Breaking through to Supreme Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin
Laozi queued for half Shichen and bought three Grey Wheat.
He had only planned to buy two, one for himself and one for the Shichen Ancestor. When he reached the pancake stall, the man making the pancakes looked up at him, his hands still busy flipping the pancakes, and said, "Lord Taiqing, the words 'with pancakes' on your wooden sign have been a real pain for us. Everyone who's come to buy pancakes these past few days says you sent them, and they all insist on rounding down the price." Laozi took the pancake and gave him an extra gray-white shell coin as an apology. The pancake maker flicked the coin back. "I was just kidding. Take the pancake, but next time don't write 'with pancakes,' write 'bring your own stool.' There aren't any stools in front of my stall, and the people standing in line get tired of standing."
Laozi was carrying three cakes back when he reached the platform of the Shichen Ancestor halfway up Kunlun Mountain. The Shichen Ancestor was squatting on a stone stool, gnawing on a dry cornbread. Seeing Laozi approaching with the cakes, he stuffed the cornbread into his sleeve, jumped off the stone stool, took the cake, took a big bite, and mumbled, "Three? You've struck it rich?"
"One is for you, one is for me, and one is for myself."
What's the point of keeping it?
"We'll eat when we get back from the river."
Shichen Ancestor finished the cake in a few bites, clapped the sesame seeds off his hands, and said, "Alright, let's go. You'll go down by yourself this time; I won't accompany you."
Laozi looked at him.
"Don't look at me like that. Last time I accompanied you for a while, but you only picked out the interesting worlds to look at, which was too superficial. This time, go down yourself and start from the deepest part of the Chaos, looking at the most inconspicuous places. Those worlds that no one has ever explored, those worlds that no one has ever held meetings in, those worlds that no one has ever set up a stage for. After you've seen those, come back and look at what's in my river, and you'll know what you're missing."
Laozi tucked the cake into his sleeve and walked to the edge of the platform. The Shichen Ancestor called out from behind, "Remember, don't just watch the spectacle. Watch the parts that aren't exciting."
Laozi didn't look back; he stepped into the Long River.
This time he went much further than before. He didn't linger on the river's surface, but sank deeper and deeper, crossing the main channel, passing through the tributaries, and traversing the silt layers formed by the remnants of extinct worlds, until he reached the very bottom of the Long River. The riverbed wasn't made of stone or silt, but of a grayish-white, sponge-like substance. The Shichen Ancestor had said before that this was called the "riverbed," from which all worlds grew, died, and fell back, becoming new nourishment. Laozi stepped onto the riverbed, feeling its softness beneath his feet, sinking half an inch with each step, pulling out strands of grayish-white silk along with his heels. Those silk threads broke at his heels, from which extremely fine and faint starlight seeped.
He walked into the deepest part of the Chaos. The riverbed of the Long River became increasingly sparse as he went deeper, the gray-white sponge gradually turning into a thin membrane, beneath which lay the Chaos. Laozi squatted down, inserted his finger into that membrane, and gently poked it. The membrane broke, and Chaos surged up, enveloping his fingertip. That Chaos neither harmed nor devoured souls; it was merely viscous, heavy, and directionless. Laozi withdrew his finger from the Chaos, a drop of Chaos liquid clinging to his fingertip. The drop of liquid slowly spun on his fingertip, and as it spun, a grain of sand condensed within it. The grain of sand was extremely small, finer than a grain of rice, and felt hot on his fingertip. Laozi held the grain of sand and examined it for a moment, when suddenly he heard a very faint "poof" from a very distant place. It sounded like someone had blown out a lamp from a great distance.
He followed the sound deeper into the Chaos. More and more membranes broke, and the Chaos liquid seeped in, thickening until it reached above his ankles. He waded through the Chaos, walking for an unknown amount of time, until he saw a grayish-white shell floating in the Chaos ahead. The shell was only the size of a fist, its surface pitted and uneven, as if gnawed by something. Laozi reached out and scooped it up, finding it soft, containing an even smaller core. The core was pulsating, extremely slowly, moving only every few moments. Laozi stared intently inside and saw a world within the core.
