Chapter 101: The Essence of the Origin

The moment the Dao Tree was planted in Xu Zhong’s head, it used the crown of his skull to manifest two large hands, one on the left and one on the right, forcefully prying open the fissure to allow more roots to penetrate. Finally, the entire root system was delivered into his dantian. The roots grew wildly within him, entwining every divine pillar formed from the innate divine beasts. The divine beasts and sacred birds residing in those pillars began to awaken, but as soon as they revived, the roots invaded them. These roots burrowed through the seven orifices of the divine beasts and sacred birds, emerging from every pore and cavity of their physical bodies, desperately absorbing nutrients to accelerate growth.

The demonic form of the heavenly way struggled to tear apart the seal and break free, but in the next instant, its body too was parasitized by the roots. Even its formidable strength could not escape being consumed as nourishment. Xu Zhong was fully aware of all the transformations happening within his body, yet he could not control his physical form. His consciousness, intellect, and every thought were continuously transmitted into a golden leaf held in his hand. He was seeking the Dao—forced to seek it, yet more like being swept along without volition.

Thus, Xu Zhong could only watch helplessly as the Dao Tree parasitized him. The roots entered and exited his dantian repeatedly; entering by splitting open the crown of his head, and exiting through the heavenly gate and the Baihui acupoints. The roots wandered inside Xu Zhong’s body and then crept into his eyes through the seven orifices. He could vividly feel the roots writhing like worms beneath his eyelids, inside his ears, nostrils, and mouth. These roots had a single ultimate target: Xu Zhong himself.

The roots quickly wrapped around him, and in an instant, the power of his body began to be continuously transferred into the Dao Tree. Xu Zhong’s body grew increasingly weak; his qi and blood, his essence and magical power were depleted by more than half in a single breath. Without qi and blood, without essence, a person becomes withered and emaciated, as if they had been drained by a hundred demonic absorptions overnight.

“The Dao Tree is truly growing!” the Faceless One exclaimed with ecstatic joy as he watched the golden leaves continuously unfurl. These leaves reflected endless radiant light and flowed with misty clouds. In an instant, dragons, phoenixes, and qilins emerged from the mist, their passage heralded by auspicious colors raining from the sky and divine springs welling from the earth. Supreme mystical techniques and countless magical teachings shone forth alongside the dragons, phoenixes, and qilins.

At that moment, the sound of the great Dao resounded in the void—profound and wondrous, weaving a grand hymn to the Dao. Moments later, celestial maidens scattered petals, and purple qi flowed from the east. The trunk and branches grew frenetically, glowing with divine light as they spiraled into the heavens, transforming into a portal in the void. That portal seemed to lead to the other shore.

The Faceless One was dazed and intoxicated, sensing the aura of the other shore through the portal. At the next moment, the portal opened, and the trunk transformed into a seven-colored rainbow bridge, connecting this place to the gateway. As he slightly focused, countless divine lights shone upon him like the Milky Way cascading down from the Ninth Heaven—a torrent of stars, majestic and overwhelming.

“Is this the primordial energy of the great Dao?” The Faceless One was utterly fascinated. The spiritual energy here surged violently, and within him and his dantian, he greedily absorbed the spiritual energy like a parched land meeting rain, continuously growing stronger. His cultivation realm was gradually rising. He opened his hands, bathing under the star river. The Reincarnation Heaven behind his head absorbed the stellar power flowing down from beyond the gate, becoming rounder, fuller, and more powerful.

The other Reincarnation Heavens on the Dao Tree did likewise, absorbing the primordial energy of the great Dao and restoring their vitality. They, in turn, nourished the Dao Tree, making it even stronger. After regaining some strength, he extended his hand forward. Instantly, skeletons rose slowly from the lake. These bones were crystalline, their silver marrow flowing like mercury or the star river, reflecting a power capable of bearing the weight of the entire cosmos—an eternal, unwavering might.

“Rise!” The Faceless One exhaled a burst of qi that struck the translucent bones. Immediately, the bones shattered, and the marrow that poured out resembled a star river extending thousands of miles, boundless and infinite. Every tiny particle was a miniature golden core, countless as grains of sand in the Ganges—this was the source of their power. Each of these skeletons had once been an innate deity, whose power was limitless. They had refined nearly every particle of their bodies into golden cores, every muscle into true dragons.

The formation composed of these innate deities’ bones as banners, and their marrow as the power source, was called the Epoch Divine Formation. A mustard seed contains a mountain; a single thought spans an epoch. Within this formation, time flows at a different speed than outside. One epoch here equals a single thought in the external world. Thus, the path through which spiritual energy transmits outward is infinitely extended, and time is stretched without end.

