Time held little meaning in the Primordial World; a thousand years passed in the blink of an eye.
The sun rose and the moon set. The tides ebbed and flowed.
Under Yellow Dragon's protection and guidance, the men of the Human Race hunted, while the women gathered wild fruit and cared for newborn children.
They lived and multiplied in peace on the shores of the East Sea.
Only the turning of the sun, moon, and stars marked the passage of time.
Through the long years, sparks of human ingenuity began to flare amid the struggle to survive.
One person watched lightning strike dead wood and set it ablaze. At last, he learned to make fire by drilling wood, bringing the Human Race a flame of hope that drove beasts from the darkness at night. His people honored him as Ancestor Suiren.
Another learned to weave clothing from spiders spinning webs, shielding the Human Race from wind and cold. Her people honored her as Ancestor Ziyi.
Another learned to build shelters from birds and beasts, giving the Human Race a safe refuge. His people honored him as Ancestor Youchao.
When Suiren had spread the method of making fire throughout the Human Race, everyone had learned to build homes as Youchao did, and every person wore clothing, thunder exploded across the nine heavens!
Boom!
Three dazzling pillars of light, laden with vast amounts of dark-yellow merit, poured down from the nine heavens like mighty rivers!
The three pillars, each suffused with a profound aura, plunged into the heads of Suiren, Ziyi, and Youchao.
Wave after wave of immense yet gentle power washed through their bodies.
They floated with their eyes closed in the Merit Golden Light, their bones and sinews ringing as their flesh was remade.
Vast Magic Power surged from within them, while currents of immortal aura filled their Primordial Spirits.
When the golden light faded, Suiren, Youchao, and Ziyi slowly descended. The pressure of Great Luo Golden Immortals spread from them.
The vast Merit Golden Light that had descended upon the Human Race's settlements in succession was like a boulder hurled into the still waters of the Primordial World. It raised towering waves and drew the attention of the innate divinities who stood at the very pinnacle of that world.
Its radiance pierced the vast void of the Primordial World and shone before the eyes of many mighty beings.
At the summit of Kunlun Mountain, clouds and mist drifted, and cranes called clearly.
Inside the Palace of the Three Pure Ones, an old man with white hair and beard sat upon a cushion in a plain Taiji Daoist Robe. He slowly opened his eyes.
Those eyes were clear and calm, yet deep within them seemed to lie the ultimate truths of a universe being born and dying, of heaven and earth turning through their cycles.
His gaze pierced the endless void and fell upon the Human Race's tribes on the shores of the East Sea. He watched the three humans upon whom merit had descended. Threads of a unique Dao resonance of "creation" ran through that Merit Golden Light.
A faint but meaningful look of contemplation crossed his face, which had remained unchanged for countless ages.
He said nothing. He merely brushed a hand over the Supreme Ultimate Diagram before his knees, which gave off the twin energies of yin and yang. His fingertips paused, almost imperceptibly, where the two energies revolved.
From the Netherworld Blood Sea, the Sun Star, Wuzhuang Temple, and Mount Sumeru, gazes crossed endless space and fell upon the shores of the East Sea.
Deep beneath the East Sea, within the Sea Eye.
Ancestor Dragon's enormous body lay coiled at the very center of the Sea Eye, suppressing its violent surges.
He, too, saw the golden light on the shores of the East Sea. More clearly still, he sensed the dark-yellow aura of Dragon Race blood that stood guard nearby.
"Fortune... creation... merit..."
Ancestor Dragon's deep voice echoed through the empty Sea Eye like a tremor in the Earth Veins at the bottom of the ocean.
"My race's... opportunity... may lie..." Before he could finish, a force laden with destruction erupted, as though it would tear this space apart.
Spirit Light flowed over his enormous body. In moments, he had suppressed the disturbance, and the Sea Eye fell silent once more. Only the ghostly flames of dragon souls upon countless dragon bones flickered soundlessly.
Meanwhile, atop a towering mountain ten thousand li from the Human Race's territory.
