When did it all start for her? The pain, the discomfort, the constant feeling of being connected to every living creature across the Primitive World. The Great Wilderness, the Starry Skies, even obscure dimensions and cave worlds of cultivators had living beings. 

As long as they were of the five elements, she felt intimately close to them. When they transcended to celestial make up, the ease let up but didn’t go away. Because fundamentally, an immortal still belonged to the Primitive World.

When they ripped their true souls out and become Golden Immortals, a ripple affect would jolt her body. But afterwards would be a time of release as those third order celestial beings detached themselves from her.

Well, not her specifically. They detached themselves from the greater whole that she was essentially of the same spirit with.

Many tens of thousands ago, when she crawled out of the crimson ooze that was the remnants of Pangu’s blood essence, the Law of Earth was forcibly jammed into her entire being just as her siblings were.

As one of the Three Thousands Great Daos, it was a Dao Law that controlled everything that had to do with the soil. When a cultivator studies this Dao Law, they would gain knowledge and power over the manipulation of the soil and its fertile nature. But Houtu gained so much more.

The Dao Laws, even the great ones, are all just an aspect of the Daos of the Three Thousand Chaos Godfiends. Their true power can never be obtained, sealed within the core of the Primitive World, wardened by the Heavenly Dao. But the Twelve Ancestral Divinities bypassed that.

Houtu controlled the earth Dao in its entirety. Not only its fertility, not only its malleability, or its ability as a stabilizing agent. Houtu gained dominion over death as well. Vaguely, she recalled a figure from a previous era, the original possessor as well as creator of this Dao.

Julong was his name, one of the Three Thousand Chaos Godfiends. A competitor, but also coworker with the Five Elements God Huoyun. In the past, Huoyun confided with Julong for inspirations to create his own Dao. The Dao of Five Elements was born out of consultation with five other godfiends.

But on its own, Julong’s Dao was different. The thought that all living beings returned to the earth led him to understand death as part of his Earth Dao. This contained an understanding of souls, birth, as well as the reincarnation cycle.

Incorporated into the Primitive World, the congenital earth goddess Houtu was now connected to all living beings, their lifetimes of regrets and their deaths. Their woes and sorrows about their failures? Their indignity for having been murdered? Their rage at failing to find immortality? She felt all of it. 

At first, her bleeding heart felt sorrow for them. She wanted to defeat the Devilish Dao and restore peace. But as time went on, it built up more and more. The Blood Sea alone swallowed an uncountable number of deceased beings, enough to start spewing Primordial Beasts.

Before the tribulation, it was ignorable. After the tribulation began, the weight increased a quintillion fold. And because of this, for thousands of years since the war began, Houtu cursed Julong’s name. It was too much for her, she wanted to sever her connection. She didn’t want to feel the suffering of all living beings anymore.

“HOUTU! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”

A part of her felt deep regret. Zhu Jiuying was the first to notice, but it was Di Jiang who reacted first. His wings flapped and portals appeared despite destabilizing dimensions. Di Jiang controlled the Dao Law of Primordial Chaos, he was wholly unaffected by all the rampant destruction affecting reality. His footsteps crossed the battlefield by carrying in and out of the void.

Fortunately, him abandoning the battle with Mara did not mean much as Wangshu was already on the cusp of victory. Nothing would change, not even when the other Ancestral Divinities began abandoning that front to target her.

Zhurrong patted the dragons he rode to carry him quickly. Xuanming flew with all her might, Tianwu ran alongside Qiang Liang, Xizi and Shebishi. Gonggong slithered towards her. Rushou and Jumang stopped fighting Devil Great Emperors as well.

Houtu was transforming after she entered the illusionary disc spinning in the sky of the Netherworld. Her eyes glistened as numerous lines opened to her vision. So many lives, so many lifetimes, so much pain, so much suffering. 

The innate reincarnation system was already terribly inefficient and unorganized, relying purely in random chances. Yuanshi, Minghe, Nuwa, Yanluo, and Da Hai formed hand seals and started the final part of the ritual, completely ignoring the Ancestral Divinities.

“Brothers, sister,” Houtu said. “I’m sorry for not informing you all. But It’s easier to ask for forgiveness then to ask permission.”

“Houtu explain yourself, why is your vitality depleting?”

It didn’t take an detective to see that Houtu’s body was paling. Bits of her flesh was breaking off resembling dust particles. She was horribly skinny, looking like a ghost with clearly visible ribs beside skeletal arms. Houtu was an immortal undying being. But she was also rotting.

Di Jiang was furious and confused. He demanded more explanations from his sister, praying that whatever obvious conclusion to what he was seeing was a lie.

“I want the suffering to end,” Houtu said. “Reincarnation must be perfected. With my physique as the earth goddess, I shall sacrifice my being to become the Reincarnation Disc.”

“Madness, get out of there sister. This need not be you!” Shebishi demanded. Out of all the divinities, Shebishi actually learned some techniques based around souls. He saw lines of deathly concepts written all over Houtu’s body.

“I am the only choice to become the Reincarnation disc,” Houtu vehemently doubled down. “I am life, and I am death. Accepting the dead and instilling life. As reincarnation must embody both aspects, I AM the only choice.”

She said so with hints of madness and expectation. Everything hurts, but it was only physical pain as opposed to the mental anguish she’d suffered. She knew none of them would understand, and all of them would try to stop her.

