To call the years that followed sleep was not quite right. His mind remained awake, wandering all the while through the ocean of the Great Dao.
Wondrous visions, countless methods, Dao scriptures, and divine patterns of origin appeared around him. Profound beyond words, they rang through his heart like sacred heavenly music, like hymns to the Great Dao.
Neither sorrowful nor joyful, he lost himself in it all and grasped things of the purest, simplest, truest essence.
Strange changes took place within him. Visions arose, first like stars, then like chaos. A breath of qi lingered without dispersing, emerging from nothingness amid hazy mist, resonant Dao sounds, and flickering divine light. The visions shifted endlessly, never settling into a fixed form.
Within the boundless Dao Sea, purple mist drifted and violet light gleamed. Hongmeng Purple Qi stretched without end, while Hongmeng spiritual energy poured down from the endless void.
Billions of waves rose across the purple ocean. Above it, the scene changed without cease: galaxies filled the sky, then heaven and earth collapsed, then the Great Dao withered. Longevity and decline, prosperity and ruin cycled endlessly, each giving way to the next.
After the Great Dao fell silent, it was born anew, utterly changed. Fresh insights welled up from the depths of his heart...
Within him were Spacetime, Fortune, Destruction, Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Cause and Effect, Fate, Life and Death...
In the end, everything merged into six black holes without beginning or end. At times they became a black-and-white Yin-Yang Dao gate. Yin Yang Reversal took hold, the Eight Trigrams trembled, and lights flashed ceaselessly. Infinite ancient characters floated in the air. The eight symbols of the Eight Trigrams flickered, shifting through an intricate sequence again and again before bursting with dazzling light.
Long years passed, and he reached the