That world was extremely small, smaller than any world Laozi had ever seen. The entire world was a single continent, with only one mountain, one river, one forest, and one meadow. In the forest lived a creature shaped like a sphere, entirely grayish-white, without hands, feet, eyes, or mouth. They moved by rolling, absorbed nutrients from the soil through pores in their skin, and exchanged information by bumping into each other. Laozi observed for a long time before understanding their method of information exchange: one bump meant "there's food here," two bumps meant "there's danger over there," three bumps meant "I'm hungry," and four bumps meant "I've found a new place." They bumped into each other like this for countless millennia. One day, a sphere rolled to the edge of the forest. The little ball rolled to the riverbank. It had never been to a river before and didn't know what a river was. It rolled into the river, sank, and floated back up. It found that floating on water was much easier than rolling in the mud. It began to drift downstream, drifting for a whole day until it reached the foot of a mountain. At the foot of the mountain was another kind of sphere, harder and smaller than the ones in the forest. The two spheres collided. The small sphere was bounced away. The large sphere continued to roll. The small sphere rolled back and collided again. This time it changed direction, colliding from the side. The large sphere tilted slightly. The small sphere found that colliding from the side worked, so it collided a third time. The large sphere rolled to the side. The small sphere took over that spot and began to eat the nutrients in the soil. When Laozi saw this, he suddenly felt that this scene looked familiar.
He continued watching. After the little spheres took over the land, they began to reproduce. The little spheres gave birth to more and more spheres, and the nutrients at the edge of the forest were no longer enough. They began to roll into the mountains, down the river, and into the grasslands. The spheres that rolled into the mountains discovered water in the crevices of the rocks, and water tasted better than soil. The spheres that rolled down the river discovered floating fruit in the river, and fruit tasted better than soil. The spheres that rolled into the grasslands discovered insects under the grass roots, and insects tasted better than soil. As their diet changed, the spheres' appearance also changed. The spheres that drank water from the crevices of the rocks developed a harder shell, making it easier to squeeze out... They entered the cracks in the rocks; the fruit-eating spheres grew softer mouths to easily wrap around the fruit; the insect-eating spheres grew longer thorns to easily pierce the insect shells. Laozi watched for a while longer and discovered that these spheres began to eat each other. The fruit-eating spheres had their shells pierced by the insect-eating spheres, the insect-eating spheres were flattened by the spheres drinking water from the cracks, and the spheres drinking water from the cracks were suffocated by the fruit-eating spheres that wrapped their mouths around them. The spheres rolled around, bumped into each other, and ate each other for countless millennia. Suddenly one day, all the spheres stopped at the same time.
Laozi thought the world was about to end, but upon closer inspection, he discovered that the spheres hadn't perished; instead, something had grown from within them. These were extremely fine threads, pushing outwards from the inside of the spheres, breaking through their shells and extending to the outside. The threads grew longer and more numerous, eventually forming a net above the spheres. The net grew larger and thicker, eventually covering the entire forest, the entire river, and the entire mountain. Laozi examined the net closely and discovered that each thread was connected to a sphere below. The spheres ate soil, fruit, and insects, and the threads drew the nutrients they absorbed to the net. Something on the net was collecting these nutrients. Looking up at the top of the net, Laozi saw a large mass of grayish-white, soft flesh condensed there, with a depression in the center containing a pool of clear water, reflecting the sky.
Laozi looked at it for a long time before he understood: those spheres had eaten him up and turned him into animal feed.
He scooped the grayish-white, soft flesh out of its shell and examined it closely in his palm. The flesh wriggled in his hand, the clear water in the hollow sloshing around, and the reflected sky seemed to sway with it. Laozi suddenly felt a pang of pity for this lump of flesh. It had drained the entire continent of its nutrients, growing into a massive blob, yet it possessed nothing but this blob. It had no hands to create things, no feet to walk, no mouth to speak, not even eyes. It could only lie dormant in its shell, waiting for the sphere below to continue feeding it. If the sphere fed it too little, it would shrink; if it fed it too much, it would swell. It lived a very long time, much longer than the spheres in the forest, but in all those tens of thousands of years, it had done only one thing: eat.
Laozi put the soft flesh back into the shell, closed the shell, and returned it to Chaos. He continued on his way.
