Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
A swan goose stretched its neck and flapped its wings vigorously, piercing the sky as it flew directly westward.
A flicker of panic passed through its eyes.
Gone…
After plotting against the Flame Crow, it flew nonstop toward Yunmeng Marsh for five days.
Memories of twenty-three years from its past life had vanished. Although it had expected this outcome, facing the gradual dissipation of memories still brought fear and discomfort.
Now it knew it had a past life but couldn't recall a single detail.
It knew of its past life, a reminder that came uncontrollably these past few days, like knowing a text by heart but being unable to recall the context in which it was learned.
Just a mere awareness!
Next, the turtle's memories would fade, and in no more than four days, all would be forgotten.
Su He exerted all his strength to fly toward Yunmeng Marsh, constantly reminding himself of his destination, hoping that even after complete memory loss, he would still remember where to fly.
With the real body opening the heavens, consciousness lingering by the side always brought reassurance, even if this consciousness had completely sealed away the memories.
The consciousness without memories wouldn't interfere with the opening of the heavens, as the elixir experiments had made clear.
***
Above Yunmeng Marsh, consciousness-awakened beasts were coming to their senses. Even half of the human cultivators had already returned from death.
Other Divine Beasts were manageable, most having undergone the Heaven Traverse to become Divine Beasts, with a past as ordinary wild beasts. But human cultivators, suddenly acquiring beast bodies, struggled to adapt, and half backed within the first three days.
Now, many gathered around the water surface, watching the Dragon Turtle. However, with the protective Golden Lotus and the multiple Formations set by Ji Feixue, their gaze couldn't penetrate; they could only sense the Dragon Turtle's aura growing stronger by the day.
"Is it this slow?" someone whispered, "Uncle's Traverse Heaven achievement wasn't this slow, right? The Dragon Turtle has been emanating the aura of opening the heavens for at least ten days now, hasn't it finished?"
Zeng glanced at him with a side-eye.
Ignorance! It hasn't even started! This is just the initial release of the aura of opening the heavens. The true process will take months of brewing, at the very least, the Dragon Turtle must adjust its body to perfection, and the heavenly artifact must be enhanced to its peak.
For some Divine Beasts, this process could even last for decades before they finally open the heavens. And opening the heavens is not like crossing a Tribulation; it's not that swift.
To transform every bit of chaos into an inner world is a painstaking process, typically carried out slowly under the protection of elders.
The Dragon Turtle's choice to open the heavens in Yunmeng Marsh was hasty.
Moreover, the absence of Dragon Turtle elders is abnormal!
Zeng returned early; its consciousness-awakened form was an earthworm, exposed on the surface rather than deep underground. A mere earthworm, unable to break through the Eastern Earth, froze to death in less than half an hour.
Only a quarter of an hour later than the Luo Fish.
Since the Dragon Turtle began to emanate the aura of opening the heavens, it had been watching. A Divine Beast's opening of the heavens is a chance encounter, a fortune that cannot be sought. The cultivators guarding the Dragon Turtle during its opening would receive blessings from heaven and earth.
Perhaps because the Dragon Turtle could refine chaos after opening the heavens, aiding the world's growth, heaven and earth were excited, thus… throwing money?
Time passed day by day.
On a lake between Dongyun Mountain and Xuantian Gate, a swan goose cried out to the sky, its eyes filled with confusion.
After some time, a line of swan geese cried out as they flew north.
The swan goose on the lake slowly lifted its head, flapping its wings in the water, and took off directly, wanting to join the flock. But halfway through, it unconsciously veered westward, not knowing why, only feeling that it should fly west.
Home was there!
A lone goose journeyed westward, not counting the days.
It landed by lakes and marshes, foraging for water plants, occasionally eating snails, shrimp, and crabs.
A curlew caught a river clam, its flesh plump and succulent. The swan goose, for some unknown reason, snatched the clam. The curlew, dumbfounded, cried out but didn't dare to snatch it back, flapping its wings to hunt elsewhere.
The swan goose cackled joyfully. Then, to its horror, it saw a golden stone fall from the sky, striking the clam.
Spinning rapidly.
Quality ×4.
The swan goose was startled, wanting to dodge but reluctant to leave. The once ordinary clam began to radiate light, its fragrance wafting enticingly.
Even more tempting.
The curlew rushed back madly to reclaim the clam, only to see the swan goose peck it and swallow the whole clam.
The curlew cried out in dismay, stretching its long beak to peck at the swan goose, which spread its wings and flew westward.
The curlew cursed loudly, its words harsh, stumbling and rolling twice, but it was helpless.
It watched the thief fly away.
Stomping in anger, the curlew thought, a goose eating a clam, not afraid of choking to death!
But choking was impossible; dice that enhance quality are perfectly suited for Su He, allowing for 100% absorption.
The swan goose continued westward, spring turned to summer, and it was now June. Far in the west, mountains appeared; at the swan goose's pace, it would reach them in about a month.
For some reason, it both longed for and repelled those mountains…
At the foot of the mountain, "Qingyuan" was inscribed on a green stone, but unfortunately, the swan goose couldn't read.
The swan goose detoured southwest.
Not out of fear of the mountains, but because ahead, something was fighting—a giant snake, confronting a group of people in the air.
The snake was clearly not ordinary, with wings on its back and clouds shrouding its surroundings.
Opposite it was a group of humans—humans who could fly, something the swan goose had long known. Over the past few months, it had encountered people riding swords in the sky, even faster than itself!
