Final Efforts

In the day of primal heaven, when the world existed in muddled chaos. Two extraordinary opposing forces defined by black and white combined yet remained separate. They formed a seamless balance which together generated many other concepts that brought the world into being.

Hongjun was the ancestor of the great balance. His Dao was one that represented the primal heavens. The balance which appeared before creation. His purple clouds are a symbol to his deific might.

When his two corpses appeared over a century ago. The starry skies lit up in an ocean of violet energies. The celestial stars themselves began trembling. The primitive location which will one day become the heavens became the staging grounds of the biggest battle in primitive history.

Hongjun sat in a lotus position calmly. His breath was steady and his appearance was one of calm superiority. However the robes he wore still bore cuts and damages received many years ago. His hair wasn't neatly tied and flowed freely.

As of this moment, the western portion of the starry skies was a mess of purple clouds, stellar lights, explosions, and constant fighting. The gargantuan form of the lunar star positioned itself opposite of Hongjun, taking its place among the western quadrant.

The sheer presence of the lunar star was a sight to behold. Its power was used to augment the three innate gods who regularly fought Hongjun to a standstill. A testimate of its might as it was once an eye of Pangu.

In any other scenario, its opponent would've been crushed. However, Hongjun was not like any other opponent. Whence he finally decided to hold nothing back, there was little that could stop him. His Dao was such a powerful one that even those who'd stepped on the path of Wuji would not challenge him.

Qiankun, Wangshu, and Da Hai had to all work together with assistance from the lunar star to tie against Hongjun. If they could drag him into the lunar star itself, they could kill him. But how impossible of a task was that? Despite their best efforts, this battle was a tie with neither side gaining an advantage.

Or at least that was the case for moments at a time. As the battle waged on for decades on end. The side consisting of Qiankun, Wangshu, and Da Hai began taking breaks. Not that they needed to rest as that was wholly unnecessary.

The true reason was for the individual 'resting' to experiment and try to find ways to invent new ways of attacking. One of three will break away for half a decade or so and this before rejoining the other two when the pressure became too big.

However, Hongjun was extraordinarily powerful. Without the presence of the third, Hongjun will start gaining ground very quickly and would eventually break all their defences in as little as three years. As such, Da Hai, Wangshu, and Qiankun could only take a few years off individually while the other two fought their hardest.

A few years was really too short to overcome Hongjun. Any small improvement Da Hai had made no difference against the purple clouds of Hongjun. Already, a palace had appeared among Hongjun's clouds mocking the sea god with the image of a safe and unbothered Hongjun.

With a continuous wave of palm strikes, Hongjun finally scored a direct hit on Wangshu and Qiankun. Both deities recoiled back in agony as their defences were finally broken after half a decade of nonstop assault. Wangshu's quickly waved her hand forming a temporary silver tree that just managed to block a strike of the pangu banner's flag.

Hongjun pressed the advantage. Purple clouds surged outwards towards the panting duo. Their presence was both divine and menacing, awe yet dread inducing. They glowed in trillions of divine lights that resembled singing gods and dancing fairies.

It was then that a blue light blasted out of the lunar star. A wave of water illuminated by trillions of specs resembling stars surged into the purple heavens. Both forces washed over each other making Hongjun frown in irritation. Da Hai had rejoined the battle.

It grated on Da Hai as he moved to join Qiankun and Wangshu in the fight. Despite the constant fighting improving his ability in active combat. They've in reality made little progress in actually defeating Hongjun much less killing him.

"HAH!" Da Hai roared as he opened with a downward slash using the merged form of all his treasures. The zambato like blade cleaved across spacetime smashing into the purple clouds. Empowered by the stars, they shaved off large volumes of purple clouds.

"Hmph," Hongjun grunted releasing a palm strike that repelled Da Hai's attack. The aftershock of the collision shook the fabric of reality. Da Hai had put everything into that attack and reeled back for more strikes.

Hongjun in retaliation sent another palm strike. Wangshu's wooden face snarled, she moved alongside Qiankun and together deployed the universal cauldron to block the attack.

