"M-my Primordial Spirit..."
Houtu opened her eyes, disbelief filling them.
She could feel that her Primordial Spirit had completely stabilized, reaching the same level as her physical body.
From now on, her Primordial Spirit was no longer newly born, but fully developed and perfectly fused with her body.
"Thank you, Father God!" Houtu prostrated herself on the ground, her voice choked with sobs.
Pangu's consciousness nodded slightly. His immense figure began to blur, as though it might dissipate at any moment.
"The Great Dao of Strength and the Dutian Divine Fiends Grand Formation have been imparted to you. I hope you will use this power well to protect the Witch Clan and the Primordial World."
His voice grew weaker and weaker, his figure fainter and fainter.
"Father God!" the Twelve Ancestral Witches cried out together. They tried to step forward, only to discover that they could not approach the dissipating figure.
Pangu's consciousness gave them one final look, his eyes holding boundless love and expectation.
"Go... my children..."
As his words fell, that figure, tall enough to hold up heaven and stand upon earth, vanished completely into Chaos. The Twelve Ancestral Witches knelt in the void, unwilling to rise for a long, long time.
Meanwhile, in another space, Pan Xuan's experience was entirely different from that of the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
The light of Chaos swept him into a void.
This void was different from the one where the Twelve Ancestral Witches were. It was quieter and more profound, as though it were the very core of heaven and earth.
Pan Xuan stood in this void and looked around, a faint unease stirring in his heart.
He could sense an immensely powerful force here. It shared the same origin as his own essence, yet was countless times stronger than he was.
Suddenly, a voice sounded behind him.
"An interesting anomaly."
Pan Xuan shuddered all over and whipped around.
A figure stood a short distance behind him. He towered between heaven and earth, untold tens of millions of li tall, radiating the mighty power to cleave heaven and earth into being.
He held an enormous axe, Chaos Qi churning ceaselessly along its blade.
It was-Pangu.
Pan Xuan's pupils abruptly contracted, and towering waves surged through his heart.
Anomalies were those who should not exist in this world.
He was a transmigrator. His soul came from another world; he did not belong to this Primordial World.
This was the greatest difference between him and the Twelve Ancestral Witches, and his greatest secret.
Had Pangu... seen through him?
"F-Father God..." Pan Xuan's voice was somewhat dry. He forcibly suppressed his shock and struggled to remain composed.
Pangu's consciousness looked down at him. There was no hostility or anger in those eyes, only a profound light that saw through everything.
"There is no need for alarm." Pangu's voice echoed through the void, vast and serene, like the first breeze when heaven and earth first opened. "I mean you no harm."
Pan Xuan took a deep breath and relaxed a little.
He knew that, with Pangu's strength, if Pangu wanted to harm him, he would have no room to resist at all.
Since Pangu said he meant no harm, then he truly meant no harm.
"You come from another world," Pangu's consciousness said calmly, as though stating something utterly trivial. "Your soul does not belong to this heaven and earth."
Pan Xuan fell silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Yes."
He did not deny it, nor could he. Before Pangu, any concealment was futile.
Pangu's consciousness did not press him about his origins, nor did he question why he had appeared here.
Those eyes merely regarded him calmly, as though examining something, or perhaps pondering something.
"Come with me."
Pangu's consciousness turned and walked into the depths of the void. Pan Xuan hesitated briefly before following.
Deep within the void, an image suddenly appeared.
That image was Chaos.
Endless Chaos, without heaven or earth, without sun or moon, without stars. There was only that vast, primordial, boundless Chaos.
Within Chaos, currents churned. Yin and yang had yet to separate, the clear and turbid had yet to divide, and everything remained in its most primordial state.
And within that Chaos stood a giant.
The giant towered between heaven and earth, untold tens of millions of li tall, radiating the mighty power to cleave heaven and earth into being.
He held an enormous axe, Chaos Qi churning ceaselessly along its blade.
This was Pangu before he cleaved heaven and earth into being.
"Watch," Pangu's consciousness said.
Pan Xuan held his breath, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the image.
Pangu moved within the image.
He raised the enormous axe in his hands. Chaos Qi churned wildly along its blade, the powers of yin and yang interweaving and entwining as an unimaginable force gathered upon its edge.
That force was enough to cleave Chaos, enough to separate heaven and earth, enough to create everything.
Then the axe fell.
Boom-
Pan Xuan felt as though the entire world had shattered beneath that single stroke.
Chaos was cleaved apart. The clear rose to become heaven, and the turbid sank to become earth. Heaven and earth first opened, and all things began to emerge.
The power of that stroke did not merely cleave Chaos. It also cleaved time and space, yin and yang and the five elements, and every law between heaven and earth.
That stroke was one of creation, one of destruction, one that opened heaven and earth, one that laid the foundations of the Primordial World.
Shaken by the power of that stroke, Pan Xuan stood rooted to the spot.
He could feel that the stroke held Pangu's understanding of heaven and earth, his insights into the Great Dao, and his compassion for all things.
It was the ultimate expression of the Great Dao of Strength, the pinnacle of world-creating power.
Yet the image did not stop.
Pangu's consciousness led him through the sight of Pangu creating heaven and earth, over and over again.
Each time, in the instant that axe fell, Pan Xuan could perceive something new.
After watching an unknown number of times, Pan Xuan suddenly felt as though the power of that stroke had merged into his soul.
It was an experience beyond words.
It was as though he was no longer a spectator, but had personally experienced that stroke.
He could feel the weight of the enormous axe in his hands, the Chaos Qi churning along its blade, and the resolve and determination as that stroke fell.
He could feel Pangu's loneliness as he created heaven and earth.
Standing alone within Chaos, facing boundless nothingness, with no companions and no helping hand, only an axe in his hands.
He could feel Pangu's hardship as he created heaven and earth.
Every stroke required boundless power, and every stroke required him to endure the backlash of Chaos, yet he never stopped.
He could feel Pangu's resolve as he created heaven and earth. Pangu knew that after creating the world, he would perish.
He knew that he would become all things between heaven and earth, and that Pangu would exist no more. Yet he still brought down that axe.
Even more, he could feel Pangu's compassion as he created heaven and earth. Pangu created the world not for himself, but for all things between heaven and earth.
He transformed his body into all things not for sacrifice, but for creation.
His eyes became the sun and moon, his blood became rivers, his breath became wind and clouds, and his voice became thunder.
All of this was to create a world where the living beings of the future could survive.
Pan Xuan's eyes grew moist.
It was not sorrow. He was moved, shaken, filled with boundless reverence for Pangu.
When the final viewing ended, Pan Xuan suddenly felt as though something within his soul had been erased.
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