"Haha, Zhurong, I'm in a good mood today, so I won't bother with you." Gonggong was so excited that he ignored even his old rival, Zhurong.

"Brother Gonggong, we're all here. Just tell us what's wrong." It was Xuanming and Houtu who arrived.

“Alright, since you’re all here, I’ll get to the point.” Gonggong nodded and said, “I’ve summoned you all here for a momentous event concerning the very survival of my Wu clan.”

"Oh, a matter of life and death, what is it?" asked the Ancestral Witch Zhujiuyin.

"It is so. In my Water God tribe, there is a shaman named Qunfeng. He is quite wise and resourceful. I'm sure you've all heard of him, haven't you?"

“Hmm, I’ve heard of him. He’s one of the few wise men in our Wu clan. What’s wrong?” Dijiang asked.

"This man is concerned about the survival of the Wu tribe and has traveled to the prehistoric world many times to seek a solution. Not long ago, he finally achieved something and reported it to me. I am very pleased." Gonggong felt that it was a great honor for the Wu tribe to have such a great talent as Qunfeng in the Water God tribe.

"Spit it out already, why are you so long-winded?" Zhu Rong was impatient and couldn't stand people dragging their feet. Seeing Gong Gong constantly interrupting, she was displeased, and hearing that it concerned the life and death of the Wu tribe, she became even more anxious.

Gonggong glanced at Zhurong, a slight smile playing on his lips, and laughed loudly, "It's like this, as everyone knows, recently the demon race not only produced a sage, but also acquired a new formation called the Zhou Tian Xing Dou Great Formation. It's said to be able to gather the power of the Zhou Tian stars, specifically to counter our Wu race's Du Tian Shen Sha Formation. After learning about this, Qunfeng pondered it day and night. Later, he went to the prehistoric world and discovered that the demon race was recently slaughtering humans again. He observed that many of the humans who died from the demon race's cruelty had lingering fierce spirits and vengeful souls, invisible and colorless, specifically harming the enemy's primordial spirit and essence. Qunfeng said, if we could use witchcraft to create a Soul-Gathering Banner, gathering thousands of fierce spirits, and then release it before the battle between the Wu and demon races, it would injure the enemy in an instant. Hahaha... Wouldn't that be wonderful!"

"Huh? Is that really so? The Soul Gathering Banner, the Soul Gathering Banner..." Di Jiang was a clever man, and upon hearing this, he immediately felt it made sense. However, he still cautiously asked, "Do humans really have three souls and seven spirits? A great shaman in our clan once said that after a human dies, a strange object harms them. But none of them are as capable as Qun Feng, who actually came up with such a plan." Zhu Jiuyin couldn't help but keep rubbing his hands together, his heart filled with excitement.

"Excellent! In this way, we only need to use Pangu's true form to restrain the demon race's Zhou Tian Xing Dou Grand Formation, and then use those thousands of ghosts to slaughter the demon race. Once the demon soldiers are all dead, only Di Jun and Donghuang will remain. Let's see how they can be a match for my Wu Clan."

"Then what are we waiting for? Quickly order people to collect the souls!" Zhu Rong shouted anxiously upon hearing that there was something that would greatly help the Wu tribe.

"No rush. Right now, the demon race is slaughtering humans. They don't know the power of human souls yet. There are souls everywhere near human settlements. Besides, the Soul Gathering Banner hasn't been refined yet. Once it's finished, we'll send people to collect them," Di Jiang said, waving his hand.

After further discussion, the Ancestral Witches dispatched people to the Witch Clan's territory to collect the souls of the human race. The demon race, when killing, mostly took the blood and flesh, employing extremely cruel methods. This caused the murdered humans' pent-up rage to transform into malevolent energy, becoming vengeful ghosts. Although the demon race disliked these ghosts, they didn't take them seriously. This was because the demon soldiers sent by the Heavenly Court were all Heavenly Demons, capable of killing extremely quickly. Before the souls could even transform into vengeful ghosts, they had already moved on, leaving no time to deal with them. As a result, near the Yellow River, in the human settlements, vengeful ghosts were everywhere. Even during the day, countless plumes of black smoke could be seen, and at night, incessant wailing filled the air, a truly tragic and chilling sight.

At first, the witch clan found it quite easy to collect the ghosts. With a simple wave of their hand, countless vengeful spirits would fly towards the Soul-Gathering Banner. However, the witch clan's collection speed was naturally much faster than the demon clan's killing speed. Gradually, some witches became dissatisfied with the decreasing number of vengeful spirits they were collecting and reported to the ancestral witch, requesting that people be killed to accelerate the production of vengeful spirits.

The Ancestral Witches naturally looked down on the weak human race and allowed their subordinates to act as they pleased. However, the Ancestral Witch Houtu was greatly alarmed upon learning this. She had promised Xuantian that she would not harass the human race. Now, the Ancestral Witches had ordered the slaughter of humans to collect their souls. How could this be allowed? If it were merely collection, since it was the demon race that did the killing, it wouldn't be a big problem. But if she personally participated in the slaughter, how could she explain it to Xuantian?

Upon learning of this, Houtu summoned the Ancestral Witches and ordered them to stop their people from slaughtering humans.

"Brothers, the human race was created by Xuantian and Nuwa. Nuwa is a demon, which is fine, but Xuantian was formed from Pangu's brain and comes from the same origin as us ancestral witches. If we slaughter the human race like the demons, how will we face Xuantian in the future?"

Gonggong dismissed it, saying, "That Xuantian is no good either. If he hadn't helped Nuwa create humans, Nuwa probably wouldn't have become a saint. Besides, if he considered himself a member of the Wu tribe, he wouldn't have opposed our actions. Houtu, you don't need to say anything more."

“That’s right. Xuan Tian rarely interacts with our Wu clan, but I think he has a lot of dealings with the demon clan. It’s better to avoid facing him altogether,” Di Jiang said. The other ancestral witches also disagreed with Hou Tu’s statement. Helpless, Hou Tu returned to her tribe in sorrow, but strictly ordered her subordinates not to participate in the slaughter of humans.

The massacre of humans by the demon race was already overwhelming for humanity, let alone the addition of the witch race. As a result, the human population plummeted, leaving only a few tribes and a few hundred thousand people. Hundreds of years of development were destroyed once again, truly returning us to square one.

Seven Mysterious Heavens emerge from seclusion

Now, Xuan Tian, ​​having returned to Penglai Island for seclusion, has finally emerged today. This seclusion has been truly extraordinary. Having experienced Nuwa's path to sainthood, he gained some insights and finally severed his ego, achieving the Great Annihilation Body. After this Three Corpses Severance, his true spirit began to initially merge with the Heavenly Dao. Now, he only needs to continuously comprehend the Heavenly Dao; once his true spirit is completely integrated with it, he will become a saint. At this point, even a saint cannot kill him; they can only seal him away.

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