Chapter 124 The Great Tribulation

With Wei Yuan’s stroke, pure golden karma swept and converged, directly shaking and impacting this incomparably huge bluestone. Then, the five large characters [Houtu Huangdiqi] written by Wei Yuan were also stained with pure golden light, gradually flashing and becoming brighter.

In the void, countless voices of low chanting faintly echoed.

This was the faith, offerings, and sacrifices of countless world creatures to the virtue of the earth over countless years, all of which were connected here by Wei Yuan with karma. If Houtu were in her current state, her true spirit would be immersed in an endless dream, unable to wake up on her own.

What Wei Yuan was doing was using karma as a rope, tied to Houtu’s body.

Since she was affected by external forces and could not wake up on her own, then he would also use external forces to revive Houtu. However, if he did so, there would inevitably be a conflict with the power that caused Houtu to fall into slumber. But when that time came, it would depend on whose methods were tougher.

Wei Yuan formed a hand seal with both hands and whispered calmly, "Before heaven and earth were separated, chaos was one; when the two polarities were first distinguished, yin and yang were positioned. Therefore, the clear air rose to become the yang heaven, and the turbid air descended to become the yin earth. Those who are the yang heaven, the Five Greatnesses are passed down, and the Five Heavens are positioned to apply the sun and moon, and the stars are arranged. Those who are the yin earth, the Five Yellows multiply each other, and the five energies condense to bear the rivers, seas, mountains, forests, and houses. Therefore, it is said that heaven is yang and earth is yin."

What he recited was the original prayer to Houtu Huangdiqi.

The power of karma spread out, and the entire town was shrouded in a kind of twilight as if time had frozen. The expressions on the faces of the people walking on the earth were frozen, whether it was a smile or a furious glare, all stopped their activities, like lifelike statues.

And the next moment, wisps of spirituality appeared on the bluestone in front of him.

All the residents in the entire town suddenly recovered. They were not as kind and amiable as before, or showed the appearance of Houtu's memory, but turned into a dark, amorphous state, like nightmares, pouncing towards the very center of the town.

Madness, violence, showing a level of power that was definitely not something that creations in a dream should have.

"As expected, there is another force influencing and interfering with her."

"This dream is more like a prison than a dream, and this temple in the very center is the most core area."

Xi Huang's voice was cold and calm. She clenched her right hand, and a spear formed from pure metal energy burst out with a sound like a dragon's roar. Then, she stepped forward, holding the spear horizontally in her palm, blocking the entrance to the temple. In front of her were the dream creatures driven by the power of something that was able to make Houtu fall asleep.

At this moment, they had all lost their original human form, like nightmarish beasts, turning into a tide and attacking this place. Xi Huang pressed her sword-like eyebrows slightly, her eyes cold, and said indifferently, "As expected, you are mindless fools."

"Coming here to seek death."

On the spear, strands of aura had gathered and intertwined, emitting extremely violent and powerful force.

Gathering storms, extending baleful aura, showing the cold dominance of the Five Severities and Five Destructions of Heaven.

Suddenly, Xi Huang's movements paused slightly, and she raised her eyes in surprise.

Behind her, wisps of spirituality rose from the bluestone like smoke.

Wei Yuan was facing the huge bluestone, with his back to the rampaging beasts at the entrance of the temple.

His black hair fell, and he wore a Taoist robe. The index and middle fingers of his right hand were joined together, and then he stretched them forward. Then, he used his fingers to guide the wisps of spirituality. Wei Yuan supported the sword with his left hand, pinched the spirituality with his right hand, and then, with a calm and distant expression, he slashed out horizontally.

That wisp of spirituality spread out, and then became more and more激荡, almost like sword energy traversing the sky, passing through the world in an instant.

Stirring up ripples in the water, flowers in the fog.

"Dream shadows, mist flowers, are all illusory. They are transformed into illusions by the movement of the mind."

"Why not, abandon them all."

In the calm voice, the movements of those people in the dream who were not afraid of Xi Huang's sharpness and were not afraid of life and death froze. Then, the previous turbid aura dissipated, and finally, a look of awakening from a dream appeared on their faces. One by one, they turned into dust and dissipated. Xi Huang raised her eyebrows and slowly put away the spear in her hand. She turned around and looked at the Taoist in the green Taoist robe with his back to her, his black hair like ink, and countless particles of light rising and moving around him, mysterious and profound.

