Primordial Chaos Talisman Seed, Chaos Firstborn

Before the Primordial was judged, the Chaos was devoid of light.

There was no Heaven, no Earth, no alternation of day and night; only boundless currents of Origin Qi churned and collided within the void. At times, these currents condensed into solid Chaos Crystals, sharp-edged yet dissolving in an instant; at other times, they transformed into liquid Rivers of Origin, surging for ten thousand miles only to evaporate abruptly. Countless primordial particles drifted within the currents, attracting and repelling one another. Occasional collisions erupted with energy ripples capable of destroying the heavens and the earth, yet in this infinite Chaos, they could not leave behind even a single echo.

In this space of deathly silence and ferocity, Xuan Fu was curled up deep within a relatively stable Chaos Qi Mass.

He was not a creature of flesh and blood; his true form was a cyan-gold rune the size of a fingernail, its surface etched with intricate patterns too fine to be captured by Spiritual Sense—the trajectories of the Great Dao that had existed since the birth of Chaos. From the day his consciousness awakened, Xuan Fu understood his own insignificance and fragility. In this Chaos, a single stray wisp of Origin Qi could shred his rune body, let alone the Chaos Demon Gods who carved out territories and stirred up the seas with a mere gesture.

"Skree—"

A sharp roar tore through the Chaos, causing the Qi Mass where Xuan Fu resided to tremble violently. He dared not release his Spiritual Sense to investigate, relying instead on the rune's instinctual perception of danger to judge that it was the Yanhuang Demon God from the southern region battling another unknown Demon God. The terrifying Fire Origin power swept across the void; even separated by billions of miles of Chaos Qi layers, Xuan Fu could still feel the scorching heat capable of incinerating everything. The patterns on the surface of his rune tightened involuntarily, compressing his aura to its extreme.

In the Chaos, the law of the jungle was the only rule. Demon Gods fed on the Origin and took pleasure in slaughter; the strong occupied the core area of the Chaos, absorbing the purest Origin Power, while the weak eked out a living on the outskirts, becoming nourishment for others at the slightest carelessness. Xuan Fu possessed neither the formidable physical body of a Demon God nor the supernatural powers to overturn the seas. His only reliance was his innate instinct to "seek fortune and avoid calamity," along with his rune body's superior affinity for the Great Dao.

Three thousand Chaos hours had passed since his awakening, and Xuan Fu had never once revealed his traces, always hiding in the gaps of relatively safe Chaos Qi Masses or fragments. Like a parasitic vine, he silently absorbed the weak, stray Origin Qi from his surroundings to polish his own rune, while simultaneously extending his perception to its limit, recording every subtle change in the Chaos—the battle trajectories of Demon Gods, the flow patterns of Origin Qi, and even the Great Dao insights dissipated by dying Demon Gods.

These fragmented pieces of information were branded one by one into the depths of his rune, like a trickling stream, slowly yet firmly nourishing his consciousness and power.

Just then, a vastly different aura quietly spread from the very core of the Chaos.

That aura was not the ferocity or madness of a Demon God, but an ultimate power that was vast, majestic, and imbued with endless creative and destructive force. When it first appeared, it was like a gentle breeze, yet it caused the entire Chaos to stagnate. The Yanhuang Demon God, who had been in the midst of battle, abruptly ceased his movements, gazing toward the core in shock and suspicion. Xuan Fu, located billions of miles away, felt an intense palpitation from his rune body—a reverence and fear born of instinct, as if he were facing the master of the entire Chaos.

The patterns of Xuan Fu's rune flowed rapidly, locking onto this aura. He could feel the Origin Qi at the Chaos core gathering frantically, forming a towering phantom. The phantom was blurred, yet one could vaguely see it holding a giant axe containing the intent of Heaven and Earth Creation. Chaos currents coiled around the axe body, and Great Dao runes flickered; every slight movement caused layers of ripples to spread through the surrounding Chaos space.

"Pangu..."

An ancient and sacred name naturally surfaced within Xuan Fu's Spiritual Sense. He did not know the meaning of the name, yet he could clearly perceive that the existence of this phantom was brewing an event capable of changing the fate of the entire Chaos. The Aura of Destruction upon the giant axe grew thicker, as if it would split this boundless Chaos in the next moment; yet within that destruction, a faint but tenacious vitality was hidden, like a firefly in the darkness, foreshadowing a new beginning.

