Has this old man changed his ways? He's actually condescending to perform a ritual for a complete stranger. Actually, there are two reasons for this. First, he sees that this little dog has excellent aptitude, and despite his young age, he already knows proper manners and his personality is very much in line with his own. The old man wants to take this little dog as his disciple. Second, the old man hasn't yet figured out the situation within the human race and doesn't dare to act as rashly as last time. He can use this ritual to infiltrate the human race.
With the help of his neighbors, Gou'er finally managed to arrange his mother's funeral.
Finally, Laozi called over Gou'er and said to him, "This humble Taoist wishes to take you as his disciple. Are you willing?"
"How dare I disobey?" Gou'er had nowhere to go at the moment, and when he saw that the old man wanted to take him as a disciple, he immediately bowed and said yes.
The dog had no objections, but the villagers had some opinions, all asking what Laozi's abilities were. Laozi laughed, transformed into his original form, and said, "I am Laozi, the first disciple of Lai Hongjun." He then smiled at the dog and said, "I bestow upon you the Daoist name Xuandu. Now you know my identity. I have come here to impart the great Daoist arts of the human race."
With a smile, he continued, “My great law, if mastered even a fraction of it, allows one to transcend life and death, to escape nothingness; to summon wind and rain, to turn stone into gold. Mastering even a fraction of it allows one to enter and exit the azure sky as if walking on flat ground; to move mountains and overturn seas, to transform Mount Sumeru into the Dao. Those who master its profound depths can, with a thought, slay immortals and gods, and make ghosts and spirits flee; to transcend cause and effect, to achieve primordial chaos. Truly, it is indestructible through countless eons, indestructible through immeasurable kalpas. Have you ever heard of such a great Dao?” He casually pointed to the ground, and a tall building rose from the flat ground; he pointed again, and it vanished.
After several days of investigation, Laozi learned that the human race was not as wary of outsiders as before. Although every household still worshipped the Goddess Xuantian, they also knew a lot about the names of the great gods in the prehistoric world, and there were also people who wanted to become her disciples and learn her skills.
"May I ask you, immortal, is the great magic you speak of truly capable of being taught to us?" a kind villager asked.
"Indeed, you may come with me to Shouyang Mountain to be taught by me, and you will have your own opportunities in the future," Laozi nodded.
Upon hearing this, the crowd began to murmur and discuss among themselves. Some disagreed, while others were eager to join in. Each held their own opinion, and in the end, a third of them decided to follow Laozi.
Laozi had originally thought that at least half of the people would go with him, but there were only about a hundred. He was somewhat displeased and had them pack up before taking them back to Shouyang Mountain.
After Laozi lured a hundred people to his Shouyang Mountain, he only preached a few times at the beginning and then stopped. Even when he did preach, he only gave Xuandu special instruction. He also frequently went down the mountain to beg for alms from the human race and would try to bring more people back. Although he didn't preach much, his teachings were better than those of the people who practiced on their own. Gradually, several thousand humans from the vicinity of Shouyang Mountain came after hearing the news.
However, Lao Tzu could not establish a teaching at this time; there was still one step missing: the Six Paths of Reincarnation. It is said that Pangu created heaven and earth and transformed into all things. The Six Paths of Reincarnation should have existed when Pangu created heaven and earth, but after Pangu died, his essence and blood transformed into the Ancestral Witches, causing the Six Paths to not be formed. Therefore, the establishment of the Six Paths naturally had to fall on the Ancestral Witches.
The Ancestral Witches were formed from the essence and blood of Pangu fused with the turbid energy of heaven and earth. They were warlike and loved fighting, so it was impossible for them to establish the Six Paths. This responsibility naturally fell on Houtu, an outlier among the Ancestral Witches. Houtu was the goddess of earth, born from the earth, and was one of the more benevolent among the Ancestral Witches.
Previously, the Ancestral Witches slaughtered the human race to obtain their souls, and Houtu was unable to stop them. Xuantian had asked Houtu to take care of the human race, but unexpectedly, the Witch Clan first collected the human race's souls and then personally slaughtered them. After the battle at Kunlun Mountain, Houtu felt deeply sorry for Xuantian for not being able to stop the Ancestral Witches and was filled with remorse.
In the Great Hall of the Ancestral Witch Houtu of the Wu Clan, Qunfeng knelt on the ground, very anxious seeing that Houtu remained silent.
"Your Majesty, I, Qunfeng, deserve death. This plan has unexpectedly brought about such a disaster. The Witch Clan is leaderless and needs Your Majesty's favor and guidance. I, Qunfeng, am willing to accept punishment." Hongjun, upholding the Heavenly Dao, suppressed all eleven Ancestral Witches of the Witch Clan into the East Sea Eye. Although Qunfeng still felt deep down that what he had done was right, for the sake of the Witch Clan's affairs, he still needed to ask Houtu to take charge of the overall situation.
Houtu remained calm, seemingly unconcerned about Qunfeng, and said, "The affairs of the Wu Clan will be decided by you for the next thousand years." After saying this, she ignored Qunfeng's astonished expression and waved her jade hand, immediately sending Zhou out of the hall.
On the surface, she appeared calm and composed, but in her heart she was not. After Houtu saw off Qunfeng, she left the Ancestral Witch Hall and came to the vicinity of the Yellow River, the original settlement of the human race.
Everywhere she looked, corpses lay strewn across the land, and for miles around, ruins stretched as far as the eye could see. It was truly desolate and tragic. The more Houtu looked, the more sorrowful she felt. The sins of the witches and demons were immense. To deal with the demons, the witches had collected tens of millions of souls, accounting for more than 60%, but 44% of them had scattered into the primordial world. Occasionally, evil cultivators would collect them and refine them into magical treasures, causing chaos and committing all sorts of evil deeds. Houtu felt ashamed before Xuantian. As she wandered the primordial world, she killed anyone she encountered who had committed such acts.
Five hundred years later, Houtu recently discovered that ghosts, seemingly joyful, kept breaking through the earth and entering. Houtu chased after them and found them in the sea of blood.
Beneath the primordial continent, in the realm of the Nine Netherworlds, lies a sea, still and waveless, its waters filled with filth and blood, murky and turbid, truly the most yin, darkest, and most poisonous place in the world.
This sea is called the Blood Sea, appearing at the dawn of chaos. The great god Pangu created the primordial world; the pure energy rose to become the heavens, and the turbid energy sank to become the earth. He used the Qiankun Cauldron to absorb the chaotic currents and scattered primordial turbid energy. However, through a fortuitous event, the last trace of impure essence in the world, neither returning to heaven nor sinking to earth, ultimately fell into the Nine Netherworlds, transforming into a wisp. This wisp of turbid essence of heaven and earth circulates day and night, absorbing the most turbid and poisonous substances in the world. Stars revolve, day and night alternate, for countless eons, finally forming this vast, boundless Blood Sea. The Blood Sea is waveless and still, a hazy, overwhelming stench of blood, specifically designed to corrupt spiritual consciousness.
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