Xi Huang said, "A Taoist method?"

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "It can be considered."

And with the dissipation of the rest of the creatures in the entire dream, this huge change did not stop there, but continued to spread to the entire town. Finally, even black cracks appeared in the vision of Wei Yuan and Xi Huang before it stopped. Wei Yuan heard a panting sound.

Houtu, dressed in a light-colored dress, had quickly run into this temple.

In this dream, she did not seem to be the all-powerful Mother Earth in the real world. She was already a little out of breath after running only a short distance. However, at this moment, she looked surprised. She was slightly relieved when she saw Wei Yuan and Xi Huang, "You're okay, that's great, really great."

She breathed slightly, and then said urgently, "I don't know what happened. Those black cracks appeared everywhere in the town, and the people in the town suddenly disappeared. It's good that you two are okay."

"Stay in this temple now."

"I'm going to find Brother Huntian."

"He is knowledgeable and skilled, and he will definitely know what's going on now."

Even at this time, Houtu still did not doubt the young man in front of her, who gave her a familiar feeling for some reason. She was still concerned about others. After she finished speaking, she turned around. In just a short time, the road she had just run over had completely collapsed and disappeared.

Below was like a bottomless abyss, revealing an extremely deep and dark aura.

That kind of cold and deep feeling, even Xi Huang and Wei Yuan could feel a faint threat.

In other areas, however, a bright aura like the morning glow was emitted, bright and upright, pure and gentle. Two pure auras with completely different attributes actually existed under the town in this dream at the same time. Wei Yuan frowned slightly, and already had a guess in his heart.

This pattern, this aura…

Could it be…

Then Houtu looked at the constantly collapsing and falling road in front of her, the road that was at least ten steps away, and the three tallest pavilions in the entire town in the distance. She bit her red lips lightly, exhaled, turned around and retreated several steps. Then, she actually lifted her skirt slightly, accelerated and ran, intending to jump over the increasingly large crack in one breath and jump to the other side.

Wei Yuan had no choice but to reach out and grab Houtu's arm, stopping the woman who was accelerating.

He said, "Calm down, Houtu."

Houtu tried to break free from Wei Yuan's palm, but to no avail. She had no choice but to turn around. Her soft face was tense, and she said, "Please, please let me go."

"I still have friends over there."

"So I have to go over."

Xi Huang, who was cold and petite, seemed to sigh and said:

"As expected of you, even now you are still so polite."

"If it were me, I would have swept it away with a spear long ago."

Wei Yuan raised his eyes and looked in the distant direction, seeing the dream that was collapsing and disappearing around him, and said, "Don't worry… he, he will be fine, and that is not your home, not your hometown."

Houtu listened in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

She turned around, but saw the Taoist in front of her raise his hand, his fingers already touching her brow.

In an instant, it seemed that the surrounding world became extremely distant, and it was as if everything around her was just an illusion. Real memories gradually emerged in her mind. This extremely mysterious feeling, and the experience of countless memories flooding like a tide, made Houtu feel dazed for a moment.

And the next moment, those past events were all remembered.

This was her dream.

Recalling her dream experience was naturally not a difficult thing.

The expression on the soft woman's face first froze, then hesitated, and finally looked at the Taoist in front of her who was slowly withdrawing his finger and smiling. There was disbelief in her eyes, and the trance of a long-awaited reunion. She murmured:

"You are…"

"Yuan?"

The black-haired Taoist smiled and replied:

"It's been thousands of years since we parted, long time no see."

"I came to find you."

"Hou."

Just like the promise back then.

And at this time, a huge wave swept across the entire dream. The dream world shattered, leaving only some remnants, and the peaceful and beautiful town under the setting sun before, forming an extremely glaring contrast, giving Wei Yuan a momentary illusion that he was the villain, who had come to destroy the good life here.

But that kind of illusory and beautiful dream was causing Houtu to enter an endless slumber.

It was devouring Houtu's vitality every moment.

Just because of this, Wei Yuan had to smash this dream. Wei Yuan's eyes drooped slightly, and he subconsciously looked at the small pavilion where Huntian was before. Now this small pavilion had disappeared. It was like a pavilion on the ground. The earth had been broken, so where could the pavilion survive?

Even knowing that this was just Huntian in the dream, Wei Yuan still felt a sense of melancholy in his heart.

