The Dao Fruit of the Half-Step Great Dao Realm

The moment Taiqing stepped into the center of the gray-white pillar of light, his body was simultaneously connected from the Baihui point on the top of his head to the Yongquan point on the soles of his feet.

The breakthrough came with tremendous force, like a red-hot iron rod piercing straight from the forehead to the soles of the feet, melting all the blocked meridians and energy channels into straight lines in one go. Taiqing groaned, his vision first turning white, then nine colors, then gray-white, which then split into five pieces—the outlines of the five continents of the Primordial Wilderness. The five continents unfolded before his eyes, and the earth veins, spiritual energy, living beings, and celestial network nodes of each continent surged in simultaneously. The amount of information was so great that even the soul of Limitless Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal Ninth Heaven was throbbing with pain. Taiqing gritted his teeth and remained silent. He knew that this was a necessary process for merging with the Three Dao of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity in the Primordial Wilderness World: first being filled, then being broken, and only after being broken and able to be reassembled could one truly step into the Hunyuan Taiji.

The moment of bursting came quickly. Taiqing felt his soul like an air bladder inflated to its limit, cracking at an extremely minute point. After the crack, all the information that had rushed in flowed outwards in reverse direction, even faster than when it had rushed in. His soul did not shatter; instead, it became extremely thin and wide in the reverse flow, thin enough to cover five continents, wide enough to simultaneously cover the Kunlun Mountain and the pancake stall in City of Ten Thousand Crafts. In this state, he no longer "saw" the Primordial Wilderness, but "became" a part of Primordial Wilderness —he was in the cracks of the rocks in Kunlun Mountain, in the pancake pan in City of Ten Thousand Crafts, in the cracks of the bricks of the Tongtian Tower of the Witch Race, and in the ripples of the gray film on the bottom of the ship in Sea-Engineering City. He also knew that the pancake maker had sprinkled an extra handful of sesame seeds today, that the old hunter in Cold-Engineering City had just hunted a deer and was dragging it home, and that the storyteller in the Western Ox Continent had written a new story to tell tomorrow night.

Taiqing stabilized himself in this state for a moment, then suddenly felt something throbbing deep beneath his feet. The thing was hidden so deep that the combined depth of all the ley lines, all the arrays, and Human Dao River across the five continents couldn't reach it. Taiqing followed the throbbing motion downwards and found an extremely narrow and dark crevice. On either side of the crevice were two Gray-White Stone Gates doors the size of millstones, covered with dense patterns that were exactly the same as the gray-white patterns left by Pangu's will to create the world atop Kunlun Mountain.

Taiqing reached out and pushed the door. The door wasn't locked, and it opened easily.

Behind the door was a tiny stone chamber, with a ball of light suspended in the center. The ball of light was only the size of a fist, yet its density was astonishing— Taiqing felt his eyes hurt at first glance, his soul felt heavy at the second, and he had to look away to rest at the third. When he looked again, he discovered that the ball of light contained the Primordial Wilderness. Not the Primordial Wilderness of today, but the primordial Primordial Wilderness of the instant the Heaven-Opening and Earth-Creating: the turbid air had just settled, the clear air had just risen, Pangu True Body stood between heaven and earth, his hands supporting the sky, his feet firmly planted on the ground, every muscle in his body oozing sweat, every drop of sweat turning into dust upon landing. The light transformed into rivers and seas, each strand of hair falling away and turning into grass and trees. Within the ball of light was also the image of Pangu True Body collapsing: his exhaled breath became wind and clouds, his voice became Thunder, his left eye became the sun, his right eye became the moon, his limbs and body became the four cardinal directions and five sacred mountains, his blood became rivers, his veins became geography, his muscles became fields, his skin and fur became grass and trees, his teeth and bones became metals and stones, and his essence became pearls and jade. Finally, only a very faint gray-white shadow of Pangu True Body remained, standing between the empty heaven and earth. The shadow looked down at the world it had created, suddenly smiled, and then dissipated.

Taiqing saw something in the moment that shadow laughed. That thing wasn't in any of the scattered parts of Pangu True Body, nor anywhere in the world. It hovered in the very center of the empty space left after Pangu True Body dissipated, perfectly round and unified, a blend of gray and white, with no patterns on its surface and no internal structure, like a "raw material" yet to be defined by any laws. Taiqing stared intently for a long time before recognizing it: this was the Dao Fruit of the Half-Step Great Dao Realm. After Pangu Heaven-Opening and Earth-Creating, he didn't directly merge with the Dao, nor did he directly prove the Dao; he left his Dao Fruit in the deepest crevice of the Primordial Wilderness, waiting for later generations to discover it.

Taiqing stood in the stone chamber, examining the Dao Fruit again and again, and suddenly understood something.

When Pangu Heaven-Opening and Earth-Creating, the Chaos he cleaved was the thickest and most central part of the entire Chaos Sea. Before Pangu, there was nothing in the Chaos —no world, no living beings, no laws, only boundless Chaos liquid slowly churning. Pangu was the first person to carve out space within the Chaos, and the Primordial Wilderness was the first world born from Chaos. After Pangu created heaven and earth, he perished, and his true form transformed into all things in the Primordial Wilderness world. But the fragments he scattered when he cleaved the Chaos, the residual power he dissipated upon his fall, and the flesh and tendons worn away when he supported the heavens and stomped the earth—all these things remain. The fragments of bone scattered into the depths of Chaos beyond the Primordial Wilderness world. Those fragments and residual energy soaked in the Chaos for countless Eon; some disintegrated and vanished in the Chaos liquid, while others slowly condensed into shells, from which new worlds grew. These worlds were incomparable to the Primordial Wilderness world— the Primordial Wilderness was the genuine article created by Pangu himself, while the worlds within those shells were imitations born from the Pangu threw out when creating the world. Some contained only a continent, some had no continent at all but a stone slab, and some were inhabited by creatures whose limbs hadn't even fully developed.

The shells Taiqing saw at the bottom of the Time Long River all appeared after Pangu Heaven-Opening and Earth-Creating. They didn't exist before Pangu; they appeared after Pangu. They all bore traces of Pangu —some shells were engraved with the marks left by Pangu Axe, some shells contained creatures that smelled of Pangu's sweat, and some shells contained laws that evolved from scales that fell from a single strand of Pangu's hair. The stone slab world that Taiqing retrieved from the depths of Chaos had insect-crawling patterns that were the patterns on Pangu's fingernails. The world where spheres rolled around had spheres that grew from the fragments of calluses worn down by Pangu's feet, soaked in the Chaos liquid. The world where people lived in stone slab houses had people who were formed from the life force contained in a drop of blood that Pangu flung out when he separated heaven and earth.

Pangu left this Dao Fruit beneath the Primordial Wilderness, the meaning of which is very clear: the Primordial Wilderness is the first world, and it must also be the last world. Those imitations that grew out of the scraps in the Chaos should be collected, merged, or dismantled, until finally only the Primordial Wilderness World remains in the entire Chaos Sea. At that time, the Primordial Wilderness World will be the only Chaos World, and only then will the conditions for proving the Great Dao Realm be met.

Taiqing also understood the second thing. The Dao Fruit itself cannot be eaten directly. Eating it only copies Pangu's half-step Great Dao. The copy cannot defeat or surpass the original. To prove the true Great Dao realm, one must first refine this Dao Fruit into the Primordial Wilderness, allowing the Three Dao of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity in the Primordial Wilderness World to absorb all the nutrients of Pangu's half-step Great Dao. Then, a new half-step Great Dao of one's own will grow from the Primordial Wilderness World. Use Pangu's fruit as fertilizer to grow one's own tree.

Taiqing stood in the stone chamber for a long time. He looked up at the ceiling, where a line of extremely small characters were carved, as if Pangu had scratched it with his fingernail. "Don't rush. First, let the Primordial Wilderness be well-fed. Then, gather all the scraps from the Chaos, leaving nothing behind."

Taiqing chuckled. He recalled the word "daibing" on the wooden plaque above City of Ten Thousand Crafts and felt that Pangu's words were exactly the same style as those on the wooden plaques—plain language, and effective.

He stepped out of the stone chamber, closed the Gray-White Stone Gates, sat cross-legged in front of it, and began refining the Dao Fruit.

The first step in refining the Dao Fruit is to "invite" Dao Fruit out of the stone chamber. Taiqing reached into the stone chamber and held the fist-sized ball of light in his palm. The moment the ball of light entered his palm, his entire arm went numb, as if he had plunged into a pot of boiling Chaos liquid. Taiqing gritted his teeth and didn't let go, dragging the ball of light out. When it reached the entrance of the stone chamber, the ball of light suddenly jumped on its own, leaping out of Taiqing's palm and floating in mid-air between the stone chamber and the passage, and then began to swell. It stopped when it reached the size of a washbasin, and countless fine cracks appeared on its surface, from which grayish-white Luminous Fluid seeped out. The Luminous Fluid dripped down, falling into the grayish-white floor tiles at the bottom of the passage, and the floor tiles immediately bulged up, like dried cakes that had been soaked in water.

