Flood: I, the Nine Turns of the Golden Pillar, all want to eat me! - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Crossing into Dan, the Great Dao Treasure Pearl

Flood Wasteland, Kunlun Blessed Land.

The Kunlun Blessed Land was one of the few fortunate places in the Flood Wilderness. This land was rich in aura—pure and boundless—nurturing countless spiritual creatures and the Great Spirit.

Deep within Kunlun, layers of formations intertwined, obscuring something hidden within. The aura in this place was even more concentrated and pristine. Immortal birds and cranes soared through the sky, while precious flowers and plants flourished across the landscape.

Amidst the flourishing flora, several caves stood scattered, their entrances sealed as though guarding those in seclusion. Within one such cave, flames burned brightly, emitting a unique medicinal fragrance from an alchemical furnace.

Outside the furnace, a Taoist flicked his dust whisk, adding various medicinal ingredients into the flames while simultaneously controlling their intensity to refine the pills. Within the furnace, divine fire roared, enveloping countless pills, tempering their essence, and forming them into elixirs.

However, among these many pills, one stood out—a peculiar elixir behaving like a mischievous child. It darted about recklessly, colliding with the other pills and greedily absorbing their medicinal properties. Like an insatiable glutton, it drew the essence of its companions into itself.

After a while, the elixir immersed itself within the divine flames, relying on them to further its refinement.

“Hiccup… Little Zi Yun, when others cross into the Flood Wilderness, they either become Chaotic Demon Gods, Innate Great Gods, or at worst, Innate Humans. But me? I—a boy from Earth—traveled across worlds only to become a pill inside an alchemy furnace! Bah! No, not just a pill—an elixir! An elixir…!” A sorrowful voice emanated from within the pill, filled with grievance and resignation.

“Master, you are not an ordinary elixir. You are an elixir that has undergone the tempering of the Ninth Turn.” A crisp, somewhat naive voice responded.

“Alas… A Ninth-Turn elixir is still an elixir. No matter how refined, it does not change the fact that I am meant to be consumed. Think of all the other travelers before me—they were Demon Gods or Great Gods! Not a single one became a Dan Pill! I suppose I have set an unfortunate precedent.” The Earth-born youth despaired.

Who would have thought that after drifting into sleep, he would awaken to find himself transformed into an elixir? Worse still, he had overheard the Daoist attendants outside the furnace speaking of the legendary Three Pure Ones, revealing to him that he had crossed into the most perilous of realms.

The Flood Wilderness—far too dangerous. This was a world teeming with supreme beings who could obliterate lives at a whim. Had he become an Innate God or a Demon God, he might have stood a chance at survival. But as a mere pill? How utterly absurd!

To make matters worse, the alchemist refining him was none other than Tai Qing Laozi himself!

Despair. Utter, inescapable despair.

His initial plan had been to break free from the furnace as soon as the refinement was complete, seizing the chaos to escape. But now, knowing that Tai Qing Laozi was his creator, how could he possibly flee?

“Ah… Would it not have been better to remain on Earth? What foolishness was this, seeking adventure through transmigration?” The Earth-born youth lamented, resentment filling his thoughts as he recalled Zi Yun, the one responsible for his crossing.

Zi Yun was an artifact spirit, the essence of the Great Dao Treasure Pearl.

According to her, she had originally been the core of the Jade Butterfly of Creation. When the Jade Butterfly shattered, she fell into the River of Time, drifting endlessly until she reached its end and arrived on Earth. For reasons beyond comprehension, she chose the youth and somehow brought him into the Flood Wilderness, leading to his current predicament.

From the moment he had arrived, he had been nothing but an elixir—a fate beyond despair.

Zi Yun, however, remained unperturbed. She murmured, her voice tinged with mirth. “Rather than wasting time on complaints, would it not be better to focus on cultivating the Transformation Immortal Art? The day this pill is completed, you may directly take human form.”

“…Alas, I suppose that is my only option.” With no other path available, the Earth-born youth could only resign himself to meditation, cultivating diligently while continuing to absorb the medicinal essence of his fellow pills.

In truth, cultivating the Transformation Immortal Art was a privilege granted by Zi Yun’s unique abilities.

Zi Yun, once a core fragment of the Jade Butterfly, possessed the power to transform all things into the Great Dao and the Great Dao into all things. If one were to describe this in terms of divine abilities, it would be called the Great Dao Parsing.

Great Dao Parsing: The ability to deconstruct cultivation techniques, divine abilities, and sermons into their purest Dao essence. After all, every cultivation technique and divine ability in the Flood Wilderness stemmed from the evolution of the Great Dao itself. Zi Yun could reduce all methods to their most fundamental principles.

By relying on this ability, Zi Yun could perform numerous wondrous feats:

• She could deconstruct cultivation techniques into pure Dao and imprint them onto the Great Dao Treasure Pearl, forming a comprehensible visualization of the Dao for the youth to study.
• Through direct visualization, comprehension of the Dao became significantly easier, reducing the effort required for cultivation.
• She could analyze and refine existing cultivation techniques, optimizing and merging them into more powerful divine abilities, effectively creating perfect techniques.

Though she had once been the core of the Jade Butterfly of Creation, her ability lay in analyzing and deducing Dao rather than storing it. The remaining fragments of the Jade Butterfly had been responsible for imprinting the Great Dao, meaning the number of Dao she could currently preserve was limited.

In the words of the Earth-born youth, Zi Yun was like a highly specialized computer—capable of processing vast amounts of data but lacking sufficient storage. The Jade Butterfly had been the storage drive. Even so, her abilities gave him the confidence to survive in this treacherous world.

…

The Transformation Immortal Art was the only cultivation method accessible to him at present. Ironically, he had obtained it through eavesdropping on the alchemist’s attendants.

Within the Kunlun Blessed Land, numerous immortal cranes had gained spiritual wisdom over time. Seeing that their captive cranes had begun developing intelligence, the Three Pure Ones bestowed upon them a method of transformation, hoping they would assume human form. It was rumored that the future South Pole Immortal Weng had used this very technique to achieve his transformation.

As a result, the Transformation Immortal Art had become widely known within the Kunlun Blessed Land. The Daoist attendants spoke of it frequently, unaware that their casual conversations had been overheard by the elixir within the furnace.

Through Zi Yun’s Great Dao Parsing, the art was analyzed, and its Great Dao essence was imprinted within the Great Dao Treasure Pearl, allowing the youth to comprehend and cultivate it with ease.

Without hesitation, he immersed himself in cultivation, knowing that his only hope lay in mastering this technique. If he succeeded, he would one day break free from this humiliating fate and reclaim his humanity.