Within the newly breached confines of the Heavenly Emperor's Treasure House, the initial eruption of blinding golden light had subsided, leaving behind a subtle, soft luminosity that barely chased away the pervasive darkness.
Lord Pig, having confidently flown through the shattered entrance, alighted gently upon the stone floor. His eyes, always keen, scanned the cavernous chamber. It was surprisingly minimalist, containing only one object of interest, dramatically spotlighted in the faint glow.
This centerpiece was a rustic, almost primitive wooden platform. It stood roughly half the height of a grown man, balanced precariously on a smooth, circular wooden pillar no thicker than an infant's arm.
This pillar seemed to sink directly into the ancient wood of the primordial tree, suggesting the entire assembly was one continuous, impossibly old growth. The small, flat platform at the top—about a foot across—supported the true prize.
Resting there was a small, ancient-looking cup, clearly carved from the same dark, primal wood as the pedestal. Lord Pig's gaze was immediately drawn not to the container, but to its contents.
The three-inch high cup held a volume of transparent, luminescent liquid, shimmering faintly like captured starlight. Floating on this liquid was a single, five-sided transparent stone, crystal-clear and utterly pure.
It was from this humble, flawless stone that the soft, pulsing light emanated, casting a semicircular curtain of shifting, refracting colors across the small platform.
"Aha! A baby!" Lord Pig exclaimed with the high-pitched squeal of a connoisseur discovering a five-star delicacy. He knew instinctively that this liquid and this stone were spiritual treasures of the highest order—the concentrated essence of the primordial tree and the cosmos itself.
Wasting no time on ceremony, Lord Pig used one paw to snatch the glittering stone and the other to grab the wooden cup. He didn't sip; he tipped the entire vessel back and gulped.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!
The act of consumption was a frantic, joyful sound in the silence of the treasury. The mysterious liquid rushed down his throat, and the effect was immediate and seismic. An indescribable sense of overwhelming, primal comfort crashed over him.
Every single cell in Lord Pig's magnificent body began to vibrate violently, not with pain, but with utter, ecstatic agreement. He opened his mouth wide, gulping the remainder, his whole being cheering with spiritual bliss.
The moment the last drop was swallowed, the transparent stone in his paw erupted. A thick, dazzling pillar of golden light shot straight up, piercing the gloom and slamming into the ceiling of the Heavenly Emperor's Treasure House.
A profound, echoing sound began to resonate within the chamber—a vast, mysterious noise that was sometimes like the solemn, arcane chanting of a thousand Buddhist monks on a sacred peak, and sometimes like the delicate, sorrowful whispers of forgotten, eternal souls in the underworld.
Illuminated by the golden pillar, enormous, bucket-sized golden characters materialized in the air above.
"Heaven and earth are unkind and treat all things as straw dogs!"
The ten words hung there, radiating immense, cold power, before slowly dissolving. However, the accompanying, mysterious chanting only intensified, becoming louder and more fervent.
Suddenly, the dazzling golden pillar exploded, scattering with incomparable heat across the walls of the treasury. Under the glare, an infinite array of vibrant golden characters appeared across every surface. They possessed vigorous, ancient strokes, flowing and flying as if endowed with life—the entire text of the third volume of the Celestial Tome.
"The third volume of the Heavenly Book has been discovered. It costs 1,000 energy and experience points to collect it!"
"Collect!"
Lord Pig was beside himself with triumph. Without a second's hesitation, he confirmed the action. The final, missing piece was now his!
Now, the moment of ultimate creation.
"Consume 10,000 energy and experience points to fuse the five volumes of the Heavenly Book with the Taiyin True Art!"
"Fusion!"
Lord Pig readily agreed. He was spiritually flush. In the last decade, his energy reserves had swelled to over 10 million units, and his experience points had reached 200,000. He could have ascended to Level Six years ago, but he was cautious—if he broke through the dimensional stability of the world, he would be unceremoniously whisked away before he could finish all the fun. Since he was already invincible in the current realm, there was no logical need for a potentially boring ascension.
BOOM!
The mental sound of the fusion was like the universe being born. Lord Pig's consciousness was instantly dragged away from his physical body and plunged into a swirling, terrifying gray chaos.
There was no spatial orientation—no up, no down, no left, no right. Time was meaningless. Everything was silent, filled only with the primordial, coiling, chaotic energy of creation.
WHENNNG!
Then came the sound of the Great Dao, resonating from the eternal void like a celestial bell—a sound of profound, world-defining truth.
A single point of vibrant green light pierced the chaos, spiraling upward and expanding rapidly into a colossal Giant Tree, the very axle of existence.
RUMBLE!
The chaotic ether boiled and churned. As the Giant Tree soared, it forcibly pulled the gray chaos apart, dividing it into Heaven and Earth. Simultaneously, an immense, terrifying ferocious black python erupted from the forming ground, its serpentine body wrapping tightly around the rising tree trunk.
Every ten feet the Giant Tree climbed, the heavens were pushed ten feet higher, and the black giant python grew correspondingly longer, its coils tightening around the expanding spiritual infrastructure of the newborn world.
Lord Pig's consciousness watched in stunned confusion. "Does that tree… look oddly familiar? What am I watching? I asked for a martial arts fusion, not a world-creation documentary!"
A flash of divine intuition struck him. The towering, sky-and-earth-spanning tree was an infinitely magnified version of the primordial tree he was currently standing on! And the coiling black python was the terrifying, Yin-charged essence of his Taiyin True Art, which was being woven into the very fabric of existence by the Celestial Tome!
