Chapter 2: And A Beginning

*****

"...Haa!" Azmodeus woke up in a cold sweat.

After which, he quickly surveyed his surroundings, only to realize that he had somehow made his way back into the shed where he had been staying while living in the Yang Sect.

"What happened?? Am I not dead??" he asked, a bewildered expression on his face.

One second ago, he was lying on the ground with a gaping hole in his chest, and the next, he found himself back on his thatched bed, the same rundown shed shielding him from the world.

"Did I really not die??"

He tried to piece things together to find out what had happened, brooding over the last sequence of events.

...

After a few seconds passed by, Azmodeus eventually gave up on mulling over it, concluding that it must have likely been just a nightmare.

With that thought out of his mind, he got up from his creaky bed.

After standing up, he noticed that he felt a little bit shorter than usual.

However, after a moment of consideration, he dismissed it off as nothing too important and headed over to an austere dresser that held his only set of clothes.

He proceeded to wear the same pair of ragged brown and gray sect robes he wore daily as a Trial Disciple of the Yang Sect.

Let alone having multiple pairs of bamboo sticks on the chest emblem, he wasn't even allotted the robe with a single bamboo stick on it, something that even the Entry Disciples were allowed to wear…

On that note, there were no bamboo sticks on his robes, making him the only bamboo-less Trial Disciple in the entire sect.

He grumbled over this fact for a second before he stepped outside of his thatch hut and headed toward the chicken coop, where he usually began his day by collecting eggs.

As usual, he reached to collect the eggs with a loose bamboo-laced basket; however, when he touched one, something completely unexplainable happened...

[Ding! The host has achieved the only prerequisite to activating the Infinite Evolution System]

[The Activation Process will commence when the countdown from five ends… 5… 4…]

"!!!"

Azmodeus started to panic as a robotic feminine voice echoed in his head, accompanied by some weird translucent screens that started filling his vision.

In confusion, he immediately ran away from the chicken coop, hoping to find someone who could help him. However, he hadn't even made it a few steps after turning around when the robotic feminine voice sounded once again.

[3… 2… 1… 0…]

[The activation process for the Infinite Evolution System will start now.]

[Host will be knocked out cold until the Activation Process and subsequent Assimilation Process are completed.]

[Approximate wake-up time: 30 Minutes]

[Until then, host…]

"Wha-!?" Azmodeus wasn't even allowed to finish his exclamation before he fell face-first to the ground, disbelief etched across his face.

_____

Thirty minutes later, Azmodeus abruptly woke up with the same cold sweat that he had been drenched in not too long ago.

"!!!"

"What the hell is going on lately!? And where is that mysterious voice!?" he muttered to himself, scanning the lush green surroundings, searching to locate any sign of the existence of any women nearby.

However, after a few moments of scrutinizing his immediate vicinity, he found nothing besides a few startled animals.

And just as he was about to sum it up to him going insane and all this being some kind of bizarre dream, he noticed that his cultivation base had somehow reverted back to the first stage of the Body Refinement Realm, 'The Strength Training Stage.'

But that wasn't all.

He had failed to notice it this entire time, his body had reverted back to a far younger state than it was before. His hands and his reflection in a puddle were exactly as they had been when he had turned twelve years old, just after he awakened his Rank 1 Trash Spiritual Root, Crystallized Embryo.

However, despite the weird oddities centered around his body and cultivation realm, the robotic feminine voice once again echoed in his head.

[Ding! You have acquired +0.001 Evolution Essence after touching a Mortal Chicken egg and cloning an atom of its existence before integrating it into your own.]

[You have gathered enough Evolution Essence to progress in your cultivation!]

[Ding! Your cultivation has advanced from the 'Strength Training Stage of the Body Refinement Realm' to the 'Flesh Training Stage of the Body Refinement Realm']

[Ding! As a bonus for your first use of the system, you have gained 0.1 points in the Strength, Defense, Speed, and Qi stats for assimilating a part of the essence of a chicken egg.]

[Ding! Your overall combat strength has increased from the 'Lowest Levels of the Strength Training Body Refinement Realm' to the 'Early Stages of the Flesh Refining Realm']

[Ding! Your cultivation realm has increased by the same amount due to the Body Refinement Realm's initial minor realms being based on your physical strength, which is to say that your combat strength and realm will be the same until you begin coming into contact with Qi and discrepancies start occurring.]

[Ding! You have gained 0.1 stat points in the 'Cultivation Talent' category!]

[Your previous '0.01' stat in the 'Cultivation Talent' category has

been increased to '0.1' through a roundup.]

[Ding!]

[You have absorbed the Evolution Essence of a chicken egg and have gained the ability to fart eggs out of your anus as a form of attack.]

[Ding! You have acquired the Low Common Rank Skill 'Egg Fart.']

[P.S. This skill does not increase your overall combat strength by any amount.]

[Ding! You have the option to assimilate the DNA of a chicken egg.]

[You now have two options, you can choose to Assimilate the DNA, but since the Infinite Evolution System has already taken the liberty to choose the 'Absorb the stats and exclude the Racial Qualities' to fully acclimate the system to your existence, the alternative option to 'Assimilate the Racial Qualities and exclude the Stats' will be deemed null and void.]

[Ding! Note: This will be the only time where the host can acquire Evolution Essence from an existence that has not been killed.]

[To gain further Evolution Essence, the host must kill and continue to kill until no being in existence is able to stand in your way on the path to Infinite Evolution.]

[Good Luck, Host.]

The cold robotic feminine voice issued a series of comments and transparent blue screens, leaving Azmodeus in utter shock at the recent series of events.

"Seriously! What the hell is going on here-!?" However, before he could finish his thought, a surge of power washed over him. He could feel not only his strength increasing but also his cultivation talent improving!

"I'm back at the Flesh Training Realm in strength!? And what's with my talent improving!?" he exclaimed, clenching and unclenching his fists.

His strength had more than doubled from 50 kg of physical strength, which indicated that he had reached the Flesh Refining Realm with 100 kg of physical strength!

Not only that, but his strength had been refined to its absolute peak, and he could also sense that his flesh had undergone a significant refinement in the Flesh Refining Realm!

...…