In the void between the landmasses drifting in the Broken Primordial World, a silver ball floated. Upon closer inspection, the observer would be able to discover that the ball was not actually a ball at all but a sphere formed from an unaccountable number of swords revolving around the center.
The sword sphere continued to float in the void until the gravity of one of the continents pulled the sphere towards it. Once the sphere landed on the continent, the myriad swords splattered onto the ground, powerless, creating a literal field of swords.
At the center, a man in bloodied robes collapsed onto the ground. No part of his body was left unharmed, and it appeared as if he had been skinned alive. Even now, blood continuously flowed from his exposed muscle, his hair was all but gone, and half his eyeballs had disintegrated.
Strangely, the man's sword was completely unharmed, plain and unassuming but untouched by whatever calamity befell his user. The same could not be said for the object in his other hand, a nine-petaled lotus.
Its color was formerly gold but dimmed from whatever befell the man. Its stem and roots appeared as if thousands of insects had mawed on it, and its nine petals had black streaks of energy swirling within. The spiritual light continuously weakened at a noticeable rate, fighting off against the foreign energy.
The man was Bao Ling and surprisingly alive, considering he was at ground zero of Tianyi's explosive surprise. However, he had almost used up all his qi to preserve his life. Had he not possessed the Immortal Slaying Sword, he would have likely died.
Still, the situation wasn't looking good for him. Tianyi's explosion had wrecked his spatial ring and almost all the other treasures on his body. Luckily, he still had the pendant given to him by the elder presiding over the expedition into the Broken Primordial World.
Bao Ling had thought it was an unnecessary precaution, but reality proved him wrong. Now, it was a matter of staying alive until the elders could pinpoint his location and rescue him.
He patched himself up the best he could, but the end result was scabs covering his body. His eyes had been destroyed, so he could only use his spiritual sense to navigate, a challenging task considering that it was suppressed in the Broken Primordial World.
Even with his destroyed eyes, Bao Ling's fighting intent shone through. Throughout his life, he had been unparalleled. No one in the entire Numinous Realm had been his equal. Recently, a rising star of the Numinous Sword Sect, Ye Chen, caught his eye, but now, it seemed that a more fitting rival appeared.
Bao Ling already had a guess as to Tianyi's identity. Among the two immortal rank realms, only the Buzhou Immortal Sect and the Numinous Sword Sect had the ability to travel to the Broken Primordial World. Obviously, the man he faced wasn't from the Numinous Sword Sect, leaving only one possibility.
Despite being the originator of the explosion, Bao Ling didn't believe Tianyi had died. His conclusion came more so from gut instinct than anything factual. Plus, he could tell that Tianyi wasn't intent on having a showdown. So it was more likely Tianyi used that explosion to escape from him.
"Next time we meet, we'll decide the winner once and for all." Bao Ling swore, unaware of Tianyi's murderous intent toward him.
-line break-
Some time before, on another continent, Zi Zun grunted as he slew another monster. Unlike Tianyi and Bao Ling, the landmass he had arrived at wasn't as large, and neither was the suppression, but it was almost tailor-made for him.
No vegetation existed, and the soil was gray, not tiny rocks or debris but iron sand. Underneath the sand was magnetic ores. The whole landmass was covered in a magnetic field, resulting in constant lightning storms of varying intensity but no rain or water. If there was rain, it was tiny droplets of plasma.
Here, even with his Eastern Lightning Physique, one moment of carelessness and a strike of lightning could very well destroy his soul. Under the constant tempering of lightning thunder, Zi Zun's cultivation rapidly rose to the peak of Acupoint Opening and Core Formation Realm. Even his original gold grade Thunderous Lightning Spiritual Core had upgraded to the violet-gold grade Extremity Lightning Spiritual Core, further increasing his strength.
However, fortune and danger coincided in the Broken Primordial World. Strange lightning-attribute monsters inhabited the land, and to them, Zi Zun was the perfect nourishment. Once they caught sight of him, they would chase him down at all costs.
It was fine if these lightning monsters were in the grandmaster-level strength or below, but anything higher posed a massive risk to Zi Zun. Luckily, none of these monsters had attained spirituality, or he would have been in trouble.
Still, the constant battles sharpened his battle sense, allowing him to exhibit greater power for less effort. In addition, due to constantly being bathed in lightning and thunder and the exposure to the naked worldly laws that formed the Broken Primordial World, Zi Zun had already mastered the Concept of Thunderclap and was on his way to mastering the Concept of Flash.
It was to the point that a Daoseed had already begun forming inside of his mind, something that theoretically true immortals accomplished. And even Tianyi only formed the foundation for his Daoseed in the Nascent Soul Realm.
