Paragon of Sin

"Magi."

The word lingered in the air and on the tongue, oppressive and defining as it were. To think that the origins of the Magi were so fantastic and utterly divine.

"They were the grand architects of your universe. They embodied many things, and created many more," Fuxi described as the wisps of bronze, silver, and gold swept across the space before them, enveloping all within his vision.

The teclipsed like no other, even without Fuxi's action, the pace of events was so incredibly swift that Wei Wuyin felt as if life itself was being born anew and progressed with each breath.

Fuxi was not exaggerating when he said these three thousand silvery wisps were the architects of the universe. Wherever silver light passed, things were formed; there were stars, planets, lunar satellites, flat continental earths, celestial phenomena, and life of obscurity and clarity, there was no exception to what was designed and created.

However, Wei Wuyin felt as if he was missing a large portion of information.

His thoughts were perceived by Fuxi with keen precision, and that anciently wise and fatherly voice of his reverberated as the show of creation unfolded rapidly before them.

"This goes beyond your inheritance, but as your guide, I will expound upon you a truth not many know."

As he spoke, he waved his sleeves with a grand flourish, and all of tstopped. Wei Wuyin could see within the distance a familiar space. It rippled with renewal and creation, a hfor star souls everywhere-the Samsara of Stars. Strangely enough, he felt no presence or any feeling of the Mortal Daos' existence there. It was devoid of everything. Truly a beginning.

"When your universe was created, and she conceived a future for it, I bore witness to its creation, and I assisted in a capacity that is often forgotten," Fuxi spoke with a voice immersed in ancient, long-gone nostalgia.

"You...taught them?" Wei Wuyin said, his eyes never leaving the incomplete Samsara of Stars.

His words weren't just a random guess, it was alluded to in the Records of Fuxi, the book that contained the Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity. It was a book with an unforgettable first page. An esoteric and eccentric diagram that seemed to depict the sky, heaven, rivers, mountains, marshes, earth, and flthat were divided, disjointed yet oddly harmonious.

On the very first page, the very first sentence read: "Let there be fire, let there be words, let there be safety, let there be prosperity, and the future of the known."

After reading those words, something innate within him triggered, and he was drawn into a vision of the Yellow River and a radiant flame. According to the book, Fuxi was THE teacher. The most prominent, illustrious, and fantastic teacher who taught humanity the basics of survival in a barren world and the future. It said he taught them how to perceive the future so they would no longer fear it.

Of course, this was a mere book excerpt with no true ability to verify, but from what he saw, simply from what Fuxi just implied, he felt that there was truth in those descriptions.

Fuxi himself nodded, rubbing his thick, magnificent, and enviable beard with thoughtful eyes.

"I didn't just teach. I taught them all-Order, Creation, Security. I was entrusted with being impartial in the bestowment of knowledge and the concept of ideology, morality, and expression while giving them, all of you, enough potential individuality to grow and develop in any and every direction imaginable. Simply to let them use their will to determine...all of it."

He gestured toward the paused scene, landing on the incomplete Samsara of Stars seemingly by coincidence.

"So there is inspiration in everything that originated from me. From my universe. But this universe, this vast, beautiful world contains truly unique aspects that belong solely to it. And only it."

"..."

Wei Wuyin was silent. His soul was fiercely pounding.

His universe? He thought it was strange that Fuxi kept mentioning this world as 'your' universe, but now he knew why. Fuxi didn't cfrom here but somewhere else entirely. The sheer expansions of his knowable horizons had reached an unprecedented level. Perhaps if not for his current cultivation, breadth of spirit, breadth of mind, and extraordinary experiences thus far, his mind might have shattered from learning any of this.

"I didn't just teach those three-I inspired. I took her desires, her image, and her sense of freedom, and taught them the basics of how to survive and thrive as an existence. Not all made it. Not all of them would continue to make it. But those who did are my greatest pride and those who tried are my most treasured memories."

Fuxi explained, far exceeding the depth of a simple guidance through his lineage, but touching upon profound secrets originating from the dawn of creation.

Wei Wuyin didn't have any words nor did he need them. The two basked in the calmness of silence until Fuxi continued in a rather natural manner,

"Shall we continue?"

Wei Wuyin calmly nodded, digesting and acclimating to all these fantastical truths and realizations.

Fuxi swished his sleeves once again, this tslow and gentle. The world began to ripple beautifully with the colors of golden, silver, and bronze lights. Tflowed on.

