Scorching!
Burning!
It was as if he had been thrown into magma at the earth's core. Every inch of his "body" cried out under unbearable strain, only to be violently crushed apart and reforged by even more frenzied energy the next instant.
Li Su's consciousness drifted through a boundless ocean of agony. The true blood of the Fierce Beast pouring down upon him contained unimaginable power and a savage will, like countless red-hot steel needles madly piercing his bamboo body and boring through his spiritual sense.
I'm going to die... I'm really going to disappear completely...
Just as his consciousness was about to collapse entirely and be assimilated into pure energy, that cold, mechanical force surfaced once more.
[Devouring Evolution System activated... Foreign high-energy substance and chaotic will detected... Beginning analysis... separation... absorption...] [Warning: Host spiritual body strength is too low. Energy is excessively vast. Risk of total annihilation detected... Emergency protocol activated... Energy intake efficiency reduced to 0.001%... Excess energy and chaotic will temporarily stored...] [Beginning enhancement: Bamboo body foundation...]
It was as if a flood had suddenly been channeled away. Though it remained surging and immense, it was no longer aimless destruction.
A cool sensation spread outward from the system's core, guiding an exceedingly tiny wisp of energy from that terrifying blood through every section of Li Su's bamboo body and every bamboo leaf along some profound, mysterious route.
"Sizzle—"
His emerald bamboo body gave off faint sounds beneath the scouring of the searing energy.
The faint dark-black patterns on its surface suddenly lit up and became incomparably clear. Like naturally formed Dao talismans, they frantically devoured the beast blood around him while painstakingly repelling and filtering out the violent will contained within it.
His bamboo body became increasingly crystalline at a visible rate, its texture growing ever tougher. Its color shifted from emerald green toward deep bluish-black, as though it had been carved from the finest ink jade, yet it contained endless vitality and resilience.
[Enhancement complete. Bamboo body strength increased by 371%. Resistance to evil qi erosion increased by 200%. Spiritual sense capacity limit increased by 150%.] [Beginning enhancement: Spiritual sense origin...]
An even greater pain struck him, this time tempering his spiritual sense itself.
The filtered stream of energy, now countless times gentler, merged with the flickering light of his spiritual sense. Like the finest fuel, it made that light blaze wildly and grow stronger!
Fragmented shards of memory were forcibly kneaded together. Chaotic perceptions were rapidly sorted out. His newborn ignorance was swiftly enlightened.
Countless vague pieces of information about this world—the evil qi, the stench of blood, the roars of giant beasts, the wails of lingering souls—surged through his "mind" like a tide, aided by the system as he understood and absorbed them.
He "saw" a more minute world. The writhing of bloody mud deep within the soil, the collisions of evil qi particles in the air, the strange resonance caused by wind blowing through gaps in bones far away... His sensory range expanded from a radius of ten zhang to fifty, then one hundred!
His thinking speed soared, and the ability to deduce was born. He could even vaguely sense a trace of an imperceptible connection between himself and some deeper, vaster power in this world.
What was that? Was it the "spiritual qi" mentioned by the system? Or something even more fundamental to this Primordial World?
[Enhancement complete. Spiritual sense strength increased by 580%. Comprehension increased by 100%. Spiritual sense perception range increased to a radius of one hundred and fifty zhang.] [Warning: Temporarily stored excess energy and chaotic will have exceeded 90% of the safety threshold. Please increase your strength and complete absorption as soon as possible. Otherwise, risk of bodily explosion remains.]
All the pain receded like the tide, and an unprecedented feeling of power filled both Li Su's spirit and bamboo body.
He "looked" at himself.
His three-zhang-tall bamboo body had now grown to five zhang! Its entire surface was a deep bluish-black, with subdued luster and distinct joints. Its texture was like adamantine, yet it held boundless flexibility and vitality.
The dark-black patterns on its surface had completely solidified, like Dao inscriptions. They faintly stirred the evil qi around him while keeping it three inches away from his bamboo body, unable to erode him directly.
His bamboo leaves had also become long, narrow, and sharp, their edges glinting with a cold, dim light. With the slightest sway, they could naturally slice apart the evil wind permeating the air.
He was no longer an ordinary bamboo stalk trembling in the evil wind, one that could snap at any moment.
I survived... Not only did I survive, I even gained an enormous blessing from disaster!
After the wild joy came deep reverence and lingering fear. Had the system not awakened in time, he would already have been reduced to ashes.
The energy and will contained in that giant beast's blood, even the most insignificant trace of it, were far beyond the lingering soul fragments he had absorbed before.
The system's screen silently unfolded in his consciousness again. It was simple and cold, yet it brought endless hope.
