Wang Ling's eyes were wide open watching the falling plum blossoms on a wooden porch where tens of children played on the empty lot before him. The children laughed, while others wielded a sword while a brown-haired man taught them how to fight.

"Ling'er! I told you to help me teach them, did I not? Come on, Gu'er might hurt Mui again you know?" the man shouted with half-joking rage, "Hmmm? It appears you have no intention of answering me. Muhahaha! Do you want to have a taste of this Master's Seven Thousand Sword Pierce Punishment?"

​​

"Yeah! Do it, Master, Martial Brother Ling had been showing off just because he's the first one who got taught!" a young boy shouted.

"That's right, that's right!" a girl reinforced.

Wang Ling watched all this play out with a pleasant smile on his face. The brown-haired man approached Wang Ling and just as those hands were about to touch him, it passed through him as though it belonged to a ghost.

"Using the memories of my Master and my Martial Brothers and Sisters, how distasteful." He stated ever so calmly seeing how he somehow got subjected to illusion, "But, it is good to see them living like this, even if it is all fake."

Wang Ling laughed, waved his hand and erased the illusion before him, "My eyes gave birth to the Devil's Eyes, it not only sees illusions but reality itself, nothing can hide from these eyes. Why not come out and stop playing?"

"How intimidating." From the darkness was a figure wearing but a simple scholarly white robe. His face was an exact copy of Wang Ling, he seemed as though a reflection, but his sclera was black and his pupil's gray.

This being was no Devil Heart, it was no bedevilment nor qi deviation. This reflection was someone Wang Ling barely knew yet understood all too well. He was a man birthed from the hands of the man who started everything, and now became the ender of existence.

He was known by the moniker of Emperor of Death, the Ruler of the Abyss, or to Wang Ling, simply, the Gray Figure.

The greatest enemy of the Cosmos appeared before him, without any grand appearance nor special location. In the darkness, where Wang Ling's mind dwells, the Gray Figure invaded and tried to show Wang Ling the past.

They were once the same person, yet despite being pulled out of one another, they were much more connected than they had ever been before. The Chaos Qi they both possess, one belongs to the reality of Life, and the other the horrors of Death.

Their existence fight, different, but coming from the same mold… they remain the same.

"In the past, the simple thought of Master is enough to bring you into a sense of lost. The haunting image of how you killed the man who saved you was supposed to stick with you for all of eternity… but it appears, the moment of epiphany at your second death was no mere passing sentiment. True acceptance… how amusing, like your first life, you only managed to learn what matters when it slips past your fingers." The Gray Figure covered its mouth as it laughed at Wang Ling's life.

"I see, it appears my hunches were correct, you did manage to unearth my memories while you and I shared the same body. Stealing the memories of my past, assimilating them, and accepting them as your own, I wonder, did the traumas remain? Did the pain, and suffering I endure clung to the hungry empty, and lonely soul that is you?

"Though I doubt you needed newer suffering as I remember seeing a memory of you crying when we were together."

While sitting, Wang Ling moved his, the entire darkness was replaced by a desoalte land where swords, spears, and all sorts of weapon protruded from around them. It was the world where Wang Ling saw from joining the two walls he once had, the memories of the Gray Figure, the truth used to deceive Wang Ling.

"A desolate field where you faced the Holy Race and the Devils when you were abandoned by those you abandoned. I know little of this past for we separated before I could understand. You used it to show me the body you once called my destiny when in truth it was the Gift given to you by the father who loved you with all his—"

Swoosh!

The Gray Figure stopped his laughter as he looked at Wang Ling, interested by the change. The Gray Figure suddenly moved, six pairs of purplish-gray wings and haloes appeared from behind, his eyes turned sharp as a sword stopped just before Wang Ling's neck, "You know nothing of the truth… no one knows of the truth…"

Wang Ling just smiled, disinterested by his antics, "What is this, a show of strength?" Wang Ling lifted a finger and touched the sword's edge.

Crash!

The sword turned to light, and with the illusion Wang Ling recreated, all disappeared with a single touch, "Know this, Figure, you hold dominion over death, your army outnumbers every living being, your forces grow with time, but no matter what you do, even if you flip reality multiple times over, I still stand above you."

Wang Ling's words seem to have rattled the Gray Figure, but that didn't last long.

"HAHAHAH!" The Gray Figure burst out laughing, holding his stomach failing to stifle his laughter, "The smartest in the Cosmos, the most enlightened, yet… you know nothing still…"

The Gray Figure extended its hand, Wang Ling attempted to push it back, yet he failed to even move his fingers. The Gray Figure touched Wang Ling's face, caressing it as he moved closer to Wang Ling's face.

"We are of the same mold, but I have grown. Like before, I grow stronger with every combat that happens in this Cosmos, and now, I draw strength with every life reaped away. You know nothing of true strength.

"Soon, I will gather what I lack and I will be able to finally finish what I started. I will do what I promised to you—or rather… to the one before you—I will finish its liberation."

Wang Ling responded the only way he could to such provocation.

SLASH!

His sword moved and cleaved the darkness of the void… the Gray Figure's silhouette wavered and disappeared leaving the words…

"You have awakened Chaos inside you… we will meet again… Wang Ling."

The darkness of the void continued crumbling with the Gray Figure's disappearance, Wang Ling's body regained complete control of his body, and then, he smiled, saying, "It's time to awaken and finish this on the outside world."

CRACK!

From within the confines of a mountain is a hallowed room. Within was a room filled with nothing but pure qi and a solitary room, fitted with heavy qi confinement doors.

The sphere floated atop a mat on a platform, it was silent, but occasionally it would hum for odd reasons. It absorbed qi with impunity, not caring where it came from, not caring for its composition for it ingested and processed anything and after so long… the sphere cracked.

From within light came and filled the room before piercing the skies and then the heavens sending waves after waves of qi into the world it was confined in. The beings in the world saw the light, their faces contorted, conflicted, yet happy the next moment for the next moment, another burst of light surfaced from the center of their world.

CRACK!

At the same time as All-Father's awakening, the Mother of Beast's Egg also showed signs of breaking. The two Supreme Beings finally decided to come out from their respective shells.

Change was bound to happen.