Chapter 664: Formation Era

Today, having rested enough, Yu Lin planned to set out.

He stood by the window, lowered his head and glanced down at the street.

Lao Jun was still setting up his fortune‑telling stall in the residential garden.

A folding table covered with a Tai Chi Bagua diagram held a lot‑stick container, Copper Coins, a stack of yellow paper, and a brush.

Sitting behind the table, a long line stretched before him.

A circle of waiting people gathered nearby: some held phones filming, some craned their necks to look inside, some had been queuing for half an hour yet still pushed forward.

Lao Jun calculated at an unhurried pace, one after another.

The Tathagata was at the other end of the garden.

He sat on a folding chair, with a small table before him holding several strings of Prayer Beads, a few copper bowls, and some scriptures.

He used cinnabar to inscribe talismans on the Prayer Beads, then handed a strand to the waiting couple beside him; the middle‑aged husband and wife took the beads with both hands and thanked him repeatedly.

The Tathagata smiled and said no thanks were needed, then picked up a scripture, opened it, and recited a passage.

His chanting was not loud, yet it carried powerfully, drowning out Lao Jun's voice at the far end of the garden.

More and more people gathered around the Tathagata: some requested Prayer Beads, some copper bowls, others simply stood to listen to his chanting, leaving after a passage while others took their place.

The Tathagata smiled, finished a passage, took a sip of water, and continued chanting.

The Prayer Beads were soon all given away, the copper bowls exhausted, and most of the scriptures distributed.

People still surrounded the table, but he was unhurried, patiently attending to each one.

The two stalls filled the garden to the brim, leaving only a narrow passage between them.

People on both sides queued out onto the flower beds.

Members of the Civil Affairs Bureau and the Cultivation Academy who had arrived stood nearby to keep order, shouting continuously. Below, the scene was bustling like a market.

Yu Lin watched for a few seconds, then turned and left the window.

Light flared from his body, starting at his feet, spreading to his knees, then his waist, then his chest, until finally the whole person was engulfed by the light.

The light contracted briefly, like a person taking a deep breath, then dispersed.

Yu Lin vanished.

When he reappeared, there was no ground beneath his feet, nor sky above his head.

During the Void Era, the world was utter emptiness.

There was no light, no darkness, no heat, no cold, no anything perceptible.

This emptiness differed from darkness; darkness itself can still be described.

There was no up or down, left or right, no near or far, high or low, no past or future.

Yu Lin stood within this void.

In fact, saying he "stood" here is inaccurate, because there is no "here" to stand on.

His breath traveled far, far through the void without a medium, yet the sound reached out.

It indicated.

His very existence in a place that could not even be called "nonexistent" became a stark, undeniable fact.

His gaze fell forward.

In his eyes, the void was no longer empty.

He could see some extremely faint, almost imperceptible things drifting in the emptiness, like bioluminescent plankton in the deep sea, like the dimmest stars in the night sky.

Those things had no shape, no color, no texture, yet they were indeed there.

Fragments of cause and effect, remnants of karma, traces left after the previous world's destruction.

In the late Destruction Era, great fire consumed the Desire Realm, great wind scattered the Form Realm, the Great Flood inundated the Formless Realm, the three realms were annihilated and returned to emptiness.

Cause and effect did not vanish completely, and karma did not disperse entirely.

Cause and effect drifted, because no events existed to mark their sequence.

Karma also drifted, for no life remained to bear its circulation.

They shattered into countless tiny particles, floating in this endless void, awaiting the next convergence, awaiting the birth of the next world.

Those particles were scattered so widely that the distances between them were beyond any measurable number.

Each drifted and spun on its own, with no two moving toward the same direction.

Each particle resembled an independent Universe, living on its own orbit, intersecting with nothing.

Yu Lin watched the particles and stroked his chin:

"Interesting."

Formation Era will inevitably arrive, as it always does; the cycle of the world's birth and death needs no external force.

Yet these particles drift at their current pace, and it is unknown how long they must drift before converging—perhaps billions of years, perhaps never.

They need a push.

It need not be great, just a gentle shove to start drawing them together.

"Hmm, let's get to work."

Yu Lin raised his right hand, spreading his five fingers.

An invisible force emanated from his palm, spreading outward.

The scattered fragments of cause and effect and remnants of karma in the void were drawn by this force, beginning to move toward the same direction.

At first it was very slow, like glacial movement, like continental drift, too slow for the naked eye to notice.

But they moved, drawing nearer with each moment.

One year, ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years.

Yu Lin need not wait that long; what he intended was to trigger the process, not to finish it.

He withdrew his hand.

Those particles have begun to gather, changing from extreme dispersion to relative concentration.

The distances between them are shrinking, their mutual attraction is strengthening, and their speed of movement is increasing.

The convergence continues, and Yu Lin no longer needs to push; they will complete the remaining work on their own.

Yu Lin watches the pale gray mist formed by those particles.

The mist is small, much smaller than him, yet it continues to grow and thicken.

Inside the mist, motion begins; particles collide, the collisions generate heat, the heat makes the mist expand, and the expansion draws more particles together.

The mist starts to rotate, changing from chaotic drifting to orderly turning.

Yu Lin extends a finger and taps the center of the mist.

The mist bursts!

Destructive explosion, creative explosion! Universe's Big Bang!

The pale gray mist erupts from the center in all directions, not dispersing but expanding.

Its volume increases, density decreases, temperature rises, and speed accelerates!

It rotates, spinning faster and flattening, turning from an irregular mist into a flat disc!

The disc's edge spreads outward, while its center sinks!

The sinking center becomes heavier, hotter, and brighter!

