Eternal Time and Space

Chapter 19 Reshaping the System

The mortal prison trembled for a full twelve days.

Twelve days later, the city gates were opened again.

The Qiankun Diagram and the Qiankun Ruler have been completely refined and integrated into the Red Dust Prison. Landscape patterns have appeared on the walls of the Red Dust Prison, indicating that the world of the Qiankun Diagram has been re-emerged in the city. A jade ruler phantom hangs above the city tower, and its slight tremors cause the space within the Red Dust Prison to resonate.

Zi Chen pulled the five-needle pine from the valley and merged it into the mortal prison.

The moment the five-needle pine entered the city, the power of the five elements intertwined and merged with the world of heaven and earth in the Qiankun Diagram and the spatial power of the Qiankun Ruler. The blood-red cloud seals on the city wall began to change, and many Daoist rhymes such as the five elements, heaven and earth, life and death, and annihilation were intertwined and expanded within it, as if it was gestating something.

The aura of the Red Dust Prison surged, and its grade completely surpassed that of a top-tier innate spiritual treasure.

After devouring numerous innate saints and innate spiritual treasures, the three acquired treasures—the Galaxy Axis, the Nine Nether Cauldron, and the Mortal Prison—have all reached a level surpassing that of top-tier innate spiritual treasures. Zi Chen's hunt for innate saints can now come to an end.

Zi Chen stood at the highest point of the Red Dust Prison, his white robes fluttering in the wind. The Milky Way unfolded beside him, with the sun, moon, and stars revolving around him. The Nine Nether Cauldron hung behind him, its dark light as deep as an abyss. The Red Dust Prison was beneath his feet, its three city gates wide open, their crimson light illuminating the heavens and the earth.

We are one step closer to surpassing Pangu.

In the blink of an eye, 100,000 years have passed.

For the Primordial World, 100,000 years is but a fleeting moment, yet Zi Chen's cultivation has stagnated completely during these 100,000 years.

At the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm, with the Three Flowers Gathering at the Top and the Five Qi Converging at the Origin, this level of cultivation would place him among the very elite in the primordial world. But Zi Chen knew it wasn't enough. He was a Chaos God-Demon, the embodiment of time itself. In the chaos, the three thousand gods and demons did not cultivate the Great Dao or refine supernatural powers. They relied solely on instinct to devour chaotic matter, strengthening their physical bodies and origins. At that time, he was a torrent of light surging forth from the depths of chaos, rushing towards the unknowable future. He never considered what realm or bottleneck he might be talking about.

But this is the primordial world. After Pangu separated heaven and earth, everything changed. The rules of chaos no longer apply here. The Heavenly Dao replaced the will of chaos, and cultivation replaced instinct.

Zi Chen cultivated from Golden Immortal to Great Luo, relying on the origins of the Five Elements, the origin of spacetime, and the origins of the Three Heavens and Four Darknesses. In the end, it was plundering and devouring, the old path of the Chaos Gods and Demons. But this path came to an end when he reached the peak of Great Luo.

He needs a new path.

Over the course of 100,000 years, Zi Chen traveled to every corner of the prehistoric world. He saw the sunrise on the shores of the East Sea, the sunset in the Gobi Desert of the West, the miasma in the dense forests of the South Frontier, and the aurora in the snowy regions of the North Plains. He also found many things.

Hidden in the belly of Kunlun Mountain is the Yin-Yang Mirror, a primordial spiritual treasure; the Soul-Losing Bell, a superior spiritual treasure, lies at the bottom of the Weak Water River; and the Primordial Chaos Hammer, a top-grade spiritual treasure, is embedded in the waist of Buzhou Mountain.

One by one, Zi Chen put the innate spiritual treasures into his sleeve. Instead of refining these treasures into the Milky Way Axis or the Nine Nether Cauldron, Zi Chen calmed down and began to comprehend the great Dao of Heaven and Earth contained within them.

Each innate spiritual treasure is the essence condensed at the time of creation, and each carries fragments of one or more Great Daos.

The Yin-Yang Mirror contains the profound principles of Yin and Yang, the Soul-Losing Bell is engraved with the mystery of the birth and death of the soul, and the Primordial Hammer contains the mark of the origin of power.

There are also four fragments of the Creation Jade Disc, which are remnants of the most powerful treasure in the primordial world, carrying the foundation of the three thousand Great Daos.

