I Was the Heavenly Emperor in the Primordial Age

Chapter Five: Ascension

“How do I use it?”

Grasping that long feather in his hand, at this moment Li Jun suddenly recalled the scenes he had seen earlier—the ritual used by those Wood Guests.

They had used such rituals to transform people into their own kind of form, and both the ritual and the power had a source.

“This is a rite through which humans borrow the power of demons.”

Li Jun’s memory was exceptionally clear. He held the green feather in his right hand and then pressed it against his left arm, the root even piercing directly into his flesh.

He began chanting the incantation, the same ancient language of the Ximu Clan that he had only just learned not long ago.

At this very moment.

Before Li Jun’s eyes appeared the Blue Bird circling in the sky, bringing back visions of the great shamans of ancient tribal clans reciting their chants, and the Divine Stone of Kunlun descending from the heavens.

All these causes had fated the effect that unfolded now.

The green feather in his hand slowly merged into his left arm, as though a dose of medicine or blood had seeped into Li Jun’s body.

Li Jun immediately felt his heart pounding violently, as though a drum of the primordial wilderness was being frantically beaten by an ancient shaman. At this moment, what was undergoing mutation was no longer the double pupils of his eyes.

His body actually began to sprout feathers, and his height was gradually drawn upward.

“Hey!”

“What are you doing?”

At this moment, the shop owner finally came out. Seeing Li Jun, he immediately spoke.

Then he stopped in his tracks, standing at the doorway of the inner room, wishing he could retreat back inside at once.

In his eyes—

The back figure before him suddenly grew taller and taller, more and more feathers sprouting from his body. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into something that looked less like a human and more like a bird.

【In the Southern Classic of the Great Wilderness, there was a nation of Feathered People. Its people all grew feathers and could fly, but not far.】

Gods and extraordinary beings of ancient times all seemed to bear forms different from ordinary men.

Human head with serpent’s body, leopard’s tail with tiger’s teeth, tiger’s body with ten tails, and so on.

“Ah!”

“D-d-demon… monster!”

No matter how brimming with power the form was, it still marked him as other than human. Of course, the antique shop owner could not appreciate the wild, primal beauty of the ancient wilderness. He was so terrified that his very soul nearly fled his body.

He stumbled backward and almost fell, barely keeping himself from collapsing onto the floor by clutching the doorframe beside him.

Yet at this moment, Li Jun paid little attention to the changes around him. All of his focus was on himself.

“Feathered People?”

“So such beings truly exist in this world.”

Li Jun walked step by step toward the outside. With every step, his figure grew taller, and with every step, he grew more attuned to the transformation of his body.

His flesh seemed no longer like mortal flesh and blood. From every corner of his body, immense power surged forth, power capable of shattering everything before him.

He felt as though he had gained the power of flight.

When he reached the doorway, Li Jun raised his head to look toward the sky.

He spread open his arms, imagining the Blue Bird spreading its wings. Then, his arms truly transformed into a pair of enormous wings.

With the slightest exertion of strength—

A violent gust of wind arose, sweeping in all directions.

Amid the neon lights and countless households glowing in the night, Li Jun’s speed was so great that he left afterimages behind, soaring past skyscrapers, and in the blink of an eye he was high above the entire city.

His speed had already reached its extreme, yet Li Jun still felt it was not enough.

“I can go even faster!”

A deafening roar exploded from Li Jun’s body. After accelerating, he even created the thunderous sound of a sonic boom. This was not a speed any human body could endure, yet he felt no problem at all.

That sound alone should have burst his eardrums, but at this moment it seemed trivial. In this form, the range of sounds he could hear and endure far surpassed that of ordinary people.

When he regained awareness, Li Jun had already broken through the clouds.

Above his head hung a silver moon.

Upon the sea of clouds beneath the moonlit sky, Li Jun seemed to stand upon the very clouds, gazing up at the heavenly moon.

It felt as if, if he flew just a bit higher, he could seize the bright moon into his hands.

This was something no human could possibly achieve, no scenery a human could ever behold—yet Li Jun had done it, and was stunned into stillness.

