Pangu Split the Heavens, and the Primordial World Was Born

In the chaos, heaven and earth had not yet separated. There was no concept of time or space, nor was there light—only an endless gray haze.

One day, change came to the chaos. A mighty voice of the Dao rang through its boundless expanse:

"Great Dao above, I am Shichen, Demon God of Time. I have now emerged as the first of the Chaos Gods and Demons. Of the three thousand Great Daos, time reigns supreme!"

At once, every being still gestating within the chaos knew that its first living being had been born.

A River of Time stretched across the boundless chaos, its waves rising in ripples. Shichen stood at its end, untouched by the myriad Daos.

Because he was the first to emerge, and because the Chaos Gods and Demons enjoyed the Great Dao's favor, Shichen possessed Hunyuan Great Firmament cultivation from the moment of his birth.

With his emergence, the chaos changed as well: the concept of time came into being.

Soon after Shichen emerged, the Space Demon God was born.

The Space Demon God's true form was a hollow willow. His three thousand willow branches swept through the chaos like chains of green radiance, reducing everything they passed to nothingness.

With his birth, the chaos changed again, and the concept of space came into being.

Then the Chaos Gods and Demons of Fate, Karma, the Creation Dao, Destruction, Reincarnation, the Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Qiankun, and the rest of the three thousand emerged one after another. The chaos gradually grew lively, and disputes arose.

The Chaos Gods and Demons were born of the three thousand Great Daos. As long as the Great Daos endured, they could neither die nor be destroyed.

Yet differences existed among them. Some were wounded in battle; others even fell and returned to the Great Dao, requiring ages to revive. The gulf between the Chaos Gods and Demons kept widening.

What the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons did not know was that, in a hidden corner of the chaos, the Thirty-Six-Petal Chaos Green Lotus was blooming. Pangu was gestating within it, and beside him lay two more Chaos Supreme Treasures: the Pangu Axe and the Jade Disc of Creation.

The Pangu Axe was attuned to the Pangu Great Dao. It was his supreme treasure for attaining the Dao, unmatched in attack, while the Jade Disc of Creation contained the three thousand Great Daos and was a supreme treasure for comprehending them.

Then, with a thunderous boom, Pangu emerged. The entire chaos shook, drawing the attention of the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons.

Yet Pangu had reached the peak of Hunyuan Great Firmament the instant he emerged. None of the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons—not even Shichen, the first among them—had broken through to the Chaos Realm, or Hunyuan Taiji. They could not detect a trace of him.

After emerging, Pangu wandered the chaos for countless years. His cultivation gradually reached the Half-Step Great Dao, also known as half-step Hunyuan Wuji, but he had no idea how to break through to the Great Dao Realm.

Meanwhile, ten Chaos Gods and Demons—Shichen, the Space Demon God, Fate, Karma, the Chaos Demon Ape, Destruction, the Creation Dao, Reincarnation, Yin-Yang, and the Five Elements—had all reached the peak of the Chaos Realm. The three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons revered them as the Supreme Demon Gods.

Troubled by his lack of a path forward, Pangu cleaved the chaos with his Great Dao of Force. Earth, fire, wind, and water took shape; clear qi rose, turbid qi sank, and the outline of heaven and earth appeared.

In a flash of inspiration, Pangu understood his path and shouted, "Great Dao above, I am Pangu! The chaos has no order. Today, I shall split it apart and create heaven and earth to attain the Great Dao!"

At the same time, the other three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons sensed something: if Pangu split the chaos and created heaven and earth, the Great Dao's Fortune would shift. Deprived of its favor, they would struggle to cultivate. But if they stopped Pangu—or even killed him—they could win the Great Dao's favor, advance a thousand leagues in a day, and perhaps attain the Great Dao themselves.

The entire chaos erupted.

Pangu remained unmoved. With the Heaven-Splitting Axe in his hand, the Thirty-Six-Petal Chaos Green Lotus beneath his feet, and the Jade Disc of Creation above his head, he began to split the heavens and form the earth.

