System Activation, Reward: Chaos Undying Body

Qin Feng's roar from the depths of his soul was like a spark igniting dry kindling.

[ Ding! Host confirmed! The Backing System has officially activated! ]

[ Novice gift pack and quest rewards are being issued simultaneously! ]

[ Congratulations, Host, for accepting the quest: Become Niangniang Shi Ji's backing. Quest reward—Chaos Undying Body—has been issued! ]

The cold mechanical voice spoke each word distinctly, yet it was like the holiest decree from the nine heavens, crashing heavily into the core of Qin Feng's consciousness.

It worked!

It really worked!

Ten thousand years of waiting, ten thousand years of loneliness—at this moment, he had finally glimpsed the dawn of breaking free!

Before Qin Feng could even rejoice wildly, a torrent of information far vaster, older, and more terrifying than he had imagined crashed into his mind with irresistible force.

That stream of information contained all the system's functions and rules.

By serving as a goddess's backing and resolving her crises, he could obtain heaven-defying rewards tailored by the system according to the difficulty of the crisis and the goddess's own traits.

The more goddesses he protected and the greater the crises he resolved, the richer the rewards would become. He could even unlock the legendary "Alliance buff" and gain heaven-defying bonuses for an entire group.

This was practically... a system custom-built for a goddess's personal enforcer!

Qin Feng instantly understood the system's core mechanics.

Yet the main body of that information stream was not a system manual, but an unfathomably profound ancient method that seemed to have originated before World Creation.

Chaos Undying Body!

Every character seemed to contain a complete Great Dao, and every syllable appeared to expound the ultimate truth behind the birth and death of the cosmos.

The information was too immense. Even Qin Feng, whose Spiritual Sense had surpassed that of ordinary people after being trapped for ten thousand years, felt his entire consciousness ache violently, as though his head were about to burst apart.

Just as he was about to reach his limit, an indescribable, strange power—seemingly existent yet seemingly nonexistent—descended from beyond the nine heavens, crossed time and space, ignored every restriction on Skeleton Mountain, and precisely entered the stone in which he resided.

It was a grayish stream of air.

It looked tiny, no more than a single wisp, yet it was as heavy as the entire chaos.

It looked ordinary and inconspicuous, yet it contained the supreme divine might to create all things and destroy all things.

Chaos Qi!

This was the primordial power from before World Creation, when the primordial chaos had yet to be divided!

The instant that wisp of Chaos Qi merged into the stone, Qin Feng felt his Spiritual Sense, which had nearly been burst apart by the torrent of information, instantly enveloped by a warm and powerful force.

All the agonizing pain vanished, replaced by an unprecedented sense of ease and clarity.

The profound Chaos Undying Body method no longer held any obscurity. Every character became his instinct, branded into the deepest part of his soul.

[ Chaos Undying Body: At the beginning of chaos, the source of all things; Invulnerable to All Magic, unyielding through countless tribulations, possessed of boundless strength, with a physical body comparable to an Innate Supreme Treasure. ]

The system prompt sounded again, as though singing a hymn for the birth of this divine body.

Then, an earth-shaking transformation began.

Qin Feng could clearly "see" the astonishing changes taking place in his stone body, which had imprisoned him for ten thousand years.

That wisp of Chaos Qi was like the most skilled Creator, using the stone as its embryo and his soul as its guide to carry out a heaven-defying reconstruction.

The hard stone structure broke down layer by layer beneath the cleansing of Chaos Qi, then reassembled layer by layer.

Its impurities were removed, its origin purified, and a brand-new immortal body and Dao physique, far surpassing adamantine glass, rapidly took shape.

His Spiritual Sense merged perfectly with that newly born body, without the slightest trace of obstruction.

He could even feel an unprecedentedly terrifying power growing wildly within his limbs and bones.

It was pure physical strength, without the slightest bit of Magic Power, yet it seemed as though one punch could shatter the stars and one stomp could split the primordial world!

Meanwhile, atop Skeleton Mountain, the battle had reached its most critical moment.

The nine divine fire dragons had completely sealed off every route of retreat for Shi Ji. The fiery net they formed tightened ever further, and the terrifying heat capable of incinerating all things had already charred her azure Daoist robe and left burn marks upon her snow-white skin.

