1 - Heavenly Dao

There was a time when he would look at the heavens and ask; Would this injustice ever stop? Would he ever realize his dreams of a world where peace reigned supreme? Or was it just his naivëty or him being delusional?

Now he looked at the Heavens that lay bare before him and he felt—no, he knew, for the first time it was possible.

Ren Xue pressed his hand forward at the unending chaos that was this void and grasped at the ephemeral [Heavenly Dao].

The world thumped and shook, a tremor running through every planet, every star, and every being that lived there, as they felt their very lives being grasped by an invisible hand.

Ren Xue retracted his hand and looked above, a chaotic circle of lightning danced in the mad frisk of death.

He smiled, not at all bothered by the wrath of the heavens that he had triggered.

The lightning fell. The world grew silent as a divine spark of justice lit the entire galaxy in a show of divine punishment.

Ren Xue grasped at the space around him, his body releasing a mad torrent of energy; one so vast, so domineering that light from the star dimmed in a show of subservience.

The space contorted and compressed bending into a black hole that devoured the golden lightning from the heavens.

The space regained its calm, while the man with long black hair and calm grey eyes maintained his stoic face. Not a single hair was out of place even after he had faced the wrath of the heavens, while the scene away from him was a picture of destruction.

Stars that once housed this space were gone, the celestial bodies scattered into the space dust while the very space felt unstable and weak like a worn-out fabric.

Ren Xue was about to continue when he felt something, one second there was nothing, and then another second a man stood opposite him.

His long white hair and sea blue eyes were complimented by white furry tails and a pair of fox-like ears. He was grabbed in an ensemble of white robes as he gazed at him.

"What is going on? Why did I feel the Heavenly Dao quivering just now?"

Ren Xue, without a change of expression brought out an emerald green jar with florid patterns reminiscent of snakes.

"I am afraid you won't understand, so it is for best that you leave here."

The man in white frowned and was about to say something when he felt the space tremble before the fabric was torn apart leaving a gap in the void.

A tall woman with raven black hair and ruby red eyes wearing sleek battle armor and a long sword strapped to her hip. But her most outstanding feature—her curved black horns–glowed a shade of red as magma flowed through them.

"What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn't be back for another few decades?" The man in white questioned.

The woman whose focus had been on Ren Xue turned to look at the man, a playful mirth in her eyes, "You sound like a man who got caught cheating on his wife. Why, are you worried I would leave you if I found out?"

"You know I didn't mean it that way, so care to explain your sudden entrance. Is it because you also felt the change in [Firmament]."

"That's right, it seems our partner here hasn't been honest with us. That aside, how are the children doing, did they miss me?"

The man frowned at her cryptic words but her question only made him sigh, he answered, "Well, first of all, they are not children anymore, haven't been for a long time, so stop worrying so much and y—

Thump!

The man stopped as he felt a wave of energy wash over him. He turned to look at Ren Xue; later with his arms spread sent torrents of energy into the green jar that floated before him.

"Stop it! Ren Xue, stop whatever you are doing!" The cry from the woman seemed to stop Ren Xue as he looked at the couple before him, his face impassive.

"I thought you two were catching up with each other, done already?" Ren Xue asked in a calm tone his expression a picture of serenity, instead, the couple adopted an indifferent and cold look on their faces.

"Tempering with [Heavenly Dao] is a grave mistake, you should know better the consequences of such alteration."

The woman's words seemed to surprise Ren Xue who looked at her and asked, "It seems you have snooping around, what else do you know?"

"I know for a fact that the green jar behind you encompasses a fragment of the [Heavenly Dao] and you plan to use it as a medium to do whatever it is that you plan to do with the [Heavenly Dao]."

"Wait what?! [Fragment of Heavenly Dao], tempering the [Heavenly Dao]? What are you two talking about? How do you know that?" The man in the white ensemble seemed surprised at her words and with a frantic disposition asked one question after another.

The woman looking at her surprised husband calmly explained, "Well unlike you I am not lazy enough to ignore when the [Divine Realm] is undergoing a sudden change. I have known for almost a century now that he had been up to something so I did some digging and guess what I found out."

"And here I thought that I hid it well." If Ren Xue was surprised he didn't show it on his face. Not like it would have mattered, he had already made all the preparation so he wasn't worried about his plans being hindered, even if the opposition consisted of the two of the most powerful beings in the entirety of the universe.

"Well, you weren't exactly subtle about it."

The man in the white couldn't help but feel alienated, he couldn't understand how he didn't know about his friend being up to something shady, or maybe it was his wife who was just too perceptive. She was a dragon, after all, her senses weren't easy to be fooled.

Ren Xue looked at the two before him, his two best friends and then he looked behind him; the emerald jar with now faded patterns and he hardened his resolve once more.

"I will say it again, leave now and I promise that no harm will come to you or your family."

The woman took a deep look at him before turning to her husband. Suddenly she appeared beside the fox in the form of a man and send a thought to his head.

'Do not resist.'

The man surprised by her words was about to ask her when her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him in, her soft lips pressed against his and he felt a warm feeling flow from her being.

His soul experienced an intrusion. If it were someone else, they would've already been blown to smithereens, but he trusted the woman before and opened the gates to his soul. A blazingly bright golden cauldron now rested in [Soulscape].

The couple separated after a few seconds and the man asked, "What was that about?"

The woman on the other smiled and said, "An insurance, and tell the kids, I love them." And then turned to look at Ren Xue who was surprisingly looked to his right.

"Brother Ren, we are friends and have been for millenniums now, so if you need something, anything we can do to help you, please ask; but this, you have to stop this madness."

Ren Xue frowned. "You don't understand, you don't know, and nor will you ever."

"Then let us," the man in white asked, " you say we don't understand then let us, and we can resolve it together like we used to. You have let us help you."

Ren Xue looked at both of them and shook his head, "It doesn't matter now, so please leave while I am still asking."

-Vrooommm-

A tremor went through the space like a ripple through the water, the emerald jar spun like a wheel of a kaleidoscope, and the trio could feel the very fabric of reality coming alive as if the whole universe had turned into the innards of beasts.

"What are you doing?! Do you not understand the ramifications of your actions?! You can doom the entire universe, you madam?!" The fox screamed in fury as he felt the soul of the universe crying in agony.

Ren Xue paid no heed to the words of the man and calmly grasped the rotating jar as he felt his being melding into the very essence of the universe.

He felt powerful. He felt strength like never before. He felt Omnipotent.

[A God]!

That was who he was, what he was, and what he will be.

-Boooom-

That day the entirety of the Universe came to remember as the day of Annihilation when the various galaxies disappeared from this universe along with the three Ancestors.

The Ancestor of [Genesis].

The Ancestor of [Divine].

The Ancestor of [Order].

The beings in this vast universe speculated that three Ancestors had fought and killed each other and in the process destroyed various civilizations. But no one knew that truth.

Time passed and worlds changed, Eons later on a small planet of [Chaotic Sky World] a small cauldron released a subtle glow.