Daoist Title Xuanji

Chapter 36: Daoist Title Xuanji

Having fused with the Heart of the World and gained complete control over the Ancient Wild World, He Yu immediately began preparing for the next step. Giant Beasts now roamed everywhere, and powerful beings were as numerous as trees in a forest. He was far too weak and had to improve his cultivation as quickly as possible. With the help of the Ancient Wild World's Heart of the World, his main Primordial Spirit had already reached the mid-stage of the Primordial Spirit realm, making it powerful enough to split.

Splitting one's Primordial Spirit in the early stage was extremely difficult. He Yu, in particular, needed to split his twenty-four times in succession—that was simply terrifying. If he did it the normal way, even after reaching the Earth Immortal or Heavenly Immortal realm, he might not be able to divide his Primordial Spirit into twenty-four parts. The Primordial Spirit was the root of one's life and nature, formed from the gathering of the three souls and seven spirits and the merging of the source of consciousness. One careless split could leave him dead, his Dao vanquished. But with the Light of Taichu, everything was different. It could restore a damaged Primordial Spirit, making it just the thing to help He Yu split his.

Inside the Ancient Wild World!

After fusing with the Heart of the World, He Yu's Primordial Spirit manifested as a giant form that stood with its head in the heavens and feet on the earth, gazing down at the land. A surge of heroic feeling rose within him. Then golden light flashed over his body, and his enormous form vanished. A ten-meter-tall, three-legged Golden Crow spread its wings and took flight. It then successively transformed into a dragon, a phoenix, a Qilin, a Kunpeng, a snake, a tiger, an ox...! He could freely command the thirty-six Heavenly Gang Transformations and seventy-two Earthly Fiend Transformations. Although the Great Gods of the Primordial World had yet to emerge, and the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend transformations were incomplete, he had modeled the complete forms within the Ancient Wild World. This was thanks to He Yu's previous life: back then, he had read countless ancient texts, such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and learned of many strange creatures from the Primordial World. With the power of the Ancient Wild World's Heavenly Dao, completing the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend forms was no difficulty. Still, he had obtained only their forms, not their essence.

After trying out the transformations, He Yu returned to his original form. All twenty-four Demon Cores had now fully matured into Golden Cores. As soon as he possessed the three souls and seven spirits and merged in the source of consciousness, he could form a Primordial Spirit.

"Hah!"

With a low cry, a three-inch crack suddenly appeared across the main Primordial Spirit. The moment it emerged, a drop of glittering golden liquid flowed out from within.

Its source!

It was the source of the Primordial Spirit. Though it was only a single drop, it contained the power of He Yu's soul and the source of his consciousness.

As soon as the drop of Primordial Spirit's source emerged, the crack instantly closed and healed. But the force radiating from the Primordial Spirit made it clear that the damage was severe: his cultivation had fallen to the bottom of the mid-stage. The mid-stage of the Primordial Spirit realm held only twelve drops of its source, so losing one had a tremendous impact. Moreover, nine of those drops had fused with the Heart of the World. He Yu could be said to be maintaining his Primordial Spirit with only three drops.

After splitting off one drop of his Primordial Spirit's source, the main Primordial Spirit's cultivation immediately plummeted, and its twelve-inch form shrank to eight inches.

Enduring a Primordial Spirit-splitting pain over a hundred times worse than the Firmament Gale, He Yu hurriedly controlled the consciousness within his Primordial Avatar. At his command, the avatar's tightly shut eyes snapped open, and two beams of three-colored divine light pierced the sky. Even the Heavenly Dao trembled. It could sense the powerful aura emanating from the Primordial Avatar, and clearly his progress had been considerable: he had reached the peak of the Loose Immortal stage. He only needed to break through the bottleneck to become an Earth Immortal, at which point he would at least be able to protect himself in the Era of Giant Beasts.

The Primordial Avatar opened its eyes, then casually waved out a golden light that enveloped the damaged main Primordial Spirit. Within the golden glow, the injuries on the main Primordial Spirit steadily healed, and its form grew larger: eight inches, nine inches, ten inches... until it reached twelve inches. The Primordial Spirit had fully recovered.

