Chapter 667: Dividing the Original Being

Watri waited at the door for a long time.

He waited from winter to spring, from spring to summer, from summer to autumn, and from autumn back to winter.

In the neighborhood garden, the leaves turned green then yellow, yellow then fell, fell then turned green again.

Lao Jun and the Tathagata's stalls would appear and disappear; sometimes both were present, sometimes only one remained, sometimes neither was seen.

Watri dared not urge, dared not ask, and even dared not stand at the door for too long, fearing Yu Lin's displeasure.

He rented a room nearby, coming at daybreak and leaving at nightfall, day after day.

During this period, Yu Lin went to many places.

He went to Mesopotamia, ancient Babylonian mythology,

There was no sky, no earth, only an endless Sweet Sea and Salty Sea.

The Sweet Sea was called Apus, the Salty Sea Tiamat, and the two waters flowed separately, never meeting.

Apus lay below as the water of the underground, Tiamat above, with an invisible barrier between them.

Yu Lin stood between the two seas, raised his hand, and tore the barrier apart.

The Salty Sea poured down, the Sweet Sea surged up, the two waters collided, raising a sky‑filled spray!

Chaos was born in the mist, and the first gods rose from the chaos.

Because the gods' clamor was so loud that Apus and Tiamat could not sleep.

Apus and Tiamat decided to kill them.

The gods would not sit idle; they united to resist.

Finally.

With Yu Lin's slight push,

E'ea killed Apus, and Marduk killed Tiamat.

Marduk split Tiamat's corpse in two, making one half the sky and the other half the earth.

As for the others,

they also became part of the world.

Then.

Yu Lin then went to Aztec Mythology.

There, the Supreme Deity dwelled at the highest point of the Universe, genderless, solitary, neither born nor perishing, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Yu Lin approached the deity and passed a force of differentiation into its body.

The Supreme Deity's body began to split, a fissure opening in the middle; the left side turned into a male visage, the right side into a female visage.

The male visage was called AoMeiTeKuTeLi, the female visage AoMeiXiWaTeEr.

The two visages combined and bore four sons.

The four sons each governed one of the four directions—east, south, west, north—and upheld the sky and the earth.

Yu Lin stood on a high cloud layer, watching the four sons gradually grow limbs, gradually open their eyes, and gradually lift the four pillars of the heavens.

After that.

He went to Maya Mythology.

There, the creator god was called Wu Na Bu·Ku, and He sat alone in the void, having sat for a very long time.

He wanted to utter a word, but did not know how to begin.

Yu Lin walked to Him, reached out, and tapped His throat.

Wu Na Bu·Ku's Adam's apple rolled once, and He opened His mouth.

He said, "World."

Chaos split, heaven and earth separated, and mountains, rivers, and streams surged out!

He said, "Light."

Light rose from the darkness, illuminating the earth.

He continued, "Man." From the soil emerged the first humans, who could walk, speak, and look up at the sky!

Wu Na Bu·Ku, after speaking those three words, closed His mouth, closed His eyes, and stared blankly once more.

Yu Lin turned and left.

Watri did not know any of this.

Or rather,

Even if He knew, it was of no use; all He could do was wait.

But his waiting was useful.

Today, Yu Lin's voice echoed from inside the house.

"Come over."

Watri instantly became alert.

He ran up the stairs, ran down the hallway, and ran through Yu Lin's door.

He stopped in front of Yu Lin.

Yu Lin sat on the sofa, watching Watri take out a clay jar.

The jar was small, its surface unadorned, glaze gray‑yellow, as if casually salvaged from some street stall.

He opened the lid.

A ball of light floated out of the jar.

Thumb‑sized, it hovered in midair, shaped like a person.

On close inspection, that person had a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet.

A thousand heads looked in all directions, a thousand eyes opened and closed at once, and a thousand limbs swayed slowly in the void like tentacles.

The fish in Yu Lin's mind swam out.

It opened its mouth and swallowed that ball of light in one gulp. The thousand heads, thousand eyes, and thousand limbs flashed inside the fish's mouth, then fell silent.

The fish flicked its tail and swam back to Yu Lin's brow.

The text materialized before Yu Lin's eyes.

【Task: Dividing the Primal Man, Creating the World】 (India has many creation schools; this uses just one.)

【Reward: Primal Man's Origin】

Yu Lin glanced at the line of text, withdrew his gaze, and gestured to Wa Te Li.

"Hmm, you may go now."

Wa Te Li's lips moved slightly, but he still didn't ask anything.

Afraid that once he opened his mouth he'd say things like "no rush", "still can hold on", "last in line", and worry he'd mess things up again.

He closed his mouth, cradled the earthen jar, bowed deeply to Yu Lin, turned, and left.

Footsteps receded from the doorway, growing farther away.

Yu Lin stood up, transformed into a streak of WhiteLight, and dissipated in the living room.

When he appeared again, he stood in an endless, boundless space.

There is no up or down here, no left or right, no front or back.

It is neither darkness nor void, but a state more primal than both darkness and void.

Everything has not yet begun, everything has not yet been named.

But unlike the previous void, this place is not empty.

Yu Lin can feel that he is standing inside something, something so vast it cannot be measured, so vast that the word "big" has no meaning for it.

It is space itself, and also the edge of space.

It is the beginning of time, and also the end of time.

It is everything.

It is not "it contains everything"; it is "it is everything".

It is simultaneously past, present, and future, simultaneously existence and non-existence, simultaneously matter and spirit.

It is still, yet moving; independent, yet encompassing all change; indivisible, yet the sum of all things.

Primal Man.

Cosmic Giant.

It is not a being residing in the Universe; it is the Universe itself!

Yu Lin stands inside the Primal Man.

"Very good, begin the division."