"The Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace are determined by the Heavenly Dao, and are the focus of Qi Fortune. Those who come later wishing to go to Purple Heaven Palace must replace them to inherit the predestined fate and seize their Qi Fortune... Hehe..."

Inside the Fire Cloud Cave, Hongyun sat cross-legged on a prayer mat within the Fire Cloud Palace, murmuring in a low voice with an enigmatic expression. A strange light flashed and vanished in his half-open and half-closed eyes, making it difficult to discern his exact thoughts.

Hongyun did not quite believe the rumors regarding the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace, nor did he conspiratorially think that Hongjun was playing tricks. That person was about to merge with the Dao and gather Qi Fortune, so he would not pull such petty tricks.

Moreover, Hongyun had been to Purple Heaven Palace once and knew that it contained many trials. There was no need for Hongjun to scheme, and it was certainly not something that could be reached simply by snatching and replacing someone.

However, it was difficult for Hongyun to distinguish the true from the false for a moment, because he found the heavenly secrets to be utterly chaotic, and he was unable to search and sort out useful information from the chaotic heavenly secrets.

This caused Hongyun to ponder slightly, and he understood a little bit. Someone must have made a move to conceal and disrupt the heavenly secrets, intending to scheme and kill with a borrowed knife. As for who the person plotting was...

"Either it is Jieyin and Zhunti from the West, or Di Jun and Donghuang Taiyi of the Demon Race. As for the Wu Clan, although they also have unique witchcraft that allows them to conceal and disrupt the heavenly secrets, it would more or less reveal a trace."

"And to put it nicely, the Wu Clan are simple-minded; to put it bluntly, their brains are not quite adequate. Things involving scheming and plotting have nothing to do with the Wu Clan..."

Hongyun, having roughly formed some ideas and gone through a round of analysis, ultimately found it hard to settle on a specific conclusion.

Although the Wu Clan seemed the least likely in Hongyun's view, this was only Hongyun's subjective guess, and they could not be completely ruled out.

As for Jieyin and Zhunti of the West, it might be even more subjective for Hongyun.

In Hongyun's view, the West was barren and basically lacked top-tier experts. If other places were a bit chaotic, it would be even more beneficial to the West. Indeed, Jieyin and Zhunti had the motive to scheme.

As for the remaining Demon Race, they were naturally Hongyun's biggest suspects.

Ever since the establishment of the Demon Court, Di Jun and Donghuang Taiyi probably harbored the thought that if they could not make the various Great Divine Beings their own, they might as well destroy them.

Thus, taking advantage of the approaching Second Lecture at Zixiao Palace to spread rumors, disrupt the situation, and carry out a simple purge through the hands of others was a highly likely occurrence.

Of course, the most likely thing could also be the least likely thing. It could not be ruled out that others also wanted to fish in troubled waters and frame others, such as Duke of the East, Kunpeng, and so on.

However, these things were not actually important. What was important was that while the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace might be able to guess that this was a rumor, those people who had never been to Purple Heaven Palace wouldn't care whether it was a rumor or not in order to get there.

And...

"And the positions of the Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace may not have the saying of being destined by heaven, and one does not need to replace someone to ascend. But those existences who went to Purple Heaven Palace probably do indeed carry the Heavenly Mandate, naturally blessed with a share of Qi Fortune. The saying of seizing Qi Fortune may not necessarily be non-existent within it."

"Therefore, what is true is false, and what is false is true. Who can truly see things clearly! Hehe... Truly a wonderful scheme!"

Hongyun sighed softly, but did not continue to dwell on this matter.

The Three Thousand Guests of Zixiao Palace was just a loose reference. How could there really be only three thousand of the various large and small Great Divine Beings inside? Three thousand was just a negligible fraction among them.

Therefore, this scheme could only cause calamity for the relatively ordinary Great Divine Beings among them. As for top-tier Great Divine Beings like Hongyun, it was naturally impossible for anyone to target them, so Hongyun naturally did not need to pay too much attention to it.

