Creating the World
“Shall we begin?”
Luo Yan looked at Pangu, standing amid the battlefield of Hongmeng, and spoke softly to Hongjun.
“All right.” Hongjun pinched the karmic thread wrapped around Yangmei inside his sleeve and nodded to Luo Yan.
They exchanged a glance and drew a deep breath. Luo Yan reached out first. His hand moved rapidly through a series of intricate seals, which took shape one after another beneath his fingers. Symbols imbued with the Dao’s meaning appeared with each movement, circling him and Hongjun before plunging into their bodies.
The karmic thread flickered in and out of view in Luo Yan’s palm. Hongjun, who had been watching him closely, noticed that compared with the tiny strand he had seen before, the line now seemed much thicker, its color deeper, red as if it were about to drip blood.
When the karmic thread had wound itself around both their wrists, Luo Yan raised his hand. His voice was more solemn than ever.
“I am the primordial demon god of causality. By the Great Dao, I swear that from this moment on, I abandon my demon god body and willingly relinquish the Source of Laws within it. From this day forth, I shall no longer be the God of Causality. Great Dao, bear witness!”
Hongjun raised his hand in turn, his voice equally grave.
“I am the primordial demon god of the immortal dao. By the Great Dao, I swear that from this moment on, I abandon my demon god body and willingly relinquish the Source of Laws within it. From this day forth, I shall no longer be the God of the Immortal Dao. Great Dao, bear witness!”
The moment their vows left their lips, both of them grunted and went deathly pale.
Pangu felt the Chaos spiritual energy around him growing denser. He looked up and saw the bodies of the God of Causality and the God of the Immortal Dao cracking apart, inch by inch. Beneath their disintegrating shells, two hazy figures gradually emerged.
“You’re certainly ruthless with yourselves.” Once Pangu confirmed that the two had handed over their Source of Laws and demon god bodies as agreed, he paid them no further attention. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back slightly. The Chaos spiritual energy seemed to sense something and suddenly surged into his body as if driven mad.
Pangu gathered the Chaos spiritual energy within him into his arms and poured it into the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe. The already enormous axe swelled even larger.
Flecks of starlight floated around Pangu. They were the three thousand Great Dao Laws.
The time had come.
The void began to tremble. The heavens and earth of Hongmeng seemed to sense what was coming and shook uneasily.
Pangu’s eyes snapped open. “Get out of the way!” he shouted at the two hazy figures.
The next instant, he strode forward and swung the giant axe with all his might.
“Hah!”
With a roar, Pangu cleaved a crack through the heavens and earth of Hongmeng, which had remained unchanged for countless epochs!
Chaos began to collapse.
The Great Dao hummed. The turbid primordial energy filling Chaos gradually broke apart: the clear rose, the murky sank. Wherever the axe’s light passed, the sky cleared and the earth settled. Heaven and earth began to take shape.
It wasn’t enough.
Pangu silently swung his axe a second time.
The Source of Laws merged into the axe, then surged out with its light. Yin and yang separated, and the five elements took shape. A river of stars shimmered into view, and the river of time began to flow.
Yet the newly born world was unstable.
Pangu raised his head slightly, axe in hand, and saw heaven and earth begin to draw together again under Chaos’s backlash.
He frowned and swung his axe a third time.
The moment he did, Pangu sensed something was wrong. The power of the laws was beginning to falter, while the Chaos spiritual energy was draining away at an abnormal rate, as if it were making up for the missing power of the laws.
“You dare scheme against me!” Pangu spun around, his fierce gaze stabbing toward the two primordial spirits like a sharp sword.
Luo Yan, translucent as he was, frowned deeply.
He had held something back when making his vow to the Great Dao, but he had calculated it carefully. In theory, just a portion of the Source of Laws within their demon god bodies should have been more than enough. This shouldn’t be happening!
Opening the heavens had become their shared goal. They couldn’t afford to fail. With no time to consider why the Source of Laws was being depleted so quickly, Luo Yan and Hongjun braved the gale of collapsing Chaos and hurried to Pangu’s side. As Pangu glared at them as if ready to cut them down, they placed their hands against his shoulders and back, gritting their teeth as they poured the Source of Laws from their primordial spirits into him.
“Cough, cough…” Luo Yan coughed twice. His already translucent primordial spirit grew even fainter. “What would we gain by sabotaging your attempt to open the heavens? We want a new world more than anyone.”
“Hmph.” Pangu gave a scornful laugh, but had no time to decide whether Luo Yan was telling the truth. Feeling the Source of Laws replenish rapidly, he swung his axe a third time, cleaving open the Chaos that had nearly closed again.
Luo Yan and Hongjun withdrew their hands.
Pangu ignored them. His face dark, he watched heaven and earth still trying to close together, and suddenly understood.
It wasn’t the gods of Causality and the Immortal Dao who had schemed against him. It was the Great Dao.
Or rather, the Great Dao had schemed against every demon god.
Hongmeng had to be shattered, Chaos had to be cleaved open, and the three thousand demon gods were no longer needed. So they had to perish along with Hongmeng.
And Pangu was the one meant to carry it out.
Once heaven and earth had stabilized, Pangu, the last demon god, would be of no use either.
The so-called attainment of the Dao was nothing but a monstrous lie.
Seeing through it, Pangu felt suddenly dejected.
But…
He looked at heaven and earth, still straining to draw together, and felt the spiritual energy and life force draining rapidly from his body. In the end, he sighed and laughed aloud.
“Hahahaha…”
So be it. So be it.