Wei Wuyin could tell that Fuxi had kept many things to himself, secrets that far infringed beyond greater secrets. For example, beasts, humanoids, plant life, and the matter of all life being created. He didn't explain if they originated from these architects or elsewhere. Yet within the blink of an eye and a multicolored explosion during the process of creation, they existed nevertheless.

"The architects created things one by one, carefully and remarkably. The protectors guarded the process, ensuring no interruptions or dangers reared themselves. And these protectors were needed as the creations of these architects were not always safe. Dangers unfolded repeatedly. Those of the Order beseeched the Creation frequently to avoid creating destructive and violent things.

"They asked for stars to not explode so violently at their end. They asked for planets to not feel anger and quake and quiver. They asked for water to be unable to drown innocent, young lives. They asked for disease and mutations to be removed. They asked for the withering progression of life to be natural and painless. They asked and asked and asked again and again and again."

Every word Fuxi spoke shifted the visual as supernova and chaosnovas erupted everywhere. As planets unleashed earthquakes and floods, volcanic eruptions and roaring, earth-sundering storms. They saw plants die of thirst and drowning. They saw living creatures eat each other, age and cry out in pain at loss.

"The architects indifferently responded by ignoring their pleas. Not once did they ever destroy or change anything they created. Not once. This wasn't something I taught, but definitely something I respected. It madevalue the concept of mistakes, the belief of acceptance, and the understanding that the pursuit of perfection was not aligned to any particular direction. At the very least, they understood that it was fruitless to chase initial perfection when creation was involved. Only by progression and the pursuit for perfection could it be rightfully attained, and only with flaws can these successes and solutions bare merit to be described as perfect.

"I was enlightened observing them. I learned from them."

Fuxi grew somewhat emotional and there was a slight quiver in his voice. Clearly, he was like a father that had watched his children grow, and like a teacher that watched his students exceed him as a united body. It was almost unprecedented for a teacher to witness and experience such magnificent revelations.

"..."

Wei Wuyin quietly watched.

Eventually, the situation changed and the silvery wisps faced off against the gold wisps. The former was vastly outnumbered, yet they stood their ground. The reverberations of the world that was intense as the highest level of seismic activity indicated sargument unfolding. Wei Wuyin surmised this as he saw the two lights standoff.

"The architects were given a deadline. They could not work indefinitely. With creation as wondrous and infinite in its potential, they would never cease otherwise. That deadline was eventually reached, and they had long since completed their task. Even things that would cinto creation after the ending of their works, the creation born from two or three or thousands of miraculous instances of their creations functions as an emergent boundlessness, such as evolved animals and mutated fruits that would be a forever constant in daily lives across the universe. For example,"

Fuxi twisted his hands and a yellowish fruit with a citrusy scent appeared, "these things were created by those that were created after."

"But they hadn't finished everything. They sought a single final creation. From this creation, conflict was born."

Fuxi's eyes released a blasting light as the scene began to rumble. The gold and silver lights clashed. The silver lights repeatedly remained victorious.

"Each of these souls were created with the samount of base energy. For 3,000 to face off against millions, it was clear who would emerge victorious."

Fuxi's explanation echoed in Wei Wuyin's heart. And he continued,

"They created-"

Suddenly, Fuxi's eyes that were releasing glorious light dimmed significantly. This wasn't due to any external force, merely a sign of him halting with his own freewill. Before then, Wei Wuyin saw the bronze lights intervening and segregating the two as mediators. During this point, Wei Wuyin saw a tiny black hole surrounded by all three thousand silvery wisps.

Was this their final creation?

The three lights entered a stalemate.

But then, without warning, the bronze lights fought against the silver lights with ferocious momentum aided by the golden lights. Unrelenting and vicious, as expected of trained fighters from the dawn of creation. The scene then stopped entirely. The still picture of a universal-wide clash between the three lights spanning all or creation remained. It was beyond epic and words could do it no justice. While the finer details were missing, the general understanding of events could easily be grasped.

"What I've just told you exceeds the scope of inherited knowledge, and you'll certainly learn more as you live. I only feel that you should know of this..."

Fuxi paused briefly as his words uncharacteristically trailed off, and then he turned to Wei Wuyin with a hint of a smile,

"I've told you this thousands of times, and each tI'm unable to ever reach beyond this point."

Wei Wuyin frowned.

Fuxi, as if hearing the inner voice of Wei Wuyin's soul, responded:

"Tis extremely profound. But yes, I have guided you before. And I will still guide you after. Unfortunately, this will be the last tme and you, this version of you, will meet before you are a sole constant of the universe."

"..."

Wei Wuyin.

