After Zhenyuanzi finished his oath, a sudden clarity washed over him, as though some invisible shackle had snapped.
He knew the Great Dao had acknowledged his existence. From this moment on, he was truly a living being of the Primordial Wilderness, no different from the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy.
Once he had steadied himself, he followed the method in his inherited memories and slowly extended his spiritual sense to explore his surroundings.
It felt unfamiliar at first. Using spiritual sense was nothing like seeing with his eyes.
Within its reach, everything appeared in his sea of consciousness in a more essential form—not as color or shape, yet revealing its very source.
Mountains and rivers for ten thousand miles, every blade of grass and tree, even the flow of the Earth Veins and the rise and fall of spiritual energy unfolded like a three-dimensional painting, down to the finest detail.
The experience was so wondrous that Zhenyuanzi could not help marveling at cultivation in the Primordial Wilderness.
He found himself inside a mysterious grand formation linked to the Earth Veins. It drew upon Innate Earthen Energy and transformed it into layers of hazy yellow light that covered the surrounding land.
The formation seemed to have arisen naturally, its structure complete, protecting the life within it.
At its center, a profound-yellow book floated silently, radiating a vast, weighty aura. It was the Innate Spiritual Treasure known as the Book of the Earth.
Its pages turned without wind. Faintly visible within them were the courses of mountains and rivers and the shifting patterns of the land, seemingly breathing in time with the Earth Veins of the entire Primordial Continent.
Beside it stood a towering fruit tree. Dozens of infant-shaped fruits hung among its branches and leaves, glowing softly and giving off an enticing fragrance.
Its roots plunged deep into the earth. Every root seemed connected to the Earth Veins of the Primordial Wilderness, drawing in and releasing boundless Innate Spiritual Qi.
Zhenyuanzi knew this was the Innate Spiritual Root Ginseng Fruit Tree, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root famous in later ages.
Strangest of all was the Ten Thousand Mile Red Cloud overhead. Red as blood and rosy as sunset, it drifted slowly across the sky.
Faint pulses of spirit stirred within the cloud. Though it had yet to take form, it already bore the breath of life.
Zhenyuanzi probed it carefully with his spiritual sense and found an intelligence just beginning to awaken, still muddled and unformed. It would need countless years of nourishment before it could fully manifest.
He understood at once: this was Ancestor Hong Yun, the famously kind soul of the Primordial Wilderness in years to come.
When he had finished looking around, Zhenyuanzi withdrew his spiritual sense and began cultivating according to the technique in his inherited memories.
The technique was called the Kunyuan True Scripture. Granted by the Great Dao specifically for the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy, it allowed its practitioner to draw in Earth Vein Spiritual Energy and absorb the essence of Innate Earthen Energy.
Cultivation felt awkward at first, but Zhenyuanzi had been born from the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy. The technique suited him naturally.
Within a few days, he had grasped the basics.
Innate Spiritual Qi surged toward him like a tide. Filtered through the formation, it became pure Innate Earthen Energy and flowed into his body.
His body gradually glowed profound yellow, its aura blending with the earth until he seemed part of Longevity Mountain itself.
Years meant little in the Primordial Wilderness, and cultivation made them pass unnoticed.
Immersed in his practice, Zhenyuanzi felt his magical power accumulate bit by bit, while his understanding of the Way of the Great Earth deepened by the day.
When cultivation wearied him, he would look up at the red cloud and tell it stories to pass the time, almost as though speaking to himself.
Most were stories he had known in his previous life, adapted into tales of Chaos Demon Gods.
"In Chaos, there was once a Demon God named Dongguo,"
Zhenyuanzi began, his voice carried by spiritual sense deep into the cloud.
"One day, he came upon an injured Demon God. Moved by pity, Dongguo used his own essence to help him.
But once that Demon God recovered, he turned on Dongguo and devoured his essence, nearly destroying him, body and spirit..."
Hong Yun seemed to respond to the stories. The cloud billowed and shifted, sometimes gathering like red jade, sometimes spreading like gauze.
Encouraged, Zhenyuanzi told more, adapting tales such as the farmer and the snake.
