Spiritual Root Awakens

In the beginning, Pangu split the heavens and earth, separating the clear from the turbid.

Pangu's body then transformed into all things in the world, and this newborn realm began to stir with life. After enduring the Great Tribulation of Fierce Beasts, the Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation, and the War of Immortals and Demons, countless eons have passed...

In the Western Primordial Desolation, within an unnamed valley. The sky above Soul Splitting Valley in the Western Primordial Desolation was shrouded in lead-grey tribulation clouds. The cracked earth was riddled with bottomless ravines. Earth fire snaked through the fissures like crimson serpents, and scattered white bones lay amidst the scorched rocks. The air was filled with a pungent, mixed scent of sulfur and decaying matter.

This place had once been near the main battlefield of the War of Immortals and Demons. Now, the earth outside the valley was shattered, Innate Spiritual Qi was scarce, the sky was shrouded in lead-grey tribulation clouds, and the cracked land was covered in bottomless ravines. Earth fire snaked through the fissures like crimson serpents, and scattered white bones lay amidst the scorched rocks. The air was filled with a pungent, mixed scent of sulfur and decaying matter, with a faint trace of Demonic Qi also present, drifting like wisps of smoke. Near the valley, the smoke followed the contours of the mountain passes, drifting towards the valley's interior, eventually converging in the center.

In the vast center of the valley stood a nine-zhang pool, into which the converging smoke spun down from the heavens and merged with the water. The pool water was as black as ink and as viscous as silk. In the center of the pool stood a stalk of bamboo radiating spiritual light, with only a few withered yellow leaves at its tip.

I am a Cloud Bamboo, a Cloud Bamboo growing in a pool within a valley. My roots are firmly planted at the bottom of the pool, and the surrounding water is as black as ink, giving off a sinister and terrifying aura.

After an unknown amount of time, I don't know when, I began to develop a vague consciousness.

I could feel the painful groans emanating from deep beneath the earth, the earth's lament. Every crack was like a wound, bleeding continuously. I could hear the whimpers carried on the wind, the lingering resentments of countless beings.

Jiang Yun's consciousness struggled to surface from the chaos. The first sensation he perceived was not sight, but an excruciating pain from his roots—as if thousands of steel needles were piercing his soul along his veins.

He tried to lift his "hand" to rub his temples, only to discover in horror that his body had transformed into a seven-foot-tall Cloud Bamboo. Its hair-thin roots were clamped tightly onto the soil, with only a few secondary roots remaining unbroken besides the main one.

His leaves trembled in the wind, each sway sending a knife-like pain through his roots.

"Have I become... a plant person?" Jiang Yun forced his mind to calm down.

In his previous life, Jiang Yun was an ordinary office worker in IT. One weekend, after a gathering with colleagues, he took a taxi home after drinking and fell into a deep sleep on his bed. When he woke up, he was here.

There was no dramatic cynicism or despair; everything had happened in a quiet, uneventful manner.

Jiang Yun simply felt a wave of sadness. It was a pity he could no longer fulfill his filial duties to his parents; everything would have to be left to his elder brother. Fortunately, he had left tens of thousands of yuan in savings in his bank card for his brother before he left.

Suddenly, a stream of data flowed into Jiang Yun's consciousness. It was information from his Origin, like a fleeting glimpse through countless years. Jiang Yun understood his current predicament.

He was an illegal immigrant, inexplicably reborn as an Innate Spiritual Root!

However, since he was here, he would make the best of it. Since he had encountered the legendary cultivation in this life, he would enjoy the pleasure of practicing it.

Through the information inherited from his physical Origin, Jiang Yun learned that he was now in the Primordial Desolation opened by the great Pangu. Having often read novels in his past life, he was familiar with many myths and legends. The current time was ten thousand years after the War of Immortals and Demons between Old Ancestor Hongjun and Demon Ancestor Luohu.

Back then, the Demon Ancestor and Hongjun had fought a great battle in the West, leaving the western lands devastated and destroying countless Spirit Veins and Blessed Lands and Grotto-Heavens.

The place where Jiang Yun's body was located had also been affected by the battle's aftermath. Fortunately, it was far from the main battlefield. Although severely injured, with countless roots broken, it had managed to survive.

It was precisely because of this that the soul from another world could now occupy this Spiritual Root, and after a period of merging with the Spiritual Root's Origin, he had finally regained consciousness.

Jiang Yun's physical body was a lower-grade Innate Spiritual Root, Cloud Bamboo. It was a branch from the Origin of the Chaos Spiritual Root Heavenly Pillar Tree during the Great Tribulation of Heaven Opening. During the Great Tribulation of Heaven Opening, countless Chaos Spiritual Roots were destroyed, and their Origins differentiated into countless Innate Spiritual Roots.

