I am the sacred tree, evergreen for eternity.

The chaotic void, without universe or time.

Yu Su wandered through time, the stars shining and shimmering beneath his feet like pebbles washed by the river on a riverbank.

He didn't look at them intentionally; the images just came to him on their own.

In the beginning, it was mountains and seas.

He saw the vast, desolate mountains and seas stretching out beneath his feet, like a giant beast's hide crumpled by an invisible hand.

The mountains rise with a thunderous roar as they tear at the earth's crust, rocks are squeezed and cracked, new peaks pierce the clouds, and old peaks collapse into plains in the wind and rain, before being swallowed by the sea...

The earth closes and then cracks open, cracks and then closes again.

The ocean is born and dries up, dries up and is born again.

In the rise and fall of billions of years—

How dare we claim eternity? Who speaks of immortality?

Upon realizing this, Yu Su felt a strange sense of relief.

The wild world never cared about the life, death, prosperity, or decline of this tree. The mountains and seas would not become more lush because he lived one more day, nor would they become desolate because he died.

He was just a speck of dust, a free speck of dust.

This is what is meant by "seeing heaven and earth".

Then he moved.

His consciousness plunged down from above time, like a pebble thrown into a long river, willingly throwing itself into the endless torrent.

Since Heaven and Earth are indifferent, he then went to see the creatures struggling in the cracks between them.

See them howling in the floods, migrating through droughts, and multiplying and evolving amidst the changing times...

Some soar into the clouds, absorb the light of the heavens, shed their mortal form, and become sublime beings.

Some burrow into the abyss, sinking into underground fissures, twisting and mutating in the dark, murky air.

All life struggles under the same law—

Survival of the fittest, the strong prey on the weak.

Yu Su was no exception.

This is called: seeing all sentient beings.

The river of time rushes past us.

Yu Su's gaze fell on a group of savages.

Wrapped in tattered animal skins, they walked across the scorched earth, letting the burning ground scorch their feet.

The scorched earth stretched from our feet into the distance, barren of vegetation, with the remains of giant trees lying haphazardly, and the air thick with the acrid smell of smoke and dust.

A child ran out from the crowd.

His eyes were sunken, his lips were cracked and bleeding, and the few pieces of animal skin on his body could not cover the wounds and bruises all over his body.

His pace inexplicably slowed down as he ran past that sapling;

His hand unconsciously reached out and covered the charred tree trunk with a few wet leaves.

He took out a small animal skin pouch from his pocket and dripped a few drops of water onto the tree roots.

The water droplet was instantly swallowed by the cracked soil, without a sound.

He poured a few more drops.

Until the pockets were completely empty.

Then he crouched down, touched the last remaining leaf of the sapling, whispered something, and ran towards the crowd.

The savages didn't even stop to wait; their ranks moved with difficulty into the distance, like an ant trail scattered by a great flood.

The child stumbled after him, his bare feet stepping on the scorching ashes, leaving tiny footprints of blood on the ground.

A few hundred steps later, a gust of wind blew by, and the footprints were buried by ashes.

It's as if it never existed.

Yu Su's consciousness trembled violently at that moment.

He finally heard it, the message that had spanned hundreds of years—

"Live well."

This is life respecting life; there is no reason, yet the cause and effect have already been determined.

This means: to see oneself.

It is not that divine tree that overlooks all living beings from the top of the mountains and seas.

It was just an ordinary life that was saved by a handful of water.

That's it.

Yu Su's consciousness endlessly reincarnates amidst the illusions of time.

He saw the mountains and the sea, walked into the mountains and the sea, and then became immersed in the mountains and the sea.

It was as if those images were no longer illusions, but had become him—

He is a mountain range that rises and collapses, a spiritual vein that is born and dies, and countless living beings struggling between life and death.

All identities overlap at the same moment, all time rushes by at the same moment, and all "I"s shout and fall silent at the same moment.

He couldn't distinguish which one was the real him, just as he couldn't tell which grain of sand in a storm came from which mountain, which river, or which desert.

Just as he was about to lose himself completely—

A gaze descended from the highest point.

There was no anger, no pity, nothing in that gaze that could be called "emotion".

It doesn't even qualify as "watching".

It was more like a being sleeping in chaos, unconsciously opening and closing its lower eyelids in a dream, just enough to sweep across the void where Yu Su was.

That was it.

Yu Su suddenly woke up.

The spirit was withdrawn from that endless cycle of reincarnation, like a string stretched to its limit suddenly being released, causing the entire tree to tremble violently.

The spiritual light on the tree trunk flickered, the leaves rustled, the roots contracted spasmodically underground, and even the sacred mountain trembled slightly for a moment.

He is back.

He returned to that ten-zhang-tall elm tree, to the summit of this sacred mountain, and to the land where he had been rooted for nearly two hundred years.

Yu Su knew that what he had just touched was not the powerful deity who had casually annihilated the Divine Tree Valley.

It was nothing more than a tangible, powerful life form.

He followed the aura he had stolen years ago, tracing its course upstream, and what he encountered was the source of this lineage of mythology—

He who wanders in the realm of ignorance and chaos.

That mythical being, who has slumbered for countless eons, knows that someone is spying on His path, and that ants are trying to climb the steps beneath His feet.

He is all-knowing and all-powerful, but he doesn't care at all.

Or perhaps, He is waiting too...

Fine droplets of spiritual light condensed on Yu Su's tree trunk, as he used his spiritual energy to repair the damage caused by the shock to his consciousness.

In this process, the insights gained in the cycle of reincarnation gradually return to their rightful place, like scattered beads being strung back together.

He finally understood.

Body forging is breaking the shackles of bloodline, allowing life to transcend the mundane and reach the extraordinary.

Mingling is the process of condensing spiritual energy into spiritual light, allowing extraordinary power to manifest from nothingness.

But the journey doesn't end there.

After transcending the ordinary and attaining sainthood, what one seeks is a clear vision of the origin of life.

He gave this entirely new path a name—

[See God].

He saw heaven and earth, saw all living beings, and finally saw his own "god".

Yu Su knew that her true path was still far ahead.

"Then let's go and see the world!"

Yu Su's spiritual consciousness descended along that star-like spiritual field of heaven and earth.

Instead of returning to the branches of the four major tribes, he followed the totem network to find those newly emerging, subtle branches...

……

Thousands of miles away, deep in the wilderness.

At the bottom of the dark abyss, the turbid air was like boiling, surging lava.

A dozen or so powerful demons collided, tore, and devoured each other in the narrow cave.

The snake demon coiled around the wolf demon's neck, the wolf demon's fangs pierced the bear demon's shoulder blade, and the bear demon's giant paw shattered the fox demon's skull...

Blood mixed with foul air, splattering purplish-black streaks on the cave walls.

Those traces, like living vines, climbed, intertwined, and spread along the rock wall, eventually wrapping the entire cave into a huge, still slightly pulsating cocoon.

There were no cries of pain, no pleas for mercy.

Every great demon knows what it is doing.

This is not slaughter, this is sacrifice—

Their flesh, blood, turbid air, and demonic souls were sacrificed to each other.

Until the strongest one emerges victorious from the final battle, it becomes "it".

Outside the abyss, tens of thousands of demons gathered here.

They came from dozens of different groups—snakes, wolves, foxes, spiders, bears—and at this moment, they were all indistinguishable, lying prostrate on the ground, trembling.

The demons sensed that terrifying aura was gathering.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the cave.

One after another, like muffled thunderclaps striking the hearts of the demons.

They dared not raise their heads, dared not utter a sound, and could only wait silently...

Finally, the cocoon of turbid energy shattered—

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness.