Although this pill had become a spirit, it possessed no self-awareness, only a spark of spirituality.
Self-awareness was something that accumulated little by little. Even before plant-type Spirit Beasts developed a sense of self, they already existed and had begun passively receiving information from their surroundings. After becoming Spirit Beasts, they continued accumulating it bit by bit until self-awareness finally took shape.
Animal-type Spirit Beasts, meanwhile, possessed intelligence from the outset, though their understanding remained indistinct. Their self-awareness formed very early and became more stable as their cultivation increased.
This pill's mind, however, had been fashioned out of nothing, without that process of accumulation. As a result, even when faced with a hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation brimming with destruction, the pill showed no reaction whatsoever.
It neither fled nor feared nor fought back. As immature as an infant, it did not even understand what birth was, much less death.
Seeing the hundred-thousand-year lightning tribulation about to strike the Pill Soul Beast he had created at such great cost, Chen Ming showed a rare flash of defiance.
"I bet this heavenly tribulation can't kill me!"
An indescribable train of thought spread rapidly through Chen Ming's mind.
Creating life was, in itself, an insight rooted more in feeling than in rational thought. Calm reasoning could analyze the process itself, but it could not build upon that process to create further.
Ultimately, creating life was not something done within existing rules. It meant forcing the rules to bend toward oneself through one's own will. It was something inherently idealistic yet, at the same time, profoundly materialistic.
The lightning tribulation descended, shattering the quiet chamber's ceiling and the pill furnace in succession. Chen Ming unleashed his Soul Power, assumed a half-dragon, half-human form, and planted himself directly in front of his pill.
Unlike in normal