"The Heavenly Dao is vast and gray~"
"The Great Dao is distant and faint~"
"What is utmost truth?"
"To see one's nature is to see the way."
A Daoist chant rose and fell in lingering cadences. A Daoist wearing an iron hoop on his head sat cross-legged atop a lotus platform, holding a horsetail whisk in one hand and forming a Daoist seal with the other, broadly proclaiming the Dao.
All around the lotus platform, rosy light stretched ten thousand zhang and auspicious mist streamed in a thousand strands. When the Daoist opened his mouth, heavenly blossoms shone brilliantly and golden lotuses surged forth, making him seem ever more transcendent and unworldly. In particular, above the Daoist's head, a vast three-mu auspicious cloud rose and sank, revealing a thousand kinds of rare treasures, while behind his head, a three-foot Dao wheel displayed myriad forms of light.
Below the lotus platform, beasts and birds, plant and tree spirits, as well as human cultivators, all sat cross-legged on the ground, listening until their heads swayed and bobbed, as though they had obtained some supreme righteous dharma.
"The Dao of the Dao, the changes of yin and yang, the transformation of righteous and evil—these are called the Two Principles, these are called Heaven and Earth."
"Observe the self and understand the true I; comprehend yin and yang and pass through myriad transformations. This is called gathering the cosmos in one's grasp, embracing chaos in one's breast."
As the Daoist spoke, he opened his arms as though taking the starry seas of the heavens into his embrace. Boundless Spiritual Resonance and Origin Energy gathered, turning into a sea of stars in the Daoist's arms and condensing into a magnificent world.
In the next breath, the Daoist opened his mouth and inhaled. That world turned