At the beginning of Chaos, Heaven and Earth had yet to form. Time and space were in disarray, and violent streams of chaotic energy filled every corner. The whole expanse was gray, like the inside of an egg.
The Three Thousand Chaos Demon Gods had come into being, standing tall amid the boundless Chaos.
They were born divine, with immortal bodies and Nascent Souls that reflected the myriad heavens. Each held dominion over a Dao.
Seeking that sliver of a chance to prove the Dao, the Demon Gods fought without end. In their struggle over the Great Dao, none would rest until the other was dead.
Among the Three Thousand Demon Gods, Pangu, the Demon God of Strength, was the mightiest. In the endless solitude, he was the first to comprehend his own Dao. He sought to shatter this prison of Chaos with supreme divine power and open a new world, proving the supreme Great Dao!
He stood upon the Thirty-Six-Grade Creation Green Lotus, from which Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind emerged. Above his head, the Jade Disk of Creation shed three thousand strands of Dao resonance. In his hand, the Sky-Opening Divine Axe hummed, brimming with the power to cleave Heaven and Earth.
Chaos was the Demon Gods' cradle, and also the place where they sought to prove the Dao. How could they allow Pangu to tear it apart so easily?
In an instant, Chaos trembled. Supernatural Abilities of every kind surged toward Pangu like a tide, swearing to block his path to the Dao.
Thus the tribulation arose! The Great Tribulation of Opening the Sky erupted!
Though the Three Thousand Demon Gods gave their lives to stop him, they were still no match for Pangu's might as he opened the sky. One after another, they fell beneath the axe's radiance, their blood staining Chaos.
But Pangu was not unscathed. After the Demon Gods had spent themselves in a frenzied assault, his mountain-like Divine Body was covered in wounds, with fissures so deep they exposed bone.
At last, as he swung his final strike and cleaved Chaos apart for good, the Sky-Opening Divine Axe—having endured too much backlash from the Great Dao and too many attacks from the Demon Gods—let out a groan of protest and shattered with a crash! Its blade became the Pangu Banner, its back became the Taiji Diagram, and its haft became the Chaos Bell.
At the same time, the Thirty-Six-Grade Creation Green Lotus beneath his feet crumbled, petal by petal. Its flowers, leaves, and stem... all turned into streaks of light and fell toward the newly formed world.
The Jade Disk of Creation, which recorded the Three Thousand Great Daos, was likewise covered in cracks. Broken and incomplete, it vanished into the vast Primordial Wilderness.
Heaven and Earth had just opened. Yin and Yang had yet to separate, and clear and turbid energies had only begun to divide, yet they still threatened to close together again.
"Ha!"
With Pangu's furious roar, his body swelled at once. He held aloft the clear energy formed from rising streams of Chaos, while his feet pressed down upon the turbid energy formed from those that sank.
The sky rose one zhang each day, and the earth grew thicker by one zhang each day. No one knew how long it went on.
When Heaven and Earth had finally settled into place, Pangu, exhausted, fell!
His final breath became the wind and clouds sweeping across the barren land; his last roar became thunder that shook the universe.
His left eye blazed like a wheel: the sun. His right eye shone with clear radiance: the bright moon.
The towering Buzhou Mountain rose from his spine to prop up the sky and separate the clear from the turbid. Unyielding mountains and rivers stretched from his limbs and torso, defining the four directions.
Rivers that flowed ceaselessly were his Divine Blood, never cooled; stars that had shone through the ages were his hair, scattered across the void.
From then on, hard metals lay hidden in the mountains, warm jade concealed in the rivers, boundless plants covered the wilderness, and life-nourishing rain and dew moistened all things...
The whole Primordial World of Heaven and Earth was his immortal remains, bearing the power and will that had brought it into being.
Countless ages had passed since Pangu opened Heaven and Earth. The Primordial World teemed with life, and countless Innate Races began to multiply and cultivate.
The East Sea was the foremost of the four seas, with vast, mist-shrouded waters stretching beyond measure. Its breadth and depth were impossible to fathom.
Deep in the East Sea, on an island hidden within the void, a consciousness gradually awoke.
"Am I dead?"
Wang Xuanfu remembered working overtime at the office. Then he had gotten up to make some coffee and wake himself up, and somehow ended up here.
Opening the eyes he didn't have, Wang Xuanfu saw what he looked like.
He was a mass of Innate Pure Yang Qi, surrounded by flowing Dao resonance. It was wondrous beyond measure, with a mysterious aura filling the air, as if something was being nurtured within.
Innate Pure Yang Qi. How did he know what that was? As Wang Xuanfu wondered, something like an inheritance flowed into his mind.
