The Eternal Slumber, the World-Purifying Lotus Accepts the Tribulation's Aftermath Spirit

This sleep became an eternal slumber.

Time lost all meaning within the Primordial World.

Eons turned, ages flowed by; to a Pure World White Lotus rooted on an immortal island in the East Sea and sheltered by an Innate Grand Formation, it was no more than a faint ripple across the pond, clouds gathering and dispersing.

Su Miao's consciousness sank completely into a profound stillness devoid of thought or desire.

She could not sense the storms shifting outside, nor could she perceive the grief and killing intent permeating heaven and earth.

She was merely a lotus, quietly growing according to instinct.

Her roots burrowed deep into the very depths of Mount Fangzhang's Spiritual Vein, like the most precise energy converter, greedily yet incomparably elegantly drawing in nourishment.

It was not only the island's Innate Spiritual Energy, but also all manner of strange energies drifting over from the boundless Primordial continent, crossing endless seas and penetrating the Formation's Barrier.

Among them was vast, pure Innate Spiritual Energy, like sweet rain nourishing all things.

Yet mixed within were wisps and threads of dark crimson Calamity Fiend qi, filled with resentment, slaughter, and unwillingness.

They were formed from the undying obsessions of countless powerful living beings who had fallen in that long, brutal war. Ordinary Cultivators avoided them as though they were venomous serpents; tainted by even a trace, one could find Inner Demons breeding in droves and one's Dao Foundation damaged.

Yet the Pure World White Lotus had been formed from a Chaos Green Lotus Seed, born bearing the origin of "purification."

When those Calamity Fiend qi, deadly poison to other living beings, touched the pure radiance naturally flowing around the white lotus, they were like piled snow meeting the blazing sun. Their malevolent qi silently dissipated, their filth refined away, and they became a special spiritual energy of even greater purity, carrying even a faint sense of sediment left behind after surviving tribulations, which the lotus quietly absorbed.

The white lotus instinctively carried out its mission:

Purification.

It silently absorbed the "remnants of war" that filled heaven and earth after the Dragon-Han Primordial Tribulation, transforming the ashes of disaster into nourishment for new life.

The Three Lights Divine Water in the Lotus Pond also faintly bubbled as a result. The sun, moon, and star radiance shone ever more brilliantly, reflecting one another with the white lotus as they jointly nourished the sleeping soul within the flower bud, as well as the Innate Dao Body that was slowly being nurtured and remolded.

The years flowed soundlessly amid this tranquil purification and nourishment.

No one knew how many Eons passed.

On this day, the Calamity Fiend qi that had accumulated in the Primordial World for countless years seemed to reach some critical point—or perhaps it was forcibly drawn together by some immense will.

An indescribable, vast, mournful resonance erupted from the deepest source of heaven and earth in the Primordial World, instantly sweeping across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, the Four Seas and Eight Wastelands!

Whether they were Great Experts residing in Blessed Lands, Lesser Demons hiding amid the mountains and wilds, or wondrous flowers slumbering upon immortal islands, all living beings felt it in their hearts!

Then, three incomparably powerful wills, filled with exhaustion, remorse, and unwavering resolve, surged into the heavens, stirring the Heavenly Dao Laws as they issued Great Dao oaths that shook the cosmos!

The first to ring out was a dragon's roar, desolate and majestic yet unable to conceal its decline, as though it came from an endless abyssal sea:

"Heavenly Dao above! I am Ancestor Dragon, ancestor of the Dragon race! Today, I lead all dragons under heaven in this oath:"

The voice rolled on, containing supreme might and bone-deep sorrow.

"My race bears grave Karmic obstacles. We provoked strife, plunging the living beings of the Primordial World into suffering and overturning heaven and earth! All of this is my sin!"

"From this day forth, the Dragon race shall guard the Sea Eyes of the Four Seas, using our supreme dragon power to suppress the Water Veins of the Primordial World. Unless heaven and earth face a great calamity, we shall never emerge into the world! By this merit, we shall atone for our race's sins!"

"Should we break this oath, the Dragon race's bloodline shall wither away, and we shall never find rebirth for all eternity!"

The instant the oath fell, monstrous waves surged across the Four Seas of the Primordial World. Countless dragon silhouettes cried out mournfully as they retreated like a tide into the deep Sea Eyes, taking with them endless glory and desolation.

Before the dragon's cry had faded, a clear and mournful phoenix cry, bearing the resolve of nirvana, rang through the Nine Heavens:

"Let the Heavenly Dao bear witness! I am Yuan Feng, ancestor of the Phoenix race! Today, I lead all Feather Clan under heaven in this oath:"

Her voice carried the blazing heat to burn all things, along with remorse.

"The Phoenix race became entangled in the Calamity Tribulation, Karmic Debt coiling around us. Our sins are grave, and we have no face to remain upon the Immortal Divine Mountain!"

"From this day forth, the Phoenix race shall forever guard the Immortal Volcano of the south, using our true fire of origin to erase the malevolent flames within the Earth Veins. Unless an immeasurable Tribulation arrives, we shall forever fall into the flaming abyss! With these broken bodies, we shall repay heaven and earth's karma!"

