Chapter Nine: The True Form of Pangu

"Haha... I made the right bet this time, what a windfall!" Delighted by his abundant gains, the Old Ancestor of Heaven and Earth could hardly contain his joy. At that moment, the mechanical and icy voice of the Primeval Dao Proving System resounded in his mind, "Congratulations, Master. You have slain the Old Ancestor of the Nether River and completed the task of obtaining the Northern Black Tortoise Water-Control Banner. The rewards are generous: nine thousand system points."

"Nine thousand system points?" His eyes widened in surprise, and he felt even more elated. "Killing the Old Ancestor of the Nether River brings such a rich reward in system points. Damn, maybe I should become a hunter of primeval powerhouses from now on. But then, the top experts in the primordial world aren’t so easily dispatched, and some can’t be killed at will. If it weren’t for the Heaven and Earth Cauldron, I wouldn’t have managed to kill him so easily this time!"

"Wait, now that the true body of the Old Ancestor of the Nether River has been destroyed, even if his Blood God Child avatars aren’t completely wiped out, they must be severely wounded and unable to wield the might of the Blood Sea Grand Array. I mustn’t give them time to recover—better to wipe them out quickly." With this sudden realization, he stepped out from within the Heaven and Earth Cauldron. Sure enough, he saw the Blood Sea Grand Array outside had been greatly weakened. He waved his hand, stowed away the cauldron, and his figure flickered, appearing at one of the array’s critical points. With a palm strike into the blood-red sea below, the water surged and splashed, and a hidden Blood God Child avatar was immediately shattered and dispersed.

With his intimate knowledge of the Blood Sea Grand Array, the Old Ancestor of Heaven and Earth used his Void Evasion Art, easily tracking down the avatars of the Old Ancestor of the Nether River who maintained the formation, and destroyed them all with a wave of his hand, as they were already grievously injured and weak.

Though his Void Evasion Art was swift, the Old Ancestor of the Nether River’s Blood God Child avatars were simply too numerous—numbering three thousand, it was said! While he managed to slay the vast majority, a few still managed to escape from the Blood Sea, scattering in all directions.

Nonetheless, these avatars, having lost the Blood Sea as their power source, were no longer a concern and not worth his further effort.

Afterward, the Old Ancestor did not immediately leave the Nether Blood Sea. Instead, he chose to enter seclusion there, intending to use the essence blood left behind by the fallen Old Ancestor of the Nether River to cultivate a Blood Sea avatar for himself, one that could impersonate the Old Ancestor and control the Nether Blood Sea.

Having acquired the method of cultivating Blood God Child avatars, the Old Ancestor of Heaven and Earth infused a wisp of his primordial spirit into the mass of essence blood, and within a few years, he had cultivated a Blood Sea avatar. As soon as it took form, it already possessed the cultivation of a Golden Immortal of Supreme Purity. Given time, and with nourishment from the source of the Blood Sea, it would be no difficult task for this avatar to ascend to the Grand Luo realm as well.

By then, his Blood Sea avatar would be the Old Ancestor of the Nether River in every respect—who in the primordial world could discern the truth?

Although he had now cultivated a Blood Sea avatar, it was still relatively weak, so the Old Ancestor was not comfortable leaving just yet. While the avatar went into quiet cultivation, striving to reach the Grand Luo level as soon as possible, the Old Ancestor himself hid within the Heaven and Earth Cauldron, using the Pangu essence blood and primordial energy stored within to cultivate the True Body of Pangu.

Because the True Body of Pangu was the body-forging art practiced by the Great God Pangu himself, it had a high starting point. At a minimum, one needed the flesh of a Grand Luo-level being, namely the body of a great ancestor of the witch tribe, to meet the prerequisites for cultivation.

The True Body of Pangu was divided into six stages. The first three corresponded to the three sub-levels of quasi-sainthood: single-corpse quasi-saint, double-corpse quasi-saint, and triple-corpse quasi-saint. The latter three matched the three levels of sainthood: early, middle, and late Hunyuan Grand Luo Golden Immortal. Taking into account the needs of weaker beings, the Great God Pangu also left behind a foundational body-forging method when he transmitted the art of the True Body of Pangu.

