"Primal Infinity, the Supreme Great Dao..."
"This humble daoist ultimately lacks that final thread of opportunity. I can never grasp that mysterious, unfathomable variable within the realm of Sainthood... What a pity. What a pity."
Within the main hall of the daoist temple, Zhenyuanzi sat upright upon a Primordial Chaos meditation cushion, his eyes lowered, his breathing nearly imperceptible. Suddenly, an auspicious cloud rose above his head, at first like fresh milk, warm, soft, and limpid. In but a moment, dragon roars and tiger howls sounded together, wind and clouds surging as a scene of primordial chaos—before separation, before yin and yang were divided—took shape in midair.
Faint thunder rolled through the clouds. The auspicious cloud gradually darkened, turning from white to gray, from gray to murky, until it became a boundless, lightless Chaos Sea.
At the densest heart of that chaos, a giant suddenly stood upright within it, sinews bulging as he raised a heaven-opening axe and hacked savagely into the darkness.
"Crack!"
Chaos split like torn silk, violently ripped apart. Clear qi soared upward to become the heavens, while turbid qi sank and condensed into the earth. At the Hour of the Rat, Heaven opened; at the Hour of the Ox, Earth split; at the Hour of the Tiger, mankind appeared. The Three Talents took their places, yin and yang gave birth to one another, plants branched out, fish and insects leapt through the waves, and all living things began from that moment onward.
Before the heaven-opening vision evolved from the auspicious cloud could draw to a close, a long river silently emerged from the depths of the void. Its waters bore no ripples, yet carried all karma from ancient to modern times. It was called the "River of Destiny." Half a foot above its surface, Zhenyuanzi's figure