Primordial Era: A brick knocks Hongyun unconscious, and he seizes the throne at the start.

When Haotian ascended the throne and the Heavenly Court was re-established, the primordial world trembled.

The Lingxiao Palace was completed in three days under the blessing of the Dao Ancestor's magical power. It shone with golden light and auspicious energy, even more majestic and magnificent than during the time of Emperor Jun and Taiyi. Immortals and gods from all walks of life came to pay homage, and even the Six Sages sent avatars to the event, giving the Dao Ancestor ample respect.

But anyone with eyes can see that this new Heavenly Court is... very weak.

Although Haotian held the title of Jade Emperor appointed by the Dao Ancestor, his cultivation was merely at the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm, not even a Quasi-Saint. Yaochi was only at the mid-stage of the Great Luo realm. Apart from a few Daoist novices who had been converted into celestial officials, he had almost no one else capable under his command.

The entire Heavenly Court, apart from the Lingxiao Palace and a few side halls, was completely empty, without even a single heavenly soldier guarding the gate.

"A lone commander, huh?" Lu Chen squatted atop the pillar supporting the sky, looking at the bustling scene above, and chuckled.

But soon, he stopped laughing.

The second thing Haotianqian did was to issue the "Heavenly Court Recruitment Order"—to recruit talented people from all over the world to fill various departments of the Heavenly Court.

This is perfectly understandable; a new broom sweeps clean.

However, one clause in the recruitment order made Lu Chen's eyelids twitch: "All beings in the primordial world whose cultivation reaches the Golden Immortal level or above must register with the Heavenly Court and receive an Immortal Register. Those without an Immortal Register are considered wandering immortals and unruly cultivators, and are not allowed to enjoy the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, participate in important matters of heaven and earth, or..."

There's a whole bunch of "must not" followed, which basically completely blocks the path for independent cultivators.

"They're going to implement a 'celestial register system,' bringing all cultivators under the Heavenly Court's management system," Lu Chen said, narrowing his eyes.

What alarmed him even more was that Haotian also announced the establishment of military institutions such as the "Heavenly River Navy," the "Thunder Department," and the "Fire Department," explicitly stating that he wanted to "eliminate unstable factors in the prehistoric world."

Who are these destabilizing factors?

Lu Chen counted on his fingers: Styx was running the Blood God Cult in the Blood Sea, Kunpeng was dead but there were still remnants of the demon race in the Northern Sea, Zhen Yuanzi, the ancestor of earth immortals, was neutral but his power was too great, and the Western Sect was running an independent kingdom in Mount Ling...

And then there's Lu Chen—a Primordial Golden Immortal, wielding immense power, refusing to obey orders or summons, a quintessential example of an "unstable element."

"It seems this Jade Emperor has quite the ambition," Lu Chen sneered. "Trying to use me to establish his authority? Let's see if you have the ability."

He fled to Wuzhuang Temple to discuss matters with Zhen Yuanzi.

Zhen Yuanzi was also troubled by this matter.

"Haotian is trying to take back power," Zhen Yuanzi sighed. "As the ancestor of all earth immortals, I am nominally in charge of all earth immortals in the prehistoric world. According to the new rules of the Heavenly Court, I also have to register and be given the official title of 'General Leader of Earth Immortals'."

"Are you planning to go, senior?"

"Can we really not go?" Zhen Yuanzi smiled wryly. "The Heavenly Court was personally supported by the Dao Ancestor; we have to give them face. Besides..."

He lowered his voice: "The old Taoist priest deduced the secrets of heaven and discovered that behind Haotian, there is not only the support of the Taoist Ancestor, but also seems to be... the shadow of the Primordial Sage."

"Yuan Shi?" Lu Chen frowned. "What does he want to do?"

"What else can we do? We can use the Heavenly Court to consolidate the forces of the prehistoric world," Zhen Yuanzi analyzed. "Although the Three Pure Ones are all saints, there is internal competition. Laozi is inactive and peaceful, Tongtian's Jiejiao has disbanded, and only Yuanshi's Chanjiao is still active. If we can control the Heavenly Court through Haotian and thus control the order of the prehistoric world, then Yuanshi will be the biggest winner."

