"You are too kind, fellow Daoist!" Qing Xuan Daoist said with a smile. "The benevolence of Empress Nuwa is widely known. I merely did what little I could!"
Nuwa looked at Di Jun and asked with a smile, "Fellow Daoist, from whence do you come?"
Di Jun replied, "I have long resided in the Sun Star and my name is Di Jun. Troubled by the mysteries of the Dao, I now travel the Primordial World in search of enlightenment."
Fu Xi emerged, smiling at Di Jun. "Fellow Daoist Di Jun, I feel we are kindred spirits. Might I invite you and your companion to Fengqi Mountain? My sister and I would be honored to host you."
Qing Xuan Daoist smiled. "Excellent!"
Di Jun also agreed. "Then we shall be indebted to you both."
At the summit of Fengqi Mountain, atop a phoenix tree, a colorful phoenix perched.
Beneath the phoenix tree, the four sat by a stone table, conversing on the Dao.
Fu Xi engaged Di Jun, while Nuwa spoke with Qing Xuan.
The innate Yi number deduced the celestial cycles, and the River Diagram and Luo Script manifested as mountains, rivers, and empires.
Three thousand Dharma chains derived, merging with light and dust, and creation's rosy clouds dyed the nine heavens high.
The four great Daos intertwined and shone, subtly resonating. Each of the four felt a sense of destiny, a preordained path.
Concurrently, on the Western Continent, Daoist Zhun Ti and Daoist Jie Yin began their act of creation.
For the Western Continent was exceedingly barren, its life force extinguished, with no living beings remaining.
All things and all laws originated from the One. The One gave rise to Yin and Yang, and Yin and Yang produced the Three Powers, the Four Symbols, and all else.
But in the West, life was extinct; even the initial One from which all things derived was absent.
Therefore, it was up to them to create!
On Mount Sumeru, the foremost peak of the Western land.
The Daoist in hemp robes waved a Bodhi branch, scattering countless green leaves. The Daoist in white robes stepped upon white lotuses, which spread across the Western land. As the pure white lotus petals opened and closed, they shed countless seeds.
Daoist Zhun Ti waved his sleeve and declared, "A great wind arises!"
A tempest of wind and sand swept across the West, a hazy curtain of dust raising a furious gale.
The wind rose from the western mountains, carrying away countless resentful spirits buried beneath the earth.
The wind rose from the western mountains, stirring endless corpse-blood and shattered particles, transforming them into dust to cover the Bodhi leaves and bury the white lotus seeds.
Zhun Ti placed the Bodhi branches into the Eight Treasures Pool and lightly flicked drops of its water, proclaiming, "Clouds and rain descend!"
The water from the Eight Treasures Pool ascended into the sky, forming clouds, churning, and then falling as torrential rain!
Water is the source of life, and seeds are the beginning of vitality.
The Western land was buffeted by wind and rain. Countless green shoots emerged from the earth, opening their eyes to the world.
For ten thousand years thereafter, Daoist Zhun Ti resided atop Mount Sumeru. Three times a day he raised his Bodhi branch, and three times a day rain fell upon the Western land.
Though the Western land was vast, his power to summon rain should not have been so far-reaching.
However, with only him and Jie Yin as living beings in the West, the authority over the entire West fell upon their shoulders. They were, in essence, the creator gods of the Western world!
As for the three thousand great worlds behind Mount Sumeru, Zhun Ti and Jie Yin dared not enter.
The Dao Ancestor carried within him the three thousand great Luo Dao Treasures. The inhabitants of each great world, in their lives, were no weaker than them; many had even far surpassed them.
The three thousand great worlds behind Mount Sumeru were far too dangerous for Zhun Ti and Jie Yin, at least for now.
Greenery gradually emerged in the barren Western world. Trees and plants grew with great difficulty.
The spirit of wood was present; the Western dust was abundant. Beneath the earth, the Qi of Metal was even stronger. The West was close to the Sun Star, so the element of Fire was plentiful. What was lacking was water.
And water, the source of life, was indispensable!
Daoist Zhun Ti traveled to the West Sea and diverted a river inland.
He offered an apology to the Dragon Palace of the West Sea. The seawater churned like tides at the western coast, flowing eastward against the current.
