Chapter 170: A Warning from the Past

Above her was a purplish-black starry sky, and beneath her feet lay a boundless expanse of black soil.

There were no mountains, no rivers, and no rolling white mists in the distance...

"Where is this?" Feng Ke'er gave a start. With a throbbing head, she rolled over and scrambled to her feet.

Her left hand brushed against something smooth and warm. Idly picking it up, she saw it was a white jade token, about half the size of her palm.

Could this be the identity token transformed from the Phoenix Jade? Feng Ke'er blinked, channeling her spiritual energy into it once more—oh, what a pie had dropped from the sky! She needed to verify it again.

A line of text immediately appeared in her mind: Feng Ke'er, cultivator of the Southern Spiritual Continent, First Layer of True Immortality, 0 merit points.

*Boom!* Golden light burst and exploded across her entire mind.

Pangu... the Green Lotus... the Divine Realm... the Feng Clan... countless images flickered before her eyes like a fast-forwarded film.

In the span of ten breaths, Feng Ke'er felt as though she had watched a soap opera spanning tens of thousands of years. Holding the identity token in her hand, she was utterly dumbfounded—she had obtained the complete legacy of the *Scripture of Reaching Heaven*, and without any cultivation restrictions!

She had finally read the unabridged version!

The *Scripture of Reaching Heaven* was originally the cultivation notes recorded by the Great Deity Pangu on the petals of a green lotus. The Great Deity Pangu possessed three principal divine souls, each with their own strengths, and thus their divisions of labor differed as well. Among them, the principal divine soul specialized in refining Qi and recording cultivation notes was named "Reaching Heaven" by Pangu. This was also the origin of the scripture's name.

After opening up the Divine Realm, the Great Deity Pangu achieved complete fulfillment. All three of his primordial spirits ascended, each becoming a principal deity of the upper realm.

However, the *Scripture of Reaching Heaven* was left behind in the Divine Realm alongside Pangu's physical body. The latter transformed into wind, rain, thunder, lightning, mountains, and rivers, while the former was fortuitously discovered by the founding ancestor of the Feng Clan.

From then on, the scripture became the heirloom of the Feng Clan, study of it restricted solely to successive clan heads and holy maidens. The annotations Feng Ke'er had previously seen within the scripture were none other than the reading notes and study insights left behind by the successive heads and holy maidens of the Feng Clan.

It was a pity that these successors took phrases out of context and obsessed over textual criticism. In their cultivation, each generation became more reliant on pills than the last, leading to a marked degeneration in their aptitude with every passing generation.

On the other hand, before his ascension, the Great Deity Pangu finally achieved a great awakening regarding his views on gods and demons—he discovered that the so-called demons were merely the collection of all negative emotions and desires belonging to practitioners. Gods and demons were like the two opposing sides of a single entity, forever coexisting. Much like the urge to kill within his own heart, which he eventually forced out of his body and dissipated into malignant energy. Therefore, the crusade against demons was actually a false proposition. It was precisely because gods existed in this world that demons came to be. The other side of a god was a demon. Demons were not truly terrifying; what was truly terrifying was the overwhelming existence between gods and demons. The balance and sustainable development between the Divine Realm and the Demon Realm constituted the enduring path.

However, at that time, the Divine Realm had just opened and was extremely unstable, far inferior to the strength of the Demon Realm. Furthermore, Pangu's ascension was imminent, leaving him with little time to spare. With no other choice, he came up with the idea of a "seal," tricking the One-Eyed Dragon into acting as the formation beast to temporarily seal the Demon Realm.

Yet this was merely a desperate measure, an expedient course of action.

Pangu's optimistic calculation was that once the Divine Realm developed and expanded, a new generation of leading figures would rise. By then, the Demon Realm could have its seal lifted. Following that, the Divine Realm and the Demon Realm would generate and restrain each other, developing in tandem.