He must ensure that the anomalies here remain undetectable to the outside world. “The essence within these divine bones dissipates too quickly; at most, it can sustain for a hundred years,” he said, then turned his vision inward. The flow of time within his body accelerated rapidly, representing the passage of hundreds, even thousands, of years in an instant. This was the downside of the Epoch Divine Formation.

The duration for which the formation could be maintained depended on the lifespan of the person who activated it. This was a cosmic balance. Even beings as powerful as innate deities had limits to their longevity, and that limit was now perilously close. Within a single breath, he had burned through a hundred years of lifespan.

“I still have three epochs of lifespan remaining.” He activated the Fire Radiance Secret Store, revealing his remaining life. One epoch equaled 108,000 years. A normal innate deity could live through a chaotic epoch—108 billion years. But after being banished to the Sea of Chaos, their power could no longer remain at its peak. Over time, the qi within them transformed from primordial qi to innate qi, then to acquired qi.

Life depends on qi. The essence of life exists by relying on qi. They could live for a chaotic epoch because the quality of qi in their bodies was sufficient to sustain it. But once their qi degraded to innate and then acquired qi, they could no longer sustain such longevity. Gradually, these once nearly immortal deities began to approach death.

To prevent death, more and more creators hunted innate deities, who in turn banded together to hunt creators. The entire Sea of Chaos was a hunting ground. Everyone was a predator, wandering alone in the dark, waiting for another hunter to reveal themselves and become prey.

The Faceless One was powerful enough to trap and kill countless innate deities, consuming part of their power and using the rest to grow Dao Trees. When the trees were fully grown, he refined their skeletons into banners and formed the Epoch Divine Formation before him.

He paid no heed to the depletion of his lifespan within. This was only the influence of his lifespan being affected by the level of innate qi. At this moment, the gateway before him was wide open, countless streams of primordial energy flowing endlessly, which he devoured ravenously. His cultivation was recovering, and so was his lifespan.

At this moment, life and death became a tug-of-war. He only needed to transform the innate qi into primordial qi before his lifespan ran out, so he would no longer fear the backlash of the Epoch Divine Formation’s lifespan consumption. Thus, he sat cross-legged, receiving the primordial energy. The acquired qi within him was purified into innate qi.

The outer realm appeared behind his head—limitless, with the sun and moon suspended in the sky, stars like an ocean, and innate qi permeating the entire outer realm world. As the innate qi within him thickened and deepened, the outer realm constantly changed. It grew increasingly illusory and merged with the whole world—the Dao merged with Dao, the sun with sun, the moon with moon. In short, the entire outer realm continuously fused into the world.

This was called “Equalizing with Things.” To be equal with things is to be in harmony with them. The outer realm must fuse with the world; only after fusing can it be separated from the world. This was the process of a qi refiner exploring outward. Only by merging the outer realm with the world can one grasp the essence of the world, then refine the outer realm into a true world contained within oneself. This was the inner realm.

The world within the inner realm was indistinguishable from the real world. It obeyed the same great Dao laws and even contained reflections of Fengdu, forming its own reincarnation system. Thus, the inner realm could nurture life and accommodate the qi refiner’s cultivation, whereas the outer realm could only harbor life, not nurture it. Life born in the inner realm had cultivation limits dependent on the inner realm master’s level.

That was why Xu Zhong and the others could be refined from falsehood into reality—because, aside from lacking the yin aspect, they were all lives acknowledged by the Dao and Fengdu. By merging the outer realm into the world, then absorbing this fused outer realm into the body, one could encompass heaven and earth within oneself. This was the initial exploration outward and reflection inward described by the little fox.

After completing all this, one could attempt to refine the inner realm world from falsehood into reality, transforming it into a genuine world. With this real world, one could transcend the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. The Dao gives rise to One, and this One is qi. Once an independent world is born within the body, the qi refiner completes the transformation from innate qi to primordial qi, thus achieving the cultivation of an innate deity.

What followed was a more profound realm of creation, so subtle it defied articulation. At this moment, the Faceless One had completed merging the outer realm with the entire world and was attempting to separate this outer realm from the world again. He took ten years to accomplish all this.

Logically, given Xu Zhong’s cultivation, he would not have been able to endure ten years. Yet, after initially absorbing part of his qi and blood, the Dao Tree no longer drained him. In fact, the Dao Tree’s nourishment came from the demonic form of the heavenly way and the White Marsh Diagram. As the demonic form weakened, so too did the White Marsh Diagram and the endless seals, to the point Xu Zhong could almost pierce them with a single finger.

Yet Xu Zhong harbored no such intentions. Because during those ten years, he had already found a way to break free.