What do you mean, you are the embodiment of merit?

Primordial Continent.

Countless billions of miles east of Mount Buzhou.

Here stood a Nameless Low Mountain, so insignificant it didn't even have a name.

The mountains here were not tall, the waters were not deep, and the spiritual energy was pitifully thin.

In this early era of the Primordial Continent, where innate divinities roamed everywhere and Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals were as common as stray dogs, this mountain was a desolate backwater where even birds wouldn't bother to land.

Any passing creature with even a modicum of cultivation wouldn't spare this place a second glance.

Yet, deep within this Nameless Low Mountain, someone had hollowed it out to carve out a secret cave dwelling.

"Hum—"

Deep inside the cave, a faint light flickered.

A crow, its entire body burning with a pale golden flame, was sticking its rear end up, laboriously gripping a dull, lusterless spirit stone with its two wings, carefully inserting it into a groove on the ground.

As the spirit stone was embedded, complex array patterns on the floor lit up, only to vanish into invisibility a moment later.

"Phew..."

The golden fire crow collapsed onto the ground, exhaling a long, weary breath and wiping away non-existent sweat with its wing.

"The one thousand eight hundred and sixty-second concealment array, finally set. Now, even if a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal passes by, unless they press their face against the ground to sniff around, they will absolutely never discover this place."

His name was Lu Changsheng.

He was originally just an ordinary office worker from the future, living the "blessed" life of a 996 schedule.

Who could have guessed that one night, while staying up late reading a Primordial novel, his vision went black, and when he opened his eyes again, he had arrived in this deadly world.

Transmigration was one thing; Lu Changsheng had accepted that.

But others transmigrated as disciples of the Three Pure Ones under Pangu, or as the Thirteenth Ancestral Witch, or at the very least, as top-tier divinities holding innate supreme treasures.

He was more unique than the rest; something had gone wrong with the transmigration tunnel, and he had crashed headlong into a golden ball of light drifting at the edge of chaos.

By the time he fully regained consciousness and digested the extra information in his mind, he was completely numb.

That golden light was actually a mass of Great Dao Merit that had been lost for unknown reasons!

Because his soul had completely fused with the Great Dao Merit, he took form, becoming a fire crow—neither dragon nor phoenix, nor a Three-Legged Golden Crow.

Instead, he was a fire crow formed entirely from the condensation of golden merit light and the origin of fire.

Or rather, it would be more accurate to call him a Merit Golden Crow.

The background sounded terrifying: an avatar of Great Dao Merit!

What did this mean in the Primordial Continent?

It meant he was a top-tier, unsolvable, walking hedgehog.

Whoever dared to touch him, whoever dared to harm a single one of his feathers, was slapping the Great Dao in the face!

He didn't even need to lift a finger; the laws of the Great Dao would directly summon Purple Heaven Divine Lightning, following the threads of karma to blast the offender into nothingness, dragging their entire clan and kin down with them.

In the first few days after learning of this setting, Lu Changsheng was high-spirited, itching to rush out of this low mountain and run to the center of the Primordial Continent to shout, "Who else is there!"

But he quickly calmed down.

Because he had discovered a fatal blind spot.

He did indeed possess an invincible "thorns" armor, but this armor required power to function.

Every shred of Great Dao Merit on his body was his origin, the very foundation of his existence.

If someone attacked him, while the Great Dao would descend to punish them, the merit on his body would be consumed to offset the karma of the attack.

In other words, if he got hit, the other person would die, but he would lose merit.

And what was most fatal was that, because he was an avatar of merit, the rich innate spiritual energy of the Primordial world was like plain water to him.

Others absorbed spiritual energy and their cultivation soared.

He absorbed spiritual energy, and it only quenched his thirst, replenishing a pitifully small amount of magic power, with absolutely no use for improving his realm!

"If I want to improve my cultivation and achieve eternal life, I must accumulate merit."

Lu Changsheng looked down at the thin layer of golden flames on his body, wanting to cry but having no tears.

"In this day and age, is merit really that easy to earn?"

"The bit of Great Dao Merit I have is precious; every shred used is a shred gone. Should I use my valuable merit to trade lives with those muscle-brained Primordial savages? That is a losing business I must never do!"

Having made up his mind, Lu Changsheng completely abandoned the idea of going out to roam.

To hell with Primordial hegemony, to hell with magic treasures and opportunities.

In this era where the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans were about to rise and fight to the death everywhere, staying low was the only truth.

As long as I hide deep enough, karma will never catch up to me!

After resting for a moment, Lu Changsheng flapped his wings and flew up from the ground.

He was in no rush to set up the next formation, instead flying over to a simple cloud bed made of white jade in the center of the cave dwelling.

"Formations are important, but I cannot let my own magic power fall behind. Although the spiritual energy is useless, it at least moistens the throat."

Lu Changsheng sat down with his claws crossed, closed his eyes, and began to circulate the pitifully small amount of magic power within his body.

Wisps of thin innate spiritual energy were drawn in through the cracks in the cave dwelling, sinking into his body.

Then, they leaked back out through his feathers, leaving only a negligible trace of energy to flow into his dantian.

This efficiency was simply outrageous.

But Lu Changsheng was not anxious.

Time was the one thing the Primordial Land had in abundance.

On this ancient land, a simple nap could result in the world outside undergoing earth-shaking changes.

The cave dwelling fell silent, with only that layer of golden flame swaying gently in time with his breathing.

In the Primordial Land, years are not recorded, and cultivation knows no time.

One hundred years.

Five hundred years.

One thousand years.

Time flowed on, and in the blink of an eye, three thousand years had passed.

During these three thousand years, the shadow of the Dragon-Han First Tribulation had been quietly spreading across the Primordial Land.

The Dragon Clan dominated the four seas, the Phoenix Clan commanded the birds, and the Qilin Clan held sway over the beasts.

In order to compete for the fortune and territory of the Primordial Land, the three clans clashed more and more frequently, and small-scale skirmishes occurred almost every day.

The blood outside stained the rivers red, but all of this had nothing to do with Lu Changsheng, who remained tucked away in the Nameless Low Mountain.

"Hoo—"

On the cloud bed, Lu Changsheng slowly opened his eyes, a faint flash of fire passing through his pupils.

He introspected his body, feeling the magic power in his dantian that had only grown by a tiny fraction, and shook his head helplessly.

"Three thousand years! Three whole thousand years of day and night of bitter cultivation!"

Lu Changsheng could not help but complain aloud.

"If it were a pig, after absorbing three thousand years of innate spiritual energy, it would at least be a Profound Immortal, right? I am still at the early stage of the Heavenly Immortal realm, and I haven't even touched the threshold of the middle stage!"

As expected, this path was not viable.

For an incarnation of merit like him, the repulsion toward spiritual energy was too strong.

"Sigh, it seems I really can only rely on picking up merit to level up."

Lu Changsheng jumped off the cloud bed and paced back and forth in the cave dwelling.

In fact, during these three thousand years, it was not as if he hadn't thought about going out to scavenge.

After the Ferocious Beast Tribulation, countless broken ley lines and pits of Sha Qi were left across the Primordial Land.

As long as he could purify this Sha Qi and smooth out the ley lines, the Heavenly Dao would bestow merit. Even Heavenly Dao merit could be slowly converted into his own origin.

However, every time he walked to the entrance of the cave and felt the fluctuations of magical battles outside that could destroy the heavens and the earth at any moment, he immediately pulled his foot back.