Hongmeng (2)
Yangmei was the God of Space. Hongmeng placed few restrictions on him, so he had little understanding of the frustration Hongjun and Luo Yan felt when their grasp of the laws stopped advancing. Now, hearing about his friend’s situation so suddenly, he looked at Hongjun in shock and confusion. Though they had known each other for a long time, he had never realized that his friend, like the God of Causality, couldn’t fully wield the power of his laws.
Luo Yan continued, “For us to advance further, we need a world where the laws are complete. That world… will probably have to be the one Pangu creates.”
“What?” Yangmei turned Luo Yan’s words over in his mind, then said in astonishment, “So no matter what, Pangu has to open the heavens? If he doesn’t, we can’t prove the Dao?”
“That’s right.” Luo Yan nodded. “But Pangu needs extremely pure spiritual energy and enormous power to open the heavens, so…”
Even Hongjun’s expression turned complicated. “So the three thousand demon gods are the fuel for Pangu’s creation.”
That explained it.
No wonder Pangu fought tirelessly on the Hongmeng battlefield.
At first, the three thousand demon gods had attacked one another on instinct, and Pangu had been nothing special among them. As their numbers dwindled, Pangu began to stand out. Only then had they noticed something was wrong with him.
Yangmei’s brow furrowed. “Pangu wants to prove the Dao by using us as fuel? What kind of logic is that? Were we born just to be stepping stones for him?”
“There are hardly any primordial demon gods left, but we can still fight. Why don’t we contact the others and join forces against Pangu? We can’t beat him one-on-one, but surely together we stand a chance!”
Luo Yan and Hongjun both fell silent.
Yangmei pressed them. “Whether it’ll work or not, say something!”
Luo Yan replied slowly, “Pangu’s creation of the world cannot be stopped.”
Hongjun agreed. “The three thousand demon gods can’t be trusted.”
For one thing, Luohou, who devoted himself to the demonic path, was cunning and treacherous. He could never be trusted.
Their meaning was clear: it wouldn’t work.
Yangmei: “…”
Seeing the two of them sitting there as steady as mountains, Yangmei was almost laughing with anger. “So we just sit here and wait to die?”
Luo Yan looked at Yangmei in surprise, then couldn’t help giving Hongjun a sympathetic look. They said Hongjun and Yangmei were inseparable, but perhaps one of them was the muscle and the other the brains.
He raised a fist to his lips and coughed softly, putting it tactfully. “Fellow Daoist Yangmei… you’re not much for strategy, are you?”
Hongjun silently nodded.
Yangmei: “???”
“Of course we’re not going to sit here and wait to die.” Seeing Yangmei about to blow his top, Luo Yan hurried on. “Pangu’s creation of the world may be inevitable, but that doesn’t mean there’s no way for us to survive.”
“I’m listening,” Hongjun said gravely.
Luo Yan lowered his voice. “The only reason Pangu would use us as fuel is that he lacks the spiritual energy he needs to create the world. So we can give him that energy.”
“The energy needed to create the world is immense. Where are we supposed to find that much?” Yangmei frowned, sounding discouraged.
Hongjun, however, seemed thoughtful.
In this boundless Chaos, what could be better fuel for a new world than the three thousand demon gods, born with the laws within them?
When two clever people spoke, they could grasp the meaning behind each other’s words in an instant.
“Our demon god bodies?” Hongjun asked.
Luo Yan nodded. “Our demon god bodies.”
“What?” Yangmei looked ready to explode. “That’s the plan you came up with? Offer our demon god bodies to Pangu so he can create the world? You two, giving up our cultivation and leaving our bodies to cultivate anew would be one thing, but once we leave our bodies, we’ll have to face the creation of the world immediately. How are we supposed to survive with nothing but our primordial spirits?”
Ordinarily, Yangmei was right. A primordial spirit freshly separated from its body was extremely weak. When the world was created, it would be annihilated.
But he had forgotten that Luo Yan wielded one of the most fundamental Great Dao Laws.
“Primordial demon gods are free of karma, but that rule applies only in Hongmeng. The moment Pangu creates the world, every rule in Hongmeng will collapse. Then I can use my karmic thread to bind our primordial spirits to the newborn world.”
“Once we leave our bodies, we can follow that bond into the new world and forge new bodies. By then, Pangu won’t be able to do anything to us.”
“That could work?” Yangmei looked at Luo Yan as if he were a madman.
“Why wouldn’t it?” Luo Yan countered. “Pangu will have borrowed our power to create the world. As long as we’re alive, the causal bond between us and the newborn world can’t be erased. All I’m doing is making that bond stronger.”
“The newborn world will come into being with the help of our power…” A pleased smile curved Luo Yan’s lips.
“So it only makes sense that it should repay us.”
A debt of karma that great could not go unanswered. Unless the demon gods who gave up their origins and power died and vanished completely, the newborn world would be left with a flaw in the Dao and an unstable foundation. Sooner or later, it would have to repay that debt, or collapse into ruin.
Hongjun lowered his eyes. Resting his fingers on his knee, he tapped them idly as he slowly worked through the odds of the plan succeeding.
For a while, the three demon gods who each wielded a fundamental Great Dao Law said nothing.
“Rumble!”
Outside the barrier, some demon gods passing by seemed to be fighting. Their spells struck Luo Yan’s barrier, setting off a series of thunderous blasts.
Fortunately, the barrier was reinforced with the power of its origin. It only trembled slightly before settling firmly back into place, diligently preserving a peaceful place for the demon gods inside to talk.
The blasts broke the silence.
Hongjun looked up, his gaze settling heavily on Luo Yan’s face. “It can work.”
