Luminaries and Four Surplus. Seven Luminaries: Sun, Moon, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. Four Surplus: Luo Hou, Comrade Ji Du, Zi Qi, Yue Bo.

Originally, all four surplus belonged to 【Yin Yao】, but this text is adapted to: Yin Yao Luo Hou, An Yao Comrade Ji Du, Jing Yao Zi Qi, Xu Yao Yue Bo.

Note 2 【Weiyuan Society】: The upper enclosure of the Three Enclosures, the place in mythology where the Heavenly Emperor works, the political center of the entire Heavenly Realm.

Please be informed.

The author's previous book has some inheritance in settings, finished at 2 million words, the style is quite unique. Friends who are interested can go take a look.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 2 =====