Chapter 2874: From Nothing to Something
It was a body of consciousness, like a soul spirit.
As soon as Zhang Ruochen's consciousness fluctuated, the circle that was right before him suddenly receded into the distance.
The condensed body of consciousness, as the circle grew larger, also dispersed, turning back into billions of points of light.
"What's happening?"
In the time that followed, Zhang Ruochen continuously tried to pull the circle back and recondense his body of consciousness. But the more he tried, the farther the circle retreated.
It was then that a change occurred.
"Boom!"
The reddish-yellow earth split open, and space trembled violently.
From the fissures in the earth surged a grayish-brown deathly aura, shooting straight into the sky, emitting a strange, howling "woo-woo" sound.
Within the violent and ferocious deathly aura were numerous spatial rifts and dark light mist.
Bai Qinger sensed a fatal crisis and immediately released her Divine Realm World. Using her power of origin, she constructed a white sea of light, her figure rapidly retreating backward.
Even Zhang Ruochen, who was nothing but a consciousness, could feel an incredibly terrifying deathly aura emanating from deep underground, as if an ancient, fierce and savage beast was about to emerge.
"Clank! Clank! Clank..."
The sound of dragging chains came from below the fissure, accompanied by the furious roar of a demonic beast.
A humanoid divine hand, its rotting flesh covered in moss, reached out from the depths of the earth.
The hand was probably over a thousand meters long, emitting a nauseating stench. The putrid aura instantly turned a thousand miles of red earth into black soil.
The pursuing divine corpses seemed extremely terrified, all stopping and retreating towards the temple.
"Boom!"
The rotting divine hand, over a thousand meters long, shattered the ground beneath Bai Qinger's feet, dragging her, along with her Origin Divine Sea, deep into the earth.
All that remained on the surface was a crater several thousand meters in diameter and a fissure stretching a thousand miles.
The earth trembled, and the sky turned pitch black.
Turtle King, Yan God, Jia Linnan, and Kailan Feili, who had fled into the oasis, stared at the rolling deathly aura rising in the distance.
"What a terrifying aura. What kind of fierce creature is down there?" Jia Linnan restrained his own aura, not daring to breathe loudly.
Kailan Feili said, "It seems to have calmed down. Should we go investigate?"
Yan God and Jia Linnan immediately shook their heads. The aura from before was too strong; even the divine might of an ordinary Great God wasn't this terrifying. Moreover, the corrosive power had already spread to the edge of the oasis.
...
Bai Qinger's Divine Realm World was crushed into pieces by the rotting five fingers, completely unable to resist.
"Earth Demon Sparrow!"
A piercing sparrow cry rang out!
From Bai Qinger's sleeve surged a stream of demonic Qi. Within the demonic Qi, a stone bird in the form of a Vermilion Bird spread its huge stone wings, colliding with the constantly contracting fingers.
Countless ancient divine patterns appeared on the Earth Demon Sparrow's body, blocking the pillar-sized rotting fingers.
The Earth Demon Sparrow was something Bai Qinger had obtained from the Origin Divine Temple, and along with the Heavenly Dao Flute and the Seven Star Sword, it was known as one of the three great guardian divine artifacts of the Origin Divine Temple.
Bai Qinger breathed a slight sigh of relief, lifting her head to look.
She saw black blood seeping from the five pillar-like fingers, and the corrosive power they emitted was something even her Origin Divine Sea couldn't block.
"So powerful. Is this just a rotting hand from a God Venerable's divine corpse?"
Bai Qinger was quite worried that the entity underground was a Corpse Clan God Venerable.
But thinking about it, she felt it was impossible.
If a God Venerable was truly chained underground, how could she possibly resist? Even with the Earth Demon Sparrow, a divine artifact, she would be absolutely no match.
The rotting divine hand was still dragging her deeper underground.
She couldn't delay any longer.
Bai Qinger, holding Zhang Ruochen, flew into the Earth Demon Sparrow's mouth and entered its abdomen. Placing Zhang Ruochen to the side, she entered the Celestial Pivot Pool that controlled the Earth Demon Sparrow.
Bai Qinger stepped onto the water's surface, walking to the center of the rippling pool. Her figure was graceful, like a goddess walking on the waves.
"Whoosh!"
The water's surface shimmered, revealing a vast array of formation patterns.
Above the pool, a white Origin Divine Sea appeared.
The artifact spirit of the Earth Demon Sparrow was a Vermilion Bird covered in flames, flying within the Origin Divine Sea, its wings resplendent, emitting a bright light.
Zhang Ruochen stood by the Celestial Pivot Pool, quietly watching Bai Qinger.
Under Bai Qinger's spiritual power, more and more inscriptions and divine patterns appeared on the Earth Demon Sparrow, and the divine might it radiated rose step by step.
Its stone wings flapped continuously, trying to fly upwards and resist the rotting divine hand.
After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Ruochen was surprised to find that the circle had appeared before him again, and his body of consciousness had recondensed.
His consciousness was slightly startled, and the circle immediately dispersed outward.
Zhang Ruochen quickly calmed the fluctuations in his consciousness.
Sure enough, the circle slowly contracted back.
"I see. When the mind is calm, it is near; when the mind is disturbed, it is far," Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
What he called 'mind' was his current consciousness.
Zhang Ruochen was very clear that his consciousness hadn't dispersed, and it must be related to these circles. The key to being reborn might also lie in them.