So, who precisely were the new generation of leading figures? The Great Deity Pangu was an exceedingly narcissistic fellow. He declared that it would certainly be someone as powerful as himself.

All of this he had written down within the *Scripture of Reaching Heaven*.

Who could have guessed that those successors of the Feng Clan were all monks with crooked mouths: the leading figure mentioned in Pangu's words was interpreted by them as a goddess descending from the heavens clad in five-colored divine light (being clad in five-colored light was one thing, but why *must* it be a goddess? It was simple: the founding ancestor of the Feng Clan happened to be a woman. Like all founders, she concocted a sacred identity for herself as the "personal female disciple of the Great Deity Pangu," and through Pangu's mouth, established the matriarchal tone of the Divine Realm. This tone was subsequently carried forward and magnified by her successors). As for lifting the seal, generating and restraining one another—they only saw the words "lift" and "restrain," and deduced from them the conclusion that "a life-and-death war between gods and demons will thus unfold."

In order to safeguard the absolute ruling position of the Feng Clan within the Divine Realm Alliance, the clan was exceptionally sensitive to the legendary "five-colored divine light." Within the clan, they diligently searched for anyone possessing a five-colored natal divine light, but after many years, they found no one. Consequently, they spared no effort in demonizing the five-colored divine light, secretly releasing rumors to the outside world that the appearance of the five-colored light would herald the breaking of the demon seal, and other such ghostly nonsense.

Being the dominant power in the Divine Realm, the Divine Realm Alliance naturally did not wish to see the Demon Realm emerge and stir up trouble. Therefore, the other families also held the "five-colored divine light" in deep taboo. However, as everyone knew, the divine light of the Great Deity Pangu was precisely five-colored; one could not openly blaspheme it.

After holding several meetings and synthesizing their respective practical situations, everyone unified their stance: natal divine lights came in three types—silver, gold, and five-colored. Among them, the five-colored divine light was something only powerhouses at the deity level could possess. Anyone who possessed five-colored divine light without having reached the deity level was afflicted by a demonic obstacle, and was to be executed by all.

No one raised any objections. Firstly, the Divine Realm Alliance was an immensely powerful existence; in the Divine Realm, their word was law. Secondly, the natal divine lights of human cultivators were basically gold and silver, either pale or deep. Only those humble demonic immortals had natal divine lights that were dazzling and gaudy. What did five-colored even amount to? Others had seven colors, nine colors... N-colors of every sort. Conversely, this very point powerfully proved that the Alliance's words were not false—anyone who possessed five-colored divine light was suffering from a demonic obstacle.

As for the "rebirth of the goddess" that Goddess Nüwa had previously mentioned to Huli, Feng Ke'er searched the scripture from cover to cover without finding any related records. It looked entirely like a fabrication by Goddess Nüwa herself.

History has always been written by the victors, and the *Scripture of Reaching Heaven* was no exception. As the legacy and family history of the Feng Clan, it too had been scrubbed, altered, and revised, with many plots inside more twisting and moving than a novel. Therefore, having read so many fabrications all at once, Feng Ke'er didn't mind adding one more. Anyway, the schemes of the Divine Realm Alliance and the struggles among cultivation families were all mere floating clouds—what did they have to do with her?

What she worried about most right now was—her natal divine light was precisely five-colored!

The moment her primordial spirit left her body, her natal divine light would manifest. Furthermore, this thing could neither be concealed nor dyed.

What should she do!

Feng Ke'er massaged her brow. A headacheing moment.

"What are you worrying about?"

Right at that moment, a figure flashed before her eyes.

Then, with another flash, a second figure appeared.

Another flash, and yet another figure...

In an instant, Feng Ke'er felt as though she had fallen into a stack of mirrors. Standing directly in front of her was a vast expanse of white-robed maidens who looked identical to her.

The same willow-like figures.

The same almond eyes and peach-blossom cheeks.

The same ice-like, snow-surpassing skin...

