Lu Chen's last memory was of everything going black. He'd been chasing the top-ranked Qimao Novel, Primordial World: I Devoured the Twelve Ancestral Witches at the Start, and had stayed up for three nights straight.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was gone.
No—not even a person anymore.
"W-where am I?"
Lu Chen "looked" around, only to realize he had no eyes. His consciousness was trapped in a mass of chaotic darkness, and he could only vaguely sense the terrifying scene outside—
Chaos churned, gray currents surging like a raging sea. A giant who reached the heavens wielded a colossal axe, battling countless indescribable monsters!
Some of the monsters were covered in eyes, while others had a thousand hands and feet. Every one of them radiated an aura that made Lu Chen's soul tremble. Yet with each swing of the giant's axe, the monsters howled and disintegrated, turning into Chaos Qi Flow.
"Pangu's creation of the world?!"
Lu Chen was stunned.
As a seasoned fan of the Primordial World, he knew this scene all too well—the Three Thousand Demon Gods besieging Pangu, the Sky-Opening Calamity!
But how had he ended up here? And why had he become a... brick?
Lu Chen tried to "look down" and finally sensed his form: a brick three feet long and one foot wide, pitch-black all over. Its surface was pitted and rough, its material unknown, and it hung heavily in Chaos.
He had no limbs or features. His consciousness was simply trapped inside the brick.
"I transmigrated into a brick?!"
Lu Chen wanted to curse, but he didn't even have a mouth. Worse still, a terrifying shock wave swept over him. Chaos Qi Flow cut like knives, and his brick body cracked with a sharp crack.
Pain! A pain like his soul was being torn apart!
"I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead!" Lu Chen panicked. He was nothing but a battered old brick. Any random shock wave could grind him to dust.
Just then, he "saw" that axe.
The Sky-Opening Axe!
Its blade cleaved through Chaos, each blow slaying a Demon God. But Lu Chen noticed a tiny crack near the base of the handle—probably left by some Demon God's desperate final strike.
The crack was spreading.
Every time the axe swung, the crack widened a little. At this rate, the handle would snap after a few dozen more blows!
An idea struck Lu Chen.
Wait, I'm a brick!
What were bricks for? Smacking people, smashing things, serving as weapons! He had no idea what this Black Brick was made of, but if it could survive in Chaos, it had to be special, right?
A crazy thought came to him.
"If... I could knock a piece off the Sky-Opening Axe..."
Every Primordial World fan knew that after the Sky-Opening Axe shattered, its head became the Taiji Diagram, Pangu Banner, and Chaos Bell, while its handle became the Four Swords of Zhu Xian. Even a fragment the size of a fingernail would be a remnant of a Chaos Supreme Treasure!
More importantly, there was Sky-Opening Merit!
After Pangu created the world and transformed into all things, the Heavenly Dao bestowed immeasurable Merit. When the axe shattered, the first wisp of Merit would fall upon it. If he could touch the axe, couldn't he snatch a little Merit for himself?
The more he thought about it, the faster his heart seemed to beat.
"Let's do it! Fortune favors the bold!"
Lu Chen concentrated all his consciousness, trying to move his brick body.
Move! Move!
The brick shuddered and slowly drifted through Chaos—slower than a snail.
"Faster! Come on!" Lu Chen was practically fuming with impatience.
At the center of the battlefield, Pangu was locked in a furious fight. Nine-tenths of the Three Thousand Demon Gods were dead, Chaos had been split open, and clear and turbid energies were beginning to separate. But the crack in the axe handle had spread like a spiderweb. It could break at any moment.
The final blow!
Pangu roared, gripped the axe in both hands, and poured out his last ounce of strength to strike at the most powerful opponent, Daoist Shichen.
Now!
Lu Chen desperately urged his brick body forward, aiming for the deepest part of the crack in the handle. He was moving so slowly that it was laughable, but he had calculated the angle. The Chaos Qi Flow kicked up by the axe's swing would carry him along and speed him up!
"Catch a ride!"
Chaos Qi Flow surged like a tsunami, sweeping Lu Chen's brick body along and hurling it toward the handle at an astonishing speed.
"Closer! Closer!"
He could clearly see the mysterious patterns on the handle. Deep within the crack, golden light shimmered faintly—Sky-Opening Merit was repairing it on its own!
But the repair couldn't keep up with the damage.
"Take this!"
Lu Chen "roared" the words in his mind, and his brick body slammed into the deepest part of the crack.
Clang!
A crisp ringing sound burst out as the Black Brick struck the handle.
Time seemed to freeze.
Lu Chen "saw" a fingernail-sized piece of the axe handle fly off. It was dark gold, covered in innate Dao patterns, and filled with shimmering Golden Light of Merit.
At the moment of impact, cracks spread wildly across his Black Brick's surface. It nearly shattered on the spot. But the Golden Light of Merit that touched it seeped into the brick like a warm current, and the cracks mended at a visible speed!
