Chapter 2: Devouring Souls and Becoming Clouds

  After the opening of heaven, after several yuan meetings, the Honghuang continent slowly had spiritual intelligence born, and then after a long period of cultivation, it took shape.

  In the Western Kunlun, there was a toad that had cultivated and transformed into an old man in a grey Daoist robe. This old man called himself Hongjun, who also possessed great heavenly luck. Not long after his transformation, he obtained the largest piece of the broken Huahua Yu Pian. With this Huahua Yu Pian, Hongjun achieved the Supreme Great Dao and had boundless magical powers. He then referred to himself as Old Ancestor Hongjun, and the Huahua Yu Pian later became Old Ancestor Hongjun's sacred teaching instrument.

  Before Hongjun Laozu had achieved the Supreme Tao, another great divine being's reputation began to spread throughout the vast continent of Hongyuan. However, this person's fame was an evil one. This person was Luo Hou, who could be said to be the ancestor of the demon gods. Relying on his own powerful divine abilities, he committed all sorts of evil deeds and atrocities, slaughtering countless living beings in the world.

  This heaven and earth were opened by Pangu, and all things in the world are transformed from the essence and blood of Pangu's body. Therefore, it can be said that all things in the world are the descendants of Pangu. Hong Jun obtained Pangu's creation jade certificate, so it can also be said that Hong Jun is the successor of Pangu or his disciple. Thus, when Luo Hou slaughtered countless lives, Hong Jun naturally could not ignore him and fought a battle with him. However, this Luo Hou was indeed a man with great fate, and he actually obtained the Twelve-Product Black Lotus of Destruction and the God-Killing Spear. Nevertheless, Hong Jun was no ordinary person, holding Pangu's banner and wearing the Taiji diagram, and even laid out the first killing array in the world - the Exterminating Immortal Sword Array.

  After a long battle, Luo Yu gradually fell into a disadvantageous position. Seeing that continuing to fight would lead to his downfall, Luo Yu attempted to escape. However, due to Hong Jun's powerful magic and numerous treasures, Luo Yu was unable to do so. After another prolonged battle, Luo Yu had already sustained severe injuries in several places. Realizing that escape was impossible and that death loomed on all sides, Luo Yu steeled himself and used the Twelve Tribulations Black Lotus and the God-Slaying Spear to launch a final attack, severely wounding Hong Jun. With his last shred of soul, he escaped with the Twelve Tribulations Black Lotus and the God-Slaying Spear.

  Hongjun saw Luo Yu escape, and was about to chase after him. However, he changed his mind, thinking that there is always a thread of life between heaven and earth. If Luo Yu can have a great awakening, it would be a meritorious deed. Moreover, Luo Yu had already suffered severe injuries, and it was uncertain whether Hongjun could catch up with him and kill him. Therefore, he put aside his thoughts and returned to continue his cultivation.

  To say again, on the Primordial Continent, after such a long period of reproduction, the living beings of the Primordial Continent became more and more numerous, and also stronger and stronger. Of course, at that time, there were no humans in the Primordial Continent, basically all were demons and beasts. Among them, flying birds took the Phoenix as their leader, walking animals took the Qilin as their honor, and scaly armor took the Divine Dragon as their chief.

  Three tribes basically unified the entire Honghuang continent, one in charge of heaven, one in charge of earth, and another in charge of sea. Each tribe managed its own domain, seemingly peaceful on the surface but actually filled with constant contradictions.

  Just as Hong Jun achieved the Supreme Tao and lectured for the first time, the war between the three clans finally broke out. The Shen Long clan was the strongest among the three clans, so the Feng Huang clan and the Qilin clan had no choice but to unite and fight against the Shen Long clan together. After hundreds of years of war, the three clans were severely injured, and many masters within the three clans were all annihilated.

  The three tribes were abandoned by the Heavenly Way, almost exterminated, leaving only a few big cats and small cats, as well as some low-level demons and beasts. Not only did the three tribes suffer this catastrophe, but the entire Honghuang continent was also ravaged by the three tribes, on the verge of collapse. Some powerful gods in Honghuang were also affected, innocently drawn into this disaster and died unjustly. This made other powerful gods in Honghuang sigh with regret and secretly tremble with fear.