He walked a long way, the Chaos liquid reaching above his knees. He retrieved another shell from the Chaos, smaller than the previous one. Inside the shell was an even smaller world, a world without mountains, rivers, forests, or grasslands, only a flat, grayish-white stone slab. The slab was engraved with dense patterns, and within these patterns lived extremely small insects, so small that Laozi needed to use his Hunyuan energy to see them. These insects didn't eat, didn't reproduce, didn't move, and did only one thing: crawl along the patterns on the slab. After crawling one pattern, they would move on to the next. After crawling all the patterns, they would start again from the beginning. Laozi observed for a long time and discovered that the patterns weren't randomly engraved; each pattern was a mathematical equation. When the insect reached a fork in the road, it would choose to go left or right based on the result of the previous equation. If it chose correctly, it would... Each line widens slightly; a wrong choice makes the next line narrower. For countless millennia, the insects crawled along these lines, the equations on the stone slab growing increasingly complex, the lines denser, and the insects crawling faster and faster. Finally, one day, the lines on the stone slab became so dense that no more new equations could be carved. The insects stopped, gathered in the center of the slab, and looked at each other. They had no mouths, no hands, no eyes, but Laozi could sense they were "thinking." They thought for a long time, then together crawled towards the edge of the slab. Reaching the edge, they didn't fall, but instead bit into the edge and began to gnaw outwards. With each bite, the slab shrank. Finally, the entire slab was gone. The insects had devoured their only world, then drifted into Chaos, scattering one by one.
Looking at the scattered insects, Laozi suddenly remembered what the Shichen Ancestor had said about "climbing over walls." These insects had no walls to climb over, so they ate them. After eating, they had nothing left, but the act of eating the walls itself seemed more interesting than climbing the patterns.
Laozi continued walking forward.
The deeper he went into the Chaos, the fewer shells he found, and the stranger the world became. He saw a world where all creatures were translucent, able to see how far their food was digesting. So, the people of that world never said "Have you eaten?" but only "You've digested up to your small intestine." He saw a world where everything fell downwards—mountains, rivers, people—and disappeared at the bottom. So, the people of that world invented a method: before falling to the bottom, they threw things upwards; the more they threw, the slower they fell. He saw a world without any solids, only liquids and liquids. Between the vortexes, dwelled a shapeless creature that lived by devouring vortexes. Each vortex it swallowed grew stronger, until finally it became a single, massive vortex that engulfed the entire world. He saw a world with only one species and one species of plant. The creature ate the plant, and the plant ate the creature's corpse, a cycle that lasted countless millennia. Then one day, the creature learned to store the plant's seeds instead of planting them, and the plant learned to poison the seeds. They schemed against each other for tens of thousands of years, finally becoming extinct simultaneously. Laozi didn't linger when observing these worlds, only glancing at them briefly before moving on. Until he saw a shell.
The shell was larger than the previous ones, its surface smooth as an egg, without any pits or bumps. Inside the shell was a world, within which was a sea, on which was an island, and on the island was a city inhabited by people. These were people, almost identical to the Primordial Wilderness Human Race. Laozi squatted down to examine them closely. These people lived in stone houses, ate fish from the sea, wore hemp clothing, and used iron tools. They knew nothing of cultivation, the Way of Heavenly Dao, or the concept of Saint. They only knew how to fish, build houses, farm, have children, raise children, and see off the elderly. Their city was small; a walk around it would take less than the time it takes to eat a meal. Their history was also short. Laozi started from their first generation and read until the tenth generation, when a blacksmith appeared in the city. The blacksmith spent his entire life forging iron, and before he died, he carved his blacksmithing skills onto a stone slab, which he placed in the central square of the city. Later generations saw the stone slab, and the blacksmithing skills were passed down. Several generations later, a fisherman appeared in the city. He composed a work song and taught it to everyone. Singing the song, their nets were cast more evenly, and their catch doubled. Even after the fisherman died, the song continued to be sung. Later still, a midwife appeared in the city. She kept a book filled with information about the women she had delivered: which had easy deliveries, which had narrow pelvises, which had slow first pregnancies, and which were weak and needed supplements. The book was passed down to her apprentice, who added new information, and so on, until it became a book. With the blacksmith's skills, the fisherman's work song, and the midwife's book, the people of the city lived more and more steadily. Once things were stable, some began to think about other things. Some thought about how to dry fish and store them for winter, some thought about how to grind stones into wheels, and some thought about how to boil seawater to extract salt. All their ideas were carved into the stone slabs of the city's central square, for anyone who wanted to see them. Laozi, reading this, suddenly thought of the Craft Tower in the City of Ten Thousand Crafts.
