The woman appeared to be in her late teens to early twenties. Her ink-black hair reached past her waist. Her red robes only highlighted her ivory skin. With exquisite features, this woman was precisely the type that could make Tongtian's heart beat. There was just one slight problem.

The woman was him! Or rather, her!

"Third Bro–Third Sister, calm-urk!" Yuanshi nearly bit his tongue at the lethal glare leveled by Tongtian.

"Second Brother, call me that again, and I'll slice off your thing," Tongtian said. Needles coated each of her words.

Yuanshi wanted to be angry, but upon seeing the tears pooling at the corner of Tongtian's eyes, his anger dissipated. Tongtian's beauty and teary eyes made her appear too harmless and adorable.

"All things are split into yin and yang. Even though we were formed from Father God's spirit, it wouldn’t be strange for one of us to be a woman," Laozi said.

"Then how about you turn into a woman and let me be a man? Huh?" Tongtian asked through gritted teeth.

Laozi coughed into his fist. "Third Sister, that isn't something I can decide. It's our innate nature."

'What do you mean innate? I remember clearly that the Three Purities were brothers!'

Tongtian scratched her head and clenched her teeth. With a huff, she stomped back inside the cave. Laozi and Yuanshi shared a look, and each saw a helplessness in the others' eyes. After a moment, they both followed Tongtian.

Inside, all three sat down in a lotus position facing each other. As the eldest, Laozi spoke. "Virtuous brothers, since we have just transformed, we should quickly seize the chance and discuss the way and consolidate our foundation."

The corner of Tongtian’s lips twitched. 'What a cultivation maniac. Not that I don't understand. In this world, there's not really much to do except cultivating, and we've been together for eons. So, there's not much to talk about outside of that. Honestly, I'm holding surprisingly well for someone who's been living for eons. My memories as a human barely make up less than one percent of all my memories. Though, I was pretty sure I was a man.'

Laozi manifested green clouds behind. Above them were three budding flowers. Laozi opened his mouth, and numerous mystical illusions appeared. Most prominent were the black and white fishes representing yin and yang.

As Tongtian listened to the Way of Inaction spoken by Laozi, she couldn't help but sigh in his heart—as expected of the head of the Three Purities.

Tongtian thought she had a massive advantage over her two brothers, but she underestimated them and overestimated her abilities. She discarded her contempt and focused wholeheartedly on Laozi's explanation of his way.

After Laozi finished, Yuanshi started speaking. Like Laozi, green clouds and three budding flowers manifested behind his head. Yuanshi's way was the Way of Primordial Beginning.

When Yuanshi finished speaking, Tongtian closed her eyes. When she opened them, green clouds appeared behind her head. Like her two brothers, her three flowers were also in their bud state.

Tongtian did not speak of her way like Laozi and Yuanshi did. Instead, she spoke of her insight into the Law of Time. As she spoke, the Chaos Clock shard in her mind thrummed as if resonating with her words.

She did not speak of the way because she didn’t know her way.

When she finished, the green clouds above the three’s heads grew and began to interact with each other. All three closed their eyes as they digested their gains.

Laozi gained the most. Two of his three buds bloomed into flowers, and each one had nine petals. Nine represented supremacy and perfection. Yuanshi was a little bit worse. Only one of his buds bloomed into a nine-petaled flower, but his bud showed signs of opening, but he suppressed it. If he opened it in this state, it would not have at most seven or eight petals, and Yuanshi refused to accept anything but perfection.

Instead, it was Tongtian whose buds refused to bloom.

Yuanshi turned towards Laozi helplessly. "Eldest Brother..."

"Third Sister has already started comprehending the laws. This is not good for her. Perhaps she had a fortuitous encounter, or it might be because of her transformation into a woman, but Third Sister has lost her way. This isn't something we can help with. Believe in her," Laozi said.

Yuanshi nodded, but his face still held worry. He looked at Tongtian and then started to explain his Way of Primordial Beginning again.

'Who am I?' Tongtian thought. 'Am I the Chaos Fiendgod of Time slain by Pangu and happened to possess the Supreme Pure Qi? Or am I a soul from Earth that happened to get lucky and traveled to the Great Desolation and occupied Tongtian's place? Or maybe not any of these. Maybe I'm just Tongtian who happened to get the Chaos Fiendgod of Time's and a future soul's memories.'

Tongtian furrowed her brows as she sunk deeper and deeper into her own thoughts. Her green clouds started to dissipate and turn almost translucent. Her three flower buds also started showing signs of withering.

Upon seeing this, even Laozi had traces of worry on his face and started to preach his Way of Inaction. Combined with Yuanshi, Tongtian was bombarded with the sound of Laozi and Yuanshi's ways.

Finally, she opened her eyes and glared at the two. "AH! Shut up! How can I concentrate with both of you yapping in my ears?!"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Laozi and Yuanshi were stunned into silence by Tongtian's outburst. Their wide eyes just stared at Tongtian, who closed her own again.

'Does it matter who I am? All that matters is that I live this life to the best of my ability. Tongtian, Chaos Fiendgod of Time, future soul? None of that matters, I am just me. I want to live free and unfettered. Whoever obstructs my way, I will decapitate them! This is the Way of Allheaven!'

Tongtian opened her eyes. Only this time, her dissipating clouds condensed again, and one of her buds bloomed into a nine-petaled flower. Furthermore, her aura turned sharp, almost like a drawn sword.

Laozi and Yuanshi sighed in relief. "Congratulations to Third Sister for discovering your way."

"Many thanks for Brothers' aid. Had it not been for you two, I would not have figured out my path," Tongtian said with a smile as if she hadn't just yelled out the two earlier.

