Primordial Era: Starting with the repair of Penglai Immortal Island

Huang Long was taken aback!

This was his biggest question. Houtu, the Ancestral Witch, had obviously arrived nearby long ago, but had remained hidden until he buried the wine jar and set up a restriction before she appeared.

To say it's just for drinking is far too frivolous.

"This junior is unaware; please enlighten me, Ancestral Shaman."

Houtu looked eastward, her gaze seemingly piercing through billions of miles of space, landing on a certain human tribe: "Because I am waiting."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Wait until we see if anyone will attack Hou Yi." Hou Tu withdrew her gaze and looked at Huang Long again. "I left a mark on Hou Yi. If anyone above the Great Luo Realm approaches him, I will sense it and descend instantly."

Huang Long was deeply shaken.

Hou Yi!

It turns out that he had been alone in the human tribe all along, not because the witch tribe did not value him, but because the ancestral witch had already laid out a backup plan!

Therefore, even with only the cultivation level of a Golden Immortal, Hou Yi could still walk safely across the prehistoric land.

That's the main reason.

"I see!"

Huang Long breathed a sigh of relief, and many of his doubts were immediately resolved. "I thought that the reason the Witch Clan allowed the Great Witch Hou Yi to be alone was because..."

"Why? Because we don't value him?" Houtu laughed, a hint of mockery in her smile. "That child carries the immense karma of shooting down the sun; Xihe wishes she could tear him to pieces. But he refuses to return to the Wu tribe, so we can only let him wander this continent alone!"

She paused, then continued, "Although Hou Yi is now only at the Golden Immortal realm, and his Great Luo origin has almost completely dissipated, even a peak Taiyi cultivator might not fare well. Plus, the mark I left behind... that's enough."

"However..." Houtu changed the subject, "My appearance today is not for Hou Yi's sake."

"Not because of Hou Yi?" Huang Long asked again, puzzled.

He immediately began to wonder, "Could it be because of me?"

Houtu took the blood jujube wine from Huanglong, gently tapped the wine jar, and tilted her head back to drink a mouthful.

As the wine went down her throat, a hint of satisfaction flashed in her eyes, but it quickly turned serious.

"This wine reminds me of some past events." Houtu walked slowly forward, her bare feet touching the ground, each step seemingly in sync with the pulse of the earth. "Yellow Dragon, would you be willing to walk with me on this earth?"

Want to take a walk?

Huang Long was taken aback.

What did the ancestral witch want to do by inviting him to walk around the earth?

But after glancing at the peach grove and then at Houtu's unyielding back, he could only manage a bitter smile.

"The Ancestral Witch has given the order, and this junior will naturally follow."

He quickly turned around and set up a new barrier around the burial site of the wine under the peach tree, this time using twelve layers, almost using all the knowledge he had acquired in his life.

After doing all this, Huanglong turned around and found that Houtu had already walked dozens of miles. It really was just one step. He took a barefoot step and landed at the end of his line of sight. Shrinking the earth to an inch had become an instinct.

Huanglong quickly urged his escape light to catch up.

This connection has lasted for thousands of years.

At first, Huanglong thought that Houtu's so-called "taking a walk" was just a casual tour of the prehistoric landscape. But he soon discovered that this ancestral witch's route was very regular - she specifically chose places where living beings gathered, areas where battles frequently broke out, and places where living beings were about to die.

They passed through the human tribes.

It was a large settlement located on the banks of the Yellow River, with thousands of thatched huts and wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys. People lived and multiplied here; men hunted, women wove and raised children, and children chased and played in the mud.

However, Huanglong scanned the area with his divine sense and sensed that some people in the tribe were suffering from diseases, and one-tenth of them would die in the next few years.

Houtu stood on the hill outside the tribe, watching quietly.

When a human warrior is wounded by a powerful beast while hunting and is about to perish.

Houtu stretched out her hand, and a faint, earthy-yellow light shimmered at her fingertips.

Huang Long was startled: "The Ancestral Witch wants to save him?"

"No." Houtu shook her head. "Birth, aging, sickness, and death are the natural order of things. If I were to intervene to save him, I would be interfering with the workings of the Heavenly Dao, which would trigger a chain of karmic consequences."

The faint light at her fingertips dissipated, and with just a gentle touch, a strange power enveloped the dying man.

But Huanglong saw the scene after the human died—a faint, firefly-like point of light floated out from between the eyebrows of the human's remains.

The light was extremely faint; if he hadn't possessed profound cultivation, he would have had no chance of detecting it.

The speck of light hovered in the air for a moment, seemingly reluctant to leave the human world, but soon began to thin out, dissipating into the world like wisps of smoke.

"What is that?" Huang Long asked.

"True Spirit." Houtu's voice was very soft. "After a living being dies, its soul disperses and returns to heaven and earth, leaving only the most core trace of the True Spirit. This trace of the True Spirit records the living being's memories, emotions, and karma throughout its life... but it is too fragile. Without special protection, it will completely dissipate in at most three days."

She watched as that spark of true spirit vanished completely, her eyes devoid of sorrow or joy, only filled with deep contemplation.

"Let's go, to the next place."

They passed through the witch tribe.

Unlike human settlements, the Wu tribe was more like a military camp.

The houses, built of massive stones, are rugged and imposing, with totem poles engraved with symbolic patterns of the twelve ancestral witches.

From a young age, children of the Wu tribe begin to toughen their bodies and practice combat skills, their shouts echoing through the heavens.

But death also occurs here.

A young witch was severely wounded in a battle with wild demons. His chest was pierced by sharp claws, and his witch blood stained the ground beneath him.

His companions surrounded him, trying to prolong his life with the secret arts of the witch clan, but the wounds were entangled in the bone-corroding demonic energy of the demon race, which continued to erode his vitality.

"Cough... No need for that." The young high priest coughed up blood, but a smile remained on his face. "Killing three demons is enough..."

His voice grew weaker and weaker until it finally fell silent.

The same light emanated from between his brows, much brighter than that of the human warriors, and one could even vaguely see a phantom wielding a battle axe within it.

But this true spirit is equally fragile; after swaying in the wind for a moment, it too began to dissipate.

Houtu watched quietly, and this time, she reached out her hand.

An earthy yellow light enveloped that spark of true spirit, temporarily preventing it from dissipating.

But it only lasted for ten breaths before Houtu withdrew her hand, the light dissipated, and the true spirit continued to vanish.

"Why not save them?" Huang Long couldn't help but ask.

"I can save one, but I can't save the billions of witches!" For the first time, a slight fluctuation appeared in Houtu's voice, a suppressed sense of powerlessness. "I can protect this little bit of true spirit with the power of the ancestral witches, but how many can I protect?"

Unless... unless there is a place specifically for containing and nourishing true spirits, but such a place does not exist in the primordial world.

She paused, then said in a low voice, "Even a saint can only protect the true spirits of innate gods from perishment, but cannot cover the billions of living beings in the primordial world."