After Li Yi fell asleep, another ten million years passed. The damage caused by splitting his soul had fully healed without leaving any hidden harm. But Li Yi still did not wake. He planned to use the stretch of time before the world's creation to reflect on himself and sort through what he had gained.
Time passed quietly, and the Great Dao Rhythms grew weaker and weaker. The golden age for cultivating and seeking the Dao among the beings of chaos was drawing to a close. The creation of the world was near, and tribulations would soon come one after another. Whether they seized a sliver of opportunity and were reborn through nirvana, or clung stubbornly to their ways and turned to ash, would depend on their own abilities.
At some point, the Great Dao Rhythms vanished completely from chaos. In their place came roars like those of primeval beasts. The Three Thousand Divine Demons had fully awakened.
In fact, Li Yi had woken up more than ten thousand years ago. After a long period of taking stock, he summed up his situation: first, he had attained the rank of Grand Unity Golden Immortal; second, he had created a powerful soul art, "Nine-Colored Pagoda"; and third, he had gained insight into his innate divine ability, "Nirvana Samsara." Using it consumed nearly two-thirds of his Magic Power, so he could only use it as a trump card and never except in a life-or-death situation.
Li Yi was somewhat surprised when his innate divine ability, "Nirvana Samsara," awakened. It was truly terrifying: it could actually draw on the power of Cosmic Reincarnation, hidden in the depths of the universe. Though it was only a sliver, that was already frightening enough. After all, Cosmic Reincarnation stood on the same level as the universe's highest law, the Law of Balance. It might not be a law, but it was even more than one.
However, Li Yi discovered that nearly every Chaos Demon God had awakened an innate divine ability by then, and many were no weaker than his. There were abilities of astonishing power, such as "Devour All Things," "Chaotic Waylessness," and "Judgment of God." So Li Yi decided it was best to keep a low profile.
When Li Yi woke again, he found the entire Chaos World steeped in an oppressive atmosphere. Many Chaos Demon Gods had already fallen under the sway of their instincts and lost their reason, rampaging everywhere to kill and devour one another. Their desolate cries echoed throughout the Chaos World.
Li Yi glanced at Pangu's towering, primeval silhouette, then left the area. After traveling for tens of thousands of years, he finally reached a place far from the center of chaos, where he could no longer sense even a trace of Pangu's presence. The attacks of the Pangu Axe must have weakened to almost nothing by then, so he stopped.
Li Yi wasn't foolish enough to go up to Pangu and strike up a conversation or reminisce about old times. If he happened to arrive just as Pangu was about to create the world, he wouldn't even have tears left to cry. Besides, Li Yi deeply doubted whether Pangu was rational at all, or whether he was simply born of the Great Dao to create the world. If that guess was right, Li Yi might turn to ash before he even got close. That would be a disaster.
As the saying went, keeping a low profile and quietly picking up whatever benefits he could was the way to go. What's more, Li Yi had collected plenty of materials for refining Magic Treasures along the long journey, including Chaos Star Gold, Kui Water Divine Iron, and Black Demon Copper. Most importantly, he had found three Innate Spiritual Treasures.
Innate Spiritual Treasures were rare even in chaos, and scattered across its boundless expanse. You could travel hundreds of millions of miles without finding a single one. The idea that treasures were everywhere in chaos was nothing but a fantasy.
Of course, compared with the world after its creation, there were indeed many more Innate Spiritual Treasures in chaos, because most of them would be destroyed in the Calamity of World Creation.
Li Yi had found three Innate Spiritual Treasures because many Chaos Demon Gods were controlled by their instinct to evolve, busy devouring others to grow stronger and overlooking the treasures.
The three Innate Spiritual Treasures were the Green Lotus Ancient Sword, the Void Battle Armor, and the Black Demon Cauldron. The Green Lotus Ancient Sword contained a sliver of the law of destruction and was incredibly sharp. The Void Battle Armor was made primarily from Two-World Stone and possessed a trace of immortal divinity, allowing it to shift between the tangible and intangible. Inside the Black Demon Cauldron, a black demonic flame burned eternally; as long as evil existed in the world, the flame would never go out.
Li Yi thought the Void Battle Armor was the most precious of the three treasures, because it possessed a trace of immortal divinity and would greatly help him forge his Immortal Mo Body. What's more, with the right opportunity, it might transform into an immortal Battle Treasure, possessing the qualities of both an Innate Spiritual Treasure and an Ultimate Dao Treasure. By then, it could rival an Innate Supreme Treasure.
While Li Yi hid within the forbidden formation he had set up, waiting quietly for the world's creation, the Chaos Demon Gods hunted everywhere to evolve. Then a solemn voice, filled with a primeval aura, rang throughout the Chaos World. Li Yi knew the creation of the world had finally begun, and it was time to put his plan into action.
