Heavenly Punishment, Trapped in the Valley

Holding the Chaos Pearl, still carrying Pangu's aura, and the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation, surrounded by vast and boundless golden light of World Creation Merit, Li Cha had yet to fully savor the grandeur of this Primordial World and the spiritual energy of the newborn realm when a tremor from the depths of his soul abruptly seized him.

It was not the fear of facing a Primordial Chaos Demon God, nor the awe of Pangu's oppressive might, but a bone-chilling coldness of being rejected and targeted by the entire "world." It felt like a drop of ink falling into clear water—utterly incongruous, awaiting only purification and elimination.

"Damn it!" Alarm bells rang in Li Cha's heart. "The Heavenly Dao!"

This soul of his, from another world, reborn through the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree, entrusted by Pangu and bearing World Creation Merit, was undoubtedly the greatest "anomaly" in the operating rules of this newborn Heavenly Dao—the one that had escaped, the variable outside the destined track! The Heavenly Dao was supremely impartial, yet supremely selfish. To maintain the stability of the Primordial World and its predetermined evolutionary path, it would never allow an existence beyond its control!

Almost the moment the thought arose, the clear, cloudless sky suddenly darkened. It wasn't the gathering of storm clouds, but the descent of an invisible, vast will, twisting and dimming the very light. A terrifying pressure pressed down from the depths of the heavens, firmly pinning Li Cha, who had just entered the Primordial World, within the valley. His few remaining leaves trembled, at risk of falling.

Then, the aura of destruction began to coalesce. Purple-black tribulation clouds materialized silently—not ordinary rain clouds, but clouds woven from the purest laws of destruction and Heavenly Dao rules! Within the clouds, thick, pillar-like bolts of purple-black lightning slithered and surged, radiating a terrifying aura that made the soul shudder.

"Purple Firmament Divine Lightning! And the Nine-Nine Number!" Li Cha felt the destructive power contained within the tribulation clouds, and his heart turned ice-cold. The Heavenly Dao wasn't giving him any chance to catch his breath; it intended to completely annihilate this "anomaly" in its infancy!

"Boom!"

The first bolt of Purple Firmament Divine Lightning crashed down fiercely, tearing through the sky with purple-black radiance, carrying the will of judgment and purification, and slammed heavily into Li Cha's tree body.

"Ugh—ah!" Intense pain instantly spread through his entire being—not just physical tearing and burning, but also an assault on his soul origin, as if trying to erase every trace of his existence. His main body, already weakened by Pangu's plucking, now had its branches charred and spiritual light dimmed under this strike.

He desperately urged the World Creation Merit he had just integrated. A dense layer of golden light emerged from within him, shielding him. Merit golden light was a gift from the Great Dao, possessing a natural restraining and intimidating effect on the Heavenly Dao.

Indeed, when the subsequent divine thunderbolts fell one after another, sensing the pure aura of Great Dao Merit, the power of the Heavenly Punishment was visibly limited and weakened by some intangible force. The Heavenly Dao seemed hesitant, afraid to truly obliterate Li Cha, who bore great merit, body and soul, as that would invite backlash from the Great Dao, with unimaginable consequences.

But while a death sentence could be avoided, suffering could not. The Heavenly Dao clearly had no intention of letting him off easily.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

One divine thunderbolt after another struck relentlessly, like a fierce storm. A full eighty-one bolts, seemingly endless. Relying on the World Creation Merit to protect him, Li Cha barely preserved his core origin from extinction, but the cost was severe.

His Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree foundation, under the continuous bombardment imbued with Heavenly Dao rule power, was forcibly beaten down! The branches and leaves containing Chaos Dao Rhyme, the trunk, continuously disintegrated and purified under the lightning, the aura of the Chaos era forcibly stripped away and ground to nothing.

When the final, most ferocious bolt of divine thunder fell, the tribulation clouds in the sky slowly dispersed, and the icy will of heaven and earth receded like a tide, as if it had never existed.

The valley was no longer what it had been. The ground was scorched black, riddled with deep pits, all life utterly annihilated.

And in the center of the valley, Li Cha's appearance was even more miserable. His original body, a Primordial Chaos Spiritual Root towering ten thousand zhang, with branches coiled like dragons and leaves naturally bearing Dao rhymes, had shrunk by more than ten thousand times! Only a small tree remained, barely over a zhang tall, completely charred black, with just a few tender green leaves trembling slightly. Its emitted spiritual aura had also fallen from the obscure, profound Chaos state to the level of a "superior-grade Innate Spiritual Root."

He was no longer the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree, but the—Innate Enlightenment Tea Tree.

Although the ability to "enlighten" remained, and had even become purer after being tempered by the Heavenly Punishment, which removed Chaos impurities, its essence, potential, and foundation had plummeted from heaven to earth.

That wasn't the end. Just as Li Cha stabilized his form and felt his "cliff-like drop" in foundation, the void around him rippled. Invisible yet indestructible chains of Heavenly Dao rules materialized out of thin air, like a massive cage, completely sealing off and isolating the entire valley for a hundred li in radius.

