Molding the armor piece by piece after the appearance of the armor worn by the True Lord Erlang from his past-life television shows, Zhang Qing cast countless defensive formations into it as if they cost nothing. Gradually, countless mysterious runes formed on the surface of the armor, and the moment the runes formed, they absorbed all the surrounding Qi of Chaos. The armor was complete.
With a flick of his finger, the armor instantly clothed him. Feeling its might, it had barely reached the level of a Xiantian Spiritual Treasure, comparable to the Five Elements and Five Directions Flags of later generations.
Above Xiantian Spiritual Treasures were the Xiantian Supreme Treasures, such as the Taiji Diagram, Pangu Banner, and Chaos Bell; Chaos Supreme Treasures such as the Chaos Green Lotus, Heaven-Opening Axe, Creation Jade Disc, and Chaos Pearl; and below them were Post-Heaven Supreme Treasures, such as the Xuanhuang Linglong Pagoda, and Post-Heaven Spiritual Treasures like the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
The reason Zhang Qing's very first artifact crafting could reach the level of a Xiantian Spiritual Treasure comparable to the Five Directions Flags was, firstly, the quality of the materials—all top-tier Xiantian materials found within the Chaos. Secondly, the quality of the fire—the power of the fire law was no joke; artifact crafting valued materials first, fire second, and cultivation last. Otherwise, give someone a lump of mud, and no amount of cultivation would allow them to forge a magic treasure.
Dressed in his armor, Zhang Qing immediately felt a bit more secure. He would just keep moving forward; after all, any direction was as good as another. Wasn't it better to stay far away from that battlefield? Who knew when that mighty deity might suddenly decide to perform the Heaven-Opening, and that giant axe was a Chaos Supreme Treasure—who could withstand it?
Zhang Qing divided his attention three ways: while absorbing the surrounding Qi of Chaos to cultivate, he collected materials from the Chaos. He still lacked a good sword, but he had never found suitable materials. He himself was the transformation of a strand of Xiantian Chaos Sword Qi, so having a decent sword would be a tremendous help.
He also had to remain constantly alert to his surroundings to avoid running into other Chaos beings, because given their disposition, they might just attack on sight if they found someone unpleasing to the eye. At his early-stage Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, he couldn't afford to provoke them.
One day, as Zhang Qing was fretting over failing to find suitable materials to forge a sword, a stick-shaped object suddenly flashed across his divine sense, and faint ripples of sword qi actually emanated from it.
Zhang Qing immediately turned and gave chase. Could it be an unformed Xiantian sword? If so, that would be wonderful! Though forging one himself gave him a chance to create a Xiantian Spiritual Treasure, a sword that formed itself naturally within the Chaos would undoubtedly be a genuine Xiantian Spiritual Treasure.
Thus, after a long chase, he finally intercepted that figure in a vast ocean of Qi of Chaos. Sure enough, the sword tip and blade had already formed; only the hilt lacked a bit of refinement. How should he retrieve it? Should he just rush up and grab it? What if it ran away again? Having chased it for so long, he knew full well just how fast this unformed sword embryo was.
Zhang Qing thought of a method: he would try using the sword intent of his own true form. A wisp of sword intent oozed out and slowly drifted toward the sword embryo. Before it even got close, the sword embryo flashed and actually took the initiative to approach him. Zhang Qing reached out foolishly and grasped the hilt, and instantly, a sensation of water and milk blending as one surged through his entire body.
Was this sword custom-made for him? Although it was still an embryo and not fully formed, it had already reached the level of a Xiantian Spiritual Treasure, faintly surpassing the armor he had forged himself.
What level would it reach after refinement? Zhang Qing couldn't help his excitement. He drove his divine sense deep into the sword embryo: one, two, three... it actually reached twenty-seven restrictions! One must know that even Xiantian Supreme Treasures only possessed thirty-six restrictions.
Overjoyed to the point of flying, Zhang Qing immediately began refining the restrictions: one, two, three—in one breath, he refined twenty-one. The sword embryo could now be stored within his body, slowly nourished and refined using his own Xiantian Chaos Sword Qi.
