The foul breath of the Three-Eyed Wolf felt like a toxic cloud. Li Xin, trapped in the body of a translucent green stone, could feel the vibrations of the wolf's growl echoing through his very core. In the Honghuang, the "Great Desolate World," the law was simple: the strong eat the weak, and the weak are ground into dust to become the spiritual energy of the heavens.
"System! Run the simulation! I don't care about the cost, just find me a way to kill this thing or get away!" Li Xin roared in his mind.
[Ding! Consuming 20 units of Spiritual Energy. Current Balance: 30 units.]
[Simulation Beginning!]
[Year 1: The Three-Eyed Wolf bites into your stone body. Because you have reached the Peak of Qi Refining Stage, your body is as hard as iron. The wolf loses a tooth, but it becomes enraged.]
[Year 1 (Minute 5): The wolf uses its innate ability. The third eye opens, firing a beam of yellow 'Destruction Light.' You are melted into a puddle of slag. You have died.]
"Again! There has to be a flaw!"
[Simulation Beginning!]
[Year 1: You decide to self-detonate your Qi the moment the wolf bites. The explosion kills the wolf, but your soul is shattered in the process. You have died.]
"Again!"
[Simulation Beginning!]
[Year 1: You notice a small crack in the cliffside behind you. You use all your spiritual energy to vibrate your body, causing a minor rockslide. The wolf is distracted for a split second. You roll down the cliff into the 'River of Eternal Sorrow.']
[Year 1 (Month 2): The river is filled with Weak Water (Heavy Water) that erodes souls. You are slowly dissolved over two months of excruciating pain. You have died.]
Li Xin felt a cold sweat—if a rock could sweat. Every "Death" in the simulation felt terrifyingly real. But he was learning. He was seeing the patterns. He realized that as a rock, his mobility was his greatest weakness, but his "Innate Weight" was his greatest strength.
"System, one more time. Focus on the 'Innate Weight' and the wolf's third eye!"
[Simulation Beginning!]
[Year 1: You wait for the wolf to open its third eye. At the exact millisecond the light gathers, you exhaust your Qi to activate 'Innate Gravity.' You drop suddenly, avoiding the beam. The beam hits the cliff, causing a collapse. You use the falling debris to mask your aura and bury yourself deeper. The wolf, thinking you are destroyed, leaves.]
[Year 2: You remain buried. You discover a 'Severed Finger of a Chaos Fiend' in the deep soil beneath the cliff. The finger contains a drop of 'Fiend Blood.']
[Year 10: You attempt to refine the Fiend Blood. Your rock body cannot handle the chaotic energy. You explode. You have died.]
[The Simulation has ended. Duration: 10 years.]
[You may choose one of the following rewards:]
[Cultivation Technique: 'Innate Gravity Shift' (Initial Success).]
[Item Location: The coordinates of the 'Chaos Fiend Finger.']
[Combat Instinct: The timing to dodge the Three-Eyed Wolf's beam.]
"I choose Option 3! I need to survive the next ten seconds before I can worry about fingers or blood!"
FLASH.
Li Xin's consciousness was slammed back into reality. The Three-Eyed Wolf's vertical eye was already glowing with an ominous, sickly yellow light. The air around the wolf began to crackle.
Now!
The wolf's third eye snapped open. A beam of concentrated destruction shot forward.
In that same heartbeat, Li Xin didn't try to run. Instead, he withdrew every ounce of Qi from his surface and concentrated it at his base, creating a sudden, violent downward pull.
Swoosh!
The yellow beam passed exactly one inch above him, hitting the cliffside with the force of a nuclear strike.
BOOM!
The mountain groaned. Tons of rock and ancient soil shattered, cascading down like a waterfall of stone. Li Xin felt himself being swept away by the debris. He didn't resist. He used the chaos to tumble deeper into the darkness of the collapsing mountain.
The Three-Eyed Wolf howled in frustration, its golden fur covered in dust. It sniffed the air, but the smell of burnt ozone and the chaotic Qi of the destroyed cliff masked Li Xin's tiny spirit aura. After circling the area for an hour, the beast spat on the ground and vanished into the jungle.
Deep beneath the rubble, Li Xin lay still.
"I survived..." he exhaled, his spiritual core flickering weakly. "But I'm buried under at least fifty meters of primordial rock. If I were a normal cultivator, I'd be trapped forever. But for a Spirit Rock... this is home."
He looked at his internal status. His Qi was depleted, but he felt a strange pull from the earth beneath him. It was a cold, dark, and ancient sensation.
"The simulation mentioned a Chaos Fiend Finger... it should be right below me."
Li Xin began to use his remaining strength to 'pulse' his spiritual energy, slowly vibrating the earth around him to sink deeper. After what felt like days of digging through the dark, his spiritual perception hit something that felt... wrong.
