Vol. 1 - Ch. 2 - Struggle for Survival

When a cultivator's primordial spirit leaves the body, no matter how powerful they are, the soul can only remain intact for seven days. With Bai Yun's cultivation, she could only keep her primordial spirit intact for three days. If she couldn't find a body within three days, she would inevitably face the fate of her soul dispersing.

Along the way, she did encounter cultivators with weak cultivation. However, she couldn't bring herself to take the body of an innocent person just to extend her own life. Moreover, Baili Qing had released a Soul-Chasing Beast that relentlessly pursued her, leaving her no choice but to keep fleeing.

Baili Qing, who had schemed and plotted for two hundred years, was ruthless and wouldn't allow Bai Yun's primordial spirit to escape, leaving no loose ends. She was determined to eliminate Bai Yun completely.

By the third day, Bai Yun was exhausted, her primordial spirit's energy depleted.

Surrounding her were green mountains and beautiful scenery, a stark contrast to the desolate landscape near the Skeleton Cave. Bai Yun calculated that she had likely fled to the territory of Tiyu Prefecture. Tiyu Prefecture had average spiritual energy and lacked prominent sects, only scattered with a few rogue cultivators and small sects. The prefecture had seven main mountains, but she didn't know which one she had ended up on.

Hiss—

A cold, eerie sound like ants' whispers reached her primordial spirit, sending a chill through her, nearly causing her unstable soul to disperse.

The Soul-Chasing Beast sent by Baili Qing was close by. Despite her prolonged escape, she hadn't managed to evade its keen sense of smell. She couldn't afford to linger and chose a remote path to continue fleeing. The scenery around her changed from green mountains to a jagged rock forest. With no time to spare, she delved deeper into the rock forest.

Hiss—

Another cold hiss echoed, and the Soul-Chasing Beast was now on her tail.

The air seemed to solidify as a beast with a ghostly, blue flame lunged at her, aiming to pin her down. Bai Yun darted forward, narrowly avoiding the beast's fangs, but its sharp claws swiped her, sending her hurtling towards a distant mountain area.

Her weakened primordial spirit couldn't control her movements, and she felt like a stone falling, sinking rapidly. By the time she regained control, she saw that the Soul-Chasing Beast had stopped in the distance, its head lowered, its front paws digging the ground in agitation, its gaze fierce yet wary.

It was the perfect opportunity for the beast to devour her primordial spirit, so why did it stop?

Her question was quickly answered as she sensed an overwhelming wave of spiritual energy behind her.

She could see the mountain area clearly from where she was; nothing seemed unusual at the boundary. But...

A restrictive formation?

Bai Yun looked at the mountain area in surprise. Given the dense spiritual energy and immense pressure, a powerful figure must be inside. But why would a high-level cultivator hide in this low-spiritual-energy region? She couldn't figure it out. Seeing the Soul-Chasing Beast readying its claws to leap at her, she didn't have time to think it over. She passed through the formation barrier with her ghostly body, not caring about potential dangers beyond it.

Safe and sound.

Bang—the formation barrier behind her emitted a loud bang, repelling the Soul-Chasing Beast with an invisible force, sending it crashing into distant rocks.

Bai Yun breathed a sigh of relief. The formation didn't restrict spiritual bodies.

　　————

The scenery inside the formation was no different from the outside, just jagged rocks and nothing else. The sunlight was blazing, and it was already past noon on the third day. Bai Yun's primordial spirit's light was faint. If she didn't find a suitable body soon, she wouldn't need the Soul-Chasing Beast to catch up; her soul would disperse. But with the beast still outside, what could she do?

Trapped in a difficult situation, she had no choice but to delve deeper, hoping to find another way out.

Before long, she drifted to the depths of the rock forest. There was no way out, only a massive stone cliff with a deep cave beneath it. The cave had no door, and faint golden light flickered inside, accompanied by a powerful pressure. Even as a spiritual body, she had to bow to this pressure, unable to move further.

Her own cultivation was already strong, and she often encountered powerful cultivators. Such overwhelming pressure was something she had only felt from Ancestor Xie Lengyue and Sect Leader Ye Zhao Lan. No one else had ever given her this kind of pressure.

Could there be a cultivator of the Transformation Realm or higher hiding here?

In the Wan Hua cultivation world, a cultivator's realm starts from Qi Refinement. After seven levels of Qi Refinement, one can begin Foundation Establishment. After shedding the mortal body and establishing the foundation, one can form a Golden Core. With the Golden Core, one can form the Nascent Soul. A perfected Nascent Soul leads to the Transformation Realm. A transformed body becomes semi-divine, and after understanding the world, one can reach the Unity Realm. Perfecting the Unity Realm leads to the Void Return, and reaching the Void Return means having a divine body. Beyond that is the Tribulation Realm, where one undergoes the Heavenly Tribulation. If one survives without turning to ashes, they achieve the Great Dao and possess sky-reaching abilities, no longer confined to Wan Hua Shenzhou, but entering a realm with even greater spiritual resources, known in both the celestial and mortal realms as 'Ascension.'

