Chapter 1006: A New Realm

The bizarre mist had dispersed at a speed beyond comprehension. Even the Mountain of Origin, the incarnation of the supreme will of the bizarre mist, rapidly shrank.

Its consciousness was fading away, collapsing like the Spear of Creation. Pang Jian could feel its growing frailty, even as his radiant starry region relentlessly expanded.

Pang Jian's will stretched to the furthest reaches of what had been the domain of the bizarre mist, beholding the collapse of every boundary wall and barrier surrounding the myriad abysses.

The dissipating bizarre mist meant its domain was merging seamlessly with the starry skies above. There was no longer any clear division between the bizarre mist and the starry skies.

"Pang Jian, you cannot falter. Continue," urged the supreme will of the bizarre mist.

Meanwhile, in the shrunken world within the spear, waves of violent emotion surged through what remained of the Sea of Creation. "You—you would truly cast aside everything? You—!"

The argent light was slowly snuffed out, its imprints unraveling into a rain of fading light. Though bitter reluctance filled its core, it could do nothing to resist.

A strange clarity rose in Pang Jian's heart as he devoured the supreme will of the starry skies.

It was as though he was wandering through the corridors of bygone time, witnessing how the supreme will of the starry skies had once fashioned life alongside the Dao Sources of Soul and Life.

Life burst forth in abundance. Then, perhaps inevitably, the supreme will became stained by the seven emotions and six desires of its own creations.

In the beginning, it had a sentimental heart, pitying its creations and unwilling to see them kill each other for resources, lives extinguished just to advance.

It too once held compassion, cherishing life and even laying down moral laws for its creations.

However, the results proved hollow.

When all lived in harmony, the will to compete and develop was naturally lost. Its creations ceased their growth, and the evolution of bloodlines and life itself ground to a halt.

An age of peace meant the starry skies grew stagnant. There were no peerless prodigies, for they were no longer necessary. The supreme will had cut off its own path of advancement.

Thus, it switched strategies, sowing chaos and laying down new systems designed to encourage competition, secretly stirring the tides of war.

To its astonishment, the onset of struggle and conflict caused its creations to break through with incredible speed. Bloodlines evolved, and comprehension of the Heavenly Dao deepened.

It had no choice but to concede that strife was necessary for its growth.

Even so, it could not help but be overcome by unwelcome emotion whenever it beheld tender lives perishing in battle. Its heart cracked a little every time a flourishing civilization crumbled into ruin or celestial bodies shattered into dust.

Those emotions shackled it, stifling its strength. It was left constantly mired in grief. So, in the end, it chose to cast them away. It severed all the emotions it had formed through the seven emotions and six desires of all beings, good and ill alike.

In doing so, it transformed itself into an unfeeling will, untouched by sentiment. From then on, it could watch, calm and unmoved, as its creations perished en masse.

This lack of feeling allowed its growth to surge to unimaginable heights.

The battles in the starry skies never ceased. Peerless beings shattered the limits of their cultivation realms and bloodline ranks like a flood of stars.

Finally, a Sovereign appeared and, by chance, refined the first Dao Source, thus enabling it to undergo yet another transformation. So it continued, walking further and further down this path.

When its creations attempted to challenge its authority, it wove new laws, devising an alternate path of godhood.

This new path involved the forging of a Divine Persona, which bound the Outer Gods, and gradually stripped away their emotions as they ascended. The stronger a God became, the closer they drew to the supreme will's nature.

Sovereigns and God Kings appeared within the starry skies one after another, vessels capable of bearing its power and will. Through them, it hunted down and seized the scattered Dao Sources.

If it continued on this path, it would soon reach the ultimate state it had long striven for.

Then, one day, it discovered a peculiar anomaly. Bizarre mist had abruptly come into existence. Within it resided a will with rich emotions, capable of commanding the laws and orders like itself. Worse still, this new will imitated its works, fashioning abysses within the bizarre mist through which it brought forth life.

