A cold silence hung in the air.

Yi-gang said nothing, and Cheongho simply sat still, only pricking its ears.

The one who moved was Yinglong.

She quietly crouched down in front of Cheongho.

“So your name is Cheongho.”

Yinglong slowly reached out her hand. Cheongho flinched for a moment, but quietly accepted the touch.

It was a mysterious thing.

Unless it was someone like Dam Hyun or Yi-gang, Cheongho was wary of people.

“Your mother wants to see you.”

Gumi was brought up.

Cheongho stared steadily into Yinglong’s eyes.

Yinglong had a human form, but you could tell just by her eyes that what was inside was not human.

Yinglong was looking into Cheongho’s essence.

“I will take this child in. I will teach her transformation arts and a few spells.”

Yinglong said it in a low voice.

Yi-gang replied.

“Please make it so it can survive on its own.”

“I will.”

Yi-gang was silent for a moment, then asked.

“Did you know what choice I would make as well?”

“Yes. But I did not know it from divination. One cannot see all futures. One can know only the futures that cannot be chosen.”

“Then.”

“I inferred you would choose that.”

The future that Yi-gang would take Yinglong’s dragon pearl.

Even though he had heard the prophecy that he would die with his heart pierced.

And in truth, Yi-gang was exactly that.

“If the Evil Cult truly awakens the evil god, do all the people in this world die?”

“Well, if ceasing to exist is the same as death. And if you see that god as an evil god, then that is correct.”

If everyone in the world would die, would it not be better to stop it and die with his heart pierced instead.

“Then it can’t be helped.”

Even the Heavenly Demon would acknowledge it.

That Yi-gang did not give up to the very end.

“Please take good care of Cheongho.”

Yi-gang reached out his hand toward the dragon pearl.

The more he looked at it, the more it was an object that emitted beautiful light.

Yi-gang’s fingertips were just about to touch it.

Yinglong warned softly.

“It would be best to hold your mind firmly.”

The moment his fingertip tapped it.

His consciousness blurred dizzyingly.

Yes, it was clearly darkness.

No, he thought it was darkness, but perhaps it was simply emptiness.

No, it was not empty.

All kinds of metaphysical things floated about and mingled together.

There was no sun, no moon, no stars.

Yet gases and solids that would become the material of those celestial bodies clearly existed.

There was no light, so he could not see. There was no body, so he could not feel.

And yet Yi-gang was clearly seeing that chaos.

In the beginning, there was chaos.

That was how it was.

Yi-gang was observing the world’s beginning.

By time, it was a little over forty thousand years before the present.

As he observed, that knowledge was already in Yi-gang’s head.

Chaos was not a void, but a state that was full.

It was like a gigantic egg.

And within that chaotic egg slept a god. His name was Pangu.

Pangu slept within chaos for eighteen thousand years.

One day, he snapped his eyes open and split the chaotic egg that enclosed him with an axe.

Then the world’s blue energy rose to the sky, and the yellow energy sank to the earth, and chaos gained order.

Soon, with those few bold axe strikes, Pangu created the future and the past, and founded the cosmos.

‘That can’t be. Wasn’t the birth of the universe the start of a massive explosion tens of billions of years ago. In only forty thousand years, how could a single giant….’

The part of Yi-gang that remained himself recalled common sense.

But that thought scattered lightly before the majestic sight.

Pangu braced the sky and stood on the earth with both feet.

Though sky and earth had separated, the gap was still narrow, so Pangu began to increase his height little by little.

Already a colossal giant, Pangu grew a bit taller each day.

And he continued that for another eighteen thousand years.

It was a feat for which the word “majestic” was not lacking.

Pangu’s panting breath rose into the sky and became clouds, and the tears and sweat he shed in pain fell and became seas.

When his mind swam and his gaze flashed, it struck down as lightning.

He let out a screaming cry, and that became thunder that still echoed across the earth.

At last, eighteen thousand years passed, and the sky grew high enough.

Only then was Pangu’s duty fulfilled.

Pangu looked down at the world he had made.

When had it grown so dizzyingly high? The ground was too distant to even see.

And Pangu collapsed like that.

When that gigantic body came down, it was only natural that an unprecedented earthquake struck the world.

Pangu’s dead body became the world.

‘What….’

Old tales, and myths, were things this absurd, and this mysterious.

The blood the dead Pangu spilled became rivers.

His bones became minerals and jewels, and his body became land and mountain ranges.

His gigantic head fell into the ocean and broke into countless islands.

‘…This is the beginning of the world.’

That was how the world began.

The first to appear in the world Pangu created were gods.

Naturally born divine beings came first.

Divine beings like the Three Sovereigns. Taihao Fuxi, who looked like a gigantic snake, flew through the sky. Shennong, with the head of a bull, overturned the earth.

There was also Nüwa, Taihao Fuxi’s sibling.

Nüwa thought this vast world was too desolate.

So she went to a riverside where Pangu’s blood was still thickly mixed.

She gathered the warm mud that had been Pangu’s flesh and made living beings.

Those were the earliest gods.

Yinglong, too, was born from Nüwa then.

‘Yinglong.’

Was this history something Yinglong was showing Yi-gang?

Yi-gang saw more of what Nüwa created.