Taiqing understood: the Dao Fruit was decomposing on its own. The words left by Pangu said, "Let the Primordial Wilderness be well-fed," and the Dao Fruit understood this meaning, feeding the Primordial Wilderness itself. Taiqing stopped interfering and retreated to the side of the passage to watch. After the Dao Fruit swelled to the size of a washbasin, it stopped growing and continued to seep out Luminous Fluid. After about the time it takes for a Luminous Fluid stick to burn, the floor tiles at the bottom of the passage had bulged into a small hill, and a crack appeared on the top of the hill, from which a grayish-white fountain of light spewed out. The fountain of light flowed along the passage in two directions, one flowing into the depths of the earth veins of the Central Continent, and the other flowing into the Gray-White Formation Network at the edge of Chaos.

The luminous spring flowing into the earth's veins was the first to take effect. Three feet beneath the City of Ten Thousand Crafts in the heart of the Central Continent, the soil suddenly became loose and soft, so soft that the city's residents felt slippery under their feet walking on the streets. The pancake maker lifted his pan and saw a Gray-White Vines emerging from the soil beneath it, with a string of small gourds hanging from it. Each gourd was only the size of a fingernail, and inside were translucent grayish-white liquids. The pancake maker picked one, broke it open, tasted it, smacked his lips, and said, "Sweet. Tastes just like Grey Wheat." His words were spread by the Human Dao Heavenly Net, and the next day, everyone in City of Ten Thousand Crafts squatted at the base of their walls searching for the vines. Those who found them picked the gourds to drink from, and those who couldn't find them ran to the Witchblood Tree Forest outside the city to look for them. Within three days, the Gray-White Vines within a ten-mile radius of City of Ten Thousand Crafts were completely stripped bare. New vines grew where the old ones had been picked, growing ever denser and denser, until finally even the path leading to the Witchblood Tree Forest outside the city was covered with them.

The flow of light into the Gray-White Formation Network was even more turbulent. At the edge of Chaos Xing Tian was leading three hundred Witch Race warriors in a shift change when he suddenly saw the Gray-White Formation Network bulge outwards, forming a large bulge. The bulge split open, and gray-white Luminous Fluid of Luminous Fluid gushed out, spraying into the Chaos soaking the nearest shell within. That shell was only the size of a fist, containing a small, nearly extinguished world. As the Luminous Fluid seeped into the shell, the world inside suddenly brightened; the cracked earth closed up, withered vegetation turned green again, and a nearly extinct species suddenly sprouted a litter of offspring. Xing Tian leaned closer to look, scratched the back of his head, and said, "Even a broken shell in Chaos gets a share of the light from Lord Taiqing's enlightenment?"

Unbeknownst to him, this was only the beginning. The commotion caused by Taiqing refining the Dao Fruit spread outwards from the heart of the Central Continent, growing larger each day. On the first day, it only affected the area within ten miles of City of Ten Thousand Crafts; on the third day, it spread to the entire eastern half of Southern Continent of Jambu; and on the seventh day, all five continents simultaneously felt something arching beneath their feet. Farmers in Southern Continent of Jambu unearthed grayish-white clods of earth while plowing; when crushed, these clods contained luminous powder, which, when sprinkled on the fields, caused crops to grow wildly. Fishermen in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent caught grayish-white seashells in their nets; inside were no meat, only a pool of grayish-white water, which, when poured into the sea, caused fish to swarm wildly. Herb gatherers in the Western Ox Continent unearthed grayish-white roots while digging for herbs; chewing and swallowing these roots kept them full of energy for three days without hunger. Hunters in the Northern Julu Continent chiseled out grayish-white ice cores while breaking ice; when these ice cores melted, the water tasted sweet, and those who drank it felt neither cold in winter nor hot in summer.

