After Lu Yuan opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was an unprecedented sense of comfort.
He had slept very well.
The Great Luo Fierce Sha power he had accumulated in his body had been completely digested.
The injuries Qiongqi had inflicted on him had also fully healed.
Lu Yuan moved his head slightly.
Crack.
The sound of rock strata grinding together immediately came from the nearby ground.
Before he could take a proper look at the changes in himself, a faint tickle suddenly came from his back.
Lu Yuan stopped moving.
"Have more fierce beasts crawled onto me?"
The feeling reminded him of when he had first woken up.
Back then, fierce beasts had densely covered his back.
They had bitten him quite eagerly, too.
Lu Yuan instinctively released his Divine Sense.
He prepared to see what it was this time.
But the moment his Divine Sense swept over his back,
the entire whale went still.
Trees?
Water?
Grass?
And a bunch of little things running around?
Lu Yuan continued spreading his Divine Sense.
His back, once covered in rock and dust, was now completely different from how it had been before he fell asleep.
Some grooved areas were still desolate.
But vast stretches of vegetation had grown across much of the rest.
A long, narrow stream wound down through the gullies between his scales.
At its widest, the stream reached several hundred zhang across.
In the eyes of an ordinary living being, it could easily be called a real river.
Birds darted through the treetops.
Several groups of small beasts of various kinds lived near the stream.
Farther away,
several spirit beasts dozens of zhang long were actually basking in the sun atop a higher rock formation.
Lu Yuan stared in bewilderment.
"When did a river appear on my back?"
As soon as his voice rang out,
the little creatures on his back erupted into panic.
To Lu Yuan, it was just a casual remark.
But to those creatures, it was like a low rumble of thunder suddenly rolling through the depths of heaven and earth.
A rumbling sound came from every direction.
The treetops swayed violently.
Ripples spread across the surface of the stream.
The little white beasts drinking water were so frightened that they dropped flat to the ground.
One young beast even burrowed beneath an adult white beast's belly, leaving only half its head exposed as it looked at the sky, trembling.
Farther away,
several larger spirit beasts sprang to their feet.
"Woo—!"
One of them, a cyan spirit beast with a single horn, let out a frightened cry.
They had lived here for an even shorter time.
Hearing a sound coming from the "depths of the earth," their first thought was that the earth veins had shifted.
"Run!"
A spirit beast that had already developed a rudimentary intelligence let out an urgent, low growl.
The spirit beasts immediately raced into the distance.
But after running some distance,
they all stopped.
The distant horizon was slowly rising.
No.
The entire land was gently rising and falling.
All the creatures were dumbfounded.
Lu Yuan also realized what the problem was.
He had just moved a little.
The little things on his back seemed badly frightened.
He quickly stopped moving.
Then he examined them more carefully with his Divine Sense.
These creatures were all very weak.
Even the strongest among them were only close to the Earth Immortal level.
They clearly had no ability to see through Lu Yuan's true form.
As far as they knew,
this was an ordinary mountainous region.
The material beneath their feet was just a little strange.
And the resources were quite abundant.
Lu Yuan suddenly felt like laughing.
He had taken a nap,
and people... beasts had actually moved onto his back.
Even more remarkably,
these creatures had clearly been living there for some time.
The little white beasts had even bred two or three generations.
Several young beasts were hiding by the stream.
They had clearly only recently been born.
Lu Yuan did not drive them away.
These creatures were far too weak.
There was no question of them competing with him for resources.
Besides, their living on his back had no effect on Lu Yuan.
Most of the time, he could not even feel them.
That slight tickle just now was probably from a spirit beast digging a hole between his scales.
Lu Yuan swept his Divine Sense over the area.
Sure enough,
several hundred li away, a gray spirit beast resembling a pangolin was huddled in a hole it had dug.
Its claws were still covered in dirt.
Its entire body was curled into a ball,
too frightened by the earlier sound to move.
Lu Yuan could not be bothered with it.
If they wanted to live there, they could.
The Primordial World was vast anyway.
The space on his back was just sitting empty.
But a new problem soon arose.
Lu Yuan still planned to go to the Myriad Sha Abyss.
He could not keep lying here for the sake of the little things on his back.
If he got up,
what would happen to these creatures?
Even a slight movement of Lu Yuan's body could generate enough wind pressure to blow the weaker creatures who knew how many tens of thousands of li away.
Let alone when he actually started traveling.
When a Grand Void Sky Whale swam through the void, its speed would certainly not be slow.
The newborn beasts on his back would never be able to withstand it.
Lu Yuan pondered for a moment.
He drew on his own power.
Although he now relied mainly on his physical body to fight, he was still an innate divine beast.
Naturally, he knew the most basic ways to control his power.
Lu Yuan tried releasing a gentle layer of power from the surface of his scales.
A dark golden light slowly spread.
At first, it covered only a few dozen li.
Then several hundred li, then several thousand.
Finally,
an extremely thin curtain of light spread across Lu Yuan's entire back, close against its surface.
It offered no powerful defense.
Its main purpose was to stabilize the airflow and block outside impacts.
After doing that,
Lu Yuan gently moved his body again.
The vegetation on his back swayed gently.
The little creatures could still feel the ground changing, but there was no longer the terrifying commotion from before, as though the sky were collapsing and the earth caving in.
Lu Yuan was satisfied.
"That should do it."
This time, he deliberately kept his voice much more restrained.
But to the little creatures on his back, it still sounded like a mysterious whisper from the depths of heaven and earth.
The oldest white spirit beast slowly raised its head.
It already possessed some rudimentary intelligence.
Over the years,
it had always regarded these mountains and rivers as a heaven-sent home for its group.
It was safe here.
The Spiritual Qi was also growing denser.
Now the earth had suddenly spoken,
and a gentle curtain of light had appeared.
Deep reverence gradually filled the old white beast's eyes.
It prostrated itself,
pressing its forehead to the ground.
The other white beasts nearby saw what their elder was doing and followed suit, one after another.
More and more creatures began to prostrate themselves.
Lu Yuan saw it all clearly through his Divine Sense.
He could not figure out what these little creatures were doing.
But as long as there was no danger, it was fine.
He had slept for several hundred years.
It was time to stretch his body.
Lu Yuan took another look at his body.
He was now nearly ninety thousand li long.
His physical strength had also increased considerably.
If he fought Qiongqi again,
it would probably be harder for his opponent to inflict injuries like those from before.
Lu Yuan was quite satisfied with that.
Then,
he raised his head and looked north.
The Myriad Sha Abyss.
He had rested enough.
It was time to go over and take a look.
Lu Yuan slowly drew a breath.
The distant clouds were drawn along by the air currents, forming two enormous vortices.
The little creatures on his back grew nervous again.
Lu Yuan sensed their fear and controlled his power more gently.
"Stay put, all of you."
After saying that,
he began to rise in earnest.
The sky was the first thing to change.
The little creatures living on Lu Yuan's back suddenly noticed the clouds overhead rapidly parting to either side.
Sunlight poured down in broad swaths.
The once-gentle breeze gradually grew stronger.
But the dark golden screen of light covering the mountains and rivers kept the truly terrifying wind pressure at bay.
As a result, they could clearly see the changes outside, but were not greatly affected.
A cyan, single-horned spirit beast slowly emerged from the woods.
It raised its head to look at the sky.
Its eyes were full of confusion.
"Woo..."
A low sound came from its throat.
Several spirit beasts nearby also gathered warily.
They still did not understand what was happening.
The ground beneath their feet suddenly rose.
Rumble!
An exceedingly deep, thunderous noise came from every direction.
The woods shook.
The river churned.
The distant mountains also began to sink slowly.