After slaying the last monster that had besieged him, Zi Zun plopped on the ground and gasped for breath. The chisel in his hand had attained lightning-like runes on its blade, courtesy of absorbing the raining lightning and restoring it closer to its former glory.
Zi Zun took an hour to rest up before traveling again. Safety was always a matter of chance. Unless he could withstand being buried by the iron said, the chances of encountering lightning monsters were always present, even if he stayed put.
After traveling for an undetermined amount of time, Zi Zun felt the chisel in his hand react in a specific direction. Feeling that it might be related to the Divine Duke of Thunder's legacy. He changed his way. The closer he got, the stronger the reaction, but simultaneously, so, too, did the frequency of lightning strikes.
Once he was close enough, Zi Zun saw a pillar of lightning. To be more precise, it only appeared like a pillar of lightning due to the constant lightning raining down on the same spot. After closing the distance to nine hundred meters, Zi Zun didn't dare to come closer anymore.
A beast composed of thunder and lightning patrolled the area surrounding the lightning pillar. Thunder accompanied each step it took, and whenever it glanced, lightning descended.
After continuously observing the lighting beast, Zi Zun reached four hundred meters away from the lightning pillar. At this distance, should he be careless, the lightning beast could easily reach him.
Once close enough, the source of the lightning pillar revealed itself. A tree clad in electric currents stood at the center of the pillar. The leaves were formed of lightning, its bark a metallic gray, and an invisible forcefield funneled all the lightning towards it.
Zi Zun eyed the lightning beast. He had already discovered a pattern to the monster's movement. Once the lightning beast reached the furthest distance, he moved and reached only a mere hundred meters away.
At this distance, the chisel in his hand vibrated with excitement as if reuniting with an old friend. Zi Zun almost couldn't stop himself from rushing toward the tree, but rationality brought him back to reality.
Zi Zun didn't know how many hours or even days he stayed in the same position. He feared that the lightning beast would catch sight of him and ruin his chances, so he could only observe the lightning beast and wait for the most opportune time.
Finally, his chance had arrived. The monster had curled up on the opposite side of the tree and fallen asleep. But just to be safe, Zi Zun waited for a few more hours before moving.
When Zi Zun reached a few meters away, the runic symbols on his chisel could be hidden anymore, and he shot out a light towards the iron-colored tree. Under his disbelieving eyes, the tree began to shrink and shrink.
The lightning leaves were absorbed into the branches. In turn, the branches receded into the trunk. Even the roots disappeared back into the main body. The end result was a wooden stick with a gray ball atop, a drum mallet.
Zi Zun's breathing became uneven from excitement. It was said the Divine Duke of Thunder had three divine artifacts, the Lightning Punishing Chisel and the Thundercall Drum and Mallet.
Just as Zi Zun reached for the mallet, an unrecognizable voice entered his eyes. It was grating, like crackling thunder.
"Thank you for your hard work. I couldn't get the artifact because of the forcefield. But now that it's gone, I won't need you anymore!"
Zi Zun stared in shock at the lightning beast. It wasn't a monster without any spirituality but a demon! Sweat poured down his forehead as he stared at the demon. Perhaps it was already an expert at the sage or even immortal level.
-line break-
Lovespot, or rather, the Dragon Emperor, opened his eyes and stood up from his sitting position. He was inside a cave and around him was the skeleton of a dragon. After he absorbed whatever blood essence it had left and entered the peak Soul-Nourishing Realm, the dragon skeleton seemed to have lost all luster.
The Dragon Emperor waved his hand, and the skeleton disappeared into his spatial ring. Then, with a flip of his hand, a pearl larger than his head appeared in his palm. "I got quite lucky, to think that I would have even discovered a dragon pearl."
His smile gained a ferocious aspect as he stared at the pure white pearl. "And to even store the remnant soul of a True Demon Realm dragon. It's my lucky day."
As if responding to the Dragon Emperor's word, the dragon pearl began to vibrate. "A mere ant dares to look down on me?!"
"Ant? Are you talking about me or yourself?" After saying those words, the Dragon Emperor didn't bother wasting any more breath and opened his mouth. A faint dragon's roar could hear as an immense suction force.
"How could an outsider like you know the Dragon Clan's Chiwen Divine Swallowing Art?!" The remnant soul within the dragon pearl screamed, but it was for naught as a silvery wisp escaped and entered the Dragon Emperor's mouth.
A few hours later, the Dragon Emperor released a satisfied sigh. The Chiwen Divine Swallowing Art, named after one of the Nine Sons of the Ancestor Dragon, allowed the practitioner to swallow all things and turn them into nourishment.
After swallowing the remnant true dragon's soul, he could feel his soul become stronger again. Although the strength or size of his nascent soul didn't increase much, the purity increased substantially, almost to the point of a true immortal.
