In the Ancient Land of Origin, seven figures sat cross-legged within a magnificent hall.
Each figure was like a god high above, their presence as profound as an abyss and as majestic as a rainbow, unfathomably obscure, impossible to look upon directly.
The figure at the very center was shrouded in blazing divine light of the Great Dao, surrounded by laws and order that unfolded the mysteries of heaven and earth. Faintly, the sound of the Great Dao thundered, reverberating through the soul.
The entire hall radiated a tremendous pressure that made heaven and earth tremble and the Great Dao perish.
"The patriarchs haven't gathered in tens of millions of years. What could today's meeting be about?"
"Have the foreign races started another war?"
"They must have. Everyone, prepare early!"
No one could have imagined that these seven godlike figures had gathered here merely for a young man nearing eighteen.
"Has Chen'er begun cultivating yet?"
The central figure spoke with heavenly judgment on his lips, his voice devoid of sorrow, joy, or any emotion whatsoever.
Every word held the ultimate truths of the Great Dao, obscure and unfathomably profound.
"No, Ancestor. We've tried countless methods, but Chen'er remains unmoved!"
The figure on the far right spoke heavily.
"The Seventh Patriarch is right. Chen'er is unruly by nature and refuses to cultivate. There's nothing we can do!"
The second figure on the left also spoke in a low voice, his tone filled with helplessness.
"The Second Patriarch speaks the truth. We truly have no way!"
"Every day, Chen'er either recites poetry, composes couplets, arranges flowers, and plays with jade, or sleeps and fishes. He even roasted the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon I seized from the Beast God Continent. Absolutely hateful!"
At the mention of his spirit pet, the figure on the right gritted his teeth, his heart dripping blood. His presence fluctuated violently, and even space faintly threatened to collapse.
"Exactly, Chen'er really is... while I wasn't looking, he actually stole the golden pill I'd spent over ten thousand years refining and fed it to that big black dog he keeps!"
"You have no idea. That brat took the supreme divine artifact I'd nurtured for over a hundred thousand years to chop down a tree. Afterward, it lost all its Spiritual Qi, and even its artifact spirit had its soul scattered. It became a completely useless artifact!"
"So my Chaos Divine Tree was chopped down with your supreme divine artifact! Give me back my divine tree!"
"My divine artifact was ruined too! Give me back my divine artifact!"
"Have any of you suffered as much as I have? While I was in seclusion, that little bastard set fire to every talisman I'd exhausted hundreds of thousands of years of painstaking effort refining. And he lit them inside my cave abode! If I hadn't noticed in time, even my home would have been gone! The worst part was that afterward, the bastard asked me for more talismans, saying setting off fireworks was so much fun!"
"..."
As though the floodgates had opened, the figures in the hall spoke over one another, denouncing that "Chen'er's" atrocities.
These were supreme experts whose might shook all the heavens and myriad worlds. Ordinarily, they would say only a word or two when something major happened, yet today, they were arguing until their faces flushed over a single youth.
"Hmph!"
The central figure snorted coldly. In an instant, the void trembled, and the laws of the three thousand Great Daos suffered intense interference. Every supreme expert in the Ancient Land of Origin could feel their control over the laws of the Great Dao weaken considerably.
"You are, at the very least, figures renowned throughout the ages, yet you can do nothing about a child and even raise a ruckus in the ancestral hall. What kind of conduct is this!"
The others instantly fell silent. However, if one could see through the hazy light enveloping them, one would have seen expressions saying, "If you can do it, go ahead," on their faces.
"Send Chen'er to the ancestral land for tempering!"
After a long silence, the voice of the Great Dao rang out again.
Meanwhile, inside a luxurious palace, the person in question, Ye Chen, was sleeping comfortably on a rocking chair that shimmered with golden light.
He had swordlike brows and starry eyes, his exceptionally handsome face seemingly carved with painstaking care by the Great Dao. Coupled with his transcendent, otherworldly bearing, he would surely have bewitched countless young women in his previous life. (My abilities are limited; for specifics, please refer to the handsome hunk in front of the screen!)
That was right. He had transmigrated.
In his previous life, Ye Chen had just started university and read novels and played games in his spare time.
One dark and windy night, he opened the familiar Honor of Pesticides, ready to go all out.
Just as he had single-handedly slaughtered his way through the match and was preparing to finish the game, his four teammates fell one after another before the crystal.
He took a closer look and only then realized that the enemy healer had actually taken down all his teammates alone and even swapped all their equipment for attack-speed gear, ultimately backdooring his crystal before he could destroy theirs.
He shouted in fury, "Backdoor! He's backdooring!"
Then he died of anger, literally breathing his last in a fit of rage.
After his death, his soul transmigrated into a fetus.
Unlike Blue Star, this was a true fantasy world where martial strength reigned supreme.
The strong could reach through heaven and earth, tear the firmament apart with their bare hands, and destroy heaven and earth with a single thought. There was nothing they could not do.
And he had been born into a Lineage renowned throughout the entire universe: the Ye Lineage.
As the foremost of the Eight Archaic Clans, the Ye Lineage's ancestor had reached the pinnacle during archaic times and had been humanity's strongest expert in the Archaic Era.
Even now, the Ye Lineage was a supreme-tier human faction. Its ancestor was a mighty Dao Venerable who had completely mastered two Great Daos and become an embodiment of order, his renown shining across all the heavens and myriad domains.
When Ye Chen was born, the Great Dao thundered, manifesting scenes of primordial chaos first opening. There were even apparitions of ancestors descending and ten thousand immortals bowing in worship.
Even the ancestor in seclusion was startled awake. He personally laid down a world-shaking formation, forcibly isolating these wondrous phenomena to prevent other experts from prying.
After Ye Chen's birth, everyone discovered that he not only possessed the Chaos Dao Physique but had also awakened one hundred percent of his ancestor's bloodline.
The Chaos Dao Physique was the most powerful physique humanity had possessed since humans first became capable of cultivation in archaic times. Even hundreds of millions of years might not produce a single one.
Those with this physique not only faced no bottlenecks in cultivation but were also born favorites of the Great Dao, able to listen to the sounds of the Dao and comprehend its laws at every moment.
As for bloodlines, they were a kind of inherited power left behind after humanity's strongest experts gained the Great Dao's recognition, just as demonic beasts also possessed bloodline power.
Ye Chen had awakened the bloodline of that ancestor of the Ye Lineage, and his awakening was one hundred percent complete. This meant that, so long as he grew up normally, he would very likely reach the heights his ancestor had once attained.
With the greatest physique of archaic times added to that, his future was simply unimaginable.
Thus, the entire Lineage placed its hopes on him, naming him the Lineage's Divine Son at birth.
Even the ancestor would occasionally keep him by his side to teach him, while the other Ye Lineage patriarchs took turns instructing him in cultivation.
However, Ye Chen had studied hard for over a decade in his previous life, only to die of anger before he could properly experience university life.
With such a high starting line in this life, why not lie flat and enjoy life? Why work so desperately hard!
So, whenever he had nothing to do, he would play tricks on his patriarchs, sleep, and fish. When the mood struck, he would summon a few holy maidens from factions subordinate to his Lineage to dance for him. Life could hardly have been more pleasant.
In short, he did everything except cultivate.
Everyone in the Lineage had tried every conceivable method over this, but none had worked. Those patriarchs had all but knelt before him.
But now, Ye Chen was nearing eighteen. If he still refused to cultivate, he would miss the best period for his growth, which was why that meeting in the hall had taken place.