Chapter 7: Purple Heaven Palace

“The late stage of the Great Luo Golden Immortal’s physical body is just one step away from its peak!” After sensing the state of his own body, Bai Jing spoke with some excitement.

In fact, a single drop of Emperor Jiang’s essence blood, combined with a large mass of blood water in the blood pool, was enough to create a Great Shaman. Bai Jing had essentially absorbed the physical essence of a Great Shaman directly, so such a significant enhancement in his corporeal strength was only natural.

“It’s time to emerge from seclusion and head to the Purple Cloud Palace!” With that, Bai Jing stood up, stretched leisurely, and then pushed the door open to step outside.

The first thing to greet Bai Jing’s eyes upon leaving was a vast cornfield stretching beyond sight.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Bai Jing discovered that the corn planted at the foot of Mount Buzhou was all of innate mid-grade spiritual roots or higher. The closer to the center, the higher the grade of the corn, with the several hundred stalks at the very center being of innate supreme spiritual roots.

Interestingly, the corn with the innate low-grade spiritual root was not planted here.

“Bai Jing, how are these corns growing?” As he spoke, a flash of earthy yellow light appeared, and the figure of Hou Tu manifested before him.

“They’re doing very well. Hou Tu, how many innate low-grade spiritual root corns has the Shaman clan cultivated over these ten thousand years?”

“Nearly ten million stalks.”

“That’s even more than I expected!”

Hou Tu smiled and said, “We distribute all the innate low-grade corns to the Shaman tribes outside Mount Buzhou. The corns here are all innate mid-grade or higher. Using these corns, we continuously cultivate more innate low-grade spiritual root corns to send to the clans outside Mount Buzhou, while also assisting those clans in planting corn. Because of these efforts, our Shaman clan has earned a considerable amount of Heavenly Dao merit.”

Bai Jing was not surprised to hear this; cultivating farmland and planting corn was already engaging in agricultural production, so it was only natural for the Heavenly Dao to reward such efforts.

“Over these ten thousand years, have there been any conflicts between the Shaman clan and the demon tribes?”

Hou Tu sighed, “No major conflicts, at least neither side has openly declared war. But there have been minor skirmishes. Especially after we began sheltering some weaker races looked down upon by the Heavenly Court, some demons who had originally joined the Heavenly Court have come to seek refuge with us for reasons unknown.

“For these races, as long as they are willing to provide some blood offerings every hundred years, the elder brother accepts them all. This has slowed down the expansion of the demon tribes and Heavenly Court significantly.”

I heard that Taiyi had some complaints about this, but Emperor Jun seemed indifferent, probably because he looked down on these relatively weak races.

I also think that as long as no powerful demon tribes defect to us, neither side is likely to erupt into major conflict over this.

Moreover, with these races joining us, besides corn, the Shaman clan can also gather a large amount of blood offerings, enough for the clan to be self-sufficient without needing to hunt.

In the past ten thousand years, the Shaman clan’s casualties number fewer than a thousand, thanks largely to Bai Jing’s strategies on our behalf. I’m deeply grateful,” Hou Tu said.

“Hou Tu, you’re too polite! I’m repaying the karmic debt to the Great Pangu. Besides, the Shaman clan has already given me thanks; my corporeal strength has increased greatly because of it.”

After hearing Bai Jing’s words, Hou Tu noticed that Bai Jing’s physical strength was now at the late stage of the Great Luo Golden Immortal.

A flicker of surprise crossed Hou Tu’s eyes. To advance from the early Great Luo to the late stage in just ten thousand years was incredibly fast.

When our brothers and sisters were born, they mastered various laws and their physical strength was at the early Great Luo level.

After more than a dozen primordial cycles, they only managed to raise their physical strength to rival the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal, with only the elder brother reaching the level of Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal.

For Bai Jing to make such progress in just ten thousand years, he must be a person of great opportunity!

Thinking this, Hou Tu felt all the more compelled to cultivate a good relationship with Bai Jing. She smiled and said, “Bai Jing, there are still 5,000 years left before the lecturing at Purple Cloud Palace. We should be setting off soon, shouldn’t we?”

“Yes, it’s time to depart.”

After informing the ancestral Shamans, Hou Tu flew toward Purple Cloud Palace with Bai Jing following closely behind.

Purple Cloud Palace lay beyond the thirty-three heavens, where endless chaotic gale winds and spatial rifts existed. Those below the Great Luo Golden Immortal level could not survive long there, as they would be torn to pieces at any moment.

Therefore, those who reached Purple Cloud Palace were almost all Great Luo Golden Immortals, which was also Hongjun’s test — those below Great Luo were not qualified to hear his lectures.

For those like the Six-Eared, who relied on innate divine abilities to eavesdrop, Hongjun naturally forbade it, which is why he said, “The law is not passed to the Six-Eared.”

Along the way, Bai Jing saw many Great Luo Golden Immortal elites bearing spiritual treasures, braving the gale winds and rifts to make their way to the palace.

Hou Tu and Bai Jing both had formidable bodies and could resist the chaotic gales and spatial rifts with sheer physical strength. After flying for an indeterminate long time, they finally saw a magnificent palace, suffused with purple energy and filled with celestial melodies.

Bai Jing and Hou Tu landed before the palace, where the great doors were firmly closed. Above hung a plaque inscribed with three characters: Purple Cloud Palace.

Even just these three characters on the plaque contained endless Dao resonance, drawing one deeply in with a single glance.

Bai Jing looked around and noticed that a sparse gathering of people had already formed at the entrance.

Closest to the gate stood three figures: one an elder with an innate Dao body, holding a cane; another a middle-aged man holding a jade ruyi scepter; and the last a youthful man grasping a treasured sword.

From afar, Bai Jing could feel a sense of familiarity emanating from the treasures in their hands. His missing primordial essence urged him to seize these three magical treasures.

He was certain that swallowing these three treasures would nearly complete the repair of his missing primordial essence.

Yet Bai Jing was well aware of his limits—the three before him were the renowned Three Pure Ones, figures far beyond his ability to provoke.

At this moment, the Three Pure Ones also sensed Bai Jing’s gaze.

“Elder brother, why does this man keep staring at us?” Tongtian asked Laozi through transmission.

Laozi calculated for a moment and said, “He’s not staring at us, but at the spiritual treasures in our hands. This person’s companion root likely is the Twelfth Grade Pure World White Lotus incarnation, sharing the same origin as the Twenty-Fourth Grade Creation Blue Lotus. The treasures we hold are incarnations of the Twenty-Fourth Grade Creation Blue Lotus. He must be sensing something!”

“I see.”

“Twelfth Grade Pure World White Lotus incarnation—a rare and excellent companion root,” Yuanshi said with some admiration.

As the Three Pure Ones exchanged thoughts, Bai Jing suppressed the excitement in his heart and nodded slightly in greeting. Tongtian returned the smile.