22: Enter the temple

As they crossed mountains and ridges time and again, Qing Wu and Yuan Feng suddenly felt a stir in their hearts.

They could feel a sound faintly emanating from the earth ahead, beating like a heart.

Within every beat was the most pure and primitive pressure of the world's will.

Qing Wu looked up, and a wave of shock surged in his heart.

Piercing through layers of Earthly Turbid Qi, a massive shrine appeared before his eyes.

It exuded a simple and heavy Aura.

Surrounding the shrine were twelve towering pillars, each engraved with endless Dao Runes and emitting a different dao rhyme.

Facing the shrine directly, one could actually feel those pulsations, causing the surrounding Void Realm to tremble incessantly.

The dense Earthly Turbid Qi was also firmly suppressed here.

"This is the Pangu Shrine!"

The two slowly walked toward the Pangu Shrine, every step filled with awe.

The Pangu Shrine was transformed from Pangu's heart, containing the mysteries of the Creation of Heaven, and was also the birthplace of the Ancestral Witches.

At this time, the Ancestral Witches were still being nurtured and had not yet been born, so naturally, no one would come out to greet them.

As they drew near the shrine, numerous isolating Formations blocked their path.

Qing Wu did not intend to try and comprehend these Formations.

The Pangu Shrine was of great importance; it was not only the place where the Ancestral Witches were nurtured and born but also held the responsibility of suppressing the endless Earthly Turbid Qi.

With the slightest carelessness, if any part of the numerous Formations here were damaged, the consequences could be extremely severe.

Pangu created heaven and earth, splitting the Primordial World into two.

Clear Qi rose to become the heavens, while Turbid Qi sank to become the earth.

If that Earthly Turbid Qi were to erupt, the entire Primordial World might return to chaotic disorder.

Just as the two were about to turn back the way they came, a leaf flew out on its own, the Dao Mark it carried emitting a dazzling divine light.

The various Turbid Qi were dispersed, and even the numerous Formations before them no longer blocked their way.

Qing Wu was slightly stunned; he hadn't expected the Dao Mark to have such a function, acting as a key to open the Pangu Shrine.

Thus, being monitored by the Great Dao was sometimes a good thing.

Seeing that a complete path had appeared ahead, Qing Wu and his companion did not hesitate and entered directly into the Pangu Shrine.

From the outside, the shrine was merely a simple and solemn great hall.

But only upon truly entering the interior of the shrine did they realize it was another world entirely.

Dao True Intent could be seen everywhere, falling from the sky like a rain of celestial flowers.

In the center of the shrine was a Blood Pool where various Laws gathered and were undergoing Fusion with twelve drops of Essence Blood.

These must be the future world-renowned Twelve Ancestral Witches.

Feeling the approach of Qing Wu and his companion, the twelve drops of Essence Blood scattered as if instinctively seeking benefit and avoiding harm.

The two looked at each other, repeatedly confirming that they didn't have anything particularly terrifying on them.

In the blink of an eye, two drops of Essence Blood were slowly approaching them.

They were easy to distinguish from the Dao True Intent enveloping them.

One green and one red, they should be the Jumang and the Ancestor Witch of Fire, Zhu Rong.

They likely felt that the Aura emanating from Qing Wu and his companion was similar to the power of the Laws within them, thus creating a sense of affinity.

At this time, Qing Wu still didn't want to have too much entanglement with them.

The Karma of the Wu Clan is not easy to take on!

So he waved goodbye to the two 'little' Ancestral Witches and turned to the base of those pillars to begin comprehending the Dao True Intent.

Qing Wu chose a green pillar, which was entwined with the ceaseless Dao True Intent of Wood.

When his fingertips touched the pillar, the scene before his eyes suddenly changed.

Before Chaos was opened and the Grandmist was decided, a colossal giant stood between heaven and earth holding a massive axe, his entire body emitting a pressure that made all things submit.

Qing Wu's mind shook violently; this was precisely the Pangu Great God's Mark of Creation!

He saw the giant swing his axe in a slash; the Chaos Qi instantly boiled, and the clear and Turbid Qis separated like a tide.

The supreme dao rhyme contained in that single axe stroke made Qing Wu's Primordial Spirit tremble.

"So this is the Axe Strike of Creation..." Qing Wu murmured to himself.

He saw that Pangu's axe stroke followed a certain mysterious trajectory; what seemed like a simple hack actually aligned with the principles of the Three Thousand Great Daos.

Within it, he saw the evolution process of the Wood Element Dao.

A wisp of vitality sprouted within the Chaos, then turned into thousands of green lights, eventually nurturing the myriad spiritual plants of the Primordial World.

This was countless times more profound than the Dao of Green Wood he had comprehended.

On the other side, Yuan Feng stood before a crimson pillar, similarly submerged in shock.

She saw the sparks produced by the friction between Pangu's axe blade and the Chaos during the creation, igniting the undying divine fire within the void.

This flame was so pure it was suffocating, far more powerful than her Nanmingli Fire Origin.

What startled her even more was that the True Intent of Nirvana was actually hidden within the flames.

The two sat cross-legged in unison, the dao rhyme around them resonating with the pillars.

A Twelve-Petaled Dao Flower emerged above Qing Wu's head, and every petal began to reorganize.

Within the originally pure wood dao patterns, the trajectory of the Axe of Creation gradually integrated.

Yuan Feng was enveloped in crimson divine light, the phantom of a Phoenix behind her constantly undergoing Rebirth in the flames, each Nirvana making it more solid.

After an unknown amount of time, Qing Wu suddenly discovered that the dao rhyme on the pillar began to flow, actually forming a strange picture in the air.

After Pangu created heaven, his spine transformed into Mount Buzhou, and the twelve drops of Essence Blood ejected during his heart's beats were combining with the Turbid Qi scattered throughout the world.

"So that's how the Ancestral Witches were born," Qing Wu realized.

"But it is also because they were eroded by so much Turbid Qi that their Primordial Spirits became clouded, which is why they haven't been born yet."

Just as he wanted to investigate further, the entire shrine suddenly vibrated.

The twelve pillars glowed simultaneously, startling the two out of their state of enlightenment.

Yuan Feng opened her eyes with lingering interest, the flames dancing in her eyes already carrying a hint of Chaos Aura: "Is time up?"

Qing Wu nodded and looked in a certain direction, finding that the entrance to the shrine was slowly closing.

The two quickly stood up, preparing to leave the Pangu Shrine.

Before leaving, he took one last look at the Blood Pool; those two drops of Ancestral Witch Essence Blood that were close to them actually floated over, lingering at the edge of the Blood Pool.

"It seems we've been remembered," Yuan Feng chuckled.

Qing Wu shook his head and, with a wave of his hand, sent them back to the center of the Blood Pool.

Then, pressing two fingers together, he sent out twelve drops of three lights divine water.

The three lights divine water fell into the Blood Pool, quickly dispersing the numerous Turbid Qi and restoring clarity within the Blood Pool.

But it only lasted for a very short time as that three lights divine water was rapidly consumed.

Soon, the heavy Turbid Qi eroded once again, and the three lights divine water was completely exhausted.

The small amount remaining was absorbed by a drop of Dark Yellow Essence Blood, helping it resist the erosion of the Turbid Qi.

As they walked out of the shrine, both were surrounded by lingering dao rhyme.

Stunned by the scene of the Pangu Great God swinging his massive axe, a lingering shock still remained in their hearts.