At the easternmost edge of the East Sea, misty waves stretched vast and boundless for countless millions of miles.
There stood a lone island, like a forgotten pearl cast upon the azure sea, suspended above the endless blue waves.
Though the island was not large, its terrain was strange and rugged.
Jagged rocks rose like coiled dragons and crouching tigers; ancient trees towered into the heavens like canopies holding up the clouds. Orchids grew in secluded valleys, while jade grasses sprouted from cracks in the cliffs. Spiritual springs bubbled forth, their clear chill refreshing the heart; auspicious mists billowed, their hazy glow illuminating heaven and earth.
At the heart of the island lay a deep pool, its waters dark and bottomless.
The water was black as midnight, yet faintly glimmered with countless shifting flecks of golden light.
Deep beneath the pool, something lay dormant.
Its body twisted and wound along for an unknown length, entirely covered in dark golden scales the size of bowls.
Each scale seemed to contain the faint glow of ancient stars, its edges sharp as divine weapons.
Its head was imposing, vaguely dragon-like, and its enormous eyes remained shut, their lids also covered in golden scales.
At the center of its brow, a single horn pierced the dark waters. It was black as jade, but at its tip flickered a dazzling thread of platinum light, waxing and waning as it stirred the surrounding currents into hidden eddies and formed a whirlpool of its own.
This was the first golden flood dragon born after heaven and earth were created, favored by the fortune of the primordial chaos!
Its name was Lin Xuan.
Lin Xuan's vast consciousness slowly awakened within a hazy void of Chaos Primordial.
"Ugh... my head feels so heavy..."
The moment the thought arose, his colossal body shifted slightly.
Undercurrents surged. Spiritual sand that had settled at the pool's bottom for ten thousand years was swept up, while golden scales scraped against the rock walls with a low metallic crash like muffled thunder, echoing far through the deep waters.
"This is... underwater?"
"Wasn't I staying up late grinding that damn primordial world game? How did I..."
Countless fragmented, chaotic memories crashed into his Sea of Consciousness like a burst dam!
Earth, corporate slave, 996, sudden death... primordial world, Heaven and Earth Creation, ferocious beasts, Dragon-Han Initial Tribulation... golden flood dragon, first in heaven and earth, accompanying spiritual treasure... early Heavenly Immortal!
The last four words were like a bucket of ice water over his head, instantly extinguishing both the confusion of transmigration and the illusory pride of being the "first in heaven and earth"!
"Early Heavenly Immortal...?"
Lin Xuan's enormous golden vertical pupils snapped open!
Two beams of nearly tangible golden light shot upward like twin swords of creation, suddenly piercing the dark pool waters!
Wherever the golden light passed, the water silently parted, revealing every detail of the pool bed.
"What kind of primordial world joke is this?!"
An indescribable absurdity mixed with immense panic instantly seized Lin Xuan's mind.
"Golden Immortals are everywhere, Great Luo roam the land... and only Grand Unity Golden Immortals can barely count as security captains?
What does an early Heavenly Immortal like me even amount to? I'm not even worth a blade of dogtail grass!"
Scenes of the primordial world's future rapidly unfolded in his mind—the Witch-Demon War, shattering heaven and earth;
the Investiture of the Gods Tribulation, where Saints made their moves and all living beings became chess pieces;
the Journey to the West Tribulation, where Buddhism and Daoism clashed amid treacherous undercurrents... Which of these was not world-destroying?
Which did not gather countless great powers?
Before those mighty cultivators who could shift stars, overturn constellations, pluck down the moon, and seize the sun, this tiny Heavenly Immortal golden flood dragon probably did not even qualify as cannon fodder!
"No! Absolutely not!"
A crushing sense of crisis wrapped around Lin Xuan's primordial spirit like an icy venomous snake.
"Lie flat? Wait to die? Not a chance! I have to grind! I have to grind myself to death!"
"In the primordial world, years mean nothing. Only strength is the hard truth!"
With that thought, Lin Xuan no longer felt even a trace of novelty or self-satisfaction at arriving in this precious land.
His enormous flood dragon body suddenly lashed out!
"Rumble—!"
The deep pool violently shook!