For forty-nine days, the ley lines of the five continents were soaked in the Dao Fruit Luminous Fluid. On the evening of the forty-ninth day, Taiqing stood up from the stone chamber, walked to the entrance of the passage, and looked up. Simultaneously, grayish-white ley lines of light shone from the depths of the ley lines of the City of Ten Thousand Crafts. These ley lines extended upwards from the earth's core, penetrating the strata, passing through groundwater, through the roots of the Witchblood Tree, through the plowshares of Human Race farmland, through the floor tiles of Wan Gong City, through the dock floorboards of Hai Sea-Engineering City, through the herb gardens of Medicine-Engineering City, and through the foundations of the igloos of Cold-Engineering City, finally erupting simultaneously from the surface of the five continents. What erupted was not lava, nor water, but a grayish-white light mist. The light mist permeated the land for three days and three nights. When the mist dissipated, all living beings on the five continents simultaneously felt a lightness in their bodies—the last trace of the invisible pressure left by the Former Heavenly Dao in the sky was completely gone, and the last chain buried by the Former Heavenly Dao underground was completely broken.

Taiqing then emerged from the passage and returned to the platform halfway up Kunlun Mountain. Shichen Ancestor was squatting on a stone stool, munching on a cornbread while waiting for him. Seeing him emerge, he stuffed the cornbread into his sleeve. "Finished refining?"

"It's finished."

What about the Dao Fruit?

"It's been fed to the Primordial Wilderness."

The Shichen Ancestor nodded, then suddenly asked, "So what are you going to do next?"

Taiqing glanced towards the direction of Chaos: "Pangu left instructions to gather all the scraps from Chaos. The fragments Pangu flung out when he created the world have soaked in Chaos for Eon, growing into shells of varying sizes, each containing a world. These worlds are all transformed from things that fell from Pangu's body, originating from the same source as the Primordial Wilderness World, but they've grown in a distorted way. Gather what should be gathered, merge what should be merged, until finally only the Primordial World remains in the entire Primordial Wilderness Chaos Sea. At that time, the Primordial Wilderness World will be the only Chaos World, and the conditions for proving the Great Dao Realm will be met."

Shichen Ancestor asked, "Are there many of those shells?"

Taiqing reached towards the Chaos and grabbed a handful, bringing back a small shell. Inside the shell was a world no bigger than a palm, containing only a stone, a blade of grass, and an insect. Taiqing handed the shell to the Shichen Ancestor: "Like this. There are many. When Pangu cleaved the earth with his axe, fragments flew everywhere, and after countless Eon all turned into shells. If I try to collect them all by myself, I'll be old and gray before I finish. I need to ask for help."

He raised his hand and pointed to the sky, three points of clear light condensing at the tip of his finger. The light split into three, then into nine, and the nine points of light circled above Kunlun Mountain before falling in three different directions. The first point of light landed on an unnamed hill on the eastern side of the Central Continent. The hill split open, and a person who looked exactly like Taiqing emerged, only younger, wearing a blue robe and carrying a bamboo staff with the words "Taiqing" engraved on the top. The second point of light landed on the ninth floor of the Craft Tower in City of Ten Thousand Crafts of Southern Continent of Jambu. A person who looked exactly like Taiqing emerged from the tower, except with a scar on his face, carrying an unsharpened iron sword with the words "Taiqing" engraved on the blade. The third point of light landed in the Medicine-Engineering City Garden of the Western Ox Continent. A person who looked exactly like Taiqing emerged from the garden, except with gray hair and holding a gray-white medicine hoe with the words "Taiqing" engraved on the handle.

The three of them walked to the middle of Kunlun Mountain and stood in a row with Taiqing. Shichen Ancestor looked at one of them and then at the other, asking, "Which of you three is who?"

The man in the blue robe spoke first, "I am Yuqing." The scarred man with the sword said, "I am Shangqing." The man with gray hair and a hoe said, "I am Taiqing." Shichen Ancestor was taken aback. "Then who is he?" He pointed to the Taiqing from the beginning. The man with gray hair and the hoe said, "He is also Taiqing. I am Taiqing, which he separated from, and he is the original. Yuqing and Shangqing were also separated from him. However, after they separated, each managed a separate branch. I manage the Taiqing lineage, Yuqing manages the Yuqing lineage, and Shangqing manages the Shangqing lineage."

The Shichen Ancestor counted on his fingers for a long time. "So you've split yourself into four: one main body and three avatars, and one of the avatars even shares your name?"

Taiqing nodded. "Yes. But we don't need to be so specific when we're working. This time, when we go to Chaos to collect shells, the three of us will each lead a team, while I will stay in the Primordial Wilderness to refine the remaining Dao Fruit Residual Liquid."

