Demon Body Forged, Great Luo Merit Position

After deciding on his path of cultivation, Li Yi resolved to first take human form—after all, a single drop of blood was hardly presentable.

Though eager to transform, Li Yi chose to let it happen naturally. A natural formation would surely align better with the evolution of the Dao, granting greater benefits for future enlightenment. Moreover, Li Yi intended to forge an Immortal Body; a form naturally born from Chaos would be the most suitable, carrying great fortune. Ordinary bodies were far inferior.

While Li Yi immersed himself in the gestation of his Demon Body, time passed unknown in Chaos—perhaps ten thousand years, perhaps ten million. At some point, waves of mysterious ripples began to undulate throughout all of Chaos.

No one knew how long those mysterious ripples had been spreading, but gradually the entire Chaos World began to change. Though the chaotic spiritual qi remained violently wild, compared to the earlier era when gale winds, divine thunder, and occasional space rifts appeared without warning, it was now a world of difference.

The ripples grew stronger, and the once relatively calm Chaos World once again stirred up boundless spiritual qi tides, sweeping across the heavens and overturning mountains and rivers.

The surging spiritual qi tides ceaselessly scoured Chaos. Time flowed like water, until suddenly three thousand colossal shadows appeared within Chaos, each of different shapes—some with heads as vast as giant mountains, others with wings that blotted out the sky, some with mouths wide as rivers, and others with eyes like blazing stars...

Among these three thousand majestic shadows, one stood out as particularly strange and overbearing.

This entire giant shadow was enclosed within an extraordinarily noble and grand Thirty-Six-Grade Giant Green Lotus, around which wisps of purple gas occasionally flickered.

Even the still-violent chaotic spiritual qi, subdued by the giant green lotus, coiled around it like docile sheep, daring not the slightest transgression.

Indeed, these three thousand giant shadows were the Three Thousand Divine Demons born from Chaos, each colossal beyond measure.

And those mysterious ripples were none other than the Great Dao Rhythms. One could imagine how terrifying the Three Thousand Divine Demons born under such rhythms must be.

Since each Divine Demon was conceived under the Great Dao Rhythms, they were all born with innate divine abilities and possessed Great Might. Moreover, nurtured by the Dao Rhythms, their comprehension of Heaven and Earth Principles was unfathomably profound.

Because every Divine Demon was conceived under the Great Dao Rhythms, their souls had been immersed in Dao resonance for eons upon eons, unconsciously Cultivating Immortality and Comprehending Dao for billions of years—truly the supreme period for glimpsing the Great Dao Laws.

Whether it was the aptitude, fortune, or environment of the Chaos Demon Gods, all were impeccable. As a result, every Chaos Demon God achieved a leap in life essence, a soul transformation, escaping the River of Destiny that bound the origin and end of all ordinary beings.

Moreover, the Demon Bodies of the Three Thousand Chaos Demon Gods were all forged by absorbing endless chaotic spiritual qi. Though still far from an Immortal Divine Body, they were as indestructible as divine iron.

And the Great God Pangu, surrounded by the phantom of the giant Thirty-Six-Grade Chaos Green Lotus, was the foremost among the Chaos Demon Gods—an existence like a Supreme King among the three thousand, of boundless majesty, inviolable.

The Great God Pangu stood a hundred thousand zhang tall, already matching the height of an Immortal Divine Body. Great Dao Runes coiled around him, endless Green Lotus Divine Light illuminated the void behind him, and beside his form floated a Sky-Supporting Giant Axe, radiating a terrifying pressure as if it might cleave the heavens at any moment.

Li Yi had also become one of the Three Thousand Divine Demons—something he had never imagined possible. Such immense fortune truly filled him with ecstatic joy.

When Li Yi first awoke from his immersed cultivation, he swept his divine sense over himself. Four pairs of sky-covering wings, over a hundred thousand zhang in span; a single rebellious horn atop his head; a Demon Body over sixty thousand zhang tall; purple hair like an eternal river; violet-gold eyes like two ancient stars, piercing all worldly illusions, sweeping across all heavens and myriad realms.

From afar, Li Yi resembled a mutated ancient angel—eternal and noble, suppressing all realms with his might, like a Deity towering above countless beings.

Discovering that he had become one of the Three Thousand Divine Demons, attaining the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin rank and leaping out of the River of Destiny, Li Yi felt both joy and a deep sense of threat, as if endless crises would surge toward him at a specific future moment.