Even this foundational method was far superior and more refined than the Eight-Nine Profound Art developed and perfected by the Three Pure Ones. The Old Ancestor of Heaven and Earth revised this foundational method, dividing it into nine stages and naming it the Ninefold Primordial Art. The first three stages corresponded to beings below Earth Immortal, the middle three to Earth, Celestial, and Mysterious Immortal, and the final three to Metal, Supreme Golden Immortal, and Grand Luo Golden Immortal. The difficulty of cultivation and the resources required were staggered in three vast leaps.

His true body was already the innate form of a primordial god-demon, equivalent to a single-corpse quasi-saint. With the energy from Pangu’s primordial essence, he easily cultivated the second stage of the True Body of Pangu, with his physical power reaching that of a double-corpse quasi-saint. Yet, when he began the third stage, he sensed the growing difficulty. His bodily progress slowed significantly, and only after exhausting the remaining Pangu essence and about a tenth of the Pangu blood did he barely reach the peak of the double-corpse quasi-saint, still a thread’s breadth from the triple-corpse level.

Having reached this bottleneck, he stopped, unwilling to consume more Pangu blood. He had discovered a crucial problem: if his primordial spirit realm was insufficient while his physical body grew too powerful, it would put undue pressure on his primordial spirit. Unleashing his full bodily might would inevitably cause damage, much like a child swinging a massive hammer—unable to wield its true power and more likely to hurt himself.

In the blink of several centuries, his Blood Sea avatar not only regained the Grand Luo level, but, harnessing the Blood Sea’s energy, cultivated the Ninefold Primordial Art to the Grand Luo realm as well, making it comparable to the body of a great witch ancestor. Meanwhile, by drawing on the Blood Sea’s power, the avatar had also nurtured many new Blood God Child avatars—enough to arrange the Blood Sea Grand Array and guard the Nether Blood Sea.

Seeing that his Blood Sea avatar had fortified the sea into an impenetrable stronghold, the Old Ancestor finally departed quietly. Before leaving, he entrusted the Twelfth-Grade Karmic Red Lotus and the two divine swords, Abyss and Original Slaughter, to his avatar, taking only the Northern Black Tortoise Water-Control Banner with him.

After leaving the Nether Blood Sea, the Old Ancestor did not return directly to Fangzhang Isle in the East Sea, but instead made his way to Mount Buzhou.

His intention was clear: to climb the higher peaks of Mount Buzhou. First, to test the limits of his ascent under Pangu’s oppressive might; and second, to seek out rare spiritual materials or treasures that might be found in the higher reaches.

Not wishing to alert the Three Pure Ones, he crept up the mountain in secret, deliberately avoiding the locations of their secluded abodes.

Moreover, having cultivated the True Body of Pangu, he discovered one of its wondrous uses: when he concealed his aura, his body could perfectly seal off the presence of his primordial spirit, and his physical might could be easily restrained without leaking the slightest trace. Thus, unless someone saw him with their own eyes, it would be almost impossible to detect his approach. The chance of being discovered by the Three Pure Ones was vanishingly small.

Ascending stealthily into the clouds, the Old Ancestor noticed the vegetation on the upper slopes of Mount Buzhou grew sparse, eventually disappearing altogether. In their place, jade, mineral veins, and spiritual materials became more common, and these were of exceptional quality—yielding him a handsome harvest.

It was unclear how many layers of clouds he passed through, or how high he climbed, but as the cliffs grew ever steeper and the spiritual materials rarer, he was about to turn back when he caught a glimpse of something in the gap between layers of clouds—a faint black plant. His eyes brightened with curiosity, and he drew closer.

Approaching, he saw that it was a spiritual root growing on the slope of a cliff. It seemed unimpressive—short, with gnarled black branches and even black leaves, not at all eye-catching.

"What sort of tree is this? It almost looks like a tea tree," he wondered, reaching out to touch its bark. Instantly, a stream of profound information flooded into his primordial spirit, and he understood the origin of this spiritual root.

As it turned out, this was the very first innate tea tree born since the world’s creation, and it was a Dao Comprehension Tea Tree. Its leaves, when steeped in spiritual water, could enable cultivators to enter a deep state of enlightenment, providing wondrous effects comparable to sudden realization. Such an aid to enlightenment was undoubtedly a treasure of inestimable value.