It did more than repair the brick. Its surface grew darker and heavier, and a faint golden sheen appeared over it.
The fragment of the axe handle was knocked away by the impact and shot in Lu Chen's direction.
"Mine!"
A flash of inspiration struck him. Lu Chen "lunged" forward with his brick body and caught the fragment on its face.
The instant the fragment touched the brick, it melted right into it!
Boom!
A vast stream of information flooded Lu Chen's consciousness:
[Sky-Opening Axe Handle Fragment (Minor)] [Contains: Law of Strength Fragment, one wisp of Sky-Opening Merit] [Can be absorbed slowly to strengthen the body]
Success!
Lu Chen was overjoyed. But before he could savor his victory, an oppressive force that froze his soul descended.
Pangu's Gaze fell upon him.
Those eyes were as vast as the sun and moon, with Chaos rising and perishing within them. Just one glance, and Lu Chen felt as if his consciousness were being seen through.
"I'm done for..." Lu Chen was so frightened his brick body went cold.
He was just a battered old brick, and he'd stolen a fragment of Pangu's axe. If Pangu got angry, he'd be gone with a single breath.
But Pangu only glanced at him. A trace of... confusion flickered in his eyes?
The giant's lips moved, and a voice like a great bell rang through Chaos:
"An anomaly..."
Those two words made Lu Chen's consciousness buzz.
The next moment, Pangu looked away and paid him no further attention. With his last ounce of strength, the giant forced heaven and earth apart, and his body began to disintegrate.
The clear and turbid energies separated completely. The sky rose, and the earth thickened. Pangu's spine became Buzhou Mountain, his eyes became the sun and moon, and his blood became rivers...
Carried along by Chaos Qi Flow, Lu Chen was swept to the edge of the Primordial World and slammed into a newly formed mountain range.
Rumble!
The mountain was punched through, and the brick body sank deep into the ground.
Darkness. Silence.
Still shaken, Lu Chen took a long while to recover.
"I survived... and I even knocked a piece off Pangu's Sky-Opening Axe?"
He sensed the fragment inside his brick body. It hovered quietly as a wisp of golden Merit slowly seeped out, nourishing the brick. Under the nourishment of Merit, his consciousness gradually grew clearer and stronger.
He could even vaguely sense the world outside: a desolate rocky mountain, with scarce spiritual energy and no living beings nearby.
"First, I'll lie low and absorb the Merit!"
Lu Chen made up his mind. The Primordial World was far too dangerous. The Dragon-Phoenix Calamity, the Witch-Demon War, the Investiture of the Gods Calamity... He was just a battered brick. Any random beast could use him as a stepping stone.
He had to get stronger!
Time passed as he cultivated. The Primordial World had just begun, and years were meaningless.
Who knew how long had passed? He had absorbed a tenth of the axe-handle fragment, and his brick body had undergone a complete transformation:
It was now glossy black all over, with dark golden patterns that appeared and vanished on its surface. It weighed a hundred times more than before, and a single blow could probably knock out a True Immortal. Most importantly, he had developed spiritual awareness and could control his brick body to move, if only a little!
"Let's test it out."
Lu Chen controlled his brick body as it flew out of the ground and hovered in midair.
He aimed at a massive boulder a hundred feet away.
"Go!"
The brick turned into a streak of black light and shot into the boulder.
Boom!
The boulder exploded into dust, leaving a crater ten feet deep in the ground.
"That's some serious power!" Lu Chen was pleased.
Just then, a sound of rushing air came from the horizon.
Two streaks of light approached and landed on the desolate mountain. Lu Chen hurriedly concealed his aura. His brick body dropped to the ground with a plop, pretending to be an ordinary rock.
The newcomers were an old man and a youth. The old man had a full head of white hair and a horsetail whisk in hand, while the youth had red lips and pearly teeth and carried a medicine basket on his back.
The youth asked, "Master, is Dao Ancestor really giving a lecture at Jade Capital Mountain?"
The old man stroked his beard. "Of course. Dao Ancestor Hongjun will expound on the Great Dao of Hunyuan at Jade Capital Mountain in three thousand years. Anyone with the necessary fate may attend. We should prepare early..."
Hongjun! A lecture at Jade Capital Mountain!
Lu Chen's heart jolted.
This was the greatest opportunity in the Primordial World. The three thousand guests of Purple Heaven Palace had all attended, and even the weakest listener was a Grand Unity Golden Immortal!
Wait, he was a brick. How was he supposed to get there?
As he fretted, he heard the old man add, "But the journey is long and Chaos is dangerous. This Black Stone would make a fine Protective Magic Treasure..."
As he spoke, the old man bent down and picked Lu Chen up.
Lu Chen: "!!!"
He'd been picked up as crafting material? Lu Chen panicked—he had to hurry up and take human form! But that required spiritual energy, and this mountain... Wait, what had the old man said? Jade Capital Mountain? Dao Ancestor Hongjun?
A bold plan took shape in Lu Chen's mind.
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