pertwk Chapter 16 The Cause of the Great Calamity, The Birth of the Gourd Vine
Chapter 16 The Cause of the Great Calamity, The Birth of the Gourd Vine
"Since we are fortunate to meet today, I will discuss the concept of eons with you, young friend."
"In my humble opinion, the rise of the Great Calamity is neither a deliberate act of Heaven nor a secret manipulation by anyone. In the end, it is simply the natural law of the universe: when things reach their peak, they decline, and when things reach their lowest point, they rise again."
"Behold, this is a cataclysmic event caused by ferocious beasts—"
As soon as the Dao Ancestor Hongjun finished speaking, the Jade Tablet of Creation descended with mysterious light, revealing the primordial scene at the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth:
When Pangu perished, the world was first created, and the lingering remnants and turbid energy of three thousand chaotic demon gods fell into the primordial world, giving birth to countless ferocious beasts.
These ferocious beasts were ignorant and only knew how to devour living beings and destroy all things. Among them, only the extraordinary Shen Ni was born with intelligence and comprehended the Great Dao of Slaughter. He found the supreme treasure of creation, the God-Slaying Spear, in the ruins of chaos and subdued the four kings of ferocious beasts, Chaos, Qiongqi, Taotie, and Taowu, by his own power. He established a ferocious beast dynasty, ruled over hundreds of millions of ferocious beasts, and ravaged the prehistoric world.
Within the illusory image, wherever Shen Ni passed, mountains and rivers crumbled, spiritual veins were wantonly hollowed out, billions of ferocious beasts devoured the sky and earth, and the surrounding innate spiritual energy was completely consumed.
The entire primordial world was shrouded in chaos and disorder, its laws were in disarray, and life was gradually fading away.
At that time, a primordial deity accidentally made a move and killed a ferocious beast that was harming the earth's veins. Unexpectedly, he received a golden light of merit that descended from heaven and earth. This light not only cleansed his magical power but also stabilized the three flowers on his head and solidified the fundamental source of his Dao.
Once this news spread, the myriad primordial races of the prehistoric world, along with powerful beings like Hongjun and Luohou, began hunting down and exterminating the ferocious beast.
Firstly, to protect the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, preventing the primordial world from being completely destroyed by ferocious beasts;
Secondly, it is also to seek the opportunity to receive merit from heaven and earth.
The great battle lasted for tens of thousands of years, and in the end, the Beast Dynasty was destroyed, Shen Ni died and his Dao disappeared, the God-Slaying Spear disappeared without a trace, and the four Beast Kings were sealed in various places in the prehistoric world to suppress their ferocity forever.
After this battle, the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans, having slain the most ferocious beasts and protected the widest territory, gained immense merit from heaven and earth. Their clan power grew by leaps and bounds, making them stand out among the hundred innate clans and thus rise to prominence.
The other innate deities also relied on their merits to cultivate in seclusion and made great progress in their cultivation, which goes without saying.
"Look again, this is the Dragon-Han Great Calamity."
Hongjun Daozu lightly flicked the Jade Tablet of Creation with his fingertips, and mysterious light flowed, the scene abruptly shifting to the vast and desolate landscape of the Dragon-Han Great Calamity:
After the great calamity of the ferocious beasts, the primordial world recuperated for tens of thousands of years. The dragon, phoenix, and qilin races, nourished by the merits accumulated, grew stronger and stronger, their populations multiplied daily, and their power expanded to its zenith.
The dragon race originated from their ancestral land in the East Sea, ruled over the four seas, and used rivers and streams to invade the inland areas, governing all scaled creatures under heaven.
The Qilin clan established their rule over the central land, gradually expanding southward until they reached the foot of Mount Buzhou, where they ruled over all the beasts in the world.
The Phoenix Clan resides in the immortal volcano of the south, its might dominating the heavens and ruling over all birds in the world.
Each of the three races ruled a region, their power and influence were overwhelming, and none of the myriad races of the primordial world dared to disobey them.
"When water is full, it overflows; when the moon is full, it wanes. When a race reaches its peak, its resources will eventually run out, and ambition will grow. This is the root of the great calamity."
Hongjun's Daoist voice, tinged with a hint of compassion, slowly resounded.
"When the three races had multiplied to their peak, the primordial spiritual veins and territories could no longer contain their expansion, and the friction between them intensified."
"At that time, although Rahu was hiding under Mount Sumeru in the west, using the bloody aura of the three races' battle to nurture the four swords of Zhuxian and secretly sowing discord, he was merely going with the flow and accelerating the outbreak of conflict. In fact, even without Rahu's schemes, the struggle for supremacy among the three races was already a foregone conclusion."
Upon hearing this, Ling Xiao nodded slowly in agreement.
Although the primordial world is vast and boundless, it will eventually come to an end. The three races of Dragon and Han will continue to multiply and expand, eventually occupying all the territory of the primordial world. A war between them is inevitable; it's only a matter of time.
What is a kalpa?
Ling Xiao had his own insights.
In its origin, the primordial world had no deliberate "punishment" or "regulation". The great calamity was simply a self-purification law that inevitably erupted after the reproduction of living beings, the expansion of power, and the accumulation of killings to a critical point, just like water overflowing when it is full or air leaking when it is full. That's all.
What people call merit and karma is nothing more than the self-preservation order that naturally evolved after the destruction of the universe through countless eons.
In Ling Xiao's view, there are two kinds of kalpas: ordinary kalpas and immeasurable kalpas.
The outbreak of ordinary great calamities is ultimately due to the increasing number of living beings and the lack of resources.