Lu Chen understood.

No wonder Haotian, a Grand Luo Golden Immortal, dared to be so arrogant; it turns out that the Primordial Sage was standing behind him.

"Then we must not let them succeed." A cold glint flashed in Lu Chen's eyes. "If the Heavenly Court is completely controlled by Yuanshi, we 'destabilizing factors' will be purged sooner or later."

"What are your plans, young friend?"

"They want to seize power, so we'll... sabotage them." Lu Chen grinned. "Isn't Haotian going to establish the Heavenly River Navy, the Thunder Department, and the Fire Department? They must need a lot of resources, right? Magic weapons, pills, array materials... the Heavenly Court is currently penniless when it comes to these things."

Zhen Yuanzi's eyes lit up: "You mean...?"

"Get ahead of them and take all the resources that exist in the primordial world that you can." Lu Chen pulled out a small notebook. "I've been traveling in the Chaos for the past few years and I know all the 'treasure spots' in the primordial world like the back of my hand. Some are remnants from ancient times, some were scattered after the war between the Lich King and the Demon King, and some are the private stashes of certain 'old friends'..."

He opened the notebook, which was filled with dozens of locations and their corresponding treasures.

"Shouyang Mountain, the alchemy room left behind by Laozi of Taiqing, contains three bottles of Nine-Turn Golden Elixir and an Eight Trigrams Furnace."

"Qilin Cliff in Kunlun Mountain is the treasure trove where the Primordial Lord stored materials for refining weapons. It contains three thousand catties of copper from the First Mountain and five hundred catties of Star Essence Gold."

"The ruins of Jin'ao Island, the former Hidden Sword Pavilion of Tongtian. Although the Four Swords of Zhuxian are gone, there are still 360 flying swords of the acquired spiritual treasure level."

"Deep within the Blood Sea, in the Blood God Palace Treasury of the Styx River, besides blood-path magic treasures, there should also be many rare materials he plundered from the primordial world."

"The Northern Sea Demon Cave... we can't touch it for now, but there should be a lot of demonic materials scattered around the cave, so we can pick up some bargains."

"The Western Vulture Peak, the Eight Treasures Merit Pool of Jieyin and Zhunti, has the crystallization of faith accumulated over hundreds of millions of years at the bottom of the pool, which is the top material for refining merit magic treasures."

"And deep within the ruins of Buzhou Mountain, when Gonggong and Zhurong struck the mountain, several innate spiritual treasures shattered, and the fragments should still be buried there..."

Lu Chen recited more than a dozen places in one breath, leaving Zhen Yuanzi dumbfounded.

"Young friend...you're going to hollow out the entire primordial world!"

"What do you mean by 'hollowing out'?" Lu Chen corrected. "It's called the rational redistribution of resources. The Heavenly Court needs to develop, and so do we. Rather than letting these resources lie dormant in a corner collecting dust, we should use them to enhance our strength."

"But doing that would offend everyone..."

"If we don't offend anyone, will they stop bothering us?" Lu Chen retorted. "Haotian is backed by Yuanshi, the two Western Saints already have a grudge against us, and that old demon of the Styx wishes he could devour me. Since we're bound to clash sooner or later, why not strike first?"

Zhen Yuanzi remained silent.

Indeed, the prehistoric world was a vast jungle, where the strong prey on the weak. If you don't fight for it, others will take it from you.

"Alright!" He slammed his hand on the table. "I'll do it with you! But... we need a plan, we can't just act recklessly."

"That's natural." Lu Chen was prepared. "First, we won't touch the core interests of the Three Pure Ones and Nuwa. We'll only take the scraps that they 'don't need.' For example, Lao Tzu's alchemy room. He didn't use it much after he became a saint, and the pills inside aren't very useful to saints. He wouldn't care too much if we took them."

"Secondly, we can be ruthless towards the Western Religion and the River Styx, since they are already enemies anyway."

"Third, we must act quickly and take everything we can before the Heavenly Court can react."

Fourth, after succeeding, immediately disperse and hide, leaving no evidence.

