The First Ancient God

The myriad arts changed in countless ways, yet all were hidden within oneself.

These were the words of an Ancient God.

Ancient Gods were beings matched against God Kings, their strength evenly balanced. Yet no one had ever seen an Ancient God fight a God King.

That was why people said they were evenly matched.

The races that cultivated according to the Great Cultivation Method would ultimately break through to become God Kings.

Ancient Gods, however, were not among them.

The reason began with a young boy. That boy could be called the founder of the Ancient Gods.

He had been born rejected by energy. He simply could not use the universe's Great Cultivation Method. Any Cosmic Energy he drew into his body would not even last a second.

It would all flow back out and dissipate into the air.

He had neither father nor mother from childhood and had been raised by the Beast Race on that planet.

Strangely enough, the planet he lived on was exceptionally peaceful. The various races and tribes lived together in friendship.

There were no clearly divided territories.

On an icy, snowbound night, a Beast Race couple found him in the mountains. With heavy snow covering the path down the mountain, they had no choice but to keep him with them for the time being.

Only when the morning sun rose and melted some of the snow on the road could they make their way down.

The Beast Race couple had intended to send him to the Human Race to be cared for, but the snow that year had been so heavy that it blocked every road into the city.

They could only wait for winter to pass and the ice and snow to melt before setting out again.

Perhaps heaven had decreed that they would adopt him. After that heavy snowfall, they received word that the snow ahead had frozen into ice.

The ice was enormous and stretched far and wide. Blasting it apart by force could easily injure the Beast Race beastmen, so they could only wait for the officials and soldiers to deal with it.

And so, the Beast Race couple raised him alongside their own child. More than half a year passed, and for various reasons, they ultimately kept him instead of returning him to the Human Race.

As he gradually grew up, the year came for the annual examination held after students graduated from school.

Its purpose was to test one's aptitude for cultivation.

At merely fifteen years old, he was already very sensible, and he had a pleasant name as well.

Because he had been found on a cold night, the Beast Race couple named him Leng Ye.

However, during the test, he was told that he could not cultivate.

His case was especially peculiar. Cultivation relied on Cosmic Energy, and where they lived, anyone who could absorb Cosmic Energy could cultivate.

But Leng Ye could not. He was incapable of absorbing Cosmic Energy!

This discovery alarmed the upper ranks of every race, and they all came to his home to examine him one by one.

Yet their final conclusions were all the same.

Leng Ye's body simply could not retain Cosmic Energy. No matter what method was used, the Cosmic Energy inside Leng Ye's body would dissipate.

Even if Cosmic Energy was forcibly kept within his body, he still could not absorb it. Leng Ye's condition was unheard of throughout history, stumping a host of powerful experts.

Later, a Venerable God expert used himself as a medium and forcibly poured Cosmic Energy into Leng Ye.

The Venerable God's idea was simple. Since Cosmic Energy could not be retained, he would use it to scour Leng Ye's body, leaving behind traces within him.

Perhaps then, the next time he drew upon Cosmic Energy, it could remain.

As time passed, Leng Ye's body was scoured for a long while. After the Venerable God withdrew his power, he inspected Leng Ye's insides.

But the result disappointed him. He shook his head, sighed, and left.

Leng Ye's body could not retain even the faintest trace. He was like an innate insulator against Cosmic Energy; anything connected to Cosmic Energy simply would not work. This result was impossible for the Beast Race couple to accept. They did not dare face Leng Ye, afraid he would be heartbroken beyond measure.

But Leng Ye merely laughed heartily and said he did not care.

During another trip outside to train, he happened upon a secret manual that recorded a miraculous cultivation method.

It was to cultivate the body and command Cosmic Energy!

It did not matter if one could not cultivate through Cosmic Energy. One only needed to continuously train the body and raise one's physical constitution to a great height.

At that point, there would be no need to rely on Cosmic Energy. One could seize Cosmic Energy directly in one's palm and use it as one's own weapon!

Leng Ye read it line by line, growing wild with joy! Relying on that secret manual, he began his counterattack, passing five gates and slaying six generals all the way, ascending to the summit and looking down upon the masses! At the end of the manual, there was no introduction to God Kings. It was as though the manual simply ended there.

Leng Ye stood only one step away from becoming a God King.

He began searching for a way to break through, without anyone's help and without any records in books.

Because his cultivation method had appeared for the first time and was entirely different from the Great Cultivation Method.

And the scattered words left behind by those God Kings were of no help to him whatsoever.

Thus, he buried himself in exploration and endless study, nearly becoming obsessed to the point of madness. He had even nearly suffered cultivation deviation and burned himself playing with fire! Ten thousand years passed, then a hundred thousand. He still found no method. Just as he was about to give up, he chose to go out and see the world beyond.

Because he had become trapped within his own limits. During his wandering years, he witnessed the process of countless lives and deaths.

Then one day, inspiration struck him, and he wrote down a passage.

The myriad arts changed in countless ways, yet all were hidden within oneself.

Those words, written on a sudden impulse, made him awaken as if from a dream! The answer he had spent so many years groping and searching for had been in his hands from the very beginning! He understood.

He finally understood!!!

After relying on that secret manual to begin cultivating and step into the ranks of gods, he had forgotten his own essence.

No matter when it was, he was still that person who could not use Cosmic Energy to cultivate!

His smooth, unobstructed cultivation journey had made him lose himself. As punishment, he had wasted countless amounts of energy and time searching blindly.

His cultivation depended on the degree to which his fleshly body evolved. It could be said that the stronger his body was, the stronger he was.

What should have been easiest to discover had been turned upside down by him, wasting so much time in bitter futility.

There had been no obstacles in his previous breakthroughs entirely because his body had already become powerful to an extraordinary height.

But breaking through to God King had brought him to a bottleneck. He needed to break his body through and evolve it to a new level before his strength could rise another floor!

After understanding the reason, Leng Ye relied on his talent and comprehension to break his body through to the God King level in less than a century.

Then, amid wave after wave of thunder punishment descending, his strength finally reached the God King level as well.

Yet through his enlightenment, he learned that his current realm was completely different from that of a God King. Though their strength was evenly matched, there was an essential difference between them.

In the end, he named this stage himself: Ancient God! Bearing the title of Ancient God, he roamed the universe, leaving profound impressions everywhere he went.

As time passed, everyone soon accepted the existence of Ancient Gods. Some even made becoming an Ancient God their goal.

And after breaking through to become an Ancient God, Leng Ye evolved once more. His body continuously grew stronger, and his strength continuously broke through.

In the end, he reached a realm beyond compare.