Interlude 1-W-The Goddess of the Cosmic Sky

I was once told that inhabitants of earth developed a taste for sunbathing. A method of relaxation deemed healthy for people. I have to agree, though my definition is probably a lot different from mortals. Only someone like me can float in space and eat in the rays of a primordial star.

It also provides a good place for me to relax and think. To reminisce about the past. To all the ongoings of the world. A big difference from how I was in the past.

The earliest memories I had were a blank void. I don't know how long before I became accustomed to my surroundings. I couldn't see, couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. I simply existed in a void of nothingness.

"Oh?" But after a while of existing like that, I heard a voice. A deep gruff voice but one which spoke in a method beyond my understanding. Because truth be told, I couldn't understand anything at the time.

"This is new," that same voice had said. "What are you doing in there? What is your name?"

I didn't, couldn't answer him. I didn't know how to. But I wanted to. I wanted to know what he was, of what I am. There was so much I wanted to ask that I even surprised myself. Was I getting smarter because I couldn't remember knowing these things before nor how to even express them in words.

But somehow, on that day I suddenly understood language. Suddenly I spoke the same tongue as him. Well spoke is an exaggeration as I couldn't speak, but I did understand him.

"Not answering?" He sounded almost surprised. "Hm…Oh, I see. So you are the first."

First? I remember asking in my mind. First of what? What did that even mean? The sudden surge in my knowledge was still overwhelming me. I barely understood what he said.

"Hm, let's try this. Follow my instructions," he instructed. I accepted and followed along, after all, what else could I do?

"Feel that tug within you, that spark. No, no, no, not like that," he said. "Here, let me show you. Feel this," he said sending some sort of signal my way. I felt it, then I followed it as best I could.

"Yes, well done child," the voice said again. I could understand him better after that, in fact, I could almost see him. The vague outline of a man. In comparison to what I see daily nowadays, he was massive. Above all else, he was powerful.

He was massive, he was tall, he was gargantuan, so many words to describe him yet they are all synonyms of big or powerful. He seemed invincible in this world, more than something like me. It was then that I truly felt insignificant.

"Ha, ha, now you can see," he said. His face was blurry to my senses. But I could make out his features. He had a lot of hair, so much hair in fact that I'd liken it to a forest.

He had been holding up something, his arms outstretched and held high. Honestly, I couldn't see below his upper sternum. Whatever was below was obscured by a veil I couldn't penetrate. Or it was simply too far for me to see.

'Who are you?' I asked. At that time, I was incredibly excited. It was a break away from my norm. I was meeting with something completely new, someone new.

"Me? Well, I am Pangu of course," he answered. Pangu, what a strange name. Just the words alone spelt something super ancient. Older than me, quite possibly vastly older than me.

"What is your name?" He asked me. I couldn't answer him, I didn't know what I could be called. It was not like the current me, where I could definitively say who I was, what I was, what I like, what I do, or anything like that. I would say that I detested the form of being I once was.

"Don't know huh?" He said. I didn't know how he knew what I had been thinking. But thinking now, Pangu's cultivation was so high that he'd have no problem reading my mind, even as abstract as I was.

"I am sure one day you'll know my child," he said kindly. "One day, you'll find out for yourself, after all, you are the first xiantian lifeforms in my primitive world," he said with pride.

At the time I didn't know what a primitive world was. But I was curious, I wanted to ask what it was and where it was. Could I see it? Could I experience it? Was it as magical as learning as I'd done just moments prior?

"Well, the pri…Oh, I hadn't noticed," he said with some sadness. I was initially confused, but then I saw his presence fading. "I'm sorry my child, my time has come. Eighteen thousand years, such a short amount of time. I wonder what Vishnu will think of me now. Wonder how Ra's doing, is he still having beef with Apep? And how are that group calling themselves the protongenoi, I remember them starting a civilisation recently not unlike the chaos godfiends."

What? So many names, so many names that I was overwhelmed. What are you saying? Who are these people? Were there more like you? Like me? I wanted to meet them. I remember desperately asking for more as he faded.

"Hai, I wonder if it was the right choice," he didn't seem to be talking to me. "I am sorry for wiping out you all. Can you forgive me for my selfishness? Hai, the most I can do to repay you is to allow you to exist in my world."

Then he was gone. And I was enveloped in void again. I took a few moments, then I screamed. Where are you? Come back? Don't leave me! Don't leave me alone like this! What am I supposed to Do?

After how many years after I stopped weeping. I finally looked up and saw a sea of blinding stars. Massive celestial bodies in the far off distance, so far away from me. To alleviate my time, I started counting. One, two, three, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes I'd miscount and start again. It was tedious and annoying, I made progress only to restart again. But in actuality, I was intentionally making these mistakes. Because I didn't want this to end. If I finished counting, what else was I going to do? That space was so empty, so lonely aside from me and the stars. Just us in this black world.

Eventually, I started noticing the stars becoming fewer. They weren't disappearing, they were merging. I gasped in shock when I counted three hundred and sixty four before I'd noticed. There were once trillions of them, I'd regularly reach the billions before resetting. What now? There were only three hundred or so left.

I sat there for many more years. Now I truly had nothing. Why isn't anyone here? Why wasn't anyone talking to me?

"What do we have here?"

