Before chaos had been defined and the primordial had been separated, there was no up, down, east, west, past, or future.
Li Ping'an's consciousness felt as though it had been stuffed into an endless yet unbearably crowded ball of cotton. It was warm and soft, but he could neither move nor think. His last clear thought remained fixed on that damned, frantically ringing alarm clock and the project manager's greasy face as he sprayed saliva while demanding the proposal.
Who am I? Where am I? Did I forget to transfer the rent to my landlord and get thrown out?
Countless chaotic thoughts were like bubbles rising from a drowning man. The moment they surfaced, they were gently swallowed and assimilated by the immeasurable, intoxicatingly warm Primordial Violet Qi around him.
Just as he felt he was about to melt completely and become part of this warm backdrop, a vast, gentle voice rang out directly in the deepest depths of his consciousness. It carried a trace of laziness and... well, how should he put it? It sounded as casual as someone yawning after waking up. The voice made what remained of his consciousness buzz.
"Mm... after waiting so long, one that looks pleasing to the eye has finally come along..."
"Kid, you're pretty lucky."
"I'm in a good mood today. I like the look of you, so I'll grant you a stroke of fortune."
"From today onward, you shall be my Primordial Great Dao's... mm, let's just say you're my son."
Li Ping'an: "???"
Wait, hold on! What the hell was this? He had seen people forcibly claiming others as fathers, but this was the first time he had been forcibly claimed as someone's son! And by an existence on the Great Dao level, no less? Wasn't this standard a little too high? Did all super bosses these days enjoy spreading fatherly love everywhere? Where was the procedure? Where was the ceremony? At the very least, shouldn't there be a DNA test report?
Before he could raise those questions from the depths of his soul, a vast, indescribable great power poured into his consciousness. It was gentle, yet impossible to resist.
That was not power. It was the Dao itself! The universe's source code, the primordial laws behind all creation!
In an instant, Li Ping'an felt his "vision" rise infinitely high. He pierced through the so-called ball of cotton and saw countless intertwined lines of laws. He saw Stars' Life and Death, the cycles of the universe, time surging like a great river, and space unfurling like a painting... A sensation of omniscience and omnipotence rose within him, nearly causing him to lose himself in that supreme realm.
Of course, an illusion was still an illusion. It was like being force-fed a universe-level encyclopedia. He knew it existed, knew it was incredible, but could not open a single page. All he could feel was its immense weight and the illusory sense that he seemed incredibly powerful.
Countless mysterious purple Dao patterns condensed within the core of his consciousness, forming a complex, exquisite imprint so dazzling it was almost mesmerizing. A sense of intimate connection to the entire primordial space arose within him, as though he could command it as easily as his own limbs. It felt as if, with a single thought, he could create chaos from this land—or... leave it in chaos?
At the same time, several obscure yet instinctively comprehensible Great Dao Mantras branded themselves deep into his soul, as though they had been there since birth:
[Primordial Dao Child, Immunity to All Magic.] [Destined by Fate, fortune and misfortune go hand in hand.] [Father is sleepy. I'm going to take a nap first. The prehistoric world is pretty fun, so go have a look around yourself...]
That last sentence was especially clear, carrying the perfunctory air of an absentee shopkeeper. It even had a hint of impatient, "I've given you a new toy, go play by yourself and stop bothering me."
Li Ping'an was completely dumbfounded. Wasn't this father-recognition process a little too careless? Where was the after-sales service? Where was the beginner's guide? What about a prehistoric travel guide and safety manual? Was that it—just a passive buff called "Immunity to All Magic" and a lottery mechanism called "Destined by Fate"? This father was way too unreliable! Couldn't he at least drop some beginner equipment?
Before he could finish complaining, the warm Primordial Violet Qi surrounding him suddenly rippled slightly, like a stone dropped into a still lake.
The next moment, he felt a gentle force give him a light push, as though an invisible hand found him bothersome and was sweeping him out of the house.
"Off you go~"
Whoosh! The world spun around him, and time and space shifted. It felt like being stuffed into a high-speed washing machine running on the strongest rinse cycle.
When Li Ping'an could see again and finally steadied the violently churning dizziness, the scene before him had changed completely.
Gone was that monotonous space containing nothing but violet qi. Before him stretched a vast, boundless land beneath a lofty sky. The spiritual qi was so abundant it was frightening; with every breath, it felt as though his soul were cheering with joy and every pore on his body opening wide. Mountains rose and fell in the distance, ancient trees towered overhead, and countless strange plants he had never seen before grew in wild abundance. The air was filled with an ancient, savage vitality—and danger lurking everywhere. From deep within the mountain range came the faint, low, powerful roars of ferocious beasts, making his heart tremble.
Had he really... really arrived in the prehistoric world?
