102 years ago, Qingtian Dao Sect.
A young girl lay quietly on the ground; beneath her was a vast expanse of flesh that faintly undulated.
A middle-aged man in Daoist robes stood in front of the girl, looking at the unconscious girl, he said, "Jiaojiao, don’t worry. The Three Pure Dao Sect will soon be established. With the knowledge and power from over a hundred Daoist Sects, we will be able to find a way to counter the mutations."
Jiaojiao’s sea of consciousness kept trembling; she could hear her master’s words. She wanted to stand up, wanted to respond, but she felt as if countless hands were grasping her, preventing her from moving at all.
A few months later, Master Qingfeng returned to Jiaojiao’s side. His face looked somewhat pale and weak, and he coughed from time to time.
Below Jiaojiao was flesh that resembled the soil, having already swallowed her lower body, undulating as if it were breathing with life.
Master Qingfeng, with a trace of excitement, said, "Jiaojiao, rest assured, I have made progress. Everything is related to the distortion of the Heavenly Dao. We have calculated the exact timing of the distortion; by recalculating, we hope to find the root cause of the mutation."
"Also, we’ve contacted the other three major sects, and even the celestial court has sent people down. With the combined wisdom of all the cultivators, everything will start to go smoothly. We will cure you."
Suddenly, Master Qingfeng frowned, turned his head, and looked around as if he had heard someone talking.
"I must be too tired." Master Qingfeng gave a helpless smile. "I’ll rest for a while, and I’ll come to keep you company next time." He rubbed his head, a look of fatigue flashing across his eyes.
Listening to the footsteps of Master Qingfeng leaving, Jiaojiao’s sea of consciousness became more violent again.
Jiaojiao felt the flesh below her slowly devour her, overwhelming her with fear. She wanted to open her mouth to call for help, but it felt like a pair of hands emerged from the void, covering her mouth.
A year later, Master Qingfeng, his body bent, his hair sparse and dark circles under his eyes, but his eyes were full of excitement.
In front of him, only Jiaojiao’s head was visible; everything below her head was completely covered by the widespread flesh on the ground. This, coupled with her cheeks, provided a strangely beautiful look.
Master Qingfeng, seemingly ignoring these aspects, excitedly said to Jiaojiao, "Jiaojiao! We’ve succeeded, the Dao canon has officially been compiled. Rest assured, as long as we use the Dao canon, you will definitely be restored..."
"Who? Who is speaking?" Master Qingfeng suddenly turned around, his face guarded as he looked in other directions, yet saw no one: "Come out! I know you’re there... if you won’t come out..."
After that, he turned and ran, shouting as he ran, "You won’t spy on me! I won’t give you the Dao canon."
Just as Master Qingfeng was leaving, the only part of Jiaojiao visible, her head, suddenly opened a pair of blood-red eyes and looked towards the back of Master Qingfeng.
Then she saw a ferocious face on Master Qingfeng’s head, staring back at Jiaojiao, its mouth opening and closing, emitting silent whispers.
Jiaojiao watched coldly at the ghastly face until Master Qingfeng’s figure disappeared, then she completely closed her eyes.
"The last time I saw my master, he injected me with a signature talisman vaccine. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe it’s because of the 100% Dao transformation, my mind awakened from the chaos and madness. I was finally able to temporarily suppress the mutations inside my body."
Jiaojiao said faintly, "Then, my master committed suicide in front of me."
"The last words he said, I still remember them now."
"Hahahaha!" Master Qingfeng laughed crazily, his hair had completely disappeared, and his small stature resembled a dwarf, his body hair extremely dense.
"What Dao canon! It’s completely useless!"
"You are all demons! All demons!!"
Having been injected with the talisman vaccine, Jiaojiao slowly opened her eyes and saw Master Qingfeng looking at her and saying, "All beings are demons, to exterminate demons is to exterminate all beings."
With a light ’plop’ sound, Master Qingfeng’s head suddenly fell to the ground, rolling and stopping at Jiaojiao’s feet, still looking at Jiaojiao and laughing uncontrollably.
Zhou Bai cautiously asked, "Master Qingfeng, has he mutated?"
Zhou Bai, "What did he mean by his last words? Are they true?"
Jiaojiao said, "Later I did some investigation, and only then did I understand what my teacher meant and why the first version of the Dao canon, the original Dao canon, was banned."
"The distortion of the Heavenly Dao, its impact is so extensive that it encompasses the entire human world. In the first few years, we had no means to counter it. Exposed directly under the twisted Heavenly Dao for several years, all humans... no, life on Earth had already been contaminated by the bloodline within them, our bodies already had the seeds of mutation."
"Madness and mutation are the themes after the distortion of the Heavenly Dao. The original Dao canon follows the natural Dao, and by cultivating to the end, mutation is the only possibility." Jiaojiao said faintly, "That’s why it was declared a failure and got banned. Only then did the research for the second Dao canon begin, which was meant to go against the Heavenly Dao."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Bai’s body shook violently: ’Damn, I’ve also cultivated the original Dao canon, does that mean I’m going to mutate?’
’Wait, according to Dr. Zhuang’s research, the original Dao canon wouldn’t cause mutation, it might only cause demonization, and even that is controllable.’
’What’s actually going on? Is Dr. Zhuang wrong?’
’Wait... could it have something to do with myself?’ Zhou Bai suddenly thought of his own origin; he seemed a bit different from the people of this realm, as he had traversed here, his body wasn’t soaked by the twisted Heavenly Dao for a long time; for most of the time after he arrived, he was protected by the Array, and later he also got vaccinated.
’My body, my bloodline, maybe it’s different from the people here? There are no seeds of mutation inside me?’
Worried about the hidden dangers of the original Dao canon, Zhou Bai recounted Dr. Zhuang’s research findings and asked, "Great Elder? Do you think what Dr. Zhuang said is correct?"
"You’re talking about Dr. Zhuang Yan, right?" Jiaojiao said, "I know him... he’s an odd person."
"He entered the Eastern Huawei Dao School with the highest score, but by the time he graduated, he was still only at Level 0."