In the distant past, Primordial Heavenly King wielded a great axe with supreme power, cleaving Chaos and opening Heaven and Earth. From then on, the boundless Primordial World came into being.
Time was like a surging torrent, rushing ever onward from the very beginning.
All things in the world weathered trial after trial in the long river of time, and time itself seemed etched with countless deep and shallow marks.
In the innate Chaos, everything was hazy and indistinct, seeming both present and absent, like a blurred painting.
That subtle, ineffable point of accord was truly beyond words, wondrous to the utmost.
When the void fell utterly silent, it somehow aligned with the Dao hidden in the unseen.
Primordial qi lay concealed in the murky depths of Chaos, while the Five Primordials gestated within the desolate emptiness.
Within them lay the purest truths of the Great Dao, governing the laws by which Supreme Unity and Hunyuan operated.
It was neither absolute existence nor complete nothingness. It had no sound or discernible form, yet seemed to exist in truth.
Its wonder lay in being both present and absent, transcendent and unshakable. True nothingness was not a total lack of anything, but something clear as water, quietly abiding in the world.
It was reluctantly named Xiangdi, meaning that it came before the beginning of the Primordial Emperor.
Ever since the Supreme Ultimate first appeared, Hunyuan qi had begun to transform and create all things. At the moment Chaos was cleaved open, a breath of primordial qi arose in accordance with fate. The Three Extremes established the righteous and balanced way, and Yin-Yang Duality took its proper place.
In this boundless cosmos, the Dao was like an unreachable, inscrutable absolute ruler. It silently maintained the order and laws of the entire universe, ensuring that everything proceeded according to its established principles.
The Innate Divinities, meanwhile, were mighty beings who held the key mechanisms in their grasp. They controlled the core workings of the universe, allowing the world to develop in orderly fashion under their command.
In ages past, when the sky had only just begun to condense into water, the scene was dreamlike, as though it were nature's most wondrous creation.
At the same time, the earth, vast and heavy, governed the gathering and flow of the waters.
The waters of the sky and the source beneath the earth blended together, gradually forming a misty mass of qi. It spread between Heaven and Earth, containing boundless vitality and mystery.
In this wondrous process of transformation, primordial qi fused tightly together. Interwoven and interacting, it was like an endless cycle of life.
This ceaseless vitality stretched on without end, filling the universe with abundant life and infinite possibilities.
Yet as time passed and countless eras went by, the Primordial World endured one earth-shaking calamity after another.
First, the Ferocious Beasts waged fierce wars over resources for survival, filling every corner with bloodshed and violence. Then came the Dragon-Han Cataclysm, a disaster that nearly pushed the entire world to the brink of destruction.
After that, a world-shaking war erupted between the Wu and Yao races. Neither side would yield, and in the end, the living were plunged into misery.
Next, the Investiture of the Gods War once more unleashed a storm of bloodshed. All manner of factions were swept into the conflict, fighting to the death for power and glory.
Finally came the familiar Journey to the West Calamity, bringing fresh upheaval to a world already scarred and battered.
After so many devastating Kalpas, the source of the Primordial World gradually grew frail and depleted.
The calamities brought by countless Kalpas were like merciless millstones, grinding away bit by bit at the supreme Dao the Primordial World had once possessed.
The once-glorious, flourishing Primordial World was no more. It had long since lost its former splendor.
One day, when all hope had been extinguished, the Primordial World would shatter.
As it crumbled, all things would meet their end. Even the mighty who had attained the Primordial Unity Realm could not escape this cataclysm.
The entire universe sank into utter silence, leaving only endless darkness and despair. Born here, dead here.
Even those in the Transcendence Realm could not escape.
The end...
In the twenty-first century, on a rooftop in a district of the Imperial Capital, a thin man in casual clothes stood silently smoking.
His name was Li Zhengyuan. He came from the countryside, from a remote mountain village.
His birth had been extraordinary. There had been no red glow or other strange omens, but he had been clutching a piece of jade in his hand. It was smooth and glossy, tinged with green, making him almost like Jia Baoyu from Dream of the Red Chamber, born with jade in his mouth.
The villagers had been astonished for a long time. But some said that the Li family had cooked up this trick themselves. From a medical perspective, how could anything so absurd be possible?
Because of a tangled romance, he had been betrayed by the woman he had pursued for over a decade. He had spent his entire fortune and even lost his parents.
Pain was silent. He bore it quietly, and, without him noticing, it cut into the shattered heart of a disappointed man. Scene after scene flashed through his mind, as though it had all happened only yesterday.
Li Zhengyuan looked down at the dozens of floors beneath him, turned over the railing, and leaped, hoping to end his life...
Suddenly, the jade in his clenched hand began to glow, radiating brilliant colors. The surrounding space twisted like a whirlpool. In an instant, he vanished from Heaven and Earth.
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