The transition from a geological force to a biological entity was a slow, deliberate process of compression. For millions of years, the entity that would become Huang Bantian had existed as a vast, subterranean consciousness. He had been the tension in the fault lines and the weight of the granite plateaus. To become a man, he had to take all that sprawling, massive energy and fold it into a space no larger than six feet of flesh and bone.
It was not a transformation driven by vanity. The other primordial spirits, those who would eventually be called gods, took forms that reflected their ambitions. They crafted bodies of shimmering gold, towering giants with multiple limbs, or ethereal beings with wings made of starlight. They wanted to be seen. They wanted to be feared. They wanted their
