After looking at the Nine Sons of Zulong for a good while with the gaze of someone looking at a complete fool, a slightly dazed Hongyun finally recovered his wits.

Then, Hongyun shook his head indifferently and said, "Fellow Daoists, setting aside the fact that this poor daoist is of the same generation as you all and it is utterly impossible for us to have a master-disciple affinity, this poor daoist currently has no intention of taking disciples. Furthermore, I am completely unacquainted with you and the Dragon Race, so where does this talk of apprenticing and taking disciples come from?"

"Therefore, do not mention this matter again. After drinking a few cups of immortal wine here, Fellow Daoists should quickly take your leave."

Hearing this, the Nine Sons of Zulong did not speak further, nor did they persist too stubbornly. However, the several of them did not leave immediately either. After drinking a few cups of immortal wine, Qiuniu spoke up once more, "Then would Fellow Daoist be willing to take a disciple from our Dragon Race?"

"Fellow Daoists, in front of straightforward people, no covert words are spoken. You should all know the situation of your Dragon Race better than anyone else. Therefore, although this poor daoist does not harbor the special prejudice of Yuanshi regarding 'those born from eggs or wetness, and those with fur and horns', it is basically impossible for me to take disciples from the Dragon Race." Hongyun expressed his thoughts and ideas to the Nine Sons of Zulong.

The situation of the Dragon Race was complex. Even if Hongyun truly wanted to take disciples in the future, it would be extremely difficult for the Dragon Race to rank within his scope of accepting disciples; using them as mounts would be much more suitable instead.

However, if these words were spoken out loud, they would be a bit too hurtful, so Hongyun naturally would not utter them in such a brainless manner.

After all, he simply did not want to have too much entanglement with the Dragon Race, not that he wanted to turn against them; there was no need to humiliate the Dragon Race for no reason at all.

At this moment, upon hearing Hongyun's relatively direct words, the Nine Sons of Zulong all wore desolate expressions with a hint of bitter a smile. Immediately, Qiuniu asked stubbornly, "If the Dragon Race offers treasures, could you please bend the rules, Fellow Daoist, and take a disciple with good Aptitude from the Dragon Race?"

Hongyun shook his head and replied, "You all need not waste your efforts here with this poor daoist. Rather than getting no response here, you might as well go try your luck elsewhere."

"For instance, Pangu's Three Pure Ones of the Kunlun Mountains—they are the Authentic Lineage of Pangu and the orthodox rulers of heaven and earth. The situation of the Dragon Race might not be a big deal to them. Therefore, as long as you possess persistent sincerity and wait until the opportune time in the future, it might not be impossible for them to take a few Dragon Race disciples."

As for Laozi and Tongtian, Hongyun might not be certain, but Yuanshi—who had always held the prejudice of 'those born from eggs or wetness, and those with fur and horns'—opened his mountain gates wide after Achieving Sainthood, and indeed had Perfected Lord Huanglong ranked among the sequence of Direct Disciple of the Twelve Golden Immortals.

The Origins of this Perfected Lord Huanglong were quite legendary. Some said he was an alternative rebirth of a trace of Origin from the Huanglong Dragon Ancestor among the four major dragon ancestors of the Dragon Race—Ancestral Dragon, Candle Dragon, Yinglong, and Huanglong; some said he was the dragon vein of the Kunlun Mountains that underwent Transformation and attained the Dao; others said he was an ornamental dragon presented by the Dragon Race to Pangu's Three Pure Ones, who later entered Yuanshi's sect after listening to the Great Dao of Pangu's Three Pure Ones.

But no matter what, there was inevitably some connection between him and the Dragon Race.

Since that was the case, Hongyun was naturally happy to go with the flow and dismiss the Nine Sons of Zulong.

Upon hearing Hongyun's words going with the flow, the Nine Sons of Zulong seemed to have their minds opened instantly, with faint lights continuously flashing in their eyes. Clearly, they had taken Hongyun's words to heart.

Seeing this, Hongyun knew that he had finally managed to send away the dog-skin plaster that was the Dragon Race. At the same time, however, his confusion deepened; he did not understand how on earth he had attracted the Dragon Race, nor why they looked at him in such a different light.

