Companion Spirit Treasure

Bai Ze lay quietly before the stone wall carved with mysterious patterns.

Dense Primordial Spiritual Qi turned into tangible white mist, endlessly rolling around his nose and mouth.

As he comprehended the Primordial Concealment Formation, he instinctively drew in and exhaled Primordial Spiritual Qi according to the cultivation method within his bloodline memories, tempering his bloodline without pause.

According to his bloodline memories, Force-Proving Dao cultivation could be divided into four stages: Awakening Spirit, True Form, Tracing Origin, and Limitless.

Awakening Spirit, as the name implied, meant waking from ignorance and gaining the ability to think independently. As an Innate Divine, he had skipped this stage the instant he was born.

True Form involved cultivating Primordial Spiritual Qi and devouring heavenly treasures to temper one's bloodline and strengthen one's body, ultimately condensing a True Form, much like Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation.

Tracing Origin involved comprehending the laws of the Great Dao, gathering the Three Flowers, condensing a Dao Fruit, and attaining the body of a Chaos Demon God.

Limitless was the realm of Pangu. Even his bloodline memories contained only scattered fragments of it.

These four stages were both realms and a simple distinction along the path of cultivation.

A hundred years had now passed. As he finished comprehending the Dao essence within the mysterious patterns of the Primordial Concealment Formation, they gradually faded away.

His aura had also become nearly nonexistent, as though he had merged with heaven and earth, utterly inconspicuous.

He had also made some progress within the True Form stage.

He was several times larger than he had been a hundred years ago, standing several meters tall. Dense Primordial Spiritual Qi surrounded him, while the snowy-white lion's mane beneath his dragon head stirred without wind, radiating majesty without anger.

He slowly rose. The blue gemstone on his forehead flashed, and his body swiftly shrank until he was only one zhang in size.

Freely controlling one's size was an important mark of formally entering the True Form stage.

Bai Ze opened his azure eyes, sensing the throbbing deep within his bloodline. He raised a paw and fiercely slapped the stone disc upon which he had been born.

"Buzz—"

A dull clang of metal striking metal rang out, as though he had struck an Innate Spirit Treasure.

Looking at the fur on his paw, stained red with blood, he frowned slightly.

"Could it be that, because Kunlun Mountain was formed from Pangu's spine, even these stones have become incomparably hard?"

He pondered in secret. In the next instant, the wound on his paw had already healed.

Bai Ze stroked the white whiskers beneath his chin and examined the sturdy stone disc. An idea instantly came to him.

This was where I was born. I never expected it to be so sturdy, comparable to a defensive Lingbao. Wouldn't it be a pity to cast it aside unused?

"Just so happens that I'm still lacking a handy weapon!"

The blue gemstone on his forehead glimmered with blue light. Countless strands of Primordial Spiritual Qi enveloped the stone disc. The next moment, his body abruptly expanded, and he opened his mouth, intending to refine it.

Just then, an inexplicable ripple came from the stone disc. Suddenly, it trembled, burst through the shroud of spiritual qi, and shot toward his face.

His expression tightened, and he hurriedly raised a paw to block it. Yet the stone disc seemed like a phantom, passing through his paw and flying straight into his Primordial Spirit.

For a moment, he stood frozen where he was.

Yet the grievous injury he had imagined never came. Instead, an intensely familiar feeling surged through his heart.

After a long while, he removed the stone disc, now shed of its stone womb, from between his brows. A trace of excitement flashed through his eyes.

"So this thing is actually my Companion Spirit Treasure—the Fate Compass."

This Lingbao was roughly the size of a palm, square on the outside and round within. Its center was filled with fine silver sand, while mysterious inscriptions covered its edges.

Its function was exceedingly simple: it could predict fortune and calamity, auspiciousness and misfortune, and sense blessings and disasters.

"No wonder the original Bai Ze clearly wasn't skilled at fighting, yet still managed to become the Demon Master.

"With this Companion Spirit Treasure, as long as I'm willing to hide until heaven grows old and earth decays, I'll have no problems at all. It's simply the finest choice for securing my footing and developing steadily!"

Bai Ze stroked the goatee beneath his chin. A sharp gleam flashed through his eyes as a thought rose in his heart.

"Can I obtain the Creation Jade Butterfly?"

As the thought crossed his mind, an image formed from grains of sand slowly emerged at the center of the Fate Compass.

A four-legged creature was pressed to death with a single finger by a humanoid creature.

Seeing this, Bai Ze's face fell. It seemed the position of Dao Ancestor was not fated for him.

He then asked, "Can I obtain the God-Slaying Spear?"

The flowing sand at the center of the Fate Compass slowly formed another image.

A figure pierced the four-legged creature representing him with a single spear strike, blasting it into countless silver grains of sand in an instant.

Bai Ze's pupils abruptly contracted. Still shaken, he patted his chest.

"This Devil Ancestor is far too brutal!"

After two divinations, he understood that the Creation Jade Butterfly and God-Slaying Spear had already fallen into the hands of Hongjun and Luohu. They were absolutely not treasures he could covet at his current strength.

Since that was the case, he could only settle for the next best thing. The Primordial World was so vast and its treasures so numerous—there was no way there was nothing he could obtain!

At the very least, according to his memories, Kunlun Mountain contained an ownerless innate spiritual root—the Huangzhong Plum!

It was said that the Huangzhong Plum was the foremost of the ten great innate spiritual roots. It blossomed once every thirty thousand years, bore fruit once every thirty thousand years, and ripened once every thirty thousand years. Each time it ripened, it bore nine fruits.

Those beneath the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm could consume one fruit and directly advance to the early Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm. It could also help the consumer comprehend the Five Elements Law and condense the Three Flowers.

Cultivators at the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal realm and above could gain thirty thousand years of cultivation with every fruit they consumed. Moreover, the fruit pit contained the Origin Source of primordial wood. Once refined, it could grant a physique with an affinity for Chaos spiritual roots.

Most importantly, it was said that the laws contained within this spiritual root were connected to Pangu's Force Law!

Yet precisely because its effects were so powerful, one could consume it only three times in a lifetime. Any more, and there was a risk of being assimilated by the laws of the Great Dao.

Even so, it remained a supreme treasure that countless cultivators flocked toward, scrambling to obtain it.

However, heavenly treasures were born with spirit, and none but those fated could acquire them. Thus, although this innate spiritual root was far more precious than the Peach Tree and the Ginseng Fruit Tree, the overwhelming majority had only heard its name and never seen its true form.

There were even rumors that it was "born beyond the mystic yellow, outside heaven and earth."

"For me, this thing can complete the accumulation needed for True Form in a short time and lay a foundation of laws for entering the Tracing Origin realm. It is undoubtedly the best choice!"

But as far as he knew, this spiritual root grew at Qilin Cliff on Kunlun Mountain. It was later controlled by Venerable Yuanshi and first appeared when the Chan Sect was established.

Bai Ze looked at the Fate Compass and silently recited in his heart, Can I obtain the Huangzhong Plum?

The next moment, countless silver grains of sand within the compass leaped and transformed into a scene.

On a cliff face somewhere upon a divine mountain that reached from heaven to earth, he lay beneath a towering ancient tree, clutching a fruit in his arms.

Beside him stood three blurry figures and an enormous rat.

Three people? A rat?

Bai Ze was slightly stunned, his heart filled with confusion.

If this thing had an owner, the image would surely show him being directly wiped out. But now...

"What does this mean?"

"Was I caught red-handed stealing the fruit?"