Qing Ling chuckled upon hearing Hou Tu's resolute mindset. "What if your Wu Clan, for whom you would lay down your life, needed you to?"
Hou Tu's expression faltered. "Is that even possible?"
"By coincidence, by the cycle of karma, destiny will bring it about. How you choose then will depend on you, Ancestral Witch."
Qing Ling turned to leave, saying no more. He set off westward.
Hou Tu remained silent for a long time. She descended into the depths of the earth, heading to the Nine Netherworld to witness the path of the earth.
Qing Ling circumnavigated Buzhou for twelve thousand years, planting twelve wood dao. His journey had thus far fulfilled its merit.
The twelve woods benefited not only the Wu Clan but countless beings in the world.
Hence, heavenly merit descended.
While rare for ordinary powerful beings, merit was commonplace for these old fellows. Even without merit, they could forge their own path.
However, Qing Ling had no intention of seeking merit, for he possessed an abundance of it.
Having lived long enough, the merit accumulated bit by bit had now piled up like an abyss and a sea.
Even for a single day that the Jian Mu supported the heavens, the Heavenly Dao owed him a day's worth of merit.
Although the Heavenly Dao had returned much of it, the unreturned merit remained far greater.
The "God Slaying" blade, which had been gestating within the Da Luo Dao Scripture Realm, was already a treasure of merit. It could slay not just men without incurring karma, but even gods with difficulty.
The twelve wood seeds, encircling Buzhou, established the twelve cardinal directions. The twelve wood dao grew and integrated into the twelve Pangu Great Daos, using wood to manifest Buzhou.
Qing Ling's footsteps traversed Buzhou once, then he proceeded directly west.
Behind him, the ethereal forms of the twelve woods formed a ring around Mount Zhou, which could also be called Buzhou.
The name Buzhou originally meant incompleteness and difficulty in fulfillment. Though the Buzhou of the Primordial World today was complete, it was also not entirely so.
The peak of Mount Buzhou was the twenty-eighth heaven of the Primordial World.
However, the five heavens above were still supported by Mount Buzhou. Thus, from the peak of Buzhou, no one below the saintly realm could ascend higher.
The peak of Buzhou was the peak of heaven and earth.
Therefore, Mount Buzhou was also known as Mount Zhou, but the former name was more widely accepted by all beings.
The phantom image of Mount Zhou behind Qing Ling, born from the twelve wood seeds, evolved into Mount Mu Buzhou. Without the need to support the heavens, there was no concept of incompleteness. Hence, it could also be called Mount Zhou.
But Qing Ling chose a different term. He did not call it Mount Zhou or Mount Buzhou.
Mount Buzhou was the spine of the great god Pangu. Only Mount Buzhou in the heavens and earth deserved the name Buzhou. Even saints would not alter its meaning.
Therefore, the phantom image formed by the wood dao behind Qing Ling was renamed by him as Mount Mu Zhou, representing the perfection of wood, the ultimate achievement of wood in the world.
As the progenitor of the wood dao, Qing Ling, who held ninety percent of the wood dao's authority, was worthy of this title, and only he was.
The twelve wood dao formed the foundation of wood, encompassing flowers, plants, and trees, from which all phenomena derived. Furthermore, Qing Ling incorporated all wood-type beings he encountered throughout the Primordial World into Mount Mu Zhou, gradually expanding its structure.
In essence, it was not a mountain but a mountain formed by countless wood dao seeds, the manifested wood dao of heaven and earth, and the Mountain of Wood Zhou.
As Qing Ling walked his path, covering billions of miles, the wood dao of the world was absorbed, mastered, and further refined by him, ultimately manifesting as an optimized wood dao in the heavens and earth.
In these twelve thousand years, the once-scarce wood-dwelling creatures of the world began to awaken their spirits, even cultivating and transforming. Gradually, new small clans began to form.
In the Eastern Lin Secret Realm, within a desolate forest, a small clan called the Qing Yuan clan emerged. Most of its members were only at the Heavenly Immortal realm, struggling to survive even in their secluded corner.
They were originally Qing Yuan trees in this wild forest, having grown for hundreds of thousands of years. Seizing a sliver of opportunity from Qing Ling's journey through the wood dao, they awakened their spirits and transformed. In just a few thousand years, dozens of them had taken human form, establishing themselves as a clan and revering the progenitor of the wood dao as their ancestor.