This deepened Hongyun's confusion while making him immensely curious, so he naturally asked about it on the spot.

Hearing this, the Nine Sons of Zulong exchanged glances, and only then did Qiuniu slowly speak up, revealing the reasons behind it.

"Actually, we are not clear about the specific situation either. One day before the establishment of the Demon Court, we suddenly received some information transmitted by our Imperial Father from the depths of the East China Sea Eye through the nether realm. From it, we roughly learned that Imperial Father seemed to know Fellow Daoist, and explicitly stated that Fellow Daoist should have some Karma with our Dragon Race, suggesting we get closer."

"Transmission from Ancestral Dragon? Before the establishment of the Demon Court? And having some Karma with the Dragon Race? Could it be that matter of accidentally entering that special broken space Secret Realm back then?"

Hongyun's thoughts whirled, and he glanced at the large number of corpses of the three clans collected back then in the special broken space Secret Realm, among which powerful dragon corpses still formed the majority.

This gave Hongyun a trace of enlightenment; if one really insisted that he had some Karma with the Dragon Race, it seemed there was no major flaw in that statement.

As for Ancestral Dragon knowing him, Hongyun felt it should also be related to that special broken space Secret Realm.

After all, that special broken space Secret Realm back then was related to the decisive battle of the three clans, containing the remaining might of the battle and possessing profound principles such as spacetime branding.

Who knows, when that special broken space Secret Realm shattered and collapsed because of Hongyun back then, it might have caused Ancestral Dragon—whose physical body had dissolved and whose Primordial Spirit was suppressing the East China Sea Eye—to sense it through the nether realm. Thus, Ancestral Dragon came to know Hongyun and transmitted some information, prompting the Dragon Race to come and build relations.

"This Ancestral Dragon is probably clutching at straws out of desperation, believing that anyone capable of emerging from such a terrifying special broken space Secret Realm must be extraordinary. If the Dragon Race can establish a connection with him, regardless of the outcome, there should be no harm in it—why not do it!"

Once Hongyun understood the specific situation on his end, all his doubts and curiosity vanished. Believing they had received Hongyun's guidance, the Nine Sons of Zulong chatted casually with him for a short while before being escorted out of Fire Cloud Cave by the two young Daoist boys. Hongyun could be considered to have resolved a troublesome matter.

Not long after the Nine Sons of Zulong left, various places across the Primordial Land suddenly faintly revealed a special auspicious omen brimming with vitality. Flowers, grass, trees, and plants swayed and shook unceasingly, as if cheering and leaping with joy.

Accompanied by this, two scrolls of lists, one golden and one silver, hovered in the sky, visible to all living beings. Then, the voice of Zhen Yuanzi echoed across the Great Wilderness.

"Heavenly Dao is above! I am Zhen Yuanzi of Wuzhuang Temple of Mount Wanshou! Having received guidance from Hongyun of Fire Cloud Cave, I realized that the numerous Spiritual Roots of heaven and earth in the Great Wilderness are nameless and unordered, and all living beings do not know or understand the boundless grace and virtue of heaven and earth..."

"Therefore, I have organized the numerous Spiritual Roots of heaven and earth into volumes, ranked them to establish a list, and defined the order of Innate and Acquired Spiritual Roots to manifest them to the Great Wilderness. May the Heavenly Dao witness this..."

Zhen Yuanzi's voice resounded like thunder, lingering for a long time without fading. The two-colored lists of gold and silver revealed their names: the golden list was named the tianling list to display the numerous Innate Spiritual Roots and establish their rankings and order; the silver list was named the Earth Spirit List to display the numerous Acquired Spiritual Roots and establish their rankings and order.

On the tianling list, besides the top ten Top-grade Innate Spiritual Roots, there were things like the four symbols plantain tree, Heaven-Reaching Jianmu, Star Fruit Tree, Innate Enlightenment Tea Tree, Innate Phoenix Tree, Xuanhuang Ancient Tree, Heaven and Earth Twin Lotuses, Rosy Clouds Spirit Tree, and so on. All kinds of Innate Spiritual Roots of various grades, famous and nameless, were all included within it.