Amidst the silence.

Li Jun suddenly remembered that he had flown up for an important task. He lowered his head to look down upon the city below, then transformed into a streak of flowing light as he descended.

During his fall, Li Jun’s gaze swept below. He seemed to already know where those people were.

Soon—

He saw that very group who had been pursuing him like a relentless shadow.

There were twelve of them in total.

At this moment, they had already changed into another set of garb, holding the bloodstained Taoist robe Li Jun had discarded midway, heading toward the antique shop.

Even though Li Jun had deliberately thrown it into a trash bin and covered it, they had still easily found it.

But just as they were passing through the fountain pool in the plaza, a bolt of “thunder” descended from the sky.

One among them reacted quickly, instantly raising his head to shout to the others above.

“Dodge!”

Just like the way they had attacked the hospital building earlier, now the same scene replayed upon themselves.

Only this time, the impact was far greater, and the power even more terrifying.

“Boom!”

That “thunder” struck the ground.

The entire fountain erupted at once, water blasting into mist. Bricks and sand scattered in all directions, and even the ground caved deeply at the center.

Nearly half of the plaza was instantly destroyed. Under the immense force, seven of the twelve “people” were obliterated on the spot.

The rest felt the ground collapsing beneath them. Some lost their footing and fell, while others were directly blasted away by the overwhelming shockwave.

This small plaza had originally been empty of people, but at this moment, under such a powerful disturbance, it immediately alarmed everyone within several miles.

Cars and pedestrians on the roadside stopped, turning to look this way.

One after another, figures rushed out from the shops across the street, gazing from afar at the plaza.

Lights flickered on in the surrounding buildings, countless eyes falling upon the place still shrouded in dust and smoke.

“What was that sound, what happened outside?”

“An explosion?”

“Did the gas pipeline blow up?”

“Right across the plaza—it looks like there are people there.”

After the sudden blast, silence fell over the plaza.

It looked as though everything had settled.

Yet from another dimension, an invisible storm also began to spread from here, its influence surpassing everyone’s expectations.

At this moment, those who were the first to be caught in this storm retreated in fear from the haze of smoke and mist, then gathered together.

Of the twelve, only five remained, two of whom still had damaged limbs. Vine-like tendrils were slowly reassembling themselves.

They too were badly frightened, appearing utterly at a loss.

“Who was it?”

“Could it have been someone firing a missile?”

“How could that be possible? Using a missile to bomb us inside a city—that’s madness!”

They thought they were ruthless enough, but now they had run into something even more ruthless. The sudden, unexpected turn of events left them terrified, unable to comprehend just what they had encountered.

Just like the outer members of Longevity Temple at the hospital building before.

The remaining five stood trembling, scanning their surroundings, as though searching for the enemy who had attacked them from afar—or else bracing for another strike.

But they never imagined the attacker would appear from the place they least expected.

They had been standing together, guarding against threats from outside, yet the sound came from the pit behind them. At the center of the massive crater—where in their eyes no one could have possibly survived—a figure slowly walked out.

Hearing the sound, one of them immediately turned back: “There’s someone inside!”

The others moved as well: “Impossible, even we would have died in there.”

From within the crater, the figure rose slowly, and everyone saw it.

This time, they had no choice but to accept it, though their faces all turned grim.

“There really is someone.”

Out of the mist, Li Jun’s figure emerged step by step.

Having released his flying form, the extent of his mutation was not nearly as extreme—or perhaps, even for him, that last strike had not been simple.

By the time he fully revealed himself, Li Jun had returned to human form. His school uniform hung in tatters, barely recognizable.

Yet even so, his body had been drawn taller by at least twenty centimeters. Barefoot on the ground, he still exuded immense oppression.

His skin was like translucent green jade, feather-like patterns spreading across it, extending from the backs of his hands to his arms, from his bare calves upward, along his neck and across his forehead.

He looked like a humanoid armored machine painted with mysterious runes, yet at the same time suffused with the shamanic aura of the ancient wilderness.