He continued reading. The people in the city kept thinking about it, and when the stone slabs were full, they moved them into their houses, building "Stone Slab Houses." The Stone Slab Houses grew bigger and bigger, from one room to three, from three to nine, eventually taking up half a street. The people in the city would go into the Stone Slab Houses to look at the stone slabs, and after they finished, they would go back and think about new things, and then carve new stone slabs to put in. On the wall in front of the Stone Slab House, someone had carved a line of words. Laozi went closer to look, and it read, "Today, someone at the Stone Slab House will talk about how to dry fish, free of charge, bring your own fish."
Laozi was stunned.
He squatted outside the shell, staring at the words for a long time. The words were crooked and twisted, almost identical to those on the wooden plaque at the top of City of Ten Thousand Crafts. Laozi suddenly felt something rising up his spine. He remembered writing at the top of City of Ten Thousand Crafts, "Nature is not inaction, but rather leaving room for possibility in creation, and letting go after completion." He thought this was something he had realized himself, a principle unique to the Taiqing lineage. But in this small world inside the shell, a group of people who didn't even recognize the word "Tao" had brought this sentence to life with a stone slab and dried fish.
Laozi picked up the shell and placed it on his lap, examining it intently. He saw the people in the city begin to argue. The "experience" accumulated in the stone slab house grew increasingly complex, some conflicting with others. The experience of drying fish said to do so when the sun was at its strongest, while the experience of pickling fish said to put it in the vat when the sun was at its strongest. Each group held a stack of stone slabs and stood arguing at the entrance of the stone slab house. They argued for three days. On the fourth day, someone brought out a new stone slab from the house, on which was written, "Drying fish and pickling fish don't conflict; dry them until half-dry before pickling, they'll keep longer and taste better." The two groups stopped arguing and went back to try it. After trying it, someone added more stone slabs. Laozi chuckled as he read this. He thought of Gao Yao's Case Archive, Yin Xi's pass, and the signs in the City of Ten Thousand Crafts exhibition hall that had been overturned and then improved.
He continued to observe. The people in the city argued more and more frequently, and each argument added a new stone slab. The stone slab houses expanded from half a street to the entire street, and then from the entire street to two streets. One day, the oldest man in the city said, "The stone slab houses are too big; it takes me forever to find a single slab." The young man said, "Then let's categorize the stone slab houses, and it will be much faster to find one." So the stone slab houses were divided into nine rooms, and a sign was hung at the door of each room: Eating Room, Building Room, Clinic Room, Fishing Room, Farming Room, Creation Room, Childcare Room, Math Room, and Meeting Room. Laozi saw those nine signs, he suddenly thought of the Nine Great Reading Rooms of the Human Dao Library.
He took a deep breath and continued reading. After the nine houses were built, the people of the city began to use the stone slabs inside to teach their children. The children learned from the stone slabs, and new slabs were added. More and more slabs appeared, and the houses grew larger and larger. One day, a stranger came to the city. After seeing the stone slab houses, the stranger went back and built one himself. The two cities began to exchange stone slabs. This exchange continued for hundreds of years, and the writing on the slabs became denser and more difficult. Some people refined the experience on the slabs into "methods," and then refined the methods into "principles." The principles were engraved on the smallest stone slab and hung at the city gate. Laozi looked closely at the smallest stone slab, on which were engraved four words: Don't believe the stone slabs.
Laozi stared at those four characters for a long time. Then the stone slab said, "Stone slabs can be wrong, people can be wrong, heaven can be wrong, earth can be wrong. If you're wrong, correct it; if you correct it, change it; if you change it, try again. Don't treat the stone slab like an ancestor."
I closed the shell and sat in the chaos for a long time. He remembered that he had not touched that wall for three thousand years, remembered that Patriarch Shi said that he "clutched himself very tight", thought of the "bringing cake" wooden sign at the top of Wan Gong City, and thought of Those insects had eaten away his world just now, and he remembered that the soft gray flesh had eaten him into a pile, and he remembered that the people in that slate house finally learned "don't trust the slate". He suddenly felt that he had found what he was missing.