The spiritual energy accumulated over ten thousand years was completely stirred up. Violent water-element power transformed into countless savage water dragons, spinning madly and compressing around him!
Above the pool, a huge vortex formed out of thin air, frantically swallowing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from every direction.
The essence of sun and moon poured down like waterfalls; the power of stars draped over the waters like gauze; and the vast water spiritual energy of the East Sea surged in like tides, forcibly drawn into the vortex and endlessly poured into the pool's depths.
Lin Xuan coiled at the center of the vortex like a bottomless black hole.
He cast aside every stray thought and sank his mind into his body.
His Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit hung above his Sea of Consciousness. It was merely the size of a fist, dim in radiance, with only a faint wisp of innate Geng Metal Qi circling it. It appeared pitifully weak.
"Absorb! Absorb it all!"
Lin Xuan activated his innate divine ability and operated the Heavenly Star Evolution Technique with all his strength.
This was a basic method inherited through his bloodline, specifically meant to devour water-element spiritual energy and temper the demon body and primordial spirit.
For a time, the pool bottom blazed with golden light!
The ancient star patterns upon the dark golden scales seemed to come alive, greedily drawing in the vast spiritual energy gathering around them.
Every scale hummed, and every breath stirred a spiritual energy storm.
The black jade horn on his brow flared with platinum radiance, transforming into a condensed pillar of light that pierced straight into the vortex's center, forcibly seizing and refining the purest source power of Geng Metal.
Pain!
Indescribable agony!
The violent spiritual energy was like hundreds of millions of steel needles, wildly piercing his flesh, bones, tendons, and meridians, forcefully washing them clean, expanding them, and remaking them!
His primordial spirit was likewise battered by the violent torrent, as though it could be torn apart and annihilated at any moment.
Lin Xuan clenched his teeth. His enormous body trembled slightly from the agony, and wisps of dark golden blood mist seeped from between his opening and closing scales, only to be instantly scattered by the flood of spiritual energy.
"What does this little pain matter? Think of the looks in those great powers' eyes! Think of the fate of being crushed to death like an ant at their whim!"
"Grind! Without grinding, I won't survive!"
He roared inwardly. His will was iron, and he desperately guarded a sliver of clarity in his primordial spirit as he guided the violent spiritual energy to wash over that fragile Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit again and again.
The Dao Fruit trembled and hummed under the impacts. Its dim surface radiance slowly... ever so slowly... became a little more solid amid endless pain and persistence.
Tides rose and fell in the East Sea, and no one knew how many springs and autumns passed.
Upon the lone island, vegetation flourished and withered, spiritual herbs sprouted and grew, while the deep pool alone remained shrouded in a massive spiritual energy vortex that never ceased day or night.
Deep within the pool, things no longer resembled the past.
The dark golden blood had long dried, leaving mottled marks branded across the hard stone bed.
The colossal flood dragon body remained coiled there. Every dark golden scale flowed with restrained yet weighty divine light, their sharp edges even keener than before, faintly slicing apart the water currents.
The platinum gleam upon the black jade horn had condensed into something almost tangible. Though the beam was thin, it carried an indestructible, chilling Dao Rhyme.
Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit had expanded to the size of a head!
Its radiance was dazzling, solid as cast gold. Dense innate Geng Metal Qi transformed into nine tiny phantom golden flood dragons that circled the Dao Fruit, flying and roaring as they emitted a pressure far greater than before!
True Immortal!
It came naturally, the result of deep accumulation!
Lin Xuan's tightly shut eyes suddenly opened!
This time, the two beams of golden light were no longer dazzling and ostentatious. Instead, divine brilliance lay concealed within them, deep as an abyss, as if they could pierce the Nine Netherworlds and illuminate the Ten Directions.
An unstoppable, immense aura erupted from his body!
"Roar—!!!"
A dragon's roar that shattered metal and stone and shook the Four Seas burst from the pool bottom and soared into the sky!
It was no longer the hiss of a flood dragon, but a roar bearing the majesty of a true dragon!
The waters of the deep pool were forcibly driven apart by the sound wave and his exploding aura!
The pool surface exploded!
A massive water column carrying the force of ten thousand tons shot straight into the heavens!
At the top of the water column, golden light blazed for thousands of miles!
