I Am a Willow Spirit

Liu Zhong had lived quite a brilliant life.

For the first twenty-five years, Liu Zhong lived a peaceful and stable life.

He was born into a wealthy family—the kind that owned their own mines.

The family had been in business for four generations; they were not nouveau riche, but a family with deep-rooted heritage.

Liu Zhong was the second son, with an older brother being groomed as the heir.

The eldest brother was highly capable and outstanding, making him the family's ideal successor.

With a satisfactory heir in place, the Liu Family adopted a laissez-faire approach toward their other children to prevent any fratricidal conflict.

Some cousins became playboys who lived off dividends from their shares.

Others were even raised to be good-for-nothings.

Although Liu Zhong also enjoyed luxury, a thought always lingered in his mind, urging him to study and fill himself with more knowledge.

Therefore, even though he indulged in food and entertainment, he spent even more time on his studies.

Money was no object for his family, so they hired many private tutors for him.

He learned upper-class etiquette, mastered twelve foreign languages, learned to play the piano and violin, and learned...

His academic grades never once fell out of the top three in his grade level.

During the college entrance examination, he achieved the title of top science student, entered the best university in the country, finished his undergraduate studies in two years, and completed his graduate studies in another two.

By the time he was a doctoral student, he already had his own research lab—though it was mostly funded by the Liu Family—where he led research projects.

In the year he turned twenty-five, his parents arranged a blind date for him, which he refused.

He did not want to be a pawn for a family marriage alliance.

Although his parents were angry, there was nothing they could do.

After all, he was already a person of the state by then.

Not long after Liu Zhong returned to the laboratory, the world outside underwent a drastic change.

A meteorite fell to Earth, bringing with it an unknown and dangerous virus, leading to the arrival of the apocalypse.

Yes, it was the kind of apocalypse with zombies, just like in the games.

The virus caused most people to turn into zombies, a small portion to gain superpowers, and the remainder to stay as ordinary humans.

Social order collapsed, and foreign countries were in utter chaos.

Fortunately, Rabbit Country was highly efficient; after a brief period of chaos, they managed to control the situation.

Although society had not returned to normal, it was at least better than abroad.

Liu Zhong was invited to work with other scientists to study the zombie virus and find a way to neutralize it.

The research institute where Liu Zhong worked was some distance from the survivor base in the capital, so a team was specifically sent to escort the scientists.

Unlike other researchers who lacked physical activity, Liu Zhong had learned martial arts since childhood and never gave up his daily physical training after joining the institute.

Therefore, his body was extremely healthy.

When the virus struck, many researchers turned into zombies, but Liu Zhong awakened a superpower.

Space ability.

He could not only create a portable space to store items but also manifest spatial blades to kill enemies.

The ordinary people at the institute survived solely because Liu Zhong eliminated most of the zombies, allowing them to band together to finish off the rest.

With a powerful space-type ability user like Liu Zhong, the team sent to retrieve the researchers suffered minimal casualties and completed the escort mission most smoothly.

Upon arriving at the base, Liu Zhong threw himself into his research.

He and many other scientists worked tirelessly, and after several years, they finally developed an antidote for the zombie virus.

Humanity no longer feared the zombie virus and began a counterattack against the zombies.

It took two years for the scientists to eliminate all the zombies, and the apocalypse finally ended.

What followed was the reconstruction of the post-apocalyptic world.

Liu Zhong walked out of the research institute and joined the ranks of the reconstruction effort.

He met his eldest brother and several cousins who had luckily survived.

Times had changed; the former playboys had grown into steady warriors.

The brothers reunited, filled with deep emotion.

Liu Zhong lived for another thirty years in the world after the apocalypse.

During this period, he developed many more inventions that benefited the lives of the people at the time.

When Liu Zhong passed away, many people came spontaneously to see him off.

As he closed his eyes, Liu Zhong thought he would fall into an eternal slumber.

He never expected that he would be able to wake up again.

Even less did he expect that he was no longer a human, but a willow tree growing on an island in the sea.

Energy similar to his supernatural abilities flowed within his body, and the energy in the air was incomparably abundant—thousands, even tens of thousands of times more concentrated than in the post-apocalyptic world.

With every breath he took, energy entered his body and circulated automatically.

Liu Zhong: "..."

Had he transmigrated?

And to a xianxia world, at that?

Transmigrated into a willow tree spirit?!

Would some demon hunter or cultivator come to kill him?

Just as Liu Zhong was lost in these wild thoughts, a sharp pain shot through his head as he received a massive influx of information.

After a long while, Liu Zhong finished absorbing the information and let out a long sigh.

As it turned out, he hadn't transmigrated into a willow tree spirit; the willow tree was his original form.

He had never been human to begin with; he was a willow tree living in the Primordial World.

And the origin of this willow tree was far from simple—it was a small twig left behind by Great Immortal Yangmei when he departed the Primordial World.

Great Immortal Yangmei was of the same generation as the Dao Ancestor Hongjun; they had existed even before Pangu split the heavens.

The original form of Great Immortal Yangmei was a Hollow Willow, which mastered the laws of space and was incredibly powerful.