He put the shell back into the Chaos, stood up, and walked back. This time he walked very fast, splashing the Chaos liquid high at his feet. He passed through the silt layer, through the tributary layer, through the main river channel, and rushed all the way back to the platform of the Shichen Ancestor. The Shichen Ancestor was still squatting on the stone pier, holding half a cornbread in his hand. When he saw Laozi emerge from the river, he almost dropped the cornbread.
"So fast?"
The moment Laozi stood up and stretched halfway up Kunlun Mountain, the five continents of the Primordial Wilderness simultaneously sensed it.
The first to change was the Central Continent. Kunlun Mountain, located in the heart of the Central Continent, suddenly dispersed into a sky full of light dust amidst the gray-white halo at its summit. Instead of falling, the light dust rose upwards, condensing into nine gray-white clouds at the highest point. Nine gray-white waterfalls cascaded down between the clouds, neither falling to the ground nor returning to the sky, but suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating. Each waterfall carried something different: one carried characters, from the first few characters created by Cangjie to the crooked "with mud" wooden plaque on the top of City of Ten Thousand Crafts, layered and crammed together; another carried objects, from the first stone axe to the latest gray-film ship hull in Sea-Engineering City, clattering and clanging; another carried seeds, from the first wild herb tasted by Shennong to the myriad grain subspecies cultivated by Hou Ji, their colors ranging from withered yellow to oily green, forming a long, gradually changing band; and yet another carried prescriptions, from the first crushed herb leaf to the latest Medicine-Engineering City. The combined pills and powders have an indescribable, bitter-sweet, sour-pungent aroma; a stream flows through the houses, from the first wooden stake driven into the ground by Youchao to the tiled roofs of the 999 streets of City of All Spirits, beams, pillars, and rafters piled together like a crooked tower; a stream flows through the roads, from the first path trodden by Yu the Great during his flood control efforts to the tracks left by bicycles on the Technology Great Dao, varying in width and curvature, twisted into a rope; a stream flows through the rules, from Gao Yao... From the Five Punishments Gao Yao on bronze tripods to tens of thousands of case precedents in the Heavenly Net, the articles, cases, and annotations are stacked into a thick pile; one stream flows with sound, from the first shout by the hearth of Suiren to the crisp sound of the storyteller's gavel striking the table in the Western Ox Continent, shouts of people, neighing of horses, crowing of chickens, and barking of dogs, all mixed together in a pot of porridge; the last stream flows with Shichen, from the first drop of water stirred up by the Long River when Human Race were born to the last wisp of soul taken away by the Long River when they die, birth, old age, sickness, death, joy, sorrow, separation, and reunion are ground into a long gray scroll.
Nine greyish-white waterfalls hung above the Central Continent. Human Race, Witch Race, Spirit Race, Demon Race, Immortal Dao Cultivators, and Buddhist Sect disciples on the Central Continent simultaneously looked up. At the end of each of the 999 main streets of City of All Spirits, greyish-white flames simultaneously rose from the public hearths. These flames did not burn firewood, but only the light dust falling from the nine waterfalls. Youchao stood in the center of City of All Spirits, looking up at the sky. After a while, he suddenly squatted down, took a new wooden staff from his sleeve, and stuck it into the ground. The staff penetrated three inches into the soil, took root, sprouted, and grew into a small tree. The fruit on the tree was shaped like a house, with doors, windows, and a chimney. Youchao picked a fruit, broke it open, and found it hollow. On the inner wall of the shell were carved a line of small characters. "Anywhere is fine to live in, just remember to leave a window."
At the same time, the nine-story Craft Tower of City of Ten Thousand Crafts in Southern Continent of Jambu opened its doors, and all the craftsmen inside poured into the streets. The pancake maker placed his pancake pan on the side of the street, pulled out half a fire poker from the bottom of the pan, and pointed it to the sky. Immediately, a thin stream of "tools" from the nine gray-white waterfalls split off and flew towards him. Dozens of tools clattered down from the stream: there were planes that leveled themselves, saws that could cut straight without measuring, anvils that reported their own temperature when blacksmithing, and looms that automatically changed shuttles when weaving. The pancake maker caught a plane, looked at it, and turned to the crowd queuing to buy pancakes, saying, "Lord Taiqing has broken through to the realm. Today, we're not selling pancakes, but giving away planes instead. One for each person, bring your own wood." Someone in the queue shouted, "What if we don't have wood?" The pancake maker pointed outside the city. "There are plenty of dead branches in the Witchblood Tree Forest to the north. Go and collect them yourself."