He swung his axe into the chaos, cleaving it apart. Clear qi rose and turbid qi sank as the outline of heaven and earth expanded.

The three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons could no longer sit still. The Earthly Fiend Demon God, the Heavenly Dipper Demon God, and others struck, seeking to stop Pangu.

Pangu merely swung his axe. Axe light poured forth, tearing through the deep, dark chaos.

"Aaah!"

Screams rang out.

Before the Chaos Gods and Demons could even approach Pangu, the silver-white axe light swallowed them.

Their past, present, future, and Great Dao Origins were all severed. Their Imperishable Primordial Spirits shattered, and they instantly returned to the Great Dao. Only after ages could their Dao Injuries heal and they revive.

At the same time, their corpses, stripped of their Great Dao Origins, fell and became nourishment for the heaven and earth Pangu was creating.

"I will create heaven and earth. If you withdraw, you may yet attain the Dao. If not, you will fall beneath my axe, your Imperishable Primordial Spirits shattered, and return to the Great Dao."

The faces of the gathered beings of chaos darkened at his words.

If they tried to stop him, they might well fall, their Imperishable Primordial Spirits shattered and their return from the Great Dao delayed for ages. But if they let Pangu succeed, their future path of cultivation would likely become arduous. Born in accordance with the Dao, the Chaos Gods and Demons could not accept that.

"Pangu, what arrogance! Can you alone fight three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons? Even if we fall, we will return one day. What have we to fear?"

Shichen's words swept away every thought of retreat.

"Attack together!" Roars sounded from every direction as the Chaos Gods and Demons surged toward Pangu. Their three thousand Great Daos joined, as though the Great Dao itself had bestowed its supreme might.

"Good! Good! Good! If you insist, then let us fight!"

The Chaos Azure Lotus blazed with Dao light, illuminating nearly the entire chaos, past, present, and future. It held the attacks of the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons firmly at bay.

At the same time, Pangu swung his axe. The stroke seemed slow, yet moved with astonishing speed, sending terrifying arcs of axe light tearing through the chaos.

Even together, the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons could not withstand it. In an instant, over a hundred fell, their Imperishable Primordial Spirits shattered as they returned to the Great Dao.

The Chaos Demon Ape, one of the ten Supreme Demon Gods, was grievously wounded. Dao Injuries that would not readily heal appeared across his body.

After a brutal struggle, only Shichen remained of the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons, and he was on the verge of falling. All the others had fallen.

But Pangu had faced all three thousand alone. The ten Supreme Demon Gods had stood at the peak of the Chaos Realm, nearly a hundred others had reached the Chaos Realm, and even the weakest had attained the peak of Hunyuan Great Firmament.

Pangu had not escaped unscathed. He bore severe Dao Injuries. Of his three Chaos Supreme Treasures, the Chaos Azure Lotus and Jade Disc of Creation had shattered, while cracks had appeared in the Pangu Axe.

"Pangu! Even if I, Shichen, fall, I will make you suffer. You think you can create heaven and earth and attain the Dao? Dream on!" With a furious cry, the dying Shichen summoned the River of Time of chaos and ignited his own Great Dao power. It became a blade of the Great Dao and struck the future Primordial World's River of Time.

Rumble! The future Primordial World's River of Time shook and broke. Endless stretches of space-time fell into disorder. Past and future overlapped; living beings crossed through time, some from past to future, others from future to past, while still others passed between worlds. Worlds were destroyed, and worlds were born...

"Shichen..." Fury surged in Pangu's heart. He swung his axe, instantly smoothing and rejoining the River of Time, then moved to set the disordered space-time back on its proper course.

Yet whether he had glimpsed a future whose outcome better suited his wishes, or whether forcibly restoring the River of Time would cost too much, Pangu sighed.

"So be it. So be it. This is well enough. Time forms a circle, and Karma is fixed."

As his words fell, the Heaven-Splitting Axe Light meant to set the River of Time right changed course. It suppressed the future Primordial World's River of Time and made time a circle.