In the Southern Xuan Marsh, a green light emanated from the heavens for hundreds of thousands of miles, opening the three flowers of heaven, earth, and man. A massive pressure caused cultivators within a million-mile radius to feel both fear and envy.
This was a being who had achieved the Golden Immortal realm!
A bystander said to a junior beside him, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, the chieftain of the Water Vine clan has actually achieved Golden Immortal. It seems this clan will have peace for ten Yuan Hui unless something drastic happens. No other clan will dare to raid these wood-transformed groups anymore. You youngsters should be more restrained from now on and stop provoking this clan."
The five or six juniors behind him respectfully agreed.
Dozens of wood-dwelling clans had emerged across the Primordial World, scattered in various locations.
This was not Qing Ling's deliberate intention. He walked his path throughout the world, indifferent to the rise and fall of any clan or being.
It was simply that where he passed, Mount Mu Zhou traversed, and those ignorant spirit woods experienced a fleeting, ethereal dream. They dreamt of a mountain drifting across the sky, a mountain with myriad trees, trees with spirits, spirits as ancient as creation, born from heaven and earth, growing under the sun and moon, receiving the favor of all beings, and thus belonging to all beings.
As if waking from a dream, they awakened their spirits and embarked on the path to longevity.
Mount Mu Zhou was the progenitor of all woods in the world, the root of all trees.
The grass and tree clans revered the Wood Ancestor as their progenitor and deity, both their ancestor and their god.
The meager fortune gained from these clans was like a few drops of water added to the vast ocean for Qing Ling.
However, behind Qing Ling, a faint black mist suddenly arose in the boundless heavens and earth, engulfing the sky and obscuring the sun for three hundred million miles.
Qing Ling appeared somewhat surprised. Within the vast mist, scenes of countless Wu Clan members worshipping were visible. The diagram of the twelve wood seeds appeared, and two large Wu characters materialized on various altars, echoed by the voices of countless Wu people.
"Wood Master!"
The origin of all wood began with the Wood Master, who transmitted the twelve divisions, creating all Wu.
The Wu Clan revered Qing Ling, the master of the twelve wood daos, as their Wood Master.
It should have been the title of Wood Ancestor, but Gou Mang, an Ancestral Witch, was also an Ancestral Witch of wood. Their names colliding was a major taboo.
Therefore, another title was chosen: Wood Master.
Naturally, many among the twelve Ancestral Witches were unwilling, but the Wu Clan indeed owed this karmic debt.
The twelve woods, which absorbed spiritual energy, became spiritual materials for refining Wu artifacts for numerous Wu Clan members. Those without spiritual energy became ingredients for Wu medicine or were used for building houses and shelters.
Even the initial ancestral trees of the twelve woods, being the most spiritual and each harmonizing with the Wu laws of an Ancestral Witch, and possessing the most tranquil wood qi, were used by the Wu Clan to dispel deadly miasma.
The Wu Clan used the miasma of heaven and earth as spiritual energy, and the twelve Wu cultivators practiced twelve kinds of Wu miasma. However, Wu Clan infants, inheriting the miasma from their parents, were born with fragile bodies. Often, they would die because their bodies could not withstand the innate miasma. Therefore, the innate Wu miasma left within the womb was also known as deadly miasma.
But the twelve ancestral woods could absorb this deadly miasma, saving countless Wu Clan infants. Over time, they were revered as ancestral woods by the twelve Wu, and their planter was honored as the Wood Master!
Naturally, the Wu Clan primarily revered the twelve ancestral woods. Qing Ling, as the Wood Master, was merely to repay the karmic debt of planting the wood.
In other words, the Wu Clan bestowed the honorary title of Wood Master upon Qing Ling, allowing him to share in the Wu Clan's fortune. He, in turn, was not required to bother the Wu Clan further, thus settling their accounts.
However, the twelve Ancestral Witches were not foolish. By revering Qing Ling as the Wood Master, this demon ancestor became entangled with the Wu Clan. In the conflict between the two races, even if Qing Ling was cold and indifferent, he would never completely unleash a deadly attack on the Wu Clan.