Although he had known all along that the Primordial Avatar could restore a damaged Primordial Spirit, only after experiencing it himself did He Yu finally calm the unease in his heart.

Whoosh!

As soon as his Primordial Spirit recovered, He Yu immediately controlled the drop of Primordial Spirit's source he had split off to leave the Ancient Wild World and head for one of his Inner Mansions. It swiftly fused with the Golden Core within.

After fusing with the drop of Primordial Spirit's source, the Golden Core in the Inner Mansion gradually melted into glittering golden liquid. It then slowly gathered together and solidified into a three-inch Primordial Spirit, identical in appearance to the main one, and even more powerful than the main Primordial Spirit had been when it first formed.

Once an Inner Mansion Primordial Spirit had formed, He Yu immediately repeated the process, splitting off Primordial Spirit source again and again, using the Light of Taichu to restore himself before continuing. The extreme pain of each split seemed to have no effect on him at all. Only He Yu himself knew that the pain of splitting his Primordial Spirit was enough to make him pass out. Unfortunately, the Primordial Spirit was made from the soul and consciousness, so it was impossible to faint. He could only stay conscious and endure the unbearable pain again and again, without the slightest thought of retreat. He knew this was necessary and would mean a great deal in the future. It was the foundation on which he would withstand the calamities of the coming eras and stand as an equal to the great gods of the Primordial World.

One Inner Mansion Primordial Spirit after another took shape. After enduring the agony of splitting his Primordial Spirit twenty-four times, He Yu finally completed the process. Now, twenty-four three-inch, golden Primordial Spirits floated inside the Inner Mansions, their light illuminating the entire circular Inner Mansion space, which was one meter in diameter.

"When my cultivation improves in the future, I'll have to open up my Inner Mansions. If I can turn them into twenty-four small planes, it'll be a tremendous boon for the Ancient Wild World!" he mused. Worlds could have subordinate planes and worlds, as long as they weren't stronger than the main world. He Yu had twenty-four Inner Mansions; as long as he possessed great magical power and divine abilities to open them up, they could immediately become twenty-four small planes. In time, each could gradually evolve into a world. The twenty-four Primordial Spirits could then suppress the Inner Mansion worlds and become their world rulers.

The more He Yu thought about it, the more excited he became. With the Ancient Wild World's help, and by using the power of the other twenty-three Primordial Spirits to open up the Inner Mansion planes one after another, he was sure it wouldn't take too long.

He would soon have twenty-four subordinate planes, and by then, the Ancient Wild World's evolution would accelerate dramatically.

"Twenty-four subordinate planes? Heh!" He chuckled excitedly, then suddenly felt a jolt in his heart as an idea struck him.

Twenty-four?

"Right! Couldn't the Twenty-Four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls, together with the Qiankun Ruler, evolve into the Twenty-Four Heavens? What if I could get my hands on those two Innate Spiritual Treasures and fuse the Twenty-Four Heavens with my Inner Mansions?" The thought shook He Yu. If it really worked, it would be terrifying! The twenty-four Inner Mansions were subordinate worlds of the Ancient Wild World. If the Inner Mansions fused with the Twenty-Four Heavens, the extent to which the Ancient Wild World could evolve would be beyond anything He Yu could imagine.

Once the idea took hold, he couldn't get rid of it—and he didn't want to give up on the two Innate Spiritual Treasures, either. But according to the memories of his previous life, obtaining them wouldn't be easy.

Supposedly, the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls and Qiankun Ruler had both been obtained by Lingbao Tianzun and Daoist Randeng on the Treasure-Dividing Rock in the Purple Heaven Palace. By then, Hongjun would have already merged with the Dao. That was something He Yu could not accept. His bottom line was that Hongjun could at most attain sainthood. Otherwise, he would never feel safe. Once Hongjun merged with the Dao, even Sages could be controlled!

