Chapter Thirteen: Chaos

  Ye Qing soon arrived at the Thirty-Third Heaven, passing through the boundless starry void realm, and came to the intersection of the Void Star Realm and Chaos. Pangu's opening of the sky only opened up 90% of the entire chaotic universe, leaving 10% of the chaos unopened. This 10% of chaos was affected by Pangu's opening of the sky, becoming extremely violent and constantly expanding and compressing outward. The universe slowly expanded and grew larger, causing the Honghuang to become increasingly large as well. The density of spiritual energy became increasingly diluted, and the innate spiritual energy gradually transformed into acquired spiritual energy. This also led to the speed of cultivation in later generations becoming slower and slower, and the number of great divine powers becoming fewer and fewer.

  But Ye Qing had arrived at the intersection of the Void Starry Sky and Chaos, where he saw the chaotic evil energy, the divine thunder of all heavens, and the earth fire wind water constantly colliding and evolving. The massive energy was almost unbearable even for space itself, as cracks in space-time continued to flash in the chaos. In this harsh environment, various heavenly rules were constantly colliding and being destroyed, sometimes even the laws themselves could be seen faintly. Since the formation of the universe, when Chaos first opened, the laws had been born accordingly, maintaining the existence and operation of the universe. The evolution and production of countless rules by the laws acted on the energy and matter in the universe, forming various existences in space. Mastering a single universal law was equivalent to attaining the origin of the world, one method of proving the way! That is, proving the Tao! If one were to cultivate here, the speed of cultivating rules and laws would be incredibly fast, but first and foremost, one had to ensure that they wouldn't be destroyed by the chaotic rules. Those with weaker physical strength would definitely not survive in such an environment.

  In this place where earth, fire, wind and water constantly collide, everywhere is filled with chaotic evil energy, heavenly thunder and spatial cracks. It's indeed a treasure land for cultivating the physical body. Ye Qing's cultivation method is different from the emphasis on cultivating the primordial spirit in later generations. Cultivating the primordial spirit requires the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but Ye Qing's method can cultivate with any energy. Ye Qing mainly cultivates his physical body and spiritual soul, and as a pre-heavenly deity, Ye Qing's physical body is extremely powerful, almost reaching the strength of a mid-grade pre-heavenly treasure. Ye Qing has always believed that constantly breaking through and transforming one's own body and soul is the king's way, so he doesn't cultivate his primordial spirit, nor does he talk about cause and effect or karma. He acts freely without being bound by anything.

  Ye Qing was extremely delighted to see this place, as it was tailor-made for him and was the best place for cultivation. As soon as Ye Qing arrived here, he immediately fell in love with this place. At first, Ye Qing only practiced his physical body in the Thunderfire Layer of the Void Starry Sky Boundary and the Chaotic Boundary, using his vast spiritual power to constantly comprehend and deduce the trajectory of the countless ancient stars in the Starry Sky Boundary. The ancient stars in the Starry Sky Boundary were produced by Pangu's hair combining with chaotic energy, existing to protect the Honghuang universe from being crushed and destroyed by the violent chaos outside the Starry Sky Boundary. Therefore, the operation of the ancient stars in the Starry Sky Boundary contained a large number of rules and a small amount of laws.

  As Ye Qing's body continued to shatter and repair, the Xian Yuan inside him was rapidly circulating, constantly absorbing the violent energy outside his body. The cultivation speed of the Evolution Technique was rapidly advancing, and Ye Qing was thus immersed in his cultivation.

  Time flew by quickly as Ye Qing slowly drifted away from the Lei Huo layer, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Unbeknownst to him, nearly 20 billion years had passed in this manner. During these 20 billion years, Ye Qing's gains were enormous. He had cultivated the Evolution Technique to the middle stage of the 18th level, equivalent to the quasi-saint realm's tenth heaven. His Heart Calming Technique had reached the middle stage of the eighth heavy, and his Apocalypse Path had become even stronger due to absorbing a large amount of chaotic energy from the void. The knife intent of his Apocalypse Path had grown so strong that it could shatter the chaos within a thousand miles, demonstrating its power after absorbing the chaotic energy.

  During this period, Ye Qing used the ancient trajectory of the Starry Sky Void Realm and combined it with the 36 Heavenly Slaughter Arrays, 72 Earthly Slaughter Arrays, and other simplified arrays to create a new array called the Great Five Elements Annihilation Array. This array could continuously absorb the five elements' spiritual energy and starlight from the heavens and earth, only stopping when the energy was depleted.

  Ye Qing believed that his creation, the Great Five Elements Annihilation Array, would not be inferior to the Witch Clan's Twelve Heavenly God Slaughter Array, the Demon Clan's Starry Sky Slaughter Array, or the Exterminating Immortals Array. Apart from creating this array, Ye Qing had also grasped nearly 80% of the spatial rules and destruction rules.

  In the 200 million years that Ye Qing was in retreat, the Hongyuan universe gave birth to countless pre-heavenly demons. These demons were born tens of billions of years after the opening of the Hongyuan universe and under its thick pre-heavenly spiritual energy, each demon had the cultivation of a mortal immortal at birth. Some individual demons even had the cultivation of an earth immortal at birth. Although they did not have the cultivation of a profound immortal like Ye Qing, Hong Jun, and Luo Lai when they were first born, they were much better than the living beings of later generations.

  All living things are constantly changing their fate in the process of evolution, and practitioners need to pass through tribulations to evolve to the next level. Before achieving immortality, one must pass through 3-9, 4-9, 6-9, and 9-9 heavenly tribulations (the cultivation realms below immortality are: post-heaven, pre-heaven, pre-heaven great perfection, foundation building, elixir formation, golden elixir, primordial infant, exit from the mortal world, separation of spirits, union of bodies, crossing the calamity, great vehicle, and ascension to heaven, each stage having 11 levels). After achieving immortality, one must still undergo tribulations (the cultivation of immortality is divided into: ordinary immortal, human immortal, earth immortal, heavenly immortal, true immortal, mysterious immortal, golden immortal, Taiyi heavenly immortal, Taiyi true immortal, Taiyi mysterious immortal, Taiyi golden immortal, Mahayana heavenly immortal, Mahayana true immortal, Mahayana mysterious immortal, Mahayana golden immortal, quasi-sage, and secondary sage, each stage having four levels, with the quasi-sage divided into twelve heavy heavens). Those who fail to pass through the heavenly tribulations will either die and have their souls annihilated or only leave behind a true spirit that transmigrates and reincarnates, with the spiritual energy of their body returning to heaven and earth. The causal effects of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the process of evolution are also mutually cancelled out. Except for those who attain the fruit of Mahayana golden immortality, all other cultivators have the crisis of the five declines of heaven and humanity.