The Ten Thousand Lotus Pond

From afar, the water and sky merged into one, an endless expanse of emerald waves.

Above the water floated countless lotus flowers.

Some were budding, their petals so delicate they seemed to glisten! Some were in full bloom, radiating rosy light in every direction! Others had already formed lotus seedpods, filling the air with their fragrance. The lotuses of every color complemented one another, transforming the entire marsh into a dazzling, multicolored painting.

An overwhelming rush of Innate Yi Wood Qi and Kui Water Qi swept over him, so dense it seemed to congeal. Every pore on Zhao Gongming's body relaxed, as if he were immersed in warm nectar.

"What a blessed paradise!" he exclaimed in admiration.

This was the Ten Thousand Lotus Pond.

Zhao Gongming reined in his aura and slowly descended from the clouds, landing beside the pond. He did not hurry farther in. Instead, his divine sense gradually spread out like a spring breeze brushing willow branches, carefully probing the surroundings.

Though this place was a blessed paradise, in the Primordial World, opportunity and danger often went hand in hand. The more precious a place was, the more likely it was that a great power was cultivating there—or that some powerful being had claimed it.

As his divine sense swept over the area, he discovered quite a few beings meditating and cultivating by the pond. Most were flowers and plants that had transformed into Spirits and Monsters, and their cultivation was not high.

Deep in the marsh, however, he sensed several powerful, indistinct auras. They seemed to belong to Grand Unity Golden Immortals, each occupying a stretch of water without encroaching on the others.

Zhao Gongming understood. As long as he did not trespass on their territories, he should be fine.

He walked step by step along the pond's edge. With the origins of a Chaos God and Demon, he was far more sensitive than most to the primordial auras of heaven and earth.

He was searching for the purest Innate vitality that might exist within the Ten Thousand Lotus Pond.

One day, then two... three days passed.

Zhao Gongming had nearly made a full circuit of the pond's outskirts. He had gathered several fine immortal lotuses, yet still had not found the sensation he was seeking.

Just as he was preparing to venture into the pond and investigate, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

A faint but supremely pure primordial aura seemed to cross the barrier of time and space, lightly brushing against his divine sense.

The aura was fresh and sacred, carrying a quality that purified all things!

"Found it!"

Divine Light burst from Zhao Gongming's eyes. Without hesitation, he followed the aura to its source, racing deeper into the Ten Thousand Lotus Pond.

He moved like lightning, bounding across countless lotus leaves. In just a few leaps, he had traveled a hundred li into the marsh. The farther in he went, the clearer that pure primordial aura became. The scenery around him began to change, too. Ordinary immortal lotuses gradually disappeared, replaced by golden and jade lotuses of higher grades, each shimmering with light and radiating precious energy.

At last, Zhao Gongming stopped before a stretch of water shrouded in dense white mist.

He parted the mist, and the sight before him made his breath catch.

A pool of water about ten zhang across lay ahead, clear to the bottom and utterly spotless. At its center floated a massive white lotus.

The lotus had twelve petals. Its entire form was as white as jade, sacred and flawless. Each petal seemed engraved with the ultimate truths of heaven and earth. Wisps of primordial vitality swirled around its lotus dais, transforming into auspicious clouds and radiant vapors that made it seem like an embodiment of the Great Dao.

It floated there in silence, yet seemed to be the center of this world and the source of all things.

A vast aura that suppressed fortune and purified filth washed over him.

"The World-Purifying White Lotus!" Zhao Gongming's heart pounded violently.

This lotus was unmistakably a mid-grade Innate Spirit Treasure!

An invisible formation barrier surrounded the white lotus. Dao Patterns flowed across it, profound and unfathomable. It was clearly a formidable innate formation, guarding the treasure.

Zhao Gongming took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement.

He sent out his divine sense and cautiously touched the formation barrier.

Buzz!

A tremendous force rebounded against him. Countless runes instantly lit up across the barrier, and a murderous aura filled the air.

"An Innate Guardian Great Array... just as I thought." Zhao Gongming was not surprised.

A Spirit Treasure of this caliber would have been taken by some great power long ago if it were not guarded by a formation.

He did not force his way in. Instead, with a thought, twenty-four azure-blue pearls flew from his sleeve and circled around him. They were the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls!

"I'll break the formation with a treasure!"

Zhao Gongming formed a hand seal and guided them. The twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls spun in place, transforming into twenty-four streaks of blue Divine Light. Following a profound trajectory, they struck gently at different nodes of the innate formation!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each impact seemed to strike a weak point in the formation. The barrier shuddered violently, and the runes flowing across it began to fall into disarray.

Now that Zhao Gongming possessed the origins of a Chaos God and Demon, his understanding of the Great Dao had far surpassed what it had once been.

The innate formation still seemed profound to him, but it was no longer without flaws.

Using the Chaos Spiritual Treasure, the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls, as his tool and his own comprehension of the Great Dao as his guide, he began to unravel the formation, bit by bit!

Half an hour later.

With a crisp crack, the barrier guarding the World-Purifying White Lotus shattered like broken glass, fragmenting into countless specks of light that scattered and vanished.

Primordial vitality, now more than ten times as dense as before, erupted with a roar!

Overjoyed, Zhao Gongming wasted no time. He reached out and grasped the twelve-petal World-Purifying White Lotus. It gave a clear chime, transformed into a streak of white light, and fell into his palm.

The lotus dais felt warm and smooth in his hand. A cool sensation coursed through his entire body, instantly clearing his Nascent Soul as if washing away every trace of dust.

At that very moment, the system's cold prompt boomed in his mind!

[Innate Spirit Treasure detected—World-Purifying White Lotus (mid-grade)!]

[It contains a trace of the Chaos Green Lotus Origin...]

[Deduction plan generated...]

[Primordial Points and Chaos Origin materials may be consumed to deduce and transform it into the Chaos Spiritual Treasure—the Thirty-Six-Petal Chaos Green Lotus!]

[Requirements for preliminary deduction (advancement from twelve petals to twenty-four): 10,000 Primordial Points and one wisp of Chaos Qi!]

[Begin deduction now?]

The system's cold prompt rang through Zhao Gongming's sea of consciousness like a thunderclap from the highest heavens. Every word seemed to contain the immortal music of the Great Dao, sending waves more turbulent than before through the heart that had only just been stirred by his acquisition of the Spirit Treasure.

The Chaos Green Lotus!

The Thirty-Six-Petal Chaos Green Lotus!

This was not merely the name of a Spirit Treasure. It represented a legend, an era—the supreme divine treasure from before Chaos was opened and Hongmeng was divided! It was the peerless foundation upon which Great God Pangu had been born!

For a moment, Zhao Gongming's mind nearly came to a standstill.

He had thought that transforming this twelve-petal World-Purifying White Lotus into a twenty-four-petal or even thirty-petal top-grade Innate Spirit Treasure would already be an extraordinary stroke of fortune. He had never imagined that the Primordial Deduction System could be so... heaven-defying!

It could use a mid-grade Innate Spirit Treasure containing a trace of the Chaos Green Lotus Origin as its foundation, and Chaos Qi as its catalyst, to bring the legendary Chaos Spiritual Treasure back into existence!