A Heaven-Defying Encounter, the Evolution of Dao

As the clashes in the void grew fiercer, pillars of law vanished one after another. Those that disappeared were truly gone.

Not a trace of their existence remained anywhere in the void, as though they had never been. They could not be imagined or known.

The remaining pillars of law fought on, their colors deepening, until at last it was like a needle piercing a bubble on a lake: soundless, yet earth-shaking.

One pillar of law slowly changed from four colors to five, like a python shedding its skin. Its transformation was slow but certain, until it was complete.

In an instant, it was as though someone had pressed pause on the entire void. Everything stood still.

The transformed five-colored pillar suddenly became the center of the void. It had never moved, yet the moment it gained its fifth color, it stood apart as the void's center.

The other pillars had not moved either. It had become the center in concept alone, in a way too profound to explain.

The five-colored pillar stood at the heart of the void like an emperor, seeming both real and unreal. Its evolution continued, and its colors grew ever deeper.

After the first pillar of law became five-colored, the struggle among the remaining pillars grew fiercer still.

At last, the void fell silent.

Only three thousand brilliantly colored pillars remained. They were the three thousand Innate Laws that had evolved from countless pillars of Acquired Law.

Innate Laws differed neither in size nor rank, though they came together in sequence. Every universe had exactly three thousand Innate Laws, while Acquired Laws were boundless.

As though they knew their Fate, the three thousand pillars of Innate Law stood in the void, striving to draw in unseen nourishment. Three thousand great dragons roared at the heavens.