After deciding on his path of cultivation, Li Yi decided to transform into a proper body first. Looking like a drop of blood just didn't seem right.
Though he was eager to take shape, Li Yi still decided to let it happen naturally. A body formed naturally would surely better accord with the evolution of the Dao, bringing greater benefits to his future Dao attainment. Besides, he planned to forge an Immortal Body, and a form that arose naturally in Chaos would surely be the most suitable, blessed with great fortune. An ordinary body simply couldn't compare.
While Li Yi immersed himself in the formation of his Demon Body, who knew how much time passed in Chaos—perhaps ten thousand years, or perhaps ten million. At some point, mysterious waves began rippling throughout Chaos.
No one knew how long those mysterious waves continued to spread, but the Chaos World gradually began to change. The chaotic Spiritual Qi remained incredibly violent, yet compared with before—when Gale Winds, divine lightning, or Space Rifts appeared from time to time—the difference was like night and day.
The waves grew stronger and stronger. The Chaos World, which had been relatively calm, once again erupted into boundless tides of Spiritual Qi, surging like a force that blotted out the sky and overturned mountains and rivers.
The raging tides of Spiritual Qi swept across the Chaos World. Time flowed on, and then, all at once, three thousand enormous shadows loomed out of Chaos, each with a different shape. Some had heads as vast as mountains, some spread wings that blocked out the sky, some had mouths as wide as rivers, and some had eyes like stars...
Among these three thousand towering shadows, one seemed especially strange and imposing.
It was surrounded by a supremely noble and majestic Thirty-Six-Grade Giant Green Lotus, with wisps of Purple Gas flickering around it.
Even the still-raging chaotic Spiritual Qi seemed like a tame sheep in the presence of the Giant Green Lotus, quietly winding around it without daring to overstep.
Indeed, these three thousand enormous shadows were the Three Thousand Divine Demons born in Chaos.
The mysterious waves were the Great Dao Rhythms. One could imagine how formidable the Three Thousand Divine Demons born in Chaos must have been, nurtured by those rhythms.
Born beneath the Great Dao Rhythms, every Divine Demon possessed innate divine abilities and Great Might. Moreover, nurtured by those rhythms, their understanding of the Heaven and Earth Principles was unfathomably profound.
Since every Divine Demon had been born beneath the Great Dao Rhythms, their souls had been immersed in the Dao's resonance for countless eons. Without realizing it, they had spent countless years cultivating and comprehending the Dao. This was the ideal time to cultivate, comprehend the Dao, and glimpse the Great Dao Laws.
In terms of talent, fortune, or environment, the Chaos Demon Gods were beyond reproach. Every one of them had undergone a leap in the essence of life, their souls transformed and freed from the River of Destiny—the starting point and final destination of all living beings.
Moreover, the Demon Bodies of the Three Thousand Chaos Demon Gods had all been forged by absorbing boundless chaotic Spiritual Qi. They were still far from Immortal Divine Bodies, but they were like divine iron, nearly impossible to destroy.
Great God Pangu, surrounded by the phantom of a Thirty-Six-Grade Chaos Green Lotus, was one of the foremost among the Chaos Demon Gods. Among the Three Thousand Divine Demons, he stood like a Supreme King, possessed of boundless majesty and beyond all offense.
Great God Pangu stood a hundred thousand zhang tall, matching the height of an Immortal Divine Body. Great Dao Runes circled him, and boundless Green Lotus Divine Light shone through the void behind him. A Sky-Supporting Giant Axe floated beside him, radiating an awe-inspiring pressure, as if it might split the firmament at any moment.
Li Yi had become one of the Three Thousand Divine Demons, something he had never imagined before. This tremendous fortune filled him with joy.
When Li Yi awoke from his cultivation, he swept his divine sense over himself. Four pairs of enormous wings blotted out the sky, each more than a hundred thousand zhang long. A heaven-defying horn rose from his head, and his Demon Body stood over sixty thousand zhang tall. His purple hair flowed like an ancient river, while his violet-gold eyes, like two primordial stars, saw through every worldly illusion and swept across the myriad realms.
From afar, Li Yi looked like a mutated angel from antiquity—timeless and noble, his might bearing down on all the realms, like a deity who stood above all living beings.
Li Yi realized he had become one of the Three Thousand Divine Demons and attained the Great Luo Golden Immortal rank, escaping the River of Destiny. He was glad, but at the same time, he felt a deep sense of danger, as if boundless perils were destined to come surging toward him at some point in the future.