Inside a simple cave dwelling, a figure sat cross-legged. A fist-sized pearl hovered before him, Chaos and dark-yellow energy interwoven within it. It radiated an ancient, boundless aura. This was the Innate Spiritual Treasure Ancestor Dragon had bestowed upon him: the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl.
Light and shadow flickered inside the pearl, faintly revealing the outline of a vibrant land no more than ten thousand li across.
The Primordial Chaos Void within the pearl seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand. Guided by Yellow Dragon, the power of five Innate Spiritual Veins—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—began slowly to collide, merge, and cycle. Deep rumbles rose from the land.
With every turn of the five elements, the space inside the pearl warped and trembled slightly. The land expanded a little, and the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl's aura grew a little heavier.
Suddenly, Yellow Dragon noticed five faint outlines beginning to reappear beside the original eight restrictions.
"The source of this Innate Spiritual Treasure is slowly recovering. But how many innate five-element Spirit Veins will it take to fully form those five restrictions?"
The thought alone gave Yellow Dragon a headache. Empress Nuwa had gifted him even the one metal-aligned Innate Spiritual Vein he possessed.
Then golden light flashed in his eyes. What if he used merit in place of Innate Spiritual Veins?
The merit hidden in Yellow Dragon's Primordial Spirit slowly emerged. Under his control, it began to flow into the Mysterious Yellow World Pearl.
Within the pearl, that world of Chaos seemed to receive a mighty infusion of power straight into its source!
Boom!
The Chaos within the pearl shook!
Earth, fire, wind, and water, the forces shaping the world, seemed to come alive. They surged and collided with unprecedented fury!
Across the world inside the pearl, mountain ranges rose and crisscrossed. Their peaks towered ten thousand zhang high, majestic and immense;
Giant rifts were torn open by an invisible hand, too deep to see the bottom, while scorching subterranean fire and lava boiled within them;
Rain poured down furiously. Muddy floodwaters gathered in the lowlands, forming vast lakes and rushing rivers, while water vapor rose and mist spread;
The world, once no more than ten thousand li across, expanded with a roar to a million li across as earth, fire, wind, and water collided and evolved!
Two beams of golden light shot from Yellow Dragon's eyes, which were filled with shock and wild joy!
He could clearly "see" that, as the world inside the pearl expanded rapidly and its source grew stable, the innate spiritual restrictions at the pearl's core—manifestations of the laws of heaven and earth—were being repaired, illuminated, and rewoven at an unprecedented speed!
One, two, three... The five previously dim innate restrictions lit up in succession like pillars of fire!
When the fifth spiritual restriction awoke fully like a sleeping giant and released a vast, weighty Dao resonance, the entire pearl hummed and shook!
The pearl's radiance drew inward, and its color grew deeper and more ancient. It seemed to turn from illusion to reality, suddenly gaining weight, while a vast aura, balanced and all-encompassing, spread from it.
The Mysterious Yellow World Pearl!
This Innate Spiritual Treasure, whose original grade was unknown, had finally recovered some of its power and reached the middle grade!
The laws of the newborn world, now a million li across, grew stable, and spiritual energy began to circulate naturally.
Across the land, flecks of green pushed through the soil at a visible pace. They were seeds of various innate spiritual plants Yellow Dragon had collected earlier, now taking root and sprouting rapidly under the nourishment of abundant spiritual energy;
In a great lake, three white lotus seedlings gave off a faint glow. They had grown from Lotus Seeds of the Pure World White Lotus. Yellow Dragon had nurtured them with the Sweet Dew Technique, which he had mastered to the divine ability level, and a little merit. Three of the seeds had long since begun to show faint signs of life.
Under the influence of the Innate Spiritual Treasure's transformation, they absorbed their fill of the world's source and quickly took root and sprouted.
The Enlightenment Tea Tree, an Acquired Spiritual Root, also flourished under the nourishment of that abundant source. It grew several times larger, and the Dao resonance of the laws of heaven and earth within its leaves grew ever richer.
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