Chapter 403: The Conquest Proceeds
In the end, Yaan split his body into two once again. He never truly perfected the fusion, doing that would take time, and right now, he had more use for two bodies rather than one stronger body. The Sage originally told him to split because she expected an immediate invasion from the Chaos Era's Paragons, but now, with Shi suppressed on Rainbow Mountain, it seemed that they still had some time to prepare.
He remained on Rainbow Mountain with his dao body, along with the unconscious Shi.
The Sage also remained with him at the peak of Rainbow Mountain, which they had made the temporary headquarters of the Paradise Sect.
Of course, the Sage also accompanied his cultivation base body in his conquest of the Four Divine Star System.
As for the other divinities, Yaan allowed them to choose; they could stay on Rainbow Mountain, or engage with the conquest. Naturally, participating in the conquest would be rewarded, staying on Rainbow Mountain would not.
Even so, they were surprised that the Sect Master wasn't forcing them to do anything. Most of the divinities were perfectly content to either cultivate on the mountain, in the relative safety of their newly formed sect, but most were filled with greed when Yaan promised to let them attempt a Divine True Inheritance for aiding the conquest.
He couldn't be too forceful, or else there would be defectors. For now, he had to simultaneously tempt them with reward, and threaten them with punishment.
He had already made it clear that if they so much as mentioned the Paradise Sect to anyone outside of the sect without his permission, they would be hunted down and killed without mercy.
Especially mentioning anything about Shi.
Yaan was worried that if Defiance learned of Shi's whereabouts, he would come looking for a fight. For now, he didn't want to fight Defiance, but he was also unwilling to give up Shi.
Yaan's dao body planned to study Shi whilst cultivating on Rainbow Mountain. She had cultivated the Origin Path and he was very interested in this, even though her cultivation had become infected by rampant destruction.
In the end, Yaan decided to allow the Sage and her subordinate Deities to continue with their portion of the conquest for now. He would insert himself into every important area after they had done the hard work and tested the waters throughout the star system for dangers.
Naturally, Yaan wanted to absorb those Deities under the Sage, but for now, they were uncovering so many hidden problems without his interference, why would he stop them?
On Rainbow Mountain, Yaan remained in the white layer with the Sage and the unconscious Shi. Aside from them, only Land Deity chose to stay on the mountain.
Land Deity was at first worried that this might be a test, and that he would fail by staying, but he was overthinking things. Yaan really didn't need every single member of the Paradise Sect mobilised at all times. In fact, even the current group was drastic overkill, assuming they didn't encounter anything too unexpected.
Yaan reassured Land Deity that they also needed some sect members to remain in their headquarters. It made sense for Land Deity, who had a great affinity with mountains, to cultivate here.
And so, Yaan's cultivation body, Love Empyrean, Typhoon Deity, Shadow Deity, Volcanic Deity, Forest Deity, River Deity and Thunder Deity, all headed out into the Four Divine Star System.
Everyone was accompanied by one of the Sage's bodies, but aside from that, Yaan's cultivation body went alone, as did Love Empyrean. He then had the six Deities split into two groups of three, breaking up the four Deities from the World Merchant Alliance and placing one pair with Typhoon Deity and the other with Shadow Deity, to better integrate them as a organisation.
With his understanding of the World Merchant Alliance, Yaan promised that after the Four Divine Star System, they would take the Neutral Star System. He also promised those four from the alliance vast sums of wealth should they achieve anything in the conquest.
Taking the Neutral Star System was as good a plan as any, and with the World Merchant Alliance on his side, it made the most sense as his next move. He would need to deal with the Divine Court, however…they would need to face the Divine Court regardless.
And so, on the conquest moved. Yaan listened to the Sage recount everything that had transpired throughout the star system over these past three days, including every success and failure. Using this information, he devised a plan to take complete control as quickly as possible.
Their current momentum was strong, he didn't want to lose this.
And so, his cultivation base body headed out, finishing its journey in the Divine Dragon Sector and reaching Planet Dragon.
He descended to the surface of the Solar Planet, once again enveloping it in his 'domain'.
