Prologue

  Eternal and ancient, there is a mountain called Bu Zhou. In the majestic and awe-inspiring belly of this towering mountain, twelve clusters of crimson essence mixed with threads of black killing energy quietly resided within. These twelve clusters of essence contracted like a heart, constantly expanding and contracting, with the largest cluster contracting the most violently.

  "Where am I? Where are my hands? Where are my feet?" Li Hao growled in his heart. When he regained consciousness, he found that he couldn't move at all, and what's worse, he couldn't feel anything from his eyes, ears, mouth, or nose. His body was no longer distinguishable as hands and feet, but had become a round and rolling ball.

  Before Li Hao could continue wailing in terror, a sharp pain like needles piercing his brain made him lose consciousness once again.

  It was as if no time had passed, yet it felt like an eternity. Li Hao slowly came back to consciousness once again.

  "Heavenly way information! I actually crossed over, how could such a ridiculous thing happen to me?" Li Hao started another round of wailing.

  The sharp pain that just occurred was actually a massive heavenly message, and Li Hao learned from this information that he was in the Honghuang era, only a thousand years after Pangu created this world. Unfortunately, he had traveled through time and space and become Emperor Jiang, the first of the twelve ancestral witches.

  At that moment, Li Hao's eyes welled up with tears. Although this Emperor Jiang was a top-notch figure in the Primordial Chaos, one of the twelve Pangu essence bloods transformed, possessing the merit of opening the sky, thinking about his final outcome, Li Hao couldn't help but feel sorrow and helplessness in his heart.

  It's already inexplicable that I was brought to the Desolate Era, but unexpectedly I transmigrated into the body of Zu Emperor Jiang, who is destined to be abandoned by Heaven. Thinking about this, I couldn't help but feel a sense of being toyed with, and a surge of anger suddenly arose in my heart. "Today I am Emperor Jiang, tomorrow I will defy heaven and change my fate, living a life that rivals the heavens!" Only after shouting out these words did I feel slightly relieved.

  With a plan in mind, Li Hao stopped wasting time and focused on cultivating himself. In the vast world of Honghuang, everything was respected for its strength. Although he was one of the first batch of pre-heavenly born spirits since the opening of the sky, and had the legacy of Pangu's father god, Li Hao still wasn't confident whether he could reach the height of his ancestral witch in his memory.

  Perhaps it was a realization that Li Hao wanted to practice, and a massive amount of information came again from the depths of his mind. This time, the impact of the information did not make Li Hao lose consciousness, but instead was much gentler.

  Li Hao was overjoyed, as this information came from Pangu's bloodline inheritance, which contained most of the methods for practicing Pangu's body refinement. Although it was incomplete, it was still much stronger than other innate spirits that could only rely on instinct to absorb spiritual energy. This gave Li Hao a glimmer of hope for his future.

  The spiritual energy cultivates the body, and the body is destroyed in nine turns. Unbeknownst to him, six hundred thousand years have passed, and at this moment, in the belly of Mount Buzhou, the largest of the twelve clusters of essence blood is contracting rhythmically, absorbing the black killing energy that surrounds it. This killing energy was produced when Pangu opened up the sky, and its ferocity is unmatched; yet this cluster of essence blood can absorb and utilize it, and other pre-heavenly spirits would likely be amazed if they saw it.

  The surface is infinite, but in reality it's unbearable. When Li Hao absorbed the spiritual energy to practice his body according to the method of Pangu, the heavenly killing aura that surrounded him was also mixed with the spiritual energy and absorbed into his body. This made Li Hao shocked and lost color, although his own body was transformed from the pure blood of Pangu and feared nothing, not even the heavenly killing aura, which was actually beneficial for his practice. However, his soul was still very weak. Li Hao felt that his soul had begun to be assimilated by the killing aura, slowly merging into his body.

  No wonder the ancestral witch in my memory only refined her body and not her primordial spirit. It turns out that her soul had long been invaded and sealed within her body by the heavenly tribulation, making it impossible for her to comprehend the Heavenly Way, let alone cultivate her primordial spirit.