Li Ping'an swayed as he found his footing and examined himself. His body was solid, and all his limbs were intact. His clothing was a little too breezy, though—a set of seemingly ordinary cloth garments with faint purple radiance flowing across them, made from some unknown material. The Great Dao Imprint rested quietly within his sea of consciousness, proving that what had just happened was no illusion. He really had gained a Great Dao-level father, even if that father was not particularly responsible.
He, Li Ping'an, formerly an overworked Earth office drone and now the biological son of the Primordial Great Dao—self-proclaimed, since his father had not objected—had officially logged into the prehistoric Stone Age!
The immense change in identity and the shock of his surroundings left him dazed for a moment. Then an indescribable surge of excitement and bold ambition rushed into his heart.
"Ha! Hahaha!" Li Ping'an could not help planting his hands on his hips and laughing a few times. His voice sounded rather abrupt in the empty wilderness. "The primordial is my father! Doesn't that mean I can do whatever I want in this prehistoric world? Pangu, the Three Pure Ones, the Two Sages of the West—when they meet me in the future, won't they have to politely call me... Brother Dao Child?"
An invincible start—he knew this script! From now on, he would eat, drink, have fun, flirt with... ahem, befriend female immortals, punch disobedient demons, and kick provoking witches. What a happy life it would be!
His smugness lasted less than three seconds.
His foot caught on something, and he yelped as he nearly fell flat on his face. He barely managed to preserve the "Dao Child" image he had just established.
"What the hell?" Looking down, he saw a rusty, battered axe with a chipped blade half-buried in the soil amid dense, faintly glowing weeds. It was what had tripped him.
The axe had an ancient design—or rather, a crude one. Even someone collecting scrap metal by the roadside on Earth would hesitate before picking it up.
"Bad luck!" Li Ping'an raised his foot to kick it away. "The infrastructure in this prehistoric world is terrible. How can people just throw garbage around...?"
Just as the tip of his foot was about to touch the broken axe, the Great Dao Imprint in his sea of consciousness rippled ever so slightly, sending out a nearly imperceptible wave.
A sudden intuition rose in his heart.
As though possessed, he stopped his foot, bent down, and reached out to grasp the cold, rough axe handle, with equal parts disgust and curiosity.
It was icy cold, heavy, and solid in his hand... but that was all.
"So... was that feeling wrong?" Li Ping'an muttered, preparing to toss it away.
The next moment, an abrupt change occurred!
The patches of rust on the axe suddenly peeled away like a snake shedding its skin, revealing a dark, restrained wooden handle and an axe head as deep and shadowy as chaos itself! The axe erupted with a dazzling chaotic radiance, and a supreme intent surged skyward—the intent to cleave chaos apart, establish earth, fire, water, and wind, and dominate all things. Though it flashed by in an instant, every living creature within ten thousand miles, from ignorant Plant Spirits to savage ancient remnants, instinctively prostrated themselves on the ground and trembled in terror from the depths of their souls!
The dazzling light vanished at once, and the axe returned to its battered, unremarkable appearance. It looked even less conspicuous than before, as if the earth-shaking phenomenon had only been an illusion.
Yet a clear piece of information had appeared in Li Ping'an's mind: [Pangu's Sky-Opening Axe · Broken Blade (Imitation)]. Though it was merely an imitation formed by the prehistoric world's spontaneous reproduction of the Sky-Opening Axe's Dao Rhyme, and though it was damaged and retained less than one ten-thousandth of the original's power, the trace of True Meaning of Sky-Opening contained within still made it far stronger than ordinary acquired spiritual treasures. With one swing, even a Mystic Immortal would have to think twice, while an inattentive Golden Immortal could suffer badly.
Li Ping'an: "!!!"
He stared dumbfoundedly at the unremarkable, even more worn-down axe in his hand, then sensed the Great Dao Imprint in his sea of consciousness. It had merely rippled once before falling completely silent again, as if it had done nothing at all.
A magical treasure... just picked up off the ground?! He tripped while walking and kicked out a super divine weapon?!
"Primordial Father! My real father!" Li Ping'an was so excited that tears nearly filled his eyes. Hugging the axe, he planted two hard kisses on it, no longer caring about the rust. "This cheat is way too practical! From now on, I'll be the prehistoric world's sweeping monk, specializing in collecting junk... ah, no, specializing in collecting divine weapons!"
Just as he was pondering how to use the axe—whether carrying it on his shoulder would look more imposing or tucking it into his clothes would be more discreet—suddenly—
A cold, deathly, terrifying aura filled with endless slaughter and destruction emerged behind him without warning and locked firmly onto him!
The air around him seemed to freeze, becoming thick and heavy. The grass and trees beneath his feet withered at a visible rate, turning into black ash. The earth became pitch-black and cracked, as though all life had been instantly drained away. It was a scene of apocalypse.