Hongjun’s approval also meant their alliance was about to be formed. In a good mood, Luo Yan shifted position, ready to seize the moment and settle the terms of their pact. Then Hongjun added, “There’s one thing I still don’t understand.”
Luo Yan paused. Without letting it show, he pushed back the karmic thread that had nearly slipped out of his sleeve. Then he put on a flawless smile and gestured. “Go ahead.”
Hongjun opened his mouth to speak, but another voice cut him off.
Yangmei, usually so carefree, laid a hand on Hongjun and turned a grave gaze on Luo Yan.
“We’re all primordial demon gods. We know what our kind are like.” The God of Space’s expression had grown unusually stern. “Now that I think about it, this whole story about Pangu creating the world and sacrificing the demon gods comes from you alone. We don’t even know if it’s true.
“If what you say is true, then the creation of the world poses no threat to you at all. All you have to do is bind yourself to the newborn world. As the God of Causality, you’d have no trouble doing that. So why do you need to ally with the rest of us?”
“So…” Yangmei narrowed his eyes, his gaze hostile. “What exactly are you after?”
“…”
Luo Yan was speechless.
When someone was speechless enough, they really could laugh. He managed to swallow the words, “Weren’t you the ones who came looking for me?” Then he leaned back lazily, lifting his eyes with a mocking smile. “Fellow Daoist Yangmei, if you insist on seeing it that way, I have nothing more to say.”
“An alliance isn’t necessary for me. As you said, I have a way to survive no matter what. You’re honestly not that important to me. If you don’t want to join, the door’s open.”
With that, Luo Yan swept his sleeve, withdrawing the power of his laws from the barrier. His meaning could hardly have been clearer: they were dismissed.
“Yangmei!” Hongjun frowned and snapped at him.
But Yangmei clearly had his own ideas. As primordial demon gods, he and Hongjun were equals, not master and subordinate. Usually, he didn’t mind listening to Hongjun, but when their lives were at stake, he trusted his own judgment more.
“Hongjun,” Yangmei said, rising to his feet. “You said yourself that the three thousand demon gods can’t be trusted. And now, before your words have even faded, you’re putting your faith in a God of Causality you’ve met only once?”
Hongjun opened his mouth as if to answer, but Yangmei cut him off. “Don’t tell me you’re relying on your own divinations. I know you well enough. The workings of fate are unclear, and there’s no telling how accurate your deductions are. As your friend for all these years, let me give you some advice: trust your predictions too much, and sooner or later you’ll take a hard fall!”
With that, he left Hongjun behind, broke through the barrier, and strode away.
Yangmei’s sudden, one-sided break with Hongjun took Luo Yan so completely by surprise that he sat frozen in place. Only after a long moment did he come around. Looking at Hongjun, who sat there in silence, he asked, “You’re not going after him?”
They’d been friends for so long, and now, without warning, their friendship was over…
“…Forget it.” Hongjun let out a breath. “He never truly believed in my divinations anyway.”
Hongjun and Yangmei had indeed known each other for a long time. After forming an alliance, they had wandered Hongmeng together for countless epochs, countless times standing by one another through danger. But Hongjun knew that Yangmei had never truly believed in his methods. He had treated Hongjun’s predictions more as a diversion.
After all, among the three thousand demon gods, strength had always been the only rule.
In Yangmei’s eyes, Hongjun, unable to wield his full strength, would always be at a disadvantage. And how could someone in an inferior position earn the trust of a demon god who thought so highly of himself?
Luo Yan, whose circumstances were much the same, had chosen to keep to himself. Unless some foolish demon god came looking for trouble, he never got involved in the primordial demon gods’ conflicts. He made no alliances and no enemies, quietly cultivating to give himself a better chance of survival.
If Hongjun hadn’t come to him this time, he wouldn’t have formed an alliance either.
All he had to do was survive. Compared with before, the only difference was that the price would be higher and the risk greater during the Heaven-Opening Calamity.
After watching the whole scene of “Friends Suddenly Fall Out,” Luo Yan waited quietly to one side. Once Hongjun seemed to have composed himself, he spoke. “So…”
With one less member, did they still intend to form the alliance?
“We do,” Hongjun said without hesitation. “Whatever happens, we have no future unless we survive. Yangmei…”
He paused, then continued, “If possible… I’d like to borrow your Law of Causality artifact.”
“Oh?” Luo Yan raised an eyebrow and relaxed his grip, letting out the karmic thread that had been wriggling restlessly in his sleeve. The red thread, finally free to see the light, darted out and curled around Luo Yan a few times, as if voicing its displeasure. Then it circled Hongjun once before settling obediently on Luo Yan’s fingertips.
Hongjun’s gaze drifted over the karmic thread. He tamped down the misgivings its unruly behavior stirred in him, then felt the dense power of the laws radiating from the artifact and said, “Your karmic thread… could you spare a length of it?”
Luo Yan understood. “You want to give one to Yangmei?”
Hongjun nodded silently. “He’s my friend. I still want to save his life.”
“In exchange for a favor? With the Great Dao as witness.”
“Agreed.” Luo Yan accepted readily.
‘It’s a simple enough thing,’ Luo Yan thought, considering Hongjun’s great fortune. ‘A small price to pay for a favor from Hongjun.’
Without delay, Luo Yan wound the karmic thread around their wrists and, with the Great Dao as witness, swore a causality oath. They would be allies until Pangu created the world, and neither would betray the other.
Before leaving, Hongjun took a small length of karmic thread, thick with the power of the laws.
“Fellow Daoist, we’ll meet again when the world is created.”