After making all kinds of monsters and yokai-like things, Nüwa finally made something that resembled Pangu.

A person standing on two legs.

Smiling in satisfaction, Nüwa made many more like it.

The Five Emperors (五帝) were included among them.

So was it Nüwa, among the Three Sovereigns, who made the Five Emperors.

She made those godlike humans, but they did not multiply quickly.

Then Nüwa began to dance by the riverside.

Each time she stepped, mud splashed.

The droplets that splattered in all directions each became people, male and female.

They multiplied, bore children, and humans covered the world.

It was Nüwa who created humans in this world.

‘The age of humans.’

After that, the age of humans began.

The humans, not long after their creation, were large and mighty. Beautiful, and intelligent.

Their leaders were the divine humans who had been born first.

‘Huh….’

Humans flourished, formed groups, and built kingdoms.

Those who had lived in caves built huts.

Huts became proper buildings, and at last formed cities.

‘That is.’

Up to then, humans had lived together with the gods.

Small gods, and great gods.

And divine beings, including Nüwa who had made humans.

People moved so fast that it was hard to follow with the eyes.

In the accelerated time, there was only one thing that could be seen clearly.

It was Nüwa, who had been flying through the sky, falling.

Those small, insect-like things clinging to that giant god’s body were clearly the humans she had created.

‘Did Nüwa, one of the Three Sovereigns, die?’

Nüwa fell.

And was it because mere creations had slain their creator.

And so the world grew enraged.

The sun went out.

The moon turned red, staining the earth a dark crimson.

And perhaps the world perished.

Because when the darkness lifted, there was nothing left beneath it.

Watching that, Yi-gang trembled.

What had bloomed on the earth had clearly been a brilliant civilization.

And it vanished in an instant.

What remained was only ruins. No…

‘There are humans who survived.’

In truth, they were not much different from monkeys.

Every one of the surviving humans looked somewhat inferior.

Smaller, not beautiful, and violent.

They began to mate with each other and multiply.

As their numbers grew, they formed groups and clusters.

Once again, civilization arose.

And at some point, Yi-gang could tell where all of this was taking place.

‘…The Central Plains.’

The accelerated flow of time was slowing.

That golden glazed-tile building was clearly the Forbidden City.

If he turned his head to the west…

Xi’an. Yi-gang’s hometown.

The Baek Clan was there.

Not a burned estate, but an intact Baek Clan estate.

Yi-gang listened closely.

Along the wind, he heard voices.

“Oh my, why isn’t the baby crying?”

A worried midwife, and beside her a woman lying there, breathing hard.

It was his mother, whose face had now even grown faint.

And beside her, his father was holding a baby.

Baek Ryu-san held the baby who was not crying despite being just born, his face pale white.

“Try spanking his bottom, Clan Head.”

“L-like this?”

Yes. Baek Ryu-san carefully spanked newborn Yi-gang’s bottom.

Startled by the unexpected reincarnation, Yi-gang had burst into tears without meaning to.

“Waaah, waaah!”

“Oh dear, now he’s crying. That cry is really loud.”

“Heh heh, hehehe! A Young Clan headhas been born.”

His father, looking particularly young, smiled brightly.

His exhausted mother was smiling too, tears in her eyes.

That was as far as it went.

Yi-gang opened his eyes again.

He smelled the cave’s damp air, and in the dimness the light of the dragon pearl in his hand was dazzling.

It was still Yinglong’s cave.

Cold sweat ran down his temples.

Yi-gang had just contemplated roughly forty thousand years.

From the beginning of this world to now.

“Did you see it all?”

Yinglong asked.

Yi-gang nodded without realizing it.

For the first time, a smile rose on Yinglong’s face, which had been expressionless all along.

“Good. Then go.”

“Oh, he’s coming out.”

The first to notice Yi-gang returning was none other than Dam Hyun.

When he sprang up, Yu Jeong-shin, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, stood as well.

Before they knew it, it had grown dim.

It had already been eight hours since Yi-gang went in, and with him not returning, their anxiety was not small.

Yu Jeong-shin greeted Yi-gang, but the one who ran up to him first was Dam Hyun.

“Why isn’t Cheongho here? Didn’t it go in with you?”

Since Yi-gang did not even expect him to ask if he was okay or if it went well, he answered.

“While we carry out what we must, Yinglong agreed to take Cheongho in.”

“What? So you just handed it over like that!”

Even if he had heard Cheongho was handed over to some stranger, he would not have reacted like this.

Since Yi-gang understood that, he explained.

“It said its close with its mother.”

“…With the gumiho?”

Dam Hyun hesitated for a moment.

He muttered as if confused.

“Then it can’t be helped. No, maybe it’s for the best….”

As Yi-gang passed Dam Hyun, Sun Wukong ran up like the wind.

He took the dragon pearl from Yi-gang’s hand and broke into a broad grin.

“To think you’d really bring this back!”

“Why did you need it?”

“Fine. I’ll tell you now.”

Sun Wukong spread both arms wide in an exaggerated pose like he was on stage.

“Those whose fates are tied to yours asked me because they wish to join the battle….”

“I will bring down Zhang Sanfeng, the Heavenly Demon, and Bodhidharma!”

Sun Wukong shouted confidently.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep