A great war between the gods — Gong Gong versus Zhurong, fire against water, sky-gods against earth-gods — shattered the pillars of heaven. The sky cracked. Floods and fire rained upon the earth.

Nüwa, the creator of humanity, saw what was happening and felt something she had never felt before: urgency.

She descended to earth and began to work. She melted five-colored stones to patch the heavens — a task so exhausting that it took her thousands of years. She found a giant turtle and cut off its legs to use as pillars, propping up the sky at the four corners. She gathered ash from the burnt reed marshes and used it to dam the floods.

When it was over, heaven was patched, earth was stable, and humanity was saved — but Nüwa was changed. She had spent so much of herself in the repair that she could no longer walk freely among mortals. She retreated to the western mountains, where she remains to this day, occasionally descending to help those who are truly in need.

Gods are not eternal. They spend themselves. And sometimes the greatest act of divinity is not creation but repair.