That voice changed my life forever. For the first time since forever. I looked away from the stars and turned my gaze downwards. I had been sitting on grass was the first thing I noticed. I was resting on roots was the second thing I noticed. The third thing I saw was a curious old man holding a horsetail whisk.

"Can you speak yet? Curious, you can see but you can't speak. You are already so powerful but you don't have form? What kind of godfiend are you?" He asked.

'Who are you?' I asked back. He didn't seem to be able to understand me. But he didn't leave. He sat down and closed his eyes in contemplation. So I waited, I waited for him for years.

He opened his eyes after a few thousand years had gone by. "Follow my instructions," he said. I accepted of course. Then he guided me.

First I felt energy, primordial Qi. Then I condensed it. I morphed it into shapes I desired. My helper was smiling as he instructed me. As he went on, I got better. He taught me how to make sounds, how to properly speak, how to project my thoughts outwards rather than simply thinking. He taught me how to harness the primordial stellar Qi. He even corrected me on the number of stars, turns out, there were three hundred and sixty five as I had neglected to count the one star I existed on.

"Well now, preparations should be complete. It's time for you to take form," he said kindly. I acknowledged him, so I began the process. Three flowers appeared mid air as storm clouds gathered above me. They struck me but I persisted, they weren't actually that tough after all.

Afterwards, I felt a tugging. Admits my assault by lightning, fire, wind, rain, ice, and a whole bunch of other things. I felt a tugging at the universe itself. So I pulled, and I ripped out a golden gas that flowed into me.

My first step into the world was a wobbly one. I actually fell and had to craw for a bit. My helper, the old man was laughing at my embarrassment as I pouted at him. He handed me a change of robes.

I raised my eyebrows, what were these for?

"Hai!" he said. "You need to cover up your modesty," he said. I was a bit confused but I obeyed all the same. After I was done, I looked back and saw what once housed me. It was a laurel tree, the biggest one of its kind. Of course, back then it was the only one of its kind that I was aware of. It was a truly majestic sight to behold,, it was simply beautiful, but also powerful.

"So, what's your name?" He asked me.

"Wangshu," I answered him.

"Wangshu?" He asked for confirmation.

"Yes, I was once this tree so majestic that it must be the king of trees. So I am Wangshu," I said.

"Fine, I am Yang Mei," he replied. That was how I met my first friend. He was both my friend and my mentor. He taught me a lot of things, he told me about the Chaos Godfiends, about his old travel buddies, about his brothers in arms. Tian Hai and Huoyun, there were so many stories about them that I wanted to meet them.

"They will show up, I'm sure of it," Yang Mei said sadly. He told me that he was one of the first to reincarnate so he wasn't aware of much. Apparently, the primitive world was a space that existed below where I am. That's why I couldn't find it, it was too far out of my range and in another dimension.

Yang Mei couldn't stay unfortunately, he had to go and travel. Sometimes I followed him. Sometimes I stayed behind. But he'd always come back once in a while and tell me stories. I wanted to travel to the Great Wilderness too and explore all corners of the Primitive World.

But Yang Mei wouldn't let me. "Too dangerous he said," he said. "My contemporaries would see through your origins and desire the Laurel Tree, they'll hunt you," he said. A seal was placed on me despite my protest and I could only watch from afar.

There was only me here.

Only me.

And then years passed just like that.

Then I finally met Tian Hai. Or well, turns out he was Da Hai. I was honestly a bit confused at first. But, in that moment, I met my second friend in the world. We talked, drank, and hung out.

Fought a war together as well. He was responsible for saving my life and I his. I even met the famous Huoyun. Though meeting is a bit exaggerated as we only met briefly. But he was instrumental in saving my life as well.

Hongjun and Luohu. I remembered feeling fear for the first time when they turned to us. But I made it in the end. No one aside from Da Hai even really comes to the starry skies.

Oh Da Hai, you were so loyal, you made an excellent companion. Even though he's long since passed, you still wish to avenge him. But I worry about you. I could feel your hatred then and I could feel it now. It's not healthy withholding it for so long.

It's not like I don't understand. I want to help you as well. But your plan, it sounded a bit dumb. Training up the dragons and using them as your army? Then what, armies are useless in the face of a superior foe, I can fight the entire four seas by myself and win with both hands tied behind my back blindfolded.

I hate how you are right now. I hate how dishonest you are right now. Your current disposition is not good. Why must you keep doing this? I can see how this is all destroying you.

Truthfully, I don't think you know what you're going to do. I don't think you think that you could win. If what you told me about their legends are true, I don't think I'd win. If only Yang Mei will come back, I miss him.

But at least one good thing to come out of the current state of the world were the dragons. Qinglong looked so adorable running around the starry skies practicing stellar arts. I wonder if I should take in a few disciples as well. Sadly, no one in the primitive world fits my requirements. Then again, I hadn't been looking that hard

I opened my eyes, the closest star shone brightly. It's the little things about life that counts. Constant vying for supremacy just isn't my style. Just relax and enjoy the world. I certainly hope Da Hai can understand this. I think he wants to deep down. But he's become so obsessed that he can't even perceive that desire.

I floated upright and looked behind me and smiled. Ever since I grew in power, my connection to the lunar star had strengthened. I can now move it with me everywhere. Of course, taking into the primitive world will cause a big commotion but here in the starry skies, it was fine.

Hm? What that? I looked at a small disturbance near me. It appears t be some kind of tree branch. Wait a minute. Is that a fucking hole in my starry skies?