A voice containing traces of evil, amusement, and casual indifference softly rang out. It pierced straight through his eardrums and echoed within the depths of his soul:
"Tsk... such pure Dao Rhyme, such an interesting foundation. Little friend, you... do not seem to belong here?"
Every hair on Li Ping'an's body stood on end. His heart seemed to stop, and his limbs instantly turned cold and rigid, like a frog being watched by a venomous snake. Bit by bit, with immense difficulty, he turned around.
Not far away, a dense black fog hovered silently, dark as ink and seemingly capable of swallowing all light. Within it, the outline of a vague figure could barely be seen. A pair of scarlet, cruel eyes filled with curiosity examined him through the mist with great interest, as if assessing an unprecedented toy—interesting, yet fragile.
The terrifying pressure brought by that gaze far surpassed anything Li Ping'an had faced in more than twenty years of life. It even caused the lofty, aloof Great Dao Imprint in his sea of consciousness to light up faintly on its own, releasing an almost imperceptible violet glow that silently neutralized the all-pervading pressure that had nearly crushed his soul.
The existence within the black fog seemed to keenly notice that minuscule fluctuation of Dao Rhyme. He gave a soft sound of surprise, and the interest in his red eyes immediately rose several levels.
He looked Li Ping'an over from head to toe, lingering especially on the newly unassuming broken axe in his hand and the seemingly ordinary cloth garments flowing with faint purple radiance.
After a painfully long silence, that sinister voice sounded again. It was nearly lazy, yet carried an unquestionable tyranny and contempt for all beneath it.
"Your foundation is extraordinary, and your fortune is not bad either. Lately, I have been lacking an attendant to serve tea and water and tend my garden. Little friend, are you willing to enter my demonic path and join me in... destroying this boring prehistoric world?"
Li Ping'an's mind buzzed as though a heavy hammer had struck it.
The demonic path? Destroy the prehistoric world?
That opening line, that tone, that sheer presence... Could this black, murderous fellow be...
A notorious name, one that could make all living beings in the prehistoric world pale at its mention and stop children from crying at night, suddenly leaped into his mind—
Demon Ancestor Luohu?!
What should he do after the ultimate boss of the Dragon-Han Tribulation version blocked his path at the start and invited him to join up? Waiting online, urgently needed! The kind of urgent where people died!
Li Ping'an's heart pounded wildly. He nearly reflexively threw the imitation Sky-Opening Axe in his hand at the other's face—though he knew it would probably do no more than scratch an itch.
But at that moment of extreme tension, when he could barely breathe, the last message left by his irresponsible Great Dao father drifted through his sea of consciousness like a lifesaving straw—and like a sarcastic scrolling comment: [Father is sleepy. I'm going to take a nap first. The prehistoric world is pretty fun, so go have a look around yourself...]
Fun? Was this something he could casually have fun with, Dad?! This was hell difficulty right from the start! A max-level demon lord was squatting at the entrance to the beginner village!
In that flash of lightning, with his full potential forced out by the threat of death, Li Ping'an suddenly had an idea. He squeezed a smile onto his face that looked worse than crying—seven parts innocent, three parts confused, and entirely harmless. Carefully, he slowly pulled a small slip of paper from his chest... from the inner lining of those purple-radiant garments, though heaven knew when it had appeared there. It was illusory and ever-changing, as though condensed from the purest Primordial Violet Qi, yet emanated supreme Dao Rhyme.
Holding that weightless yet mountain-heavy note in both hands as though it were an imperial decree and a talisman granting immunity from death, he spoke in a trembling voice to that suffocating black fog. Weakly, one word at a time, and with complete sincerity, he read aloud:
"Um, um... hello, Lord Demon Ancestor... M-my father said... the waters of the prehistoric world run too deep. He... he went to sleep first... He told me to play by myself..."
After reading it, he timidly added, doing his best to widen his eyes in an attempt to make himself more convincing, "S-so... things like forming a party to fight a raid... c-could we wait until I get familiar with the map and finish some beginner quests?"
The black fog: "..."
The roiling black fog, which radiated endless destruction, seemed to freeze for a moment because of that utterly unexpected and absurd answer.
The scarlet eyes within the black fog visibly paused, then flashed with extreme astonishment and... profound absurdity.
He stared at the note in Li Ping'an's hands, which radiated pure, supreme Primordial Dao Rhyme that could not possibly be faked. Then he looked at Li Ping'an's harmless expression, which seemed to say, "I'm weak, I'm obedient, my father doesn't care about me, but my father is incredibly powerful," and fell into a strange silence.
The destructive aura around them, along with the killing intent that had nearly condensed into substance, paused slightly.