The vast, rolling waters of the West Sea, with their salty tang, mixed with dust and sand, forming a muddy river that flowed eastward.
Daoist Zhun Ti sighed, "Though it is a river of mud and sand, it is the only great river in the West. May you flow eternally, nourishing the Western land."
Heavenly Dao responded. The great river flowed with a mighty roar, and at its boundary, a stone was erected, naming it the "Ganges River"!
From the heavens descended profound Xuan Huang merit, rewarding the two for their contributions to the Western world.
Life gradually proliferated in the Western world, evolving from inorganic to organic beings. Marine life from the Ganges River took root on the Western continent, merging with the Western land to give rise to various creatures.
Because the vitality of the West was created from white lotus seeds and Bodhi leaves, the beings of the West were born with a Zen nature.
Furthermore, as the two in the West nurtured all things, all later born beings in the West incurred boundless karmic debts to Zhun Ti and Jie Yin.
"Rumble ~"
On the Western land, a towering mountain emerged from a hidden void. A somber youth stepped out, holding an ancient lamp in one hand and a spatial ruler in the other. He murmured, "I, Ran Deng, have finally been born!"
On the fringes of the Western land, a majestic mountain rose, full of life and profound Daoistic mysteries. Zhen Yuanzi finally set down his copy of the *Shan Hai Jing*, picked up his whisk, and emerged into the world to follow the Dao.
Zhen Yuanzi left the mountain, accompanied by a young man in red robes. Together, they ventured out of the West, seeking enlightenment through travel in the East.
On Fengqi Mountain, Di Jun and Qing Xuan departed. However, a connection had been forged between the four. They decided to maintain an alliance, to synchronize their defenses and offenses against the Wu clan.
This proposal was made by Di Jun. Nuwa and Fu Xi, having incurred karmic debts for their assistance, had no choice but to agree. Qing Xuan Daoist, on the other hand, sought to leverage their influence.
Both Di Jun and Nuwa were destined to be masters of this era, and he would ride the wave of their fortune.
He was no longer Qing Ling; he was merely Qing Xuan Daoist. His actions were guided by his heart, his will was his own, and the karmic consequences of his deeds were unrelated to Qing Ling.
Qing Xuan returned to Luoling Mountain and began to teach and guide the myriad snakes.
The ancient snake clan of Xishan gradually withdrew from the Primordial World. They no longer made public appearances, relying solely on bloodline inheritance. Those who were favored by destiny would return to their ancestral land; the fate of those who were not was their own.
Consequently, stories of the Xishan snake clan in the Eastern Wilderness became increasingly scarce. Only the Eastern Wilderness Dao Master on Jianmu and the city of Senluo remained.
The scattered snake clans throughout the land, however, looked to Qing Xuan in the southwestern Luoling Mountain as their leader, gathering in one place, forming a clan, and protecting an area of eighty million li in the southwest.
Di Jun, meanwhile, traversed the Primordial World. With newfound enlightenment, he began to recruit ancient exotic species, sometimes rescuing them from the Wu clan, sometimes guiding them. Though his progress was slow, Di Jun was already beginning to establish his own influence!
Bai Ze, on Jianmu, also ascended to the height of the twenty-fifth heaven after enduring ten thousand illusions.
Having emerged from myriad illusory realms, Bai Ze was no longer a youth but a young man. His appearance reflected his inner transformation; he had become steady and composed.
His realm of Taiyi Golden Immortal was far outmatched by the depth of his spiritual experience and his understanding of the world's ultimate principles.
Qing Ling smiled. "Very good. You have completed the first step.
Now for the second."
Despite the torment of myriad illusions, Bai Ze possessed a gentle, serene, and noble demeanor that inspired peace and tranquility.
"May I ask, Dao Master, where does the second step lead?"
Qing Ling looked at the fluctuating aura of destiny above Bai Ze's head and said solemnly, "The second step is, naturally, to attain enlightenment!"
Bai Ze's heart leaped. Attain enlightenment? To reach the Great Luo realm?
But he had only just entered the Taiyi realm a few Yuanhui ago, nowhere near the threshold of Great Luo.
Eight Treasures