Every day, new recruits swarmed to the Bright Realm. Land creatures pledged allegiance to the Leader of Turtle Snakes, settling in the right court of Shenzhe Palace, while aquatic beings pledged to Gun Tuo, taking up residence in the Undersea Crystal Palace. The original places were no longer sufficient for habitation, so when Gun approached Shi Feiyang to seek guidance, Shi Feiyang provided blueprints, instructing them to carve out two more aquatic mansions to the left and right. Those who had mostly completed their human transformation settled in the Southern Mansion, whereas the rest who hadn't succeeded moved into the Northern Mansion.

Gun had only cultivated for a little over eight thousand years, his Dao Level diminished by Yu the Great back in the day, and he was suppressed beneath the waters of Yan Lake for four thousand years. In terms of divine powers and mana, he was far behind the Primordial Tuo, yet Shi Feiyang appointed him the rightful Leader of the Crystal Palace, with the Primordial Tuo as his deputy. The Primordial Tuo, the master of great mana and prone to violent temper, often defied him and even threatened to eat him.

Frustrated and grinding his teeth, Gun sought out Shi Feiyang to lodge a complaint, but Shi Feiyang didn't even permit him to enter the territory of Qianling Mountain, instead, he sent a message from afar, "Do you still remember the tale of Red Snake?"

After hearing this, Gun stood petrified on the spot. He and Red Snake used to lead the unusual kinds together, and he had tormented and coerced Red Snake just the same. Now, seeing things from a different angle, he finally understood the plight Red Snake had suffered. Stunned for a moment, he no longer had the courage to argue with Shi Feiyang and dejectedly returned to his own place.

Back at the Crystal Palace, upon receiving a few jibes from the Primordial Tuo and noticing that he didn't retort as he usually did, not even showing a hint of anger, the Primordial Tuo found it odd and poked his head forward to ask, "What's wrong with you?"

Gun, disheartened, replied, "Nothing much."

Confused, the Primordial Tuo pressed, "Why aren't you angry? Why don't you curse at me?" He peered over from the left to the right, scrutinizing Gun with his large eyes.

Gun let out a sigh, "Why should I curse at you? I'll never curse you again. You can do whatever you like."

It astonished the Primordial Tuo, who thought more and sensed something amiss, "Could it be that some newly arrived cursed beast has bullied you?"

Among the beings on Outer Heaven Divine Mountain, ranked in terms of mana, Cold Centipede was the strongest, followed by him. No demon dared to bully him, but Gun was different. While not many were stronger than Gun, there were a few, and Primordial Tuo was furious, "Which bastard has troubled you? To bully you to such an extent that even your spirit is broken, I'll tear him apart!"

Gun urged him to calm down: "I've just come to realize, I used to treat Red Snake the same way you treat me now."

Upon hearing this, the Primordial Tuo paused, and then burst out laughing, the laughter sending tremors through the Crystal Palace, "So that's it! Our King taught us, 'Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.' You did not accrue virtue in the past, and now you've met with the same fate. Your retribution is me."

Gun wanted to physically retaliate against the Primordial Tuo but knew he would be no match, glaring at him with resentment. Primordial Tuo was unafraid and glared back with even bigger eyes.

Suddenly, Gun laughed, "I recall that the nine Primordial Spirits of Cold Centipede were seized by the King, hmm, I wonder if they've been completely eradicated. With the King's magnanimity, who knows, maybe one day he'll take Cold Centipede as a disciple too, and when he releases her to be your deputy, only then, as they say, 'There's always a higher mountain,' and 'One good turn deserves another!'"

"Er…" Primordial Tuo was caught off guard by his words. Indeed, he couldn't best Cold Centipede and had been trapped in a cave for many years by her or else he would have already emerged, "That Cold Centipede, lecherous and filthy, the King would never take her as a disciple. She must have already been refined by him, body and soul destroyed!"

After saying this, he himself seemed uncertain, tentatively asking Gun, "It can't be, can it? The King couldn't possibly take her as well, to be my deputy?"

Gun mocked him, "Wouldn't that be great? That wench loves to harvest energy from males; imagine enjoying the pleasure of her nine incarnations all at once."

"That creature is all flabby without bones, not to my taste," grumbled the Primordial Tuo. After a while, he spoke again to Gun, "You should tell the King not to revive Cold Centipede, otherwise, the tens of thousands of beings in both the Crystal Palace and the Shenzhe Palace would suffer at her hands."

Gun sighed and responded, "How could I persuade the King? For all we know, he might revive Cold Centipede not to make her your deputy but to wed her, making her our Queen."

"That's impossible!" The thought of Shi Feiyang marrying Cold Centipede sent the Primordial Tuo's scales bristling.

"Why is it impossible? Cold Centipede has nine incarnations, what male could resist indulging in them…"

Both creatures, recalling Cold Centipede's seductive past, increasingly felt the likelihood and both started to worry. Gun then sought to contact Red Snake and Xuan Turtle among others, aiming to collectively persuade Shi Feiyang, begging him not to marry Cold Centipede. Red Snake, snorting through his nostrils at him, said, "The King can marry whoever he fancies, even if he marries Cold Centipede or even both you and that old Primordial Tuo dragon, I would still support it."

Gun stared at him, "What did you say…"

"Scram!" hissed Red Snake, spitting out its forked tongue, "I said scram, this is my territory now, get back to your Crystal Palace pronto!"

Choking back fury, Gun relayed this to Primordial Tuo, and together they heaved sighs of worry...

Shi Feiyang was in Heavenly Heart Palace at Qianling Mountain, dedicating his days to studying Guang Chengzi's Heavenly Book, enhancing his own Dao while preparing for the impending calamity three thousand years hence.

