There was none of the searing pain he had imagined, only a gentle yet irresistible force that instantly flooded his limbs and bones.
"Hm?"
Zhou Xuan's movements paused briefly.
His power of nothingness spread like spilled mercury, instantly probing every detail of this body. Its meridians were clogged, its flesh and blood utterly depleted. It was practically an empty shell.
But...
Beneath that ruined husk, every inch of bone was crystalline and translucent, faintly shimmering with a halo invisible to the naked eye. It was as though he had been born a flawless piece of jade, untouched by any of this world's tainted laws.
"Master!"
Ji Chen's astonished divine sense rang out in Zhou Xuan's sea of consciousness. "This is... the legendary 'immaculate Dao body'! Immunity to all techniques, all evil driven away! They say this physique is the perfect vessel for the purest origin laws. To think... it actually exists!"
Just then, the high priest trembling on the ground seemed to notice Zhou Xuan's interest in the boy. He scrambled over, stumbling and crawling, and sent out broken bursts of terrified divine sense.
"L-Lord God! Don't touch him! He's a bringer of disaster!"
"Years ago... a burning stone fell from the sky... he appeared along with it... he brought death upon his own parents... every misfortune in our tribe came from him!"
"He's brought every misfortune upon us! Kill him!"
Zhou Xuan frowned.
The high priest's voice abruptly cut off. His mouth gaped, but no sound came out. His entire body was pressed into the black mud, his chest cracking. He lay sprawled on the ground, eyes wide, unable to move.
The kneeling natives around them trembled even harder, burying their heads lower.
Zhou Xuan withdrew his gaze.
"From now on, he's one of mine."
The boy remained tense,