Clang!
The Heaven-Opening Divine Axe rang out with an unprecedented metallic cry.
That sound pierced the Primordial World, pierced Chaos, and pierced the endless river of space and time.
Countless Ancient Beings in secluded cultivation opened their eyes at once.
On Shouyang Mountain, the fly whisk in Laozi's hand suddenly snapped.
On Kunlun Mountain, Yuanshi sprang to his feet.
On Vulture Peak, Tathagata looked up at the sky, his expression utterly transformed.
Deep in the Underworld, Houtu's gaze sharpened.
For she had sensed a power both familiar and unfamiliar.
It was Pangu.
Yet it was not entirely Pangu.
It was a wholly new power Gu Changqing had condensed, using his own Dao Fruit as its foundation to bear Pangu's Dao of "Beginning"!
As the Heavenly Dao Incarnation watched this unfold, he showed a flicker of emotion for the first time.
An icy trace of killing intent flashed through his golden eyes.
"Ant."
"Do you think comprehending a sliver of Pangu's Heaven-Opening intent lets you contend with the Heavenly Dao?"
"Laughable."
"Within the Primordial World Heaven and Earth, all laws belong to the Heavenly Dao."
"All your power likewise comes from this world."
"You cannot cleave me."
Gu Changqing did not answer.
He merely raised the divine axe in his hand.
The first strike.
Down it came!
There was no earth-shattering roar.
There was no divine light that shook the ages.
When that axe fell, Heaven and Earth instead grew utterly still.
Yet the instant its edge swept through the void...
The endless Heavenly Dao Laws all froze.
Then...
A pitch-black fissure slowly spread across the firmament of the Primordial World.
Within the fissure was neither Chaos nor the void.
Instead, there lay a "nothingness" no one had ever seen.
It was the nothingness beyond Heaven and Earth.
The nothingness before