One of them recognized Li Jun and froze.

“It’s him.”

Another focused on Li Jun’s transformed form, his body trembling before cursing outright.

“Damn it, he’s a Great Shaman!”

“How could such a thing appear now?”

These Wood Guests seemed to know their own limits. The moment they saw Li Jun like this, they turned to flee—splitting in all directions.

But Li Jun was faster.

He stomped backward with his foot, his bare sole crushing the stone pavement into a deep crater, the bricks powdered to dust.

Then his shadow darted forth like the wind. He extended one hand, his fingers sprouting green feathers as his arm transformed into a long blade, slicing through two fleeing Wood Guests in an instant.

But even after being cut apart, they still tried to escape.

One, reduced to only an upper torso, was still moving. His lower half stood upright, attempting to reunite with him. But just as his upper body twisted and raised its head, a foot came crashing down.

“Boom!” Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novel⁂fire.net

His skull and the ground beneath were crushed into fragments. That foot even twisted forcefully against the earth.

Their weakness lay within the “core” hidden inside their helmets. Destroy the core, and like puppets or machines without a power source, they could no longer regrow like plants.

The other tried to run, but Li Jun flicked his hand.

A green feather, more than a foot long, shot out.

It pinned the creature’s skull to the ground, leaving it immobile. The body it had just recovered but not yet reattached withered and collapsed with it.

After Li Jun walked out, the uproar grew louder.

Especially when he shattered the ground barefoot, moved so fast he left only afterimages, and slew two monsters in an instant.

From afar, the noise swelled like a crashing tide.

“Holy—what are those things?” Cars stopped across the street, drivers staring at the plaza in disbelief.

“Ahhh!” Especially when Li Jun crushed a Wood Guest’s head beneath his foot, many across the street covered their eyes. The sight struck the onlookers with unbearable shock—some screamed in terror.

“He’s a superpowered one!” The braver among them had already taken out their phones to record video—some even started livestreaming on the spot.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, this isn’t acting, right?” But could acting produce such expressions, or special effects so real? Could it display power that surpassed human limits?

“How could this be staged?” Some passing youths felt only excitement, even shouting out cheers to Li Jun, while many adults felt nothing but dread.

On one side, creatures that could still move after being sliced in half, even trying to reattach themselves.

On the other, a figure like a humanoid tank.

But at this moment—

Neither the hunters nor the hunted had the mind to care about the outside world. Both sides were utterly immersed in a life-and-death battle.

The brutality of the fight was beyond extreme, life and death met with no restraint—and the shock it dealt to bystanders only grew more intense.

The three remaining Wood Guests, seeing their companions slain in an instant, were even more horrified, immediately desperate.

Perhaps realizing Li Jun’s speed was too fast, and simple escape impossible, they stopped and drew guns, aiming at him.

“There’s no way out.”

“Block him!”

“Fire, fire!”

Gunshots rang out, the sound alone enough to make one’s blood surge.

Just hearing it filled people with the sense of danger, adrenaline flooding unbidden—especially when witnessing it firsthand.

“They’re shooting.”

“They’ve got guns.”

“Is that for real?”

At the sight of the weapons, the crowd grew more frenzied. Some panicked and ducked for cover, while others pressed closer, phones raised high.

But facing the muzzles, Li Jun once again broke into a run, the ground trembling beneath him. Bullets poured toward him, yet he evaded each one with precision.

In no time, Li Jun caught the first one.

Running in a curved arc, he closed in instantly. The nearer he came, the deeper the terror etched on his opponent’s face.

“Die!”

“Die—kill him—”

The enemy fired madly, but as soon as Li Jun drew near, he flipped and kicked, shattering the outstretched arm and body in one blow.

Before the broken remains had even fallen, he stomped on its skull and then charged toward the second.

That second one, turning his head, saw it all and let out a shriek.

Before the cry had even ended, Li Jun had already reached him.

Li Jun grabbed one of his arms, lifted him up, and flung him toward the third “person.”

