Primordial Era: I am a treasure trove, full of magical treasures.

Xuanbao's maniacal laughter echoed through the chaotic void. Thirty chaotic treasures transformed into thirty dazzling streams of light, shooting towards the direction of the demon gods. The faces of those chaotic giants turned pale; everyone knew what was about to happen—dozens more chaotic treasures would self-destruct, and several more unlucky souls would be swallowed up by them.

But this time, the dozens of chaotic spiritual treasures did not explode.

They hovered in the void, their radiant light swirling, silently emanating a chilling aura. The demons' defensive posture, poised for battle, appeared comical and laughable. Silence lasted for a full three breaths.

Shi Chen was the first to react; his pupils contracted sharply, and his voice trembled with disbelief: "Are you trying to scare us?"

"No." Xuanbao suddenly stopped all his madness and laughter, his voice so calm it was as if he were a different person. "I'm just waiting for someone."

He slowly turned around, his gaze fixed on a seemingly empty direction deep within the chaos. His voice, though not loud, boomed like thunder in the ears of every demon god and all those watching the battle: "Aren't you coming out?"

A dead silence.

"It seems you've already guessed who I am." From the depths of chaos, a voice that bore a 7% resemblance to Xuanbao's slowly resounded, carrying a smile and approval.

"Heh! Who else could possibly outmaneuver me besides myself? Right, my true form?"

Upon hearing the echo, Xuanbao confirmed his suspicions and smiled broadly.

The moment the words fell, a cyan figure slowly emerged from the depths of chaos.

He wore a blue Taoist robe, had long hair that was casually draped over his shoulders, and a face that bore a striking resemblance to Xuan Bao. Even the lazy smile at the corner of his mouth was identical. He strolled leisurely to the center of the battlefield, stood before Xuan Bao, as if this were not an earth-shattering battle, but a reunion of old friends.

The entire venue was deathly silent.

The chaotic giants who had just been fighting to the death were all stunned, exchanging bewildered glances. The Heavenly Dao avatar of the Primordial Camp, Bai Lu, and all the Primordial Saints who were watching the battlefield through projection were also dumbfounded.

Two mysterious treasures.

The same aura, the same appearance, as if looking in a mirror. Even the God of Fate, whose gaze could see through the threads of destiny, could not find any difference between the two.

"What's going on?" a demon exclaimed in a low voice, his voice trembling.

"A clone? No, that's not right! The aura of this figure... is exactly the same as Xuanbao's original body!" Even the most knowledgeable demon gods could only look on in horror after shouting for a long time.

The figure in cyan walked forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Xuanbao.

Xuanbao sighed softly, his tone tinged with a vague sense of感慨: "Hehehe! I knew it! I've had it too easy in the prehistoric world. It seems everything was preordained."

The original body turned to look at the original body, a complex mix of relief and satisfaction in its eyes: "How did you guess that you were just an avatar?"

Upon hearing this, the battlefield fell silent once again.

The Chaos Demon God camp was completely stunned, as was the Primordial Camp. Everyone had assumed that the Xuanbao standing in the center of chaos, single-handedly confronting thirty-nine Ninth Heaven giants, was the one who had stirred up the chaos. But now they realized that this Xuanbao was merely an avatar?

"When I was unable to sever my three corpses, I had my suspicions," Xuanbao's voice was calm as still water. "My talent, my accumulation, my foundation far surpass those of my predecessors. But every attempt to sever my corpses seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier. At that time, I thought—if I were to follow my own style, would I hide my true self at some crucial moment and send an avatar out? After all, having come to the primordial world, how could I not be cautious?"

Xuanbao paused, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic giants before finally settling on the figure before him that was identical to himself: "And an avatar cannot sever the three corpses. This flaw, which I had overlooked from the beginning, has become the only truth."

The other Xuanbao in the blue Taoist robe did not deny it, but simply smiled and nodded: "Continue."

"The self-destruction of those Chaos Gods is the biggest flaw." Xuanbao's voice was calm and powerful. "My restrictions are bound to my primordial spirit. Unless I detonate them myself, no external force can trigger them. But those people were indeed detonated. There is only one person in the entire world who can do that—that is myself."

He pointed at the blue figure: "But that person is not me. Because my primordial spirit is intact, my memories are complete, and my cultivation has not changed in the slightest. In a place I cannot reach, there is another me, controlling all of this."

The "mysterious treasure" laughed, its laughter carrying a strange undertone: "As expected of my incarnation, you even thought of the slightest flaw."

This statement once again stirred up a huge controversy.

Incarnation!

