As the spirit will entered him, a primal scene unfolded before Wu Qi’s eyes.

It was not long after Pangu separated the heaven and the earth. The newborn Pangu Continent was packed with countless mighty beings; there were Primordial figures everywhere, and Gold Immortals were as many as stray dogs. At that time there were no such titles as Primordial or Gold Immortals. According to one’s overall strength, those almighty experts had divided everyone into the Dao Realm, the True Realm, and the Strength Realm.

In contrast to the present system of cultivation, those in the Strength Realm possessed the overall strength below the Heaven Immortal realm, which meant it was a realm of those who purely relied on brute force.

True Realm was the collective name for Heaven Immortals and Gold Immortals. They could borrow or use a little power of the Heavenly Dao, but they were still considered weaklings.

At the beginning of the world, those of the Strength Realm and the True Realm were meager existences. They were inferior to ants, and were considered as nonessential beings at the roadside, who you would never give a second glance, and would not deliberately trample to death. The true almighty experts were those of the Dao Realm, who were strong enough to distort the void within a certain region.

Dao Realm was divided into three tiers: the Dao Reasoning, Dao Breaking, and Dao Fusing, which, in the classification of today’s immortals, equivalent to the realm of Primordial, Divine Gold, and Primeval Chaos.

If the Heavenly Dao was compared to a river, those of the Strength Realm and the True Realm were just nobody who tried to fetch water by the river. Although they all saw the river, they were still far away from it. Some of them might be lucky enough to scoop two or three buckets of water out of the river to quench their thirst, but that was their limit.

As for Dao Reasoning experts, or those who were referred to as Primordial Immortals in today’s standard, they were the swimmers in the river. They knew the water well and were able to swim with the waves. However, once the waves were too strong for them to handle, they would be knocked over, having the cultivation bases they had cultivated their whole lives went down the drain.

Dao Breaking experts, or those who were referred as Divine Golden Immortals in today’s standard, were lucky figures who had built stone platforms in the river with the stones they found, and therefore they could survive the raging water. Unlike Dao Reasoning experts, when they were attacked by waves, they had the ability to break through them. The waves were Heavenly Dao, and since they could break through them, they were named Dao Breaking experts. But there was always a limit to one’s power, and so these experts could only break through a limited number of waves. If they were struck by irresistible natural disasters, their stone platforms would still be shattered by the boundless waves and whirlpools, and they would perish in both souls and flesh.

Dao Fusing experts, or Primeval Chaos Immortals, no longer needed to rely on external things. They had become the currents. No matter how the water rolled and tumbled, as they themselves were already part of the waves, they could stay safe and unhurt, and even use the force of the wave to exterminate their opponents. This was what made them so terrifying. Unless the headwaters of this great river dried up one day and all its water disappeared, Dao Fusing experts would never perish.

There were tens of thousands of almighty experts born in the Primal Chaos in the same period as the Great Saint Pangu, and millions of Gods were born after the creation of heaven and earth. In accordance with the Heavenly Dao, when Pangu Continent was created, countless beings were born after fusing with various innate energies, and this was the origin of all the divine beasts and birds. The weakest of these beings were Dao Reasoning experts, for they themselves were the products of the condensation of Heavenly Dao.

The shadow’s true form was actually just an ordinary white mouse. The only thing that set him apart from the rest of his species in the present day was that he was born with a pair of wings on his back, which allowed him to leap and fly at the speed comparable to that of the top-grade divine birds. And that was his only ability. Apart from that, he was just an ordinary white mouse gave birth by the acquired energy who liked to steal food everywhere.

On Pangu Continent, the fusion of the Heavenly Dao and the acquired energy, coupled with the creation of those almighty experts, either intentionally or unintentionally, had resulted in the birth of countless species within the span of tens of thousands of years. That was when the true form of the shadow was born. At birth, he had only the cultivation base of Gold Core realm, which made him the weakest ant among all the other ants, or even a bacteria on the foot of an ant. No one would ever pay him any attention.

The shadow had no great ambition. At that time all the creatures in the world lived extremely long, and even insignificant things like the shadow had a lifespan that counted in eons. So, he spent his days looking around for all sorts of spirit herbs to fill his stomach, living a carefree life.

After a long time and having devoured countless spirit herbs, one day the white mouse suddenly gained some intelligence. Then he started stealing food from those almighty experts. By stealing herbal dregs after the almighty experts finished concocting some immortal pills, the leftovers from teas they drank, food scraps such as pits and bones, the mouse gradually accumulated a huge amount of energy, and his cultivation base grew slowly along the way. In the end, he had possessed a cultivation base that was equivalent to a peak Heaven Immortal.

The white mouse was born with a very poor foundation. How good a foundation could you expert an ordinary mouse to have, even with a pair of wings? Despite the fact that he had gained his intelligence, he was still one of those things who had their daily actions controlled by their instincts and never used their heads. And since having the cultivation base of a peak Heaven Immortal, he was swollen with pride. All that eventually made him fixed his eyes on a Dao Breaking expert—he planned to steal the ‘Nine Fires Pill’ the expert had concocted.

He was extremely audacious to provoke a Dao Breaking expert with only the cultivation base of a peak Heaven Immortal. And yet, he actually succeeded!

By stealing the Nine Fire Pill from such a mighty expert with his insignificant overall strength, the white mouse won the recognition of a thread of innate energy containing the Law of Thieve that had been born when the universe was created. And just like that, he and the innate energy fused into one.

