Immortal Beast: From Cauldron to Heavenly Venerable of Ten Thousand Worlds

• Worldbuilding: After the Nine Heavens collapsed, cultivators in the lower realms discovered that they could reshape their immortal bodies using the demonic scripture The Ten Thousand Gu Devouring Heaven Record. The price was becoming an "immortal beast," half human and half Gu. The Qingzhou cultivation world, where the protagonist lives, is being swept up in this mad transformation.

1. The Three Calamities of the Immortal Beast: Gu Transformation, Scale Molting, and Heaven-Burning. Each calamity strips cultivators of their humanity.

2. The Ten Thousand Gu Devouring Heaven Formation: A massive array that uses living people as sacrifices, extracting the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and turning it into Gu poison.

3. The Cleaners: An organization that claims to rid the world of demons but is actually a secret power that controls the immortal beasts.

Main plot: The protagonist begins as a cauldron offered up for sacrifice. Step by step, he uncovers the truth about the immortal beasts, ultimately reversing the curse during the Heaven-Burning Calamity.

Hidden plot: A thousand-year struggle between the leader of the Cleaners and the first immortal beast, involving the true cause of the Nine Heavens' collapse.

"Three days ago, the Foundation Establishment cultivator sent by the Prince of Zhenbei's residence had already had his three spiritual souls and seven mortal spirits drained dry."

The old servant knelt on the blue-brick floor, his trembling finger pointing at a bronze cauldron in the corner of the secret chamber. Black blood churned inside it, with several ghastly white finger bones floating on the surface. I curled up in a heap of damp straw, my fingernails digging deep into my palms.

This was my seventh day imprisoned in the Prince of Zhenbei's residence. Every day at the third quarter of the Yin hour, the old man in black robes would prick the back of my neck with a silver needle and inject a kind of icy liquid. At first...