Chapter 703 – Rebirth in Chaos, a New Journey (1/2)

Suddenly, there was a streak of light. A sliver of consciousness awakened, hazy and utterly confused.

Everything seemed to return to a long, long time ago, before Northmoon, before Li Qingshan, and even before Li Er. Back then, he still had no name, in the intersection between his past life and his current life. He curled up peacefully in his mother’s womb, waiting for the day he would be born.

He was unable to confirm whether he had actually undergone rebirth or if he had transmigrated to another world. Only when he sensed the liquid that was scorchingly-warm yet filled with life around him did he gradually become convinced that he was still alive, that he had won the gamble!

As it turned out, the phoenix’s ability could only be used in scorching fire. It was neither for attack, nor was it for defence. Instead, it was for rebirth, just like the legends.

Bathing in flames, the phoenix underwent nirvāṇa rebirth.

This made him think of Xuanyue. She possessed the ability to come back from the dead. While this ability did sound very powerful, Gu Yanying had labelled it as useless, which was not completely without reason. The phoenix’s nirvāṇa could only be labelled as such too. If he encountered any opponents he was unable to stop, his daemon core would probably be taken away. How could he still undergo rebirth calmly?

Unless the enemy’s strength completely exceeded his, he would never separate his daemon core from his body. By the time he faced such an enemy, it would already be too late, and if he did not face an enemy like that, there would be absolutely no need for this either. If it were not for Mo Yu’s curse this time that had dyed him in ink, he could have erased his aura and escaped easily. It was a special circumstance. The chance that it would happen again was negligible.

But no matter what, it had still helped him survive, so he could not ask for anything more. No matter what, it was still a legendary ability of “eternal life”, and he could vaguely feel it was not so simple. However, what he wanted to know the most right now was when he could escape from his current state!

He wanted to look around, but he could not open his eyes. He wanted to extend his arms and legs, but he could not sense his arms and legs. He discovered out of pure helplessness that he was a ball of liquid, and he was in an oval egg. He was uncertain whether it was divided into egg white and yolk.

“Life gets worse the more you jumble around” was probably referring to this exact situation! However, he jumbled around and ended up as an egg, which sure was terrible. Was this perhaps the legendary “jumbled egg”, a “bastard”?

Bastard!

He cursed inside. Although he had no fists to clench and no teeth to grit, he had still made up his mind. One day, he would go dragon slaying in the Ink sea and make that old dragon understand his power. He would hang him up on a wall as an ornament.

His future was bright, his path was winding, but right now, all he could do was stick with hatching out.

With nothing to do, he could only use his random thoughts to pass time. Suddenly, he thought of a saying, The heavens and earth were a chaotic mix, just like a chicken’s egg. Pangu was born within. Eighteen thousand years later, the heavens and earth split apart, the light and pure yang qi rose up to the heavens, and the heavy and mixed yin qi fell to the earth.

TL: This is the Chinese mythology of how the world was created, split open by Pangu. Before that, it was all primordial chaos. You can read about Pangu and the primordial chaos, 混沌, here:

Before the world had been split open, the heavens and earth were chaos, just like a huge chicken’s egg. Chaos was the beginning of all things and creatures, the source of all life.

Right now, he had returned to chaos, tracing back to his source, like a towering tree that had turned back into a seed and was undergoing the process of sprouting and growing once again. However, it definitely would not be a simple repetition. Having experienced it all once before, the tree would definitely be able to grow even taller and thicker.