With the help of this inheritance, Wang Xuanfu gradually came to understand his situation.
After spending a long time receiving the inheritance, Wang Xuanfu thought to himself:
Looks like I've transmigrated to the Primordial World—and become the unlucky East King Duke.
Once he understood what was going on, Wang Xuanfu felt somewhat relieved.
Fortunately, this mass of Pure Yang Qi was still in an undeveloped state, with no awakened consciousness and no resistance. That had let him take possession of it smoothly.
Otherwise, with his fragile soul from another world, the moment he made contact, he would likely have become the best "supplement," absorbed and assimilated by it.
So be it. His past life as a corporate drone was all behind him. From this moment on, he was East King Duke, an Innate Divine Being of the Primordial World.
For now, he couldn't move. All he could do was look around with those eyes.
He saw two extraordinary objects floating not far from him.
Their auras were perfectly harmonious, and Dao resonance flowed around them. They, too, were in a wondrous state of innate gestation, faintly resonating with East King Duke's origin.
Through the inheritance, East King Duke instantly understood: these two spiritual treasures had been born from the same source as him, and had accompanied him from the start. They were his companion treasures.
Beyond them lay a boundless, desolate mist. It was the Great Dao's protection for them. Every Innate Divine Being was naturally surrounded by an innate formation before being born into the world through transformation, cut off from the outside.
From what he knew in his previous life, East King Duke had a good start, but his ending was far from pleasant.
As Innate Pure Yang Qi, his origins after transformation would make him one of the highest-ranked Innate Divine Beings. Among his peers, only the Three Pure Ones had better origins.
Yet fate was fickle. After Hongjun bestowed the Dragon-Head Walking Stick upon him in the Purple Heaven Palace and appointed him the "Head of Male Immortals," East King Duke's fate quietly took a turn.
Possessing the origins of a top-tier Innate Divine Being and such a lofty title, East King Duke's Dao Heart became clouded, and delusions arose.
He actually established the Immortal Court, seeking to rule over all immortals and contend for the title of Primordial Co-Lord.
Unfortunately, supernatural might was no match for fate.
The position of hegemon of the Primordial World is a bottomless pit. East King Duke sighed inwardly.
Trying to rule the Primordial World? That was just asking for death.
The Innate Three Clans had all thought they had a chance, and the Witch and Demon Races had thought so too. In the end, none of them succeeded.
The Demon Race had been born with the fortune of Heaven and Earth and gathered the fortune of the Myriad Races. Taiyi wielded the Innate Supreme Treasure, the Chaos Bell, and single-handedly stood against six Ancestor Witches, dominating his era. He was hailed as the "strongest beneath the sages."
And yet the war between the Witches and Demons still ended with both sides badly wounded.
His end had long been determined: the Immortal Court would be destroyed, and his body and Dao would perish. That would be his final fate.
In the end, only a trace of his innate true spirit would remain. He would fall from being an Innate Great God on a par with the Three Pure Ones to becoming one of the Eight Immortals under Laozi—Lü Dongbin. It could hardly get any worse.
Thinking about the fate awaiting him, East King Duke couldn't help feeling troubled.
If he went to the Purple Heaven Palace to listen to the Dao, the title of "Head of Male Immortals" and the karma it carried would be imposed upon him as if by destiny. Then Di Jun, Taiyi, and the entire Demon Race would turn against him, making his death and the destruction of his Dao almost inevitable.
If he didn't go to the Purple Heaven Palace, he could avoid the most immediate murderous calamity, but he would also be giving up the chance to hear the Primordial Great Dao and abandoning the immense fortune and moral legitimacy bestowed upon him personally by the Dao Ancestor.
In this Primordial World, those without strength were mere ants. When a Great Tribulation struck, they were in danger of being swept away all the same.
Establishing the Immortal Court and contending for dominion over the Primordial World had already been proven a path to certain death. He absolutely couldn't repeat that mistake.
Only personal strength was the foundation of the Great Dao. If he could cultivate one Dao to perfection and find one or two like-minded Dao companions he could entrust with his life, they might support each other and safely weather this tribulation.
After thinking it over, East King Duke settled on the path he would take.
He didn't even know what era he was in yet. For now, the best thing to do was cultivate.
There was no Cultivation Method in East King Duke's inheritance. For a top-tier Innate Divine Being like him, the inheritance only taught him how to comprehend the laws suited to him, along with all kinds of basic knowledge.
After all, only a Cultivation Method one created for oneself was truly suitable.
Cultivation knew no seasons; the Primordial World kept no count of years.
As East King Duke lost track of time, immersed in cultivation,
three grand, solemn vows rang out with a thunderous boom, like great bells resounding across the Primordial Wilderness.
Before you continue