Li Yi awoke in a daze, feeling a sharp pain. He opened his eyes and froze. Chaos stretched out before him, and he had no idea where he was.
Before he could figure out what was going on, everything went black. He lost consciousness, and then a flood of information appeared in his mind. The pain was so intense that he wanted to tear himself in half.
Perhaps a thousand years had passed, or ten thousand, or countless ages. Time could not be measured in Chaos. Space and time were in disarray, impossible to perceive and meaningless.
In a daze, Li Yi woke again.
He sensed his own body and let out a helpless sigh. Fear, helplessness, and secret delight flickered in his eyes. His expression was so complicated that words could hardly describe it.
Born under the red flag, raised in the spring breeze, rooted in socialist soil and nurtured by a prosperous China, he was a materialist to the core.
Sure, he often visited Qidian to read transmigration novels and imagine himself becoming the protagonist, surrounded by a crowd of cute girls and beauties, with mature women and older sisters chasing after him.
But he had never imagined he would really transmigrate—and so thoroughly, at that, landing in Chaos before the Primordial World had even begun.
Li Yi's life had been pretty good back in the real world. He wasn't rolling in money or driving a luxury car with a beautiful woman at his side, but he had vegetables, tofu, radishes, and fresh scallions to eat.
Then, for some reason, the guy suddenly felt that he was barely—or perhaps a hundred thousand yuan short of being—a white-collar worker. Surely it was time to enjoy a little bourgeois lifestyle. On a whim, he decided to have a picnic by the sea.
Who could have guessed that as soon as Li Yi reached the shore, a spot of red light would shoot into his body with blinding speed, going "whoosh" as it entered him?
The wind and clouds suddenly surged, thunder boomed, and lightning flashed. Then Nine Heavens Divine Thunder rained down in a fierce barrage, scorching Li Yi inside and out. After that, he awoke in a daze to discover himself in Chaos.
Li Yi "reviewed" the flood of information that had suddenly appeared in his mind and finally learned what had happened.
It turned out that the red light was a drop of Pangu's essence blood left over from the Primordial World, one that had been unable to take shape. After lying dormant for countless ages, it had finally developed a glimmer of consciousness. It was due to emerge that very day, but sensed that its doom was near. When it happened upon a suitable vessel like Li Yi, it attached itself to him without a second thought.
That drop of essence blood was an anomaly. If it had dissolved into the world, that would have been the end of it. But now it was going to manifest, and how could the Heavenly Dao tolerate that? So it sent down Nine Heavens Divine Thunder to reduce it to ashes.
However, Earth's Spiritual Qi was too thin at the time, and space was too unstable. The thunder split open a Space Rift, and the essence blood, guided by some unseen connection, protected Li Yi's soul and brought it back to Chaos.
Li Yi was not the sort to blame fate. He had struggled from orphanhood until he had nearly become a white-collar worker, with no connections to rely on. He had endured countless hardships and ridicule. The trials along the way had long since tempered his heart like iron.
Besides, as an orphan, he had few attachments. Compared with the extraordinary chance before him—to become an immortal or a god and live forever—those few attachments meant little.
The only thing that truly troubled Li Yi was that the essence blood had completely fused with his soul. It had also undergone some kind of mutation while passing through the space-time passage, changing from deep red to purplish gold and incorporating some Space-Time Fragments. He had no idea whether he would still be able to cultivate.
Thinking of how the Ancestral Witches in later ages couldn't cultivate or understand the workings of fate, and eventually turned to ashes, Li Yi wondered if he might be one of them too. A shiver ran through him.
"No. I've gone through all this trouble to transmigrate. I have to give it a shot," Li Yi said fiercely.
As the saying went, pressure bred motivation. The thought that he might die and have his Dao destroyed someday left Li Yi unable to sit still. He had gone to all this trouble to transmigrate. How could he accept simply turning to ashes?
Following the information that had suddenly appeared in his mind, Li Yi imagined himself sitting with his hands raised toward the sky and began absorbing the Spirit of Chaos.
Before long, he sank into a state too profound to describe. Strands of Spiritual Qi in Chaos flowed toward him.
Who knew how many years passed? Perhaps a thousand, perhaps ten thousand, perhaps countless millions...
Li Yi's primordial spirit had grown from the size of a fist to a hundred zhang, then a thousand, then ten thousand. Only then did it suddenly stop, and Li Yi slowly awoke.
Only now did Li Yi finally understand why so many people in history had been willing to abandon their wives and children to cultivate immortality, sitting in meditation among green mountains and clear streams; why they had been willing to leave the mortal world behind and keep company with old trees and crows at dusk. There was only one reason: the feeling during cultivation was simply too wonderful. It was as if his entire body were wrapped in a cool liquid that seeped inward, layer by layer.
His body and soul were filled with wave after wave of bliss, and he felt his life continually rising to a higher level. Profound principles of Heaven and Earth flashed through his mind. Things he hadn't understood before gradually became clear. The sensation was beyond words, a hundred or even a thousand times more exhilarating than drugs.
Li Yi came back to himself and checked his cultivation level. Without realizing it, he had reached the Golden Immortal rank.
Li Yi had now embarked on the path of cultivation and was no longer a clueless beginner. He had also learned the general stages:
Heavenly Immortal—The Five Qi gather in the chest; essence, qi, and spirit take form and become the Three Flowers.
Mystic Immortal—One of the Three Flowers blooms.
Golden Immortal—Two of the Three Flowers bloom, reaching the ultimate limit of the acquired state and the highest realm that can be cultivated through ordinary methods.
