Daoist Name Xuanji

Chapter 36: Daoist Title Xuanji

Having merged with the Heart of the World and gained complete control over the Ancient Wild World, He Yu immediately began preparing for his next steps. In an era where giant beasts roamed and powerhouses were as numerous as trees, he was far too weak. He had to raise his cultivation as quickly as possible. At this moment, his main Primordial Spirit, bolstered by the Heart of the Ancient Wild World, had already reached the mid-stage of the Primordial Spirit realm, making it strong enough to undergo division.

Dividing one's Primordial Spirit at the early stage was an incredibly risky feat, especially since He Yu needed to split it into twenty-four parts—a truly terrifying prospect. Under normal circumstances, He Yu feared he might not even reach the Earth Immortal or Heaven Immortal realms before being able to divide his spirit twenty-four times. One had to understand that the Primordial Spirit was the foundation of life, a convergence of the three souls and seven spirits, infused with the origin of consciousness. A single slip during division would result in the dissipation of his body and soul. However, with the Light of Taichu, things were entirely different; the Light of Taichu could restore a damaged Primordial Spirit, providing the perfect aid for He Yu's task.

Inside the Ancient Wild World!

He Yu merged with the Heart of the World, his Primordial Spirit manifesting a Dharma form that stood between heaven and earth. Looking down upon the land, a surge of heroic spirit welled up within him. Suddenly, a flash of golden light enveloped his body, and the giant form vanished. A three-legged Golden Crow, ten meters in size, spread its wings and soared. Then, the Golden Crow shifted, transforming successively into a dragon, phoenix, qilin, Kunpeng, snake, tiger, ox...! The thirty-six Heavenly Dipper transformations and seventy-two Earthly Fiend transformations flowed freely from his heart. Even though the great gods of the Primordial World had yet to emerge and the Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend arts were incomplete, he had simulated a perfect version within the Ancient Wild World. This was the fruit of He Yu's past life; having read countless ancient texts like the Classic of Mountains and Seas, he knew many exotic beasts of the Primordial era. Using the power of the Ancient Wild World's Heavenly Dao, perfecting these transformations was not difficult, though he had only captured their form, not their spirit.

After experimenting with these transformations, He Yu returned to his original form. Now that all twenty-four Demon Cores had been perfected into Golden Cores, he only needed the three souls, seven spirits, and the origin of consciousness to achieve a Primordial Spirit.

"Drink!"

With a low shout, a three-inch crack suddenly appeared on his main Primordial Spirit. As soon as the crack emerged, a drop of golden liquid flowed out from within.

Origin!

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

Once the drop of origin was released, the crack instantly sealed, restoring the spirit to its original state. However, the aura radiating from the Primordial Spirit revealed the massive damage sustained; his cultivation had plummeted to the nadir of the mid-stage. A mid-stage Primordial Spirit only possessed twelve drops of origin; losing one had a significant impact. Furthermore, since nine drops were fused with the Heart of the World, He Yu was essentially relying on only three drops to maintain his Primordial Spirit.

After splitting off the drop of origin, his main Primordial Spirit's cultivation dropped sharply, and his twelve-inch form instantly shrank to eight inches.

Enduring a pain a hundred times worse than the Firmament Gale, He Yu hurriedly controlled the consciousness within his Primordial Avatar. Under his command, the Avatar's tightly closed eyes snapped open, and two beams of tri-colored divine light pierced the sky. The Heavenly Dao itself shuddered, sensing the formidable power radiating from the Primordial Avatar. It was clear that significant progress had been made, reaching the peak of the late-stage Loose Immortal realm. He only needed to break through the shackles to achieve the Earth Immortal realm, at which point he would finally have a measure of self-preservation in the Era of Giant Beasts.

The Primordial Avatar opened its eyes and waved a hand, casting a golden light that enveloped the damaged main Primordial Spirit. Within the golden glow, the damage to the main Primordial Spirit began to heal continuously, and its size grew—eight inches, nine inches, ten inches... until it reached twelve inches, fully restored to its original state.

Although he had known the Primordial Avatar could restore a damaged Primordial Spirit, experiencing it firsthand finally calmed He Yu's somewhat anxious heart.

Whoosh!

Once his Primordial Spirit was restored, He Yu immediately directed the split drop of origin to leave the Ancient Wild World, heading toward one of his internal mansions to fuse rapidly with the Golden Core within.

As the Golden Core in the internal mansion absorbed the drop of origin, it gradually merged into a golden liquid, then slowly gathered and solidified into a three-inch Primordial Spirit, identical in appearance to the main one, yet with a cultivation level slightly stronger than the main spirit had been when it first formed.

Once the first internal mansion's Primordial Spirit was formed, He Yu began to repeat the process, continuously splitting his origin and using the Light of Taichu to recover. The extreme pain of the division seemed to have no effect on him, though only He Yu knew that the agony was enough to make him faint. Unfortunately, because the Primordial Spirit was composed of soul and consciousness, he could not lose consciousness; he had to remain awake to endure the excruciating pain time and again. He did not retreat, for He Yu understood that these steps were necessary. They were of great importance for his future, serving as his capital to withstand the calamities of the era and to converse with the great gods of the Primordial World.

One by one, the internal mansion spirits were formed. After enduring the agony of twenty-four divisions, he finally succeeded. Twenty-four three-inch golden Primordial Spirits now hovered within his internal mansions, their light illuminating the entire one-meter-wide circular space.

