Tian Hai

Distance within the Primitive World's Great Wilderness was vast. The East Sea alone stretched on for billions upon billions of kilometres. As such, travel between anywhere took a long amount of time, even if they're not fully aware of it.

The eight headed serpent cut a path across the ocean on his own for thousands of years. Three thousand and forty years was how long had passed since his meeting with Yang Mei. Over three thousand empty years where the innate god continuously swam through endless water.

Despite his great power as a Golden Immortal, the world was simply too vast to cross that easily.

During his long journey, he witnessed the movements of the water calm down from its previously rough state. The sky overhead returned to a tranquil blue and aside from currents created by himself, the East Sea became peaceful again.

Occasionally he would see forests of undersea plants and plains of sea grass beneath the ocean. Yet aside from some interesting rock formations, the East Sea was devoid of any and all life. The snake found himself curious as to what was the current situation of the world for it to be so barren of life. Perhaps it was just the sea and mainland was a different story.

But in his mind, he was also a bit torn on two separate opinions regarding this fact. A half, a quieter side dismissed lifeforms as a waste of time. But this voice was fading more and more as time went on. A larger louder voice was screaming how they were worthless for now and only treasures mattered. But they had the potential to be a good resource when the right species come.

However the sea serpent had little knowledge of such matters. Each time these thoughts came up he just found himself receiving more headaches. Frankly it was annoying.

Time past quickly however. To an immortal creatures who was immune to age, even tens of thousands of years could pass without them noticing. What was a mere three thousand?

Wether he was consciously aware of it or not, the snake's perception of time is far more warped then a mortal beings would be.

Eventually, his journey came to a stop and eight great heads rose out of the waves. There no less then eighty kilometres away from him was a beach. A shoreline leading to the greater East Continent.

All eight serpentine faces gasped in amazement. The sight of the sandy beach, the hilly grounds beyond and what looked like a forest beyond even that. There was a mountain range an even greater distance away and the serpent could only see the shadow of it. All these sights was completely new and fresh to his young eyes.

"Amazing, so pretty," he muttered.

His leftmost head however scoffed. But this went without much notice and even said scoffing head seemed to have forgotten in mere moments.

The innate god swam closer to shore until he could begin dragging himself out of the sea. His titanic bulk eclipsed the size of the beach and in moments he had already crossed the sandy distance into the hills. His tail was not even out of the water yet his head could already stretch into the edges of the forest.

The heads all took in large breaths of air and released organismic cries. The primordial qi in the air was so rich that it was euphoric. It was superior than the open air of the East Ocean and comparable to the deeper layers of the ocean.

'Perhaps the quality of qi is reversed as how it is in the East Sea?' The snake wondered. If qi was rich on the surface, was it less so below ground. It made sense to him as the East Sea was richest in qi quality at the bottom of the ocean.

"Marvelous, simply marvelous. The primrodial qi of ancient days is far superior than the true qi of later generations. Hm?" The snake twitched after making the statement. He looked at himself and his own heads oddly.

Shrugging off the odd experience, the snake used his limbs to trek on land to continue his journey. The novelty of walking rather then swimming felt good to him. It sparked a childish wanderlust that nearly eclipsed the greed for treasures.

Yet some feelings were too strong to ignore. It was both logical to seek defensive armaments yet also illogical in how greedy he suddenly felt. Both feelings that came and went in flashes so quick that the snake barely noticed his own mood swings.

The rest of the days he spent on land was spent wandering aimlessly. The snake did not truly care where he went, just as long as he kept moving. So far, he had yet to encounter any other living beings.

But on the twentieth day of landing, the snake who had passed through the forest encountered another creature for the first time in thousands of years.

Arriving out of the forest, the snake had encountered very little in the way of unique objects. He encountered a few special spiritual herbs which he stored away in his own pocket dimension. The innate spiritual inheritance and knowledge of beings born as Golden Immortals were not to be underestimated. His instincts guided him into creating it and he was able to do so after a minute of trying.

Now that he was through, the mountains in the distance appeared quite interesting. But the snake stopped his march suddenly.

"Hm?"

His heads perked up as soon as the noise of footsteps reached his ears. At once, his eight heads jerked towards the direction of the sound which was closing in fast.

The footsteps were large and heavy from what he could gather. They were also rapid and caused small tremors in the ground. Instincts told him to prepare to retaliate.

But nothing ever came. The serpent waited, and waited, and waited some more. Yet for whatever reason it seemed no creature ever reached him

"Was I mistaken?" He muttered aloud. Yet he could also tell something was wrong. He didn't quite know how he knew, but perhaps if he were to use his divine sense.

The snake closed his eyes and began pulling on the knowledge to detect spiritual energy. As a Golden Immortal, his divine sense was far stronger then regular True, Profound and even Heavenly Immortals. He was capable of identifying the intricacies of karmic ties, unique energy signatures, and disguised transformations.

Though his foe never gave him the time.

One of his heads on the right jerked as a large mass bore down upon its neck. This caused a violent knee jerk reaction from the other heads who flinched away as a pale mass suddenly appeared from the sky.