  Was I going to fall into this embarrassing state where I couldn't cultivate my yuan Shen in the future? Without cultivating my yuan Shen, I wouldn't know the Heavenly Dao, and could I still escape the fate of becoming a mere mortal? The answer was obviously no. Li Hao abruptly stopped his cultivation, but he was terrified to discover that this evil energy had stuck to him like chewing gum, and even though he hadn't actively absorbed it, it had actively surged into him instead, making it even more intense than before. If this continued, the soul's evil energy would completely merge with his physical body, transforming him into a witch tribe member of later generations, with an extremely powerful physical body but unable to cultivate his yuan Shen.

  "It's not so bad to become a witch, is it?" Li Hao thought, his mind suddenly popping up with this idea due to his long and exhausting cultivation. But could he really make such a choice? Thinking of the miserable ending that would follow, his unwilling thoughts flared up again.

  "My fate is mine, not heaven's!" Li Hao suddenly shouted loudly. Since he had decided to defy the heavens, he must persist; if he couldn't even take the first step, how could he transcend his fate? Li Hao was encouraging himself in his heart while moving his divine sense around his soul, attempting to isolate the evil energy from assimilating with his soul. Unfortunately, the effect was minimal, and his soul continued to be eroded. The barrier of his divine sense was like thin paper that would tear apart with a single touch.

  Li Hao steeled himself; since he couldn't resist, he would abandon the parts of his soul being invaded. In the cluster of pure blood where Li Hao resided, his grayish soul was constantly merging with the black evil energy. As soon as some evil energy merged into his soul, that part would immediately be separated from his soul by Li Hao.

  The pain of separating his soul was thousands of times more unbearable than cutting flesh from his body. Li Hao thought about giving up multiple times but ultimately persisted due to his unyielding determination, which he could thank the dull cultivation of tens of thousands of years after his rebirth for.

  In just a moment, Li Hao's soul was abandoned by nearly a third, and Li Hao himself had already begun to lose his mind, completely relying on instinct to persevere. As his soul continued to be split and reduced, the breath of life also grew weaker and weaker, and it was possible that in the next second, Li Hao would thoroughly dissipate into nothingness. But Li Hao didn't have any intention of stopping; rather than being plotted against and killed later, he might as well die now and let his soul disappear, just as if he had never been reborn. This guy didn't have even a bit of the awareness to yield when circumstances became unfavorable.

  Another short while passed, and now less than half of the soul was left. Li Hao had almost given up hope, or perhaps it was a kind of relief.

  However, heaven never seals off a person's path. Suddenly, a muffled sound came from the depths of his soul, and a thick golden light burst out, enveloping the ball of refined blood that Li Hao was in. He felt a cool sensation spreading throughout his body in an instant, and his soul quickly recovered under the nourishment of the golden light, even growing stronger. The golden light slowly formed a spherical shield, firmly protecting his soul inside, and the heavenly tribulation could no longer erode it. Li Hao was overjoyed, realizing that life's ups and downs were just like this. Having been at the point of despair, he had turned things around, which made him have even more insight into the Heavenly Way. The Heavenly Way was indeed unpredictable - when you persisted, it wouldn't let you succeed, but when you gave up hope, it would suddenly turn things around.

  The golden light was the mysterious and profound merit of opening up heaven. It is said that Pangu opened up heaven and earth, harmonizing with the Great Way, so countless merits of opening up heaven descended, among which one merit combined with the essence of Xuan Huang to form a pagoda, becoming the treasure of the later heavenly merit, the Xuan Huang Linglong Pagoda; one merit combined with the Hong Meng gas to form a ruler, becoming the treasure of the later heavenly merit, the Hong Meng Quantian Ruler. Also, Pangu's primordial spirit transformed into the Three Purities, rolling up three merits and leaving, while Pangu's twelve portions of essence blood also obtained three merits. Finally, two merits dispersed in the new world, nourishing the vast wilderness.

  Li Hao's behavior of self-mutilation forced the merits accumulated in his soul to erupt, thus allowing Li Hao to pass through a calamity.

  "This is the blessing of this identity." Li Hao, who survived the disaster, felt a little gratitude towards the identity of Emperor Jiang. "Forget it, from now on in the vast expanse of Hongyuan, there will only be Zu Wu Emperor Jiang, no more Li Hao!"

