Primordial Era: Starting with the repair of Penglai Immortal Island

Mount Buzhou, inside the Pangu Palace!

At this moment, the atmosphere inside the Pangu Hall was solemn.

Eleven towering ancestral witches, each ten thousand feet tall, sat enthroned in the hall, their terrifying blood and qi power as vast as the ocean, casting the entire hall a dark red glow.

In the center of the ancestral witches, a figure swayed precariously.

Hou Yi.

This great shaman, who once shot down nine suns with a single arrow and whose might shook the primordial world, now had a face as pale as paper, and his aura was so weak that he was only at the level of a Golden Immortal.

Even more fatal is the loss of the fundamental source.

In the battle where Hou Yi shot down the nine suns, he burned his own Great Luo essence to kill the nine Great Luo realm golden crows.

If Houtu hadn't used a drop of her own ancestral witch blood to prolong his life after the war, he would have already merged into the earth.

"Hou Yi," Di Jiang spoke, his voice like muffled thunder, "do you know the situation today?"

Hou Yi slowly raised his head.

His eyes were cloudy, having lost their former sharpness.

Those eyes that could once lock onto the true form of the Golden Crow across billions of miles now stare blankly at the dome of the Pangu Palace!

There are carvings depicting Pangu creating the world, and it seems that a drop of blood is suspended on them.

"I know." Hou Yi's voice was hoarse. "Xi He set a trap, luring me to the Taiyin Star, wanting to avenge those nine little beasts. It was the Ancestral Witch Hou Tu who saved me."

"I brought you back, not so you could sit here and die." Zhu Rong, with his most explosive temper, roared, flames erupting around him. "You are the Great Shaman of the Wu Clan! You once shot down nine suns with an arrow, avenging countless Wu people and Kuafu. All your people are proud of you! But what about now? Look at yourself!"

Hou Yi remained silent.

He looked down at his hands.

These hands once drew back the Sun-Shooting Bow, and arrows shot forth like dragons, each arrow killing a small golden crow.

Now, however, he seems to lack even the strength to clench his fist.

"Zhurong, calm down." The Ancestral Witch Xuanming spoke, her voice carrying a unique chill. "Houyi's great witch essence has long been exhausted, and it is only natural that his spirit has dissipated."

"Common sense?" Ancestral Witch Qiangliang sneered. "Our witch clan is born of heaven and earth, fights against heaven and earth, and dies on the battlefield! How can we be so dejected because of a serious woman!"

"A woman?" Hou Yi suddenly laughed, a bitter laugh. "Heng'e is not 'a woman.' She is my Daoist partner, my only one for ten thousand years."

Now that she is trapped on the Taiyin Star because of me, her fate unknown, and even the Ancestral Witch Houtu couldn't save her, how can I, a great witch who can't even maintain the strength of a Golden Immortal, fight again?

The hall fell silent.

The ancestral witches looked at each other, their eyes flashing with helplessness.

The Wu tribe was born from the essence and blood of Pangu. They were born without a primordial spirit, did not comprehend the Dao of Heaven, and only cultivated their physical bodies, and only revered Pangu.

They don't understand love or bonds; everything is in their fists, and war is all they do.

The union of Hou Yi and Heng'e was an anomaly among the Wu tribe; a human woman had won the heart of a great shaman...!

"Hou Yi," Di Jiang pointed to the top of the Pangu Palace, "look at this."

It was a drop of blood, no bigger than a fist, yet it exuded a chilling pressure.

The surface of the blood was surrounded by chaotic energy, and within it, the faint phantom of a towering giant could be seen. Every breath was as heavy as a mountain, and every fluctuation contained boundless power of heaven and earth.

Pangu's essence blood!

The true essence and blood from the Father God Pangu!

"This is the last drop of Pangu's essence blood that Houtu condensed in the sea of ​​blood," Dijiang said in a deep voice. "She sent this blood back to the Wu Clan with the intention of having us create another Ancestral Wu to fill the gap in the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods and Demons Array."

Hou Yi's pupils contracted slightly.

He felt a call emanating from that drop of blood essence—not a sound, not a thought, but a resonance deep within his bloodline.

The blood of the witch clan flowing through his body seemed to regain its vitality at this moment, wanting to break free from the constraints of his physical body and merge with that drop of the father god's blood.

"What a pity," sighed the Ancestral Witch Ru Shou. "After bringing this drop of essence blood back, Xing Tian tried it, Jiu Feng tried it, Chi You, Xiang Liu, Feng Bo, Yu Shi... all the Great Witches of my clan in the Great Luo Realm tried it, but no Witch could resonate with it perfectly."

Forcibly refining it can at most increase the strength of the physical body, but it cannot advance one to the level of an Ancestral Witch, nor can it allow one to assume the position of Houtu within the Great Array of Heavenly Gods and Demons.

"But now," Dijiang stared intently at Houyi, "you sensed it, didn't you?"