Or rather, his cultivation base used the Divine Spell, Define Truth, which functioned very similarly to his domain.
The planet became the world of a painting, and at the centre of this painting, was the most angelic light that these cultivators had ever seen in their lives. This was basically the opposite of his Absolute Domain's usual effect, which made people see him as that which they hate the most.
Yaan didn't yet have the ability to appear as the thing that every individual loved the most, but he could present himself as if he was the manifestation hope itself.
As for whether he truly was this form of hope…this was a matter of opinion.
Yaan wanted to convince the Divine Dragon Clan's Transcendents and immortals of his sincerity, so he performed another speech, just like he had done with the previous two Divine Clans.
For most clansmen, it was extremely effective. The bloodline cultivators dropped to their knees and worshipped, many even cried, feeling like they had seen the light of the heavens itself.
Twisting the thoughts and hearts of immortals was simple for an Empyrean.
Actually, each of the Supreme Elders also acted as if they had seen the light. Yaan smiled and nodded at them all after retracting his spell, finally showing them his true face.
There were two individuals he had been watching, the 1st and 3rd Supreme Elders. These two were clearly unwilling, even after experiencing his Divine Spell. After they saw his face, Yaan sensed the fear in their hearts, and the disgust that they tried to hide deep down. It was to such an extreme that eventually…they would probably betray him.
Yaan used Define Truth once again, but unknown to these two Supreme Elders, he used it specifically on them. With those two as the targets, they became the painting, the world around them became its observer. Like this, he was able to show the rest of the Divine Dragon Clan that these two Supreme Elders harboured extreme malicious intent in their hearts.
"A shame." Yaan muttered, then pointed at the two Supreme Elders, shooting two sword-shaped crimson flames from his finger tips. In an instant, his blazing killing intent slaughtered the two Supreme Elders, wiping them out in body, mind, soul and dao.
He turned to the remaining two Supreme Elders and clasped his hands with an apologetic smile. They were shocked, but didn't dare speak out against him, even if they felt pain in their hearts.
"I hope you understand why this had to be done. For the sake of the future and the Paradise Sect's shared ambition, we who live in this cruel world must steel our hearts."
Yaan didn't hang around for too long, soon departing and moving on.
There were obviously others in the clan who felt discontent with him, but there was nobody worth caring about. Honestly, each of these Divine Clans wasn't worth wasting too much time on.
"It seems that news of my conquest of the Divine Phoenix Clan and Divine Hydra Clan has leaked, so these elders were already prepared for my arrival." Yaan mused, but in the end, he shook his head. "Forget it. I want to take over amicably, but how can war be an amicable thing? If any of the immortal groups' leaders feel enmity towards me and are likely to betray me, they need to die."
When it came to the Divine Phoenix and Divine Hydra Clans, Yaan hadn't been forceful at all…but he didn't need to be. He had even given them the choice to decline his rulership, and he did the same with the Divine Dragon Clan, knowing there was no way they would reject him.
He thought they would be smart enough to understand that in the present world, they needed to rely on someone like the Paradise Sect, or else some other group would either take over or slaughter them all. If they couldn't comprehend this simple fact, they weren't even worth having as subordinates.
Yaan finally visited the Divine Griffin Sector. According to the Sage, there was nothing of worth in this sector aside from the Divine Griffin Clan, but even that clan was the weakest of the four Divine Clans. They only had three Supreme Elders, with one at the 9th Step, the other two at the 4th and 5th Steps.
Transcendents were unable to progress any further, now that the Divine Stairway had been destroyed. Reminding the immortal groups of this fact helped to thrust them deeper into despair as they faced the end of the Origin Era.
After taking away their hope, Yaan presented them with his own. If they refused to accept hope, then he would suppress them with fear. If they would not submit to fear, then they had to die.
Yaan was not just conquering in the normal sense, he was spreading an ideal. For now, many people would agree to serve him because of his strength and that alone, They only pretended to go along with his so called 'ideal', so it might seem like a joke, but Yaan believed that as the end of days approached, this sort of ideal, this sort of hope, would be the one thing that people could still believe in.