And with Hongyun's indifferent mindset, from time to time in the Primordial World, some Great Divine Beings who had been to Purple Heaven Palace unfortunately met with calamity due to various reasons.

It gradually subsided only when there were about twelve Yuanhui left until the Second Lecture at Zixiao Palace.

It was also at this time that visitors came outside the Fire Cloud Cave, causing Hongyun—who had some leisure time and was straight-hook fishing in a lake—to frown slightly. With a flick of his fishing rod, two cloud-patterned koi fish, one golden and one red, actually bit the straight hook and were reeled up by Hongyun.

But Hongyun was not too happy; instead, he frowned even more, glanced outside the Fire Cloud Cave, and muttered to himself: "It's actually the Nine Sons of Zulong from the Dragon Race coming to visit? What kind of ghost are they playing at again? Back then in the Heavenly Court, they left right after flirting, and now instead of living well in the Heavenly Court, they've run over to the Fire Cloud Cave. Are they trying to pick a fight with me?"

While muttering, Hongyun glanced at the two cloud-patterned koi fish and said with a smile: "You two fellows are still koi fish; not only are you silly and unlucky yourselves, but you didn't bring any good Qi Fortune at all, which is truly hateful. I will punish you both to transform into Fire Cloud Cave Taoist boy attendants and go out to welcome guests for this Lord!"

While speaking, Hongyun casually pointed at the two cloud-patterned koi fish. Immortal light entered their bodies, and the two cloud-patterned koi fish instantly transformed into two seven or eight-year-old little Taoist boy attendants dressed in golden-red immortal robes, looking quite cute.

"Greetings, Lord!" The two little Taoist boy attendants who had been enlightened knelt down and bowed in salute to Hongyun.

"Mhm, from now on I'll call you Xiaojin and Little Red. Now go out and bring the visitors outside in."

As Hongyun spoke, he pointed at the two boy attendants again. The two boy attendants instantly understood, clouds generating beneath their feet. As the clouds drifted, they flew neither fast nor slow across the boundless Fire Cloud Cave to go outside and welcome the visitors.

After a period of time, the two boy attendants, Gold and Red, brought people to an immortal pavilion, where Hongyun was tasting wine and waiting for them.

"Indeed, the etiquette is thoughtful and airtight."

Seeing that the two boy attendants were already holding some trinkets in their hands with smiling expressions, Hongyun's resistance towards the Dragon Race decreased by a tiny fraction.

Therefore, while telling the two boy attendants to go play in the distance, he invited the Nine Sons of Zulong to take their seats at will, taste wine, and eat some Spirit Fruits. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Hongyun spoke: "You are the Nine Sons of Zulong. We treat each other as equals and can address each other as Fellow Daoists. However, this poor Taoist has no interaction whatsoever with the Dragon Race. I wonder why several Fellow Daoists have come to visit this poor Taoist this time?"

"Fellow Daoist, we..."

Qiuniu, the eldest among the Nine Sons of Zulong, just started to speak when he was interrupted by Hongyun waving his hand: "Several Fellow Daoists, there is no need to use those polite phrases spoken back in the Heavenly Court to fool this poor Taoist anymore. It would be better for us to speak candidly."

Upon hearing this, the Nine Sons of Zulong looked at each other and were silent for a moment. Suddenly, they bowed deeply to Ancestor Hongyun and said in unison: "We are willing to take Ancestor Hongyun as our master. Please, Ancestor Hongyun, accept us as your disciples. In the future..."

"Pfft..."

"Cough cough... What? Take me as master? Accept you as disciples? Cough cough..."

Before the Nine Sons of Zulong could finish their words, Hongyun seemed to have been choked. A mouthful of aged wine instantly spewed out, and he coughed several times before catching his breath. He was slightly dazed, and even looked at the Nine Sons of Zulong with the gaze of someone looking at two idiots.