This is not merely "another mystical treasure," but rather, the mystical treasure before us is an avatar differentiated from the true original! The one standing in the chaos, controlling the entire chaotic situation, is the true original mystical treasure!

Fate, Cause and Effect, Time, and Yang Mei—the four giants—had extremely grim expressions. They suddenly realized that the "Mysterious Treasure" they had been besieging—the Primordial Heavenly Emperor who struck fear into the hearts of all in the Chaos—was actually nothing more than an avatar.

The real mastermind has always been behind the scenes, controlling the course of this game.

"You knew all along that this was a setup?" The Deity of Fate's voice was hoarse as he stared at the blue figure.

"Of course." Xuanbao, dressed in a cyan Daoist robe, spoke slowly, his tone calm yet carrying an aura of absolute control. "Otherwise what? How could a tiny world born on the edge of chaos surpass all the forces of chaos in just a few eons? How could an ancient and incomparably powerful chaotic demon be crushed by the Lord of Nothingness? How could you possibly find a so-called rune left behind by Pangu?"

The audience was in complete chaos.

Xuanbao's true form—the true Heavenly Emperor standing in the chaos—sweeped his gaze across the crowd, like a high and mighty deity looking down upon the mortal world.

"The entire scheme was designed for one purpose: to create the illusion that my existence is an anomaly, a flaw. To make the heroes in the chaos believe that as long as they gather the power of all nine heavens and fight to the death, they can then close the net."

He paused, his voice still calm, yet it pierced the hearts of every demon god like a cold knife: "The most stable situation in this world is when the enemy believes they have a chance to win, and then, step by step, squanders everything in their delusion. You think you still have trump cards, that you can win, but that's only because I made you think that. You will never imagine that from beginning to end, there was no other possibility in this game."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand casually.

Boundless radiance emanated from his body, more than ten times greater than what the previous Xuanbao avatar had displayed, like a long river of light stretching across the void. Tens of thousands of Chaos Spiritual Treasures floated densely within the chaos, their brilliance almost illuminating the entire chaos, resembling a starry sea. Each one exuded the aura of a Chaos Spiritual Treasure—a genuine Chaos Spiritual Treasure. Any one of them, placed within the chaos, would trigger a frenzied struggle among giants.

And here, there are tens of thousands of items.

"Now, do you still think you have even a sliver of a chance of winning?"

The Chaos Giant's face turned completely pale. The God of Destiny's expression was extremely grim. Looking at the overwhelming light of the Chaos Treasures and feeling the endless, heavy pressure, he finally understood why the "Mysterious Treasure Avatar" hadn't even flinched when it self-destructed hundreds of Chaos Treasures earlier. It was because these treasures were merely surplus scraps, toys that the main body casually tossed to the avatar.

"You have no reason to exist anymore." Xuanbao, dressed in a blue Daoist robe, spoke slowly, his gaze sweeping over the former "Chaos Giants." He raised a hand and waved it casually—tens of thousands of Chaos Treasures lit up simultaneously, like billions of stars exploding at the same time, their light sweeping across the heavens and earth.

There was no violent collision, no flash of divine power; the pure light of the treasure engulfed everything like a flood. More than thirty ninth-level demon gods, including the Demon God of Destiny, had their resistance completely dissolved the moment they came into contact with the light. Their consciousness, laws, and origins were gently enveloped by those strands of light, transforming into the purest energy, merging into the boundless river of precious energy in the void.

In the entire chaos, the thirty-nine giants of the Ninth Heaven were reduced to ashes in just a few breaths.

Those demon gods with lower cultivation levels let out a shout and scattered in all directions like madmen. But within the coverage of the precious light, their speed was as slow as snails, their escape techniques seemed to fail, and their laws could not be mobilized at all within the precious light. In an instant, the tens of millions of demon gods who had been hunting the primordial world were all turned into tiny dust particles in the chaos, merging into that vast precious light, becoming nourishment for the chaos.

The battlefield fell completely silent.

It was so quiet that there wasn't even a sound of wind.

In the primordial world, through the image projected by the Heavenly Dao avatar, all the saints and quasi-saints gaped, speechless. Bai Lu also unconsciously clenched her fists, an expression of disbelief on her face.

It turns out that the mastermind behind it all never personally took action.

It turns out that the figure that slashed through the chaos and used its magical treasure to self-destruct, terrifying all the giants, was just an avatar.

"You did very well." Xuanbao, dressed in a blue Taoist robe, reached out and gently patted the clone's shoulder. The clone smiled, a relieved smile, as if it had finally completed the most important mission of its life.

