Pangu's Essence Blood, Accidental Return to Chaos

Li Yi woke up in a daze, feeling a sharp, stabbing pain. He looked around and was stunned; before him lay nothing but chaos, and he had no idea where he was.

Before he could even process what was happening, his vision went black and he lost consciousness. Then, a massive influx of information flooded his mind, so painful that Li Yi felt as if he were being torn in two.

It seemed to have been a thousand years, or perhaps ten thousand, or even countless eons. In the chaos, time could not be measured; space-time was in turmoil, perception was impossible, and the concept of time held no meaning.

In a trance, Li Yi woke up once more.

Li Yi sensed his own body and let out a helpless sigh. A flash of terror, resignation, and secret joy crossed his eyes—his expression was complex to the point of being indescribable.

As someone born under the red flag, raised in the spring breeze, rooted in socialist soil, and nurtured in the great nation of China, he was a materialist to his core.

Although he often browsed Qidian, read transmigration novels, and fantasized about becoming a protagonist surrounded by lolis, beauties, cool older sisters, and mature women chasing after him, he never imagined he would actually transmigrate. And he had done so thoroughly—transmigrating to the time before the Primordial World, into the midst of chaos.

In his real life, Li Yi had been living quite comfortably. While he wasn't exactly throwing money around or surrounded by luxury cars and beauties, he at least had his simple meals and basic comforts.

However, this guy had suddenly felt that he was barely—or perhaps off by a hundred thousand—a small white-collar worker, and thought it was time to experience a bit of a bourgeois lifestyle. On a whim, he had decided to go for a picnic by the sea.

Alas, who would have thought that the moment Li Yi arrived at the beach, a speck of red light would zip into his body with lightning speed.

Then, suddenly, the winds surged and clouds churned, thunder flashed, and the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder descended in a violent barrage. It scorched Li Yi until he was charred on the outside and tender on the inside, after which he drifted into unconsciousness, only to wake up and find himself in the midst of chaos.

Li Yi "reviewed" the massive amount of information that had suddenly appeared in his mind, and only then did he understand the cause and effect.

It turned out that the speck of red light was a drop of Pangu's essence blood left over from the Primordial World. After countless years of silence, it had finally developed a sliver of intelligence. Just as it was about to be born today, it sensed that its tribulation was inescapable and, happening upon Li Yi as a vessel, it latched onto him without a second thought.

This drop of essence blood was an anomaly. If it had dissolved into the world, that would have been the end of it, but since it was manifesting, the Heavenly Dao would not tolerate it. Thus, it had sent down the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, intending to reduce it to dust.

However, because the Spiritual Qi of Earth was too thin and the stability of space was too poor, the strike had torn open a space-time rift. Guided by a mysterious connection, the essence blood had protected Li Yi's soul and brought him back into the chaos.

Li Yi was not one to blame the heavens or others. Having struggled as an orphan until he almost became a white-collar worker, with no connections to rely on, he had experienced too much hardship and mockery. The storms of life had long since tempered his heart into iron.

Furthermore, as an orphan, he didn't have many attachments. Compared to the peerless opportunity of becoming an immortal or a god and attaining eternal life, those few attachments were not worth mentioning.

The only thing that caused Li Yi great pain was that the essence blood had completely fused with his soul. During the transit through the space-time channel, it had undergone some mutation, changing from deep red to purple-gold and becoming infused with fragments of space-time. He had no idea if he would even be able to cultivate the Dao.

Thinking of how the Ancestral Witches of later generations could not cultivate the Dao and did not understand the Heavenly numbers, eventually ending up as dust, and then considering that he was likely one of them, Li Yi felt a palpitation of fear.

No, I've finally transmigrated; I have to give it my all, Li Yi resolved fiercely.

As the saying goes, pressure creates motivation. Thinking of the possibility of his eventual death and dissipation, Li Yi could no longer sit still. He had finally transmigrated—how could he be willing to just end up as dust?

Following the information that had suddenly appeared in his mind, Li Yi imagined himself sitting in a lotus position, palms facing upward, and began to absorb the chaotic Spiritual Qi.

Unknowingly, Li Yi fell into a state that was profound and mysterious, indescribable. Wisps of Spiritual Qi from the chaos were drawn toward him.

He did not know how many years had passed—perhaps a thousand, perhaps ten thousand, perhaps tens of millions of years—

Li Yi's Primordial Spirit grew from the size of a fist to a hundred feet, then to a thousand feet, and only when it reached ten thousand feet did it suddenly pause, and Li Yi slowly woke up.

Only then did Li Yi finally understand why so many people in history were willing to abandon their wives and children to sit in meditation among the green mountains and clear waters, or to stay far away from the mortal world, accompanied only by old trees and crows. There was no other reason: the feeling during cultivation was simply too wonderful. It felt as if his entire body were enveloped in a layer of cool liquid, seeping inward layer by layer.

From his physical body to his soul, he felt waves of comfort. He felt his life force constantly sublimating, and the profound principles of heaven and earth flashed through his mind. Things he usually couldn't figure out or understand gradually became clear. This feeling was truly indescribable—a hundred, a thousand times more addictive than any drug.

Li Yi regained his senses and checked his cultivation level, discovering that he had unknowingly reached the rank of Golden Immortal.

Now that Li Yi had stepped into the path of cultivation, he was no longer a novice. He understood that it was roughly divided into several realms:

Heavenly Immortal—The five breaths gather in the chest; essence, energy, and spirit manifest into the Three Flowers.