He had no idea whether the stories would affect Hong Yun after he took form. To Zhenyuanzi, they were merely a way to pass the time.
And so he cultivated and told stories, while countless ages slipped by.
Zhenyuanzi's cultivation steadily advanced. From the Golden Immortal Realm in which he had been born, he climbed all the way to the peak of the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal Realm.
By then, magical power coursed through him like a rushing river. His spiritual sense could cover all of Longevity Mountain, and his understanding of the Way of the Great Earth had grown profound.
One day, Zhenyuanzi emerged from deep meditation. He knew he had reached a bottleneck; cultivation alone would not carry him into the Great Luo Realm.
He decided to set his practice aside for now and instead study the Innate Great Earth Formation and refine his accompanying treasure.
First, he merged his spiritual sense into the formation and carefully studied how it worked.
The formation had arisen naturally and contained endless mysteries.
It had nine layers. It drew in Earth Vein Qi and transformed it into the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy. In defense, it was impregnable; in attack, it could call upon the power of mountains and rivers.
As the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy, Zhenyuanzi shared its origin. Understanding it came to him twice as easily.
Three hundred years later, Zhenyuanzi had gained a basic command of the formation.
With a thought, he could set it in motion and draw upon Earth Vein Qi for his own use.
From then on, within Longevity Mountain, he could stand and fight even if a Great Luo Golden Immortal attacked.
Next came refining the Book of the Earth.
Also called the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Book of the Earth was an Innate Spiritual Treasure containing the Primordial Land Veins. Its wielder could borrow the earth's power for peerless defense and even move the Earth Veins to set up formations.
Zhenyuanzi held the Book of the Earth in his hands. It was extraordinarily heavy, neither metal nor stone, and warm to the touch.
He dripped his Vital Blood onto the book, then used the Artifact Refining Method recorded in the Kunyuan True Scripture to slowly merge his spiritual sense into it.
The Book of the Earth resisted at first. After all, every Innate Spiritual Treasure possessed a spirit of its own.
But Zhenyuanzi was the master born alongside it, and their auras shared the same source. After only a moment, the Book of the Earth accepted his spiritual sense.
At once, a flood of knowledge poured into Zhenyuanzi's sea of consciousness—the Primordial Land Veins, the courses of mountains and rivers, Earth Vein junctions, and blessed lands with Spiritual Apertures. He could see them all as clearly as the lines on his palm.
Refining the Book of the Earth was slow and arduous. Zhenyuanzi poured magical power into it without cease, leaving his Primordial Spirit Imprint deep within.
Only because the Book of the Earth had been born alongside him and shared his origin could he begin refining it while still a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal.
Any other Innate Spiritual Treasure would have required him to become a Great Luo Golden Immortal first.
Several more ages passed before Zhenyuanzi finally refined the Book of the Earth completely.
With a thought, he could unfold the Book of the Earth into the Boundless Earth Barrier, whose defensive power surpassed all others in the Primordial Wilderness;
with another, he could stir the Earth Veins and change the courses of mountains and rivers.
The moment he finished refining the Book of the Earth, Zhenyuanzi felt a connection to the Earth Veins throughout the Primordial Continent, as though he had become an embodiment of the land itself.
With the Book of the Earth's aid, his understanding of the Way of the Great Earth soared. His long-stalled cultivation began to stir, and he faintly touched the threshold of the Great Luo Golden Immortal Realm.
Zhenyuanzi was delighted. He knew a breakthrough was near.
But he did not rush. He continued to nurture his cultivation steadily while keeping watch over the red cloud above. The intelligence within it grew more complete by the day; its transformation could not be far off.
One day, while Zhenyuanzi studied a mystery of the Earth Veins recorded in the Book of the Earth, a sudden tremor ran through his heart. Something closely connected to him was about to happen.
He looked up. The Ten Thousand Mile Red Cloud was churning violently, spiritual light bursting from within. Hong Yun was about to take form.
Zhenyuanzi did not hesitate. He immediately drove the Innate Great Earth Formation with all his strength, drawing on Earth Vein Qi to shield Hong Yun and help him through his transformation.
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