The four discussed for half a day and divided their forces into three groups.

Yuqing led the eastern expeditionary force out to sea from the Eastern Victory Divine Continent, searching eastward along the edge of Chaos. Accompanying them were all the Primordial Daluo Golden Immortal the Yuqing lineage— Guangchengzi with his Eight Seals disciples, Chi Jingzi with his disciples from the Life-and-Death Daoist Arena, Yun Zhongzi with three hundred Star-Thunder Pine Trees, Daoist Randeng with his Dual Cultivation of Buddhism and Daoism cultivation disciples from Vulture Peak, and Antarctic Immortal Elder with his Star Constellation Technique disciples. As the eastern expeditionary force set out, all the shipyards in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent's Sea-Engineering City simultaneously began construction, building three thousand gray-film ships. Each ship had a small gray-white box nailed to its bow, containing "Instructions for Collecting Shells" personally written by Taiqing himself: First, knock three times upon seeing a shell, wait a while after knocking, and only collect it if there is no movement inside; Second, if there is a living creature inside the shell, do not rush to remove it, first move the shell to the edge of the Primordial Wilderness Gray-White Formation Network to let it soak in the Luminous Fluid; Third, if you encounter a hard shell that cannot be knocked, return and report, and I will personally knock it.

Shangqing led the western expedition, searching westward from the Western Ox Continent. Accompanying them were all the Primordial Daluo Golden Immortal of the Shangqing lineage— Daoist Duobao leading disciples of the Heaven-Slaying Sword Realm, Golden Spirit Mother Jinling leading disciples of the Dragon and Tiger Two Qi, Wudang Holy Mother leading disciples of the Space-Severing Banner, Turtle Spirit Holy Mother leading disciples of the Sun and Moon Pearls, plus the Old Demon leading the myriad demons of the Western Ox Continent, and the Ni Seng leading the Buddhist Sect suicide squad. When the western expedition set out, Daoist Duobao planted the Zhutian Sword into the ground at the border of the Western Ox Continent. The sword transformed into a gray-white sword gate, behind which lay the Heaven-Slaying Sword Realm of the back mountain of the Biyou Palace. Daoist Duobao stood before the sword gate and shouted, "There are many shells in the western Chaos, and many hard shells. Our path is only one: the harder the shell, the harder the sword; the thicker the shell, the thicker the sword. Those who can't break through, come back and call for reinforcements, and then continue fighting." All the disciples responded in unison and filed into the sword gate.

Taiqing's avatar led the central route, setting off from the Kunlun Mountain in the Central Continent and plunging into the deepest part of the Chaos directly below. Accompanying him were three hundred warriors of the Witch Race's Heavenly Spirit Squad, elites under the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of the Three Human Emperors Four Ancestors of the Spirit Race, three hundred awakened individuals of the Star God Lineage, and several reincarnations of the Chaos Demon God. The central route did not search for shells; instead, they did the most arduous work: moving the shells collected by Yuqing and Shangqing into the Primordial Wilderness, sorting them by size, merging those that could be merged into the edges of the five continents of the Primordial Wilderness World, and breaking down those that could not be merged to feed the Earthly Dao Formation Network. Taiqing's avatar sat in a newly built thatched hut at the Kunlun Mountain, with a gray-white stone table in front of him. On the table was a map of the five continents, and next to the map was a list of shells sent back from the Chaos by Yuqing and Shangqing. As he looked at the list, he circled on the map: this shell can be merged into the northern part of the Eastern Victory Divine Continent, that shell needs to be broken down to feed the earth veins, and the third shell contains a world that is about to perish; it needs to be soaked in the Luminous Fluid to revive it first.

Yuqing's side encountered the toughest challenge first. The eastern expedition had been searching eastward for half a month, collecting several hundred small shells, mostly small scraps the size of a palm, containing only a stone or a blade of grass. On the sixteenth day, Guangchengzi's Eight Seals disciples were leading the way when the Heaven-Flipping Seal suddenly jumped up and pointed east. Guangchengzi looked up and saw a shell floating deep in the Chaos, larger than the Eastern Victory Divine Continent. The shell's surface was as smooth as polished jade, and it bore an extremely deep axe mark—when Pangu cleaved the heavens with his axe, a fragment was cleaved the hardest by the blade, flying the farthest and growing the largest in the Chaos. Guangchengzi approached and tapped it three times, but there was no response. He tapped it three more times, still no response. Guangchengzi turned to Chi Jingzi and said, "This shell is too big to knock; we must wait for the main body."