"You must have many questions. And you may have many assumptions, so I'll be honest and answer a few. You are not special. I have guided countless others like you, and protected them from existences far beyond them as mortals. But upon taking a step and ascending, I can no longer interfere. And with matters of your world, the ones that involve your karma, I never could. With your current existence, karma with those like the River of Tis not unnatural."

Wei Wuyin heard those words and didn't feel any sense of loss. When he was beheaded by Long Chen in that alternative viewpoint, Fuxi never interfered. When he killed a version of himself in the River of Time, Fuxi never interfered. He expected that he only involved himself when beings such as the River of Tor Heavenly Daos acted against mortals, especially...Magi.

"What's your connection to Magi?"

"..."

Fuxi's gaze shifted to Wei Wuyin and a smile silently hung on his lips, but a hint of freshly felt admiration was contained in his eyes.

"From the beginning, you have never called those three thousand silver souls Magi. You never said the bronze souls were Spartans. You never said what the gold souls were at all. And while you've taught them, you can be considered the teacher of all things. I can't imagine this is sufficient for you to act every ton every timeline. It would be exhausting."

Ever since Wei Wuyin was young, he always had a keen intuition toward certain matters, and with Eden's awakening, his sensitivity toward emotions were unsurpassed amongst those of his cultivation stage.

"Out of countless times I've been here, this was the first tI was asked this. They always thought the architects were Magi. And they, you, and everyone else aren't exactly wrong. They're just not right either,"

Fuxi spun at his heel and the still scene collapsed entirely like a sandcastle. What remained was a world of nothingness, pure blackness that could contain anything. He took a step forward and seemed to be moving.

"So what are they?"

Wei Wuyin asked curiously, following Fuxi closely.

"They are Creation,"

Fuxi laughed.

"During the grand conflict brought about by a single invention of theirs, your universe was brought to the brink of collapse. But in the end,"

Fuxi paused as he turned to look at Wei Wuyin, "Creation lost against Security and Order."

"A pyrrhic victory?"

Wei Wuyin guessed.

Fuxi nodded, once again awed by Wei Wuyin's instincts. This Wei Wuyin seemed far different than the others, but it wasn't just intelligence. Was it his recent breakthrough? This was the first the'd ever told anyone this part, so he found it refreshing.

"Their hard-fought victory led to their near-demise. And those who had aided in their initial creation sought to repurpose Order and Security for the new world, while they believed that Creation had served their purpose entirely and were no longer needed."

"They wanted to exterminate them?"

"Yes,"

Fuxi replied.

"I had intervened. I suggested an alternative path where they could live amongst their brilliant creations as a hard-earned reward."

"Magi?"

Wei Wuyin's eyes widened.

"Magi,"

Fuxi answered. For the first time, he said the name!

"I felt that it was appropriate. Personally, I hate the concept of unnatural extinction determined by uninvolved parties. What about you?"

"..."

Wei Wuyin remained silent.

"You must be wondering, are those of Creation, the grand architects of this universe, also Magi? Did I contradict myself? Yes. And no."

He waved his hands as the Yellow River manifested around them and they were immersed, surrounding the Eighteen Levels of Hell and overseeing the process of samsara.

Wei Wuyin had seen this exact scene long ago! He felt his hair move about as if immersed in water and his soul felt a stifling, oppressive, and suffocating sensation. If it wasn't for his True Soul and resulting soul's strength and durability, he might have been dry heaving.

"Magi were formed from the fragmented, defeated souls of Creation. They were fused into the natural cycle of life and death, of creation and rebirth, and becordinary souls. This is where your heritage begins. The origins of Magi, the descendants of Creation."

Fuxi had explained far further back than expected. It was clear that the inherited knowledge of Magi did not include all of this, and it exceeded the original scope of his normally given guidance.

"Why?"

Wei Wuyin asked unexpectedly.

"Why?"

Fuxi's smile turned gentle as the Yellow River surged,

"You'll find that the number of Magi vastly exceeds three thousand souls. You'll ask yourself why, perhaps develop stheories, but the truth of the matter is that those souls gave birth to every soul of a Magi after countless cycles of reproduction and death. And their original power of three thousand were repurposed elsewhere. Eventually, you'll find out the answer to your questions. All of your questions. Unfortunately, I can't give them to you."

Before Wei Wuyin could ask another question, such as if the Creation's original power were the 3,000 Grand Daos, the entire world collapsed like crumbling sand.

An ancient, rippling voice echoed in his soul as his senses were drowned by darkness.

"I've guided you far too much that I won't bring you further. Good luck, Little One. I'm rooting for you."