A dark golden giant flood dragon a thousand zhang long burst from the waters and leaped into the Nine Heavens Above!
Its momentum stirred the winds and clouds across ten thousand miles!
Above the East Sea, winds and waves suddenly surged. Dark clouds gathered as lightning serpents danced wildly!
The transformation heavenly tribulation had arrived!
Lin Xuan's enormous flood dragon body circled beneath the pressure of the Nine Heavens' fierce winds and tribulation clouds. His dark golden scales gleamed with cold light beneath the flashes of tribulation lightning.
He raised his head to the sky. There was no fear in his vertical pupils, only the resolve forged through long, bitter cultivation and a trace of anticipation at shedding his old shell and gaining new life.
"Come!"
"Crack—!"
The first tribulation lightning bolt, as thick as a palace pillar and blue-violet in color, tore through the sky and struck down viciously with an aura capable of destroying all things!
Lin Xuan neither dodged nor retreated. Platinum light flashed from the horn on his brow!
"Break!"
A platinum divine beam condensed to the utmost extreme surged upward, colliding head-on with the tribulation lightning!
"Screech—!"
A piercing tearing sound rang out.
The blue-violet tribulation lightning was actually split down the middle by the platinum divine beam. Violent lightning scattered in every direction, striking the sea and raising towering waves, yet it failed to harm Lin Xuan's true body in the slightest!
"Not strong enough!" Lin Xuan's heart surged with heroic spirit.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The tribulation clouds seemed enraged. The lightning changed from blue-violet to blazing white, then from blazing white to crimson gold!
Each bolt was thicker and more violent than the last! The crimson-gold divine lightning lashed down like the whip of Heavenly Punishment, illuminating the entire sea like a furnace!
Lin Xuan's enormous flood dragon body twisted and charged through the sea of lightning!
At times he met the strikes head-on with his horn, at times he swept them aside with his incomparably tough tail, and at times he unleashed Geng Metal divine light through his innate divine ability to clash against them!
Sparks flew from the dark golden scales beneath the baptism of tribulation lightning. Deafening metallic clashes rang out as blackened marks were left behind, only to rapidly mend under the circulation of Geng Metal source power, becoming even tougher and more extraordinary!
Nine bolts! Eighteen bolts! Twenty-seven bolts!
The tribulation lightning grew increasingly violent. The final three bolts were actually chaos-colored! They contained earth, fire, water, and wind, as though they intended to reenact Heaven and Earth Creation!
Lin Xuan was already covered in wounds. Many of his scales had shattered, dark golden blood staining the sky, and his aura had weakened considerably.
Yet the divine light in his eyes grew ever more blazing. Tempered by the lightning tribulation, his primordial spirit had become unprecedentedly condensed and clear!
"One final gamble!"
Facing the three chaos divine lightning bolts capable of destroying heaven and earth, Lin Xuan released a sky-shaking roar. His thousand-zhang flood dragon body abruptly contracted as all his power gathered at the horn on his brow!
The platinum gleam atop the black jade horn shone with unprecedented brilliance, like a miniature sun!
"Open for me—!"
The platinum divine beam surged, transforming into a giant blade that split heaven and earth as it slashed fiercely toward the three merged chaos tribulation lightning bolts!
"Rumble—!!!"
An indescribable explosion!
Heaven and earth lost their color, and sun and moon lost their light!
The violent energy shockwave swept across ten thousand miles of sea. Countless islands trembled, seawater evaporated and then surged back to fill the void, forming terrifying tsunamis!
When the light finally dispersed.
The tribulation clouds slowly scattered, revealing a devastated sky and a turbulent sea.
High above the Nine Heavens Above, the enormous dark golden flood dragon had vanished.
In its place stood a figure suspended in the air.
The figure stood nine chi tall, straight and upright as a pine.
Upon his head was the Nine Cloud Blazing Beast Crown. Crimson mist curled around it, and phantom flying beasts seemed to circle above it, making him appear imposing and divinely majestic.
He wore an Apricot Yellow Eight Trigrams Cloud Pattern Robe, its eight trigrams flowing and cloud patterns subtly emerging, its Dao Rhyme naturally formed.
