Heavenly Punishment, Trapped in a Valley

Holding the Chaos Pearl and the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation, both still bearing Pangu's aura, Li Cha was surrounded by vast, majestic golden light of World Creation Merit. Before he could properly take in the grandeur of the Primordial World and the Spiritual Energy of this newborn world, a tremor from the depths of his soul seized him.

It was neither the fear he had felt before the Primordial Chaos Demon Gods nor the awe inspired by Pangu's pressure. It was a cold chill of being rejected and hostilely regarded by the entire "world." As though he were a drop of ink in clear water—utterly out of place, awaiting purification and removal.

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

His soul had come from another world and been reborn through the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree. He had also received Pangu's entrusted mission and World Creation Merit. Without question, he was the greatest "anomaly" within the operating rules of this newborn Heavenly Dao—the one that escaped, an uncertainty beyond the predetermined course of fate! The Heavenly Dao was impartial, yet selfish. To preserve the Primordial Wilderness's stability and its destined evolutionary path, it would never tolerate an existence beyond its control!

Almost the instant that thought arose, the previously clear, cloudless sky darkened abruptly. It was not the gathering of storm clouds, but the descent of an invisible, majestic will that distorted and dimmed even the light. Terrifying pressure descended from the depths of the heavens, pinning Li Cha, who had only just entered the Primordial World, firmly within the valley. Even his few remaining leaves were at risk of falling.

Then the aura of destruction began to gather. Violet-black Tribulation Clouds appeared without a sound. They were no ordinary rain clouds, but clouds formed from the interweaving of the purest Law of Destruction and the rules of the Heavenly Dao! Within them, violet-black bolts as thick as palace pillars slithered and surged, releasing a terrifying aura that made souls tremble.

"Purple Firmament Divine Lightning! And the Nine-Nine Number at that!" Sensing the destructive power contained within those thunderclouds, Li Cha's heart turned icy. The Heavenly Dao was giving him no chance to catch his breath. It intended to erase him, this "anomaly," completely before he could grow!

Boom!

The first bolt of Purple Firmament Divine Lightning crashed down. Violet-black lightning tore through the sky, carrying the will of judgment and purification as it struck Li Cha's trunk with brutal force.

"Argh!" Intense pain instantly swept through his entire body. It was not merely physical tearing and burning; it struck at the very source of his soul, as though it intended to erase every trace of his existence. His true body, already severely weakened after Pangu had stripped it, was left with charred branches and leaves and dimmed spiritual radiance after this blow.

He desperately activated the World Creation Merit that had only recently merged into him. A dense layer of golden light emerged from within his body and protected him. Golden Light of Merit had been bestowed by the Great Dao itself, carrying an innate restraint and deterrence against the Heavenly Dao.

Sure enough, when the subsequent heavenly lightning bolts fell in succession and encountered that pure aura of Great Dao Merit, the power of the Heavenly Punishment was visibly restricted and weakened by an invisible force. The Heavenly Dao seemed wary of damaging the rat to save the vessel. It did not dare utterly destroy Li Cha, who carried immense merit, in both body and soul. That would invite backlash from the Great Dao, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate.

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

Boom! Boom! Boom!...

Bolt after bolt of divine lightning continued to bombard him like a violent storm. All eighty-one bolts seemed endless. Protected by World Creation Merit, Li Cha barely preserved his core source from destruction, but the cost was devastating.

The foundation of his Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree was forcibly struck down beneath the relentless assault carrying the power of Heavenly Dao rules! Its branches, leaves, and trunk, which contained Chaos Dao Rhyme, continuously broke apart and were purified within the lightning. The aura belonging to the age of Chaos was forcibly stripped away and erased.

After the final—and most vicious—bolt of heavenly lightning fell, the Tribulation Clouds slowly dispersed, and that cold will of heaven and earth retreated like the tide, as though it had never appeared.

The valley was no longer the valley it had been. The earth was scorched black and riddled with deep craters. Every trace of life had been utterly annihilated.

Li Cha, standing at the center of the valley, was in an even more miserable state. His body had once been a Primordial Chaos Spiritual Root over ten thousand zhang tall, with dragon-like twisted branches and leaves naturally imbued with Dao Rhyme. Now, it had shrunk by more than ten thousand times. Only a small tree barely a zhang tall remained, its entire body charred black, with only a few tender green leaves trembling faintly. The spiritual aura it emitted had also fallen from something unfathomable, born before Chaos was distinguished, to the level of a "high-grade Innate Spiritual Root."

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

Though his ability to "enlighten the Dao" remained, and had even become purer after the Heavenly Punishment tempered him and removed the impurities of Chaos, his essence, potential, and foundation had fallen from heaven to earth.

But it was not over yet. Just as Li Cha barely steadied himself and sensed the "cliff-like decline" of his foundation, the void around him rippled. Invisible, incorporeal, yet incomparably tough chains of Heavenly Dao rules formed from nothing, creating a massive cage that thoroughly sealed off the entire valley within a hundred-mile radius.

An immensely powerful Sealing Grand Array was completed in an instant under the guidance of the Heavenly Dao Will.

The array not only blocked all outside investigation, preventing other Primordial Wilderness beings from sensing or entering the valley, but also restricted Li Cha from within. His Spiritual Sense could not penetrate the barrier. Everywhere he looked was forever this scorched, lifeless valley. He had been imprisoned.