  ……

  In a nameless place in the vast wilderness, dark clouds gathered at this moment, with thunderous roars and endless heavenly might that seemed to proclaim the heavens' anger. The creatures within a radius of ten thousand miles had long since fled far away, while in the center of the dark clouds, a faint cyan figure could be seen. However, the figure's state was not very stable, apparently still not fully materialized.

  A loud rumble, countless thick bowls of divine lightning struck the figure, the figure's face was solemn, his body's magic surged out wildly, and he couldn't help but shout in his heart: "One more to go, after surviving this calamity, I can finally take shape."

  At this moment, an axe shadow flashed by, and a space channel suddenly appeared. A soul floated out of it, with its eyes dull and empty, showing that its self-consciousness was not yet awake, but only drifting aimlessly. Coincidentally, it followed the divine thunder down, and the divine thunder did not cause any harm to it.

  The figure's entire mind was focused on the heavenly tribulation, not noticing the unfamiliar soul at all. His body's spiritual energy surged as he resisted the heavenly tribulation. It wasn't until half a day had passed that the sky slowly cleared up again. By then, the person who had just undergone the tribulation was already lying exhaustedly on the ground, secretly shocked in his heart, "Why was the last tribulation so terrifying? I almost lost my soul."

  His body was battered and broken, his limbs incomplete, his hair disheveled, looking quite wretched. Lying on the ground, he was already gasping for air, with more going out than coming in. Without thinking too much, he struggled to sit up, but almost fell over several times. After finally sitting cross-legged, he quickly focused his mind and began to condense the dense spiritual energy still present between heaven and earth into his physical body.

  "Where is this?"

  A sudden and abrupt sound arose, as if from the depths of silence, and seemed very vague in the sound.

  The person who was condensing his physical body suddenly turned pale with fright, his body trembling, and he fell backwards, carefully examining his own body. Suddenly, he discovered that there was another soul in his body, which was truly terrifying. Although he didn't know the concept of ghosts yet, his mood was similar to one who had seen a ghost. This was because he had just passed through a heavenly tribulation, and his magical powers and soul were extremely weak, probably not even comparable to those of an ordinary person.

  For a moment, he didn't know what to do!

  As for that soul, being in the human shadow's consciousness, it was also bewildered at first. However, unintentionally, it began to absorb the human shadow's original consciousness on its own accord. The human shadow panicked and, with a sudden determination, retreated back into the depths of its consciousness. Two unfamiliar souls had encountered each other.

  If someone in the vast continent knew that two souls were currently residing in one body at this moment, they would definitely be shocked and stunned.

  "Just then, a voice said: 'Halt! What kind of thing are you? How dare you be so presumptuous and devour my origin?'"

  This voice was the voice of the figure from before.

  That soul, upon hearing this, was not pleased. "Stuff?" He really wanted to loudly exclaim, "I'm a human!" But now that the other party had said he was devouring his origin, after thinking about it, he could also understand why the person spoke so presumptuously. Suppressing his anger, he counter-questioned, "What is an origin? What kind of place is this?"

  The figure barely suppressed the anger in his heart, gritting his teeth and saying: "You're now inside my body, and this is my sea of consciousness. You're devouring my origin, damn it, won't you stop?"

  Damn, you're addicted to scolding people, aren't you? However, since I was the one who was wrong in the first place, this soul of mine has indeed stopped absorbing the origin. And then it spoke out, "What exactly is this origin? Absorbing it does give me a feeling of being on cloud nine, and I feel a powerful force within my body."

  "Hmph, you don't even know what the origin is? Get out of my body quickly." The owner of this body thought that the inverted soul was joking with him, so he spoke in a cold tone and gave an order to leave. Of course, no one wants another soul to appear in their own body, especially when they are at their weakest. Although he wanted to keep this soul, after all, the origin it had absorbed in this short moment would take him thousands of years to cultivate back, but now his state was too weak, so he had to swallow this dumb loss.