The two discussed the details and finally finalized "Robbery Plan 2.0".

Phase 1: Cleaning up ancient relics. Targets: The alchemy room on Shouyang Mountain, Qilin Cliff on Kunlun Mountain, and the Hidden Sword Pavilion on Jin'ao Island.

Phase Two: Raid on the Enemy's Warehouse. Targets: Blood Sea Blood God Palace, Western Eight Treasures Merit Pool.

Phase 3: Scavenging the battlefield ruins. Objectives: Fragments of the Buzhou Mountain spiritual treasure, and the outer perimeter of the Northern Underworld Demon Cave.

"Let's get started now without delay." Lu Chen stood up. "Senior, you will be in charge of Shouyang Mountain and Kunlun Mountain, and I will be in charge of Jin'ao Island and the Blood Sea. We will meet back at Wuzhuang Temple after we succeed."

"careful."

"The same goes for you, senior."

The two split up.

Lu Chen activated his full Brick Escape technique and went to Jin'ao Island in the East China Sea first.

After the destruction of the Jie Sect, Jin'ao Island became a ruin, shrouded in malevolent energy and vengeful spirits year-round, making it unapproachable for ordinary cultivators. But for Lu Chen, none of this was a problem.

Protected by the Great Dao of Power, he was impervious to all laws and charged directly into the depths of the ruins, where he found the Hidden Sword Pavilion that had once reached the heavens.

The pavilion had collapsed most of its length, but the protective barrier was still functioning. Lu Chen shattered the barrier with a punch, revealing three hundred and sixty flying swords floating inside. Although they were only acquired spiritual treasures, they were all personally crafted by Tongtian and were of extremely high quality.

"receive!"

The entire scroll of the Qiankun Diagram was taken away.

He rummaged through the ruins again and found several bottles of secret pills from the Jie Sect and some array materials, which he packed up as well.

In less than half an hour, the sweeping of Jin'ao Island was completed.

Next came the sea of ​​blood.

Styx was still recovering from his injuries (his gourd fragments and the God-Slaying Spear were stolen by Lu Chen a hundred years ago), and the Blood God Palace's defenses were much weaker than before. Lu Chen forcibly broke through the restrictions with the Chaos Brick, rushed into the treasure vault, and looted all the blood-path materials piled up inside, as well as the rare treasures from the primordial world that Styx had plundered over the years.

Before leaving, he left a note at the entrance of the vault:

"I need to borrow some materials. I'll return them to you next time. — Lu Chen"

What expression would Styx have when he sees this note?

Lu Chen found it amusing to think about.

When he returned to Wuzhuang Temple using the brick-遁 (a technique to teleport to a location), Zhen Yuanzi had just returned as well, and his expression was somewhat strange.

"What's wrong, senior? Is something not going well?"

"Smoothly...too smoothly." Zhen Yuanzi scratched his head. "The alchemy room on Shouyang Mountain, it seems that the Sage Laozi knew I was coming, and he removed all the restrictions in advance. In addition to the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir and the Eight Trigrams Furnace, there was also a gourd of Yellow Plums, with a note next to it: Take it."

Lu Chen: "..."

"The same goes for Qilin Cliff in Kunlun Mountain," Zhen Yuanzi continued. "The treasure vault of the Primordial Sage wasn't even locked. When I went in, I happened to run into his attendant, Baihe. Baihe said: 'Master instructed that if Daoist Lu Chen comes, he can take any materials he wants, just don't demolish the house.'"

Lu Chen's lips twitched.

What do these two saints mean?

A gesture of goodwill? Or... a trap?

"Never mind, I'll just take it first." Lu Chen shook his head. "Anyway, they gave it to me voluntarily, so I might as well take it."

The two counted their spoils, which filled half of the backyard of Wuzhuang Temple.

Elixirs, magical treasures, materials, spiritual roots... enough to cultivate a top-tier sect!

"Phase one complete." Lu Chen grinned. "Next, it's time to head to the Western Spirit Mountain and the Northern Underworld Sea."

He looked westward, a cunning glint in his eyes.

Jieyin and Zhunti, I want your Eight Treasures Merit Pool...