Shi Chen Witnesses the Opening of Heaven, a Figure Possibly a Mythic Da Luo

"My name is Shi Chen."

When that voice fell, the vast River of Time did not disperse.

A Daoist in grayish-white robes stood upon the river, gazing at the Chaos Green Lotus.

Gu An was still sizing up the newly born time fiendgod when he saw Shi Chen raise one hand and gently touch the surface of the river with a fingertip.

Thump.

The heartbeat that had long since sounded from deep within the green lotus came once more from the river.

But Gu An could see clearly that Pangu had not stirred within the lotus heart.

Shi Chen had merely brought that stretch of time, already passed, before their eyes once more.

Immediately afterward, the river parted to either side.

The same Chaos Green Lotus appeared in entirely different forms amid the rippling water.

Some were still in bud, while others had already blossomed. Farther away, a towering godfiend whose full form was hard to make out stepped from the lotus heart, an ancient-looking giant axe in hand.

Pangu!

Gu An's spirits lifted.

The foundation for the opening of the Primordial World, which he had painstakingly established, was now revealing its true form in the years to come.

In the river, Pangu raised his axe.

Before its edge fell, a boundary appeared in the seamless chaos.

Above and below were divided, and the clear and turbid parted.

When the axe finally fell, countless worlds that had never existed unfolded along the axe light.

The dormant innate Dao marks surged toward the newborn worlds, some clashing, others mingling, revealing more than one course of evolution.

Gu An's heart burned as he watched.

That was the opening of heaven.

Only, none of it had happened yet.

Several other streams ran through the river, reflecting entirely different scenes.

The same godfiend stood in Pangu's way in one future, yet in another stream, brought their own Dao into the new world.

Shi Chen did not leave any one of them as a fixed outcome.

After watching for a moment, Shi Chen pointed forward again.

Shi Chen drew one of the streams in which heaven and earth had already been opened up before him.

Mountains and rivers arose, stars were born, and then, over the long years, they gradually declined.

Once-prosperous immortal sects became ruins, and even the stars that had shone through the ages went out one after another.

At last, heaven and earth reached their end.

The water of that stretch of time grew shallower and shallower, on the verge of drying up completely.

Yet in the final glimmer of light stood a cultivator whose face could not be seen.

When the last star went out, the years belonging to that world also came to an end.

Yet the Daoist took a step forward.

At the end, where nothing had existed, a new glimmer of water appeared with that step.

Gu An suddenly held his breath.

Heaven and earth were gone, and even the time in which that person existed had come to an end, yet they could still take another step?

Shi Chen watched the scene in silence.

Shi Chen was an innate being nurtured by the Time Dao, so surveying countless ages was nothing remarkable.

Yet this cultivator, born only after the opening of heaven, seemed to have reached a place where even time could not predetermine their path.

A moment later, Shi Chen gathered the other streams back, leaving only that glimmer of newborn water before him for a moment.

A term familiar from Gu An's previous life surfaced in his mind.

Mythic Da Luo.

The figure was far too indistinct, and he did not dare say for certain whether it was truly the legendary Mythic Da Luo.

But at least, in one possible future of this chaos, someone had already reached a place that made even the time fiendgod stop to observe.

Then Shi Chen released his hand.

That glimmer of water flowed back into the countless years yet to come; Shi Chen did not forcibly preserve it as the only future.

The gray-robed Daoist looked at the green lotus once more.

Pangu still slept within the lotus heart.

"Pangu."

Shi Chen spoke calmly.

"On the day heaven is opened, I shall come to see you."

With a gesture of Shi Chen's finger, a silver-white Dao mark descended outside the green lotus.

The mark did not touch the lotus heart, merely marking the stretch of time in which the green lotus lay.

Gu An almost laughed.

Pangu had not even been born, yet someone had already arranged to meet him on the day he opened heaven.

Only, this guest clearly was not coming to drink at a wedding feast.

Just as Shi Chen prepared to withdraw the river, a soft, lustrous jade light shone from the depths of chaos.

The Fortune Jade Disc.

The jade disc, which had only been faintly visible before, now had a much clearer outline.

A silver-white pattern on its surface lit up in response to the Dao mark, and on the other side, an ancient pattern imbued with the intent to open heaven and earth also appeared.

The two patterns did not merge, but reflected one another across the surface of the jade disc.

A trace of time that had originally belonged only to Shi Chen thus formed its first clear connection with the intent to open heaven and earth, which had yet to fully manifest within the green lotus.

Gu An's eyes lit up.

Wasn't this exactly what he had intended when he constructed the Fortune Jade Disc?

The three thousand Daos each truly existed, but they did not necessarily have to remain forever unconnected.

Now, time and the opening of heaven and earth had resonated for the first time, and the jade disc had borne this change that had truly occurred.

Shi Chen seemed to take a slight interest in it as well.

Shi Chen took one step forward along the river, and the jade disc, seemingly separated from him by boundless chaos, was suddenly right before his eyes.

The Daoist reached out and brushed the silver-white Dao pattern with a fingertip.

The jade disc trembled gently.

The light between the two patterns gradually stabilized, then sank into the depths of the jade.

Through Gu An's connection to his natal world, a cool sensation reached him at that moment.

[The Time Dao has generated feedback.]

[Ability obtained: Brief Future Perception.]

Before Gu An had time to study it carefully, his vision suddenly wavered.

