Chapter 141: Thousand-Armed Guanyin

The cultivation notes of the Great God Pangu were turned to yet another page.

Ever since the lotus maiden perished in a self-detonation, the notes had been entirely devoid of words like "affection" or "love." The entries grew increasingly lengthy, filled with Pangu’s insights into monster-slaying and energy refinement, as well as his evolving understanding of the chaotic space and the management experience he gathered along the way.

Pangu’s cultivation was entirely self-taught, a process of feeling for stones to cross the river. In his time, terms like "cultivation" or "Heavenly Dao" did not yet exist. To Pangu, his cultivation relied on two things: hunting monsters and refining energy.

"Monster-slaying," initially, referred to the hunting of primordial energy within the chaotic space. Later, as demonic beasts appeared and began to cultivate, Pangu discovered that the energy gained from slaying a beast far surpassed that of capturing a mere wisp of raw primordial energy. Furthermore, nursing a long-standing grudge against the beasts for stealing fragments of the Chaotic Green Lotus from him, Pangu’s monster-slaying evolved into a systematic campaign against these creatures.

"Energy refinement," meanwhile, began as the process of purifying the spiritual energy within his body. Early on, Pangu realized that this practice strengthened his physique and cleared his meridians. Through trial and error, he summarized a complete set of techniques for refining energy.

As Pangu accidentally became the master of the chaotic space, his understanding of it deepened, and he spent more time in contemplation. This was the direct reason for the increasing length of his notes.

Without the "purification" of the Chaotic Green Lotus, the space began to evolve, absorbing the spiritual energy released by the primordial entities as their lifespans reached their end. Consequently, the development of these entities became increasingly diverse.

Under the radioactive pollution of the five-colored auspicious light particles (as Feng Ke'er put it—though Pangu, at the time, lacked the insight to know what "radioactive" or "pollution" meant), a small group of primordial entities mutated. Compared to the demonic beasts, they were massive and boasted far more formidable combat stats. Most importantly, it seemed these divine beasts were born as Pangu’s fans; they would instinctively shift their appearance to mimic his own. This left the monster-slaying Pangu completely unable to bring himself to attack them.

Later, as his cultivation increased exponentially and his state of mind improved, the range of Pangu’s actual control over the space expanded. He increasingly embodied the persona of a master of the chaotic space.

The position determines the perspective. With his status changed, his way of thinking shifted subtly. For instance, starting from the seventh level of the Void-Transformation stage, Pangu became increasingly conflicted about his attitude toward the demonic beasts. He had always believed he hated them, vowing to one day exterminate them all. Yet, on the long road of encirclement and suppression, he grew lost.

Were the demonic beasts truly wrong? Consuming external objects was the instinct of primordial energy. These energies were greedy and cruel; given the chance, they would devour their own kind without hesitation, let alone the remains of others who had self-detonated.

Fine, their consumption of the lotus maiden’s remains was an unforgivable sin. But their descendants had no idea who she was—what crime had they committed? Must they really all be wiped out?

Every time he thought this, an angry voice would arise in his heart: "Pangu, do not forget! Even if they are dead, their descendants carry their bloodline. Look! What grows inside the skulls of these demonic beast descendants? Beast crystals! That is the evidence that their ancestors feasted on the remains of the lotus. The sin is inherited through the bloodline, generation after generation."

Then, Pangu’s wavering resolve would harden once more. Regardless of his doubts, he would lift his giant axe and stride off to hunt the beasts. Then, he would waver again, then harden...

Basically, after every breakthrough, Pangu’s attitude toward the beasts would waver. That voice would emerge to persuade him with harsh words. Once his realm stabilized, his heart would return to its firm state, ending in the slaughter of the beasts.

It was almost always like this. The only difference was that the voice grew stronger and shriller. He needed to slay more and more beasts to regain his peace.

During this latest breakthrough, Pangu’s three primordial infants merged into a single great primordial spirit. As the spirit flew out from his dantian sea and exited his body, he was immensely excited, yet he unexpectedly discovered a wisp of black mist, as thick as two fingers, rising within his sea of consciousness. The mist was faint, flickering between dispersed and condensed. He focused his mind and realized this mist had no impact on his advancement. However, wherever the mist drifted, the white clouds formed by his divine sense would inexplicably surge into waves several feet high.

Could this mist be significant?

Yet, this was the critical moment of the primordial spirit’s emergence. Fearing that a lapse in concentration might lead to a cultivation deviation, Pangu held his breath and cast these chaotic suspicions aside.

Ten breaths later, the primordial spirit returned steadily to the dantian sea. Five-colored auspicious light erupted. The breakthrough was a success.

Pangu checked his sea of consciousness again. The wisp of mist had not dissipated; it had grown a finger thicker!

"Hahaha..." He seemed to hear a hoarse yet incredibly satisfied, wild laughter echoing in his mind.

The laughter sent a chill down his spine for no apparent reason.

When he strained his ears to listen, he heard only the sound of his own strong, powerful heartbeat.

Perhaps it was an illusion. Pangu did not dwell on it. He pulled out the jade slip made from a lotus petal to record his insights from this breakthrough. Unexpectedly, his sea of consciousness churned violently, and a hoarse, low voice resounded: "Pangu, the breakthrough is complete. Go kill a few demonic beasts to test your power."

The old routine of wavering and firming played out right on schedule. Pangu frowned. It seemed the reaction in his sea of consciousness was more intense than ever before—so much so that he was briefly breathless, as if an invisible hand were tightly gripping his throat.

