Heavenly Venerate.
Nameless, it proves the principle in the realm of absolute silence.
Great images are formless, ascending to the profound amidst nothingness.
If only in the ethereal, the obscure all beings, can they not look up, hence the descent of images and the establishment of names.
"Innate Heart."
Ji Xiang transformed into... that Heavenly Heart is the heart released by Heaven, replacing the human heart, while the Innate Heart is drawn from a void thought that emerged when the world was empty and vast.
At that time, there was no Heavenly Heart nor Human Heart. Before both, the myriad Heavenly Venerates of the world, one of the most ancient Daos, observed this void thought, ascended in silence, bestowed great images upon the world, and sat amidst nothingness.
Nothing remained.
Nothing was preserved.
Constantly returning to the origin, receiving the worship of Heavenly Venerates, evolving into the profound image first seen by the Heavenly Venerates.
Later generations passed down tales, thinking of past things that governed the Dao, or generated the Dao, or moved within the Dao. Thus, various Daos, or more humanized ancient deities were shaped. The past was born from this and pushed further and further into the future.
The Dao, like the Green Goat, all wished to see the profound image.
Further ahead, no longer content to be mere legends, the source of all laws lies not in the past, but in the extremely distant future, or in the next instant after every passing moment.
The instant after each instant is the future.
In a single instant, countless transmitted voices arrived.
They came from further futures, continuously arriving here, pushing the present instant into the past. Like gathering sand to form a tower, like collecting down to make a coat, they piled up an incomparably magnificent ancient legend, and that legend, once piled up, continuously brought them power from the past.
"You also wish to re-prove the profound image."
Ji Xiang looked at Primordial Heavenly Venerate. Primordial Heavenly Venerate could not speak, but maintained its posture of worship.
To see the profound image, Heavenly Venerates are born.
To re-prove the profound image.
Is to be the true Primordial.
The future fluctuated, for the accumulation of the past stopped at this moment, blocked by Primordial Heavenly Venerate.
Ji Xiang saw, behind Primordial Heavenly Venerate, a path of time, within which a shadow appeared. He was doing something, and strange voices, like incantations, were transmitted, but they stopped behind Primordial Heavenly Venerate, blocked and severed.
That was Old Master.
As the only Yuqing cultivator eternally in the future, he was fully aware of the changes that had occurred in the past.
But he could not see Ji Xiang, nor the Innate Heart.
The scene Ji Xiang could see became clearer. It was Old Master standing in the flow of time, anxiously looking out from a future node.
His voice could not penetrate, but Ji Xiang knew what he was saying, thinking, and why he was anxious and fearful.
[Primordial Heavenly Venerate has a problem.]
[No one has yet proven to be Primordial, and nearly half of the Yuqing cultivators still exist. Why did the sacrifice to Primordial Heavenly Venerate disappear upon reaching a certain moment in the past?]
[Where have my transmissions that spanned the ages gone?]
[All Yuqing are true One, your Dao foundation is formed, and it is also in the ancient ones!]
Old Master, in the future, made his followers continuously transmit that he was Primordial. His Primordial nature was extremely grand, and he only needed to devour more than half of the Yuqing cultivators to completely replace the existence of Primordial Heavenly Venerate in the past.
But those transmissions disappeared, blocked by Primordial Heavenly Venerate for the purpose of re-proving the profound image.
The longer one is transmitted by later generations, the greater its spirit becomes. Green Goat is an example of this, and Primordial Heavenly Venerate is also something within Yuqing, even the source of Yuqing that was transmitted.
Old Master used his supreme method of returning to One, the divine ability called True One. It was the innate power that Heavenly Heart experts needed to condense when entering the Hunyuan realm. Old Master's True One divine ability had already reached the level of actively deriving "Dao One."
The Hunyuan realm, with a single True One power, was half a step higher than the Heavenly Heart. Old Master, however, was already countless steps beyond Hunyuan.
Ji Xiang could still see the past, but it was not as ancient as the current Primordial Heavenly Venerate. That was Yuan Huang. He stood in a certain period of the past, looking back at their side from afar, also with a face full of confusion.
Then, amidst the chaos of past and future, the phantom images of karmic connections also manifested. These were Qing Luo, manipulated by Old Master as puppets.