It wasn't rock. It wasn't soil. It was something that felt like it existed before the world was created.
It was a finger, three meters long, looking like charred obsidian. It was covered in purple runes that seemed to writhe like snakes. This was a remnant of a Chaos Fiend—one of the three thousand giants that Pangu had slaughtered to create the universe.
[Ding! Warning! Extremely high energy detected. Probability of soul corruption: 99%.]
"System," Li Xin whispered, a daring plan forming in his mind. "If I can't refine it directly, can I use the Simulator to find a way to 'filter' its power through my rock body?"
[Ding! New Simulation requires 50 units of Spiritual Energy. Current Balance: 5 units. Please replenish energy to proceed.]
Li Xin looked at the finger. Even the tiny wisps of aura escaping from it were enough to make his Spirit Rock body feel like it was becoming a Diamond.
"In this world, being a 'Good Rock' gets you pissed on. Being a 'Sacred Rock' gets you refined into a weapon for someone else. But a 'Chaos Rock'... even the Saints might hesitate to touch that."
He began to absorb the ambient energy from the finger, not the blood itself, but the 'Shadow' it cast.
[Energy +1... +5... +10...]
He was gambling with his existence. In the distance, he could hear the roars of the Dragon Clan in the sky and the screams of the earth being reshaped. The Honghuang was a meat grinder, and Li Xin had just found a way to sharpen his teeth
The stench of ozone and burnt earth filled the underground cavity. Li Xin, now a semi-translucent green spirit stone, lay buried under fifty meters of mountain debris. Above him, the Three-Eyed Wolf's frustrated howls finally faded into the distance.
He was safe, for now. But in the Honghuang, safety was a fleeting illusion.
"System," Li Xin called out, his mental voice echoing in the darkness of his soul. "Status check."
[Ding! Host Status:]
Name: Li Xin
Form: Innate Spirit Rock (Low Grade)
Cultivation: Peak of Qi Refining Stage
Energy Balance: 15 Units
Current State: Minor structural cracks, Spiritual energy depleted.
"Fifteen units... barely enough for a cup of tea in this world," Li Xin muttered. His spiritual perception, which had expanded after his breakthrough, brushed against the object beneath him. It was the Chaos Fiend Finger.
The finger was a massive pillar of charred obsidian, radiating a cold, suffocating pressure. It didn't belong to this world. It was a remnant of the era before Pangu, an era of pure, unbridled destruction.
"If I touch this directly, I'll die. If I don't touch it, I'll stay a rock forever until some immortal picks me up to decorate his garden," Li Xin thought. "System, I need a path. Run a specialized simulation: 'Refining the Chaos Shadow.'"
[Ding! Consuming 10 units of Spiritual Energy. Simulation Beginning!]
[The Simulation: Path of the Obsidian Heart]
[Year 1: You extend a tiny thread of spiritual Qi and touch the surface of the Fiend Finger. The moment of contact feels like a sun exploding in your mind. The chaotic intent of the finger rushes into your core. You try to suppress it with your Qi Refining cultivation. You fail. Your rock body turns into black dust in three seconds. Death!]
[Year 1 (Attempt 2): You don't touch the finger. Instead, you absorb the 'Shadow Aura'—the waste energy leaking from it. Your green stone body begins to develop black veins. Your strength increases, but your mind becomes clouded with murderous rage. You lose your intelligence and become a 'Demonic Rock.' Failure!]
[Year 10: After absorbing the Shadow Aura for a decade, you finally have enough strength to move. You burst out of the ground, screaming in madness. A passing Daoist from the Kunlun Mountains sees you. He calls you an 'Abomination' and crushes you with a flip of his sleeve. Death!]
[Year 50: You change your strategy. You use the 'Innate Gravity Shift' you learned earlier to create a vacuum around the finger. You force the chaotic energy to vibrate at the same frequency as your own core. The energy begins to harmonize. Your green color fades, replaced by a deep, starry obsidian. You have successfully integrated a 'Trace of Chaos Bloodline.']
[Year 100: You have reached the 'Foundation Establishment' stage. Your body is now a Chaos Spirit Stone. However, the Heavenly Dao detects your 'illegal' bloodline. A bolt of Purple Destructive Lightning strikes the mountain. You are turned into a handful of salt. Death!]
[The Simulation has ended. Duration: 100 years.]
[Evaluation: You have found a way to bridge the gap between a 'Stone' and a 'God,' but the Heavens do not allow your existence.]
[You may choose one of the following rewards:]
[Bloodline: 'Chaos-Veined Obsidian' (1% Purity).]
[Cultivation Level: Early Foundation Establishment (Stone Core).]
[Secret Technique: 'Heavenly Aura Concealment' (A method to hide from the Dao).]
Li Xin didn't hesitate. "I choose Option 3! Without concealment, all the power in the world is just a beacon for lightning."