Fortunately, this suffocating sensation passed in a flash.

Of course, there was progress: the time he spent wavering was greatly reduced. A dozen breaths later, that hoarse, low voice successfully ignited his killing intent.

This time, he went on a rampage that lasted three days and three nights.

When the killing intent receded and Pangu regained his composure, he found his robes soaked and layered with the blood of demonic beasts.

Within a radius of a thousand miles, blood flowed like a river, and the demonic beasts were extinct!

Checking his sea of consciousness again, the wisp of black mist had darkened significantly, remaining condensed and refusing to disperse.

Seeing that the primordial spirit in his dantian sea had its brows furrowed so tightly that a mosquito could be crushed between them, Pangu could not help but stroke his own furrowed brow. The chill in his heart grew deeper—he could not comprehend the black mist, but he had an intuition that it was definitely not a good thing.

After finishing these cultivation notes, Feng Ke'er sighed. Because she was standing on the shoulders of the Great God Pangu, she knew what this wisp of mist was.

A heart demon!

The displacement of anger onto the demonic race, reinforced through countless slaughters, had finally evolved into a heart demon.

She had caught the scent of this fixation turning into a demon in the previous entries. If not for the purifying effect of the five-colored auspicious light particles, she feared the heart demon would have already grown to the size of a fist by now.

The day this heart demon fully matured would be the day the Great God Pangu was consumed by it, becoming nothing more than a tool for slaughter!

Fortunately, the Great God Pangu was meticulous, steady in nature, and fundamentally kind-hearted... In short, he likely overcame the heart demon completely in the end.

How did the Great God Pangu overcome his heart demon? Feng Ke'er really wanted to know. It was a pity that her cultivation level was limited. To know what happened next, she would have to wait until her next breakthrough.

Feng Ke'er sighed, still feeling unsatisfied, and opened the skill section of the Celestial Manual. There were no surprises; there were new skills, but they were scribbled over so messily that she couldn't identify what was written.

Which rascal had done such a vicious thing? Feng Ke'er studied it for a long time, found no new clues, and had to sullenly tie the phoenix jade pendant back around her neck.

Her gaze fell back onto the primordial spirit. Feng Ke'er felt miserable: as the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury to frugality. She had grown accustomed to the division of labor and cooperation among her thousand infants. Now that they had suddenly returned to one, could she adapt?

With a thought, she recalled the scene of her thousand infants holding a thousand magical instruments, practicing eighteen types of martial arts simultaneously.

Just then, an unexpected scene unfolded.

With a "pop," the primordial spirit, which had been sitting cross-legged in the center of the dantian sea, suddenly spread out like a peacock displaying its tail, sprouting N arms, each holding a magical instrument.

Wow, a thousand-armed Guanyin! Feng Ke'er swallowed hard.

Those instruments looked so familiar!

She looked closely and realized they were the ones her primordial infants used to favor!

Did this mean that after the thousand infants merged, they could still separate? Feng Ke'er was ecstatic. She quickly focused her energy into her dantian, formed a seal with both hands in front of her chest, and shouted, "Primordial spirit, manifest!"

The primordial spirit played with the thousand instruments in its hands, its large, dark, almond-shaped eyes blinking as it looked at the original self.

That little look was no different from watching a clown perform! Feng Ke'er awkwardly retracted her seal—damn it! It turned out they weren't perfectly in sync at every moment!

Scratching the back of her head, Feng Ke'er pondered, feeling unwilling to give up. The biggest difference between a primordial spirit and a primordial infant was that an infant could not leave the dantian sea, let alone the body. But the primordial spirit could, and the higher the cultivation, the longer it could remain outside.

She had just read Pangu’s notes, and evidently, this future Great God had not yet realized this characteristic of the primordial spirit, so he had not made any attempts yet.

She wondered, at the first level of Ascension, how long could the primordial spirit stay away from the original body?

Dear, let's try it...

The thought had barely crossed her mind when "whoosh"—Feng Ke'er felt a gust of wind rise from her back, causing her loose Taoist robes to flap violently.

She turned her head and was stunned!

Oh no, how could this be!

She looked like a human spider, with a thousand smooth, jade-like arms sprouting from her shoulders.

Each hand was still tightly gripping a magical instrument.

Fine, she had become a live-action thousand-armed Guanyin!

With black lines of frustration appearing on her forehead, Feng Ke'er wiped her face with her original hands.

Wait, those thousand arms didn't get in the way at all; they didn't take up any space.

Calming down, Feng Ke'er checked her dantian sea again and saw that the primordial spirit had left the dantian sea and completely overlapped with her original body—well, except for those thousand arms!

Why were there only a thousand arms? One infant had two arms, so a thousand infants should have... well, dear, you do the math!

Feng Ke'er narrowed her eyes to look closely.

It was because she hadn't observed carefully enough before. It turned out that after the primordial spirit expanded to completely overlap with her original body, it had become like a super-layered Russian doll, consisting of a full thousand layers of spiritual bodies. Because each layer was extremely thin and pressed tightly together, it was hard to tell without looking closely.

Each layer of the spiritual body extended only one arm, while the other arm was bent at the chest, forming one of a thousand different seals!

So that was how the primordial spirit manifested at the first level of Ascension! Feng Ke'er suddenly understood. A sense of playfulness arose, and she curiously tried to adjust these thousand manifested arms.

Hmm, give her a lotus pedestal, and she could perform as a thousand-armed Guanyin without needing any makeup! How formidable! How imposing! Hehe. (To be continued)