The ultimate chaos God

Repaired meridian

After the whole incident during the day, Li Tian stood outside his family's worn-down home, letting the cold breeze pull at his thin robes. He simply stared into the darkness, as though waiting for something that refused to come.

The cold bit at his skin, but he barely noticed, his body trembling from weakness.

He closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink inward, examining the body that now belonged to him. His expression darkened after he found that his host's meridians had been severely damaged from birth. The boy had only managed to reach Grade 2 of Soul Awakening, but after the incident at Moonshade Grove, the meridians had been damaged to the point they couldn't carry a single thread of qi.

Li Tian let out a deep breath. "This is worse than I imagined. With a body like this, I won't survive another week if I run into a fight."

He lowered himself onto the damp ground and crossed his legs, trying to find a way to circulate the qi in his surroundings toward him, but to his surprise, his body felt as though he wasn't even a cultivator. "Oh, my goodness," he muttered, falling back to lie down, his face pointed toward the stars. "Who knew I, Li Tian, could become this powerless." Rage built in him at the thought of his past life. "How do I even avenge myself if I can't cultivate?" He pointed his hand toward the sky, counting the stars, when suddenly—

THUMP!!!

A deep heartbeat echoed inside his chest. Li Tian sat up straight. "What is that?"

THUMP!

A blazing golden light erupted from Li Tian's body, surrounding him like a cocoon. Confused about what was happening, he was still lost in thought when the world around him tilted and darkness consumed his vision.

When Li Tian opened his eyes again, he was no longer standing outside his home. He stood on a cracked black stone, floating in an endless sea of chaos. Above him stretched a vast gray sky that twisted like a living storm. Chaotic currents drifted through the air, bending space wherever they passed. Broken mountains floated silently in the distance, and fragments of shattered worlds drifted through the void. The entire realm radiated a strange aura.

His pupils contracted. "Where am I?"

He was completely confused, having seen nothing like this in his previous life, even while cultivating the Chaos Heart.

Without warning-

BOOM!

A pillar of golden light erupted from his chest, and pain tore through his mind.

He staggered backward and fell to one knee. "The Chaos Heart." His breathing turned ragged. "So this is your true origin."

Before he could recover, the Chaos Heart pulsed again.

BOOM!

Golden light flooded every one of his shattered meridians. Pain unlike anything he'd ever endured tore through his body.

"AAAAAAARGH!"

Every damaged meridian repaired itself as the golden light bathed him.

Finally, the light receded while he stayed there kneeling and breathing heavily, sweating profusely. He circulated his qi, and it flowed effortlessly, without obstruction.

His eyes widened, and a quiet laugh escaped him. "The Chaos Heart can restore ruined meridians."

Before the excitement could settle, the gray sky trembled. "What is happening now?" he frowned.

To his amazement, a single scroll descended from above, hovering before him and radiating overwhelming pressure. "Why am I being given a scroll?"

He leaned close to read what was written on it.

[Heaven-Earth Qi Alignment]

The instant he touched the scroll, knowledge flooded into his consciousness. This wasn't an ordinary cultivation art. It didn't gently temper the body, it crushed the cultivator beneath the weight of heaven and earth, then rebuilt every foundation stronger than before. Its potential was terrifying, and its requirement was worse.

The knowledge continued to flood his mind: before cultivation, the user needed a high-grade spirit elixir. Without one, the pressure would tear the body apart from the inside out.

Li Tian looked around the empty realm. "But I have no elixir here." A slow smile appeared. "Then I'll cultivate without one."

He sat down, closed his eyes, and activated the technique.

The entire Chaos Realm erupted, and violent currents of qi rushed toward him like raging dragons, crashing into his newly restored meridians. More qi rushed into his body, and his dantian felt as if it were about to burst open.

BOOM!!!

A barrier shattered inside him. Pure qi surged through every meridian, and his aura erupted outward as he broke through to Grade 3 Soul Awakening.

He collapsed onto one hand, coughing blood, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Li Tian looked at the blood on his hand and smiled. "Pain means I'm alive. This life won't end the same way." He stood up, looking at his hand. "Not only did my meridians get repaired, I also broke through into the Grade 3 Soul Awakening Realm."

While he was still lost in thought, the sky above him rippled again, and a second scroll descended. But to his surprise, this one radiated a pure destruction aura, and words slowly appeared before him.

[Chaos Core Overload Burst]

His eyes narrowed as he read on. "This is an offensive technique," he muttered, scratching his head. "I never saw this technique while cultivating the Chaos Heart in my previous life, but I think it'll come in handy."

He rose despite the pain wracking his body and settled into a fighting stance, ready to learn the technique. "Let's begin."

