Chapter 2: The Causal Origins Behind the Fall of the Kunpeng

Seated firmly upon the meditation mat, the Sage Zhunti caught the glance of the Sage Receiver and immediately understood his intent. He glanced about, his eyes falling upon the Three Pure Ones, noticing the immortal radiance surrounding them, the profound aura of Da Luo suffusing each of them. Though they made no effort to display their power, the difference was palpable; neither he nor his brother could compare.

His gaze finally rested upon the three-foot Azure Edge behind the Sage of Supreme Purity. Even its faint, hidden sharpness pricked his very soul, forcing him to look away. He then looked toward Nuwa, a subtle light flickering within his eyes, only to discover another gaze fixed intently upon him. Tracing its source, he saw that it was Fuxi, and, showing no change of expression, looked elsewhere.

At last, Zhunti’s eyes landed on the venerable Kunpeng. His brows rose faintly, and he spoke in a low, stern voice, “Kunpeng, this is a place where sages discourse on the Dao. How can a lowly, feathered beast like you presume to sit among us? You would do better to relinquish your seat and offer it to my senior brother.”

At these words, Ancestor Kunpeng opened his eyes, anger flickering within them. The mat held mysterious benefits, and he had sensed its wonders upon sitting. Just now, at a crucial moment of insight, Zhunti had used a mind-stirring art to disrupt his comprehension!

“Ancestor I—” Kunpeng’s heart burned with fury, but just as he began to speak, his words were drowned out by the voice of the Sage of Jade Purity, who sat upon a mat as well. “Zhunti speaks truly. How can a creature born of dampness and eggs presume to occupy such a seat?”

“Ancestor I—” Kunpeng tried again, but Zhunti cleared his throat, activating a mystical power that pressed his anger down. “Jade Purity is the true heir of Pangu. His words are just. Moreover, Friend Hongyun offered his mat for the benefit of all beings in the West. Why are you unwilling to do the same?”

“Outrageous!” Kunpeng was quick-tempered by nature. Still reeling from the interruption, he did not expect Zhunti to strike at him so cunningly, nor for Jade Purity to join in, the two of them working in concert to belittle him. Meanwhile, the Sage Receiver watched hungrily from afar.

With a stir of his spirit, three blossoms unfolded above his head, revealing a massive illusory form: a whale swimming through the primordial wilds, a great roc spreading its wings. As it shifted, countless black holes collapsed and reformed, distorting time and space, swallowing everything.

“I have never seen such shamelessness! Since Pangu split the heavens, countless kalpas have passed, but never have I heard anyone claim ownership of these mats. Why should I not sit here? Jade Purity, you sanctimonious sage, all beings born of damp and eggs are children of Pangu, do you not know this?”

Zhunti, for all his talk of the West’s living beings, could hardly claim that any among them were like himself, a feathered beast. When he finished, he looked to Emperor Jun and Taiyi, but both wore indifferent expressions, offering him no support. His heart grew cold, and he closed his eyes, making no move to yield.

Such thick skin! Zhunti kept talking ceaselessly, but seeing Kunpeng unmoved, he silently cursed him again as a “feathered beast” and exchanged a secret message with his brother, plotting together.

Jade Purity’s expression shifted at Kunpeng’s words, a hint of displeasure in his eyes, but he could not be bothered to argue further. With a single gesture, a towering sacred mountain manifested above Kunpeng's head and crashed down.

Within the mountain, stars and rivers flowed, the Dao itself present. To the eye it seemed only a hundred or a thousand yards high, but in truth it was boundless. Silently, the mountain descended, and as it touched the illusory form above Kunpeng, it began to dissolve, shredded and devoured by the apparition.

Yet, as the true heir of Pangu, Jade Purity's cultivation had long since reached the pinnacle of the Da Luo Golden Immortal, and his prowess far surpassed Kunpeng’s. Kunpeng’s display was a reflexive defense, but under Jade Purity’s forceful attack, he could not help but grunt in pain. His aura surged, the great roc above his head unfurled its wings, halting the sacred mountain at the critical juncture, while the giant whale opened its maw to swallow two-thirds of the mountain in an instant.

Just as Kunpeng managed to hold his ground, Zhunti’s eyes brightened. Caring nothing for decorum, he waved his sleeve, and a flash of rainbow light slashed away a large portion of Kunpeng’s illusory roc.

“Not good!” Sensing the balance lost, Kunpeng knew he could not withstand another blow. In embarrassment, he withdrew from the mat; the sacred mountain pressing upon him vanished as he rose.

Receiver, seeing this, did not hesitate—he appeared on the mat in a blink, sitting serene and unperturbed.

After leaving the mat, Kunpeng sensed in some mysterious way that he had lost something, though he could not describe it. The stifling resentment in his chest was impossible to dispel.

“So this is how the true heirs of Pangu behave—utterly shameless!” He shouted at the ones seated on the mats, his cold eyes fixed on Jade Purity.

The Sage of Supreme Purity, sitting upon the first mat, frowned at these words and glanced at Jade Purity, but then relaxed and looked away. The Sage of Upper Purity, however, let sword-light flicker in his eyes, the Azure Edge on his back trembling, and looked at Kunpeng. “Do you wish to settle this by force?”

Kunpeng stifled his frustration, swept his gaze around, then remembered Emperor Jun, Taiyi, and the assembled Da Luo of the demon race. With a string of cold, bitter laughs and curt “good!”s, he turned away to a corner, his eyes falling upon Ancestor Hongyun.

As a Da Luo Golden Immortal, Kunpeng was nearly indestructible. Though he had not witnessed the moment Hongyun gave up his seat, by gazing across the river of time and space, he saw the cause and effect clearly.

As for Ancestor Hongyun, he was at that moment quietly contemplating his own transformation, paying no heed to the outside world.

...

Within the mists, an astonishing scene unfolded...

A wisp of Ancestor Hongyun’s soul stood on high, silently observing in wonder.

In his eyes, the dense fog before him resembled...chaos itself.

Unlike the primordial wilds outside, filled with earth, fire, wind, and water, where none below Da Luo could escape, this chaos was utterly still. To put it plainly, it was as if it had been “formatted.”

Hongyun was at a loss as to its purpose, attempting to deduce its cause, but found nothing in the web of causality; gazing into the river of time and space, he could not trace its path.

In that moment, a pair of enormous eyes formed in the fog, gazing upon him, merging with him.

It lasted but an instant; the eyes appeared and vanished so quickly that he barely registered it, yet felt a sudden, subtle enlightenment within himself.

At the same time, Hongyun sensed someone observing him from afar. With a thought, he left that wisp of soul in place, opened his eyes, and followed the sensation with his gaze.

There—

He needed no divination; with a glance, he saw in heaven and earth a new thread of causality attached to him, and a faint malice emanating from it, darkening his expression.

So be it. If wronged, so be it.