Light shines from the center, not the sun, but a more primal, purer light that needs no fuel!

The next moment.

The wind rose!

The Great Wind Wheel naturally formed after karmic forces converged!

The wind blows outward from the disc's center, from bottom to top, from all sides toward a single direction.

The wind has no color, but it has force.

Its force is great enough to lift a mountain, great enough to support a sky.

The wind rotates in the void, forming a massive cyclone, its edge expanding from disc size to continent size, then from continent size to world size.

The cyclone stops expanding.

Water arrives!

The Great Flood Wheel naturally condensed after karmic and causal forces intersected.

Water seeps out of the wind, from every fissure of the cyclone, flowing from the center outward.

The water is clear, clear to transparency, transparent to invisibility.

Yet it exists, thick and heavy, laying atop the Wind Wheel.

The water surface is smooth, smooth as a mirror, reflecting the yet‑unformed sky.

Beneath the water, dark currents surge, flowing east to west, south to north, circulating endlessly.

Then.

The earth sank!

The Golden Earth Wheel formed from the essence precipitated in the water!

Earth rises from the water's depths, separating from the dark currents, accumulating, compacting, and solidifying point by point.

The earth's color is golden, softer than gold, warmer than ripe autumn wheat fields!

Yet the earth's surface is hard enough to bear any weight, its interior stable enough to resist any vibration!

Yu Lin stands on the Golden Earth Wheel.

Beneath his feet is solid earth, above his head is the rotating Wind Wheel, and around him flows water.

The world's foundation has been laid.

But this is still far from enough; more mountains, more seas, more heavens, more earth are needed, layers upon layers of Heavenly Path, Asura Path, Human World Path, Animal Path, Hungry Ghost Path, Hell Path, and the primitive peoples descending from Guangyin Heaven, who must regress, reproduce, and spread throughout the Human World.

Yu Lin crouches and presses his hand onto the Golden Earth Wheel.

Power seeps from his palm into the earth, moving deeper, farther, to every corner of the world.

The ground begins to bulge; at the center of the Golden Earth Wheel, a mountain rises.

Mount Sumeru!

Through the Golden Earth Wheel, through the Great Flood Wheel, through the Great Wind Wheel, continuously upward, upward, upward!

Its mountain body is composed of four gemstones.

The east is silver, the south is glassy, the west is ruby, the north is gold.

The four colors intertwine on the mountain, refracting a rainbow of light under illumination.

At its base are seven layers of Jinshan, each higher and brighter than the last, encircling like seven fences.

Between Jinshan and Mount Sumeru lie seven layers of sea water, clear enough to see the sand grains on the seabed.

The world is taking shape.

Around Mount Sumeru, the Four Great Continents emerge above the water.

The eastern Shengshen Continent is crescent‑shaped, its land silvery‑white, covered with fruit trees.

The southern Shanbu Continent is carriage‑shaped, its land glassy, bearing mountains, rivers, forests, grasslands, deserts, and snow‑capped peaks.

The western Niuhe Continent is full‑moon‑shaped, its land ruby‑colored, teeming with herds of cattle and sheep, its prairie endless.

The northern Julu Continent is seat‑shaped, its land golden, with no winter, eternally warm, and fruit that never runs out.

Seven Mountains and Seven Seas surround Mount Sumeru, layer upon layer, like concentric circles.

Between mountain and sea, heaven and earth, up and down, all boundaries become clear, solid, unshakable!

Almost there; this should be fine.

Yu Lin straightened up and withdrew his hand.

The Golden Earth Wheel beneath his feet still trembled faintly, Mount Sumeru continued to grow slowly, the Four Continents kept extending outward, the Seven Seas still churned, the Wind Wheel kept rotating, and the Water Wheel kept flowing.

But.

The hardest part is already done; the foundation has been laid, the framework erected, the world already formed.

The remaining parts no longer need him; cause and effect will operate on its own, karma will circulate on its own, and the law will perfect itself.

From the Void Era to the Formation Era, from nothingness to actuality, from non‑existence to existence, this step has already been crossed.

Yu Lin stood upon this freshly born world.

The wind brushed his robes, water lapped his ankles, and light fell upon his shoulders.

He lifted his head and gazed at the sky above, still taking shape.

The sky was vast, so vast that its top could not be seen. The Heavenly Path lay there, stacked layer upon layer upward, each layer brighter, lighter, and closer to the void than the one below.

The Asura realm lay on the mid‑slope of Mount Sumeru, their cities embedded between sheer cliffs, shrouded in mist.

The Human World realm spread across the Four Great Continents, its soil fertile, rivers criss‑crossing, mountains majestic.

The beast realm crawled upon the earth, swam in the seas, and flew in the sky.

The hungry ghost realm lay deep underground, forever famished and forever unable to find food.

The Hell realm was at the lowest depth, beneath the Wind Wheel, where flames burned and ice solidified.

"Time to go home,"

Yu Lin withdrew his gaze, turned, and light radiated from his body.

He vanished within this freshly born world.

The world no longer needed him, but it would remember his presence.

Fragments of cause and effect will retain his trace, the flow of karma will carry his breath, and at the Starting Point of the Formation Era he will stand there, giving a gentle push.

May 1st, taking a few days off, ha.

This month is about finished; after it ends, extra chapters will be added from time to time.

For example, the months when Yu Lin first met Jesus, the person sought by the Green Snake in the Ji Gong chapter, as well as her whereabouts, the source of the Overlord Power in the beginner reward, and so on.

Consider it patching the holes, hehe.

The new book is already being plotted, intending to write a god‑becoming novel.