Chapter 339: Primordial

"Flowing through the six voids, penetrating all hundred bones. Connecting above to the celestial stars, drawing below from the earth's veins. Primordial and immaculate, untouched by dust."

Inside the room.

Immortal qi swirled thickly, and faintly, dragons and phoenixes seemed to soar.

Li Rui sat with eyes closed, mind serene, posture at ease.

As if fused with the surrounding immortal qi, he bore an air of transcendence, as if no dust of this world could draw near him, utterly above it all.

"The Dao arises from emptiness to generate one qi; from that one qi, yin and yang are born; yin and yang reunite to give rise to the three bodies; the three bodies give birth to myriad things flourishing."

This is called the reversal of yin and yang, returning to the primordial state.

BOOM!

A powerful energy spread through Li Rui's body.

The immortal xuan qi within his qi sea merged into every single cell, making his entire body unprecedentedly strong.

From this point on.

Within his dantian, there was no longer a qi sea—only the image of the immortal dragon remained.

Or rather, every part of his body was now a qi sea.

This is the strength of a Primordial cultivator: every movement, every gesture, can summon true qi with effortless mastery—far surpassing ordinary Qi Sea cultivators, capable of killing them with a single strike or half-punch.

Only a Primordial cultivator may rightly be called a Master.

At this moment, Li Rui's physical body was terrifyingly strong, refined by qi, inner and outer unified.

How could he not be powerful?

Finally.

The commotion within his body gradually calmed.

Li Rui slowly opened his eyes, gazing at his own impossibly full skin, feeling unreal.

If anyone were to see him now.

They would surely bow and call him the immortal sage from legends—white-haired, youthful-faced, with an aura of divine grace.

"Have I entered Primordial?"

Without realizing it, he had become a Primordial cultivator.

Primordial—the pinnacle of martial cultivation.

The Emperor established the nine ranks: the lower three are called Transcending Mortality, the middle three are called Primordial, the upper three are called Earth Immortals.

Now he had reached the peak of the middle three, achieving Primordial.

Beyond that.

Lies the Land Immortal. The reason Primordial is called the pinnacle of martial cultivation is because beyond it lies the Dao so mysterious and profound that ordinary people cannot even touch it.

Otherwise, how could the upper three ranks earn the title of Immortal?

The mighty upper three cultivators can move mountains and reverse seas with a gesture—that is true harmony with heaven and earth.

It is said.

The high lord of Donghai City once walked alone upon the eastern seas, stirring up waves ten thousand zhang high.

Truly a grand spectacle.

Heart-stirring and awe-inspiring.

Not to speak of distant legends—Li Rui had personally witnessed the methods of the Martial Saint, Marquis Yuan. He truly deserved the title of Immortal.

At that level, one can no longer be called merely a martial cultivator.

He rivals the ancient immortals of old.

Li Rui exhaled a thick breath of turbid qi; the unprecedented power filled him with absolute security.

Rank Four was already an absolute upper-class figure in Yunzhou in the past.

Of course.

It still is in Yunzhou today.

But because Marquis Yuan's arrival brought many strong cultivators, he is not among the very top.

"Comfortable."

He had sat motionless all night.

Li Rui stretched, and the sky had just begun to lighten.

He decided not to sleep again, pulled on his clothes, stood up, and stepped out the door.

Clear-headed and refreshed.

From now on, old Li is also a Primordial martial cultivator.

He walked out of the courtyard.

As usual, he strolled with his hands behind his back, soon reaching the back courtyard, where he spotted Tie Kuang squatting, silently smoking his pipe.

Tie Kuang paid him no mind, eyes lowered, smoking in silence.

Li Rui walked over to Tie Kuang's side:

"Uncle Tie, mind giving me a smoke?"

Tie Kuang raised an eyebrow, grinned, and chuckled: "What? You're not quitting anymore?"

As he spoke, he smoothly pulled a brand-new brass pipe from his waist and handed it to Li Rui.

If he remembered right.

Li Rui hadn't smoked in nearly two or three years.

Why the sudden interest today?

Tie Kuang didn't think Li Rui was someone who couldn't control his desires, nor did he believe in "withdrawal symptoms," so he was even more curious.

He laughed and scolded: "This pipe I just forged—never smoked a single puff. Lucky you, boy."

Li Rui grinned.

He expertly grabbed a handful of tobacco from the bag beside Tie Kuang, packed it into the brass bowl, and leaned close:

"Light me up."

Then came a cloud of swirling smoke.

Tie Kuang glanced sideways at Li Rui: "Come on, tell me—what's the good news?"

Li Rui looked relaxed and content:

"Nothing much. Just happened to break through."

Cough, cough, cough.

A violent fit of coughing.

"????"

Tie Kuang's face turned red as he stared at Li Rui.

"Fuck your mother."

He couldn't help cursing, then blurted out: "You're Primordial?!"

Li Rui kept smoking, puffing calmly: "Uncle, if you're interested, I can spar with you sometime."

Tie Kuang rolled his eyes:

"Get lost."

A seasoned Primordial cultivator like him sparring with Li Rui.

Win, and it's meaningless. Lose, and he loses face.

Either way, it's a bad deal.

Besides, he knew Li Rui was a freak—there was no telling he might actually lose.

Li Rui grinned.

Breaking through was no fun if you kept it to yourself—you had to share.

With his nature, he'd never announce it to all of Qinghe. Tie the old man was the perfect person to tell.

Tight-lipped, strong enough, and close enough.