Before Qianling Peak, there loomed an enormous lake, spreading over five hundred miles in all directions, roughly the size of fifteen Poyang Lakes on Earth. Its waters were crystal clear, with depths reaching more than three hundred feet in the central area. Closer to the shores, there were many shallows carpeted with Five-Colored Divine Sand and assorted stones, nurturing colorful snails and crystal shells amid a variety of underwater flora. When the waters stirred, the scent infused the lake, turning it into fragrant broth that filled heaven and earth.

Shi Feiyang transplanted that Heavenly Jade Lotus into the lake.

The so-called Heavenly Jade Lotus was, in fact, a lotus plant. Originally due to an earthquake, the water level had fallen. In the era of the Cold Centipede, the place where it had grown was left without water and had appeared on the land beside the lake. The lotus roots were exposed, each about two feet thick, more than a yard long, split into sections of four or five, whiter than jade. Each section bore either a lotus leaf or a flower, with stems as thick as a teacup opening and as tall as two or three yards, holding the leaves high in the air, easily supporting the full weight of an adult.

The lotus flowers came in pink, green, and white, some buds about to bloom the size of melons, others already in full majestic bloom with multiple layers counting over twenty flowers. Only one white lotus had sprouted a seed pod.

Shi Feiyang had transplanted this flower into the newly created Tianxin Lake, watering it daily with True Water. A single drop of True Water could expand into a vast lake, and Shi Feiyang drew a strand of Innate Water and infused it into the flower each day. Its growth accelerated, roots reaching down, stems growing longer and moving from the shallows to the deeper waters. More roots and leaves unfurled from underwater until the count of leaves surpassed a thousand, and new buds numbering eighty or ninety swelled up, taking up a sizable area in the lake.

Since ancient times, a single banyan tree could grow into a whole forest. Now this flower had grown into its very own aquatic "jungle."

The seed pod gradually reached maturity, and Shi Feiyang knew it was about to transform. He kept a forty-nine-day-and-night vigil, constantly infusing it with Dan Qi, aiding its growth.

He was like a father expecting a child's birth, anxious and attentive day and night, while Mo Zhui, Mo Xiang, and Mo Ying, upon hearing the news, came rushing over to stand watch on the pavilion in front of the Tianxin Palace.

Finally, the day came when the endeavor reached Perfection. A maiden emerged, donned in a white silk dress, appearing to be fifteen or sixteen years old, rising from the seed pod like a fairy under the moon, her demeanor demure and tranquil. She plucked the pod that had birthed her and glided across the water's surface to the pavilion in front of the Tianxin Palace.

She had already been conscious before her transformation, feeling somewhat familiar with Shi Feiyang and the three Mo brothers. After landing on the pavilion, she smiled faintly at the group, one tall and the rest shorter, and offered up the seed pod in gratitude for their nurturing guard over so many days.

Shi Feiyang named her Miaomiao. Mo Ying questioned, "Why does she not share our surname Mo?"

"Because she was born from water, while you were born from land."

"Oh," Mo Ying nodded, "but why is she called Miaomiao if she's water-born? Why not share our surname Mo?"

"Because I want it that way!" Shi Feiyang pinched his chubby cheek, "I like to call you what I wish. If you don't want to be called Mo Ying, how about I call you Mo Little Pig from now on?"

Having never seen a pig, only knowing it was some kind of animal, Mo Ying found the idea fresh: "Alright then, from now on I'll be Mo Little Pig."

Shi Feiyang pushed him aside with a slap and led Miaomiao into the palace to tell her about the current situation.

After listening quietly, Miaomiao pointed towards the sky beyond the palace with a gesture, "I want to return to the heavens."

Shi Feiyang asked, "You've expressed before an eagerness to return to the heavens; your desire remains strong. I've asked you about your memories of the Spiritual Space Immortal Realm, and you said you had none. Do you now?"

Miaomiao shook her head, "I know nothing of the Spiritual Space Immortal Realm and remember nothing, not even events from a few years ago. Yet I feel that I come from the heavens and must return there."

Shi Feiyang found her statement credible, as Miaomiao's features bore a striking resemblance to his own!

Clearly, Miaomiao's memories lacked other human figures, or they were too fragmented and vague. Hence, she took his form, her appearance a diminutive female version of him. He seemed eighteen or nineteen; she looked fifteen or sixteen, like a pair of siblings.

Miaomiao had previously expressed her desire to return to the heavens, and Shi Feiyang had thought maybe a Heavenly Immortal had found and nurtured her, with this wish etched deeply in her heart. But now it seemed there was no such memory; perhaps only the difference in the concentration of Spiritual Energy between the Lower and Upper Realms meant her memories contained a better environment, a better homeland.

"Fine, I'll teach you the way to ascend to the heavens. Just cultivate well, and in time, you'll naturally find your opportunity for Ascension."

Miaomiao nodded in agreement, her demeanor gentle, sparing of words, and rarely given to actions unlike Mo Ying, who was constantly fidgeting and jumping around, never a moment at rest.

Considering Miaomiao's circumstances, Shi Feiyang designed a cultivation path for her, in fact, two paths. Being an anomaly that had achieved cultivation, if she wished to ascend quickly, after a few years once the Primordial Embryo had formed, and the baby refined, it would be best to undergo a transformation and be reborn as a human. Following Lu Rongbo's pace, the fastest would be a couple of sixty-year cycles to achieve Ascension, of course, assuming no unforeseen twists occurred.

Otherwise, if she followed the orderly cultivation of manifesting as a lotus, then it was hard to predict how many years that path might take.

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