Completing Heaven and Earth, Heavenly Dao Merit Reward

The two severed ends of the ley line fit together perfectly.

Nourished by the innate earth spiritual energy, the original jagged gap began to heal and reconnect at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The ley line cycle, which had been stagnant for countless ages, was finally unblocked at this very moment!

A gentle surge of ley line energy shot straight into the sky, instantly dispelling the last lingering traces of gloom within a radius of several hundred miles.

And with this surge of ley line energy rising into the heavens, the soil, which had become gray and desolate from years of erosion by Sha Qi, began to brim with vitality at a visible pace.

Specks of green sprouted from the cracks in the parched rocks; these were the hardiest and most common wild grasses of the Primordial Land, and they began to grow frantically after receiving the nourishment of the purified ley line.

Lu Changsheng panted heavily, his legs turning to jelly, and he collapsed onto the ground in a sprawl.

Exhaustion.

This fatigue was not merely the depletion of his magic power, but the sense of collapse that comes after one's spirit has been stretched to the breaking point for thousands of years and is suddenly allowed to relax.

Finally, this life-threatening job is done.

Lu Changsheng gazed at the sky above, which was no longer gray, and the corners of his mouth curled upward uncontrollably.

He did not get up immediately, choosing instead to remain lying there.

He first used his mind to control the formation, slowly maneuvering the crystalline beast horn—now stripped of its destructive outer shell and reduced to pure fire essence—from mid-air toward him.

"Clatter."

The heavy beast horn landed by Lu Changsheng's hand; even after being washed by the ley line energy, its surface still radiated an astonishing heat.

Lu Changsheng turned his head and cautiously extended the tip of a wing to touch the translucent, dark red surface.

There was no backlash, nor the destructive will that had made his soul tremble.

There was only a surge of Innate Pure Yang Fire, so refined that every pore on his body felt as if it were opening up.

"Treasure! This is absolutely a top-tier material for artifact refining!"

Lu Changsheng's eyes instantly turned into two glittering spirit stones.

He felt the beast horn all over, his mouth nearly watering.

"If this thing were taken to those great beings who understand artifact refining, it could at least be forged into a mid-grade... no, perhaps even a high-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure embryo!"

"Just this single piece of bone is worth more than all the junk I've scavenged on the Nameless Low Mountain for a hundred thousand years!"

He hurriedly opened the Storage Jade Box hanging around his neck and shoved the miscellaneous scraps of copper and iron to the side.

He cleared a central spot and, as if cradling an ancestral tablet, carefully tucked the beast horn inside.

"I'm rich, I'm rich! Just this one material makes these five thousand five hundred years of hard labor worth it."

Lu Changsheng patted the jade box with satisfaction.

But this was merely a bonus.

The real prize was in the sky.

After putting away the beast horn, Lu Changsheng struggled to sit up. He tilted his head and stared unblinkingly at the clearing firmament above.

According to the bit of Primordial Land common sense he possessed, combing the ley lines and purging the toxic remnants of fierce beasts was a great act of merit that mended the flaws of heaven and earth. Since the heavens were sentient, the Heavenly Dao could not possibly turn a blind eye.

Sure enough.

Lu Changsheng waited for less than half a stick of incense.

"Hum—"

A grand, distant sound, as if traveling from an ancient time and space, echoed across the hundred-thousand-mile Primordial landscape.

This was not thunder, nor the sonic boom of great beings fighting.

It was a sound of the Great Dao that made all living things feel awe and serenity from the depths of their souls.

Following that, the sky above Lu Changsheng suddenly roiled with dazzling golden clouds.

These clouds were only the size of a tabletop at first, but within a few breaths, they expanded frantically.

Ten miles, a hundred miles, five hundred miles...

Nearly a thousand miles of golden auspicious clouds illuminated the once-dim corner of the Primordial Land as if it were broad daylight!

Within the clouds, there was no violent thunder, only endless peace and sanctity.

It was Heavenly Dao Merit, condensed into substance and pure to the extreme!

"Holy crap!"

Lu Changsheng looked at the golden clouds in the sky, which were more blinding than thousands of suns, but instead of jumping for joy, his face turned green with terror.

"Lord Heavenly Dao, if you're going to pay me, just pay me! Why make such a huge scene?!"

Lu Changsheng stomped his feet in a panic.

He was a man of the "hidden path"!

His greatest fear was drawing attention to himself.

The golden light of merit spanning a thousand miles was like lighting a ten-thousand-watt lightbulb in the dead of night.

As long as any Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal or Primordial Unity Golden Immortal passed within tens of millions of miles, they would be able to see it clearly.

Wealth should not be flaunted! If this attracts those red-eyed Innate Divine Beings, and they discover a weakling like me at the Heavenly Immortal realm guarding such a massive amount of merit, how am I supposed to survive!

Lu Changsheng was sweating profusely in his anxiety.

Ignoring his physical weakness, he rushed like a madman toward the surrounding formation nodes that were on the verge of shutting down due to depleted spiritual energy.

"Concealment formation! Illusion formation! Activate them all! Cover this light for me!"

He bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed mouthful after mouthful of essence blood onto the dilapidated formation disks as if it were worthless.

The formations that were originally destined for the scrap heap were forcibly reactivated by his sheer ruthlessness.

Layer upon layer of white mist, illusions, and black miasma surged into the sky, attempting to obscure the dazzling auspicious clouds of merit above.

But this was merely a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

How could the phenomena brought down by the Heavenly Dao Merit be blocked by these low-level formations he had cobbled together from scraps?

The moment the white mist touched the golden light of merit, it vanished without a trace, like snowflakes falling into boiling water.

"It can't be stopped..."

Lu Changsheng collapsed onto the ground, his face ashen.

Just then, the auspicious clouds of merit stretching for a thousand miles finally finished brewing.

"BOOM!"

There was no slow drifting down as he had imagined.

The massive auspicious cloud transformed directly in mid-air into a golden pillar of light over ten feet in diameter, carrying an unparalleled sacred pressure, and crashed down like a golden waterfall.

And the target directly beneath the waterfall was none other than Lu Changsheng.

It's over, I've really become a living target now.

Lu Changsheng closed his eyes and simply spread his arms, striking a pose as if to embrace it.

"Come on! Since I can't hide it, then I'll just hurry up and absorb it! I'll take as much as I can, and once I'm done, I'll burrow into the earth and run for it!"

The next instant.

The golden waterfall of merit slammed fiercely onto Lu Changsheng's body.

There was no impact as he had imagined.

The moment this suffocatingly vast amount of Heavenly Dao Merit touched the surface of his body, it was as if it had found long-lost kin; it became incredibly docile and compliant, surging wildly into his body through all one hundred and eight thousand pores.

"Ah—"

Lu Changsheng tilted his head back and let out an irrepressible long howl.

It felt good!

It felt damn good!