Jiang Ding struck with his sword.
As he brought it down, the myriad phenomena of the Human Realm Path revolved around him. Visions of the universe's vast ages and the birth and death of the Five Elements flashed past, until everything returned to chaos.
When the chaos dispersed, the world appeared as it had at its beginning.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared. Volcanoes erupted without end. Sky and earth had no boundary between them, and not a single living thing existed in the universe.
No one knew how long those days lasted.
At last, where volcanoes met the sea, heat and lightning drove inorganic substances in the water to react and form small organic molecules. Those molecules underwent further reactions, assembling into large organic molecules, then into cellular structures enclosed by membranes.
This was the origin of primordial life.
This was the first living thing.
From that life, countless organisms burst into being: single-celled animals, flatworms, cnidarians, annelids... then reptiles and fish, and plants such as ferns and gymnosperms.
Through countless mutations and aberrations, life fell into accord with the laws of the Beast Path, concealing within itself an order of aberration.
At a certain moment, phantoms of single-celled animals, echinoderms, ferns, gymnosperms, and the many spirit beasts, humans, and other living beings of the Nine Spirits Domain, Horn Nether Domain, and Thunderflame Domain rose into the sky. Countless phantoms converged at a single point, forming a hazy, twisted flying sword.
The hazy, twisted flying sword appeared in the sky of the Beast Path, shedding boundless light in every direction.
"Strike!"
Jiang Ding spoke quietly.
This hazy, twisted sword, formed from the aberrations and mutations of countless beings across countless worlds as they developed and evolved, slashed toward the sky. It struck the giant toad striding forward to kill, sweeping