He reached out a hand, trying to touch the edge of the circle.
But before he could get close, the circle retreated into the distance.
He couldn't touch it.
Zhang Ruochen wasn't anxious. He calmed his mind, sat cross-legged in his body of consciousness, and began to study and observe carefully.
Gradually, he noticed things he hadn't seen before. For instance, the circles around him weren't parallel to the ground.
Depending on the angle of observation, the direction of the circles changed.
When he looked up, the circles were perpendicular to the ground.
Without a doubt, these circles centered on him were not only infinite in number from the inside out. The same circle also had an infinite number of variations at different angles.
"Could this be... Taiji..."
Zhang Ruochen was stunned, forming this speculation in his mind.
In the eyes of Daoist sages, Taiji was born from Wuji, born before chaos, before the separation of heaven and earth. Taiji is a circle, boundless and containing nothing.
When heaven and earth first separated and chaos divided, the Yin and Yang Qi appeared within the circle, which is called Liangyi.
The process from Wuji to Taiji is a process from nothing to something, the most difficult and longest process of heaven and earth's evolution.
The process from Taiji to Liangyi is a process from one to two.
Zhang Ruochen guessed it was Taiji because he had once cultivated the Wuji Sacred Intent. That Sacred Intent pervaded the universe, standing equal to the Heavenly Dao, eternal and indestructible.
It was entirely possible for Taiji to evolve from Wuji.
"How is this possible!" Zhang Ruochen's consciousness was greatly shocked.
Could it be that he could evolve another universe within this one? A universe of his own?
"Whoosh!"
The circle retreated far away.
When he recondensed his body of consciousness, Zhang Ruochen was completely calm. He observed carefully and found that the first circle indeed contained nothing.
No Qi, no heavenly or earthly rules, no matter.
Only his consciousness.
Between the first circle and the second circle, heavenly and earthly rules appeared.
The further out, the more rules there were in the circles.
"The first circle should be my own Taiji, completely detached from the outside world."
"But what good does that do? I'm just a body of consciousness now. There's no matter in the Taiji. No... wait, within a circle, I am the heaven, and my consciousness is the heavenly will."
"Matter in the world is created by rules. Origin! The Nine Eternal Paths, the rules of Origin evolved into all things."
Zhang Ruochen's consciousness entered the Origin Divine Sea around Bai Qinger, observing the active Origin rules within. Then, within the first circle, he began to sketch his own Origin rules.
But as soon as he sketched them, the Origin rules dissipated, unable to persist.
"I don't believe it!"
Zhang Ruochen continued to sketch.
Once.
Twice.
...
He sketched a thousand times and failed a thousand times.
Zhang Ruochen finally stopped, calming himself down. "I can't sketch blindly like this. Right now, the Taiji is empty, and Origin cannot exist alone."
"Origin needs space to carry it, space needs to combine with time, time needs to coexist with truth... To build my own world of rules, how can it be done overnight?"
Just as Zhang Ruochen was at a loss, the Earth Demon Sparrow, in its struggle with the rotting divine hand, sank another large section into the ground.
The space inside the Earth Demon Sparrow shook violently.
Zhang Ruochen's body of consciousness looked down. His consciousness penetrated the Earth Demon Sparrow's body, seeing deep underground, where death rules were everywhere, evolving into gray deathly mist.
Then, Zhang Ruochen suddenly looked up.
Although death rules were still dense above, life rules were intertwined among them.
"Got it! Since the Daoist sages deduced that the evolution of heaven and earth is Wuji giving birth to Taiji, and Taiji giving birth to Liangyi, then I will first construct the Yin-Yang Liangyi!"
"What best represents Yin and Yang is undoubtedly life and death."
Zhang Ruochen looked up at the sky, observing the life rules. He slowly raised his right arm and sketched one.
"Whoosh!"
For some reason, although he had sketched a life rule, a large area of fine death rules automatically evolved beside it.
Life and death coexisted.
One life rule and a large area of death rules formed a delicate balance, converging towards the first circle and beginning to operate on it.
Then, Zhang Ruochen sketched a second life rule.
...
In the Celestial Pivot Pool.
The Earth Demon Sparrow's artifact spirit said urgently, "The opponent's power is too strong. We can't resist. Once we are dragged into the depths, the true body of this rotting hand will kill us easily."
"Then we fight to the death."
Bai Qinger's eyes were incredibly beautiful and firm. Her slender jade hand waved gently, summoning sixty-five bronze chime bells. At the same time, the Origin Esoterica, which occupied one-tenth of the entire universe within her body, radiated out, mobilizing the Origin rules of heaven and earth.
"Whoosh!"
A pillar of Origin light shot up from the ground.
The Origin rules from all over Xinghuantian, including the star domains around it, continuously converged into the pillar of light, flying towards Bai Qinger within the Earth Demon Sparrow.
Although mastering one-tenth of the Esoterica made one a main god of a path, Bai Qinger had only become a god for a short time. Her divine soul's strength and her understanding of the Origin Path were far from reaching the main god level, let alone fully unleashing the power of an envoy level.
Just as Bai Qinger was mobilizing the Origin rules of heaven and earth, the old, withered corpse lying on the ground nearby began to change. Its white hair turned black, the wrinkles on its face slowly disappeared, and its yellowed skin gradually became delicate. Life rules flowed within the dead flesh, evolving life Qi.