Having just forged his Demon Body and attained the Golden Immortal rank—this was the terror of being a Chaos Demon God, possessing a Spirit of Chaos. With sufficient spiritual qi and an elevated state of mind, life would naturally leap forward, and the soul would automatically sublime.

However, when Li Yi recalled that after the world's creation, among the Three Thousand Chaos Demon Gods, only Hongjun and Yang Mei seemed to survive, while all others fell in the Calamity of World Creation, a chill ran through his heart, as if a cold wind had poured into it.

An unprecedented crisis forced Li Yi to quickly calm down from his great joy and consider how to safely survive this first calamity of world creation.

Li Yi quietly sensed his own condition. Suddenly, he discovered that aside from his surging Demon Body blood qi and unprecedentedly condensed soul, there was a powerful evolutionary instinct from body to soul, constantly craving a leap in life. He vaguely sensed this instinct growing stronger.

This discovery led Li Yi to speculate that this unparalleled evolutionary instinct might be one reason the Chaos Demon Gods fell in the Calamity of World Creation.

Combining all the knowledge he had gained from both his past and present lives, and the truths he had comprehended, Li Yi believed that every living being possesses an evolutionary instinct. Just as vertebrates have a tendency to evolve, there is a strong desire to leap from lower life forms to higher ones: fish → amphibians → reptiles → birds → mammals.

And the strength of this evolutionary instinct might be related to the level of life and the abundance of blood qi. The higher the life form, the stronger this instinct.

Under normal circumstances, this evolutionary instinct is a good thing for living beings. It silently influences them on a subconscious level, generating a strong urge to evolve, prompting them to find ways to achieve life leaps, indirectly or directly promoting their development.

But for the Three Thousand Divine Demons in Chaos, this evolutionary instinct was precisely the beautiful yet deadly poppy flower. Because the blood qi of Chaos Demon Gods was far too intense. Their Demon Bodies, forged over billions of years, could not even be described as having blood qi like dragons—their evolutionary instinct was incomparably strong.

Even more fatal was that the chaotic spiritual qi at this time was extremely violent, and the flesh-and-blood bodies of the Chaos Demon Gods were all forged from chaotic spiritual qi absorbed over eons. This, in a subtle way, had a negative influence on the Chaos Demon Gods to some extent, making them relatively irritable.

In such a situation, once something or an opportunity appeared that could allow a Chaos Demon God to evolve and transform, the demon god might be consumed by instinct, losing all reason. To achieve a life leap, they would stop at nothing, even at the cost of their own soul's destruction.

And almost all Chaos Demon Gods fell in the Calamity of World Creation, likely because most chose to devour the Great God Pangu in pursuit of evolution, only to be annihilated by his supreme divine power.

Of course, Li Yi believed that another reason for the Chaos Demon Gods' fall might be the Heavenly Dao's misleading influence. The Heavenly Dao, newly born after world creation, was not yet perfected. The Heavenly Dao was emotionless—or rather, absolutely fair. It was like a slightly intelligent computer: as long as you weren't a virus or a program hindering its operation, it wouldn't bother you. But once you threatened its operation, it would eliminate you.

And the Chaos Demon Gods were too powerful, their destructive capacity too terrifying and disadvantageous for the evolution of the Heavenly Dao. So the Heavenly Dao would mislead them, creating the illusion that stopping Pangu from creating the world would allow them to evolve and attain the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin.

With their intense evolutionary instinct nearly consuming their reason, and then being misled by the Heavenly Dao into this illusion, the Chaos Demon Gods would throw themselves into the fray even more recklessly—all for power, all for enlightenment, for eternal life.

Having roughly understood the reasons, Li Yi broke out in a cold sweat. Truly, the path of immortality was full of twists and turns; the journey of seeking the Dao was fraught with trials. One careless moment, and the next instant might turn to ashes.

Clarifying the situation, Li Yi knew he had to find a way to seal or weaken this instinct. So-called fortune and opportunity came hand in hand with crisis and great destiny. At this moment, Li Yi had a colossal plan—one that made even him feel his heart race.

This plan was so terrifying that if mishandled, it would be a nine-death-one-survival gamble. But when Li Yi thought of the solid foundation it would lay for him to march toward immortality and eternal enlightenment, his expression turned resolute.

Because the path to longevity was never smooth—hazards were everywhere. To hope for no risk while seeking the Great Dao and eternal life was impossible.

Moreover, if this plan were executed properly, the chances of success were very high. And there would never again be such a heaven-sent opportunity, such a rare and unprecedented fortune.