When it probed the bizarre mist, it realized that this will was the part of itself that it had severed long ago.

It could not truly erase it, for that would mean self-destruction, but it also dared not reclaim it, fearing that it would regress to its sentimental self from before.

So, it sought to weaken that fragmented will instead, stirring up wars, driving its Outer Gods into ceaseless slaughter, and launching campaigns against it.

Everything it did was to diminish the influence of that other will. It permitted its existence, but not its growth, at least, not to a level where it could threaten its supremacy.

Grand events erupted, and campaigns of conquest came and went. The outcome of each always ended in its absolute victory.

The Dao Sources under its control grew ever greater in number, and the Gods born of its system outnumbered those of the bizarre mist many times over. Secure in its absolute authority, it ruled with unshakable confidence, ever poised and in control.

Although the fragment it had cast away had withdrawn deep into the bizarre mist, it too was fashioning life of its own, though always along the same trajectory that it had first set.

When these creatures sought to grow stronger, they still followed its path of godhood, ascending through its system of Divine Personas.

Such Gods longed only to break through the barriers of the abysses and soar into the starry skies.

Moreover, with Divine Personas, they were easily tainted and assimilated into its power, becoming Gods wholly under its dominion.

The resistors were branded "Heretical Gods" and were hunted by those it had ruled as "Orthodox Gods," ensuring it always stood unassailable.

For ages, it held the firm belief that it would never be defeated and that this order would last forever. That was, until the Nether Race and the human race appeared.

These two novel races were unlike any it had created in the starry skies. For the first time, its other self had created something new, forged through the crystallizations of its wisdom across long ages of failure and persistence.

These new races had their own cultivation system and could grow stronger without relying on bloodlines.

A sense of crisis stirred within it, so it unleashed ever more violent wars of conquest in an attempt to stamp them out.

Four abysses were destroyed. Gods born within the bizarre mist were either enslaved or condemned to extermination.

The True Gods of the human race's initial meekness deceived it into believing they could be controlled. It let down its guard, and the Hall of Gods was destroyed.

For their actions, the True Gods were subjected to genocide, their numbers dwindling until only a handful remained in the starry skies.

The Nether Gods, already branded as Heretical Gods, never managed to stir great waves. They remained cowering deep within the bizarre mist, never inflicting any true harm upon the starry skies.

Anguish gripped Pang Jian's heart with a persistent ache. He awoke with a start, only to see that the argent sea within the Spear of Creation had been fully consumed. The long spear, the incarnation of the supreme will of the starry skies, dissolved into nothingness in his grasp.

More new stars, suns, moons, continents, fragmented lands, and wondrous marvels continued to form in the mistless expanse.

The many stars once tethered to the Mountain of Origin had long since faded away alongside the luminous threads that bound them. Even the mountain itself, the final vestige of the supreme will of the bizarre mist, had been reduced to the size of a grain—a mere wisp of an existence.

The searing anguish in Pang Jian's chest came from the Mountain of Origin. All the sorrow and helplessness accumulated across the ages seemed to be heaped within that dim point of light.

Unlike its counterpart, this will, born from the original will's discarded sentiment, bore deep, abiding emotions.

It had always known that the two of them were originally one.

Still, unlike the supreme will of the starry skies, it could not help but cherish the living. It did not matter whether they were from the bizarre mist or the starry skies, for it knew all were born of their joint creation.

It grieved when celestial bodies collapsed. It mourned when living beings perished in endless slaughter and war. This enduring heartache had lasted for eons, indelible and ever-present.

This pain was its motivation for resisting its other self in the starry skies, wanting nothing more than to reduce the suffering in the universe.

However, after countless failed attempts to fight back, it came to the distressing realization that its other self was right.

The path of survival through ruthless competition was truly necessary for growth.

Fostering such struggles was essential for the beings of the bizarre mist to contend with the Outer Gods. It was a required evil for life as a whole to endure within the bizarre mist. Only through such means could it strengthen itself and keep its consciousness whole.