At the same time, all the shipyards in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent Sea-Engineering City started work. The shipwrights pushed the gray-film boats under construction into the water, then pulled them back halfway, attaching a small gray-white box to the bow. Inside the box was a strip of gray-white cloth that had floated down from the "road" of the nine waterfalls. The cloth was embroidered with densely packed navigational charts, from the Eastern Sea to the Southern Sea, from the West China Sea to the North Sea, even clearly marking a few small floating islands on the edge of the Chaos. The old shipwright nailed the box firmly to the bow and patted the side of the boat. "Lord Taiqing has drawn a new navigational route. All the boats launched today should take this box and make a trip along the route, recording the wind direction and water depth along the way. We'll summarize it and report it to the Heavenly Net tonight." The shipwrights responded in unison, untied the mooring lines, and raised the sails. Dozens of gray-film boats sailed out of the shipyard at the same time, their gray-white hulls leaving dozens of bright streaks on the water's surface.
At the same time, all the pharmacies in the Western Ox Continent Medicine-Engineering City opened their doors. The pharmacists brought out all the pills, powders, ointments, and elixirs displayed in the exhibition hall and lined them up on the street. The millstone turned round and round on its own, grinding the grayish-white powder that floated from the "prescription" in the nine waterfalls into each ingredient. An old pharmacist stood at the street corner and shouted, "Lord Taiqing is breaking through his cultivation realm! Today's medicine is free. Everyone can take a packet of 'Breakthrough Powder,' take it home, mix it with hot water, and drink it. After drinking it, write down how you feel and send it to the exhibition hall. Tomorrow we'll compile and improve it." Someone asked, "Will drinking it help me break through my cultivation realm?" The old pharmacist glared at him. "If it could help you break through, would you even need to drink it? This is to get your body in good condition so you'll cry out in less pain when you break through yourself."
Simultaneously, a small, greyish-white flower sprouted from the rooftops of all the ice houses in Han Cold-Engineering City, Northern Julu Continent Lu Zhou. The flower fell, seeds formed, and the seeds cracked open, releasing wind. The wind poured down from the ice roofs, seeping into the cracks of every household's windows, dispersing the chill from the kang (heated brick bed) and fanning the fires in the stoves. The craftsmen of Cold-Engineering City rushed out of their houses and saw a greyish-white piece of cloth, the one from the Nine Waterfalls, fluttering in the wind. The cloth bore the revised winter hunting rules: First, hunt the large and release the small; Second, hunt the male and keep the female; Third, if you encounter a female with cubs, go around it; Fourth, whoever breaks the rules must distribute their prey to the entire city for three days. The old hunters, after reading it, pressed the cloth onto the snow. The cloth melted into the ice, and a line of words appeared on the surface. "This year's winter hunt will be conducted according to the new rules; violators will be punished with meat."
The nine greyish-white waterfalls of the Central Continent spun faster and faster, creating a greyish-white whirlwind. From the center of the whirlwind descended a greyish-white beam of light, striking directly at the platform of Shichen Ancestor, halfway up Kunlun Mountain. Laozi was standing in the center of the platform; when the beam descended, he was still holding half a Grey Wheat in his hand, not yet finished. Crumbs fell in a flurry from the beam. Laozi glanced down, stuffed the last bite into his mouth, chewed and swallowed, patted the sesame seeds off his hands, and looked up at the beam of light, saying, "What's the rush? Let me finish eating."
The pillar of light ignored him, growing thicker and faster as it descended, making the stone pillars at the four corners of the platform vibrate. Shichen Ancestor had long since hidden outside the platform, squatting on a branch of Witchblood Tree, and shouted at Laozi, "Hurry up! I'm uncomfortable squatting on this branch!" Laozi glared at him, flicked away the last few sesame seeds in his hand, took a deep breath, and stepped into the center of the pillar of light.
