The bead in his hand was none other than the legendary Supreme Chaos Treasure, the Chaos Bead.
Within the Chaos Bead lay a primordial chaos world of its own, which could be used to cleave the heavens and attain the Dao.
Naturally, the attainment of the Dao here did not refer to becoming a Heavenly Dao Sage, but rather to reaching the supreme and ultimate Great Dao.
The reason Pangu had cleaved Honghuang open was precisely to sublimate the Law of Force to its absolute limit, transforming it into the Great Dao of Force.
The laws and the Great Dao might seem cut from the same cloth, but in reality, the relationship between the two was akin to that between an ocean and a stream.
Take the Law of Force, for instance. It was merely one among the three thousand laws, yet the Great Dao of Force could encompass all three thousand laws—such as the power of time, the power of space, the power of creation, and so on.
Pangu cleaved Honghuang open, evolved the power of the three thousand laws, and ultimately condensed the Great Dao of Force. This was the true attainment of the Dao; once that one Dao succeeded, Pangu himself would become the Great Dao.
Yet Pangu had only succeeded halfway. He had successfully evolved the power of the three thousand laws, which was the fundamental reason why the laws awakened by the Twelve Ancestral Witches—born from Pangu's essence blood—were all different.
Meanwhile, Panshi, having fused with the Heart of Pangu and the Pangu True Form, had awakened Pangu's Law of Force.
Prior to this, Panshi had also considered following in Pangu's footsteps to evolve the power of the three thousand laws and condense the Great Dao of Force. But that was simply too difficult, with almost no chance of success.
Even if he were to endure all hardships and cultivate to a height matching Pangu's, opening up a world within the chaos still carried a high probability of meeting the same downfall as Pangu.
After all, opening up a world within the chaos meant facing the fierce backlash of the entire chaos.
However, the appearance of the Chaos Bead gave him a glimmer of hope.
He could first open up a Lesser Thousand World within the Chaos Bead, and then slowly evolve various powers of the laws within this small world, bringing the three thousand laws to completeness and fusion, and ultimately condensing the Great Dao of Force.
This was a smooth and broad path to success.
Therefore, the moment Panshi caught sight of the Chaos Bead, he had burst into laughter and declared, "My Dao is accomplished!"
"However, this Chaos Bead is a Supreme Chaos Treasure. With my current cultivation level, wanting to completely refine it is practically impossible. My only option is to rely on the Heart of Pangu."
Without further ado, Panshi pulled the Chaos Bead into his body, guiding it to draw close to the Heart of Pangu.
As the Chaos Bead approached, the Heart of Pangu seemed to sense its presence, its beating accelerating noticeably. Wisps of purple energy emanated from the Heart of Pangu, enveloping the Chaos Bead.
The Chaos Bead seemed activated by the Heart of Pangu; its unadorned surface bloomed with primordial chaos divine light, and streams of chaotic Qi surged out, to be swallowed by the Heart of Pangu.
The two seemed to form a cycle: the Chaos Bead devoured the purple energy of the Heart of Pangu, while the Heart of Pangu devoured the chaotic Qi of the Chaos Bead.
Throughout this process, Panshi could clearly feel the Chaos Bead being refined bit by bit. However, the speed of this refinement left much to be desired.
When the Heart of Pangu refined the Innate Supreme Treasure Qiankun Cauldron back then, it had only taken a few breaths, but refining the Chaos Bead now felt to Panshi much like the old fool moving mountains in later legends—not entirely useless, but excruciatingly slow.
Of course, the primary reason the Qiankun Cauldron had been refined so quickly back then was that the cultivation of the Pangu True Form at the time was at the level of a Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal.
If his cultivation level improved, presumably the speed of refining the Chaos Bead would increase as well.
Regardless, Panshi was at least able to exert rudimentary control over the Chaos Bead for the time being.
"This Chaos Bead doesn't seem quite complete."
Suddenly, Panshi frowned slightly, and an image flashed into his mind.
This was the "memory" of the Chaos Bead.
In the vision, the Chaos Bead drifted quietly in the chaotic void, breathing in and out the Qi of chaos, when suddenly a streak of axe-light tore through the tranquility, shattering the peaceful scene and splitting the Chaos Bead in two.