FLASH.
A flood of ancient, complex runes carved themselves into Li Xin's soul. It was a technique that allowed him to wrap his spiritual signature in a "shroud of nothingness." To the world, he would look like a normal, boring rock. To the Heavens, he wouldn't exist at all.
"Now... let's do this for real."
Li Xin began the process. He didn't rush. He used his spiritual threads to mimic the vibration he saw in the simulation. He touched the Chaos Fiend Finger.
THUM-THUM.
It felt like a heartbeat. The finger wasn't dead; it was dreaming. As the chaotic energy entered his body, Li Xin felt his consciousness being pulled into a vision. He saw the Primordial Chaos before the world began. He saw thousands of giants—the Chaos Fiends—roaring as a single man with an axe carved a path through them.
The pain was beyond physical. His stone body cracked. The translucent green surface began to flake away, revealing a core that was dark, dense, and shimmering with purple light.
[Ding! Breakthrough detected!]
[You have reached the 'Foundation Establishment' Stage (Stone Core).]
[Your lifespan has increased to 500 years.]
Li Xin felt a surge of power. He was no longer a "pebble." He was now a Chaos Spirit Stone. If the Three-Eyed Wolf bit him now, the wolf's entire jaw would shatter into powder.
But he wasn't done. As he finished refining the energy, a strange vibration echoed through the earth. It wasn't the wolf. It was something much more powerful.
From the surface, a voice boomed, vibrating through the rock and soil like a physical blow.
"Strange... I sensed a ripple of Chaos here. Could a remnant of the Fiends have survived Pangu's axe?"
Li Xin froze. He immediately activated the 'Heavenly Aura Concealment.' He shrunk his presence until he was nothing more than a speck of dust in the spiritual world.
Through the layers of earth, his spiritual perception saw a man descending from the clouds. The man wore a long, flowing robe embroidered with the diagrams of the Eight Trigrams. He held a whisk in his hand, and his eyes seemed to contain the birth and death of stars.
An Immortal? No... that aura... it's a Great Immortal! Li Xin realized with horror.
The man landed exactly where the cliff had collapsed. He waved his whisk, and the tons of rubble Li Xin was buried under simply... vanished. They turned into light and dissipated, leaving Li Xin exposed in a deep crater, sitting right next to the Chaos Fiend Finger.
The Immortal looked down. His gaze passed over Li Xin—who looked like a charred, useless burnt rock—and landed on the giant obsidian finger.
"Aha. A Fiend Finger. No wonder," the Immortal mused. He reached out his hand, and the three-meter-long finger shrank until it was the size of a needle, flying into his sleeve.
Then, he looked at Li Xin again.
Li Xin's "heart" stopped. Don't look at me. I'm a rock. I'm a boring, burnt, useless rock.
The Immortal walked closer. He poked Li Xin with the end of his whisk. "And this... a spirit stone that was caught in the crossfire? Poor thing. Its spirituality is burnt out. It's nothing but dross now."
The Immortal shook his head. "Wait. Since I have taken the treasure of this mountain, I shall leave a trace of karma. Little stone, if you ever manage to regain your spirit, remember this encounter."
The man tapped Li Xin's surface with a finger. A single drop of Innate Morning Dew fell from his fingertip and soaked into Li Xin's cracks.
"Farewell."
With a step, the man vanished into thin air.
Li Xin waited. He waited for an hour. Then a day. Then a week. Only when he was absolutely sure the "Great Immortal" was gone did he dare to breathe.
"System... who was that?"
[Ding! Analysing remnant aura... Match found: 'Great Immortal Zhenyuan,' the Ancestor of Earth Immortals.]
Li Xin felt a chill. Zhenyuan! One of the most powerful beings in the Honghuang, the owner of the Ginseng Fruit Tree!
"He thought I was dross because of the concealment technique," Li Xin laughed inwardly, though he was trembling. "But he gave me a drop of Innate Morning Dew as 'Karma'..."
He looked at his internal status. The drop of dew was swirling in his core, glowing with a pure, holy light that was the exact opposite of the Chaos energy he had just absorbed.
The two energies—Chaos and Holiness—began to clash.
[Warning! Internal Conflict detected! Your body is becoming a battlefield between the 'Chaos Fiend' energy and 'Innate Holiness.']
[Probability of explosion: 85%.]
"I knew it wouldn't be that easy," Li Xin gritted his teeth. "System! Run a simulation. How do I fuse these two powers? I don't want to be a 'Chaos Rock' or a 'Holy Rock.' I want to be the World Rock!"
[Ding! New Simulation Beginning...]
Li Xin closed his eyes. In the deep crater of the broken mountain, the obsidian stone began to glow with two colors: a terrifying purple and a serene gold. The real struggle for his existence had only just begun.