Chapter 129: The Parasites (Please Subscribe!)

"If I were to give you only a hundred jars, wouldn't others call me stingy?"

With a wave of his hand, Hong Yun gestured toward the distance. With a nimble flick of his fingers, he conjured a small spiritual storage treasure out of thin air. Though it possessed only a few restrictive arrays, it was more than sufficient for the task.

With a slight shift of his intent, nearly a third of the precious nectar he had obtained from the Old Wine-Maker vanished in a blink, sent hurtling toward Ancestor Pan Wang.

"I’ll give you five hundred jars; how about you return two hundred to me?"

Ancestor Pan Wang caught the storage artifact, his mind stirring as he claimed all the fine nectar within. With a casual flick, he tossed the newly forged storage vessel deep into the abyss.

"Humph, you know as well as I do how much effort goes into my brewing. If you truly wanted that much, you’d be waiting thirty or fifty thousand years before you could even think of collecting it."

"What is there to be in such a rush for? If one lacks the proper temperament, who would even come to you for wine?"

Hong Yun replied with a laugh. Seeing that the other had no further response, he extended his consciousness into the deep, fissured abyss.

For beings of such great supernatural power and high cultivation, their lives were effectively endless, and they had long since transcended the concerns of lesser beings. Cultivators generally held five things in high regard: first, their own reputation; second, sitting together to discuss the Dao; third, traveling and making friends; fourth, seeking opportunities; and this fifth, their own personal inclinations.

He had just given Ancestor Pan Wang a fair amount of face, and since they were old friends, there was naturally no issue.

"By the way, Pan Wang, have you discovered anything unusual in this place?"

As Hong Yun pondered and searched, his brows furrowed, and his tone carried a hint of doubt. "Just now, when I extended a wisp of my consciousness into the depths, it seemed to be attacked. Had I not severed the connection quickly, it might have followed my trail and sought to befoul my soul."

"You discovered it that quickly?" Ancestor Pan Wang sneered upon hearing this. "Friend Hong Yun, you have already seen what that thing looks like, haven't you? That is the very reason I came here."

Hearing this and sensing the subtle presence of "tribulation energy" lingering above, Hong Yun grew significantly more cautious. "You came here for this thing? Just looking at its attack, it seems rather troublesome."

Indeed, in that final moment, Hong Yun had truly glimpsed the creature's form: a swarm of transparent little insects with eight wings and ten claws.

Ancestor Pan Wang laughed, though his tone betrayed no sign of genuine joy or anger. "It is precisely because it is troublesome that I have spent over forty thousand years preparing here. Initially, I estimated my success rate to be at most forty percent, but now that a fellow traveler has arrived, it can be increased by another thirty percent."

"You scoundrel, you actually intend to drag me in to be your assistant!"

Hong Yun laughed and cursed at the remark. "I, your ancestor, never rise early without a profit. Let's talk about the benefits first!"

"There are no benefits yet. Once we arrive, you will understand." Ancestor Pan Wang replied, his figure already darting into the depths. "This place potentially contains the ultimate principles of the Poison Dao. If this succeeds, I have a ninety percent chance of breaking through to the late stage of the Great Luo!"

The ultimate principles of the Poison Dao!

Hong Yun felt a flicker of hesitation at these words, but in the blink of an eye, he decided to follow. The path of poison was a talent he possessed innately; though he rarely utilized it, it remained one of his trump cards.

Ancestor Pan Wang was only in the mid-stage of the Great Luo, yet his mastery of poison was so formidable that even top-tier Great Luo beings like the Three Pure Ones or the Eastern Emperor and Di Jun would prefer not to provoke him. The power of such principles was evident.

*Forget it, I’ll follow and see for myself.*

In an instant, Hong Yun made his choice, transforming into a streak of light and pursuing the ancestor into the depths.

...

"Heh, I knew you would follow, Friend Hong Yun."

Two streaks of light flashed and vanished, finally landing in the deepest reaches of the rift. Ancestor Pan Wang glanced at Hong Yun and slightly raised his sleeve. A small, six-winged centipede crawled out, and upon hitting the ground, it multiplied into thousands in the blink of an eye, swarming in every direction.

"Since you are down here, it will be hard to leave without resolving this. I shall tell you the most peculiar secret of these depths."

Hong Yun’s expression tightened as he watched a wisp of fluorescent poison gas fly from Pan Wang’s hand, shifting and transforming constantly.

"Friend, do you know if there is another name for the Southern Continent?"

The Southern Continent? Hong Yun recalled his memories. "Jambudvipa, Nan-Jambudvipa, Jambudvipa-bopa?"

"Haha, exactly. But you should know that whether it is 'Jambudvipa' or 'Jambudvipa-bopa,' these are merely transliterations and cannot be taken as the absolute truth. I call it 'Nan-Jambudvipa'."

As the words fell, the fluorescent poison gas solidified, morphing into a boundless sea of stars. Within it, the trajectories of the Great Dao seemed to interweave, forming a towering, colossal tree.

This was... a World Tree—a World Tree that had grown and fused to become one of the four continents of the Primordial World!

Seeing this, Hong Yun verified it for a moment and gasped.

"The Southern Continent is Nan-Jambudvipa!"

"A keen eye, friend!" Ancestor Pan Wang chuckled, his tone filled with awe. "How vast is the Primordial World? It is near-endless. The Southern Continent itself was formed after the withering of Nan-Jambudvipa. Even as a Great Luo, I feel insignificant before such an existence. It is truly hard to believe!"

"You say it has already withered?" Hong Yun felt a tinge of disappointment. If such a World Tree were still alive, the mere act of it swaying its branches would possess unimaginable power.

"Indeed. I learned this information when I first became a Great Luo. That was so many eons ago, I cannot even remember! The original consciousness of Nan-Jambudvipa merged with the Heavenly Dao consciousness of the Primordial Southern Continent. Because I became aware of its existence, I have received vague guidance from the void. This operation is one such instance."

The Heavenly Dao consciousness of the Southern Continent...

Hong Yun’s brow furrowed with complexity. Since the appearance of the rifts in the four continents, there had been some changes. While it was possible they had fused long ago, the manifestation of it might have only occurred recently.

The Heavenly Dao of the four continents tended to favor the cultivators within their own borders, providing subtle guidance in the dark to form opportunities. Since this was guidance from the Heavenly Dao, completing it would naturally be beneficial to the Dao itself.

What was detrimental to the Heavenly Dao?

As this thought struck him, a flash of realization hit Hong Yun, and his expression became elusive. *That which contradicts the Heavenly Dao is the Tribulation!*

With this realization, he tentatively asked, "Friend Pan Wang, how do you intend to deal with the things inside?"

"Naturally, I will absorb them for my own use." Ancestor Pan Wang glanced at Hong Yun, seeing no change in his expression—only a sense of inevitability—and continued:

"Those little things with eight wings and ten claws may be useless to others, and they might not even be able to detect them. But I know their origin; they are merely parasites of Nan-Jambudvipa. As long as I channel the power granted to me by Nan-Jambudvipa, I can naturally turn them into my own tools! If you are willing to help me, should I gain any enlightenment, I will certainly not be stingy!"