He now possessed two Xiantian Spiritual Treasures, one for offense and one for defense, but Zhang Qing still felt uncertain. That was the Heaven-Opening tribulation! Ninety-nine percent of Chaos beings would perish, and he was now considered a member of the Xiantian Gods and Demons.
The brilliant Primordial World was still waiting for him; he didn't want to "fall before his enterprise had achieved success." Wasn't his origin as Xiantian Chaos Sword Qi considered quite good? He still had a vast future ahead of him.
In the time that followed, Zhang Qing embarked on another treasure-hunting journey. He also wanted to forge a set of defensive formation disks. This formation had been acquired after he completely mastered the fire law, named the Blazing Heaven-Imprisoning Formation. Originally a trapping formation meant to imply that even the Heavenly Dao could be trapped, Zhang Qing held skeptical views about trapping the Heavenly Dao, but as far as defensive power was concerned, it was astonishingly formidable.
While searching for fire-attribute divine materials, Zhang Qing turned into a sanitation worker, collecting whatever he encountered and turning nothing away. He knew that while these items might not be top-tier in the Chaos, once that mighty deity cleaved the Chaos open, most of these divine materials would suffer destruction anyway. Gathering them now could also be considered a form of "merit."
Whenever he obtained a fire-attribute divine material, he would refine it using the fire law. Finally, after wandering for an unknown amount of time, Zhang Qing gathered all the materials needed to forge the formation disks. For Zhang Qing, who possessed the fire law, forging the formation disks wasn't difficult; the hard part was infusing spiritual qi after their completion.
Now that the materials had been collected and refined, Zhang Qing summoned a massive amount of Qi of Chaos, hid within it, and began forging the formation disks. Time and again, his Taiyi Golden Immortal power was exhausted, and time and again, he recovered.
After cycling through exhaustion and recovery countless times, the formation disk finally radiated a heaven-soaring heat at a certain moment. The fluctuation of this heaven-incinerating, sea-boiling formation shattered the surrounding Chaos Qi masses into pieces. If Zhang Qing hadn't been the one who forged the formation disk, he probably would have been heavily injured in an instant.
Another pleasant surprise for Zhang Qing was that through the countless cycles of exhaustion and recovery, he finally broke through the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm, reaching the Daluo Realm. Truly, it had not been easy.
Zhang Qing could no longer remember how long he had cultivated in this Chaos, but his cultivation had finally been piled up to the early-stage Daluo Golden Immortal by absorbing the Qi of Chaos. At last, he possessed a shred of self-preservation strength.
He was genuinely frightened by the great battle he had witnessed back then—a group of Daluo besieging a single person, only to be cleaved down one by one by that mighty deity with a single axe. It was too terrifying! No wonder it could hack open the Chaos and pioneer the Primordial.
In the time that followed, Zhang Qing consolidated his Daluo Realm while continuing to collect materials, casually forging some simple formation disks—mere trinkets with only nine restrictions. Multiple small formation disks could be used to assemble a "compound" formation. Well, this was also defensive; although it couldn't compare to the Blazing Heaven-Imprisoning Formation, a bit of extra defense was always good. His level of fear of death was far above average.
Finally, one day, Zhang Qing suddenly felt a pang of palpitations. Could that mighty deity have already begun? Not daring to delay, Zhang Qing quickly summoned massive masses of Qi of Chaos to tightly surround himself in the center.
He summoned his armor and put it on, instantly activating the Blazing Heaven-Imprisoning Formation. With waves of his hands, the small formation disks he had forged, possessing only nine restrictions, flew out like locusts, surrounding the Blazing Heaven-Imprisoning Formation. A massive and complex compound defensive formation activated instantly.
No sooner had he finished all this than he felt a voice resonate directly within his soul: "I am Pangu. Feeling the desolation within the Chaos, I now rely on the Chaos Supreme Treasure in my hand, the Heaven-Opening Axe, to cleave this Chaos apart." Following that, he felt a heaven-shaking fluctuation ripple from an infinitely distant source, and the entire Chaos space trembled along with it.