In the quick sequence of events, the snake thrashed around with the creature attached to his body. It was the same kind of reaction if a small monkey suddenly jumped on top of a human from out of nowhere.

He was both startled and felt terrified. His claws could not reach that far up his neck and no matter how much he thrashed the creature wouldn't let go.

'What do I do? What do I do? I'm just a nor…nor…get off me!' The snake grew enraged by the audacity of the creature.

One of his heads roared and rammed into the beast's body flinging it off of his neck. With the creature off of him, he could see his scales were still pristine aside from droplets of saliva that coated it. Otherwise, the creature had failed to puncture his body and he was perfectly uninjured.

"What was that?" The innate god felt a little disturbed. He turned his head to focus on what had attacked him. The pale mass that got onto its feet was disturbing to look at.

It had no eyes, just a face with a circular jaw and rows of created teeth like a leech. Its ski was a pale white colour with plenty of short wrinkly worm like appendages covering its body like hairs. It had two thick legs and no arms. But the most crucial detail were the large wings.

'It flew,' the snake immortal realized. The day did get quite windy but he never expected it would be from the beating of wings. 'The Primitive World really is full of hidden dangers.'

'Hm. I should destroy it now. Blast it with a concentrated laser. Or if it comes close I'll tear it apart. Then I'll…I'll…I… But I should flee first, who knows if it has any special abilities. I cannot be distracted by side quests. Who knows what hidden dragon is just prowling around waiting to carve my body far parts…'

The creature, a primordial beast born of sin leapt into the innate god using its full weight to wrestle against the serpent. Thoughts constantly flip flopping led to indecision of utmost degree, the serpent toppled to the ground with a gasp.

A normal person would be panicking of an animal just pounced on them. The serpent surpassingly wasn't different. The sudden shift in his mind caused him to be unable to retaliate.

The beast continuously tried to bite into the innate god attempting to devour him. Yet each bite failed to even penetrate his scales. Yet the beast continued anyway as if it hadn't noticed.

'Oh god! What the hells is this thing?'

'What a pungent smell.'

"Get off me!" The snake snapped after finding his footing. His movements suddenly shifted.

Whereas before he had an awkwardness to him, suddenly his movements became raw. He was almost animalistic as his heads snapped forwards ripping into the primordial beast.

The creature of karmic sin screeched as it was ripped off of the serpent and dragged into the ground. The fangs of the snake heads treated the beast's flesh as if they were butter being cut by a hot knife. They easily sank in and tore out chunks of flesh.

With seeming ease, the primordial beast that had bothered the innate goof of the East Sea so much was suddenly dead. Its remains lay in over thirteen different pieces scattered across the immediate vicinity.

What's more, its flesh released a pungent odor that flowed into the air like black smoke.

"Karmic sin," the snake said in recognition. "This feeling. Rage, grief, despair, sorrow, the swearing of vengeance."

"Chaos Godfiends. My brothers," the he murmured in solemn. "Yang Mei why did you say such things to me? I am a godfiend just as you are even now."

For a moment, he stood silent. Then he began moving again. No sooner was he doing so, he left the events of yesterday behind and wandered off to focus on admiring the beautiful scenery. He neither acknowledged how fast he got over his attack nor did he seem bothered about it.

Rather, it was accurate to say it had been sort of a trance.

…

Decades passed as the serpent wandered across the East Continent aimlessly. His pace was slow and leisurely. Time passed quickly for the snake who had little goals and only focused on sightseeing. Though the hunger for good treasures remained, he had found nothing of the sort.

During this time, he had witnessed more primordial beasts whose sent he now recognized. He fled always wary of anymore confrontations with the abominable creatures. He did not understand them nor did he have any wish to. He'd prefer if they'd just leave him alone. He was the epitome of the phrase, 'carefree immortal'.

But after sixty one years of trudging along an endless journey, he encountered living beings for the first time.

The meeting took place unexpectedly. The snake was clawing his way past a mountain that was at least five the the size of his own body. His heads slithered around the ranges while his main body continued to find footholds to cross.

Spiritual mountains were not rare, in fact they were very common. They were natural gathering spots for large amounts of primordial qi and hence made great basses of operation. But not all mountains were made equal and the mountains the serpentine innate god encountered were sub par at best.

"Heavens, its another of those beasts!"

"Hm?"

Through the mountains, one of the heads made it past a gap and into a valley. It was an area conveniently hidden by a veil of mist that did not register as a natural phenomena. But the valley was a place filled with lush plant life and constructed shelters.

'People? Society?' The snake thought.

But the people present were anything but pleased. There weren't many of them, just a gathering of around a hundred individuals. But here people were all of fairly high cultivation. Even the weakest of them were Profound Immortals while a majority were Heavenly Immortals.

These beings were all first generation innate creatures. Connate lifeforms born from heaven and earth. But unlike the innate gods, they did not posses full ownerships of their true souls. They had yet to transcend into the Golden Immortal realm and were still bound to a finite lifespan.

These beings were all refugees. Fleeing immortals from various clans of living beings who'd survived the constant attacks of primordial beasts and eventually found their way to the East Continent. Here they lived in a place which allowed for some semblance of peace.