He was building his foundation for the future, the future that he knew was coming.
The Divine Griffin Clan folded immediately. Having received news of the other three Divine Clans' submission, they naturally didn't resist. The Supreme Elders in this clan seemed tired, too tired to even consider something like betraying him down the line…they were just surviving.
For now, preaching his ambition didn't rouse their spirits, but maybe over time, they would come to see the light.
Yaan knew that he was being a bit arrogant to assume that the entire world would agree with his personal ambition and ideal, but this was exactly what he wanted to attempt - he wanted to spread his dao throughout the stars, he wanted to use this method to further his understanding of his own dao heart. He wanted to see if he could conquer the world using a simple ideology at the core of his regime; this was how he would seek dao during his conquest.
There were a total of 15 sectors in the Four Divine Star System, of which four were firmly under the rule of the Paradise Sect. Yaan was still paying close attention to the Divine Phoenix Sector however, since the Infinity Lake and Spirit Palace were still there. The Primordial Sage had agreed to give these treasures to the Primordial Spirit and Primordial Asura in exchange for two things - they needed to help with the conquest until everything was settled, and then, once they took away the two treasures, they couldn't return to this star system for 10,000 years.
Yaan wasn't sure whether to honour this promise - it was an agreement between those sisters after all, it had nothing to do with him. Then again, he didn't want them causing trouble…
After checking on the situation throughout the star system, and seeing that everything was now settled with all known enemies, Yaan decided to pay the two sisters a visit.
As soon as he arrived at Infinity Lake, the pair flew out from the Spirit Palace in the centre. They both looked wary as they left the Spirit Palace - clearly, they knew about the recent developments with Yaan taking control.
"Will you honour the agreement?" The Primordial Asura asked directly.
"I want a slight amendment." Yaan replied.
"You-!"
"Sister." The Primordial Asura glanced at her sister and shook her head. In the end, the Primordial Spirit exhaled deeply, glared at Yaan, then flew back down to the lake…
Yaan raised an eyebrow. Sure, she hated him, he understood that…but since when did her temper become as uncontrollable as a child's tantrum?
'There must be something wrong with her dao heart.' Yaan realised.
"What do you want?" The Primordial Asura asked plainly, showing no emotion towards Yaan.
He smiled slightly, able to see her contained rage towards him. However, there was no hatred…only rage. Interesting.
"What would it take to get you to join me?" Yaan asked.
"Not happening. Be serious, what do you want?"
Yaan felt slightly disappointed…he was being serious.
"Just leaving the Four Divine Star System isn't good enough. In fact, I don't really care if you leave or stay. My conquest will go further than this star system, so I want you to swear a dao oath that you won't interfere with the Paradise Sect, its members, its operations, and its expansion."
The Primordial Asura frowned.
"Your group is already very large, you're a threat. If I agree to leave you be, what will I do when your people attack me?"
"We can exclude the Primordial Star System from the agreement." Yaan suggested.
The Primordial Asura hesitated.
"Seriously?" Yaan shook his head. "I'm giving you a Primordial Treasure and a Divine Treasure in exchange for doing nothing!"
"Are you really? You're only allowing us to take these away, but moving the Infinity Lake to the Primordial Star System won't be simple." She replied.
"Then just stay here." Yaan suggested with a smile.
She stared at him for a while.
"You're serious?"
Yaan nodded.
"You…really wouldn't mind allying with me, would you?" She asked, her tone strange.
"Of course I wouldn't mind such an alliance." Yaan chuckled. "You're an Empyrean, and we know each other fairly well. The only reason you're not considering it, is because of your sister."
Seeing the Primordial Asura hesitate, Yaan turned to leave and called back to her without giving her the chance to respond:
"Moving Infinity Lake to the Primordial Star System is impossible, you will be attacked by the entire divine world. Just stay here and don't cause any trouble. Naturally, my people won't bother someone as notorious as you. I know your sister can't even talk to me, so the Sage will witness your dao oaths shortly."
Yaan wanted to keep his subordinates close, but any potential enemies even closer. Better to have them stay here where he could keep an eye on them, rather than scheming out of sight.
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