"It seems that, barring some unforeseen event, the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls and Qiankun Ruler will both end up in Hongjun's hands. I'll have to plan carefully." The Innate Spiritual Treasures had yet to appear, but He Yu had already prepared for the worst. Besides, Hongjun would take in the Three Pure Ones and gain Pangu's immense fortune. Nine out of ten treasures of the Primordial World would probably end up in his hands.

"Heh heh!" Countless schemes flashed through He Yu's mind in an instant, and he gave an insidious smile. Then he put the matter aside, planning to work out the details once the Era of Ferocious Beasts arrived.

As the main Primordial Spirit reached the mid-stage of the Primordial Spirit realm and the twenty-four Inner Mansion Primordial Spirits reached the early stage, He Yu's demon body evolved once more, growing until it reached a hundred meters. To put it in perspective, He Yu was still less than two years old by the reckoning of his previous life as a human.

A hundred-meter giant crab less than two years old?

Having reached the Primordial Spirit realm, He Yu could finally take human form. He was also the first being in the Primordial World to do so. Those Innate Deities and Descendants of Pangu had profound origins, and when they took form, they were at least Golden Immortals. But for that very reason, taking form was exceedingly difficult; they would need hundreds of thousands of years at the very least. In that much time, He Yu could gradually catch up with them.

The Heavenly Dao of the Ancient Wild World had long since deduced the perfected method for demons to take human form, so He Yu naturally knew it by heart. Now that his cultivation had reached the Primordial Spirit realm and he met the necessary conditions, he immediately began to transform.

As He Yu circulated the power of his Primordial Spirit according to the method, his hundred-meter giant crab body began to emit a hazy blue-green and golden radiance. The blue-green light and golden light gradually blended, and at the same time, the color of his demon body changed dramatically. Countless golden talismans covered its blue-green shell, each one wondrous and profound, obscure and difficult to understand, seemingly concealing immense mysteries. Amid the golden and blue-green radiance, He Yu's Heavenly Gang carapace and Earthly Fiend spikes gradually merged with his body. The power of the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiend enveloped him, and the light changed again, as gold, blue-green, and black fused perfectly into one.

Beneath the three-colored radiance, He Yu's demon body slowly shrank until it reached the size he had been at birth, then gradually grew again until it was a hundred meters tall. This cycle repeated twelve times before finally stopping.

A hazy, three-colored radiance shimmered. When it faded, a young man stood at the cave entrance. His features were resolute, and his eyes were deep and vast, as if they could draw a person's soul into their depths. His nose was straight, his lips well-formed, and his face was as sharply defined as if chiseled with knife and axe. His hair was tied into a topknot, and a three-colored dot marked his brow, seemingly containing a terrifying power. He looked exactly as He Yu had in his previous life.

Having a human body again, He Yu was overcome with emotion. As expected, a human body was hard to come by!

He excitedly moved his limbs, then suddenly realized he wasn't wearing any clothes. He gave a wry smile and casually waved his hand. A three-colored Daoist robe appeared on him, with blue-green fabric, a golden-and-black taiji design on the back, and exquisite three-colored patterns covering it. The robe was made only from He Yu's magical power, so it was barely sturdier than the clothes he had worn in his previous life. If he fought an enemy, it would probably turn to dust in a single exchange.

"From this day on, I am no longer He Yu. I am Xuanji, and my Daoist title is—Xuanji!" Since he had been reborn, his past life was behind him. He chose a Daoist title for himself then and there. His cultivation method was the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole, so Xuanji would be his title. (From now on, the protagonist will be called Daoist Xuanji.)

After taking human form, Xuanji immediately felt the urge to travel across the Primordial World. Now that he had concealed his aura, his small stature and deliberate concealment would make it difficult even for the enormous Giant Beasts to discover him. Besides, he still needed to search for the Light of Taishi!

Once his mind was made up, Xuanji rode a three-colored auspicious cloud into the sky. After leaving the barren mountains, he continued on foot, heading away from Mount Buzhou.