Thinking about this, the Dragon Emperor gnashed his teeth together. His soul had already reached the purity of a true immortal, but thanks to Xi Tianyi, he had become a remnant soul and stooped to the point of possessing a waste.
The Dragon Emperor forcibly suppressed his irritation and focused on the dragon pearl in hand. Among the numerous treasures used to create clones and avatars, the dragon pearl ranked among the first for creating an avatar cultivating the spiritual way. Of course, if he had a dragon's flesh, his avatar would also be talented in the martial way.
However, where could he find a live dragon in the modern era? Unless he broke into the dragon's home base, but he would be seeking death with his current strength.
The Dragon Emperor started the process of creating an avatar. He was not worried about anyone disturbing him because the cave he was in was underwater, surrounded by natural barriers. The continent he landed on was composed of the former Four Seas of the Primordial World, so it was filled with dragon corpses and related treasure.
After a month, the Dragon Emperor's face suddenly paled, and a miniature version of him appeared outside his body and sunk into the white dragon pearl. He didn't have time to deal with his soul injuries, so after popping a pill into his mouth, the Dragon Emperor merged a white bone emanating dragon qi and several other materials, including his own blood essence.
Slowly, the materials started to form a human body with the exact same appearance as his original self and not a spitting image of Lovespot. Upon seeing this, the Dragon Emperor frowned. He could not reveal this avatar unless in the direst of circumstances. If the Buzhou Immortal Sect discovered this avatar, then all his plans would be for naught.
After the flesh finished forming, the Dragon Emperor's avatar reached the Acupoint Opening Realm in one fell swoop, but that was the side dish. Inside his avatar's body, the dragon pearl transformed into a Dragon Pearl Spiritual Core, and his split soul slowly emerged from within, establishing his avatar as a nascent soul grandmaster.
Usually, an avatar or clone could at most be created at the Core Formation or Acupoint Opening Realm, but in the Broken Primordial World, such rules were nonexistent.
The Dragon Emperor's avatar cultivated the Nine Dragon Cauldron Method, named after the way Emperor Yu of the Three Sovereigns, Five Emperors, used the Nine Sons of the Dragon to stabilize the nine provinces in the Primordial World. Among cultivation methods, it was on par with the Dragon Emperor Fist and only definitively weaker than the Ten Heavenly Scriptures if practiced by a human.
Just as he finished forming his avatar, the seas began to rumble, and even the cave shook. The Dragon Emperor didn't have time to think and quickly stored his new avatar just as the seawater flooded the cave, slamming and injuring him.
The Dragon Emperor quickly fled outside the cave and, after much struggle, flew above the water. To his shock, meteors were descending and impacting the watery continent.
"No!" He howled. The meteors didn't bring good fortune, only disaster. All the resources were being destroyed by the destruction. "If I discover who does this, I'll torture his soul for nine hundred, ninety-nine years!"
This was his biggest fortuitous encounter. As long as he grasped the chance well, returning to his former peak would only be a matter of time, but man proposes, heaven disposes.
-line break-
Xia Yushan glanced at the sky. His face changed when he saw the oncoming disaster, and he quickly moved to a safe location and deployed all his defensive means. Only after the unrest had ended did he exit.
A smile appeared on his face. "Haha, the heavens are helping me!"
Xia Yushan had discovered a Great Harmony Fruit Tree. He didn't have the strength to transplant the tree, so he wanted to pluck a fruit, but it was covered by a barrier, preventing him from entering. Thanks to the meteors, the natural-formed barrier had been disrupted, creating an entrance for him to enter.
After absorbing the yang essence from Lushu, a cultivator from the Demon Cage Realm, he had acquired yin essence after some adventures in the Huang Realm. After cultivating and stabilizing the five elemental essences within, he had reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, but this was also his biggest barrier.
Before Xia Yushan could enter the Unity Realm, he had to get rid of any disharmony in his body. Originally, he already had to equalize all five elemental essences in his body, but with the addition of yin and yang essence, the difficulty increased by a thousand times.
Not just him. It was a step that stymied numerous Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples. Some failed to harmonize and could only be regulated to be outer elders, but how could Xia Yushan accept that?
The reason he accepted Tianyi's bet was to stimulate himself. As long as he ingested the Great Harmony Fruit, he would have no bottlenecks until he entered the Unity Realm and even maybe until the Transcending Mortality Realm.
Xia Yushan quickly gathered as many fruits as he could. He could give Ji Shuye and Daoyi one each. The rest would aid him in cultivating, and anything extra would be traded for contribution points.
He quickly left and searched for a safe spot to ingest one. After he was done and circulated the fruit's essence throughout his body, Xia Yushan felt that as long as he returned to the Huang Realm, he could summon the Unity Heavenly Tribulation at any time. Furthermore, even if he was still at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, his power had increased threefold!