If this world had no outsiders like Ding Yun, it would have been incredibly slow for the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons to regulate the world's yin and yang, or for other gods and demons to attempt imitation. They might not have even found the right path in countless eons, let alone succeeded.
But now, with pioneers like Ding Yun.
Everything naturally changed.
After all, they had experience, and most of them even knew what a complete world generally looked like.
Often, for many things.
What is missing is just a spark of inspiration.
While other pioneers lacked Ding Yun's deductive abilities and couldn't accurately calculate the specific steps to reach the level of the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons, they at least had a general direction. They knew that for the Five Elements Gods and Demons to reach that level, they needed to regulate the world's five elements and promote their mutual generation and overcoming cycle to form a grand circulation.
Once this general direction was established, it meant the Five Elements Gods and Demons had found their path. They no longer had to grope in the dark but could follow the correct path, gradually refining their corresponding plans.
This alone was enough to save them countless time.
And countless effort.
Therefore, at the very beginning of the world's creation, under the influence of Ding Yun, or rather, under the influence of Ding Yun and those pioneers, the process was greatly accelerated.
In the tens of millions of years that the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons returned to the Yin-Yang Grotto-Heaven and assisted the Taiyin and Taiyang Gods and Demons in nurturing the Taiyin and Taiyang stars, the world experienced more than a dozen similar major events, albeit slightly less impactful than those of the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons. Each event led to the world's expansion.
For instance, one million years after the complete separation of heaven and earth, the Five Elements Gods and Demons, along with their subordinate lower-level gods and demons—such as the Fire God, Water God, Wood God, Metal God, Earth God, as well as the Jia Mu God, Yi Mu God, Bing Huo God, Ding Huo God, Gen Earth God, Ren Water God, and other gods and demons of the five elements lineage—
Having learned and drawn inspiration from the knowledge gained from the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons' Grand Array of Yin-Yang Generation and Annihilation and the theoretical basis of yin and yang mutual generation and overcoming, they jointly established the Grand Array of Five Elements Cycle and Annihilation.
Through this formation, they fused heaven and earth, generating endless divine light of five elements generation and annihilation, which was then integrated into the world, especially into the origin of all five elements. Ultimately, they managed to engrave the rules of mutual generation and overcoming of the five elements into all five-elemental objects in the world. This not only expanded the world once more but also made their own laws more complete and pure. Their cooperation allowed them to exert several times their individual strength through mutual generation and overcoming.
It was a pity that the world had only recently begun to open, and things not governed by the laws of yin and yang were few, but there were still many things not within the five elements. Wind, lightning, space, and the like were generally not within the five elements. The purity and turbidity of yin and yang were superior to the five elements, so the degree of improvement they gained was naturally inferior to that of the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons. Fortunately, the gods and demons of the five elements lineage were content with what they achieved and ceased their endeavors.
As for other gods and demons, due to the precedent set by the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons in eliminating some of the primordial gods and demons who had attacked them, they did not dare to make a move against the Five Elements Gods and Demons at this juncture.
At most, they would observe and learn.
The only one who was truly annoyed was the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons.
This was because the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons genuinely felt that the Five Elements Gods and Demons were shameless. Although there were no patent laws or intellectual property protection at this time, seeing them so openly copying their formation, even appropriating the theory of mutual generation and overcoming that they had devised, and with their divine light of five elements generation and annihilation being a copy of the Yin-Yang Wuji Divine Light, the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons were truly infuriated when observing them.
They wished they could beat them up.
And make them acknowledge them as father, and pay some patent fees.
However, they were eventually persuaded by Ding Yun. Ding Yun's reasoning was simple: it was because when they initially separated heaven and earth and established yin and yang, they had inscribed the laws of yin and yang into the primordial origins and laws of the five elements of others. The Yin-Yang Wuji Divine Light had also been integrated with their origins and laws, establishing corresponding connections.
Without this, how could they have learned, comprehended, and used it so easily and without hindrance!
Without the mediation of the laws of yin and yang, their laws of five elements could not have formed a stable mutual generation and overcoming cycle. Therefore, even though the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons had some justification in their accusations, they did not have that much. There was truly no need for such an outburst.
Furthermore, once laws like the five elements, which were influenced, integrated, and interfered with by his laws of yin and yang, made progress, it also benefited him. Thus, the Yin-Yang Gods and Demons sighed helplessly and suppressed their anger.
Then, they simply closed the grotto-heaven, preferring not to see it.
This was the birth of the five elements, following the second creation of heaven and earth and the harmonization of yin and yang. The principles of the world's cycle were established by the five elements, and the primordial spiritual energy was further differentiated, making it more active, full of vitality and creation, and easier for life to emerge in the world.
At the same time, while the primordial spiritual energy containing the vitality and creation of yin and yang was very suitable for nurturing primordial beings, it was only suitable for nurturing higher-level primordial beings. After this spiritual energy was transformed into primordial Jia Mu qi, primordial Yi Mu qi, and other primordial spiritual energies through the genesis of the five elements,
The primordial beings born subsequently had lower innate foundations and potential, but their overall numbers increased manifold.
Afterward, more and more primordial gods and demons began to imitate.
However, some succeeded, and some failed.
The God of Destiny attempted to wield the destinies of various primordial gods and demons into a river of destiny that would encircle the world, but was attacked and killed by the primordial gods and demons who did not wish to have their destinies controlled by others. Although their true spirits were not extinguished, they still transformed into the river of destiny, but this river of destiny only contained the destinies of the primordial beings.
All the primordial gods and demons transcended it; only the fallen gods and demons would have their destinies returned to the river of destiny after death.
The God of Time established the temporal scale, and from then on, the Great Desolation gained the concept of time duration and the concept of eons. However, because the lifespan of the gods and demons at this time was extremely long, the shortest temporal scale was an eon, and one eon was equivalent to 129,600 years in later ages. Concepts like days and years were still absent.
After all, the sun and moon had not yet been born.
How could there be concepts of days, years, months, and seasons?
Because the God of Time only established the concept of temporal duration, and it seemed to have little impact on other primordial gods and demons, no primordial god or demon stopped him when he transformed into the river of time. By the time he succeeded in transforming into the river of time and, under the world's influence, began to encircle the entire world, connecting to past time, and even encompassing the past of many primordial gods and demons within the river of destiny, the primordial gods and demons were already powerless to stop it.
Fortunately, the God of Time himself was also trapped within the river of time, connecting the past and the present, and immersed in the continuous exploration of time laws to achieve perfection.
Therefore, the gods and demons could only be somewhat reassured.
At the same time, they each used their respective abilities to seal off their past, preventing other gods and demons from entering the river of time.
And seeking out their past to take revenge.
In addition, there were many primordial gods and demons who succeeded or failed. The only constant was that the world, through the relentless efforts of these gods and demons, was becoming increasingly complete.
And increasingly closer to the image in Ding Yun's mind.