The Earth Spirit List was even more varied and colorful, featuring trees like the Dragon-Elephant Fruit Tree, Undying Grass, millennium longevity tree, Youhen Soul-Fixing Tree, Fire Date Tree, Heaven-Supporting Texture Tree, Immortal Wine Spirit Fruit Tree, and even the seemingly genuine dahongpao mother tea tree, and so on. Various Acquired Spiritual Roots of different grades, famous and nameless, were all within it.

With the appearance of these heaven and earth two spirits list, the names of various Spiritual Roots of heaven and earth naturally spread rapidly across the Primordial World. Sensing this through the nether realm, the Heavenly Dao also bestowed a vast amount of Merit.

The majority went to Zhen Yuanzi, while a portion entered the heaven and earth two spirits list, transforming into two Acquired Merit Spirit Treasures.

As for Hongyun, whose guidance had meritorious service, he was allocated ten percent of the Merit. Although it was not much, once it settled deep within his Primordial Spirit, he distinctly felt that he was much more close and harmonious with heaven and earth. Under Hongyun's perception, the Laws of Heaven and Earth also seemed to have become somewhat clearer and more distinct.

The benefits of that Merit had already manifested somewhat at this moment, which made Hongyun even more enthusiastic about acquiring Merit. Consequently, Hongyun subconsciously turned his attention back to the matter of earning Merit by creating characters for cultivation.

However, in a split second, his brows knitted tightly together, and he instinctively pinched incantations, calculating the heavenly secrets as if searching and probing into some unknown matters.

The reason Hongyun acted this way naturally had some background behind it.

As it turned out, over so many years, although the matter of the Three Lives Body creating characters for cultivation had been roughly completed, for some reason, he always felt that it was lacking just a tiny bit, unable to officially take form and achieve Perfection.

Originally, Hongyun did not care too much about this, thinking that it would just take a bit more time to officially achieve Perfection.

But now, seeing that Zhen Yuanzi's matter was officially completed, Hongyun became quite concerned about it, and naturally wanted to calculate the heavenly secrets to investigate what was actually going on.

After a good while like this, Hongyun finally stopped calculating the heavenly secrets, wearing a pensive expression on his face.

At this time, the Three Lives Body deep within the Primordial Spirit spoke up, "Fellow Daoist, judging from the results of the heavenly secrets calculation just now, the timing is not right at present, and the created characters for cultivation cannot emerge into the world, making it difficult to achieve Perfection. However, grasping the specific time is extremely difficult!"

"The time should not be too hard to grasp; it is estimated to be after the Third Lecture at Zixiao Palace." Hongyun smiled slightly, and gradually stopped dwelling on or pondering the matter of the characters for cultivation.

From the calculated heavenly secrets, he only roughly deduced the result that the timing was wrong and the characters for cultivation could not yet be born.

But Hongyun already understood that the timing should be after the Third Lecture at Zixiao Palace and Hongjun merging with the Dao.

Or to be more precise, when Hongjun merged with the Dao, the Heavenly Dao achieved Perfection, and the last massive batch of Innate Beings with extraordinary Aptitude were born into the world. The Qi Fortune of Innate Beings would basically be exhausted from then on, and the Innate Beings of the Great Wilderness would gradually become scarce. Only when the living beings of heaven and earth rapidly developed toward ordinary and mediocre Aptitudes would it be the opportune time for the characters for cultivation to emerge in Perfection.

Kunpeng creating the Demon Script in the original trajectory was also at this exact time point—truly, when luck arrives, heaven and earth exert their forces together, and the times create the heroes!

While this seemed to be merely a matter of time, in Hongyun's eyes, it was a grand trend of heaven and earth marked by the alternation and upheaval of the old and new eras.

Within it, winds and clouds shifted unpredictably, and opportunities and risks inevitably coexisted; it all depended on who could laugh last and gain sufficient benefits.

Holding this mindset, Hongyun passed down the basic chapters of the Wuji Yunmiao Scripture to the two young Daoist boys, Xiaojin and Little Red, and then continued into seclusion for cultivation.

Thus time flowed by. During this period, he ignored the storms of the outside world, and no one disturbed him. In the blink of an eye, the time for the Second Lecture at Zixiao Palace arrived.