His movements were limited to this tiny patch of land, while everything outside had nothing to do with him. Throughout the valley, apart from himself—the Enlightenment Tea Tree that had just been "downgraded"—there was no sign of any other life. Not a blade of grass, not a single stone containing Spiritual Energy. There was only absolute silence and desolation.

In a daze, Li Cha felt as though he had returned to that boundless, empty Chaos. Yet in Chaos, he could still drift freely. This place was a fixed prison.

"Heh... truly... airtight." Li Cha laughed bitterly inwardly, with a trace of self-mockery. The Heavenly Dao intended to completely marginalize him, leaving him to fend for himself and preferably disappear forever beyond the workings of heavenly fate.

Fortunately, Li Cha had never been the type to sit and await death. The instant he sensed the Heavenly Dao locking onto him and the Heavenly Punishment descending, he had prepared for the worst and exhausted his final strength to accomplish three things:

First, he forcibly stripped away his few remaining original tea leaves, which carried the most fundamental aura of his Chaos Tea Dao, along with a section of his most vital root, colored in Chaos hues. He sent them into the internal space of the supreme treasure, the Chaos Pearl. This was the safeguard he left for himself, proof of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree, and the flame of hope for the future.

Second, he concealed the vast majority of his World Creation Merit deep within his core source. This merit was his protective talisman. So long as it was not completely exhausted, the Heavenly Dao would not dare truly kill him. Only a small portion had manifested outside to withstand the heavenly lightning.

Third, it was impolite not to return what one had received. Since the Heavenly Dao wanted to kill him, he would not be polite to it either. Enduring the pain of his body being torn apart, he intercepted a wisp of Heavenly Punishment Power. With this wisp, if the Heavenly Dao targeted him again and sent down Heavenly Punishment in the future, he would have at least a sliver of power to contend against it.

Now, his foundation had been weakened, he was trapped in prison, and he was cut off from the world. An overwhelming sense of loss and loneliness surged over him like a tide, but he quickly forced it down.

"Don't panic. Don't lose control," Li Cha told himself. "Pangu's entrusted mission isn't complete, and my Tea Dao hasn't spread across the Primordial Wilderness. How can I fall here?"

Since he could not leave, he would make full use of this forced period of "seclusion" and prepare thoroughly!

His foremost task was to heal. The divine lightning sent down by the Heavenly Dao had not only weakened his foundation and damaged his roots, but it had also sealed this place, preventing even a wisp of spiritual qi from entering. He could only extend his roots into the Chaos Pearl, refining it while healing his injuries.

As a Chaos Supreme Treasure, the Chaos Pearl contained fifty-one layers of Innate Restrictions and held endless mysteries. Previously, he had merely held it on Pangu's behalf and had not refined it deeply. Now, the Chaos Pearl had become his accompanying spiritual treasure, as well as the foundation for his escape and survival.

The first restriction, the second restriction... The refining process was exceedingly slow. With every layer of restrictions he refined, his control over the Chaos Pearl deepened by another degree, and his injuries recovered somewhat. His perception of the Chaos world within the pearl also grew clearer. It was a world not yet opened, yet filled with infinite possibilities. Earth, fire, water, and wind arose naturally within it, and its laws of time and space differed from those of the outside world. It was also a supreme tool for concealing heavenly fate.

Refining the Chaos Pearl was not only to master this supreme treasure and recover from his injuries. It was also to use the world within it to accelerate his comprehension of the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation, thereby deducing a cultivation technique suited to himself. His previous cultivation method had been based largely on the foundation of the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree. Now that his foundation had fallen, much of it was no longer suitable.

Li Cha calmed his mind and placed the Fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation atop the charred main trunk of the tea tree. He separated a portion of his Spiritual Sense and began communicating with the fragment, which was only one percent of its original size.

Though it was only a fragment, the Great Dao laws it contained were still as vast as a sea of smoke. The Three Thousand Great Daos were laid out within it. Most were incomplete, but they could still provide directions for comprehension. Taking his own Tea Dao as the core, combining it with related or complementary laws contained in the fragment—such as "life," "wood," "spirit," "enlightenment," and "purification"—and using Pangu's Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique as a foundation, he began the arduous task of deduction and reconstruction.

The process consumed an immense amount of mental energy. Yet within this absolutely quiet prison, free from all disturbance, it instead became the best possible cultivation environment. Time lost all meaning as his mind became completely immersed in the ocean of laws, separating, reconstructing, and verifying them bit by bit...

Beyond the valley, the Primordial World slowly evolved according to its predetermined course. The Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans began to emerge, and the first signs of conflict appeared. Within the valley, however, time seemed frozen. Only a small charred tree silently accumulated strength amid the deathly stillness. Its roots appeared to be planted in barren, scorched soil, but through the Chaos Pearl, they had quietly connected to a Chaos world filled with limitless possibilities.

Stripped of Chaos's glory and trapped within a tiny space, Li Cha's heart in pursuit of the Dao had not been extinguished. Instead, under this extreme oppression, it settled into something more resilient and profound. He waited—for the day he would break free from the cocoon, for the moment when that wisp of tea fragrance would finally spread throughout the entire Primordial Wilderness.