The Primordial World and All Things, The Capable Shall Inherit It

Lu Changsheng muttered to himself while skillfully pulling a dozen tattered, varying-sized formation disks from beneath his thick feathers.

These were the spoils he had scavenged from around his lair; though their grade was low, they were remarkably practical.

"The Lesser Five Elements Concealment Array goes on the outermost perimeter to prevent any passing creatures from noticing the commotion here."

He buried a broken jade formation disk into the soil and channeled a strand of magic power into it.

A distortion in the air, invisible to the naked eye, rose instantly, shrouding him and a portion of the edge of the Sha Qi pit.

"The Heavenly Dipper Defensive Array goes on the inside. In case something truly crawls out of that pit, it should at least block a strike and buy me time to escape."

"And this, the Breath-Concealing Array, to mask the fluctuations of merit generated when I purify the Sha Qi..."

Like a diligent mason, Lu Changsheng circled the small patch of ground where he stood, layering sixteen defensive formations, one inside the other.

Only when he had wrapped himself up like an iron barrel did he let out a long sigh of relief, sitting down contentedly on a relatively flat rock.

"Preparations complete, time to get to work!"

Lu Changsheng closed his eyes, his mind sinking into his dantian.

He cautiously mobilized the Great Dao Merit within his body, which was as brilliant as a scorching sun but kept tightly suppressed by him.

He dared not draw out too much, fearing the golden light of merit would be too dazzling and pierce through the concealment of his formations.

He extracted only a golden thread of fire, a hundred times thinner than a strand of hair, and slowly probed it from his fingertip into the churning dark red Sha Qi ahead.

"Sss--"

The moment that pure, extreme golden light of merit made contact with the Sha Qi, which was filled with destructive resentment, it was like a red-hot iron rod plunged into cold, muddy water.

A teeth-gritting sound of corrosion erupted.

The dark red Sha Qi, like a shark that had caught the scent of blood, lunged madly at the golden thread of fire, attempting to devour and pollute it.

Yet, how sacred was the Great Dao Merit?

It was one of the purest and most masculine primordial powers in the entire Primordial World.

The Sha Qi that touched the golden thread of fire was like snow meeting the scorching sun; it was purified and disintegrated in an instant, transforming into wisps of pure, flawless Xiantian Spiritual Qi that dissipated into the world.

As this wisp of Sha Qi was successfully purified, the manic energy in this small patch of space was smoothed out.

In the dark, a grand and impartial will cast its gaze downward.

The Heavenly Dao had sensed it.

"Hum--"

In the void, a tiny, infinitesimal golden speck of light appeared out of thin air.

The speck was so faint it seemed as if a breeze could extinguish it.

Yet, it ignored all the defensive formations Lu Changsheng had set up, falling straight onto the top of his head and merging into his body through the Baihui acupoint.

This was a wisp of Heavenly Dao Merit.

Though the amount was pitifully small—not even one ten-thousandth of the Great Dao Merit—it was genuine primordial power that Lu Changsheng could absorb and convert!

"Profit!"

Lu Changsheng opened his eyes abruptly, feeling the long-lost sense of fullness in his dantian, and nearly jumped up in excitement.

Over five thousand years!

He had been hiding in that sunless cave for over five thousand years, drinking spiritual qi diluted with water, his cultivation not advancing by a single inch.

Today, he had finally made a profit!

Although this single grain of Heavenly Dao Merit only loosened his vast, sea-like bottleneck by the tiniest fraction, it proved that his path was correct.

As long as he persisted and purified all the Sha Qi in this pit, he would definitely be able to save up a considerable sum.

"Fantastic, this feels even better than getting a year-end bonus in my past life. Plus, there's zero risk—pure free profit!"

Having tasted success, Lu Changsheng completely let down his guard.

He closed his eyes again, controlling that golden thread of fire, thinner than a hair, to nibble away at the dark red mist in the pit bit by bit.

One wisp.

Two wisps.

One hundred wisps.

As the Sha Qi was continuously purified, grain after grain of Heavenly Dao Merit light began to fall steadily into his body.

This steady stream of income—ding, your account has received ten cents—plunged Lu Changsheng into a state of near obsession.

In the Primordial World, time was the least valuable thing.

For those primordial holy beings, a single session of seclusion to deduce the secrets of heaven often spanned an entire Yuanhui (129,600 years).

And for a small fry like Lu Changsheng, who was only at the Heavenly Immortal realm, the passage of time had similarly lost its original meaning.

In the midst of this dull, day-after-day process of peeling away the layers, time slipped by.

In the blink of an eye, thirty years had passed.

Lu Changsheng remained seated on that same rock, his posture having not changed even once.

The golden feathers on his body had become slightly brighter than before, thanks to the constant nourishment of Heavenly Dao Merit.

Meanwhile, the dark red mist within the Sha Qi pit in front of him had thinned by only an imperceptible fraction.

"Hoo..."

Lu Changsheng slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, pausing the circulation of his cultivation technique for a moment.

Even for a cultivator, thirty years of continuous, highly focused, and delicate work would leave one feeling a trace of spiritual exhaustion.

He opened his eyes, reached into his Storage Jade Box, and pulled out a Red Sun Fruit he had grown himself, crunching into it to replenish his energy and hydration.

"This really is a grueling task that requires slow, meticulous work."

As he chewed the fruit, Lu Changsheng calculated his progress in his mind.

"At this current rate, even if I were to drain this Sha Qi without sleep or rest, it would likely take me several hundred years. But at least it's safe; there isn't even a ghost of a shadow around here."

After finishing the fruit and resting for about half a day, Lu Changsheng closed his eyes once more, throwing himself back into his grand undertaking of purification.

Time drifted by.

The stars shifted and the seasons turned.

The winds of change swept across the Primordial Land; friction between the three clans grew increasingly intense, with countless beings perishing every day and new powerhouses rising in their place.

Yet, all this clamor could not reach this remote corner.

One hundred years passed.

The Lesser Five Elements Concealment Array that Lu Changsheng had set up on the outermost perimeter shattered with a soft snap as the poor-quality material of the array disk exhausted its spiritual energy.

Startled by the sound, Lu Changsheng broke into a cold sweat.

He hurriedly stopped his work and looked around cautiously for a long while.

Only after confirming that he hadn't attracted any fierce beasts did he, still feeling a lingering fear, pull a spare array disk from his robes and carefully replace the broken one.

"Almost forgot that these shoddy array disks have a limited lifespan. I must check them every fifty years from now on; I can't be careless."

Having learned his lesson, he became even more cautious.

Three hundred years passed.

Staying alone in such a desolate place for so long, combined with the repetitive and mechanical nature of his daily work, left Lu Changsheng feeling an unbearable sense of loneliness.

To prevent himself from developing psychological issues, he began to learn how to talk to himself.

"Sigh, I wonder if that crooked tree I planted at the entrance of my old lair is still alive."

"This Heavenly Dao is such a stingy miser. I've been doing hard labor for three hundred years, and every time it only gives me a tiny bit of merit—not even a single critical hit."

"Once I drain this pit dry and save up enough capital, I'll definitely have to get my hands on two decent Houtian Spirit Treasures for self-defense. These pieces of scrap metal I'm wearing are just too embarrassing..."