The trouble they encountered at Shangqing was even tougher. The western expedition searched westward for half a month, collecting several hundred small shells, mostly transformed from Pangu's fingernails and calluses. Inside the shells were only stone slabs and insects. On the twentieth day, Daoist Duobao's disciples from the Heaven-Slaying Sword Realm stumbled upon a shell in the Chaos. The shell wasn't large, only half the size of City of Ten Thousand Crafts, but its surface was covered with countless cracks, from which black gas billowed. Daoist Duobao took a closer look and saw that the black gas in the cracks was formed from the remains of Chaos Demon God. When Pangu Heaven-Opening and Earth-Creating, he killed many Chaos Demon God, and the fragments of their flesh and bones scattered into the depths of Chaos. Some of these fragments mixed with Pangu's debris and grew into shells, the world inside of which... It carried the ferocity of a demon god. Daoist Duobao struck the shell with the Heaven-Slaying Sword, and a roar immediately erupted from within, several black claws reaching out from the cracks. Daoist Duobao turned and shouted, "Jin Ling! Lend me the Dragon Tiger Ruyi!" Golden Spirit Mother threw the Dragon Tiger Ruyi over, and Daoist Duobao, with the Heaven-Slaying Sword in his left hand and the Dragon Tiger Ruyi in his right, smashed the shell for three days straight. The cracks on the shell closed and reopened repeatedly. On the fourth day, Daoist Duobao inserted the Heaven-Slaying Sword into a crack in the shell, and the sword's gray-white light surged forth, suppressing the black energy within the shell, and the cracks finally closed and stopped growing. Daoist Duobao wiped his sweat. "This shell needs to be purified first; I can't just take it back."

The deity, Taiqing, was sitting on a platform halfway up Kunlun Mountain. In front of him was a list sent back by Yuqing Shangqing. He looked at the list one by one: draw a circle for those that can be merged, draw a cross for those that cannot be merged, write the word "net" for those that need to be purified, and write "wait" for those that are too hard. When he got the big shell with ax marks from Guangchengzi newspaper, he paused and glanced in the direction of chaos. "This shell is the blade of Pangu's axe." The debris that collapsed from the top is of the same origin as the Great Desolation, and can be directly merged to the north of Dongsheng Shenzhou, allowing the Haigong City shipyard to expand three miles outward." When he received the demon shell reported by Daoist Duobao, he thought for a moment: "After purification, it was broken into three pieces, one was fed to the Wu Clan Babel Tower, one was fed to Xiniu Hezhou Medicine Garden, and the other was thrown into the gray-white array network at the edge of chaos to be used as a brick to build a wall."

After approving the list, he stood up, stretched, and drank the bowl of Luminous Fluid on the table. Shichen Ancestor returned from City of Ten Thousand Crafts with some cakes and handed him a Grey Wheat: "The pancake maker heard you're collecting shells from the Chaos, and asked me to ask you: can the collected shells be used as a pancake maker?"

Taiqing took the pancake and took a bite. "Yes. The large shell is just the right size for frying in the pan; one shell can make a hundred bites."

The Shichen Ancestor placed the pottery pot on the stone stool and said, "Then I'll go talk to him and tell him to wait in line."

Taiqing sat halfway up Kunlun Mountain, munching on a pancake, when a muffled thud echoed from the depths of Chaos, deeper than any before. He listened intently. "Shangqing's side has smashed another hard shell. This one's even harder than the last." He swallowed the pancake, dusted the sesame seeds off his hands, and shouted towards the Chaos: "Shangqing! If you can't break it, come back and call for help! Don't keep trying!"

From the depths of Chaos came Shangqing's reply, his voice clear even across countless miles. "Understood! Smash it for two more days! If you can't break it anymore, go back!"

Taiqing shook his head, sat back down on the stone stool, picked up the bowl of Luminous Fluid, and continued drinking. The aroma of Grey Wheat wafted from the top of City of Ten Thousand Crafts. A new message popped up on the Human Dao Heavenly Net; it was from the pancake maker. "Master Taiqing, I heard that the crust can be used as a pancake pan? Save me a big one, I'll trade it for a pancake."

Taiqing replied on the light screen, "Alright. Bring me cakes in exchange. Mud is fine too."