Shi Ji's Magic Power was nearly exhausted, and her Primordial Spirit trembled endlessly beneath the pressure of the divine fire. Yet she still stood stubbornly, gripping the dimly glowing Tai'a Sword in her hand, with not the slightest hint of surrender in her beautiful eyes.

"Heh, what a tough bone."

A cruel smile, like that of a cat toying with a mouse, hung on Taiyi Zhenren's face. Rather than admiring Shi Ji's resilience in the slightest, he found it even more amusing.

What he enjoyed most was grinding such so-called "tough bones" into powder bit by bit.

"Fine, the game is over."

Taiyi Zhenren curled his lips, finding it somewhat dull, and prepared to issue the final killing command.

At that moment, an inexplicable palpitation suddenly surged up from the depths of his heart!

It was an indescribable fear originating from the level of life itself, as though some terrifying existence from the ancient primordial era had fixed its gaze upon him.

The smile on Taiyi Zhenren's face instantly froze.

Then he discovered in horror that the close mental connection between himself and the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover had developed an almost imperceptible sluggishness.

The Divine Fire Cover floating high in the air actually trembled slightly.

The nine divine fire dragons roaring as they sought to tear Shi Ji apart also paused in unison. The blazing flames burning across their hundred-zhang dragon bodies seemed to have been doused with cold water, their might weakening by a full thirty percent.

In the dragon eyes formed of flame, there was actually a trace of... fear?

What was going on?!

Taiyi Zhenren was horrified. His Spiritual Sense swept over the entirety of Skeleton Mountain like a tide, seeking the source of this abnormality.

Yet after searching, he found nothing.

Shi Ji was already at the end of her strength. It was impossible for her to have any trump cards left.

There was also no aura of any Great Powers descending within ten thousand li.

Across all of Skeleton Mountain, apart from himself and Shi Ji, only those low-level Spirit Monsters trembling beneath the lingering might of the divine fire remained.

"An illusion?"

Taiyi Zhenren frowned deeply, then gradually relaxed, and a confident sneer once again appeared on his lips.

It had to be an illusion!

He was a Golden Immortal of the Chan Sect, Yuanshi Tianzun's personal disciple. He possessed supreme treasures and was blessed by fortune. Across this primordial land, aside from the few Saints and Quasi-Saint Great Powers, who could make him feel such fear?

Would a mere Skeleton Mountain, a Stone Goblin of such lowly origins, even be worthy?

"Hmph! Playing tricks and struggling at death's door!"

Taiyi Zhenren attributed this inexplicable abnormality to some method Shi Ji was using that he could not understand.

That conclusion made the lofty superiority in his heart feel challenged. Embarrassed and enraged, his killing intent grew even stronger.

"I'd like to see what other tricks you can pull!"

"Burn! Burn her, along with this entire mountain, into ashes!"

He formed a hand seal, pouring all the Magic Power within his body into the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover without holding anything back.

Bzzzz—!

Empowered by the vast Magic Power, the Divine Fire Cover blazed with scarlet light. The nine fire dragons seemed as though they had been injected with stimulants, instantly dispelling the fear in their hearts. With dragon roars even more violent than before, they lunged once more at Shi Ji by the cave entrance.

However, Taiyi Zhenren failed to notice.

At the exact moment he increased his output of Magic Power, below, at the entrance of White Bone Cave, golden cracks resembling spiderwebs suddenly appeared across the surface of the stone that had stood there ever since Shi Ji arrived.

Crack...

Crack, crack...

The cracks rapidly spread, covering the entire stone.

Thread by thread, wisp by wisp, an aura of chaos older than primordial chaos and loftier than the Great Dao slowly seeped from those golden cracks.

At first, that aura was extremely faint. Yet the instant it leaked out, the distorted space around it, warped by the divine fire, was instantly smoothed over as though stroked by an invisible hand.

The rampaging innate divine flames retreated in every direction the instant they touched that aura, as though they had encountered their natural bane—as though it were not an aura, but the most terrifying poison in the world.

A terrifying pressure that made heaven and earth tremble, that forced all magic to submit, was quietly awakening within that stone on the verge of shattering.