No matter how vast the primordial world is, spiritual energy, spiritual veins, treasures, and living space ultimately have their limits. As living beings continue to multiply, the number of strong individuals increases, and the clans grow stronger, resources will eventually be exhausted, leaving only the option of competition.
The struggles of individual beings are insignificant, but over time, in order to protect themselves and expand, all parties gather strength, establish sects or build clans, forming a huge power group that affects hundreds of millions of beings.
One move would lead to full-scale conflict, leaving no room for maneuver.
The fighting never stopped, the killings accumulated day by day, the calamity grew stronger, the violence intensified, and the grudges deepened. Eventually, the entire prehistoric world was engulfed in an atmosphere of slaughter. There was no way to avoid fighting, and once a fight broke out, it would be a catastrophe that swept across the heavens and the earth!
When the great war broke out, the strong fell, the races declined, and the excess living beings, the surplus power, and the accumulated killing karma were all wiped out by the flames of war. The calamity dissipated, the world returned to peace, and the great calamity came to an end.
This is not a deliberate manipulation by heaven and earth, but simply the natural law of prosperity followed by decline and adversity followed by prosperity, just as plants grow wildly until they become crowded and wither, and animal herds multiply to their limit and then kill each other.
This is an inevitable trend.
After the war, the foundation of heaven and earth remained intact, but the number of living beings decreased sharply. They recuperated and waited for the next cycle, which marked the end of an ordinary great calamity.
"Ordinary calamities can be avoided by hiding from the world, but immeasurable calamities are ten thousand times more dangerous." Ling Xiao thought to himself, his eyes darkening slightly.
Ordinary calamities are merely a great cleansing of living beings, without harming the very foundation of heaven and earth. For a primordial saint like him, as long as he does not actively enter the calamity, he will not be in danger of perishing.
However, the immeasurable calamity is different. It is a cataclysmic calamity in which all living beings fight each other to the extreme, and in the end, even the primordial world is destroyed. Just like the Investiture of the Gods calamity in later generations, when the Tongtian Sect Master, in a fit of anger, reenacted the earth, water, fire and wind, which not only caused the extinction of living beings, but also caused the primordial world to collapse and disintegrate.
At that time, the foundation of heaven and earth will be shattered, the laws will be damaged, the world's level will drop, and it may even return to chaos.
In short—
In ordinary calamities, living beings go mad with killing, and once a batch dies, peace returns.
The immeasurable eons are when living beings become so powerful that they overturn heaven and earth, the world collapses, and all living beings perish.
Even the heavens and earth crumbled; how could the primordial deities remain unharmed?
Even a saint who has attained enlightenment would not dare to claim that he could emerge unscathed from countless eons!
The Lich Wars that followed were precisely such an immeasurable calamity!
Thinking of this, Ling Xiao felt a chill in his heart. He suppressed his chaotic thoughts and focused on continuing to watch the scene being predicted by the Jade Tablet of Creation.
……
Meanwhile, just as the Dao Ancestor Hongjun was discussing Dao with Lingxiao deep within the Zixiao Palace, a preordained opportunity that would affect the fate of the primordial world was quietly manifesting in Buzhou Mountain in the center of the primordial world.
Mount Buzhou was formed from the spine of Pangu. It reaches the Thirty-Three Heavens above and connects to the Yellow Springs below. It is the backbone of the primordial world and contains the lingering charm of Pangu's origin. It contains endless innate spiritual energy and has been a place for great beings to seek out treasures since ancient times. However, due to its high altitude, dangerous roads, numerous restrictions, and the pervasive pressure of Pangu's might, ordinary gods and saints dare not venture deep into it easily.
"Buzz".
On this day, in an unnamed valley at the northern foot of Buzhou Mountain, a primordial restriction slowly emerged from the space-time interlayer.
The barrier is a chaotic color, engraved with three thousand mysterious patterns, exuding the aura of creation. With each turn, seven-colored rays of light soar into the sky, and thousands of auspicious wisps of energy descend, causing the surrounding innate spiritual energy to surge. The spiritual herbs and immortal flowers in the mountains all bow and sway towards the secluded valley, as if in worship.
The restriction circulated for forty-nine years before finally being activated by the divine forces of heaven and earth, and slowly dissipated.
Deep within the secluded valley, on a small, innate earthen platform, lies a layer of gleaming white, jade-like Nine Heavens Breath Soil. This soil grows and matures with life, nurturing all things and giving rise to spiritual roots.
In the very center of the Breath of Earth, there grows an ancient and vigorous vine. This vine, along with the Fusang tree, the Laurel tree, and the Hollow Willow, is ranked among the top ten innate spiritual roots in the primordial world. It is called the Innate Gourd Vine or the Creation Gourd Vine.
The vines are like jade, engraved with innate Dao patterns, and the green leaves are like gilded carvings, flowing with the clear radiance of the divine water of the three lights. Although they are only a few feet long, they contain a vast vitality and charm.
Seven gourds hang scattered on the vine, each in one of seven colors: purple-red, purple-gold, purple-black, purple-yellow, purple-white, purple-blue, and purple-green, each with its own origin.
The first six are already mature, with flowing radiance and natural Daoist charm; each one is comparable to a top-grade innate spiritual treasure.
Only the purple-green gourd at the very end remained green and dim, its spiritual light dim. It was only at the level of a high-grade innate spiritual treasure, seemingly lacking in innate essence. Not only was it not perfect, but it also affected the entire gourd vine. The jade vines showed signs of withering, and the original spiritual energy was gradually dissipating.
"Whoosh!"
Just then, a fiery cloud broke through the sky from outside the valley, and in an instant landed in the valley, transforming into a human shape. It was Hongyun, who was returning from Zixiao Palace.