Primordial Era: Starting with the repair of Penglai Immortal Island

On the left, there is a faint, almost extinguished, emerald green life.

That vitality was compressed to the extreme, condensing into a light spot the size of a grain of rice. Countless fine Dao patterns flowed on the surface of the light spot, which was the unique "origin" of the Enlightenment Tea Tree as a top-grade innate spiritual root.

Even with only this sliver remaining, Huanglong's divine sense drew near and he felt his mind become clear. Some obscure points in his past cultivation suddenly became clear.

But on the right side, a thick, inky demonic aura lingered!

The demonic energy was not scattered and diffused, but condensed into countless tiny black snakes. These snakes, head to tail, formed a tight cage, trapping that bit of green life in the center.

The demonic snake kept wriggling, each movement attempting to erode the life force, while the life force emitted a faint emerald light to resist. The two were locked in a stalemate, forming a fragile balance.

Huanglong's divine sense lightly touched the edge of the demonic energy.

"hiss--"

A cold, violent, and destructive intent surged back from the divine consciousness! The intent was mixed with mad babbling, vicious curses, and a greedy desire to devour the very essence of all living beings.

Huanglong's primordial spirit trembled, and a wisp of purifying light scattered, instantly clearing away all negative emotions.

"Such pure demonic energy...!" he murmured. "It's more than ten times stronger than the demonic energy in the branch that Zhenyuan Daxian gave me."

"No wonder even the Azure Dragon Ancestor was helpless!"

Huang Long opened his eyes, staring at the dark tree trunk. A look of seriousness flashed in his eyes. "Although this demonic energy is of extremely high quality, it is not difficult for a top-tier quasi-saint cultivator like our ancestor to eliminate it. However, it is difficult to eliminate it while preserving a trace of life!"

"Ordinary purification methods are useless against this demonic energy; on the contrary, they may stimulate its eruption and completely annihilate the last bit of life."

But he has a trump card.

With a thought, the Yellow Dragon's primordial spirit manifested above his head, along with the same Pure White Lotus.

The white lotus slowly rotated, casting a soft, pure white light.

The light, though seemingly gentle, contains the supreme power to purify all filth and soothe all restlessness.

White light poured down like flowing water, enveloping the piece of dead wood.

"Hiss hiss hiss!!!"

Black smoke immediately billowed from the dark tree trunk!

Under the purifying light, the wood, which resembled divine iron, melted and purified rapidly, like spring snow meeting the sun, turning into ashes and dissipating.

But these are just secondary; the real main force is following the wood grain, approaching the demonic energy inside.

Three breaths later, the light of purification touched the demonic energy cage.

"roar!!!"

A silent roar exploded within Huanglong's primordial spirit!

The demonic energy resembled an enraged beast; countless small black snakes suddenly raised their heads and frantically bit at the purifying light.

Where the white light collided with the black energy, a "sizzling" corrosive sound was emitted, and tiny spatial cracks appeared and disappeared intermittently.

Although the light of purification was strong, the level of demonic energy was far higher than Huanglong's cultivation level, and it was too condensed, having lingered for a long time, and had almost merged with that wisp of life force.

Forced purification could very likely damage the life force.

Huanglong was well prepared.

With another thought, the golden wheel of merit appeared within his body. The golden wheel was now solidified as if it were a tangible substance, slowly rotating and sprinkling out warm and peaceful primordial energy of merit.

A wisp of merit separated from the golden wheel, flowed into the Xuanhuang Realm through the divine consciousness channel, and merged into the light of purification.

Golden and white light intertwined, their power increasing dramatically!

The power of merit is a reward from Heaven, representing utmost righteousness and goodness, and is most effective against evil and heretical forces.

When the demonic energy encountered the golden light of merit, it melted away as quickly as boiling water poured on snow.

The small black snakes emitted a mournful, silent shriek, then crumbled and evaporated one by one.

But the demonic energy is also launching a fierce counterattack.