With the world's creation, the entire Chaos World began to boil. In that instant, all the Chaos Demon Gods seemed to sense that devouring Pangu would let them advance further, achieve a leap in life, attain the Primordial Golden Immortal of Great Luo, and become immortal forever.
The urge was so strong that even Li Yi, whose rational soul had complete control over his Demon Body, felt tempted. As for the other Demon Gods, whose reason had nearly been swallowed by their instincts to evolve, they all flew toward Great God Pangu as fast as they could.
Before long, a sight far more terrifying than the end of the world came into Li Yi's view. Chaos shattered, Space Storms raged, and enormous flashes of axe light appeared again and again, each carrying the might to destroy everything. The sound of mirrors shattering came in fits and starts.
The desolate screams of the Chaos Demon Gods rang out without end. The world bled, and the entire Chaos World seemed coated in a layer of scarlet paint. The aura of death seeped into Li Yi's heart, and even his perfectly rational Main Body could not help but feel shaken.
Mountains and rivers overturned, fires blazed across the sky, blood flowed like rivers, the earth broke apart, and screams filled the air... These scenes of apocalypse lasted for more than three hundred years before gradually settling.
Of course, Li Yi didn't stay inside his formation the whole time, waiting out the crisis. He had drawn up an earth-shattering plan long ago, and now it was time to act.
Long ago, Li Yi had devised a cultivation plan to forge an Immortal Mo Body and attain the Dao through the laws. But an Immortal Mo Body was no easy thing to forge. Neither Pangu in the Primordial World nor Hongjun and Yang Mei, who attained the Dao after the world's creation, had managed it.
Of them, Pangu's body had reached the highest level. It already possessed a trace of immortality, making it half a step from true immortality. Yet even so, it still had a long way to go.
Immortal meant indestructible and imperishable, never to decay. Even the Great Dao could hardly erase it. The most important—and most crucial—step in forging an Immortal Mo Body was to transform the tangible into the intangible.
It wasn't a matter of using some law or divine ability to escape into the void. Rather, after the Demon Body gained the qualities of immortality—unyielding, unbreakable, yet supple—it would gradually transcend the laws. It would exist in reality while becoming tangible and intangible, like a mirage of a city overlapping with a real one. It was both real and nonexistent.
So Li Yi devised a reckless plan: during this Calamity of World Creation, he would devour as many injured Demon Gods as he could, and even devour part of Pangu's body.
Li Yi was willing to do anything to achieve an immortal body. This plan was no safer than attacking Pangu, but Li Yi's greatest advantage over the other Demon Gods was that he was still clearheaded. That gave him a sliver of hope.
Li Yi wasn't foolish enough to attack the Innate Demon Gods head-on. He generally chose to devour those already killed by Great God Pangu first, then targeted those on the verge of death or badly wounded, ambushing and killing them before devouring them.
Thus, during the Calamity of World Creation, as Pangu created the world, the Demon Gods ran amok, chaos shattered, and Space Storms raged, an unusual Demon God with eight wings could occasionally be seen cautiously grabbing the corpse of a giant Demon God and vanishing in a flash. Or he would suddenly leap out of a pit, ambush and kill a badly wounded Demon God, then soar away...
Whenever the Innate Demon Gods who had been reincarnated from the broken souls of Chaos Demon Gods after the world's creation thought of these events, they trembled. So when Li Yi's Main Body later appeared and they recognized him, they secretly called him the Devouring Demon Lord. His fearsome reputation spread far and wide.
After a long time, Pangu finally fell, and the Primordial World at last stabilized. Then twelve drops of blood and three masses of primordial spirit flew from Pangu's body. At that moment, Li Yi flew to Pangu as fast as he could, sliced off one of his arms with a sword, and quickly fled.
Soon afterward, Pangu's body began to break apart, transforming into all things in the world. One of his eyes became the sun and the other the moon; his flesh became the vast earth and towering mountains; his meridians became endless river channels; and his blood became surging waters...
After Pangu fell, the Heavenly Dao bestowed boundless merit of Mysterious Yellow. One quarter of the merit became a Post-Heaven Merit Treasure, the "Heavenly Exquisite Pagoda," also called the "Mysterious Yellow Exquisite Treasure Pagoda," which no magic could break. One quarter went to the Primordial World, while half of the rest went to the Three Pure Ones' primordial spirits and the other half to the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
Then, with a whoosh, the Mysterious Yellow Exquisite Treasure Pagoda flew into Lao Zi's primordial spirit. After that, the Three Pure Ones' primordial spirits and the Twelve Ancestral Witches flew off in different directions.
The age of chaos ended, and the age of the Primordial World officially began.
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