"A primordial beast has found us. Quick, signal the others!" One man called out.

The serpent with one look identified him as a transformed fish with feathery wings. He absentmindedly wondered how they could assume these smaller humanoid forms.

In his head, he managed to recall them being known as Dao bodies. They were a natural transformation of celestial beings who had become enlightened to mystical knowledge. As one advances in their Dao comprehension, this transformation becomes more and more stable. It was essentially one representation of attainment into the Dao.

'They look like…look like humans with that form,' the innate god pondered before narrowing his gaze. 'Humans. Wait what am I thinking of? How do I know this? Did I…did I cross over from the twenty first century?'

Questions he had in his mind were answered with a barrage of attacks. The immortals living in the valley regarded him as a primordial beast due to his enormous size and monstrous appearance as well as the tremendous amounts of power rolling off his body. They were all frightened by him.

A barrage of crude qi energy struck him across his face causing him to close his eyes at the bright light. His head flinched back and grunted retreating back.

One of the immortals, a woman with fox tails held out her hand. She unleashed an archaic looking water jug that spewed forth a geyser of hot water right at the serpent. The blast scattered after impacting his scales only serving to wash along his head.

"Did we get him?" One of the immortals, a man whose true form was that of a hairy monkey asked.

"No Hou Pi, we barely did anything," the one who answered was a beautiful woman who had nine swishing tails behind her. She was the leader of this bunch of ragtag immortals named Hu Lingji.

She narrowed her eyes as the snake turned his back back down towards them.

"Stop this at once," he said. "I mean you all no harm." 'You pieces of trash.'

Yet despite their attack, the innate god was unharmed and merely spoke back with concealed annoyance. It was clear from his voice alone that he was not a primordial beast.

Primordial beasts were exactly that, beasts. They had incredibly tough bodies and sometimes weird supernatural abilities. But they were mindless animals who lived only to consume living beings born of Pangu's world. They possessed no empathy, no rationale, no higher thinking. Only the endless need to consume.

For these young immortals, they were a nightmare. Even to the strongest of them, they could be swarmed and eaten.

"He speaks?" One of the Heavenly Immortals spouted in shock.

"That is not the behavior of a primordial beast!"

"I am not one of the primordial beast!" The serpentine innate god roared back in uncharacteristic rage. 'The audacity to compare this deity to abomination.' 'How could a dumb animal compare to an educated person?'

It was then that multiple of his heads finally arrived. Seven others descended through the veil of mist as his body made its way into the valley.

"You're kidding, there's more of them?"

"No! They're all the same being. Look they share the same body!"

"Unbelievable, they broke through our concealment barrier so easily!"

Hou Pi the monkey especially keeled back in fear. "Hey lady Hu, I…I think I know what he is."

"Hm? Speak up," the nine tailed fox ordered.

"That power and the intelligence. Not to mention the way his aura interacts with the world," the man pointed out at the subtlety changing atmosphere.

The serpent's power interacted with nature in strange ways. Already a storm cloud had gathered and droplets of rain poured down. But within he clouds, lightning danced through the sky in the shape of flying dragons coloured in a beautiful azure. Even the water droplets that rained down resembled crystals more then water despite being liquid.

"I think this is also a connate being like us. Specifically the innate gods. I once witnessed them from a distance, they felt similar," he said with a visible grimace.

"Innate god? The coveted Golden Immortals?" The female fox exhaled in shock. Her skinned paled as she imagined what kind of power such a being would posses. Hailing from the South Continent, she had never truly seen an innate god in action before.

"Stop please, I told you all I have no ill will," the eight snake heads all said in unison. He descended from the mountains and fully into the valley shaking the grounds with each step of his claws.

'Well this is a bit awkward,' he thought to himself bending his head down to look at the immortals. They were all so small and looked so fragile. It made him feel extremely sorry for them. 'Just a few ants, what's even the point?' 'Perhaps they can be of use? I sense merit from worship is good.'

The snake shook his head feeling a bit dizzy. He grimaced as the nauseous feeling that had continuously plagued him resurfaced every now and then chose this moment to do so.

Instead, the serpent chose to observe the immortals slowly. He immediately identified their techniques as crude and unrefined. It was as if they barely knew how to use their own powers to fight. Was it their young age or lack of proper guidance?

The snake was also a bit lost. But he instinctually had knowledge that far eclipsed these immortals. It was so much so that despite never performing complex usage of spell work himself he felt he could easily perform a thousand times better then them.

By observing their Dao bodies, the snake made a decision. His titanic body glowed with the brightness of stars. His scales shrunk and his necks and his heads shrunk into him.

The immortals took a step back preparing for an offense. However none ever came. Instead, the innate god acquired a humanoid Dao body of his own and walked out of the light.

Standing there was a completely nude Golden Immortal with the appearance of a child. He had a dull yellow blond coloured hair and childish features. In total he appeared no older then the age of ten and stood a hundred and twenty centimetres.

"Hello I'm," he greeted. He paused to think of what to call himself. There was only really one name that he knew to refer to himself. Even though Yang Mei had so cruelly rejected it when they last spoke, he felt that it was still his name.

"I am Tian Hai."