Dawn of Primordial Chaos

Time in the place where the Dawn of Primordial Chaos began seemed frozen in a summer afternoon. The leaves of the old locust tree rustled. Chu Mo held the grass-woven sword tassel Yun Che handed him, his fingertips touching the thin calluses on her palm—proof that every version of her had held a sword through thirty thousand years of reincarnation. The Chaos Sword and Fate Defying Sword had long since merged into his spiritual veins, now transformed into two wooden swords hanging from the gnarled branches of the locust tree. The words "Chu Mo" on the swords flickered on and off in the dappled tree shadow.

"Chu Mo, look at the rings on this locust tree," Yun Che suddenly said, pointing at the strange patterns on the trunk. The rings actually formed the Star Map from the beginning of Chaos. "Every time we practice swordplay, another ring appears, as if they're recording our unique laws." Her soft sword traced an icy line on the ground, but instead of condensing cold air as usual, it turned into transparent ripples that merged into the mist of the Chaos space.

Chu Mo gently stroked the sword hilt, feeling the flow of Chaos Power within him. Here, there were no five-element laws, no Primordial Chaos Source, only the purest Chaos energy, as if returning to the void before everything was born. When he performed the first move, "First Sprout," the wooden sword didn't bring forth sword energy, but instead spurred new branches on the locust tree. Tender green buds bloomed at the sword tip, only to return to Chaos in an instant.

"So here, destruction and creation are just two sides of the same force," Chu Mo murmured to himself, recalling the Sword Master's箴言 from his memory: "Chaos is not a tool, it is the heart." Yun Che suddenly grabbed his wrist and pointed his sword tip at her own chest. "Then tell me, is my heart creation or destruction?" The Zi Lin curse mark at the corner of her eye glowed faintly, resonating subtly with the mist of the Chaos space.

The mist wall in the distance suddenly rippled, and the figure of a child made of light points stumbled over. His body was translucent, and every step left a trail of burning starlight. Embedded in his chest was a rhombus-shaped fragment identical to those in the Mount Guiji Sword Tomb. "Big brother, big sister, help us!" The child's voice was tearful. "The shadows in the mist wall want to eat all the light points!"

Chu Mo and Yun Che exchanged a look, simultaneously gripping their wooden swords. When they followed the child into the mist wall, the sight before them made their pupils shrink—a tribe composed of countless light points was fleeing through the mist. Each light point had a human outline, and the "shadows" chasing them were actually condensed from their own fear and obsession. Every shadow had rhombus-shaped crystal eyes identical to those of the silver-scaled man.

"These are... the original spirits from the beginning of Chaos?" Yun Che's soft sword drew an arc of healing light, but she found that the light arc turned black the moment it touched a shadow. Chu Mo suddenly remembered the youth's words before he left: "The true enemies are those who hold high the banner of orthodoxy in the light..." It turned out that in this lawless Chaos, the greatest threat was the living beings' own deluded thoughts.

"Don't be afraid, look at our swords." Chu Mo plunged the wooden sword into the ground. Chaos Power spread along the sword tip, forming a protective shield around the light point tribe. He saw a faint light at the core of each light point, an unpolluted initial heart, echoing the twin seeds in his Sea of Consciousness. When the first light point touched the protective shield, the shadow of fear on its surface actually transformed into butterflies and flew away.

"Are they absorbing our Dao Heart?" Yun Che watched the golden-purple light illuminating her fingertips. The moment the light points touched her, they could briefly condense into solid forms, revealing faces identical to the "ordinary versions" they had seen in the Light Cocoon. A little girl with a Zi Lin hairband grabbed Yun Che's hand. Her eyes were like two clear springs, reflecting the scene of them practicing swordplay under the old locust tree.

A cold laugh suddenly came from deep within the mist wall, and countless crystal eyes lit up in the mist. Chu Mo's Twin Life Force trembled violently. He saw the owners of those eyes—"Law Mimicry Entities" condensed from Chaos delusion. Each entity wore armor from a different Divine Realm, with ancient runes like "Heavenly Mandate Guardian" carved on their chests. "So the laws of the Divine Realm are originally the crystallization of Chaos delusion." This realization caused his sword momentum to change abruptly. The wooden sword actually cut out substantial Sword Intent in the Chaos.