Xuan Fu's sense of crisis climbed to its peak instantly.

He could guess that once the phantom acted, the power of Heaven and Earth Creation would be far beyond his ability to resist. Even hiding in this remote Chaos Qi Mass, he would likely be ground into dust by the aftermath. His rune body trembled violently, instinctively wanting to flee to the more distant outskirts, but Xuan Fu's consciousness remained clear at this moment—the Chaos was vast, yet there was no true place of safety; the power of that phantom was destined to sweep through the entire Chaos.

Hide, I can only hide in the 'crevice' at the very core.

As his Spiritual Sense turned, Xuan Fu made his decision. He no longer retracted his aura; instead, he drove his rune body, transforming himself into an imperceptible cyan-gold streamer, slowly approaching the direction of the Pangu phantom along the trajectory of the Chaos currents. The closer he got to the core area, the more ferocious the Origin Qi became; he could even see many Chaos Crystals being instantly crushed into powder within the currents. But Xuan Fu did not care. His target was not the core area itself, but the gaps in the Chaos fragments formed by the gathering of the Origin on the outskirts of the core.

Those fragments were ancient matter that had existed since the birth of Chaos, incredibly hard, capable of barely resisting some of the Origin impact, and the crevices were narrow enough to hide his rune body.

After enduring countless hardships, Xuan Fu finally found a Chaos fragment the size of a millstone, billions of miles below the Pangu phantom. The surface of the fragment was covered in cracks, clearly the product of previous Demon God battles, but the core remained stable. Xuan Fu did not hesitate; he drove his rune power and, like a drop of water merging into the sea, drilled into a crevice on the fragment that was less than a hair's breadth wide.

As soon as he entered, he immediately stopped all movement. His rune body pressed tightly against the inner wall of the fragment, his patterns echoing the Great Dao trajectories of the fragment itself, as if they had merged into one. He retracted his Spiritual Sense to the extreme, leaving only the faintest perception, peering through the crevice at the towering phantom.

By now, the Pangu phantom had fully condensed into form. His body was towering, like a pillar of the Chaos, surrounded by endless Origin Qi. The giant axe was held high above his head, and the light upon the blade grew increasingly brilliant, almost illuminating the entire Chaos. The surrounding Demon Gods had long since fled in all directions, with only a few of the most powerful ones stopping to watch from afar, their eyes filled with wariness and greed.

Xuan Fu's heartbeat (the vibration of his rune) grew faster and faster. He could feel that Pangu's power had accumulated to its peak; the moment of Heaven and Earth Creation was imminent.

He did not think about how to seize the merits of creation—that would be seeking his own death; nor did he think about how to launch a sneak attack—that would be a pipe dream. The only thing he could do was to push his rune's characteristics to their extreme, hide firmly in the crevice of this Chaos fragment, and simultaneously mobilize all the power of his rune body to record the Great Dao trajectories at the moment of Pangu's creation.

That would be the most primordial, most pure manifestation of the Great Dao in the Chaos, a fortuitous encounter that no Demon God battle could ever compare to.

The axe light grew brighter, the flow of Chaos currents became even more ferocious, and even began to rotate in reverse. Xuan Fu could hear a humming sound coming from the depths of the Great Dao, like the prelude to the opening of the world. His rune patterns operated at high speed, prepared to welcome everything—whether it was the destructive aftermath of the creation or the Great Dao insights that could allow him to be reborn.

Just then, the Pangu phantom moved.

The raised giant axe fell slowly. There was no earth-shattering roar, yet it carried a rhythm of the "Dao," as if time and space had frozen at this moment. Where the blade passed, the Chaos currents parted like the tide. A brilliant axe light spread from the core of the Chaos, and wherever it passed, all Chaos matter was ruthlessly split and crushed.

The Chaos fragment where Xuan Fu resided trembled violently, the crevice on the verge of shattering at any moment. He bit down hard (the rune tightened), pulling his connection with the fragment to its limit, while widening his "eyes" (Spiritual Sense perception), greedily recording the Great Dao trajectories contained within the axe light.

That trajectory was the Dao of "division," the Dao of "life," and the Dao of "breaking."

Just as the axe light was about to reach the fragment, Xuan Fu suddenly felt that the fragmented Great Dao information he had recorded over the years in the depths of his rune had actually begun to resonate with the trajectories in the axe light. A faint cyan-gold light quietly lit up from his rune body.

And at this moment, that destructive axe light was already close at hand.