The system wasn't just fusing techniques; it was tracing the techniques back to the source of reality, allowing Lord Pig to witness the very moment the Zhu Xian world was created!
This spectacle was more than just a magnificent show—it was the ultimate spiritual lesson. Though his current understanding was limited, witnessing the birth and definition of the Great Dao granted him a qualitative, irreversible leap in his comprehension of all things spiritual.
As the cosmos stabilized, the Giant Tree radiated blinding divine light. Yin and Yang separated, the Five Elements began their eternal dance, and the Sun, Moon, and Stars appeared, followed by mountains, rivers, and the first whispers of life.
The world was now fully formed, ready for the cycle of the weak preying upon the strong, all things subject to the laws set by the new, cosmic entity within his mind.
"The fusion of the skills is complete. Please name it, Host!"
The majestic, world-birthing vision dissolved, and Lord Pig's consciousness snapped back to reality, faced with the prompt.
"A name, eh? Hmm. Should it be the Pig God Heavenly Scripture? Too on the nose. The Haotian Dao Scripture? A bit generic. Perhaps the Pig Nerve? Comedic, but lacks gravitas for an immortal art."
He paced the wooden platform, the stone gate still ajar behind him. He needed a name that screamed Ultimate Truth while still sounding incredibly important.
"Since this technique traced back to the primordial source, and since it is designed to seamlessly integrate any and all other techniques in the future—truly becoming the genesis of countless Daoist arts and the supreme divine power of the universe—it shall be named: The Taihao Origin Sutra!"
The moment the words left his mouth, billions of ancient golden characters—the very incarnation of the Tao—flooded his body and soul. The immense, ultimate truths of the universe, the essence of the Three Thousand Great Ways, and the ultimate wisdom of the cosmos poured into him.
The Taihao Origin Sutra began to operate instantly, seemingly without his input. It became the sovereign ancestor of all paths, the eternal king of all laws, weaving every disparate force within Lord Pig's spirit into a unified, flawless system.
In the outside world, Lord Pig was instantly enveloped in a torrent of brilliant golden light, forming a colossal, shimmering golden egg. The egg pulsed with profound spiritual energy, its surface etched with mysterious, profound Daoist patterns that flowed and shifted, signifying limitless mystery.
Inside, the transformation was cataclysmic. In his dantian, all the chaotic forces resolved into a vast, swirling golden sea of clouds, the new core Source of Power. A magnificent, powerful energy was born from this source, flowing into every organ and limb.
His physical body underwent a dramatic, essential change. His physical might increased exponentially, but more importantly, he gained the power of perfect regeneration. As long as his spiritual source remained, regenerating lost limbs would be a trivial matter. He was now spiritually and physically Indestructible.
In his Sea of Consciousness, the roaring chaos gave way to order. His scattered soul power condensed rapidly, hardening until his soul was no longer an invisible spiritual concept, but a visible, sacred, and immortal golden entity.
WHENNNG!
Like the ultimate peal of the Dao bell, a sacred and solemn golden figure solidified in his mind's eye. It possessed clear, perfect facial features, picturesque eyebrows, and a truly heroic, handsome appearance—the flawless, spiritualized form of Lord Pig's human self from a past life.
"My word," Lord Pig thought, slightly dazed. "I was already handsome, but this… this is unbelievably handsome. The Taihao Origin Sutra truly understands aesthetics."
The golden figure—his Primordial Spirit (Yuanshen)—stood majestically, instantly suppressing the entirety of his Sea of Consciousness. This spirit was exponentially more powerful than the mere Nascent Souls or Incarnations of lower worlds.
With his Yuanshen formed, the world was instantly and utterly transparent. He could sense the fine, subtle flow of time and the ripples of space. More terrifying still, he realized that time held no meaning for him. It could no longer leave a mark.
"Lord Pig… is now an Immortal!"
Lord Pig's little fat face was alight with pure, unadulterated excitement. He let out a long, joyous roar—a sound that was now laced with the crushing, divine authority of the cosmos.
The golden eggshell around him instantly fractured and dissolved into luminous dust. Lord Pig flew out, hovering effortlessly in the void. He no longer needed trivial toys like the Wind and Thunder Wings; he stood simply because he willed it.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!
With a casual clench of his tiny paw, the space around his hand shattered. The resulting spatial fragments—the sharpest blades in existence—swirled around his body, but could not even scratch a single, golden hair.
BOOM!
Lord Pig decided it was time to make an exit. With a thought, he casually expanded his aura, and the thick, ancient stone door of the Heavenly Emperor's Treasure House—a door meant to withstand celestial assaults—was instantly pulverized.
He flew out, standing proudly in the open sky above the primordial tree, his little golden figure exuding a palpable, magnificent heroic spirit.
ROAR!
His long, echoing shout shattered the void for dozens of miles in every direction.
BOOM! BOOM!
The sky retaliated instantly. Dark, purple-black clouds boiled and converged in a terrifying display of divine displeasure. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and an atmosphere of crushing, murderous oppression descended—the unmistakable rage of the cosmos.
A curtain of red thunder—the Heavenly Punishment—began to pour down, seeking to eliminate the anomaly that had just transcended the limits of the mortal world.
Lord Pig looked up at the apocalyptic phenomenon, not with fear, but with utter delight. He had never been challenged by the cosmos before!
He raised his mighty, immortal fist and punched directly into the torrent of red heavenly wrath.
"SCRAM!"