BOOM!

An even bigger explosion rocked the western starry skies. Celestial bodies were physically moved out of their regular trajectory. Reality itself started bending and tearing. Were it not for the balancing act of the purple heavens and the lunar star, a hole would've been blown out of the starry skies decades ago.

Hongjun concentrated his might and placed both his palms together in a single strike. His two corpses above him repeated a similar motion. The resulting attack hurled through towards the trio on the lunar star.

In unison, Qiankun deployed the universal cauldron, Wangshu the lunar crown, Da Hai the 12 Petals White Lotus. The three ancestors formed a massive trigram meeting Hongjun's strike head on.

"Gah!" All three grunted in pain being forced back. However, they did manage to dispel Hongjun's strongest strike. Hongjun himself frowned, he'd been preparing that one for a while and would need to prepare for a second one.

Qiankun and Da Hai retreated back as Wangshu sent a wave of moonlight. Any injuries they sustained in that fierce flash was instantly restored. Da Hai snarled, his mouth was one of jagged fangs and a forked tongue. His normal short spongey hair was now long snake heads coiling around him. All seven of them snarled in frustration.

The petals of the 12 Petals White Lotus circled before Da Hai. With the xuanyuan water control flag in hand, he unleashed a sharp blast at Hongjun.

Seeing this action, Qiankun followed as well. The cosmic ruler at his side struck out with its full might. Both parties released some of their greatest techniques hoping to gain an offensive advantage.

Scoffing, Hongjun deployed the defensively superior taiji painting. The diagram of the yin and yang before the old man circled before separating. The conjoined attack by Da Hai and Qiankun was torn apart into billions of particles until they too disappeared were splintered and destroyed.

The back and forth continued on as all three reached a stalemate once again. They had not managed to hurt Hongjun but they had not suffered at all. An eternal stalemate was reached once again.

"We cannot go on like this," Wangshu grunted out while parrying a one of Hongjun's palm strike. She kicked with a root like appendage only for the pangu banner to slice it and the following kick into bits.

"Agreed," Qiankun said raising the cosmic ruler. The edge of the ruler smashed into Hongjun's oncoming attacks driving them back. A second successive strike forced out the taiji painting to defend. Qiankun spun his galaxy like true form sending spirals of fire, water, lighting, and wind out to harass Hongjun. "We need a new plan of action. I for one am sick and tired of fighting," he said.

"We cannot," Da Hai growled back. "We have an advantage here, continue attacking. We'll breakthrough his defences eventually and he'll be vulnerable."

"Da Hai," Wangshu said in anger. "Look around you, does it look like we have the advantage?" She raised her arms summing tendrils of silver roots that ripped apart a construct of purple clouds. She lashed out with slaps of her own.

"She is right fellow daoist Da Hai," Qiankun said. "We've been stuck here for far too long. We should disengage and get away, he can't track us with my methods."

"And abandon out position?" Da Hai questioned in disbelief. "We've got him on the ropes for the first time since the dawn of the primitive world. We can't give it up now, not when I'm this close."

" Da Hai listen to yourself. This battle will never end," Wangshu retorted back sounding very exhausted. "I don't know about you but I do not want to spend the rest of my life in constant fighting."

"We just have to push a little harder. All out efforts in one spot, then we rip through and attack," Da Hai said.

"Like what we tried twenty years ago? Or the time thirty one years ago? Or that other time fifty nine years ago?" Qiankun grunted while repelling another attack. "This is not working, even with the stars on our side, we're not gaining any ground."

Da Hai gritted his teeth and roared in frustration. He cannot refute their claims nor will he agree with them. The snake heads around him unleashed breath attacks in geysers of water pushing back against Hongjun's fist formed from clouds. The sea god uncharacteristically leapt forward howling in rage.

"Qiankun," Wangshu said softly. The swirling vortex of stars that was Qiankun merged back into an old man holding the cosmic ruler in one hand who nodded. "I have an idea," she suggested as she raised her hands to support Da Hai.