The shadows of Yuqing cultivators, even some deceased individuals, began to appear.
In different eras, it seemed that even if Yuqing cultivators were replaced by Old Master, they could still leave some indelible fragments.
Ji Xiang saw these people and the titles they once held, all names that Primordial Heavenly Venerate had transmitted in the human world.
"The people in the transmissions, Yuqing itself is the path in the transmissions, and those who gain the identity of Yuqing become the immortals and gods in the transmissions."
Every Yuqing cultivator is an incarnation of Primordial, not the true Primordial.
Now it seems, perhaps they can never become the true Primordial.
Old Master was the closest. He could forcibly create a new "Dao One" through the supreme method of returning to One. Even though this was created by replacing the life force of several Yuqing cultivators, it seemed that the path was wrong from the beginning.
Primordial Heavenly Venerate would not be replaced by them.
Primordial Heavenly Venerate could even prevent those transmissions from reaching it.
The longer it was transmitted by later generations, the stronger Primordial Heavenly Venerate became, and thus... the further later generations were from proving to be Primordial.
Only before Primordial can one prove to be Primordial.
"The more later generations think, the stronger Primordial becomes; the stronger Primordial becomes, the further later generations are."
"But since I have already become before Primordial, why should I become Primordial again?"
Ji Xiang knew that he had become the profound image. Amidst the void thoughts, the supreme Heavenly Venerate before him desperately wanted to obtain a method to break through the limitations from him, constantly offering worship.
But what could he give it?
This was the greatest and most ancient ultimate question.
What was the initial void thought thinking?
He himself was ultimately not the initial void thought.
Was the initial void thought something within the transmissions, or was it the existence of that void thought itself?
Something transmitted, then transmitting what it hopes to appear, transmission within transmission, the ultimate void within the void. In Taoism, this is called ultimate non-action and emptiness. It is said to be the true body of the Dao, which is nothing, obtains nothing, and its existence and operation cannot be known.
"Perhaps in the world, the Primordial that is seen, the Primordial that is transmitted, the Primordial that is known, are not the true Primordial."
As this void thought arose.
The form of Primordial Heavenly Venerate began to dissipate. It stared blankly at the place of the profound image where Ji Xiang was. That sense of vast desolation and loneliness emanated from it.
Primordial is not Primordial, but the void thought is also not Primordial.
At the moment Primordial appeared, where was it?
Or, if the Primordial defined in the world today is not the true Primordial that conforms to the Dao, then how should the true Primordial be defined?
With the definition gone, even Primordial Heavenly Venerate had to disappear.
Even Yuan Huang in the past, Old Master in the future, Qing Luo who turned into karma, their existence became fragments, as if they would no longer move. No matter how grand the plan or how careful the contingency, it all stopped, then vanished like smoke.
Of course, they were not entirely without reaction. Old Master's form twisted before dissipating. Yuan Huang disappeared voluntarily in advance. Qing Luo dispersed. Furthermore, a white light flashed, but its connection to Yuqing was no longer close, and it detached itself.
That was Christ, solidifying his identity.
But even so, the trace of the First Person was not seen.
The world no longer had Primordial Heavenly Venerate.
The world no longer had Yuqing cultivators.
Breaking the false and returning to the true.
Yuqing perished.
Void, is the beginning and the end, right and wrong, and even everything else, was gone.
"Cannot find the true beginning."
"Then it begins from this moment."
Primordial Heavenly Venerate returned. Everything in the perished Yuqing realm was restored. Only the past Yuqing cultivators were all gone. They were isolated outside the new beginning of Yuqing, becoming remnants of the old Yuqing.
Primordial Heavenly Venerate stood tall, exuding gratitude.
Re-establishing Yuqing.
He, too, had a span of time appearing before all things.
Transforming into the profound image.
And after all this happened, the cultivators of the old Yuqing were greatly shocked.
They still did not know what Ji Xiang had done, because they could not see the profound image.
But within their Yuqing timeline, Primordial Heavenly Venerate no longer existed. Old Master could not continue to transmit back and replace. Yuan Huang had escaped long ago, but could not enter this era of the second Yuqing.
The new transmissions began with Ji Xiang. During the time of the Innate Profound Image, they could not come here. The transmissions isolated them, causing them to cease to exist within this mythology.