The inheritance also came with a cultivation technique called the "Jianmu Tongtian True Scripture," which could cultivate up to the Grand Unity Realm. It also included some cultivation common knowledge and basics, allowing Jiang Yun to understand the cultivation realm divisions: Mortal Realm, Human Immortal, Earth Immortal, Heavenly Immortal, True Immortal, Mystic Immortal, Golden Immortal, Grand Unity Golden Immortal, Grand Luo Golden Immortal, Primordial Golden Immortal (Quasi-Saint), and Primordial Grand Luo Golden Immortal (Saint).

As for the cultivation realms beyond Saint, the inheritance contained no information.

Just as Jiang Yun was about to review further information, he felt a strange sensation from his leaves and roots. It was a faint stream of Demonic Qi surging in from all around.

He instinctively absorbed this wisp of Demonic Qi, while also extending his leaves and roots.

"Hmm, is this the innate talent of an Innate Spiritual Root awakening with consciousness?

It can devour and refine various spiritual energies to increase cultivation, and it can also replenish its own Origin by absorbing other spiritual roots of the same origin. When the Origin is sufficient, it can trace back to its source and evolve into a higher-grade spiritual root."

Jiang Yun was pleasantly surprised to find that after absorbing a wisp of Demonic Qi, his branches and roots seemed to have become tougher. Most of the secondary roots, apart from the main one, had been torn apart, likely due to the near uprooting of his body during the tribulation's aftermath.

He tried to deconstruct the current situation with a programming mindset: if the body were a server, the leaves and roots would be data interfaces, and the Demonic Qi was clearly a form of energy.

However, the "hardware" of his physical body was too fragile due to the tribulation, unable to absorb enough spiritual energy to nourish the entire body. His leaves were severely malnourished, turning yellow.

Fortunately, with Jiang Yun's consciousness awakened, as long as he could absorb all the Demonic Qi in the pool beneath him, it should be enough to repair the injuries within his body.

With this thought, Jiang Yun calmed down and slowly absorbed the Demonic Qi, gradually healing his Origin's injuries.

Some broken roots also reconnected unconsciously.

Three years passed in the blink of an eye. Jiang Yun consciously operated the Jianmu Tongtian True Scripture, coupled with the Origin converted from the Demonic Qi he had diligently absorbed during this time, his physical injuries had mostly healed.

After the root damage was repaired, his absorption speed of Demonic Qi increased exponentially, making the process twice as effective.

The initially yellow and withered leaves had now regained their original green color, appearing full of vitality.

His initial seven-foot-tall branches and leaves suddenly shot up to a height of one zhang. His exposed roots were thick and gnarled, plunging into the Mysterious Yellow Soil at the bottom of the pool and extending ten zhang deep underground.

Over several consecutive months, Jiang Yun's mental state improved. As he practiced the cultivation technique, Jiang Yun began to mimic the Cloud Bamboo's breathing.

Unintentionally, Jiang Yun's consciousness synchronized with the Cloud Bamboo's. Instantly, a continuous stream of pure Qi nourished Jiang Yun's soul.

Only now had Jiang Yun truly merged completely with the Cloud Bamboo's body. From then on, the Innate Spiritual Root Cloud Bamboo was Jiang Yun, and no one in the Heavenly Dao could detect the soul from another world.

At this moment, the Cloud Bamboo's Origin fed back into Jiang Yun's soul, instantly condensing his previously frail soul into a three-inch Nascent Soul.

Jiang Yun's Nascent Soul continued to refine the pure Qi, growing stronger day by day. One day, with the influx of the last, slightly stronger stream of pure Qi, Jiang Yun's Nascent Soul finally grew to three zhang in size, and his cultivation leaped to the Early Earth Immortal realm.

At this point, Jiang Yun could already project his divine sense outward.

"Haha, I can finally get a good look at my surroundings."

Jiang Yun released his divine sense and carefully examined everything around him. To his surprise, what greeted his divine sense was a barren plain. Within a ten-mile radius of his divine sense, nothing grew except for himself.

"I never expected the West to be so desolate after the War of Immortals and Demons. It's enough to make one weep, and seeing it makes you want to turn and run without hesitation!"

Now, the pool of Demonic Qi that had been at his feet was completely absorbed, revealing the Mysterious Yellow Soil. After being steeped in Demonic Qi for so long, this soil had not rotted or discolored. And now that the Demonic Qi in the soil had been absorbed, spiritual energy was continuously surging up from below, for reasons unknown.

"Earlier, the black Demonic Qi filled the surroundings, and my spiritual sense couldn't extend outside my body, so I hadn't noticed this. Now that I look, could there be some Origin of Spiritual Soil below?" Jiang Yun muttered to himself as he strained his roots to delve deeper.