Chapter 46: Hongyun’s Dilemma
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
At the border between the western and oriental world existed the misty mountains upon which a Taoist temple, surrounded by misty clouds all year around and stood at the peak. Furthermore, a plaque written with three words ’Wuzhuang Taoist Temple’ was right there hanging over the gate of the temple.
Here was the Taoist temple of Zhenyuanzi, the Primordial Mazinger. Inside the temple, there were no sculptures of gods worshipped, what was consecrated in it were just two words. One was ’Heaven’ and the other one was ’Earth’. What was more, in the backyard of the Taoist temple grew a huge old tree called the Ginseng Tree with spiritual roots. These all told people that Zhenyuanzi had a good opinion of oneself.
Zhenyuanzi showed up with a tiny Ginseng Tree and the Magic Weapon Book of the Nether World. The Book of the Nether World was a primordial spiritual treasure that could synergize all natural power on Untainted Land. It also helped Zhenyuanzi become the Ancestor of Earthly Immortals.
As for Ginseng Tree, it had highest-grade spiritual roots. Furthermore, it would take 3,000 years for it to blossom and another 3,000 years to yield fruits. What’s more, to totally ripen also required another 3,000 years. To be honest, only 30 fruits would be yielded every 10,000 years. People who were lucky enough would extend their life to 360 years long if they smelt the fragrance of the tree once. And they could live for 47,000 years on earth if they ate those fruits. Meanwhile, their supernatural power and cultivated treasures would also be strengthened.
However, those fruits yielded by the Ginseng Tree were a little bit special as their shapes were pretty like babies. They would leave the tree when they met gold, dry when touched by wood, disappear when splashed by water and go underground when feeling the soil. Therefore, if one wanted to get one fruit from the tree, he must use golden tools. However, there were only 10 more fruits left.
In the meantime, two Taoists were sitting on the ground in the garden of the Taoist temple. One of them, young as a child, wore a gold hat and clothes decorated with cranes. He was Zhenyuanzi.
Meanwhile, the other was in a red robe, lying on the ground with Ginseng fruits in his hand. He was Hongyun who was pretty famous in Untainted Land. He treated people very well, many individual cultivators called him ’Ancestor Hongyun’.
Seeing Hongyun’s comical way of enjoying the Ginseng fruits, Zhenyuanzi’s emotion was pretty complicated since he could just taste a few of those fruits when they were ripe, but nearly half of them were swallowed by Hongyun. However, there was nothing Zhenyuanzi could do to stop Hongyun from taking those precious fruits.
In the meantime, Hongyun’s happiness did not influence Zhenyuanzi at all. On the contrary, Zhenyuanzi was pretty serious. After hesitating for a moment, Zhenyuanzi began to say, "Hongyun, how about your Hong Meng Immortal Qi?" When hearing the words ’Hong Meng Immortal Qi’, Hongyun’s mood suddenly became bad. He put down the Ginseng fruits in his hand and said, "Well, you know, my Hong Meng Immortal Qi does not improve even a little bit after listening to teachings for such a long time."
Zhenyuanzi then worriedly said, "Hongyun, I do not know whether I should tell you or not." Hongyun then looked at Zhenyuanzi in confusion and replied, "Zhenyuanzi, you are my best friend, so just say what you want to say directly. I will not blame you."
After hearing Hongyun’s promise, Zhenyuanzi felt relaxed and said, "Hongyun, actually now, I don’t know whether Hong Meng Immortal Qi will bring you good luck or disaster?" Hongyun then asked, "What do you mean? Hong Meng Immortal Qi is good to me because it is The Foundation of the Great Way."
Zhenyuanzi then continued saying, "That’s for sure. The Hong Meng Immortal Qi is pretty precious. However, you know, at our current cultivation level, we two cannot keep it if the Wu and Demon Tribe, as well as other individual cultivators, want to rob it away from us."
As Zhenyuanzi finished talking, Hongyun suddenly noticed the seriousness of the matter. Even though there were seven Hong Meng Immortal Qi existing, everyone knew that the one that Hongyun had was the most valuable one. Hongyun indeed enjoyed great popularity though, and nothing could change his identity as a Sage-to-be figure. So it would be pretty hard for him to defend the Hong Meng Immortal Qi he had at his current cultivation level.
Furthermore, the Three Pristine Ones, Goddess Nvywa, Jieyin and Zhunti were all disciples of Ancestor Hongjun. Ancestor Hongjun had made it clear that all of his six disciples would be sages, so if someone wanted to attack them to rob the Hong Meng Immortal Qi, Hongjun would certainly help his disciples.