The leader, with several Fairy Swords flying out of a scabbard by his side and surrounded by flags forming a Formation, also had a large seal for protection.
Behind him were countless assistants, riding swords and forming a grand Formation, along with eight extremely tall stone statues, resisting the giant snake with him.
The swan goose took a wide detour, flying southwest, not daring to approach the battlefield.
Fortunately, they were only confronting each other; if they were fighting, even the scattered aftermath would be enough to destroy a hundred miles of the region.
The swan goose detoured, hearing from afar the leader's gentle persuasion, "Yuan Daoist friend, why resist? This matter benefits both if united, and harms both if divided. Joining forces with Qingyuan is greatly advantageous for you!"
The giant snake bared its fangs discontentedly, "Call me Moon Elder!" It roared before saying, "Don't think I don't know, Qingyuan is the birthplace of that Dragon Turtle! Moreover, if you, Feng Yiju, truly intended an alliance…" It glanced at the figures behind Feng Yiju.
"Why bring so many disciples along?"
A leak in affairs will bring chaos!
Feng Yiju smiled lightly, "Moon Elder, rest assured, bringing them is only to show you my strength, to put your mind at ease. These eight Great Ming King demon statues, needless to say, have lost consciousness. The disciples behind me are also loyal."
The Teng Snake scoffed, in this world, loyalty is the least reliable! Can disciple's loyalty compare to kin? When the Dragon Turtle attacked, didn't half of the Teng Snake's kin, built over tens of thousands of years, abandon it?
It had been hunting these kin for months; if it couldn't kill the Dragon Turtle, could it not kill its own traitors?
Feng Yiju shook his head and smiled, pushing forward a Fairy Sword with an insect fluttering its wings on the tip.
"Echo Bug?" The Teng Snake's eyes narrowed.
If Lu Ming were still alive, he would recognize this insect; it was the same one he used to communicate with his loyal followers in the Suppression Prison, and also the means by which he secretly influenced and controlled them.
***
The swan goose flew, its speed increasing as it went.
Detouring southwest, after half a month, it tilted its head to look further west, feeling something happening there that made its heart tremble.
The swan goose's small brain couldn't understand. Was that the destination, home?
Could it be that its flock had met with disaster? Struck by lightning while flying in a thunderstorm?
This season was prone to thunderstorms.
***
Crack!
Above Yunmeng Marsh, thunder roared, and runes fluttered in the sky, forbidding anyone from approaching the waters of the Dragon God Sacrifice. Consciousness-awakened Divine Beasts were immediately drawn away by the runes.
On the Golden Lotus where the Dragon Turtle resided, the aura was majestic, with thunder rumbling overhead. Lightning struck the Dragon Turtle.
But it wasn't a Tribulation, nor was it meant to harm the turtle.
Each bolt of lightning contained the purest elemental force from heaven and earth, replenishing energy for the Divine Beast about to open the heavens.
A Divine Beast capable of opening the heavens was truly the darling of heaven and earth in their eyes.
A group of Divine Beasts watched from afar.
Zeng checked all around; the Dragon Turtle's opening of the heavens was imminent, yet still no Dragon Turtle elders had come to protect it. However, the Orient Loong God from Xuantian Gate was right beside them.
That area was now a forbidden space; even if the Dragon Turtle elders wanted to break through, they couldn't do it now.
Boom!
A thunderous sound, not from the sky's lightning but from within the Dragon Turtle.
This was the sound of opening the heavens; after five months of brewing, the Dragon Turtle was about to open the heavens!
Ji Feixue wasn't at the scene; she was in her own garden, with a toad fixed in mid-air, its belly acting like a screen, displaying the scene inside Su He's realm bead.
Inside the realm bead, Mount Tai stood tall and majestic. At the peak, Wu Yingfeng stood, looking up at the indistinguishable chaos, with a brush in hand but no ink.
The whistling wind tousled Wu's clothes. After some time, he leaped into the chaos, his brush slashing through it.
A single yang line was drawn "—", just a straight line, neither powerful nor sharp, but like cold water poured into boiling oil, the entire chaos began to churn.
Immense thunder emerged within the chaos, its roar transmitting from the realm bead to the outside world, echoing above Yunmeng Marsh.
Wu continued his strokes, turning to draw a yin line "–" behind him.
Yin and yang met, and the entire chaos exploded violently.
The yin and yang lines are the foundation of the Eight Trigrams; with yin and yang, the Eight Trigrams can be formed, and from them, the Sixty-Four Hexagrams can be derived.
If chaos is one, then the yin and yang lines represent the Dao giving birth to one, and one giving birth to two.
The Dao divides into yin and yang!
The chaos boiled over, exploding with a bang, with the yin and yang lines at the center, two spaces burst forth, expanding rapidly and merging together.
The yang line turned into the sun, the yin line into the moon, both suspended in the sky, blasting open a space.
Wu didn't stop; his left foot on the sun, his right on the moon, using the brush as a knife, he drew the Qian Trigram ascending to heaven and the Kun Trigram descending to earth.
Drawing the Li Trigram, fire arose; drawing the Kan Trigram, water came, and water and fire merged, striking the chaos, a piece of it falling and being refined by water and fire, the inner world expanding greatly.
The Zhen Trigram brought rolling thunder, bolts striking the chaos.
The Xun Trigram brought wind, the wind of five colors, entering the chaos to open heaven and earth…