Mystic Immortal—One of the Three Flowers blooms.

Golden Immortal—Two of the Three Flowers bloom, reaching the peak of the acquired realm; the highest level achievable by magic power alone.

Great Luo Golden Immortal—All three flowers bloom, reversing the acquired to the innate, condensing the Dao fruit; divine abilities manifest on their own, and all sorts of inconceivable mysteries appear.

Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, Sage (a Sage is a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, but the former is not necessarily a Sage)—The Primordial Spirit is entrusted to the void, jumping out of the River of Destiny, becoming immortal and indestructible. A Sage can further borrow the power of the Heavenly Dao's will, possessing boundless divine abilities.

Even though Li Yi was only a Golden Immortal now, he was still a hundred and eight thousand miles away from being a Sage, not even having touched the edge. But thinking of how, in the later Investiture of the Gods, the Exposition Sect had become famous just by sending out the Twelve Golden Immortals, one could imagine how extraordinary the rank of Golden Immortal was.

The path of cultivation is fraught with peril. The road ahead is tangled with karma and filled with tribulations; with external calamities and internal demons, one careless step leads to death and dissipation.

Cultivation is a process of defying the heavens. Of course, this does not mean acting against the Heavenly Dao or its will—those who do so either die or are merely mortals shouting into the void.

The so-called "defying the heavens" in cultivation means practicing against the natural evolution of heaven and earth: first gathering Spiritual Qi, then refining the innate, and finally refining the chaos. This is why so many Great Powers appeared at the beginning of the Primordial World; they were born of chaos and possessed innate spiritual essence. They only needed to raise their realm and magic power to attain the rank of Great Luo Golden Immortal. Of course, those who achieved this were one in ten thousand.

The reason Li Yi attained the rank of Golden Immortal so easily was truly a miracle of the ages. In the chaos, the Heavenly Dao was not manifest, and there was no karma. As long as he didn't "provoke" those Gale Winds or divine thunders, there would be no major tribulations. Thus, Li Yi had indeed seized a great opportunity.

Thinking of this, Li Yi was stunned. He hadn't expected to be so lucky, and he couldn't help but feel a bit smug. I am also a chaotic spiritual entity now. If I'm careful, I might become a Great Power in the future. Sigh, being handsome is just unavoidable. He thought this with feigned distress, automatically ignoring the "profound" problem that he didn't even have a physical form yet, let alone a handsome face.

After attaining the rank of Golden Immortal and indulging in a moment of secret joy, Li Yi realized that such an opportunity was rare. While the chaos had not yet separated and karma had not yet formed, he had to hurry and cultivate to increase his strength; manifesting a physical form was the correct path.

Otherwise, after the world was created, karma would descend and tribulations would be numerous. There would never be such a good environment for cultivation again. Furthermore, his Primordial Spirit was fused with Pangu's essence blood; no matter what, he would be deeply entangled with the Witch Clan.

As a transmigrator and a veteran reader of Qidian, he knew very well that whether one was right or wrong ultimately depended on strength. With powerful strength, being wrong could become being right; otherwise, being right could become being wrong.

Only with powerful strength could he increase his chances of survival in the Primordial World and seize that sliver of opportunity to attain eternity.

Do you not see how countless innocent beings died in the Dragon-Phoenix War and the Witch-Demon War? In the end, who went to help them argue their case? It was always dismissed as "this is their tribulation," with, at most, a bit of pity.

Thinking of the Primordial World where strength was supreme, Li Yi once again immersed himself in cultivation.

In the chaos, it was impossible to perceive the passage of time. Everywhere there were Gale Winds and divine thunders, and occasionally, a terrifying space rift would appear.

In such a harsh environment, even a Great Luo Golden Immortal could be reduced to powder and die if they were not careful.

There is great terror between life and death. Under the pressure of facing death, Li Yi became intoxicated with his cultivation, step by step unraveling the information carried by Pangu's essence blood.

Pangu's essence blood did not contain any cultivation techniques, yet it surpassed any technique, for it held fragmented Dao rhymes that embodied the Heaven and Earth Principles; to cultivate immortality was to cultivate the Dao, and to comprehend the heavens and perceive the laws was the only true path.

By slowly elevating oneself while perceiving the Heaven and Earth Principles, acting against the evolution of heaven and earth, sublimating the soul, and undergoing a leap in life, one could achieve the Dao through nature and align with the hidden laws of the universe, allowing one to travel further.

Moreover, aside from a few physical cultivation techniques that utilized the external environment, no Great Power could create a cultivation technique beyond the Golden Immortal realm; that is to say, the Golden Immortal realm was the limit of the acquired, and both the Great Luo Golden Immortal and the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal could only be attained through enlightenment.

Thus, one could see the preciousness of the fragmented Dao rhymes within Pangu's essence blood; it was precisely because of this trace of fragmented Dao rhyme that Li Yi, possessing the advantage of the Spirit of Chaos, was able to smoothly cultivate to the position of a Golden Immortal, the limit of the acquired.

The chaos was an endless void, vast and fraught with danger. After countless calculations and by combining the essence blood with information from later generations, Li Yi finally determined his own path of cultivation: to pursue an immortal physical body and a will that manifested the laws.

In truth, Li Yi had considered seizing one of the six positions of the Sages in the Purple Cloud Palace, but that was unrealistic; the distribution of these positions was determined by the Heavenly Dao according to the needs of evolution and was not arbitrary, so Li Yi had no choice but to forge a new path—though it was incomparably difficult, at least there was a road to walk.