However, Hongyun’s situation was different. For he was not the disciple of Ancestor Hongjun and no one had declared that he would be a sage in the future. To be honest, Zhenyuanzi might be the only one who was willing to help him in the Untainted Land. Thus Hongyun had reasons to trust his words about the Hong Meng Immortal Qi. However, he did not want to give it up so easily, as no one could refuse the attraction of becoming a sage.
Actually, Hongyun knew it pretty clear that many people wanted to rob his Hong Meng Immortal Qi, and at that time, even though Zhenyuanzi could help him, their power to defend it was still limited, so Hongyun sincerely did not want Zhenyuanzi to get involved in his battles. Meanwhile, looking at Hongyun’s tangled expression, Zhenyuanzi suddenly had no ideas about what to say.
To reach the Great Way and to be an immortal sage was every cultivator’s dream. Right now, the chance to become a sage was right in front of Hongyun and so it was too difficult for him to give up this chance. To be honest, even Zhenyuanzi could not give up the Hong Meng Immortal Qi even though he trapped this dilemma.
Zhenyuanzi also had no ideas regarding Hongyun’s situation, so all he could say was "Hongyun, actually, I also do not have any good advice for you now, but one thing I can ensure you of, is that I will use a formation to cover my Wuzhuang Taoist Temple in order to protect you from being disturbed by others as long as I can. During this period of time, you’d better try your best to master the Hong Meng Immortal Qi. As for the result, it’s all about fate".
In the meantime, Hongyun was pretty moved by Zhenyuanzi’s words. If he was with others now, they might certainly kill him for his Hong Meng Immortal Qi, and no one would help him as Zhenyuanzi.
As for Zhenyuanzi, he had already begun to make his formation with the natural power on the Untainted Land, centered on the Book of the Nether World. In attacking ability, the formation created by Zhenyuanzi was just so-so, while for defensive strength, barely any other formations could compare with it.
After covering his temple with a formation, figures who stayed outside the Wuzhuang Taoist Temple suddenly could not see what was happening inside. While they did not act rashly and blindly, there were no Sage-to-be figures showing up until now, how dare they, Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals, act first?
Actually, those figures who were waiting outside all knew that there was little hope for them to get the Hong Meng Immortal Qi since many Sage-to-be figures who were much more awesome than them also wanted it. Though they still wanted to try for Hong Meng Immortal Qi.
Meanwhile, although there were many ways to help people become sages, the way of using Hong Meng Immortal Qi was the simplest, that was why so many figures fixed their eyes on that Hong Meng Immortal Qi owned by Hongyun now.
Furthermore, as for those cultivators who had cultivated for tens of thousands years, the reason why they wanted that Hong Meng Immortal Qi so badly was that immortal Ancestor Hongjun showed them how powerful sages were.
However, no figures outside the Wuzhuang Taoist Temple were going to lead the battle to rob that Hong Meng Immortal Qi. Everyone knew that the nail that stuck up got hammered down. What’s more, the one who kept Hong Meng Immortal Qi was a Sage-to-be secondary stage figure, and he now both had the protection of Wuzhuang Taoist Temple and Zhenyuanzi who was at the Secondary Stage of Sage-to-be. It was also pretty difficult for them to find a good chance to attack.
Meanwhile, many other Sage-to-be figures also chose to stay and observe, for although the Sage-to-be level was the highest among the Untainted Land, the Sorcerer and Demon tribe would be much more powerful. Therefore, those individual cultivators dared not move first before those two powerful tribes.
As for Demon Tribe of Heavenly Court, after Emperor Jun and The Great One successfully invited Nvywa and Fuxi to their tribe, they immediately returned back to the Heavenly court and sent many demons who were good at cloaking to supervise Hongyun inside the Wuzhuang Taoist Temple. At the same time, they also sent some demons to monitor the Wu Tribe and see whether they were planning something to deal with Nvywa.
Now the Sorcerer and the Demon tribe could never become friends again and a bloody battle would surely occur sooner or later. As for now, the strength of those two tribes was pretty similar, so if Emperor Jun got the Hong Meng Immortal Qi after their Goddess Nvywa became a sage, the Wu Tribe would certainly disappear in Hong Huang, so the Wu Tribe must have some plans for this.
Therefore, the Wu Tribe would also be trying robbing the Hong Meng Immortal Qi to stop Demon Tribe from becoming more powerful than them. Even though the Twelve Ancestors of Sorcery had no interests in that Hong Meng Immortal Qi, they would never allow another sage appear in the Demon Tribe. If Goddess Nvywa was a threat to them, the Wu Tribe would immediately find ways to kill her without caring too much about her identity as an honorable ancestor.