She was sizing them up, while they—some standing, some sitting, some propping up their chins, others crossing their arms over their chests... in short, this entire crowd of maidens was sizing her up as well.

" You, you guys..." Feng Ke'er dropped her jaw, pointing at them, and quickly came to a realization: these were all her primordial spirits!

According to the records in the scripture: the three primordial spirits of the Great Deity Pangu all upgraded into primordial souls. In the end, all three of these primordial souls ascended, rising entirely to become principal deities of the upper realm.

Thinking to this point, Feng Ke'er first felt a chill run down her spine, and she shivered violently: in the future, if her worthless mortal shell were to be cast aside, would all one thousand of these fellows ascend and attain immortality?

At this moment, a cold joke she had seen in modern times popped into her head: It is said that a baby earthworm wanted to play badminton, but found no one. With a flash of inspiration, *pop*, it cut itself into two halves and went off to play happily.

The mother earthworm wanted to play mahjong, but was one player short. With a flash of inspiration, *pop-pop-pop*, she cut herself into four segments, arranged them around a table, and played mahjong lively.

Seeing this, the father earthworm felt his hands itch; he had always wanted to play soccer, but nobody would ever include him. *Pop-pop-pop... pop*. The father earthworm rushed into the kitchen, raised his hand, brought down the blade, and chopped himself... into tiny bits.

Damn it, why did cultivation feel more and more like a scam?

"What's wrong with you? Your complexion looks so terrible," those one thousand white-robed maidens asked in unison.

One against a thousand!

"You guys..." Feng Ke'er grew afraid, twiddling her fingers. "Where did your clothes come from?" Alright, what she actually wanted to ask was how they managed to put on clothes—as everyone knew, primordial spirits were spiritual bodies, not physical entities, functioning as an enhanced version of souls. This little brat had always nestled bare in her sea of elixir.

The one thousand white-robed maidens answered in neat unison: "Naturally, they came from the ones on your body."

Then what about the ones on my body... Feng Ke'er instinctively crossed her arms over her chest: "Ah—"

As it turned out, it was a false alarm.

She was still properly clad in her white robe.

Staring at the intact robe on her body, a sudden clarity dawned upon her heart: Just as the Great Deity Pangu said, a god is also a demon, and a demon is also a god. A demon is simply the reflection of a god. In that case, were her primordial spirits actually just the reflections of her true self?

Through the cultivation notes of the Great Deity Pangu, it was not hard for her to see that as his three primordial souls grew increasingly powerful, Pangu's true self—his worthless mortal shell—could ultimately no longer control those three primordial souls, which was why they rebelled and split apart, each becoming a deity on their own. Yet Pangu's true body truly and solidly perished, returning to dust.

In other words, if her true self could tightly control these one thousand primordial spirits from beginning to end, would it simply mean that she had gained an extra thousand avatars?

Having the cautionary tale of the Great Deity Pangu before her, Feng Ke'er instantly made up her mind and laughed it off to the thousand primordial spirits: "Why did you guys come out? And where is your natal divine light? Why hasn't it manifested?" As it turned out, the number one enemy on the path of cultivation had always been the cultivator themselves. From now on, she could no longer let her primordial spirits do as they pleased.

The one thousand primordial spirits answered in unison: "We could come out, so we came out. The natal divine light is still there too, it's just divided into a thousand portions. Each portion is very weak, which is why you can't see it."

Feng Ke'er started, then her face broke into a beaming smile: Even her heaven-defying eyes couldn't spot it, which meant outsiders certainly wouldn't be able to either, right?

Right, she would handle it this way from now on. She must resolutely prevent this bunch from overlapping into a single entity when appearing.

Of course, she first needed to find someone to verify this.

As for this candidate, the top choice was naturally schoolmate Huli. Feng Ke'er waved her arm and issued a command: "Primordial spirits, return to your positions!"

*Swish.* All the white maidens folded into one, sliding smoothly back into her sea of elixir through her crown acupoint.

Her vision suddenly cleared up.