Chapter 334: The Goddess Nüwa
Xiang Yu, the human empress, Li Yao, and the world core remained frozen in place for several seconds after the world tree had vanished.
[So... what did you do this time?] the empress asked, breaking the silence. She thought to herself that this guy always acted scared and paranoid, yet somehow always managed to bring home trouble.
Xiang Yu released a long sigh as he walked over to them and settled himself on a nearby stone. The empress positioned herself opposite him, the world core resting comfortably on her lap. Li Yao approached quietly, standing next to Xiang Yu without uttering a word.
Xiang Yu looked up at her, wondering what was up with her.
He realized he’d never seen her in this form irl before. The empress had mentioned Li Yao acting somewhat different in her "complete" form, but he hadn’t expected such a stark change. He wondered if she wanted to sit on his lap as she usually did but felt too shy in this form.
He patted his lap invitingly. Li Yao’s cheeks flushed with a slight blush as she gathered her courage and moved forward. She carefully lowered herself onto his lap, her movements hesitant.
"You okay?" he asked, noticing her discomfort.
"Ah...umm...uh..." she stammered helplessly, her entire face suddenly turning pink. Without warning, her body flashed with golden light, and she reverted back to her base state. Xiang Yu couldn’t help but chuckle, wondering if she ran away.
"Senior brother, are you okay? I was really scared!" the now-normal Li Yao spoke frantically, her hands running all over him, inspecting for injuries.
A few minutes later, after Xiang Yu had recounted the entire sequence of events, the empress wore an expression of complete shock.
[You actually dared to take over a branch of the world tree,] she exclaimed in disbelief.
"I didn’t know," Xiang Yu defended himself, spreading his hands helplessly. "I thought it was just a normal tree with consciousness."
"What is this world tree anyway?" He asked.
Although he had gained some information during the merge, it wasn’t particularly useful knowledge. He wondered if the empress possessed some insights that might help him understand what he had just gotten himself into.
The empress let out a weary sigh, her shoulders dropping slightly.
[In the celestial realm, there is a story we’re told as children...] she began.
According to the tale, back then, there existed nothing, not even chaos.
Only the Heavenly Dao and the Goddess Nüwa existed in this vast nothingness. Bored of living in emptiness, the Heavenly Dao stirred the void and gave birth to chaos.
Seeing the loneliness of this vast expanse, Nüwa’s heart was moved to profound sorrow and boundless love. Without hesitation, she made the ultimate sacrifice, tearing apart her divine flesh to scatter across the chaos. Each fragment became stars, planets, and built the foundations of the celestial realm.
Her bones became the foundations of worlds, her blood formed the flowing rivers of spiritual energy, and her breath created the winds that would carry qi throughout creation. Yet even as her physical form dissolved into the cosmos, Nüwa’s consciousness, pure and undying, sought a final resting place.
A single seed fell through the newly formed heavens to take root at the very center of creation. From this seed grew the World Tree, its branches stretching across all realms, its roots anchoring reality itself. Within the tree dwelled Nüwa’s eternal spirit, watching over all the lives that would flourish in the universe born from her sacrifice.
...
[There are different variations to the story, but this is mostly it,] the empress explained.
Xiang Yu sat quietly, absorbing this revelation.
He had assumed the World Tree was just a super powerful tree monster, not this kind of entity - something potentially on the same level as the Heavenly Dao. No wonder it had addressed the Heavenly Dao avatar with such familiarity, as if speaking to a close friend.
Speaking of which, the tree had mentioned that Li Yao was the Heavenly Dao avatar. Xiang Yu glanced down at Li Yao, who had long since grown bored while listening to the empress’s story and had fallen asleep on his lap.
Xiang Yu smiled softly, gently patting her hair. He wondered if the recent events had shocked her that much, she had actually fallen asleep despite being a soul formation cultivator. She must be really stressed with everything going on.
Li Yao: Hmph, so what if you are a goddess? Do you think that gives you the right to touch other people’s things? You’re lucky you escaped, but this isn’t over.
The empress, meanwhile, glanced thoughtfully at Xiang Yu.
She was surprised to discover that Li Yao was actually the Heavenly Dao avatar. She had assumed Li Yao was merely beloved by the Heavenly Dao, not an actual embodiment of it. But even more disturbing was how the World Tree had behaved toward Xiang Yu, acting genuinely terrified and even instantly destroying its avatar, probably to erase any knowledge of what it had seen.
What was it so afraid of?
The empress released a weary sigh. "I’m just an empress wanting to restore her empire and slay some enemies," she thought to herself. "How did I end up wrapped up with these monsters?"
...
In the Central Continent,
"So, what’s the plan? My herbs are dying as the energy continues to decline," Yue Lianyue, the sect master of the Sacred Moon Grove, spoke.
"We’ve spoken with the Mahayana realm ancestors, but we still haven’t received a response yet," Divine Sword Sanctuary’s Jian Wuhen said with a heavy sigh.
The other sect masters nodded solemnly.
They suspected that the Mahayana realm experts were probably too afraid of confronting someone with an immortal treasure directly and were trying to contact people from the upper realm to obtain a treasure of their own as countermeasure.
These sect masters, although all tribulation realm experts with power beyond comprehension, were actually just figureheads. The real powers were the ancestors and the original sects back in the immortal world. Each sect master exchanged nervous glances, they knew all too well that the mortal world wasn’t particularly important to their sects back in the immortal world.
If it was just this small mortal world at stake, the immortal sects might not be willing to bring out another immortal treasure to save them. They probably controlled thousands of other worlds just like this one.
As they silently contemplated their fate, the Heavenly Palace’s sect master, Tian Wuji, suddenly spoke up.
"I’ve received information from the ancestors," he announced. "Someone will be descending from the immortal realm."
...
Author’s Corner
Those who know Chinese mythology should’ve noticed that this is actually more towards Pangu than Nuwa. At first, I wanted to have Pangu as the creator since I’m a big fan but he’s more like a war god than a cute tree waifu, i didnt want to do him like that so I changed things up a bit.
Is this considered offensive? I’m really sorry if it is.