A powerful Sealing Grand Array, under the direction of the Heavenly Dao's will, was completed in an instant.

This array not only blocked all external detection, preventing other Primordial World beings from sensing or entering the valley, but also restricted Li Cha from within. His Spiritual Sense could not penetrate this barrier; wherever he looked, it was always this scorched, dead valley scene. He was imprisoned.

His actions were confined to this tiny patch of land; everything outside was irrelevant to him. In the entire valley, aside from himself, this newly "downgraded" Enlightenment Tea Tree, there was no other sign of life—not a single blade of grass, not a stone containing spiritual energy, only absolute stillness and desolation.

In a daze, Li Cha felt as if he had returned to that boundless, empty Chaos. Except, in Chaos, he could still drift freely; here, he was in a fixed cage.

"Heh... truly... watertight," Li Cha laughed bitterly to himself, with a hint of self-mockery. The Heavenly Dao was going to completely marginalize him, let him wither away on his own, and preferably vanish forever from the workings of fate.

Fortunately, Li Cha was never one to sit idly and wait for death. The moment he sensed the Heavenly Dao's lock-on and the descent of the Heavenly Punishment, he had made the worst-case plan and used his last strength to accomplish three things:

First, he forcibly stripped away his few remaining original tea leaves, which contained his most fundamental Chaos Tea Dao aura, and a core section of tree root with a Chaos Hue, sending them into the internal space of the Chaos Pearl, a supreme treasure. This was his contingency, the proof of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree, and the spark of future hope.

Second, he withdrew the vast majority of the World Creation Merit deep into his core origin. This merit was his talisman; as long as it wasn't completely exhausted, the Heavenly Dao wouldn't dare to truly kill him. The part manifested externally to block the divine thunder was only a small fraction.

Third, since the Heavenly Dao wanted him dead, he wouldn't be polite either. Enduring the pain of his body tearing, he intercepted a strand of Heavenly Punishment power. With this strand, if the Heavenly Dao targeted him again and sent down punishment, he would have some capital to resist.

Now, his foundation was shaved down, he was trapped in a prison, isolated from the world. A great wave of loss and loneliness surged over him like a tide, but he quickly forced it down.

"Can't panic, can't be flustered," Li Cha told himself. "I haven't fulfilled Pangu's entrustment yet, and my Tea Dao hasn't spread across the Primordial World. How can I fall here?"

Since he couldn't leave, he would use this forced "seclusion" time to make thorough preparations!

The first task was to heal. The Heavenly Dao's divine thunder had not only weakened his foundation and damaged his roots but also sealed this place, preventing any spiritual energy from entering. He could only extend his roots into the Chaos Pearl, refining it while healing.

The Chaos Pearl, a Chaos Supreme Treasure, contained fifty-one layers of Innate Restrictions, infinitely profound. Before, he had only held it on Pangu's behalf without deep refinement. Now, the Chaos Pearl had become his companion spirit treasure, the very foundation of his escape and survival.

The first restriction, the second restriction... The refinement process was extremely slow. With each restriction refined, his control over the Chaos Pearl deepened, and his injuries recovered somewhat. His perception of the chaotic world within the pearl grew clearer—a world not yet opened but containing infinite possibilities, internally generating earth, fire, water, and wind, with time-space rules different from the outside, and an unparalleled tool for shielding fate.

Refining the Chaos Pearl wasn't just about mastering this treasure to recover; it was also about using its internal world to accelerate the comprehension of the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation, thereby deducing a suitable cultivation technique. His previous cultivation method was largely based on the foundation of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree; now that his foundation had fallen, much of it was no longer appropriate.

Li Cha calmed his mind, placed the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation on his charred tea tree trunk, and diverted a portion of his Spiritual Sense to begin communicating with that one-percent-sized fragment.

Though just a fragment, the Great Dao laws contained within it were still vast as a sea of smoke. The Three Thousand Great Daos were arrayed within, mostly incomplete, but still providing direction for enlightenment. With his own "Tea" Dao as the core, combined with the fragment's laws of "Life," "Wood," "Spirit," "Enlightenment," and "Purity," which were similar or complementary, and referencing Pangu's Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique as a foundation, he began the arduous process of deduction and reassembly.

This process was extremely mentally taxing, but in this absolutely quiet, undisturbed prison, it became the best cultivation environment. Time lost meaning; his mind was completely immersed in the ocean of laws, bit by bit stripping away, reassembling, and verifying...

Outside the valley, the Primordial World slowly evolved along its predetermined path. The Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin races began to emerge, with initial conflicts appearing. Inside the valley, time seemed frozen. Only a charred little tree silently accumulated strength in the stillness. Its roots appeared to be anchored in the barren, scorched earth, but through the Chaos Pearl, they had quietly connected to a chaotic world full of infinite possibilities.

Stripped of the glory of Chaos, trapped in a tiny space, Li Cha's heart for seeking the Dao had not been extinguished. Instead, in this extreme suppression, it had settled into something tougher and deeper. He was waiting—waiting for the day he would break out of his cocoon, waiting for that wisp of tea fragrance to finally permeate the entire Primordial World.