The moment he stepped in, the nine greyish-white waterfalls of the Central Continent exploded simultaneously, transforming into billions of greyish-white light spots that scattered towards the five continents. The light spots fell into the farmlands of the Southern Continent of Jambu, causing crops to sprout ears overnight; they fell into the sea of the Eastern Victory Divine Continent, where schools of fish jumped into fishing boats; they fell into the medicinal gardens of the Western Ox Continent, where herbs multiplied on their own; they fell into the icy plains of the Northern Julu Continent, where the ice cracked, revealing geothermal springs; and they fell into the City of All Spirits on the Central Continent, where the paving stones of all nine hundred and ninety-nine streets simultaneously scorched, causing the city's residents to jump and run outside. Upon reaching the streets, they discovered that each paving stone had gained a greyish-white line, within which were engraved characters: the left one read "Filial Piety," the right one "Humility," the front one "Diligence," and the back one "Trustworthiness."
The five continents trembled simultaneously, the tremors extremely even and stable, like a large bell being gently struck, the aftertaste lingering long and unending. Suddenly, a gray-white spring of light gushed forth from the Kunlun Mountain. Instead of spewing into the sky, the spring plunged into the Earthly Dao Formation Network, spreading along the dark, earthen veins towards the five continents. When it reached Eastern Victory Divine Continent, an underwater volcano erupted, the lava solidifying upon contact with water to form a new island. The island was covered with gray-white patterns, hollow within which people could live. When it reached Southern Continent of Jambu, a fissure opened in the plains, from which gray-white spring water gushed forth. Gray-white bamboo grew spontaneously beside the spring, its nodes hollow, revealing ready-made bamboo slips when cut open. The spread continued... When it reached Western Ox Continent, all the withered trees in the dense forest simultaneously turned green again, and grayish-white fruits grew on the trees. When the fruits were bitten open, a pill was found inside the pit. When it spread to the Northern Julu Continent, the permafrost melted by a foot, revealing the fertile black soil beneath. Buried in the black soil were bone artifacts left behind by the ancient Demon Race. The bone artifacts weathered in the wind, and the powder that fell onto the black soil immediately made it soft as cotton. When it spread to the Central Continent, Kunlun Mountain doubled in height again. Above the mountainside, the grayish-white halo and the earthy yellow array patterns merged into a new grayish-yellow radiance. Every time the radiance flashed, a new well appeared in City of All Spirits. The well water was sweet, and drinking it would prevent all diseases.
The Human Dao Array Network in the sky shone brightly with nine-colored light. Nuwa rose from the sky above the Central Continent, and nine colorful ribbons flew out from her sleeves, passing through the five continents and connecting the nodes of the Human Dao Array Network on each continent. After connecting them, she stood in the center of the network and drew a circle in the middle of the network. The outlines of the five continents emerged in the circle: the Central Continent was round like a plate, the Eastern Victory Divine Continent was long and narrow like a ribbon, the Southern Continent of Jambu was square like a table, the Western Ox Continent was curved like a bull's horn, and the Northern Julu Continent was fragmented like a star disk. The five continents slowly rotated in the network, and with each rotation, the network automatically adjusted the concentration of spiritual energy in each place. After Nuwa finished drawing the circle, she stepped back, and a line of words appeared on its own in the circle. "Adjust the spiritual energy in each place if it is uneven. Don't come looking for me."
Fuxi unfolded the Eight Trigrams diagram beside Nuwa. Black and white energies surged towards Kunlun Mountain, circling three times around the gray-white pillar of light before condensing into a three-colored ring: black, white, and gray. On the ring emerged eight characters written by Fuxi himself, "The course of Heaven is constant; man can conquer Heaven." After writing it, he felt it was too rigid, so he reached out and erased "Man can conquer Heaven," changing it to "Man can conquer himself." He added a line of smaller characters next to it, "Conquer yourself, don't try to conquer Heaven. Heaven doesn't have time for you."
