Word of Law, First to Arrive

Wanhua's proclamation was not the transmission of sound, but the resonance of the Dao, the expansion of principle—an imprint of will piercing through the void and branding itself directly into the depths of the minds of every sentient being in the Primordial World!

"I, Wanhua, establish my Dao here today! With the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome as my foundation, the methods of the Confucian Dao as my path, and the wisdom of All Heavens and Myriad Worlds gathered within, I shall evolve my own Primordial Dao Fruit!"

"Literary Dao, arise!"

The instant the word "arise" left his lips, his newly born Dao body and the origin of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome thundered together.

The Confucian Dao laws, accumulated over so long and fused with the wisdom of two universes, erupted like a breached river of stars!

He relied neither on Heavenly Dao merit nor the blessing of fate. This power arose purely from his own understanding of "principle," his command over rules, and the utmost development of his inner strength!

With his Literary Heart as kindling, the boundless knowledge recorded in the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome as fuel, and Wanhua's unyielding pioneering will as the wind, it blazed fiercely to life!

Internally proving himself, the Primordial first emerged!

The first transformation came to himself. Within his newly born Dao body, countless universes seemed to be born and perish.

His Literary Heart throbbed at an unprecedented frequency. With every beat, it pumped out vast, ocean-like streams of pure Literary Qi—no longer mere energy.

It began to carry traces of the qualities of "all phenomena returning to their source" and "impervious to all laws."

The Great Dao script upon his bones shone like stars, while the concepts of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust corresponding to his five organs were thoroughly awakened.

They transformed into five moral pillars of light that reached from heaven to earth, intertwining and resonating within him.

Together, they supported a preliminary yet complete, self-sustaining inner circulatory system—the Primordial Dao Foundation!

His consciousness rose without limit, as though it had broken free from the shackles of time and space. From a transcendent perspective, he "saw" the countless lines of law that made up the Primordial World.

In the past, those lines had been cold and objective, operating according to the predetermined course of the Heavenly Dao.

But now, the laws of his own Confucian Dao were like warm yet resilient strands of golden silk.

Bearing the unique attributes of "order," "understanding," "definition," and "enlightenment," they began to forcefully cut into, entwine with, and even partially overwrite those cold innate laws!

When he "spoke" the establishment of the Literary Dao, he was not pleading. He was proclaiming—a unilateral "definition"!

And the existence of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, along with the Primordial Dao Foundation he had condensed, granted this "definition" the power of reality!

Shaking the Primordial World from without, phenomena arose of their own accord!

At the very instant his inner Primordial Dao Foundation came into being, a sudden change occurred in the outside world!

In the direction of Jade Capital Mountain, the vast golden clouds of Heavenly Dao merit that had condensed to the utmost limit, on the verge of descending completely and pushing Hongjun onto the Saint Position, abruptly stalled!

As if an invisible giant hand had seized its throat, the incomparably smooth process of empowerment suffered a hitch lasting one hundred-millionth of an instant!

At the same time, throughout the Primordial World, there appeared none of the usual auspicious signs that accompanied the birth of a sage—Purple Qi Coming from the East for thirty thousand li, Golden Lotuses Springing from the Earth, Celestial Maidens Scattering Flowers, and the like. Instead, another strange spectacle emerged:

Amid countless remote mountains and wilds, befuddled beasts suddenly received a flash of insight and raised meaningless roars toward the sun, moon, and stars. Within those roars were hints of reverence and contemplation toward heaven and earth;

In places where spiritual qi was sparse, stubborn stones gleamed and withered trees bloomed anew—not because they had been nourished by spiritual qi, but as though some "principle" had enlightened them, allowing them to understand a certain "meaning" behind their own existence;

Over rivers, lakes, and seas, clear breezes spontaneously swirled, sweeping up droplets of water that briefly condensed in the air into vague symbols that seemed both like writing and paintings before vanishing...

There was no overwhelming pressure, no domineering aura that cowed all things.

