Cow-Horse Elegy, Soul Broken in the ICU

The sky outside the window had shifted from a somber ink blue to a grayish white. Another dawn.

Chen Beixuan rubbed his bloodshot eyes, his vision struggling to move away from the glaring computer screen. Dense lines of code crawled across it like a swarm of wriggling black tadpoles, making him dizzy. He picked up the cold, murky instant coffee on the corner of his desk, which looked like muddy water, and took a large gulp. The bitter taste instantly filled his mouth, yet it couldn't dispel the bone-chilling fatigue that threatened to freeze his very soul.

"What day is it?" he thought blankly, leaning back against the cold gaming chair. His memory was like a fragmented video tape, a chaotic mess. Was it the seventy-second hour? Or the ninety-sixth? He couldn't remember. Time had lost all meaning in this office filled with the clatter of keyboards, the glow of monitors, and the stench of old takeout containers.

He was a programmer, or rather, a "beast of burden" being farmed in a major internet company. A proud practitioner of the "996 Blessing," a senior corporate slave on the verge of reaching the realm of "007." His life consisted of endless requirements, unfixable bugs, never-ending review meetings, and project launch deadlines that were always counting down.

"Beixuan, there's an urgent bug in the 'Kunlun' project. The client is furious. We have to fix it before dawn!" The project manager patted his shoulder with a feigned look of concern, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"But I..." Chen Beixuan opened his mouth, wanting to say he'd been working overtime for nearly four days straight and his heart was pounding as if trying to break free from his chest.

"Many hands make light work! The company won't treat you unfairly. I'll put you down for the year-end outstanding employee award," the manager interrupted him, painting a familiar, albeit hollow, picture of future rewards before turning and leaving, leaving behind a greasy silhouette.

Unfairly? Chen Beixuan's lips twisted into a bitter smile. His salary might be slightly higher than his peers, but it was earned at the cost of his health, his life, even his very being. He felt like a fly caught in an invisible spiderweb, the more it struggled, the tighter the bonds became. Mortgage payments, car loans, his parents' expectations, the pressure of surviving in the city... all of it wove into an inescapable net, suffocating him.

He turned his gaze back to the screen, trying to focus, but the code before him began to twist and distort, as if coming alive. His heart gave a sudden lurch, a sharp, piercing pain that instantly broke him out in a cold sweat. He instinctively clutched his chest, gasping for air.

No, I can't keep going like this... A clear thought echoed in his mind. He needed to take leave, to go to the hospital.

The thought of self-preservation had barely surfaced before it was crushed by a more powerful one: Take leave now? The 'Kunlun' project is at a critical stage. If I falter at this juncture, do I still want my year-end bonus? Do I still want my promotion next year?

Reason screamed, but his body's alarm bells were already ringing. Dizziness washed over him in waves, the edges of his vision darkening like a fuzzy old TV screen. He felt light, as if his soul was trying to escape this overused vessel.

He struggled to stand, intending to splash cold water on his face in the restroom, hoping it would help him sober up. However, the moment he took a step, the entire world tilted violently.

The LED lights on the ceiling split into countless blinding white beams in his eyes. The conversations of his colleagues, the clatter of keyboards, the hum of the servers... all sounds rapidly receded, distorting into a strange, elongated echo. He felt like a feather, plummeting from a skyscraper, a sense of weightlessness enveloping him.

"I... this is..."

The last vestiges of his consciousness were the indescribable, explosive pain in his chest, and the boundless darkness that swallowed him, both gently and cruelly.

There was no kaleidoscope of memories as he'd expected, no angels or ox-headed guards.

Chen Beixuan's consciousness drifted like a lone boat on an endless ocean of chaos. He felt no time, no space, only void and deathly silence. Occasionally, fragmented flashes of light and distorted sound snippets would flit by, like garbled data read from a damaged hard drive, incomprehensible and elusive.

He remembered the final agony, the suffocating exhaustion. Was this death? Eternal loneliness and nothingness?

A profound sense of grief and unwillingness surged within him. Was this how his life ended? Vanishing quietly in a corner of the city like a speck of dust? He hadn't had time to properly accompany his parents, hadn't had time to see the starry sky in Tibet, a place he'd always wanted to visit, hadn't had time to truly... live for himself.

Just as he was sinking into this abyss of despair, an unknown amount of time passed, perhaps an instant, perhaps ten thousand years.

A tiny speck of light appeared ahead, without warning.

The light was initially extremely faint, like a candle in the wind, but it carried an indescribable warmth and pull, piercing through the endless darkness. Chen Beixuan's almost frozen consciousness instinctively gravitated towards that speck of light.

As he drew closer, the light grew stronger. He "saw" that it wasn't just light, but a stream of "Qi" formed by countless incomprehensible, shimmering runes imbued with the essence of the Great Dao.

It was pure, ethereal, and agile, as if containing the most primordial mysteries of heaven and earth. It flowed leisurely through this chaos, and wherever it passed, even the void seemed to come alive.

What was this?

His consciousness touched the peculiar stream of Qi.

Boom—!!!

It was as if the Big Bang was replaying in his mind!