Xuanbao transformed into a stream of light and disappeared into the center of its brow. All the memories, cultivation, and experience of the clone flowed into the main body like rivers returning to the sea. Xuanbao closed its eyes, sensing the insights and details originating from the clone, and a slow smile appeared on its lips.

The instant of fusion, it was as if billions of stars exploded simultaneously within Xuanbao's sea of ​​consciousness. The memories of that clone—from the moment it was separated, the countless years of struggling in the primordial world, refining spiritual treasures, scavenging the remnants of demon gods, breaking through realms, and conquering the north and south—all flooded into his consciousness. But he did not panic in the slightest; instead, it was as if he had opened a book he had already written, every page of which he knew perfectly well.

Because he finally understood.

He was neither some kind of vanished being, nor some kind of transformed baby. He was born as the Chaos Pearl, a supreme treasure of chaos.

"I see... I see!"

The purpose of all these preparations is to completely refine the chaos and primordial world into one's own inner world, walk the path of the world, and completely transcend the Great Dao Realm.

Xuanbao laughed loudly, his laughter shaking the chaos, causing countless rivers of laws to roar in unison. He raised his hand, and a chaotic-colored bead slowly appeared in his palm—the bead was only the size of a fist, without any patterns, yet it exuded an aura that made the entire chaos tremble. That was his true form, the Chaos Treasure, the Chaos Bead.

He gently grasped the bead, closed his eyes to sense it for a moment, then opened them, a confident smile curving his lips: "The time has come."

Before the words were even finished, the Chaos Pearl suddenly burst forth with boundless chaotic light. The light was not offensive, yet it began to vibrate at a strange frequency, as if resonating with something. In the distance, a massive world barrier slowly emerged—that was the Primordial World. Under the astonished gazes of the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Houtu, and other sages, the Primordial World began to tremble slightly, its Daoist principles surging, and the laws of heaven and earth flowing on their own, as if echoing something from afar.

Not only the primordial world, but all the remaining worlds, origins, and fragments of laws in the entire chaos began to converge frantically. The laws and origins scattered by the fallen Nine Heavens giants before their deaths, the fragments of the Great Thousand Worlds that were devoured, and the resource secret realms scattered throughout the chaos and forgotten by anyone, all surged towards the Chaos Pearl in Xuanbao's hand like rivers flowing into the sea, and were all swallowed up by that pearl.

"He's refining chaos!" A weak yet furious voice echoed from the depths of the void. It was the remnant consciousness of the God of Destiny. After his remaining companions from the Nine Heavens were instantly annihilated by the Xuanbao, he clung to life by a wisp of the Law of Destiny. Now, sensing the drastic changes in the entire chaos, he roared in despair, "He's using the entire chaos as nourishment, trying to refine everything into that bead!"

Bai Lu's figure flashed into view. She stared in horror at the figure seated cross-legged in the center of chaos, surrounded by a sea of ​​precious light, her lips moving as she asked, "Who are you?"

Bai Lu's voice echoed in the chaos, trembling, incredulous, and with a hint of fear that even she herself was unaware of.

Xuanbao slowly turned around, his gaze falling on her. Those eyes were still clear, with the familiar cunning and languor—but deep within them lay an indescribable profundity, like the starry sky reflected in an ancient well.

He grinned: "I am who I am, the same Xuanbao you know."

He wasn't lying. After merging with the clone's memories, he was both the spirit of the Chaos Pearl and the mischievous thief who stirred up trouble in the primordial world, the scoundrel who grinned and joked in front of Bailu. The clone's experiences were not fabricated—he had cried, laughed, fought, and been hurt; those years were real. The main body and the clone were two sides of the same coin. The main body felt everything the clone experienced.

"But now," Xuanbao clenched his fist, feeling the countless laws in the chaos pulsating with his breath, "I finally know who I am."

The Chaos Pearl, a supreme treasure of chaos, was conceived at the beginning of chaos and born from the source of laws. It experienced the entire process of chaos from nothingness to existence and witnessed the birth and death of countless worlds. At that moment, the will of the treasure awakened, splitting itself in two—the main body hid in the Chaos Pearl, while the avatar was reborn in the primordial world.

The cultivation experiences and emotional entanglements of his clone all transformed into memories and insights that flowed back into his main body. At this moment, Xuanbao's mind was clear and his body and mind were complete; he was no longer the little thief burdened with mysteries.

"You..." Bai Lu gritted her teeth, her eyes slightly red, "You're still that guy, aren't you? That bad guy who peeks at people taking a bath and keeps yelling about eating you?"