At the same time, three-colored Treasure Light shone from the secluded retreat sites of the Sanqing Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun. The three-colored lights—blue, red, and white—of the Three Treasures Jade Ruyi Four Swords of Zhu Xian soared into the sky, condensing into a three-colored cloud above Kunlun Mountain. The Four Swords of Immortal Slaughter of the Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun Venerable spun three times above his head, the four sword lights arching towards Kunlun Mountain, condensing into a gray-white sword mark spanning the sky. Within the sword mark, the eight characters "The slaughter of Heaven is complete; now it is time to punish one's own faults" were faintly visible. After reading this, the Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun sighed and said to the Lingbao Tianzun, "You wrote this so that your disciples would find fault with themselves every day?" The Lingbao Tianzun replied from afar, "If we don't find fault with ourselves, are we waiting for others to find it?"
Within the Tongtian Tower of the Witch Race, the illusory figures of the Twelve Ancestral Witches simultaneously appeared, and twelve beams of gray-white light shot out from the tower, striking the gray-white pillar of light on Kunlun Mountain. Dijiang's wind swirled outside the pillar, dispersing excess spiritual energy; Houtu's earth layered at the base of the pillar, making it more stable; Zhu Jiuyin's day and Day and Night alternated flashes beside the pillar, evening out its brightness. After completing these actions, the Twelve Ancestral Witches retreated back into the tower. The oldest Heavenly Spirit at the top, Tiangang, transmitted his voice. "Taiqing has broken through to the Taiqing realm. The Witch Race has sent twelve Ancestral Witch Law into the earth's veins, adding another layer of Ancestral Witch patterns to the veins of the five continents. From now on, whenever there is an earthquake, just look at the patterns to know which Ancestral Witch sneezed."
The Three Ancestors of the Human Race set up an incense table atop City of All Spirits. Suiren raised a spark above his head, from which five sparks suddenly burst forth, flying towards the five continents and landing in the public hearths of Human Race settlements, simultaneously turning the flames grayish-white. Youchao picked 999 fruits from newly grown trees, throwing 99 onto each of the five continents. The fruits took root and grew into 999 "house-shaped trees," the fruits of which, when picked and broken open, became ready-made rooms. Ziyi threw out a long, grayish-white cloth, which automatically cut itself into countless garments in the air, flying to Human Race settlements on the five continents and landing at the door of each household. The garments automatically matched the size of the family members, with each person—young, old, male, and female—receiving one.
Cangjie wrote a new character on the light screen in the calligraphy room, which was "He". After writing it, he felt it was not enough, so he wrote another "", and another "Celebration". He stacked the three characters together and pushed them into the sky net. All the five continents were The Humanity Skynet node displayed these three words at the same time. Gao Tao hung a new sign at the entrance of the Penal Education Hall. The sign read, "Taiqing has broken the border. Today, all disputes will be mediated free of charge. If the mediation is successful, half a piece of gray wheat cake will be given." Yin Xi guarded the pass. The first ten thousand levels of the field were temporarily changed to "He Pass", and the only word for passing the care was. "Tell me something you have done that made others happy." Master Xuandu manifested a three-dimensional map of five continents in the gray void of the Possible Dojo. In the picture, there is a gray light spot floating in the sky above each human settlement. In the light spot are new things that the locals have figured out, new cars made by others, new medicines prepared by others, new plays compiled by others, and new books written by others.
Dozens of gray-film ships sent out by the Eastern Victory Divine Continent Sea-Engineering City for trial voyages returned to port one after another in the afternoon, each ship bringing back a full hold of nautical charts, fish spawns, and wind direction records. The old shipwright compiled the records and handed them over to Tianwang, which pushed out a new sea route that night, heading from the Eastern Victory Divine Continent to Southern Continent of Jambu, with nine supply floating islands along the way, providing fresh water, fruit, and shelter from the wind. The pancake maker in City of Ten Thousand Crafts of Southern Continent of Jambu Shenzhou delivered all his pancake makers, and that night he set up his pancake pan again, baking new pancakes, sprinkling them with gray-white sesame seeds, and carving the words "Taiqing" on the bottom. The Medicine-Engineering City of the Western Ox Continent collected three thousand doses of "Breakthrough Powder" user experiences. The old medicine maker revised the formula overnight, and by the thirty-seventh version, he finally created a formula that was neither bitter nor dry, and that made people want to work but not complain. The Cold-Engineering City of the Northern Julu Continent redistributed the winter hunt meat according to the new rules, and the whole city ate and drank their fill, dancing all night on the rooftops of the ice palace.