Chapter 2: The Room
There are many conflicting tales across the realms, all attempting to explain the origin of Heaven. It is widely known that Heaven had a will—a consciousness of a sort. So it was not far-fetched to believe that it too had a soul.
So a theory started.
It is said that Heaven too had to comprehend the Universal Dao to become what it was and that it was not the primal originator of creation—that it had started as a part of something before becoming the realms that were known.
Some dismissed it as nonsense, others took it as a metaphor, but a few... a rare few, spoke of it with passion and inscribed it in their teaching.
Underheaven was one of the rare few.
Outside a universe that was rapidly expanding, devouring the void like a greedy beast—a faint crack appeared on its edge.
From that crack, a wisp of white light emerged. It twisted, shimmered, and was flung outward, away from the ever-growing universe.
The wisp drifted endlessly, hurled across the void until even the universe from which it escaped vanished from view. There, alone in the abyss, it finally halted.
And slowly, the wisp began to change.
It reshaped itself into the figure of an old man with long white eyebrows, a flowing beard, a serene face, and eyes closed as if sleeping. The only movement was the gentle flicker of white flames that still clung to his form.
The wisp remained still, motionless. To what could have been seconds, centuries, or eons—it was impossible to tell here. Time held no domain outside its respective universe.