Wei Yuan calmed himself and said, "In any case, I have to take you out now, and then let the Shennong Whip help you heal. In fact, perhaps you don't need the power of the Shennong Whip. After all, Nüwa is also outside now… and there are still two Nüwas. They are both in the human world now, and Uncle Buzhoushan has also woken up. Jia Yi is also there, and Yeming is also there."

Wei Yuan's voice was unconsciously light and gentle, "Many changes have taken place in the human world now."

"After we go back, I will slowly tell you."

His heart was really filled with joy because of the return of his friend. However, Houtu did not say "okay" as usual. After the initial joy of seeing her friend, there was a sense of helplessness and bitterness on her gentle face.

"Yuan, Xi Huang, you shouldn't have woken me up…"

Wei Yuan was stunned, "Huh???"

Xi Huang frowned slightly and said unhappily, "What are you talking about?"

"If you don't wake up, your vitality and spirit will be drawn away by the dream. At that time, even if you are still alive, it is actually no different from being dead."

Houtu said softly, "It's better for me to sleep alone than to bring disaster to the common people."

And Wei Yuan already knew what was hidden in Houtu's dream, and also understood what he would face in the future on another timeline. No wonder, even he, who held the three swords in that era, ended up in such a situation—

As the last dream fragments peeled off, the true face of the entire dream was revealed in front of Wei Yuan and the others.

The huge yin and yang energy was presented below, slowly spinning in an extremely slow manner. Each spin would bring a large amount of vitality tides. The magnitude of its breath was so great that even a Dao Fruit level existence might be directly burst to death!

Because this was the root of everything.

It was the beginning, the source, yin and yang.

It was [Yin and Yang] after [Chaos], and also the singularity that created all things.

It was the Great Tribulation!

The reason why the Great Tribulation had not been born for thousands of years, and had not erupted as [Destiny] had guided, was because Houtu had sensed this Great Tribulation, and ultimately chose to suppress it directly here with her own dream and Dao Fruit. However, Huntian took the initiative to remind Wei Yuan and the others to wake up Houtu, probably because even the foundation of the earth had been consumed to the point of near exhaustion over the past thousands of years.

If she didn't wake up again, she really wouldn't be able to wake up.

And Wei Yuan on another trajectory of fate must have successfully awakened Houtu with the help of Huntian. However, at that time, he was afraid that he would have no way to face the terrifying disaster in front of him. And in the great battle of the Turbid World and in that future, Houtu's whereabouts were not seen.

In other words, in that future, Houtu ultimately chose to sacrifice herself to seal this Great Tribulation again for thousands of years.

And Wei Yuan broke an arm and left this place, but fell into the Turbid World and ultimately died there.

This was the future that once was.

'Courage is a quality worth cherishing, but being too reckless and bringing disaster to the people around you is foolish.'

Houtu exhaled and landed beside Wei Yuan, and said softly, "I will fight the enemy with you."

Wei Yuan said, "No need."

"This time, I will solve it."

Houtu was anxious, "Yuan!"

But Wei Yuan had already spoken, "Xi Huang, Hou's body has not yet recovered, I'll trouble you."

An invisible wind pulled Houtu back a step, and then, Xi Huang's right hand had already grabbed Houtu, pulling her away, away from the center of the storm at this moment. After the dream seal was broken, the yin and yang rotation had become more and more magnificent. Houtu said, "No, this place is too dangerous, Yuan alone is definitely not a match."

Xi Huang's voice was cold and calm, "Don't worry, if it really comes to that, I will take action."

Houtu was stunned.

The Taoist stood alone on this huge yin and yang rotation, the source of the world, and the aura he emitted was not weak at all.

Wei Yuan circulated the sword energy around him, stretched out a hand, tapped his fingers lightly, and said loudly:

"Qingping."

A long sword that seemed like the sky appeared with a slight whistling sound, emitting a vast and ethereal sword intent.

Wei Yuan tapped his fingers on the void again:

"Xuanyuan."

"Reincarnation."

"Great Dao."

With a series of calm voices, sword lights surged and reappeared. At the time of the first sword, it was still a cold ray of light that spanned the sky. By the time of the second sword, it had already divided the yin and yang rotation. Then, the heavens and the earth were filled with a torrent of sword energy like vast righteousness.

The four swords appeared in the world, forming a great array.

Wei Yuan stretched out his hands flatly, and then turned his wrists, pressing down his fingers, his voice calm:

"Suppress!"