Even Hongjun was no match for Great Immortal Yangmei.

However, the Primordial World could not contain an existence as powerful as Great Immortal Yangmei.

Therefore, he spent most of his time living in Chaos.

After Hongjun attained sainthood, Great Immortal Yangmei realized that the Primordial World belonged to Hongjun, not him.

He subsequently left the Primordial World and retreated into the depths of Chaos.

Before leaving, Great Immortal Yangmei felt a sudden inspiration and snapped off a willow branch from his own body, casting it into the Primordial World.

That willow branch landed on the back of a massive Ao Turtle.

The Ao Turtle was lazy and rarely moved, and over time, dust had accumulated on its back, appearing as an island in the eyes of other creatures.

The willow branch took root on the back of the Ao Turtle and gradually grew into a small willow tree.

The willow tree slowly developed sentience.

Just as it gained consciousness, it was influenced by its innate abilities, which carried his soul across time and space to a small world outside the Primordial World, where he was born into the womb of a pregnant woman and lived as a human.

When his human body in that small world died, his innate abilities carried his soul back, returning him to his original willow tree form.

Therefore, he hadn't transmigrated; he had returned.

Liu Zhong: "..."

He was actually the descendant of a big shot?

What a surprise!

But the big shot had already left the Primordial World, leaving him with no powerful figure to rely on!

And the Primordial World was so dangerous!

How miserable!

Liu Zhong felt a mix of joy and sorrow, his emotions incredibly complex.

Back when he was a student, Liu Zhong had loved playing games, reading manga, and browsing web novels.

After entering the research institute, whenever he had free time, he would go online to read novels to pass the time.

Liu Zhong had read quite a few novels set in the Primordial World.

At the time, he had a strange feeling about the word "Primordial," and he sought out every novel in the genre, whether they were popular or obscure.

Even if the author's writing was hard to praise, he would endure it and finish the novels.

He hadn't known why he was so interested in Primordial-themed novels back then.

Now that he had returned to the Primordial World, he finally understood the reason.

It was to gather intelligence!

It was to brainstorm and use the experiences of the protagonists in the novels to help himself survive in the perilous Primordial World.

Although the real Primordial World was certainly different from the ones in the novels, there would always be similarities he could use as a reference.

Recalling one Primordial novel after another, Liu Zhong hugged his weak and helpless self.

Wuwuwu, the Primordial World is too dangerous.

Great Ancestor Yangmei, why did you leave me in the Primordial World when you departed!

Why didn't you take me with you?!

Liu Zhong sighed, Liu Zhong felt sorrowful, Liu Zhong felt helpless.

But Liu Zhong had no choice but to accept his fate.

Since he was living in the Primordial World, he had to find a way to live well, find a way to avoid those deadly events in the Primordial World, and just lay low for now.

Of course, he had no choice but to lay low.

He couldn't even take human form yet, so he couldn't leave the patch of land where he had taken root.

Fortunately, the place where he grew was on a small island overseas, not on the mainland, so the flames of war there would not reach him.

Liu Zhong breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Oh? The little fellow has woken up?"

A voice rang out in Liu Zhong's mind.

Liu Zhong was stunned for a moment before he realized that some entity was using divine sense to transmit a message to him.

This was a basic operation in the Primordial World.

"Who are you?"

"I am Jin Ao. You are currently growing on my back."

"Jin Ao? Jin Ao Island?"

"Yes, yes, I am Jin Ao Island."

Liu Zhong: "..."

He had actually become a native inhabitant of Jin Ao Island?

If Tongtian Jiaozhu were to build Biyou Palace on Jin Ao Island in the future, wouldn't that mean he was occupying his home?

Uh, it didn't really count as occupying his home.

After all, the place where he grew was only a square foot in size.

A thought rose in Liu Zhong's heart.

As a native of Jin Ao Island, could he take advantage of his proximity to the source, and when Tongtian Jiaozhu came to Jin Ao Island to establish Biyou Palace, directly ask to become his disciple?

Tongtian Jiaozhu was famous for "teaching without discrimination" and did not care about a disciple's origins; surely he wouldn't refuse a little willow tree like him as a disciple, right?

After all, he even took a rat as a disciple.

The more Liu Zhong thought about it, the more excited he became; the possibility of this idea coming to fruition was very high.

You say the Jiejiao had a bad ending in the Investiture of the Gods?

So what?

As long as he didn't go to the Wanxian Formation, he shouldn't run into any trouble.

After all, quite a few Jiejiao disciples survived in the end; didn't Wudang Shengmu live freely later under the name of Lishan Laomu?

Aside from the tribulation of the Investiture of the Gods, being a disciple of Tongtian Jiaozhu had many benefits.

Not to mention anything else, he would surely receive quite a few magic treasures, right?

Unlike now, where he was penniless and had no magic treasures at all.

If he encountered an enemy, he wouldn't even have the means to fight.

And furthermore—

Although he had the cultivation techniques left behind by Great Immortal Yangmei in his mind, they were obscure and difficult to understand, and there were many parts he couldn't grasp.

If he became a disciple of a sage and received guidance from a sage, he would be able to understand the inherited techniques better and cultivate more smoothly.