There was only a silent permeation, the spreading of an idea, the quiet budding of an order.

This was a phenomenon utterly unlike the majesty of the Heavenly Dao, one carrying an air of humanistic culture! It did not seek to conquer; it sought to "persuade," to "enlighten"!

First to arrive, Primordial attainment!

It was during that one hundred-millionth of an instant when the golden merit clouds had stalled!

Wanhua's Dao body radiated boundless light, and the preliminary complete cycle within him became fully stable.

A profound realm that transcended all things—free and eternal, without law or measure, untouched by karma, unweathered by calamities—was firmly grasped in his hand!

Primordial Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal!

He had succeeded!

At the moment he used his own power to forcibly wedge the laws of the Confucian Dao into the Primordial World and successfully condensed the Primordial Dao Foundation, he had already proven his Dao!

He had surpassed the scope of a Quasi-Saint and entered the same level as Hongjun, who was about to become a Saint. Indeed... because of the uniqueness of his path, he stood even more transcendent and independent!

He was not a Heavenly Dao Saint. He did not depend on Heavenly Dao Authority, nor was he bound too greatly by the Heavenly Dao.

He had proven his own Primordial through his own Dao! He was a Great Dao Saint, an Anomaly, a variable!

"BOOM—!!!"

Almost at the very moment he proved the Primordial, the stalled golden clouds of merit in the direction of Jade Capital Mountain seemed to be stimulated by something.

They came crashing down with even greater turbulence, successfully empowering Hongjun's body! Hongjun's aura also began to surge wildly, climbing toward the Saint Realm!

But the "first" had already changed hands!

Within the Primordial World, that unseen fate and opportunity representing "the first Saint Position of heaven and earth" had already been intercepted and absorbed by Wanhua ahead of all others!

Perhaps he was not the first to attain a Primordial Dao Fruit, but before Hongjun, he was the first being within the Primordial World—

To clearly proclaim and successfully prove the Primordial by means other than World-Opening Merit!

He had gotten there first!

At this moment, the Primordial World fell silent.

All the Great Powers watching in secret—the Three Pure Ones atop Kunlun Mountains, Jieyin and Zhun-ti in the Barren Western Lands, Dijun and Taiyi on the Sun Star—

even Minghe of the Sea of Blood, Kunpeng of the Northern Darkness... every single one of them was left reeling by this sudden upheaval, their Dao Hearts shaken and unsteady.

They could clearly sense that two incomparably vast auras had attained the Primordial Zenith/Saint Realm almost at the same time.

Yet the former's—Wanhua's—attainment of the Dao was filled with traces of "human intervention." It tyrannically proclaimed its own existence, even throwing the rules of the Heavenly Dao into momentary disorder;

while the latter's—Hongjun's—ascension to sainthood, though it came from behind with an aura more orthodox and majestic, had ultimately... been one step too late!

Who was Wanhua? What kind of Dao was the Literary Dao? And what was the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome?

Countless questions spread through the hearts of all the Great Powers like a plague.

Within the folds of chaotic spacetime, Wanhua slowly drew in the surging Primordial Chaos Literary Qi around him.

He felt the truly boundless power within his body, power that would arrive the instant a thought arose.

He felt the wondrous state of being both intimately connected to the Primordial World—because the laws of the Confucian Dao had already been wedged into it—and yet standing apart from it in transcendence.

He had succeeded. At the final moment, he had attained the Primordial Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal before Dao Ancestor Hongjun!

Lowering his head, he looked upon this Primordial Zenith Dao Body forged from the principles of the Confucian Dao. A faint smile appeared on his face, one that held supreme confidence.

The shackles were gone. The Great Dao lay ahead.

Next, he would make the light of the Literary Dao truly shine upon this ancient Primordial World.

And he knew as well that Dao Ancestor Hongjun, who had just become a saint only to have the title of "first" snatched away by him, would never let the matter rest.

The storm had only just begun.