"Chu Mo, use our memories as a sword guide!" Yun Che suddenly hugged his waist, completely connecting her spiritual veins to his. In an instant, the moonlight behind the Ye Family mountain, the magma of Godfall Island, the sword cries of Mount Guiji—all their shared experiences transformed into substantial light blades in the Chaos. When these light blades slashed through the mimicry entities, the runes on their armor disintegrated, revealing the black core composed of fear and greed beneath.

Before the last mimicry entity dissipated, it threw a crystal towards Chu Mo: "Do you think you can escape by hiding in Chaos? The stars of the Ninth Divine Region are falling. Those Divine Lords who hold high the orthodoxy have already planted something in your Dao Heart..." Before it could finish speaking, it turned to dust, but the crystal burned a scorch mark on Chu Mo's palm, engraved with the same sealing curse as the Sword Master's coffin. After the crisis of the light point tribe was resolved, they gathered around Chu Mo and Yun Che and returned to the old locust tree. By now, the locust tree had grown toweringly tall. The Star Map on its rings actually formed a complete picture of the place where the Dawn of Primordial Chaos began, and in the heart of the tree, a blank stone tablet lay quietly—that was the Chaos space's call for a new orthodoxy.

"Big brother, your sword is glowing!" The little girl with the Zi Lin hairband pointed at the tree trunk. Chu Mo looked up and saw that the wooden swords had somehow turned back into the Chaos Sword and Fate Defying Sword. At the point where the two swords overlapped, tiny runes were being born, a new law jointly nurtured by his and Yun Che's Dao Heart: "Without beginning or end, cut as the heart desires."

Late at night, Yun Che slept with her head on Chu Mo's arm, but he stared at the Chaos mist wall, lost in thought. The warning from the crystal fragment still echoed in his ears. What did the falling stars of the Ninth Divine Region mean? Had the "Divine Lords" he had seen in the Light Cocoon truly planted a hidden seal in his Dao Heart? More importantly, now that the light point tribe in the Chaos space was beginning to condense into solid forms, did it mean that he and Yun Che could no longer escape the conflicts of the outside world?

The Chaos Sword suddenly emitted an almost inaudible tremor. The words "Chu Mo" on the hilt flickered. He looked down and saw Yun Che's eyelashes casting butterfly-wing shadows beneath her eyes, remembering how she had leaned against him just like this when she blocked a fatal blow for him on Godfall Island. "Even if the orthodoxy outside is as thick as a mist wall, as long as I feel her warmth in my arms, my sword will always know where to strike."

The next morning, as they practiced swordplay under the old locust tree, a violent tremor suddenly came from the direction of the mist wall. Chu Mo saw a golden light pierce through the mist—that was the direction of the Ninth Divine Region. And in the light, he could vaguely see the brightest of the thirteen stars—representing his Sword Master star—being swallowed by some dark force.

Yun Che's soft sword clattered to the ground. "Chu Mo, your eyes..." He looked up and saw his current appearance reflected in her eyes: his left eye's golden light actually contained thirteen star trails, and his right eye's purple flame churned with the scene of the Chaos mist wall. This was the manifestation of the Twin True Intent resonating with the Chaos space, and also a warning of the external crisis.

"It's time to go back." Chu Mo picked up the twin swords. The light point tribe on the sword tassels transformed into streaks of light and wrapped around them. "But this time, we won't be travelers driven by fate." He looked towards the gradually clearing outline of the Divine Realm behind the mist wall. At the top of a certain palace there, a figure wearing a bronze mask was stringing together the heads of twelve Divine Lords into a new sword tassel, and the eyes beneath the mask were identical to the crystals of the Chaos mimicry entities.

The wind of the place where the Dawn of Primordial Chaos began lifted Yun Che's skirt corner. She suddenly let out a soft laugh. "Chu Mo, do you know? In the Light Cocoon, I saw our most ordinary ending—teaching children swordplay under the old locust tree until our hair turned white." Her fingertips traced the sword calluses on the back of his hand. "But now I understand that the most extraordinary ordinary is being able to hold your hand and strike at anything that tries to take away that ordinary."

The twin swords clashed in the morning mist, emitting a clear, resonant sword cry. This time, the cry no longer carried the vicissitudes of thirty thousand years, but was filled with anticipation and determination for the unknown. As Chu Mo and Yun Che stepped into the mist wall, the old locust tree in the Chaos space suddenly bloomed with colorful light. The light point tribe they had saved was using their purest initial hearts to weave a new destiny for these fate-defying individuals—a Path Without End, undefined by any orthodoxy, belonging only to Chu Mo and Yun Che.