Grand Unity Golden Immortal—All Three Flowers bloom, reversing the acquired state and returning to the innate. The Dao Fruit condenses, divine abilities manifest, and all manner of wondrous mysteries emerge.
Primordial Golden Immortal of Great Luo, Sage (a Sage is a Primordial Golden Immortal of Great Luo, but the reverse is not true)—The primordial spirit is entrusted to the void, escaping the River of Destiny to become deathless and indestructible. A Sage can also draw on the power of the Heavenly Dao's will, wielding immeasurable divine abilities.
Though Li Yi was now a Golden Immortal, he was still a hundred and eight thousand miles from becoming a Sage, without even a hint of a breakthrough. But consider how, in later ages, the Exposition Sect had only twelve Golden Immortals during the Investiture of the Gods and they had made a name for themselves through the ages. That alone showed how extraordinary the Golden Immortal rank was.
The path to immortality was fraught with danger at every step. Karma entangled the way forward, calamities lay in wait, and both outer trials and inner demons could bring death and the destruction of one's Dao in a single careless moment.
Cultivation was said to defy Heaven, but that did not mean defying the Heavenly Dao or its will. Those who tried would either die and have their Dao destroyed, or be ordinary people shouting nonsense.
What cultivation supposedly defied was the natural course of Heaven and Earth. One first gathered Spiritual Qi, then cultivated the innate, then Chaos. That was why so many Great Powers had emerged when the Primordial World first appeared: they were born of Chaos, with innate primordial spirits, and only had to raise their cultivation and Magic Power to attain the Grand Unity Golden Immortal rank. Of course, only one in ten thousand could manage it.
The reason Li Yi had attained the Golden Immortal rank so easily was an extraordinary chance, one unseen in ages. In Chaos, the Heavenly Dao had yet to manifest and there was no karma. As long as he didn't "provoke" the Gale Winds and divine thunder, no great calamity would befall him. Li Yi had indeed stumbled upon a tremendous opportunity.
Thinking of this, Li Yi was stunned. He hadn't expected to be so lucky. He couldn't help feeling pleased with himself. "I'm a primordial spirit of Chaos now too. If I'm careful, I might become a Great Power someday. Ah, being handsome really is a burden." He put on a troubled expression as he thought this. He had conveniently ignored the "profound" question of how he could be handsome when he hadn't even taken shape.
After attaining the Golden Immortal rank and indulging in a moment of secret delight, Li Yi realized this opportunity was rare. While Chaos remained undivided and karma had yet to arise, he had to cultivate quickly, increase his strength, and take physical form.
After the world was created, karma would come in droves and calamities would abound. He would never find such a good cultivation environment again. Besides, his primordial spirit had fused with Pangu's essence blood, so he would inevitably become deeply entangled with the Witch Clan.
As a transmigrator and a seasoned Qidian reader, Li Yi knew all too well that in the Primordial World, strength decided who was right and who was wrong. With enough power, even the unjust could be made just. Without it, even the righteous could be made to seem wrong.
Only great strength could improve his odds of surviving in the Primordial World and let him seize that sliver of a chance to attain eternity.
Just look at how countless innocent beings died in the Dragon-Phoenix War and the Witch-Demon War. Who had stood up to argue on their behalf? Everyone simply said, "It was their tribulation," and left it at that. At most, they showed a little pity.
Thinking of the Primordial World's rule that strength came first, Li Yi sank back into cultivation.
Time was impossible to sense in Chaos. Gale Winds and divine thunder filled the place, and Space Rifts appeared from time to time, each one terrifying.
The environment was so harsh that even a Grand Unity Golden Immortal could turn to dust and die, with his Dao destroyed, if he made one careless mistake.
There was great terror between life and death. Under the pressure of facing death, Li Yi immersed himself in cultivation, gradually sorting through the information carried by Pangu's essence blood.
Pangu's essence blood contained no cultivation techniques, yet it was better than any technique. It held fragments of the Dao's resonance, containing the Heaven and Earth Principles. Cultivating immortality was cultivating the Dao: understanding Heaven and Earth and sensing the laws was the true path.
By sensing the Heaven and Earth Principles, one could steadily improve, reverse the evolution of Heaven and Earth, elevate the soul, and leap to a new level of life. Only by following the Dao of Nature and aligning with the unseen laws of Heaven and Earth could one go farther.
Moreover, with the exception of a few physical cultivation methods that relied on the external environment, no Great Power could create a cultivation technique above the Golden Immortal level. Golden Immortal was the ultimate limit of the acquired state; Grand Unity Golden Immortals and Primordial Golden Immortals of Great Luo could only cultivate through direct comprehension.
This showed just how precious the fragments of the Dao's resonance within Pangu's essence blood were. It was precisely thanks to those fragments that, despite his advantage as a Spirit of Chaos, Li Yi had been able to cultivate smoothly to the Golden Immortal rank, the ultimate limit of the acquired state.
Chaos was an endless void, vast and desolate, filled with danger. After countless calculations and combining what he had learned from the essence blood with information from later ages, Li Yi finally settled on his path of cultivation: an indestructible body and a will that embodied the laws.
Li Yi had also considered claiming one of the six positions for Sages in the Purple Heaven Palace, but that wasn't realistic. The Heavenly Dao assigned those positions according to the needs of its evolution; they weren't handed out at random. So Li Yi could only seek another path. Though it would be incredibly difficult, at least he had a way forward.
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