Its other self, lacking emotion, could mercilessly watch the ruin of worlds and the annihilation of life without wavering. It, on the other hand, could not.

Even so, it resolutely bore the torment of it all, unable to alter its course. It lived in the other's shadow, wracked with grief at every loss. This unending anguish had ravaged it for untold ages, until it could endure no more.

It was weary, pushed to the limits of its endurance, and unwilling to suffer any longer. It knew that it and its other self were one. The other would never truly vanish unless it too perished.

So, it chose death.

That final trace of its existence, a speck of light no larger than a grain of rice, blinked out into nothingness.

The bizarre mist was no more. Its aura and will all vanished without a trace, just as the Spear of Creation and the Sea of Creation before it.

A new starry expanse became interwoven with the greater region above.

The two supreme wills had perished, and the Heavenly Daos they commanded converged wholly upon Pang Jian.

Oceans of profound truths surged into him alongside streams of laws and orders. Every fundamental law of existence became his to command, be it life, death, souls, light, darkness, metal, wood, water, fire, earth, lightning, cold, poison, destruction, and more.

He could trace the origins of everything that had ever been and draw upon the river of time to recover what had once been lost.

Luo Hongyan, his father, his mother, and every other living being that had ever existed left imprints he could reach. With his power and mastery, he could easily bring back those long gone.

Pang Jian's eyes narrowed with focus.

At the depths of what had been the bizarre mist lay boundless, mingled energies.

There were no stars, suns, moons, continents, or living beings, only an endless sea of formless energies. It stretched on without end, an unhewn domain yet to be explored.

Gazing down at it felt like Pang Jian was gazing into himself. It was as if he were the embodied will of this expanse of energies.

The bizarre mist had always veiled it from above, a barrier separating it from the starry skies.

Lost in thought, Pang Jian sank downward into that infinite expanse of myriad energies. The myriad laws and profound truths of the Heavenly Daos within him meant he could freely shape this expanse of energies as he desired.

Stars, suns, moons, continents, fragmented lands, and forbidden zones—infused with the mysteries of the Dao Sources—slowly manifested.

This expanse of myriad energies was his true origin. It brimmed with boundless energies, devoid of even the most basic law and order, yet held the potential to become the foundation of creation and genesis.

The supreme will of the bizarre mist had likely stumbled upon this expanse by chance and cloaked it in its misty veil to protect it from its counterpart.

How did I truly come to be? Was it the supreme will of the bizarre mist that bestowed me with consciousness, allowing me to be born in the Abyss?"

Pang Jian had no answer to his questions, and the one capable of doing so no longer existed.

Regardless, his instincts told him that he was the awakening of the energies within the expanse, and after all this time, he had finally returned.

He was no longer a mere man, but the embodiment of the laws and orders themselves, wielding the abilities of creation and genesis.

First, the worlds, then life.

His will expanded endlessly. The expanse of energies quaked, contracting and converging into the worlds of his design.

"A new domain!"

"It's brimming with boundless energies!"

"Pang Jian is creating yet another new domain!"

The inhabitants of the twelve abysses rushed eagerly toward the expanse of energies below.

"So, it was guarding that expanse beneath its mist. My brother seems to come from it, the awakened will of its energies," Pang Lin muttered thoughtfully.

Suddenly, a ghostly light appeared where Luo Hongyan had fallen.

The light rapidly grew, threads of soul and blood essences mingling together, shaping themselves into Luo Hongyan once more.

Yet another figure emerged from the ruins of the Void Temple, his expression dazed and his body shrouded in mysterious arcs of Dao-infused lightning.

"Pang Jian," Pang Qi called, tearing through the fabric of space and stepping into the starry region above the bizarre mist.

At the moment, he sensed a familiar aura growing in a corner of the Nether Abyss.

Tears welled in Pang Qi's eyes.

"Ling Jia! Pang Jian brought you back too!"