The ultimate chaos God

The Ashen Veil Forest part 1

The sun hadn't even fully risen over the Li celestial Clan before Li Tian was already moving.

His judgment was absolute: sweep all the training grounds and clean all the learning classes, every single day, without fail. For the frail, broken boy he had been yesterday, it would have been a grueling, humiliating death sentence. But for the Li Tian of today, having violently broken through to the Soul Awakening Realm, Grade 3, it was nothing more than a light morning stretch.

The bamboo broom was a blur. He didn't just sweep; he glided across the pale stone with a terrifying, rhythmic efficiency. His newly repaired meridians hummed, channeling microscopic threads of qi into his legs and arms, allowing him to cover massive stretches of the grounds at a blistering pace.

High above, concealed within the dense leaves of an ancient oak tree, A-Ning watched quietly.

Her brow furrowed, her eyes tracking his every movement. Just yesterday, this boy had fainted into the dirt after walking a few steps. Now, he was moving with the precise, lethal grace of a seasoned predator. There was no wasted energy. No labored breathing. The weak, defeated aura that usually clung to him was completely gone.

What changed? she thought, her fingers tightening on the rough bark.

Down below, Li Tian tossed the broom aside. He was finished.

I need spirit stone, he thought, wiping a thin layer of sweat from his chin. "The [Heaven-Earth Qi Alignment] scroll required a powerful elixir to act as a buffer. Without it, the crushing gravity of the technique would literally tear my vessel apart". Since he was entirely cut off from the clan's cultivation materials, he had to buy an Elixir himself. And to buy it, he needed a mountain of Spirit Stones.

Suddenly, a fragment of memory from the body's previous owner surfaced in his mind.

The Ashen Veil Forest.

It was a sprawling, ancient spirit forest bordering the clan's territory, teeming with both fortune and death. Li Tian didn't waste another second. He slipped out of the courtyard, his cheap tunic catching the wind, and headed straight for the treeline.

By the time he reached the entrance of the forest, the air had already grown damp and heavy with primal energy. He stopped at the edge, his dark eyes scanning the suffocating gloom beneath the towering canopy.

His mind rapidly categorized the death trap in front of him. The Ashen Veil Forest was divided into three strict segments.

First was the Outer Fringe. It contained low-grade herbs and spirit beasts ranging strictly within the Earth Beast Realm(Grade 1–10).

Past that was the Mid Veil. This zone hid mid-grade herbs, but it was stalked by monsters in the Heaven Beast Realm(Grade 1–10).

Finally, the Inner Veil. The dead zone. It housed incredibly rare herbs, but it was the hunting ground for terrifying beasts in the Profound Beast Realm and it is forbidden for individual to hunt there...

Li Tian cracked his knuckles, feeling the dormant fire of the Chaos Heart resting quietly in his chest.

With my current cultivation at Level, stepping into the Mid Veil is suicide, he analyzed coldly. I can only survive in the Outer Fringe. And even then, I need to strictly avoid any high-level beasts.

Li Tian paused, his stoic face suddenly twisting into a ridiculously exaggerated, greedy grin. If I gather enough herb and spirits beast from the outer fringe I should be able to get enough spirits stone to buy high grade Exilr, he thought.

Then he vanished into the brush.

For the next few hours, the Outer Fringe became his personal harvest ground. He moved like a phantom. He plucked Spirit Dew Lotuses from murky ponds, yanked low-grade blood-root from beneath the moss, and slaughtered any low-level spirit beast foolish enough to cross his path. His hands were stained with beast blood as he ruthlessly carved out their spirit cores, tossing them into a crude sack he'd fashioned from vines. Suddenly the dense trees suddenly parted, revealing the gaping maw of a massive stone cave.

Li Tian stopped. The air around the cave entrance was thick, radiating a strange, almost intoxicating spiritual aura. The energy pulsing from the dark opening was dense and heavy on his skin.

This density...Li Tian's eyes narrowed, then sparked with cold calculation. A natural convergence point. This cave should contain a massive amount of spirit herbs.

He stepped inside, the darkness swallowing him whole. He navigated deeper through the jagged, winding tunnels, guided only by the faint, luminescent moss clinging to the walls.

Eventually, the tunnel opened into a sprawling underground cavern.

Li Tian stopped, his breath hitching slightly. The cavern floor was practically carpeted with glowing vegetation. Rare variants of Spirit Dew Lotuses, luminescent fungi, and roots thick with concentrated qi grew in every crevice. It was an absolute goldmine.

"I'm rich," Li Tian whispered to himself.

He dropped to his knees and immediately started ripping herbs from the earth, stuffing them into his bulging sack. He was so focused, so lost in the sheer volume of wealth, that he didn't notice the sudden, freezing drop in temperature. Directly behind him, the shadows of the cave detached themselves from the rock face and a massive, suffocating silhouette formed in the gloom.

But slowly, two burning eyes opened in the darkness, locking directly onto the back of Li Tian's neck. A second later, a jagged, terrifying symbol ignited on the beast's forehead a glowing Cinder Eye Mark, burning like molten iron.

GRRRRRRRR...

A violent, bone-rattling growl ripped through the cavern, vibrating so violently it shook the dirt from the ceiling.

Li Tian's hands froze on a lotus stem and his smile vanished.