He had only just forged his Demon Body, yet he had already attained the Great Luo Golden Immortal rank. This was the terrifying power of Chaos Demon Gods, who possessed the Spirit of Chaos. As long as they had enough Spiritual Qi and elevated their state of mind, their lives would naturally advance and their souls would ascend.
But when Li Yi thought of how, after the world was created, only Hongjun and Yang Mei seemed to survive among the Three Thousand Chaos Demon Gods, while the rest perished in the Calamity of World Creation, a chill ran through him, as if a cold wind had blown straight into his heart.
This unprecedented sense of crisis quickly brought Li Yi back to his senses. He had to figure out how to survive the first great calamity of world creation.
Li Yi quietly sensed his own condition. Aside from his Demon Body's surging Blood Qi and his soul's unprecedented cohesion, he discovered a powerful instinct to evolve, running from his body through to his soul. He constantly yearned to leap to a new level of life, and he vaguely sensed that this instinct was growing stronger by the moment.
This discovery led Li Yi to suspect that this unparalleled instinct to evolve might be one of the reasons the Chaos Demon Gods would perish in the Calamity of World Creation.
Drawing on everything he had learned in his past and present lives, and the truths he had come to understand, Li Yi believed that every living being possessed an innate drive to evolve. It was like the evolutionary tendency in vertebrates: a powerful desire to advance from a lower life form to a higher one—fish → amphibians → reptiles → birds → mammals.
The strength of this instinct to evolve might be related to the level of a life form and the amount of Blood Qi it possessed. The higher the level of a living being, the stronger this instinct would be.
Under ordinary circumstances, this instinct was a good thing for living beings. It could quietly influence them subconsciously, creating a powerful urge to evolve and driving them to seek every means of advancing to a higher level of life. In this way, it indirectly or directly encouraged their development.
But for the Three Thousand Divine Demons living in Chaos, this instinct was a beautiful-looking poppy that could bring endless ruin. The Blood Qi of the Chaos Demon Gods was simply too intense. Their Demon Bodies had taken countless eons to forge; even saying their Blood Qi was like a dragon's wasn't enough to describe it. Their instinct to evolve was stronger than could be imagined.
Even more deadly, the chaotic Spiritual Qi at the time was incredibly violent. The flesh and blood of the Chaos Demon Gods had all been forged from the chaotic Spiritual Qi they had absorbed over countless eons. This inevitably affected them, making them somewhat more irritable.
Under these conditions, if anything appeared that could help a Chaos Demon God evolve and transform, their instincts might devour their reason. They would do anything to advance to a new level of life, even if it meant losing both body and soul.
The fact that nearly all the Chaos Demon Gods perished in the Calamity of World Creation might well have been because most of them, driven by their desire to evolve, chose to devour Great God Pangu, only to be destroyed by his supreme divine abilities.
Of course, Li Yi believed the Heavenly Dao might also have misled the Chaos Demon Gods. The Heavenly Dao, newly born after the world was created, was not yet complete. It was merciless—or, one could say, absolutely impartial. It was like a computer with a little intelligence: as long as you weren't a virus or a program that interfered with its normal operation, it wouldn't bother with you. But once you threatened its operations, it would delete you.
The Chaos Demon Gods were too powerful, and their destructive force too terrifying; they were detrimental to the evolution of the Heavenly Dao. So the Heavenly Dao would mislead them, making them believe that if they stopped Great God Pangu from creating the world, they could evolve and attain the Primordial Golden Immortal of Great Luo.
With their powerful instinct to evolve nearly devouring their reason, the Chaos Demon Gods would be even more reckless once the Heavenly Dao misled them into this delusion. They would do anything to grow stronger, anything to attain the Dao and live forever.
After roughly figuring out the cause, Li Yi broke out in a cold sweat. The path to immortality was indeed full of twists and turns, and the road to the Dao was full of trials. One careless mistake, and he could turn to ash the very next moment.
Having sorted things out, Li Yi knew he had to find a way to seal or weaken this instinct. Fortune always came with danger, and danger with fortune. At that moment, Li Yi had a heaven-shaking plan in mind. Even thinking about it made him shudder.
The plan was terrifying. One wrong move, and he would face almost certain death. But when Li Yi thought of how its success would lay a solid foundation for him to reach immortality and attain eternal life, his expression grew resolute.
After all, there was no smooth road to longevity. Tribulations lay everywhere. It was impossible to take no risks at all and still attain the Great Dao and enjoy eternal life.
Besides, if he carried it out properly, the plan had a very good chance of succeeding. He would never again have such a heaven-sent opportunity, such a rare encounter in ten thousand ages.
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