Laozi and Yuanshi felt the corner of their lips twitch at Tongtian's blatant lie. Nevertheless, they began the second round of discussions.

The second round of discussion did not take as long as the first and concluded much faster. With their gains, they began their individual secluded meditation to progress on their path.

After a countless number of years, the three opened their eyes once more.

"I feel like I reached a bottleneck. Staying in Kunlun Mountain won't help me progress anymore. It's time to explore the Great Desolation," Laozi said. "But first, let me calculate the situation."

Laozi used his fingers to deduce the secrets of heaven. "The Great Desolation's next tribulation is still a bit off, but the secrets are starting to become obscure. The three protagonists of this tribulation should be the Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Clan. As long as we are careful, we should have no danger."

Yuanshi snorted. "Aren't they just flat-furred beasts? I don't believe that they can stop us once we act together."

"Second Brother, although we are from Father God Pangu's orthodox lineage, we can't underestimate them. They are also born from Father God's world, who knows what tricks they have?" Tongtian said.

"Third Sister, your aura is the sharpest out of the three of us. Why are you so cowardly? Is it because you are a woma–"

Tongtian stared at Yuanshi.

Yuanshi snapped his mouth shut.

"Being cowardly and being careful are two different matters. You'd be wise to remember that, Second Brother," Tongtian said.

"Moving on, where do you think we should travel to in the Great Desolation?" Laozi asked, almost a bit too obviously.

"Is there any need to ask?" Tongtian asked.

"Buzhuo Mountain," Yuanshi affirmed.

"Since we all have already decided in our hearts, let's go," Laozi said.

But before the three left, Tongtian reinforced the protective array around Kunlun Mountain. The natural protection array had deteriorated with time and, without any external aid, would disappear after a few eons. Among the three, she was the best at formations, while Laozi excelled in alchemy and Yuanshi majored in artificing.

The three left Kunlun Mountain for the first time in their lives. Both Laozi and Yuanshi had impassive expressions on their faces as they flew through the Great Desolation. Tongtian, with only her memories of Earth, observed everything through shining eyes.

Although the density of essence was subpar compared to Kunlun Mountain, it still shocked her. Compared to the mountains and plains of Earth, everything was just grander and more colorful.

Along the way, they occasionally stopped to collect some unique and wondrous treasures formed by heaven and earth, especially Tongtian. All these materials were connate or innate materials. In the future, they would no longer form. If they didn't collect any now, it would be too late to regret it in the future.

Of course, they also encountered blind idiots who wanted to rob or kill them for their treasure. The Three Purities naturally showed them what it meant to be frogs in the well, but the price for the lesson was their life.

"Aren't these guys too poor?" Tongtian griped. "Only one of them had a low-grade innate spiritual artifact, and the rest of them only had unrefined materials or low-grade artifacts. Worse, they aren't spiritual, and the process they used to refine these artifacts wasted the materials!"

"How common do you think spiritual artifacts are?" Yuanshi said. "Aside from the Heaven and Earth Pagoda, even we, the Three Purities, don't have a single spiritual artifact. Do you expect these rabbles to?"

Tongtian pondered Yuanshi's words and nodded. As Pangu's orthodox lineage, they had been innately endowed by the world. The other gods and immortals born alongside them could only be worse.

It took over ten thousand years to reach Buzhou Mountain. Tongtian sighed. With the time and speed they had spent traveling, it would have been enough to circle the Earth a thousand times over.

They didn't directly fly up Buzhou Mountain. Instead, they descended on a piece of land near the mountain and started to walk towards it step by step, like ordinary mortals.

Even a thousand li away, all three of them felt the powerful coercion emitted from Buzhou Mountain. Perhaps, even if they tried flying up, they would be smashed back into the ground by the force.

"As expected of Father God. Just his spine alone is enough to suppress all living beings," Laozi said with admiration.

Tongtian, who had witnessed Pangu's act of slaying the three thousand chaos fiendgods, couldn't help but frown. She knew how powerful Pangu was. Even the Three Purities combined could not defeat the weakest of the chaos fiendgods, so how could Pangu die so easily? She did not think about it any longer. Her strength was too weak. Maybe when she reached the level of a chaos fiendgod, she would have the qualifications to investigate.

As the three continued to walk, they eventually neared the base of the mountain, but a few creatures stopped their path.

"Stop, this is the territory of the Qilin Clan. Leave immediately or face the consequences!"

Seeing the horde of qilins stopping their pilgrimage, Laozi and Tongtian frowned. Yuanshi was even less polite and directly said. "Hmpf, you're just a bunch of furred beasts who haven't even transformed. How dare you stop Kunlun's Three Purities?"

Fury colored the lead qilin's face. "Good, good! Only the Dragon Clan and Phoenix Clan dare to humiliate the Qilin Clan like this. I'll make an example of you!"

However, reality was cruel. To the qilins stationed at the Buzhou Mountain, that is.

The strongest of the qilin was only at the Early Great Unity Realm. How could they stop the Three Purities who were at least in the Early Great Firmament Realm? Naturally, the battle resulted in the slaughter of the qilins, whose bodies were taken as materials by the Three Purities.

Tongtian's eyes lit up when she saw qilin with snow-white fur and scales of white jade. "You're very beautiful and to my tastes. If you become my mount, I'll let you live. How about it?"

The white qilin sneered. "Even if you kill us, the Qilin Clan won't let you go!"

Tongtian rolled her eyes. "Do you only know this trick? You make trouble with us, and now you want to rely on your elders. You have guts, I'll give you that."

She closed her fist and straightened her pointer finger like a sword. Sword aura coated it, and she pointed at the white qilin's forehead. A burst of light later, the qilin collapsed with a hole in its forehead.