And she was proven right as Di Jiang made to rip her out of the ritual. He clawed into the void but couldn’t find reach her through spacetime. His muscles bulged as he made to punch the ritual.

“How sad, the most successful opposition to us ended up being our own side,” Nuwa sighed.

“Can you blame them? Put Fuxi in the same situation,” Yuanshi retorted eyes closed. He wasn’t paying attention to the brewing conflict, only at helping Houtu through the process.

Instead, Da Hai reached into his sleeve with his free hand. He chucked a white lotus flower like a frisbee towards Di Jiang. The 12 Petals White Lotus of Purification quickly expanded into a shield.

BOOM!

Di Jiang’s flabby body jiggled, reeling from the impact of hitting the xianxia spiritual treasure specialised in defence. “Da Hai! What is the meaning of this? You betray us?”

In his mind, he began rationalizing that Houtu could not have chosen herself as a sacrifice for the ritual. It should’ve been the others, those filthy innate gods who did not appreciate Pangu’s gift like they did. Da Hai must’ve been motivated by spite due to what happened to Qinglong.

This was the common consensus among the Ancestral Divinities. Zhurrong without thinking charged forward alongside Jumang, Rushou, Gonggong, and others to break through the lotus. This lineup caused even Da Hai to frown.

Da Hai eyed the Immortal Extermination Formation to check up on Zulong’s condition. Then he lifted his focus out of the ritual and drew the Xuanhuang Water Control flag from his pocket dimension. A single double handed swing of that flew sent a tsunami at the divinities.

Opportunistic devils looked on with anticipation. They couldn’t break into that fortified area, but they hoped their enemies would turn on each other.

“This is the unity you all boast? What a joke, you’ll all fall to emotions and desires and fight among yourselves.” Mara laughed despite his crumbling state.

“Your taunts cannot change this outcome. Besides, I have faith in him.” Wangshu on the other didn’t seem to care, fully engrossed in executing the Reincarnation Pagoda’s treasure spirit.

Da Hai with his own flagpole continued to wave it around, generating increasing currents of water. Swirling and swirling, he eliminated Zhurrong’s divine flames again and washed every divinity not named Di Jiang or Zhu Jiuying out of the way. Those two were the only ones to remain on their feet.

“Civil war already?” Hongjun’s vice echoed beside Da Hai, his incarnation appeared once again. 

“They won’t cause any issues,” Da Hai said. His lips were downturned as he spoke, a clear look of sympathy in his gaze. “Earthly Divinities, this choice was non but Houtu’s. I will not lie and say I didn’t hope for it. But she and she alone made the final decision.”

“It had to stop brothers, I don’t want to keep feeling this suffering anymore.” Despite whispering, both Di Jiang and Zhu Jiuying heard her. Di Jiang gripped his feet in fury. He simply could not accept those answers.

But Zhu Jiuying was slightly different. The torch dragon analysed the chain of events and realized the bigger picture. No matter how much he hated it, he understood why it specifically had to be Houtu. 

Sitting a great distance away, in the middle of ferocious fighting was a field of tranquility. Devils hesitated to approach it, cultivators used it as a safe haven of sorts. The pure field deployed by Jieyin acted as a protective shield for the injured.

Jieyin sat in the centre of this pure land with hands clasped. His projected himself as a giant red humanoid sitting crossed legged, still as a statue. But in this moment, he turned his look to the ritual and Houtu.

“Zhunti, did you also plan to sacrifice that woman?” He pondered aloud. “Though, I suppose it makes sense considering what I’m sensing. It’s tragic, her very nature and current events. Fate is cruel indeed.”

The moment Houtu reached halfway in her transformation, almost all cultivators above the True Immortal realm realized what change had taken place. The higher in realm, the higher their comprehension to the ongoing. Despite the carnage of battle, Jieyin took this moment to ponder on his Dao.

With Di Jiang nearly lost in reason, Houtu met Zhu Jiuying’s eyes with a pleading look. The Ancestral Divinity of Time turned furious. Despite growing to understand, at that moment he hated how selfish Houtu was to not approach any of them. 

Did she not consider how any of them would feel? Of course she did, she just didn’t care. For the twelve brothers and sisters who swore to always look out for each other and shared a true bond, it was utterly infuriating.

“Fine then. You are no longer my sister.”

The water around them wasn’t necessary to stop his brothers. Zhurrong and the others felt their bodies slowing tremendously. “Zhu Jiuying why?”

Di Jiang found himself coiled by his second brother. “Zhu Jiuying, what is the meaning for this?”

“Houtu has betrayed the Earthly Divinities for her own cause,” Zhu Jiuying said shaking his old looking head. “She is not divinity, not worthy saving.”

Da Hai retracted the Xuanyuan Water Control Flag. A brief glance back told him that Houtu was managing the final steps of the ritual on her own. He no longer needed to actively participate anymore. 

“Remember, one chance to do this. Swallow their path, then enact your own. I trust you to complete reincarnation?” He promised pain in those last words. Yuanshi and the others merely nodded.

Houtu’s body disintegrated entirely. The moment this happened, the spinning disc straightened horizontally. It’s illusionary aspect solidified into a solid object, but no features could be identified as it was cloaked completely in white light.

“NOW!”