Tell his disciples, and those three fools might swell up. Tell Old Yang, and he might die of shock. Looked around—only Tie the old man fit perfectly.

He'd walked in on purpose.

He'd quit smoking before because smoke left residue on the body—even if negligible, Li Rui had cut it off entirely, as a test of willpower.

Now he was Primordial.

All evils could not touch him; such concerns were gone.

Smoking a pipe with Tie the old man, and showing off a little—this feeling was excellent.

Martial training is dull. Officialdom is uneasy.

One must find one's own joys.

One line of text contains a single character repeated: Yi

Tie Kuang stared at Li Rui like he was a monster: "You're truly a demon."

When he first met Li Rui.

Li Rui was just an obscure Longmen martial cultivator.

Now, he stood on equal footing as a Primordial Master—this pace was simply unreasonable.

He'd seen many geniuses in his life, even watched Jiang Lin grow.

But compared to Li Rui—

Jiang Lin, who had always dominated, could now only match him, and might even be falling behind.

In the past, that would have been unthinkable.

"The younger generation is formidable."

Tie Kuang had said this phrase for the umpteenth time.

Li Rui kept shattering his understanding again and again.

Before, he said it to Jiang Lin; now, he said it to Li Rui.

Li Rui: "Senior, I'm not that young either."

Tie Kuang snorted: "Pfft."

No matter how well one cultivates martial arts, one cannot reverse aging; at best, one maintains one's appearance through robust blood and qi, but when lifespan ends, one still withers—or one simply cultivates too late and misses the chance.

He belonged to the former; Li Rui belonged to the latter.

Tie Kuang, unusually interested, offered Li Rui a few rare pointers:

"Now that you've entered the Primordial Realm, you ought to know certain things."

"The Primordial Realm seeks to return to nature: refine the body, refine the heart, then refine the spirit, until true purity is achieved—only then can one stir heaven's resonance and borrow the power of heaven and earth."

"You're currently in the body-refining stage; don't reach too high. Just polish diligently."

Li Rui listened intently.

He had only ever read these principles in books before.

Old Tie had never told him.

It wasn't that he deliberately withheld them—Li Rui's realm simply hadn't reached that point; explaining them would've been useless and might even hinder his cultivation.

In martial cultivation, knowing too much isn't beneficial; better to bury your head in hard training and advance steadily.

Tie Kuang's gaze pierced the swirling smoke, fixed on the sky faintly tinged with crimson dawn:

"I'm old."

He had fully slipped into retirement.

Since handing the Immortal Blade over to Divine Weapon Manor, he no longer meddled in any of its affairs.

Though nominally the head of Divine Weapon Manor's Qinghe branch, he'd essentially left everything to Li Rui and Shi Zhou.

Every day, he hammered iron and chatted with people.

Life was wonderfully comfortable.

His only lingering thought was to see just how astonishing Li Rui would ultimately become.

Deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains.

In a valley of clear waters and verdant hills.

A grand, majestic complex of buildings, built into the mountains, suddenly appeared—solemn and imposing, with a vast, lengthy road piercing straight through the palace grounds, its gate towering over a hundred zhang high, like a monstrous beast gaping to swallow anyone whole.

At the center of the palace complex stood a hall forged entirely from black obsidian iron.

On the pillars before the hall, two ferocious dragons coiled and entwined.

It inspired awe and dread.

Deep within the hall, a towering Jianmu tree stood, utterly black, as if absorbing all light from the world.

Qu Chengfeng's voice echoed through the hall:

"Well done."

He gazed with satisfaction at the magnificent aura of the sect.

"Though far inferior to our original sect, it's barely sufficient."

Blood Shadow Ancestor stood behind Qu Chengfeng, bowing respectfully.

This place had been built at great cost by the Ghost Ming Sect and the Southern Frontier Qi Clan; yet even after being belittled by Qu Chengfeng, he felt no resentment—because Qu Chengfeng was comparing it to the Wan Fadian of the Upper Realm.

It was said:

Thousands of years ago, before the Qi Clan had founded its empire,

it had been a sect.

Later, during the chaos of the world, that generation's Sect Master led his elders and disciples to vie for dominance in the Central Plains, eventually ascending to rule all under heaven.

But there was a secret even the core members of the Qi Clan didn't know:

The Qi Clan's true origin lay within these Ten Thousand Mountains.

According to the Immortal Sovereign's words,

the Qi Clan were the tomb guardians left behind by the Wan Fadian of the Upper Realm.

But time had passed too long, the world had changed, and no one remembered anymore.

Restore the empire?

Merely a petty path.

The great age demands an immortal sect that endures for ten thousand years—why need any secular dynasty?

At that moment,

three colossal figures slowly appeared within the hall.

Immortal Phoenix, Celestial Ox Zhu Ha, Three-Eyed Ghost Elephant.

Their demonic aura surged into the heavens!

These were the sect's guardian divine beasts—the Three Pillars of the Sect.

Originally, there had been Four Pillars, but the great dragon had been slain by Yuan Dingting, reducing them to three.

Three Pillars, Eight Demon Kings—the Ghost Ming Sect and the Southern Frontier Qi Clan had merged.

Quietly, they had become a phenomenon that shook heaven and earth.

Blood Shadow Ancestor's eyes flickered with rare excitement.

"Immortal Sovereign, what shall we name our sect?"

Qu Chengfeng spoke slowly:

"Zi Jin Palace."

(End of Chapter)