That man fell from the air, crashing down onto the third who had been frantically fleeing. The two of them rolled across the ground like wheels.

Li Jun leapt up and stomped on the second one’s skull, then step by step walked toward the third.

The man lay on the ground, paralyzed with fear, while Li Jun loomed over him, watching as the man clenched his teeth tight, though his trembling lips betrayed his terror.

Li Jun seized his hair and lifted him up.

At this moment—

The distant onlookers finally saw the full extent of Li Jun’s altered body. That Wood Guest, whose size was not small at all, looked like a mere dwarf when gripped in Li Jun’s hand.

Beneath the glow of the streetlights at night, his towering figure and the sight of him clutching the undying monster in his hand etched deeply into everyone’s memory.

Li Jun did not kill this last Wood Guest immediately. He wanted to learn something from his mouth.

Then—

Li Jun pulled at his head, tearing it directly from his neck.

“Shhh!”

Dark green blood splattered everywhere, spattering the streetlamp above, the light casting mottled shadows across the ground.

Many who witnessed this scene fainted on the spot from fright.

Elsewhere.

Inside a car.

The man in black uniform with glasses sat inside, staring at multiple monitors, mobilizing every resource to search for Li Jun and the Wood Guests.

“Damn it!”

“Those things being undying and able to change form is one thing, but how is it that we can’t find this Li Jun?”

“Could it be that he’s already been killed and stuffed in some trash bin?”

The man in black uniform with glasses tried every method, when suddenly he noticed something on one of the screens.

He leaned close to the monitor: “Look at this student!”

The worker at the keyboard: “What is it?”

The man’s sharp eyes narrowed: “He deliberately avoided the cameras, so we can’t see his face—but look at his shoes.”

The worker: “Cloth shoes?”

These days, few people wore cloth shoes, especially in a metropolis like this.

But the man clearly remembered: the corpses of the outer members of Longevity Temple he had just discovered had not only been dressed in Taoist robes, but also wore cloth shoes.

“It’s him!”

“Li Jun!”

The man was filled with excitement, but also with deep anxiety and even fear.

He understood—if more than ten such inhuman monsters truly acted without restraint, they could cause an immense disaster. They had to be controlled or destroyed at once.

He had finally found a lead. He immediately ordered the driver to head to the location while dispatching more men to search the area.

But as they neared the site, there was no longer any need to search. The commotion in the distance had already drawn everyone’s attention.

Li Jun and the attackers had already appeared online—even being livestreamed.

By the time the man arrived, he saw Li Jun pursuing the last three attackers, and also saw the large crowd of onlookers holding up their phones.

His head felt like it was about to explode. He had no idea how to deal with what was happening next.

But at this very moment, the “superpowered” battle unfolding before his eyes had yet to end.

He rolled down the window.

From inside the car, he watched helplessly as the ragged school-uniformed figure stomped through shattered tiles, dodging hails of bullets, and killing one undying monster after another.

Finally, in full view of everyone, he ripped the last monster’s head out as though pulling a scallion from the earth.

“Ahhh!”

He heard shrill screams from the crowd beside him. That bloody scene instantly caused many livestreams to be cut off.

And it still was not over.

As Li Jun lifted the severed head, he suddenly seemed to sense something. He turned and glanced at the man in black uniform with glasses.

Those faintly glowing double pupils burned into his heart, chilling him to the bone.

Li Jun said nothing. Carrying the monster’s head, he transformed into a streak of shadow and shot up into the sky.

The man flung open the car door, rushing into the plaza.

He lifted his head.

Watching that shadow pierce the clouds above, his scalp tingled with terror.

He clutched his hair with both hands, then exhaled sharply, sweeping his hair back. He did not even notice his glasses falling to the ground.

“Damn!”

“He can fly?”

Before—

Someone had told him the age of myth might return.

He had believed it partly, but as a modern man, in his heart those gods, spirits, and demons had always felt distant, illusory.

But now, that overwhelming, inhuman, transcendent power—the kind spoken of only in myth and legend—had truly appeared before his eyes.

And he had no choice but to face it.