He saw the boy beside him, who had a thermos, reach for something. His sleeve swept across the rim, spilling half a cup of hot water onto the world creation platform.

But when Gu An turned to look, the thermos was still standing there perfectly fine.

The boy's hand had only just begun to reach out.

Gu An barely hesitated before reaching over and pushing the cup an inch farther in.

The next moment, the sleeve swept over just as he had seen.

The cup rocked gently and remained firmly in place.

"Huh?" The boy turned his head. "Gu An, why did you move my cup?"

"Saved its life."

"Huh?"

"You almost knocked it over."

The boy looked down at his sleeve and hurriedly screwed the lid tight. "You're right. Thanks!"

He continued packing his things after that, clearly unaware of what had just happened.

Gu An, meanwhile, stared at his hand, in a rather good mood.

What he had seen was not something that had already happened, but a brief glimpse of a future yet to come.

And when he reached out, that future changed.

Shi Chen had observed the opening of heaven in the chaos, while Gu An's first use of the Time Dao had been to save a classmate's thermos.

Still, if he really used this ability to deal with danger, things would get interesting.

Gu An tried to focus again.

But no more images appeared before his eyes.

It seemed this newly acquired feedback was still a long way from being something he could use at will.

He was not disappointed.

A time fiendgod had only just been born, and he could already glimpse the future ahead of time in reality. That was an enormous gain.

Then what would happen as the Primordial World continued to grow?

With that thought, Gu An summoned the system again.

[Supreme Mythology World Creation System]

[Host: Gu An]

[Natal world: Supreme Great Wilderness]

[Current stage: Mythic Chaos]

[Creation Origin: 0]

[Godfiends born: Shi Chen]

[Feedback obtained: Brief Future Perception]

The few simple lines left Gu An particularly satisfied.

The feedback the system had just given him did not require any additional expenditure of origin.

It was a gift from the natal world to its creator, given after Shi Chen's birth and the true unfolding of the Time Dao.

But if he wanted to make greater progress in the next round of world creation, that was another matter.

Gu An directed his consciousness back into the chaos.

Shi Chen had already traveled far away along the river, while the Fortune Jade Disc had vanished once more among the innate Dao marks.

The vast chaos had not stopped changing because Shi Chen had left.

But apart from the creations that had already taken shape around the green lotus, many of the other innate Dao marks were still being nurtured in silence.

Gu An noticed one of them.

There were no mountains or rivers there, nor any distance in the ordinary sense.

Yet though he could clearly see a gray pattern right before his eyes, the next moment it seemed to lie beyond countless layers of overlapping space.

A hollow willow-like silhouette flashed into view and vanished, returning to silence.

The Space Dao?

Gu An's heart stirred slightly.

The time fiendgod had already appeared, and the innate creation of the Space Dao had clearly also laid its foundation in this round of chaos.

If he could make the various Daos manifest further, who knew how many surprises would appear besides this trace of space before him?

Rather than bringing a single fiendgod into being, he wanted to advance the entire chaos.

"System, select the next round of world creation and evolution."

[World creation objective: Manifestation of the Daos of chaos.]

[Projected result: Form the first Innate Dao Domains and bring several dormant innate creations into the manifestation stage.]

[Required: ordinary Creation Origin × 1 unit.]

[Current origin: 0.]

[Insufficient origin. This round of world creation cannot begin.]

Gu An looked at the notification without much surprise.

When chaos was first created, he had already invested all his origin in it.

Now the four treasures were beginning to take shape, the time fiendgod had been born, and even Gu An himself had received feedback from the Time Dao.

However he looked at it, the investment had been worth it.

But he could not expect to pay once and have the entire Primordial World evolve on its own until Pangu opened heaven.

Besides, what he wanted went far beyond that.

Gu An looked once more at the faintly discernible trace of space.

The time fiendgod had already been born.

If he pushed the three thousand Daos further toward manifestation, what changes would those innate godfiends still being nurtured bring to this chaos?

Just thinking about it gave him something to look forward to.

Unfortunately, anticipation was one thing.

Creation Origin would not appear out of thin air just because he thought about it a few more times.

Gu An withdrew his consciousness and looked at the world creation platform gradually dimming before him.

There were ten days left until the school evaluation.

He had no intention of letting his Primordial World remain in its initial stage for all ten days.

It seemed he had to find a way to get some Creation Origin first.

"Students, the first world creation session is over!"

At that moment, the teacher's voice rang out through the world creation hall.

"For the next ten days, you may develop your natal worlds on your own. After ten days, the school will conduct a year-wide evaluation of world potential."

"The evaluation will look not only at the scale of your worlds, but also at their stability, actual results, and potential for future evolution."

"At that time, who receives the high-grade Creation Origin and the places for subsequent development will also be determined by the evaluation results."

As the voice fell silent, the pillars of light above the Creation Platforms gradually faded.

The hall came alive again.

Many students had already begun excitedly discussing their worlds, while others couldn't wait to contact their families and prepare to purchase Creation resources for the next stage.

Gu An withdrew his consciousness and glanced at the projection of that gray, hazy world overhead.

Aside from the constantly churning chaos qi, there was still no sign of mountains, rivers, or land.

Compared with the surrounding worlds where life had already emerged, it really did look rather shabby.

Still, he didn't much care.

After all, Pangu hadn't woken up yet.

He couldn't very well wake him up now and have him split open a piece of land to give his classmates an eyeful, could he?

Gu An gathered his things and walked out of the hall with the crowd.