The sea god swung his merged blade at the heavenly projection of Hongjun. The old man within smirked forming a titanic celestial general holding the pangu banner. transformed into a halberd. It clashed against Da Hai's own attack.

A swirling mass of stellar water punted the general pushing it back. Hongjun brought a fist forward and punched in retaliation obliterating the block of water. The force of his blow ploughed into Da Hai who hastily stabbed his blade down to block the blow.

Space tore at the soles of his feet as the sea god slid back. He quickly regained his footing and battled against a projected army created by Hongjun. Waves of purple soldiers were torn apart as Da Hai fought with the fierceness of an out of control beast.

Heavy lightning and celestial fire struck the sea god at his back. Da Hai grunted turning around to defend while controlling waves of water to harass the enemy.

Beams of stellar light shot past Da Hai as Qiankun's rocketed over cosmic ruler in hand. He smashed chunks of the purple heaven apart tearing his way across the battlefield.

"Hai, get off," Hongjun sighed clapping his palms. The magical force transformed into a tidal wave of dust clouds containing an uncountable amount of purple lightning bolts. They tore at the fabric of reality as they went along.

Grunting, Qiankun slammed the universal cauldron onto the surface of the clouds forming an image of the universe. Wangshu also flew over with a luminescent glow that lit up the western sky with bright moonlight. Her presence directed moonlight at the two gods rejuvenating them.

"Coming in here again? When will you guys learn," Hongjun sighed shaking his head in disappointment. "No matter the variation of tricks you try, they never work." Hongjun's performed several motions and released a surge of power. They transformed into various elements to drive the trio back.

Wangshu smirked and raised her hand and pulled. The lunar star that previously stood still began moving. It hurled its way towards the heavens created by Hongjun.

The old man raised an eyebrow. "Smashing the star into me again? Same old same old," he sighed moving back. The purple heavens followed after him as he retreated from the lunar star.

"Qiankun," Wangshu cried. Da Hai turned around with confusion on his face when Qiankun raised the cosmic ruler. The ancestor of the universe leapt high above and smashed into the fabric of reality.

Hongjun looked up in surprise. "Attacking reality instead of stabilising it? What are you planing?" He shot out a purple beam of lightning at Qiankun.

Wangshu acted with haste, she flew into the way of the attack. The image of the lunar crown appeared before her resisting the lightning. "Open the gate," she commanded and Qiankun nodded.

The ancestor of the universe took a lotus position and summoned the universal cauldron. The gap opened by him expanded into a full portal into the void.

"Finally running away I see," Hongjun said. "Wise of you indeed, now quit wasting my time."

"What are you two doing?" Da Hai roared in disbelief. "You're going to waste all our years of progress."

"Connect us Qiankun," Wangshu commanded. Qiankun nodded and folded his hands in several motions. He opened his eyes which glowed in cosmic light.

Hongjun threw aside Da Hai with a slap and looked towards the portal only to raise his eyebrow. "The great wilderness?" He said in confusion. He was wondering why they opened a portal into the very world where tracking them would be so much easier.

Qiankun gripped the portal and pulled, ripping it into a massive hole in the sky. With this amount of visibility, Hongjun recognized the land through it. "West continent," he said.

"RAHG," Wangshu roared as she pulled. Hongjun turned around horridly right into the approaching lunar star. He had been distracted by the Wangshu and Qiankun's actions that the lunar star had reached him.

"Damn it," he said raising both palms. With all his might, he pushed against the lunar star. The sudden hit pushed him back. The lunar star was moving quickly towards the portal.

Unable to gain his footing in time, Hongjun flew through the portal right into the sky above the west continent. "Why would they?" He began saying.

"No!" Da Hai howled. He ran forwards only Wangshu to appear beside him and kick him away as Qiankun sealed the hole shut.

"Damn it he got away!" Da Hai raged.

In the West Continent, Hongjun looked around in confusion. He stopped moments later when he came face to face with an equally surprised and equally appalled Luohu standing right below him with a marching army.