An immense torrent of information, beyond any description, like a breached galaxy, instantly flooded his fragile consciousness. No longer code, no longer requirement documents, but a more ancient, more fundamental, more vast knowledge and spectacle—

Vast, boundless land, mountain ranges winding like dragon's spines, soaring into the clouds, their peaks unseen, only the residual will of supreme "standing tall between heaven and earth" could be felt; ancient trees towered, auspicious energy dripping from their leaves, exuding an ancient aura of billions of years; there were no sun or moon in the sky, but endless pure spiritual energy and heavy turbid energy constantly converged, collided, and evolved the elements of earth, water, fire, and wind... and there were unimaginable colossal figures, appearing and disappearing between heaven and earth, their auras terrifying; a mere projection of them was enough to make stars collapse.

The Primordial World! This was the Primordial World!

Didn't I die? How could...

Immediately after, another cold, emotionless thought directly echoed in the core of his consciousness, like a system command with the highest authority, overriding all other thoughts:

[Environment scan complete... Coordinates confirmed: East foot of Kunlun Mountain, Great Primordial World.]

[Carrier detection complete... Pedigree confirmed: First strand of innate immortal Qi (newborn, unformed).]

[Soul binding in progress... Binding successful.]

[Great Dao Origin System, activated.]

System? Chen Beixuan's consciousness was in utter chaos. As a seasoned web novel reader, he was familiar with the concept, but did such things really exist? And he had become a strand of... "Qi"?

Before he could process this astonishing information, the system's prompt sounded again, with an undeniable sense of compulsion:

[Novice Survival Mission issued: Energy Accumulation.]

[Mission Description: As a newborn innate immortal Qi, the host is extremely fragile and needs to absorb external energy as soon as possible to stabilize spiritual consciousness and strengthen the origin. Current energy level: 0.01% (on the verge of dissipation).]

[Mission Objective: Reach 1% energy level.]

[Mission Reward: Chaos Heaven-Opening Art Qi Gathering Chapter.]

[Failure Penalty: Spiritual consciousness dissipates, origin returns to heaven and earth.]

The penalty for failure was complete annihilation! An unprecedented sense of crisis replaced the initial confusion and shock of transmigration.

The instinct for survival immediately prompted him to follow an extremely profound, instinctive breathing technique transmitted by the system, attempting to communicate with the outside world.

The next moment, he "felt" it.

The surroundings were no longer void, but boundless, dense, and unyielding innate spiritual energy! It enveloped his faint stream of Qi like a warm ocean. As the breathing technique circulated, tiny yet extremely pure wisps of spiritual energy slowly merged into his immortal Qi origin.

It felt like parched, dying land finally receiving the nourishment of sweet rain. Every "cell" was cheering, leaping for joy. His consciousness, originally so weak it could have extinguished at any moment, was like being injected with a powerful stimulant, becoming clearer and more stable.

At the same time, an indescribable sense of comfort flowed through his entire body... if he had a body right now. This was tens of thousands of times more invigorating and refreshing than any coffee or energy drink he had ever consumed in his more than twenty years of life! This was pleasure on a fundamental life level.

However, this feeling of pleasure did not last long.

A cold, greedy thought, like a venomous snake, suddenly locked onto it!

Through the immortal qi's faint perception of energy, Chen Beixuan "saw" not far away, a "Malevolent Spirit" – a turbid mass of intertwined miscellaneous energies and resentments – was eyeing him covetously. In the Malevolent Spirit's simple consciousness, this wisp of pure, innate immortal qi was undoubtedly an incredibly delicious delicacy!

The Malevolent Spirit let out a silent shriek, transforming into a shadowy, gray-black silhouette, and lunged at him fiercely! Wherever it passed, even the flowing spiritual energy became dim and polluted.

Danger!

Chen Beixuan's heart was filled with terror. He had just awakened, his strength was minuscule, and even moving felt clumsy and slow. How could he possibly resist this Malevolent Spirit that had clearly existed for a long time?

Run!

He used all his mental energy, driving the immortal qi itself, to "drift" in the opposite direction of the Malevolent Spirit. But he was too slow. The Malevolent Spirit surged a few times and was already closing in, its cold aura almost corroding his core.

In despair, the system's cold prompt tone sounded again:

[Detected host encountering survival threat, activating emergency protocol. Consuming 1% of Origin Energy, temporarily activating "Beginner Aura Concealment."]

An invisible wave emanated from the immortal qi itself, isolating all its aura from the outside world. At the same time, the system forcibly guided his consciousness to drill into a cluster of spiritual energy below, in a crevice between rocks, so dense it was almost solidified.

The Malevolent Spirit lunged fiercely at the spot where he had just been, but it had lost its target. It circled in place doubtfully for a few rounds, let out a few unwilling hisses, and finally slowly dispersed.

Hiding deep within the narrow and relatively safe rock crevice, continuing to absorb energy with great difficulty by utilizing the dense spiritual energy of the place, Chen Beixuan's consciousness was filled with lingering fear.

This place was nowhere near the immortal realm paradise he had imagined.

This was the Primordial World, an ancient world fraught with danger, where the law of the jungle prevailed!

The survival journey of a wisp of immortal qi had only just begun. And in the distance, the majestic, endless, and mysterious silhouette of Kunlun Mountain stood silently amidst the swirling, boundless spiritual energy, as if quietly observing this insignificant, yet subtly anomalous... innate immortal qi.