With no Chaos Gods and Demons left to obstruct him, creating heaven and earth became much simpler for Pangu.

He swung the Heaven-Splitting Axe, sending sharp arcs of chaos axe light through the chaos. Clear qi rose to become heaven, while turbid qi sank to become earth. Light finally entered the sundered chaos.

But gravely wounded as he was, Pangu no longer had the strength to create an eternal world and thereby attain the Great Dao.

Before the creation of the Primordial World was complete, Pangu was already on the verge of falling. He had no choice but to stop.

After a moment's thought, Pangu merged the corpses of the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons, stripped of their Great Dao Origins, into the Primordial World, along with their broken companion treasures, the shattered Thirty-Six-Petal Chaos Green Lotus, and the Jade Disc of Creation...

The Primordial World had been created, but the pressure of the chaos left it unstable. Earth, wind, water, and fire churned without order, while Chaos Qi ran rampant.

Pangu had no choice. To calm earth, wind, water, and fire, he divided the broken Heaven-Splitting Axe in his hand into three: the Taiji Diagram, the Pangu Banner, and the Chaos Bell.

Pangu unfurled the Taiji Diagram, and a golden bridge appeared. It stilled the chaotic earth, water, fire, and wind, balanced Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, and ordered the mysteries of the Heavenly Dao. He then activated the Chaos Bell. Its peal rolled far and wide; the cosmos blazed as heaven and earth lost their color, and the Primordial World's space-time instantly stabilized. Finally, he shook the Pangu Banner, and its heaven-splitting blades of qi swept away the Chaos Qi.

Yet the Primordial World had nothing to hold up the heavens, and heaven and earth began to close together again. Pangu could only brace the sky with his head and plant his feet upon the earth to keep them apart.

Each time the heavens rose another measure, Pangu grew taller with them.

After an unknown span of time, the Primordial World finally became stable.

"This world shall be the Primordial World. I hope you will have the strength to protect yourselves before the three thousand Chaos Gods and Demons and I revive to create heaven and earth anew and attain the Dao," Pangu said softly.

With those words, Pangu's damaged Imperishable Primordial Spirit returned to the Great Dao, and his body began to transform into the Primordial World.

His breath became wind and cloud, and his roars became thunder. His left eye became the rising Sun Star, his right eye the bright moon. His hair and beard became stars scattered across the heavens; his limbs and torso became the four reaches of the earth and endless divine mountains. His blood became rivers, lakes, and seas that flowed without cease; his meridians became Earth Veins crisscrossing the land, and his flesh became Dao Rhyme Spiritual Essence that nourished heaven and earth...

Pangu's creation of heaven and earth had earned Great Merit and Virtue. As his body became the world and the Primordial World stabilized, the Great Dao bestowed boundless Heaven-Opening Merit.

Endless auspicious clouds rolled across the heavens, and Golden Lotuses Sprang from the Earth. Merit from the Great Dao descended in a vast canopy that blotted out the sky, its profound yellow radiance shining in every direction.

One-tenth of the Heaven-Opening Merit joined with primordial profound yellow qi to form the Heaven-and-Earth Profound Yellow Exquisite Pagoda, an Acquired Merit Supreme Treasure with peerless defense. Set above one's head, it granted an unassailable position. Another tenth joined with Hongmeng Purple Qi to form the Grandmist Measuring Ruler, an Acquired Merit Supreme Treasure unmatched in attack.

At that moment, the remnant of Pangu's primordial spirit split into three. Bearing three-tenths of the Heaven-Opening Merit and carrying the Heaven-and-Earth Profound Yellow Exquisite Pagoda, the three parts landed on Kunlun Mountain and vanished from sight. Twelve drops of his heart's blood received another three-tenths and disappeared into Mount Buzhou with Pangu Hall, which had formed from the Pangu Heart.

The remaining two-tenths of the Heaven-Opening Merit scattered across the Primordial World, nurturing all living things.