He tried the technique but failed every time. After getting exhausted, he lay there for several breaths panting, his qi nearly spent. "In my previous life, cultivating with a Chaos Heart was never easy, and I need to endure many failures before a breakthrough." He climbed slowly to his feet. "I won't give up until I master you."

He gathered the flames and compressed them as he launched his punch forward.

BOOOOOOM!

A pillar of crimson fire burst from his fist, and the space around him twisted violently under the force.

He stared at his trembling hand, a satisfied smile spreading across his face. "Finally, I've mastered the Chaos Core Overload Burst."

The instant the words left his mouth, the Chaos Realm cracked and shattered like glass. When he opened his eyes, the morning sunlight greeted him, and he squinted. "Am I out of the realm already?"

Remembering the pain he'd endured in the Chaos Realm, his smile faded. "If I want to keep using the Heaven-Earth Qi Alignment Art, I still need an elixir." Without one, the Heavenly Alignment Art remained too dangerous, and after yesterday's judgment, the Li Clan would never give him one. He sighed deeply. "I need to find a way to get it myself."

He brushed the dirt from his worn robes and turned toward the training grounds.

The first rays of dawn spilled across the Li Celestial Clan as Li Tian reached for the worn bamboo broom leaning against a stone pillar, and without a word he began to sweep the training ground floor. He had been used to sweeping the training ground before, as he was a member of the outer court, and many disciples also bullied him into sweeping the training ground for them. Sweeping that large training ground was very difficult, especially for someone like Li Tian, but now the sweeping had become child's play to him.

The arriving disciples gradually slowed to watch him. "Isn't that Li Tian?"

"The cripple?"

"I saw him acting tough in the presence of the clan leader yesterday."

One of the disciples came to a stop. "But wait, how is he moving like that?"

There was an oak tree not far from the training ground, and on it A-Ning was standing quietly as she watched Li Tian closely. "Something had changed about Li Tian, why is he sweeping the floor with such ease without even bringing out a drop of sweat?" she whispered.

Li Tian rested the broom against the wall after he had completed everything within an hour. "Whoops, I'm done." He stretched his body and looked toward the oak tree.

A-Ning gasped as she hid herself more deeply within the tree branches, afraid that Li Tian might see her.

Li Tian's attention was still drawn to the tree. "It looks like someone is within the tree." But he took his eyes off it as the thought of how he would get an elixir for the Heaven-Earth Qi Alignment Art surfaced in his mind.

His eyes narrowed as he thought about the several ways he could get the spirit stones to buy enough for the elixir. He checked his contribution points. "This host is truly a crap." He put his hand on his face in frustration. "He doesn't even get any contribution points, he deserves to be bullied," he sneered.

At that moment, a memory belonging to the host surfaced in his mind about Ashen Veil Forest. "At least he still has some informative memories within him."

Without another thought, Li Tian went for the Ashen Veil Forest, and reaching there, the entrance of the forest was thick, and the aura radiating from it was tremendous.

Li Tian stopped at the forest entrance, and his memories quickly organized the information about the forest.

[The Ashen Veil Forest had three fringes, the outer, mid, and inner fringe. The inner fringe was the most dangerous part of the forest, forbidden for any disciple to step into.]

Li Tian calmly assessed his strength. "Soul Awakening Realm, Grade Three. The Outer Fringe is my limit, going a little further is suicide."

He smiled faintly. "I've only just reclaimed this life. I'm not throwing it away."

He stepped immediately into the forest. Hours passed as Li Tian moved silently beneath the towering canopy, plucking out Spirit Dew Lotuses, Bloodroot, and Moonlight Grass, all low-grade spirit herbs. By afternoon, his sack had grown noticeably heavier. A satisfied smile spread across his face. "At this rate, I'll have enough spirit stones for an elixir."

Then he stopped as he came to the opening of a cave. The qi ahead suddenly turned several times denser, flowing through the forest like an invisible river. His eyes narrowed. "A natural convergence point? There could be a great treasure inside it."

Without hesitation, Li Tian stepped forward and entered the cave. On the walls of the cave were moss that glowed faintly, and as far as Li Tian went deeper into the cave, the aura he experienced became even stronger.

Not long after, he came to a stop when he reached a cavern, and his pupils contracted as spirit herbs covered the cavern floor.

His breath caught, and a slow grin spread across his face. "I've struck a fortune."

He rushed forward at once, harvesting everything within reach and putting it in the sack rapidly.

Li Tian was still harvesting the herbs when he didn't notice a shadow forming at his back, and not long after, two crimson eyes opened, and a jagged symbol blazed across its head.

GRRRRRRRR!!

The cavern shook violently as dust rained from the ceiling.

Li Tian's hand froze around a spirit herb, and the smile slowly disappeared from his face as he turned around to see what was making such a sound behind him.