When Zi Chen comprehended these four fragments, his consciousness seemed to touch upon the scene at the very beginning of the creation of heaven and earth: chaos tearing apart, purity and turbidity separating, the Great Dao emerging, and all things beginning to be born. It was the moment when Pangu created the world, and also the moment when the Heavenly Dao was born.

Zi Chen studied each fragment one by one, integrating these fragments of the Great Dao, and gradually saw the foundation of the primordial cultivation system.

Three flowers and five elements.

The Five Qi are the Five Elements, which are the foundation of all things. The Three Flowers are Essence, Qi, and Spirit, which are higher levels than the Five Elements. The Heavenly Flower corresponds to the Heavenly Dao, the Earthly Flower to the Earthly Dao, and the Human Flower to the Human Dao. The Three Powers of Heaven, Earth, and Man, and the Three Treasures of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, are the foundation of cultivators in the Primordial Era.

But Zi Chen is not a primordial cultivator; he is a chaotic god and demon. His foundation is not the Three Flowers and Five Qi, but the origin of time and space. The Five Qi can be replenished by plundering, and the Three Flowers can be condensed by devouring. But if he wants to go further, he must forge his own path.

Above the Three Flowers, there should be an even higher level. It is not simply the unity of essence, energy, and spirit, but the complete fusion of one's own origin with the Three Flowers and Five Elements, using space and time as a framework, the origin as flesh and blood, and the Three Flowers and Five Elements as a foundation to reshape one's own cultivation system.

Zi Chen had been deducing this path for 100,000 years, refining and revising it repeatedly, and finally, on this day, he figured out the last key point.

The starry sea was boundless, and the sun, moon, and stars revolved endlessly. Zi Chen sat cross-legged in the void, with the scroll of the Milky Way unfolding beneath him, the light of the sun, moon, and stars enveloping him. The Nine Nether Cauldron hung behind him, its dark light as deep as an abyss. The Crimson Prison had shrunk to the size of a fist and was slowly rotating in his palm. The Hundred-Year Ruler lay across his knees, its amber body emitting a faint golden light. Four fragments of the Creation Jade Disc floated around him, slowly rotating. Each rotation resonated with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, emitting a faint Dao sound.

Zi Chen closed his eyes.

Above his head, three flowers slowly bloomed.

The Heavenly Flower has thirty-six varieties, silvery-white like the moon, with petals layered upon each other, like countless layers of time and space superimposed together; the Earthly Flower has seventy-two varieties, golden and dazzling, as heavy as a mountain, with the texture of the earth reflected on its petals; the Human Flower has twelve varieties, crimson like blood, pure as glass, with all kinds of beings flowing endlessly on its petals.

The gathering of three flowers at the top and the convergence of five energies at the origin symbolize the perfection of a Great Golden Immortal.

Zi Chen took a deep breath, his eyes reflecting the interplay of time and space.

The Hundred-Year Ruler suddenly trembled, and a hundred markings on its amber-colored body lit up simultaneously. At the same time, a fragment of the Creation Jade Disc exploded, and an immense and unparalleled power surged out from it, intertwining with the light of the Hundred-Year Ruler and transforming into a magnificent silver-white torrent that shot into the sky from above Zi Chen's head.

Amidst the torrent, light and shadow flicker, revealing the primordial chaos before creation, the axe light of Pangu when he separated heaven and earth, the differentiation of purity and turbidity at the beginning of heaven and earth, and the vibrant life force at the birth of all things. Everything in the past flows within it, and everything in the future is also conceived within it. It has no beginning and no end, no visible end or origin, but is simply a pure and eternal light.

The torrent rises, carrying the three flowers.

The three flowers slowly rotated in the torrent, and traces of the passage of time began to appear on their petals. The petals of the celestial flower showed the light and shadow of the alternation of the sun and moon, the petals of the terrestrial flower showed the patterns of the changing seasons, and the petals of the human flower showed the various aspects of life, including birth, aging, sickness and death.

Zi Chen flipped his right hand, and the Eternal Bell flew out from his sleeve.

A silvery-white bell hangs above the torrent, its surface shimmering with countless shimmering patterns.

Zi Chen flicked his finger, and the bell rang out, its sound long and resonant. The Eternal Bell slowly sank into the torrent and landed in its former position.

The moment the Eternal Bell fell, the past in the torrent was anchored.

The past no longer flows, no longer changes, but has solidified into a hazy, chaotic grayness.

In the chaos, nothing can be seen or distinguished. Past time points are anchored and solidified one by one with the tolling of the bell. Everything that has happened is locked in the past, unchangeable and unshakable.