This question left Xuanbao speechless, both amused and exasperated. He touched his nose, looking completely innocent: "Bai Lu, what are you talking about? When did I ever peep at you while you were bathing? It was clearly you who..."

"Shut up!" Bai Lu glared at him, turned her head away angrily, but the mist in her eyes quietly dissipated.

Xuanbao laughed heartily. Although the truth was now clear, and although he had just annihilated all the heroes of Chaos, and now he truly had the situation under control, he would still greet the person who had been by his side from beginning to end with the same carefree smile as before.

After laughing, his expression turned slightly serious, and he gently lifted the Chaos Pearl. At that moment, the pearl's light shone brightly, enveloping the entire chaos within it.

In that instant, all the laws within the chaos trembled simultaneously, as if a billion strings of a musical instrument were plucked by the same hand. Countless profound patterns emerged on the surface of the Chaos Pearl, each pattern a complete Great Dao Law, interwoven into a giant net covering the entire chaos. The energy between heaven and earth surged towards the pearl like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, while the pearl itself transformed from solid to ethereal, from ethereal to nothingness, slowly merging into Xuanbao's brow.

Xuanbao closed his eyes, and his consciousness spread out like a tide, covering every inch of the chaotic void.

The process was longer and quieter than he had imagined. The surviving creatures in the chaos huddled in their respective corners, trembling, while the cultivators of the primordial world looked up at the sky, sensing the silent upheaval. Bai Lu stood beside him, her expression complex, but she remained silent.

When Xuanbao opened his eyes, everything had already settled down.

He opened his arms as if embracing the entire world. At that moment, he felt that he was the world itself, the world's breath was the echo of his heartbeat, the rustling of the wind and the movement of the grass were all within his perception, and the birth and death of all things were in the flow of his thoughts. The primordial chaos, all the remaining worlds, and the boundless void perfectly merged into one, becoming a true world within his body.

The world beneath his feet—the Primordial World—was placed at the very center, like the heart of all worlds, where the endless origins of laws converged, and the abundant primordial energy made it seem as if he had returned to the beginning of chaos.

The sages looked up at the sky and felt that it was clearer, the laws of the Great Dao were more distinct and perceptible, and the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was many times richer. Mortals went about their daily lives and work as usual, working at sunrise and resting at sunset, completely unaware that in this short day, this world had changed its master, and even less aware of what peak that master had once stood on, looking down upon all living beings.

Xuanbao clapped his hands, a lazy smile playing on his lips, as if he had just finished a trivial task. He turned to Bailu, extended his hand, and said, "Let's go home."

Bai Lu was stunned for a moment, looking at his outstretched hand, her eyes slightly warm. She opened her mouth, but didn't ask anything more, just gently took his hand and let him lead her towards the direction of the Primordial World.

From that time on, the world returned to complete peace.

Xuanbao and Bailu lived in seclusion deep within the Heavenly Court, rarely showing themselves. Occasionally, when a sage sought an audience to discuss matters, he would only say a few words, point out directions, and then remain silent. The sages were initially filled with anxiety, but seeing Xuanbao's usual lazy and indifferent demeanor, they gradually calmed down.

The primordial world continued its cycle. Quasi-Saints were as numerous as clouds, Saints as numerous as stars, and the three thousand laws operated in perfect order. Mortals lived lives no different from before, and cultivators continued to vie for opportunities, engage in secluded cultivation, pursue love, and seek revenge. No one knew that the Heavenly Emperor above the heavens had once overturned the entire chaotic order in a single thought, and no one knew that every inch of this world's mountains and rivers was within the perception of one person.

Occasionally, the remnants of ancient demon gods would drift in the chaotic void, catching a glimpse of that brilliant star in the primordial world. Sensing the supreme power contained within it, they would tremble in fear and avoid it at all costs.

Xuanbao, as usual, sat under the Bodhi tree in the backyard of the Heavenly Court, legs crossed, flipping through an ancient book he had somehow acquired, muttering to himself from time to time. Bailu brought a plate of freshly picked Enlightenment Tea to his side, placed it on the table, and then sat down beside him, quietly leaning against him.

"Do you think this counts as the grand finale?" Xuanbao suddenly closed the book and tilted his head to look at her.

Bai Lu thought for a moment and said calmly, "Okay."

"That's pretty good." Xuanbao grinned, looked up at the clear blue sky in the distance, his gaze piercing through the thirty-six heavens and the barriers between worlds, looking at the boundless world that belonged to him. "Now, it's time to take a good rest."

Bai Lu gave a soft "hmm" and said nothing more.

A gentle breeze rustled the Bodhi leaves.

Everything returned to calm.