He straightened and manifested his Dharma Form, growing immense. His feet planted firmly on the earth as he held up the sky, which was gradually sinking.
This world was his life’s work. Since he could not escape death, he might as well give every last bit of his flesh and blood to Honghuang.
Yes, Honghuang.
At that moment, he understood the name of this newborn world.
Honghuang…
“What are you doing?” Luo Yan controlled his body and floated up until he was level with Pangu’s eyes.
For the first time, Pangu’s usually stern face broke into a relaxed smile.
Supporting heaven and earth, he spoke as if making idle conversation. He did not answer Luo Yan, but instead said, “Before opening the heavens, I don’t think I’d ever seen you.”
“Right. Primordial demon gods aren’t entangled in karma. I couldn’t exactly just show myself. If I had, I’d have been done for sooner or later.” Realizing that Pangu only wanted to chat, Luo Yan thought it over and decided to humor him.
“That’s true.” Pangu smiled. “Come to think of it, we primordial demon gods were all born of Chaos. You could say we’re brothers.”
“Brothers who kill one another?” Luo Yan remarked wryly, beckoning Hongjun to come up as well.
As they spoke, Pangu grew another zhang taller along with heaven and earth.
Something was wrong with Pangu. While chatting with him, Luo Yan pondered the matter, his hands never still as he busily bound himself to Honghuang.
“So this is your plan?” Pangu watched what he was doing with some curiosity.
“It’s the only way to shed our identities as primordial demon gods. Once Honghuang accepts us, we’ll count as newly born beings.” Luo Yan sighed.
“A fine idea.” Pangu praised him, but did not ask whether Pangu himself still had a chance to give up his own identity.
For once, the two of them shared an easy rapport. In the past, there had been no such thing as harmony between demon gods.
Hongjun joined them too. His fingers twitched as he quietly formed a few seals. His expression changed, and then he gave a slight shake of his head.
Luo Yan frowned. Divination had always been Hongjun’s specialty, and Luo Yan was no match for him. Only once he understood Hongjun’s hint did he notice that Pangu’s aura was growing weaker by the moment.
“You noticed too?” Pangu smiled as if it didn’t matter.
Hongjun was silent for a moment. “Was it worth it?”
“There’s no question of whether it was worth it.” Pangu smiled. “At first, all I wanted was to attain the Great Dao.”
He shook his head with a sigh. “Once Honghuang is established, the Great Dao will be no more. But there must still be rules to govern it. Then Honghuang will give rise to a new heavenly dao.”
“The heavenly dao is impartial. It treats all things as straw dogs.”
“That is the rule.”
“But,” he said, looking at the two of them in warning, “if you don’t want to meet the same fate as me, don’t put too much faith in the heavenly dao.”
Luo Yan and Hongjun fell silent.
Time passed. Luo Yan looked up and suddenly realized Pangu had raised the sky a full ninety-nine thousand zhang. His feet sank into the earth, forcing the Nine-Layer Abyss into being.
Yet his aura had almost vanished.
“That should keep heaven and earth from closing again,” Pangu murmured, his voice growing fainter by the moment.
“Wait a little, then you should go too.”
“Remember your promise. See this land of Honghuang for me, and protect what I’ve poured my heart into.”
As Luo Yan and Hongjun watched, Pangu’s body crashed to the ground.
His left eye became the blazing sun rising in the east, and his right eye the moon sinking in the west. His breath became the gentle wind, and his voice became rolling thunder.
Pangu’s primordial spirit slowly emerged, then split into three in the blink of an eye. The three points of light fled into Honghuang and disappeared.
His towering body became mountains and winding ridges; his blood became rivers. His hair became plants and trees, while his vital essence sank into the earth and vanished.
Thus, Honghuang was established.
“We should go too.” Having watched the last primordial demon god disappear, Luo Yan and Hongjun were both filled with complicated feelings.
The two of them turned into a beam of light and descended unobstructed into the newborn world of Honghuang. Nothing stood in their way.
Pangu had kept his promise.
Honghuang had accepted Luo Yan and Hongjun.
Hongjun carefully released Yangmei’s true spirit. Yangmei was still unconscious, and his tiny spirit drifted off, wavering as it disappeared from sight.
“You’re really letting Yangmei go off alone?” Luo Yan asked with a smile.
Hongjun let out a soft breath. “Yangmei has his own fate. If I interfere… I might get in his way.”
Luo Yan knew Hongjun had divined something again.
He didn’t press further. Instead, he cupped his hands and smiled freely. “Then our contract is fulfilled. Shall we part ways here?”
Hongjun nodded and returned the salute. “Until we meet again.”
And so they set off in different directions.
Honghuang was vast, and as a newborn world, it was full of unknown opportunities. They would each find their own fortunes there.
Though their cultivation had fallen sharply.
As soon as they entered Honghuang, many of the world’s established rules appeared in their minds.
Such as cultivation.
By Honghuang’s cultivation standards, Luo Yan and Hongjun had originally been above the Daluo golden immortal realm. Now that their Demon God Bodies had collapsed and they had lost their Source of Laws, their cultivation had fallen back to the mystic immortal realm.
They should find somewhere to form new bodies, then restore their cultivation.
Neither of them noticed the black figure that slowly appeared after they had left.
“How curious, this karma.” The shadow muttered to himself. “Following them all this way was worth it. Ha, Pangu…”
He spoke with malice. “All that cultivation, wasted. Now you’ve paved the way for someone else. I’ll use your Honghuang as a stepping stone to attain the Dao through destruction!”
With that, he turned into a streak of light and vanished as well.