Around his waist was a Universe Purple Gold Ring Belt, its clasp shaped like a dragon's head as purple qi swirled around it.
On his feet were Sea-Treading Cloud-Walking Shoes, beneath which cloud qi and watery light faintly gathered.
Then there was his appearance:
His face was like polished jade, smooth and luminous, as if meticulously carved from Mutton Fat Jade.
A cinnabar mark rested between his brows, red as blood, adding a touch of mystery and authority.
His brows slanted sharply toward his temples, as though painted with ink, making his heroic air even more striking.
When his eyes opened and closed, faint golden light flashed within them. They were deep as an abyss, as if they contained an endless star river and could perceive all the vicissitudes of the world.
His nose was high and straight, his lips red as cinnabar.
He had no beard beneath his chin, making his handsome features and transcendent bearing all the more apparent.
Truly:
Immortal flesh and jade bones, formed by heaven itself; the Dao's resonance flows, untouched by mortal dust.
A cinnabar mark upon his brow revealed profound mysteries; golden brilliance hidden in his eyes illuminated the netherworld.
The Eight Trigrams cloud robe bore purple qi; the Nine Cloud Crown gathered radiant dawn light.
Having shed the flood dragon's form in one day, he would henceforth travel the immortal path as Dao Xuan!
Lin Xuan—no, he should now be called Dao Xuan—felt the boundless mana surging endlessly within him, far surpassing what he had possessed in his flood dragon form. He felt the flawless harmony between his primordial spirit and this perfect Dao Body, and an unprecedented sense of ease and power welled up inside him.
"True Immortal Dao Body! I did it!"
He could not help releasing a long howl that shook the nine skies, full of unrestrained exhilaration!
However, just as the howl had yet to fade!
An indescribable, irresistible, cold, emotionless, supreme will suddenly descended!
This will was vast as heaven and boundless as the Dao, instantly locking onto Dao Xuan, who had just completed his transformation!
It was as though a gigantic eye had opened high above the Nine Heavens Above, gazing indifferently down upon all living beings!
Dao Xuan's entire body shook violently!
The immense mana he had just gained upon reaching the True Immortal realm was as insignificant as dust before that will!
His newly condensed perfect Dao Body instantly stiffened, unable to move even a finger! His primordial spirit was gripped tightly by an invisible, terrifying force, as if it would be completely erased the very next moment!
A terror born from the very source of life seized him in an instant!
"An illegal resident?!"
An absurd yet incomparably clear thought exploded through his Sea of Consciousness like a thunderclap!
"I transmigrated here. I'm not native to this world! The Heavenly Dao... the Heavenly Dao thinks I'm a stowaway?!"
That cold will carried the weight of judgment, as though it were searching and verifying.
The tribulation clouds that had just dispersed showed signs of gathering once more! What they were brewing this time was certainly not a transformation tribulation, but... a punishment of annihilation!
Life and death hung by a thread!
Dao Xuan's thoughts raced madly at an unprecedented speed!
"What do I do? What do I do?!"
"Explain? The Heavenly Dao won't understand! Beg for mercy? The Heavenly Dao won't care! Resist? What the hell is a True Immortal before the Heavenly Dao?!"
"Identity! Identity is the key! I have to prove that I'm a 'legal' living being of the Great Desolation!"
In that flash of lightning, a thought struck like a bolt tearing through the darkness!
Make an oath!
He would swear a Great Dao oath to the Heavenly Dao! He would completely sever the karma connecting him to "Earth's Lin Xuan" and root everything he was in the Great Desolation!
Only then could he gain the recognition of this world!
Without the slightest hesitation!
Dao Xuan endured the terrifying pressure that nearly crushed his primordial spirit. He abruptly raised his head, gazed at the unseen will of the Heavenly Dao, and shouted in a Dao voice with every ounce of strength he possessed. His voice carried across the four lands, each word booming like thunder and resounding between heaven and earth:
"Great Dao above! Let the Heavenly Dao bear witness!"
"Today, there is a living being named Lin Xuan, who has received the fortune of the Great Desolation and attained the Dao Fruit of a True Immortal!"
"Yet the dust of the past has settled, and the old body has wholly shed away!"