  That soul was a bit dazed, muttering to himself, "Right, just now I was so busy scolding him and the matter of the origin, but I forgot another thing, am I in his sea of consciousness? Could it be that I'm currently in a spiritual state?" Suddenly he seemed to have thought of something, and with a burst of energy, he let out a cry of surprise, "Damn, could it be that I've encountered the legendary transmigration? But isn't transmigration just a fabrication of the middle path? Could it really exist?"

  His jump didn't hurt him, but it made the owner of that body feel extremely uncomfortable, as if his soul was about to be torn apart. After all, this was his sea of consciousness, and after going through the heavenly tribulation, his sea of consciousness could be said to be very weak, unable to withstand such turmoil.

  "Bastard, stop, get out, leave my spiritual sea!" The man's soul trembled all over, shouting at the traverser.

  The soul that had crossed over immediately said, "Out? How do I get out? I won't!" He also knew that he couldn't stay in someone else's spiritual sea forever, or else he would become an attached spirit after crossing over, which was equivalent to being a slave. As a modern person, his thoughts were about equality for all, and he absolutely did not want to be anyone's slave, let alone the fact that he had no idea whether two spirits could coexist in one spiritual sea for long. What if he inexplicably died here? Wouldn't that make him the most tragic transmigrator? So he really wanted to get out, but the key was that he didn't know how to do so. It was truly a case of having the will but not the means.

  When he heard the voice of his soul, he couldn't help but stir up the flames of ignorance. "Impossible! How did you sneak in here and appear silently in my sea of consciousness? This is really too much!" In his opinion, since the other party could take advantage of his own tribulation and appear silently in his sea of consciousness, their cultivation was definitely not weak. Now they were lingering in his sea of consciousness and refused to leave, obviously with ill intentions, and possibly had been plotting for a long time.

  As soon as he thought of this, the man couldn't care about so much anymore. He thought that after all, this was his own territory, and if he were to fight with the locals, it would definitely be beneficial for himself. Without thinking too much, he instantly took action, reciting a sealing incantation, and at the same time, a massive pressure suddenly emerged from his entire spiritual sea, directly pressing towards the soul that had crossed over. The soul, which was originally extremely angry, was sealed before it even realized what was happening, and the pressure was so immense that not only could its own soul not move, but it also caused itself to feel unbearable pain.

  With such ease, he took down his opponent. The man was slightly stunned, originally thinking it would be an intense battle and that he had a high chance of losing. However, he didn't expect to be subdued without any resistance from the other party. This was indeed something he hadn't anticipated. Taking advantage of the situation, he instantly pounced on the soul that had crossed over, preparing to devour it. Not only would this allow him to recover his original source that had been devoured, but also make his own soul stronger. This was a win-win situation.

  At the moment of being swallowed, the soul that had traversed felt as if he was in an icy cavern, a chill spreading throughout his body. A heart-wrenching pain made him tremble all over, filling him with fear. Was he going to be eaten just after crossing over? He didn't know why the person opposite him wanted to swallow him, but he didn't want to wait for death either.

  No matter what living being, when faced with the test of life and death, will burst out with a terrifying potential. That soul's fists clenched, looking up at the sky and letting out a loud roar, the sound exploding in the entire sea of consciousness, causing this weak sea of consciousness to shake violently. The pressure on his body disappeared, and immediately afterwards, the powerful force he had sensed inside his body suddenly surged, actually breaking through that person's seal and restoring his freedom.

  "Hmph, since you want to devour my soul, I'll use your own method against you." Recalling that person's intention to devour himself, a fierce determination ignited in his heart, and he pounced on the man, intending to devour him as well.

  The owner of that body was naturally not willing to show weakness, and the two souls entwined together, as if two clusters of clear air were entangled. It seemed like nothing was happening, but with one careless move, they would be completely devoured by each other. After about half a time, the owner of that body finally became exhausted, let out a mournful cry, and was entirely swallowed up by the soul that had crossed over.

  The remaining soul had not yet rejoiced when it felt endless pain piercing through the brain, a dizzying spin, and the next moment it fainted.