Hou Yi nodded with difficulty.

His heart was pounding wildly, and with each beat, the drop of Pangu's essence resonated with it.

This is a connection originating from the source of life, a pilgrimage of the shamanic bloodline to the Father God.

"But..." Hou Yi smiled bitterly, "I am already a cripple. My source is depleted, and even a Golden Immortal can hardly sustain it. Even if I can refine the essence blood of my father, so what? A witch clan member without the will to fight and who does not want to fight, even if he refines the essence blood, he will be nothing more than an empty shell."

"So you'd rather wait here to die?" Gonggong, the Ancestral Witch, asked coldly. "Wait for the demon race to breach Buzhou Mountain and slaughter the witch race? Wait for this world, opened up by the Father God, to be occupied by those hairy beasts?"

Hou Yi's body trembled.

"Hou Yi," said the Ancestral Witch Jumang slowly, his body brimming with vitality like a spring breeze and gentle rain. "Do you know that since Houtu transformed into the Cycle of Reincarnation, our clan's Twelve Heavenly Gods and Demons Formation has been incomplete? If we were to go to war with the demon race, we would have no chance of winning."

The Ancestral Witch Zhu Jiuyin opened her eyes, and drops of bloody tears fell, while a long river of time flowed in her eyes: "I see fragments of the future, mountains of corpses and seas of blood, the collapse of Mount Buzhou, and the extinction of the bloodline of the Witch Clan."

"..."

However, no matter how the ancestral witches tried to persuade him, Hou Yi's fighting spirit could not be rekindled.

"Then let me tell you."

A gentle yet profound voice suddenly resounded throughout the Pangu Palace.

The void rippled, filled with the aura of reincarnation. A figure emerged from the void, dressed in an earth-yellow dress, with a compassionate face. Surrounded by the illusory images of the six paths of reincarnation, she was a wisp of Houtu's incarnation.

"Little sister!" The ancestral witches looked at Houtu with surprise.

Hou Yi struggled to get up and pay his respects, but Hou Tu stopped him by pressing him down.

"Heng'e is not dead." Houtu looked at Houyi with eyes as all-encompassing as the earth. "I scattered her origin and true spirit and merged them into the origin of Taiyin. At this moment, she is a part of Taiyin Star, living as long as the stars and coexisting with the moonlight."

Hou Yi's breath hitched.

"Really?" he stared at Houtu, his voice hoarse. "You're not lying to me?"

Houtu looked at Houyi with pity, "The proudest warrior of the Wu tribe, you don't even trust me anymore?"

Hou Yi quickly shook his head, "I believe you! I believe you!"

"My Lord, how can I see Heng'e?"

Houtu shook her head. "There are two ways to see Heng'e."

She held up two fingers: "Firstly, Xihe and Changxi voluntarily relinquished their authority as the Lord of Taiyin, allowing the Taiyin origin to regenerate a primordial being with the true spirit of Heng'e. But Xihe and Changxi hate you to the bone, so there's absolutely no way that's possible."

"And the second one?"

"Kill." Houtu's voice was calm, yet contained the resolute determination to sever the cycle of reincarnation. "As long as Xihe and Changxi perish, the Taiyin Star will be without a master, and the origin will spontaneously give birth to a new Taiyin Lord. Heng'e's true spirit has already merged into the origin, and at that time, she will be the Taiyin Lord reborn from the origin of the Taiyin Star."

"Changxi...Xihe...have fallen, Heng'e has returned..."

"Changxi and Xihe are dead! Heng'e lives!"

As Hou Yi muttered to himself, a flame reignited in his eyes.

That was hope, that was fighting spirit, that was the light of blood that had been dormant for ten thousand years boiling anew.

"Ke Xihe and Chang Xi are the masters of Taiyin, with the cultivation of quasi-saints. They wield the power of Taiyin and reside on the Taiyin star. It is difficult for anyone other than a saint to eliminate them."

The Ancestral Witch Xizi said in a deep voice, "With our current incomplete Dutian Divine Fiend Formation, it will be even more difficult to break through Taiyin Star."

"Therefore," Houtu looked at Houyi, "we need a new Ancestral Witch to fill my void and restore the complete Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods and Demons Formation. With this formation, even the Taiyin Star can be broken."

She walked up to the drop of Pangu's essence blood, and the essence blood, sensing her presence, emitted a joyful hum.

"Hou Yi, you are the only great shaman in the witch clan who resonates perfectly with this blood," Hou Tu said softly. "But if you lack the will to fight, even if you refine the essence blood, you will be nothing but an empty shell. Now, I ask you...!"

She turned around, her gaze like the eye of reincarnation, staring directly into the depths of Hou Yi's true spirit:

"Are you willing to reignite your fighting spirit to save Chang'e?"

"Are you willing to become an Ancestral Witch in order to break through the Taiyin?"

"Are you willing to carry on the legacy of the Father God and fight for that glimmer of hope for the Witch Clan?"