"Here, this disciple swears: from this day onward, there shall be no more Earth's Lin Xuan in the Great Desolation World!"
"There shall only be a Great Desolation cultivator—Dao Xuan!"
"This body and soul belong wholly to the Great Desolation! This Dao and heart shall forever be bound to heaven and earth!"
"If I violate this oath, may my body perish and Dao vanish, my true spirit be annihilated, and may I never be reborn for all eternity!"
"Great Dao, bear witness! Heavenly Dao—grant it!"
The moment he uttered the final words, "grant it," it was as though he had exhausted all his strength.
The instant his words fell.
The cold, merciless will of the Heavenly Dao that had locked onto him paused slightly.
It seemed to be examining the truth and weight of his oath.
The terrifying tribulation clouds gathering once more stopped churning.
After several breaths, they slowly receded like the tide.
The terrifying pressure that had nearly crushed Dao Xuan's primordial spirit also silently vanished, like snow melting in a spring breeze.
Clarity returned to heaven and earth. Only Dao Xuan's heavy breathing echoed over the vast sea and sky.
Cold sweat had long since soaked through his new apricot-yellow Dao robe embroidered with the Eight Trigrams.
The lingering fear crashed against his mind in wave after icy wave.
"That was close... too close..." Dao Xuan still felt terrified, his primordial spirit trembling slightly. "I almost got my household registration canceled on the spot as some unregistered product right after taking form!"
He slowly descended onto a massive reef blackened by tribulation lightning, sat cross-legged, and tried to calm his violently surging emotions and unsettled mana.
"Dao Xuan... Dao Xuan..."
He silently repeated this new name. A strange sense of belonging welled up within him, as though the name itself contained some profound Dao rhythm, making his connection to this world closer and more natural.
"From this day onward, I am Dao Xuan! A cultivator of the Great Desolation—Dao Xuan!"
Just as his mind finally settled and he turned inward, preparing to examine the mysteries of his True Immortal Dao Fruit—
Another change arose!
It did not come from the outside world, but from the deepest depths of his primordial spirit!
A point of faint light lit up without warning.
At first, it was as weak as a dying candle in the wind, seemingly ready to go out at any moment.
But in the blink of an eye, the light blazed brilliantly!
An aura vast, ancient, and boundless, as though it contained every secret of origin from before chaos had opened and primordial mist had been divided, spread from that light and instantly filled Dao Xuan's entire Sea of Consciousness!
Dao Xuan's mind shook violently, and his consciousness was involuntarily drawn into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.
There, beneath the golden True Immortal Dao Fruit surrounded by the phantoms of nine golden flood dragons, a bead floated quietly in the center of his Sea of Consciousness.
The bead was only the size of a pigeon's egg, perfectly round and chaotic in color. It was neither black nor white, neither azure nor violet, as though it had devoured and fused every color and every ray of light in heaven and earth, ultimately returning them to an indescribable state of "nothingness."
Its surface was covered in countless dense, crisscrossing cracks like a spiderweb, a shocking sight to behold. Fragments were even missing in many places, leaving it utterly battered and incomplete.
Yet it was precisely this damaged bead whose aura made even Dao Xuan's True Immortal Dao Fruit tremble and bow its head!
That aura transcended time and space, stood above all laws, and seemed to be the origin of "Dao" itself—the manifestation of "One"!
"This... this is..."
Dao Xuan's consciousness churned violently as an ancient name, originating from deep within his bloodline and from the imprint left by the opening of the Great Desolation, exploded through his mind!
"The... Chaos Bead?!"
One of the legendary four supreme treasures of chaos!
A supreme existence on par with the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe, the Jade Disk of Creation, and the Chaos Green Lotus!
Legend said that this bead contained a primordial world, could conceal heavenly secrets, form a chaos realm of its own, and was a supreme treasure for attaining the Primordial Dao!
It... it was actually in the depths of his primordial spirit?!
Dao Xuan's consciousness stared fixedly at the damaged Chaos Bead. Overwhelming joy erupted like a volcano, instantly washing away all his lingering fear and exhaustion!
"HAHAHAHA! Heaven has not forsaken me! Heaven has not forsaken me, Dao Xuan!"
Before you continue