  At that moment, the Heavenly Way transmitted a piece of information, which was recognized. If not, Li Hao might not be able to repay the karma he owed. (From now on, the protagonist will be referred to as Emperor Jiang)

  The Emperor Jiang carefully examined the golden aura that had formed from the Opening Heaven Merit, and he couldn't help but feel great joy. Indeed, it was worthy of being transformed from the Opening Heaven Merit, although it was only a very small part. With this aura protecting his soul, ordinary soul attacks would likely be completely ineffective. Moreover, the golden aura also had some helpful effects on understanding the Heavenly Way. This was truly a treasure. However, thinking that the Opening Heaven Merit left by Pangu had been used up like this, he didn't know whether it was a gain or a loss.

  "From now on, I'll call you Golden Armor of Merit and Virtue. You can be considered my first prototype for the Divine Connection." Emperor Jiang was self-satisfied, completely forgetting about the life-and-death situation from earlier.

  Just as Emperor Jiang was rejoicing, a golden light tore through space and entered his round body, the powerful impact almost stunning him. He was about to curse the heavens for another trick, but was shocked by the thing that had entered his body.

  "The day after tomorrow, the treasure of good fortune will arrive! It's true that great difficulties won't kill you and there must be good fortune afterwards, haha! Emperor Jiang felt like he was being knocked out by happiness. Without rhyme or reason, treasures kept falling from the sky. Is there anything more exciting than this?"

  "I told you, as the first of the Three Purities transformed by Pangu, Laozi has the Heaven and Earth Jade Tower born with him. How could I, the first of the Twelve Ancestral Shamans, not have a supreme treasure born with me? Hahaha!"

  Di Jiang didn't know that the Great Way is impartial and wouldn't favor one person over another. However, those who can obtain a birth treasure will always have to go through a test. If Di Jiang hadn't successfully resisted the invasion of the Heavenly Tribulation's evil energy, this Heaven Measuring Ruler also wouldn't have automatically appeared in the world to become his birth treasure. The same was true for Lao Zi and others who obtained their birth treasures; they all had their own twists and turns.

  Emperor Jiang was overjoyed, but forgot to control his body shape. His huge spherical body shook non-stop, echoing the laughter in his heart with a strong sense of rhythm, causing the eleven small blood clots beside him to roll back a short distance.

  "What's wrong with this big guy today, he's usually motionless, and even shouting at him doesn't get a response. It's really strange." A faint piece of information was transmitted from one of the eleven blood clans, which was a form of direct mental communication.

  "He will move to prove he has consciousness just like us." This is another message from Blood Gang.

  Undoubtedly, their conversation did not escape Di Jiang's detection, which made Di Jiang feel extremely surprised. These eleven future great gods had also produced divine consciousness! It seemed that he had indeed been too devoted to his cultivation for the past 600,000 years and hadn't even noticed. Before Di Jiang could recover from his surprise, these blood masses continued their discussion.

  "Is he really conscious? I thought he was a stillbirth created by God's mistake." (Di Jiang Han)

  "Don't spout nonsense, Father God wouldn't make mistakes. This guy was originally motionless because he ate something toxic and fainted. Hmph, I've long suspected that he's a glutton, otherwise how could his body be so much bigger than ours." (Emperor Jiang sweats profusely)

  "This guy is too evil. I was wondering why there's nothing here except for rocks and dirt, it turns out he swallowed everything, not leaving a single thing for us." ( Emperor Jiang Waterfall Sweat )

  After a series of discussions, Emperor Jiang was labeled as a greedy and lazy, selfish and self-serving bad person by them. These discussions were all conducted in front of Emperor Jiang, completely ignoring him. Finally, he couldn't bear it anymore and interrupted these future great gods who were still in their juvenile phase.

  "Shut up." Emperor Jiang shouted loudly, "Haven't you all obtained the cultivation method of the Heavenly Father? Do you still have the leisure to chat here?"

  The eleven blood teams that were still discussing all trembled slightly, obviously being frightened.

  "This guy seems quite fierce." A weak message was sent out.

  "Hmm, he won't be coming to eat us, will he?"

  “……”

  Dì Jiāng finally gave up communicating with them.