The first thread of ghost energy had created the Ghost Realm, and the first thread of fiend energy had created the Fiend Realm. Each of these major realms created by different types of innate energy had produced numerous Primordial experts. But this thread of thieve energy had completely fused with just the white mouse alone. In other words, he himself had become one entire realm!

After fusing with the innate thieve energy, he figured out the general principles of the Scroll of Stealing in just three years, and then spent another three years to come out with all the bizarre techniques and tricks in it. From then on, he began his career of grand theft. Since his foundation was not good, he stole foundations from others; since he lacked the power of understanding, he stole it from others; since his blood essence was inferior, he stole from those with excellent blood essences. In the beginning, he stole secretly, but as his cultivation base increased he became bolder. In the end, he simply squatted on the road with a big stick, knocked over the target he liked, and then stripped the victim naked to steal what he wanted.

Compared with the white mouse’s behavior in those days, Wu Qi was a perfect paragon of virtue.

After just seven years of unbridled theft, he managed to set his foot in the realm of Primordial. It was a sensational achievement even in that period of time. But that was not all. Later, he spent only decades to smoothly step into the realm of Dao Breaking, and then spent another hundreds of year to stand before the door to the ultimate realm of Dao Fusing.

His insane speed of ascension had attracted the attention of many almighty experts, and so did the methods he used to achieve that. Basically all the almighty experts of the Age of Primal had suffered from him, either having their disciples racked by him, or their heirs robbed by him. He had even dragged many Dao Reasoning experts off from their lofty status and turned them into mere mortals!

When a phoenix suddenly turned into an old brood hen, the almighty experts would only look on gloatingly.

When ten phoenixes suddenly turned into old brood hens, the almighty experts would twitch their lips and utter a few emotional remarks to themselves.

But when a hundred, a thousand, or even more phoenixes suddenly turned into old brood hens, and worse, old hens who had lost their fertility and could not even lay an egg, it made all the almighty experts worried about whether they would be the next target!

Naturally, then, an alliance was formed to hunt the white mouse down. Led by several legendary Dao Fusing experts, all the Dao Breaking and Dao Reasoning experts in the world began to search for him all over the place. In the end, even though he was a peak Dao Breaking expert and almost stepped into Dao Fusing realm, he was killed by someone, perished in both body and soul. It all happened so suddenly that he only had the time to create a jade medallion with a little bit of energy, which contained the legacy of the Scroll of Stealing, and threw it into the vast space.

These were the origins of the shadow and the Scroll of Stealing.

As the spirit will slowly injected into Wu Qi’s divine soul, more information poured into his mind. In the Age of Primal, the Seven Stealing Heaven Meridian, a natural meridian that allowed one to extract energy from others was a common thing. At least, the white mouse himself had met more than a thousand beings from a myriad of species who had this type of meridian, including turtles and tortoises, crabs and lobsters. But after he was trapped and killed, it was highly possible that those almighty experts had wiped out those who had the Seven Stealing Heaven Meridian. And because of that, after tumbling countless years in the mortal worlds, the jade meridian the white mouse had created with his last bit of energy could not find a suitable candidate.

No one knew when the Scroll of Stealing would be able to find a suitable candidate, if it had not met Wu Qi.

This was the reason why the white mouse told Wu Qi that being his disciple there was a consequence to bear. He was tracked and pursued by all the almighty experts in the world, and even Empress Wa, the least willing of all the Saints to use force, had personally smitten him thirty-six times with her natal magical artifact, the Myriad Spirit Cauldron! One could only imagine what kind of miserable fate Wu Qi would suffer, if those almighty experts had discovered that he had become the white mouse’s disciple.

Wu Qi felt a chill ran up and down his spine, and he quickly stopped thinking about that.

As the spirit will continued to pour in, more essences of the Scroll of Stealing began to fuse with his divine soul. Wu Qi did not look at them now, but instead he focused his attention on another piece of information.

Where were the treasure cave abodes that the white mouse had built in those years?

Who were those almighty experts who joined forces to kill the white mouse?

What were the countless cultivation techniques the white mouse had stolen in those years?

All kinds of information relating to the Age of Primal poured into his mind, among which was the information about the creator of the human race, Empress Wa, and several other Dao Fusing experts. Wu Qi went through this information excitedly as if he had discovered a precious treasure. When he was done, he could not help but suck in a cold breath, even though he was now a corporeal form in his own spiritual ocean. The abilities of these experts were just too fantastic. Although he had now stepped into the Primordial realm, he was still amazed by what he read. They stood before him like towering mountains, and he could only look up at them and marvel.

Later, he compared the information of some almighty experts with the information he had obtained from Buddha Futu’s memory, and found that most of the Dao Reasoning and Dao Breaking experts had fallen during the Apocalypse of Heaven and Earth of the past. Wu Qi’s heart gave a jerk. So many almighty experts had fallen! No wonder the Oracles of the Directorate of Celestial had the luxury to use the corpses of ancient buddhas to make Avichi incense!

A myriad of information slowly injected into his mind. At last, a hazy and profound aura poured into his divine soul.

It was the thread of innate thieve energy! The white mouse had passed it to Wu Qi!

If Wu Qi could not step into the Primordial realm in sixty years, he would never have a bond with this thread of energy!

But now this innate thieve energy had fully merged with his divine soul.