It no longer held firm, but instead spread rapidly, attempting to erode the Yellow Dragon's primordial spirit in the opposite direction of the purifying light!

"town!!!"

Huanglong gave a low shout, and the Golden Wheel of Merit spun faster, releasing even more merit energy.

At the same time, the power unleashed by the Pure World White Lotus also became stronger, with the lotus petals unfolding and fine purification Dao patterns appearing on each petal.

The white and golden light intertwined to form a net, enveloping the demonic energy layer by layer, compressing and purifying it little by little.

This process is extremely slow.

However, Huanglong could sense that a considerable amount of merit was being consumed with each breath.

These merits combined are more than even some quasi-saints could produce.

However, the merit he gained from repairing the earth was so great that he managed to withstand the depletion.

I don't know how much time passed.

The demonic energy had been compressed to the size of a sesame seed, and its color had changed from pitch black to grayish-white. Finally, with a soft "pop," it completely dissipated.

Huang Long let out a long sigh of relief, his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat. He looked inside the tree trunk!

The verdant green still retained its original vitality, and it seemed to have brightened slightly as the demonic energy dissipated.

But the next second, Huang Long's expression changed drastically!

That glimmer of life began to slowly dissipate after escaping the prison of demonic energy!

Like a spring compressed to its limit, it suddenly loses its pressure and support, and begins to collapse.

On the surface of the vibrant light spot, the emerald green glow flickered like a candle in the wind, with wisps of green light escaping out...!

"Oh no!" Huang Long's heart tightened.

This wisp of life and demonic energy have been locked in a stalemate for hundreds of millions of years, and have long since formed a symbiotic relationship.

While the demonic energy was indeed eroding this wisp of life, it also acted as a seal, forcibly maintaining its form.

Now that the seal has been broken, the life force has lost its restraint and support, and has begun to dissipate naturally!

Huang Long immediately took action.

He first activated the Pure World White Lotus, scattering white light containing the vitality of creation, in an attempt to stabilize the vitality.

The white light merged in, and the life-giving light did stabilize for a moment, but then it began to dissipate again—this life force was too weak, and its essence was "the origin of enlightenment." Although the life force of the Pure World White Lotus was strong, it was not the right match.

He then took out the Three Lights Divine Water. As soon as the divine water was released, the three lights of the sun, moon, and stars flowed and radiated vitality, even able to heal the injuries of a Great Luo Golden Immortal.

Several drops of divine water fell and merged into the tree trunk.

To Huanglong's disappointment, even the Three Lights Divine Water only slowed down the dissipation of that wisp of primordial life force.

Despite trying every resource he possessed, he still couldn't stop the dissipation of that wisp of primordial life force.

"Merit! Yes, merit is omnipotent, perhaps it can!"

With a determined heart, a large mass of profound yellow merit flew out from the Golden Wheel of Merit and was directly poured into that point of life-giving light.

As the merits were absorbed, the sparks of life suddenly shone brightly, and their dissipation slowed by 90%!

But... it still hasn't stopped.

That dissipation, though seemingly slow, never stopped.

It's as if it's some kind of predetermined "fate," a glimmer of life shouldn't exist in the first place.

"Could it be... that all our efforts are in vain?" Huang Long looked at the slowly dimming emerald light, a strong sense of unwillingness rising in his heart.

Even after expending immense merit, using the Pure White Lotus, and drawing upon the Divine Water of the Three Lights, if it still cannot save him...

and many more.

He suddenly remembered something, turned his head sharply, and looked at the other side of the Earth Vein Dragon Pattern Tree.

There, there was a mound of celestial soil, within which buried a section of brown rhizome.

That was a gift from Zhen Yuanzi, a root containing a trace of life. He planted it in the Nine Heavens Breath Soil and watered it with the Three Lights Divine Water and Heavenly Dao Merit. Now it retains its vitality.

It just never took root and sprouted!