Once my cultivation improves, I must expand these internal mansions. If I can turn them into twenty-four small plane spaces, the benefits to the Ancient Wild World will be immense! he mused. A world could possess subsidiary planes, provided they were not stronger than the main world. He Yu possessed twenty-four internal mansions; with enough great magic power and divine ability to open them, they would instantly become twenty-four small planes, which could gradually evolve into worlds of their own. His twenty-four Primordial Spirits would then serve as the rulers of these worlds.

The more He Yu thought about it, the more excited he became. With the help of the Ancient Wild World and the power of his twenty-three other spirits, he believed it wouldn't take long to open these planes.

He would soon possess twenty-four subsidiary planes, and the evolution speed of the Ancient Wild World would skyrocket.

"Twenty-four subsidiary planes? Heh!" He laughed in excitement, but then a thought suddenly struck him, causing a jolt of alarm.

Twenty-four?

Wait! Don't the twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls, when paired with the Qiankun Ruler, evolve into the twenty-four Heavens? If I obtain these two Innate Spiritual Treasures and fuse them with my internal mansions to evolve into the twenty-four Heavens? The thought left He Yu stunned. If that were true, it would be terrifying! One had to realize that his internal mansions were subsidiary worlds of the Ancient Wild World; if they fused with the twenty-four Heavens, the level to which the Ancient Wild World could evolve was beyond his imagination.

Once the idea took root, it was hard to dispel, and He Yu was unwilling to give up on the two Innate Spiritual Treasures. However, according to the memories of his past life, obtaining them would likely not be easy.

The Sea-Calming Divine Pearls and the Qiankun Ruler were said to be obtained by Lingbao Tianzun and Daoist Randeng at the Treasure-Dividing Rock in the Purple Heaven Palace. By that time, Hongjun would have already merged with the Dao—a scenario He Yu did not want to see. His bottom line was that he could tolerate Hongjun proving his Dao as a Saint, but nothing more; otherwise, he would feel no sense of security. Once Hongjun merged with the Dao, even Saints could be controlled.

It seems that if nothing goes wrong, the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls and the Qiankun Ruler will become Hongjun's treasures. I will need to plan this carefully. Although the time for the Innate Spiritual Treasures to emerge had not yet come, He Yu had already prepared for the worst. Moreover, Hongjun had taken in the Three Pure Ones and possessed the great fortune of Pangu; nine out of ten treasures in the Primordial World would likely end up in his hands.

"Heh heh!" Numerous schemes flashed through his mind. He Yu gave a sinister smile, then set the matter aside, deciding to plan more carefully once the Era of Ferocious Beasts arrived.

As his main Primordial Spirit rose to the mid-stage and the twenty-four internal spirits reached the early stage, He Yu's demon body evolved once more, stopping only when it reached a hundred meters. Strictly speaking, his crab age was not even two years old—at least, by the reckoning of his past human life.

A hundred-meter giant crab not even two years old?

With his cultivation reaching the Primordial Spirit realm, He Yu could finally take human form. He was the first in the Primordial World to do so. Those innate deities and descendants of Pangu had deep foundations, and upon taking human form, they were at least at the Golden Immortal realm. However, precisely because of this, transformation was extremely difficult; they wouldn't even dream of it for hundreds of thousands of years. In that time, He Yu could gradually catch up to them.

The Heavenly Dao of the Ancient Wild World had already deduced the perfect method for a demon to take human form, and He Yu understood it thoroughly. Now that his cultivation had entered the Primordial Spirit realm, the conditions were met, and he immediately began the transformation.

As He Yu channeled his Primordial Spirit power according to the method, his hundred-meter crab body began to emit a dazzling cyan and golden light. The colors gradually merged, and the color of his demon body changed drastically. The cyan shell was now covered in countless golden talismans, each one profound and obscure, seemingly containing immense mysteries. Amidst the golden and cyan light, his Heavenly Dipper crab shell and Earthly Fiend spikes gradually merged with his body. As the power of the Dipper and Fiend enveloped him, the light shifted again, and the gold, cyan, and black colors fused perfectly into one.

Enveloped in the tri-colored light, He Yu's demon body slowly shrank to its birth size, then gradually grew again, repeating this cycle twelve times before stopping.

After a flash of tri-colored hazy radiance, the light dissipated to reveal a young man standing at the cave entrance. His features were resolute, his eyes deep and vast, as if they could draw a person's soul into them. With a straight nose and defined lips, his face looked as if it had been carved by a knife. His hair was tied in a bun, and a tri-colored dot sat between his brows, seemingly containing terrifying power. It was the exact appearance He Yu had in his past life.

Having regained a human body, He Yu was filled with emotion. Indeed, a human body was hard to come by!

He moved his body in excitement, only to realize he was not wearing any clothes. With a wry smile, he waved his hand, and a tri-colored Daoist robe appeared on him—cyan fabric with a golden-black Taiji symbol on the back, covered in exquisite tri-colored patterns. This robe was formed from his magic power and was no stronger than the clothes of his past life; if he were to fight an enemy, it would likely be destroyed in a single exchange.

"From this day on, there is no more He Yu, only Xuanji. My Daoist title—Xuanji!" Since he had been reborn, the past was behind him. He had taken his Daoist title from the cultivation method Eight Meridians Mystic Pole, so he would be known as Xuanji. (From now on, the protagonist will be called Daoist Xuanji.)

Having taken human form, Xuanji couldn't help but want to travel the Primordial World. Now that he could restrain his aura, and with his small size, he could deliberately hide from the massive giant beasts. Besides, he still needed to search for the Light of Taishi.

His mind made up, Xuanji rode a tri-colored auspicious cloud upward. Leaving the treacherous mountains and evil waters behind, he traveled on foot, moving far away from Mount Buzhou.