[Host: Li Su] [Origin: Nine-Section Soul-Devouring Bamboo (Elementary Postnatal Spiritual Root)] [Realm: None (Spiritual Sense Newly Awakened)] [Cultivation Method: None] [Divine Ability: None] [Abilities: Soul Devouring (Elementary), Tenacity (Elementary), Evil Qi Resistance (Intermediate)] [Evolution Points: 17/100 (Converted from absorbed energy, lingering souls, evil qi, and more)] [Status: Excess energy and chaotic will temporarily stored (Danger)]
Nine-Section Soul-Devouring Bamboo? Postnatal Spiritual Root? Evolution Points?
Information flooded in, and Li Su rapidly came to understand. An improvement in his origin meant that his future potential had increased tremendously.
Evolution Points were the system's quantified version of "experience." Absorbing energy, lingering souls, and even evil qi could convert them into points. Once he accumulated one hundred, it seemed he could trigger an "evolution."
The "Danger" status warning, however, was like a bucket of cold water that instantly calmed him down.
The crisis had not been fully resolved. It had merely been postponed. He had to grow stronger as quickly as possible and digest that stored "bomb."
How could he grow stronger?
The system offered the most direct path—devour! Devour everything that could be devoured and convert it into Evolution Points!
His Soul Devouring ability seemed to have become even stronger with the system's and beast blood's enhancements.
His consciousness focused, and his bamboo body swayed slightly. Within a hundred and fifty zhang, newly formed lingering soul fragments drifting through the air seemed to be drawn by an invisible force field. At speeds ten or even a hundred times faster than before, they flew into the dark-black patterns on his bamboo body and were swiftly devoured, purified, and absorbed.
[Absorbed fragmented Beast Soul. Evolution Points +0.01] [Absorbed fragmented Beast Soul. Evolution Points +0.005] [Absorbed resentful evil intent. Evolution Points +0.003]
The notifications rang out without end. Though every increase was infinitesimal, they were real!
Moreover, devouring these lingering souls seemed capable of slowly eroding the temporarily stored chaotic will.
The path of hope lay right beneath him!
But Li Su was not carried away by excitement. He still remembered the dangers of this place.
The giant beast's corpse that had crashed down before him emitted a terrifying pressure. For the time being, perhaps no other Fierce Beasts would dare approach, but that pressure would eventually fade.
Besides, devouring lingering souls was far too inefficient! How many would he need to devour to gather one hundred Evolution Points? A hundred thousand? A million?
He had to find more efficient "food"!
His spiritual sense cautiously avoided the main area around the giant beast's carcass and extended farther away.
A radius of a hundred and fifty zhang allowed him to investigate many areas he had previously been unable to reach.
He "saw" strange ores half-buried in bloody mud, glimmering faintly;
He "saw" several bizarre plants that also stubbornly survived amid the evil wind, giving off either sickly sweet or decayed scents;
He even "saw," far in the distance, a bottomless fissure in the earth, from which purer yet more violent Yin Sha Qi gushed forth...
Those all seemed capable of becoming "nourishment."
But the risks were equally immense. Beside the ores lurked a crimson centipede-like venomous insect that fed on evil stones;
Around those plants lay the white bones of many small beasts; and from within that earthen fissure came a faint sense of danger that made his spiritual sense tremble.
Growing stronger was no easy task. One wrong step would lead to eternal damnation.
He steadied himself and focused his consciousness on the system panel again.
Beyond Evolution Points, the word "None" in the Cultivation Method and Divine Ability sections was equally glaring.
Without a cultivation method, relying solely on instinctive devouring was inefficient, and his prospects would be bleak.
The system could enhance him, but it seemed unable to create cultivation methods from nothing.
Where could he find a cultivation method? How could he obtain divine abilities?
In the Primordial World, cultivation methods were surely held by those great innate powers.
And he was a bamboo stalk, stranded in an ancient land overrun by Fierce Beasts. He could not even move—how could he seek out such great powers?
Become a disciple... Yuanshi Tianzun...
That vague thought from the beginning of his transmigration surfaced once more, yet it seemed so impossibly distant, like a flower reflected in a mirror or the moon in water.
The road ahead was long, and the Great Dao was perilous. The little complacency that had risen from the system's awakening and his enhancement vanished in an instant.
Only through caution, endurance, and seizing every shred of opportunity to desperately survive and grow stronger would he be qualified to gaze toward the legendary Kunlun Mountain and knock upon that distant Heavenly Gate.
Li Su gathered all his thoughts and drove his spiritual sense at full force. As he continued devouring the endless stream of lingering soul fragments forming within his range and accumulating tiny amounts of Evolution Points, he also surveyed every inch of land within a hundred and fifty zhang more carefully, analyzing every possible opportunity and danger.
The five-zhang ink bamboo stood silently beside the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, quietly beginning a lonely and arduous path of survival and evolution.
No years were counted in the Primordial World.
Before you continue