Four-fifths of it transformed into the Chaos Bead in his hand, while the remaining one-fifth was swallowed by earth, water, fire, and wind.
So the one who caused this disaster was actually myself?
Well, no, wait—it was Pangu who did it. What does that have to do with me?
"Don't worry, I will definitely restore you to wholeness."
Gazing at the Chaos Bead in his hand, Panshi spoke softly.
As for that missing one-fifth of the Chaos Bead, he had a pretty good guess where it might be.
According to legend, the dragon ball of the Ancestor Dragon was transformed from a part of the Chaos Bead.
Although the Ancestor Dragon had long since fallen, that one-fifth of the Chaos Bead was bound to still exist somewhere in Honghuang. Naturally, the most likely place was the East China Sea Dragon Palace.
Back then, the three clans had vied for hegemony over Honghuang and were manipulated by Luohu, resulting in grievous injuries and the accumulation of monstrous karmic debt. To eliminate this debt, the Ancestor Dragon had willingly transformed into dragon veins to suppress the earth of Honghuang. Presumably, before transforming his body into dragon veins, he had sent the Ancestor Dragon ball—which suppressed the destiny of the Dragon Clan—back to the East China Sea Dragon Palace.
Pansh decided he would make a trip to the East China Sea Dragon Palace once he had the time.
As if sensing Panshi's words, the Chaos Bead gave a slight, responsive quiver.
"The refinement of the Chaos Bead is being carried out automatically by the Heart of Pangu, requiring almost no help from me. That being the case, I might as well start using the Qiankun Cauldron to forge divine weapons."
Panshi withdrew his divine sense from within his body and flicked his wrist, causing the Qiankun Cauldron to materialize before him.
The Qiankun Cauldron possessed the heaven-defying ability to reverse the innate and forge Innate Spiritual Treasures. However, Panshi had no intention of using the Qiankun Cauldron to forge Innate Spiritual Treasures, because every time the cauldron was used to craft one, it consumed a massive amount of merit and destiny.
Even Hongjun, having possessed the Qiankun Cauldron for so long, had never used it to forge any Innate Spiritual Treasures.
After all, merit and destiny were simply too crucial. The Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans of the past, as well as the current Wu and Demon clans locked in hegemony, were all fighting precisely for merit and destiny.
Using the Qiankun Cauldron to forge Innate Spiritual Treasures was, frankly speaking, using merit and destiny to forge Innate Spiritual Treasures, which rendered the cauldron's ability to reverse the innate rather redundant.
That was likely the exact reason why Hongjun had given the Qiankun Cauldron to him.
Yet Hongjun would probably never dream that Panshi intended to use the Qiankun Cauldron to forge divine weapons.
Sweeping his gaze over the various heavenly materials and earthly treasures stored in the Wu Clan's treasury, Panshi nodded slightly.
"Let's forge the flags for the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Array first. With these flags, it will be much easier for the Twelve Ancestral Witches to deploy the array, and it will also prevent any backlash."
The Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Array not only consumed an enormous amount of energy, but the backlash was also severe. Case in point: this time, after operating the array, the Twelve Ancestral Witches had been practically crippled.
To put it bluntly, at that moment, any random Da Luo Golden Immortal could have killed the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
Yet the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Array was the trump card of the Wu Clan and could not be abandoned.
If the Twelve Ancestral Witches deployed the array with him as the core, even when facing Hongjun, he would be able to put up a fight. Of course, the duration of the battle would depend on the stamina of the Twelve Ancestral Witches.
Therefore, back in the Pangu Palace, forging the components for the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Array was the very first thing that had crossed his mind.
With a flick of his sleeve, Panshi sent twelve strands of Pangu-cleaving baleful Qi tumbling into the Qiankun Cauldron.
These twelve strands of baleful Qi had been extracted by the Heart of Pangu when it refined the natal essence blood of the Twelve Ancestral Witches, making them the absolute best materials for forging the flags of the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods Array.
As the twelve strands of baleful Qi entered the Qiankun Cauldron, the cauldron began to spin rapidly. At the same time, a powerful suction force emitted from its rim, pulling glowing clusters of spiritual materials and earthly treasures straight into the cauldron.