"What's going on here? Where am I? Why is everything so gray, with no sunlight?"
Gu Chuan opened his eyes and looked around. The surroundings were chaotic, a dull gray with swirling, formless air. It was pure nothingness—there was nothing to see at all.
Suddenly, he froze. There was no up, down, left, or right around him. No land, no sky, no matter. He couldn't tell the difference between east, west, north, or south.
It seemed as though he was floating in the vacuum of the universe—suspended in the void.
"Wait, is this the world of chaos?!"
Suddenly, a vast stream of consciousness surged from the depths of Gu Chuan's mind. This was inheritance passed down through his bloodline, and it instinctively informed him that this was the birthplace of the universe—the realm where chaos was born. This was the very beginning of existence.
And he was a chaos demon god born from chaos.
"I've become a serpent, the first serpent born in the chaos—the primordial ancient serpent."
Gu Chuan felt a little dazed as he realized that his body was no longer human. Instead, he had transformed into a dark golden serpent, ten thousand kilometers long, emitting bursts of dark golden light all over.
If it were in his previous life, this would have been an enormous creature. But in the chaos, it was nothing more than a tiny being—insignificant in every way.
At this moment, he clearly recalled that he had been in a car accident, struck by a sports car speeding recklessly. He had lost consciousness in that moment.
But when he awoke, he found himself transformed into a serpent at the beginning of chaos.
Boom~~
Normally, Gu Chuan's personality would have made him panic in this situation. But instead, a cold current surged from the depths of his consciousness, flooding every corner of his being.
In an instant, all negative emotions vanished, replaced by an absolute calmness, as though nothing from the outside world could affect him.
He also remembered that snakes are cold-blooded creatures, inherently calm, and never shaken by external forces. It seemed that the power of his new form was influencing his emotions.
"Wait, if this is the prehistoric world, wouldn't there be figures like Pangu, Hongjun, Luohu, Taiyi, Zhunti, and the Sanqing? But now, since the chaos has just begun, Pangu hasn't even opened the sky yet. These famous powers have yet to be born."
Gu Chuan suddenly realized this, and a sense of urgency surged within him. In later generations, Golden Immortals were common, Quasi-Saints were everywhere, and only true Saints could truly make a difference.
If he didn't cultivate seriously and grow stronger, he might meet a miserable end.
Take, for instance, the black tortoise of the North Sea. It lived peacefully, doing nothing and detached from the world. But Nuwa killed it to mend the heavens, using its limbs as the Pillar of Heaven to hold up the sky. It died an untimely yet heroic death.
It did nothing wrong, yet it was killed simply because of its weakness.
Weakness is the primal sin; those who fall behind will be trampled!
This is the truth of the world—the weak are prey to the strong, and the strong are revered.
Even though he was born from the chaos and seemed to have a high starting point, the three thousand chaos demon gods born from chaos were mostly destroyed, perishing along with Pangu. None of them survived after the opening of the heavens.
If this continues, he might end up like the other three thousand chaos demon gods, lost in the chaos forever.
"I must grow stronger!"
Gu Chuan's eyes glinted with resolve—not for any other reason, but because he wanted to survive. He had already died once in his previous life and didn't want to face another death in this life.
But how could he grow stronger? He had no idea. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary person—how could he know how to cultivate and become powerful?
By the time of later generations, the era of Dharma had ended. No one knew how to practice, let alone someone like Gu Chuan who was an ordinary person.
"Wait, the Tao Te Ching."
Suddenly, Gu Chuan remembered that he had studied the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching was written by the Saint Daode, containing his understanding of the laws of heaven, earth, and the Dao of the universe.
At the same time, his way was the way of enlightenment. Daode wrote down what he learned, understood, and thought in the Tao Te Ching, which spread across the world.
He wasn't afraid of anyone surpassing him by learning from the Tao Te Ching. As a Saint, Laozi had transcended such narrow concerns.
After all, everyone goes through nine years of compulsory education.
Why do some people get into Tsinghua University or Peking University while others only graduate from middle school? Even with a cheat book in front of you, without talent, it's impossible to learn, just like a blind person trying to understand an elephant.
Originally, Gu Chuan couldn't recall the exact content of the Tao Te Ching, but the soul has the ability to record all memories. Though he thought he had forgotten, it had long been recorded by his soul.
Now that he had transmigrated into the primordial ancient serpent, he was able to access all the memories of his soul, as if he possessed photographic memory.
Even though he had only read the Tao Te Ching once, its content now clearly appeared in his consciousness.