Each realm's advancement is exponentially harder. For example, it took her two hundred years to form a Golden Core, marking her as a prodigy in Wan Hua. However, to reach the Nascent Soul, it would take at least another eight hundred years, and from Nascent Soul to Transformation, another two thousand years, assuming no setbacks along the way.

A total of three thousand years of cultivation would be required to reach the level of the person before her. The difficulty of the immortal path lies in the perseverance over such a long period.

In the vast Wan Hua, among tens of millions of cultivators, only a handful reach the semi-divine body.

A cultivator of the Transformation Realm is beyond her comprehension. Bai Yun dared not advance further. She turned her spiritual body to the south, attempting to explore elsewhere. Suddenly, the world trembled violently, and she saw a red-clad male cultivator outside the formation, continuously attacking it with a sword.

In an instant, the sky changed color. What had just been a clear sky was now covered with blood clouds.

Bai Yun, who had cultivated on Wan Ren Mountain for a hundred years, had never witnessed such a fierce battle between great cultivators. For a moment, she was at a loss, unable to advance or retreat.

The attacks on the formation barrier erupted with bursts of red light. The red-clad male cultivator laughed maniacally, seemingly confident in breaking the barrier. Bai Yun's heart tightened. She could feel that the formation was indeed unstable. As she worried about her escape, the male cultivator conjured a long halberd and struck the barrier.

Fine cracks appeared in the air; the barrier was about to collapse.

At this critical moment, a giant hand made of spiritual energy suddenly extended from the half-closed cave, grabbing Bai Yun and pulling her inside.

The cave was filled with golden light. The giant hand moved quickly, and Bai Yun barely had time to see the entire cave. She glimpsed a web of golden light with a person bound in it, their face obscured by the radiance. The giant hand brought Bai Yun's primordial spirit to the person's forehead, and she turned into a green light, merging into their forehead.

The next moment, the world transformed into a vast void.

This person's consciousness realm was an endless void.

　　————

Stars swirled beneath her feet, and all phenomena alternated and intertwined. Bai Yun was shocked.

So this is the consciousness of a powerful cultivator. Such...astonishing eyes. She had never seen anything like it.

A consciousness realm unfolds based on a cultivator's primordial spirit and the firmness of their will. Bai Yun had grown up praised for her intelligence and talent, and although she was humble, she had a bit of pride, believing her consciousness realm far surpassed her peers. But today, seeing this scene, she realized there was always a higher sky to reach. Her cultivation was merely ant-like in comparison.

Despite her amazement, she didn't lose focus. She bowed and explained, "I didn't know an immortal was in seclusion here. It was unforgivable for me to intrude on this forbidden ground. But it was a matter of necessity. A few days ago, I was betrayed by a fellow disciple and had my body seized. Escaping with only my primordial spirit, I was pursued by a Soul-Chasing Beast and had no choice but to seek refuge here. I beg for your understanding, Immortal, and forgiveness for the disturbance."

As she explained, a golden light gradually formed into a human shape at her feet. When the light dissipated, she saw that it was a naked male infant. She was stunned. The infant climbed onto her skirt, gripping it tightly with chubby, lotus-like arms, his eyes shut tight.

Bai Yun was bewildered by the scene. She looked around but saw no one else in the consciousness realm.

She had heard from her sect elders that a cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage would have a Nascent Soul within them. But it was an essential part of their being, similar to a Golden Core, and wouldn't appear like this. Even if it did, it would resemble the cultivator's true form, not an infant.

As she pondered, a deep male voice echoed from all directions in the void.

"Pick me up."

"...?" Bai Yun looked around again but still saw no one. She didn't know where the voice came from.

Her skirt was tugged again. She looked down—was she supposed to pick up this child?

"Don't dawdle!" the voice urged.

Her skirt was tugged once more. Bai Yun, looking at the infant gripping her skirt, said nothing. Slowly, she bent down and picked up the child.

Both were spiritual bodies, so the child was weightless. He slightly tilted his face towards her, his features delicate and beautiful, his eyes tightly shut. She wondered how dazzling they would be when opened.

At such a close distance, she could see his long eyelashes tremble slightly, and an inexplicable sense of foreboding arose within her.

Sure enough, the child slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze was dazzling, full of brilliance.

One gold, one black—heterochromatic eyes?

Bai Yun felt a sudden sense of suffocation. No, they weren't heterochromatic. His black eye was normal, but the golden eye—its pupil wasn't normal. A crimson spider lurked in the gold, its eight legs spread out, its back covered in intricate runes, bizarre and seemingly capable of devouring souls.

Fear crept in. Her hands involuntarily loosened, but the infant clung tightly to her neck.

"Since you've trespassed into my forbidden ground, do something for me," the voice echoed in the void again. "Once the task is done, I will grant you rebirth."

"What task?" she asked.

He didn't answer. A blinding golden light shot from his golden eye directly into hers. She cried out and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the scene had changed to the stone cave. Continuous sounds of crashing came from outside. She tried to move but found her limbs unresponsive.

Looking down, Bai Yun was shocked.

She had become the man bound in the golden web.

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