"Should we break this oath, the Phoenix race's true fire shall turn upon us, our bloodline shall be severed, and we shall never recover through ten thousand tribulations!"

Across the southern horizon stretched crimson clouds for thousands of miles. Countless phoenixes and birds wheeled through the sky with mournful cries before resolutely plunging into the Immortal Volcano, which spewed blazing flames all year round, using themselves as fuel to suppress calamity.

At last came a heavy, grief-stricken roar, like the earth's own elegy:

"May the Heavenly Dao judge clearly! I am First Kirin, ancestor of the Kirin race! Today, I lead all beasts under heaven in this oath:"

The voice bore the weight and scars of the earth.

"The Kirin race, too, was stained by the mortal world's Calamity Tribulation, shattering mountains and rivers and making All Spirits howl in sorrow. Our sins are unforgivable!"

"From this day forth, the Kirin race shall become auspicious omens, walking the Primordial World. We shall not emerge for any but a ruler of benevolence, nor appear save as a sign of prosperous times! With our race's Fortune, we shall nourish the Earth Veins of the Primordial World and repay our sins!"

"Should we break this oath, all auspiciousness of the Kirin race shall scatter, and we shall become savage fiends, forever forsaken by the earth!"

From the central continent of the Primordial World came the mournful cries of ten thousand beasts. The figures of the Kirin race gradually faded, merging into mountains, rivers, and earth. From then on, they became the auspicious creatures of legend, seldom seen.

The oaths of the three ancestral races grew more tragic with each declaration, more resolute with each vow, drawing a thunderous response from the Heavenly Dao Laws!

Endless Golden Light of Merit intertwined with red-black qi of Karmic Debt as they descended, sketching the prologue of a new era in the Primordial World and marking the complete end of the Dragon-Han Primordial Tribulation!

This vast resonance of the Heavenly Dao and the power of those oaths—bearing heaven and earth's great transformation, the changing of eras, and the sorrowful wishes of All Spirits—were like a boulder cast into a tranquil lake, crashing violently through every corner of the Primordial World!

Naturally, they also penetrated Mount Fangzhang's Innate Grand Formation. This Formation seemed unable to do much to obstruct such pure fluctuations of laws born from heaven and earth itself. Like great bells and massive chimes, they struck viciously against the Pure World White Lotus in the pond!

Bzzzz—!

In her slumber, Su Miao felt as if someone had suddenly sounded ten thousand bronze gongs beside her ears!

That voice did not pass through her eardrums. It acted directly upon the very source of her soul—vast, solemn, mournful, and loud as hell!

Her consciousness, immersed in an endlessly sweet slumber, was forcibly dragged out of the deep sea by that overbearing power.

"Mm..."

The flower bud gave a faint, unconscious tremble.

Su Miao "woke" groggily, her soul still filled with the deep displeasure of having a pleasant dream interrupted. She could not understand the meaning of that oath at all, much less grasp the colossal upheaval of the Prehistoric World and the racial tragedy it bore.

She only felt that it was noisy.

Extremely noisy.

Unbearably noisy!

It felt like some miserable office worker who had worked overtime for a month straight, finally managed to sleep in, only to be violently awakened by the duet of the plaza dance speakers downstairs and the construction crew's electric drills!

Her morning grumpiness instantly shot through the roof!

Gathering the newly awakened and still extremely weak power of her thoughts, she sent a dissatisfied, mumbling protest toward the grand lingering echoes that still seemed to reverberate between heaven and earth:

"Who is it... So noisy... Are you even going to let people sleep...?"

"What the hell... Are you holding some oath-taking rally... Can't you turn the volume down a little...?"

"Heavenly Dao... So what if you're the Heavenly Dao... Does that mean you can just disturb people's sweet dreams whenever you want...?"

Her thoughts were soft and muddled, thick with drowsiness and resentment, forming the most absurd possible contrast to the tragic, solemn spectacle outside—a grand scene that would determine the future order of the Prehistoric World.

She had absolutely no sense of having slept through countless Eons. To her, it merely felt as though she had been having a perfectly good sleep, only to be prematurely woken by inexplicable noise. She was very unhappy about it.

As for the Dragon-Han Calamity?

The withdrawal of the three races?

Sorry, she did not understand, and she was not interested.

There was only one thing she cared about right now: could she go back to sleep?

Yet the aftershocks of that resonance between heaven and earth continued, rolling in wave after wave like lingering tremors. Though they were no longer as deafening as before, they still made it impossible for her to return to that deep state of sleep.

Su Miao's consciousness struggled between dream and wakefulness for a while before she finally, helplessly confirmed it—she could not fall asleep.

She had been woken up.

Completely woken up.

With a bellyful of unprovoked waking rage and a head full of groggy complaints about the noise, Su Miao's soul finally, at the moment when the Dragon-Han Primordial Tribulation had just come to an end and the dawn of a new age had begun to appear, truly and lucidly began to face this world called the "Prehistoric World."

And the first thing she did upon waking was not to wonder about the great changes in the world outside, nor to marvel at her own survival, but to cover her nonexistent ears with lotus leaves and let out an indignant "hmph."

This damned Prehistoric World would not even let people get a good night's sleep!