Chapter 423: Wandering the World
The Sage's Origin Ascension truly shook the world. Every single instance of an Origin Ascension was a 'world-shaking' matter, but never had there been an instance of someone ascending in such a shocking, incomprehensible, and damaging way.
Yaan had encountered a total of four Origin Ascensions now, each of which left a very different impression on him.
The first, came from the God of Sin.
The God of Sin hid himself well, entering this Era with two Origin Incarnations – his Core Origin Incarnation, Old Thief, and his subsidiary Origin Incarnation, the Primordial Devil. Both of these individuals were Empyreans, which was already considered shocking. Because they were Empyreans, they were immediately considered prime suspects amongst those who were searching for the identities of the outsiders.
Old Thief was clearly a hedonist of an individual, but it seemed too unlikely that he was the God of Sin – the God of Sin was renowned for being an upstanding, eloquent, proud man, whilst Old Thief was, simply put, a scumbag degenerate. Naturally, this was because he had separated his pride from his core self, creating the Primordial Devil.
Naturally, the Primordial Devil, just like all four of the Primordial Demons, had been a prime suspect as a potential outsider. That said, he didn't really resemble any of the Origin Gods, and in all honesty, his dao was too unrefined.
When the God of Sin finally ascended past the 2nd Origin Era, he made use of his ascension to achieve two things. Firstly, he repaid Yaan for his help in refining his dao. Even though Yaan had defeated the Primordial Devil in the end, the God of Sin not only didn't hold it against him, but instead felt grateful. His defeat allowed him to recognise the faults in his pride…but his life as Old Thief made him realise that Sin without Pride, really was just hedonistic degeneracy,
The God of Sin had assisted Yaan's escape to the Ruthless Inheritance back then.
Finally, in his last moments, he revealed Law Empyrean's true identity as the God of Evil. Initially, it seemed as if nobody had taken his words seriously, but this revelation had planted the seeds of doubt in the hearts of countless cultivators, slowly causing the Divine Court to fall into unease, and forcing Law Empyrean to push forwards his plans of unveiling Injustice earlier than he had originally wished.
It was thanks to the God of Sin's final actions that the World Demon was able to survive, and that now, Law Empyrean, now referred to as 'Tyranny' by the masses, was forced to constantly flee and fight his way through his endless enemies, as he waited for Injustice to fully awaken.
The second Origin Ascension that Yaan had witnessed, was that of the God of Death.
Death Empyrean's ascension was quite bizarre – he hid himself for over a million years, faking his death and leaving behind his 'inheritance' for his future successors. Those future successors were devoured one by one, until finally, Death Empyrean encountered Yaan, someone whom he deemed capable of bringing him the opportunity that he needed in order to finally ascend.
Yaan had killed Death Empyrean using what was perhaps his most powerful, but also most restricted killing move – the 4th step in the Agile Illusion Art, the Step of Dao Corroboration. The Step of Dao Corroboration staked his life on his certainty that he was taking the right path in his dao. Either he would win the bet and kill his enemy successfully, or he would lose the bet and his life would be forfeit, and his dao extinguished.
This sword strike was so powerful that it ended up creating an irreparable rip in the fabric of the world, a golden spatial tear that still existed to this day, over 10,000 years later. It was also through this gap that the Paragon Wills from the Chaos Era would supposedly invade the 2nd Origin Era, an event that would soon be brought about by Defiance and Shi; the Empyrean of Destruction.
Yaan didn't entirely understand what the God of Death had been searching for in their battle, but in the end, it didn't matter. The final conclusion was that both of them attained what they wanted, and somehow, both of them successfully proved the validity of their daos in the face of the other.
Because Yaan did not understand the Step of Dao Corroboration perfectly, and because of the immense collateral damage it had caused, he was unwilling to use it again easily. Regardless, it wasn't a move that he could simply use as and when he pleased – he could only use this sword art strike when he felt the fated assuredness in his own dao in the heat of battle.
The third Origin Ascension that he had only partially witnessed, was the ascension of the God of Creation. According to Tyranny, the God of Creation had been hiding in the Heavenly Dao's dao of creation since the Era's inception…Yaan wasn't sure if this was true, nor how such a thing would even work. The words of the Evil God weren't exactly trustworthy, so he didn't put too much thought into it.
However, one fact did remain – following the God of Creation's Origin Ascension, the dao of creation had collapsed. Now, the world was on a terrific downwards spiral. Creation and destruction were out of balance, so new life could no longer be created, and all things could only endure for a bit longer at best, temporarily postponing their inevitable destruction and end.
Lastly, was of course the Sage's Origin Ascension.
When Yaan thought of her at the end, the Sage with the brightly coloured crystal in her forehead, he no longer considered her to be the Primordial Sage, but simply – the Sage. That said, it seemed that nowadays, most were referring to her as either the 'Hidden God', or the 'Origin Sage'.
The Primordial Sage was not the only Origin Incarnation of her original self, but she did inherit her complete self's core dao, so Yaan connected the Origin Sage to the Primordial Sage, more than the Primordial Asura, Primordial Spirit, or any of the other women with whom he was familiar.
Of course, he knew that they were all parts of the Sage…
The Sage, the Origin Sage, the Hidden God…
As he observed the world, Yaan found that his concealment allowed him to him to learn many things. Others did not know when he was watching and listening, so they would often discuss matters in private, not realising that he could hear their every word. They wouldn't even consider the possibility of his presence, because he had wiped away his own karmic fate, pushing the memory of his existence to the far recesses of the peoples' minds. He had not been forgotten, it was more like, they just so happened to never think about him…
In the 1st Origin Era, there was one specific individual, someone who ascended in a way unlike any other, that the other Origin Gods had been crazily trying to identify ever since they entered this Era. This person had not ascended past the Origin into the Chaos like the others, but rather, they went in the opposite direction, following the Heavenly Dao right at the end and descending into the unknown depths of the Origin, to the place known by most as the 'Essence of Origin'.
That wasn't the most terrifying part, however. What scared everyone the most, was that they could not remember this being at all!
They remembered that such an Origin God had existed, and they vaguely remembered this individual being extremely prominent in the world, from the beginning all the way until the end of the 1st Origin Era. They remembered that this individual had shaken the world, they remembered meeting this individual, and being affected by this person multiple times throughout their lives and paths of cultivation!
And yet, they could not remember their appearance, their personality, their cultivation or their dao, they couldn't remember any specific details about them, other than the fact that they had influenced the world almost more than any other, and then ascended in a way unlike anyone else!
And so, with no information to go off of, that Origin God became known as the Hidden God.
In fact, even now, nobody could remember the true identity of the Hidden God in the 1st Origin Era…
Nobody, except for Defiance.
Defiance did not forget – he truly was that Defiant. However, although Defiance was very talkative about some matters regarding the outside world of the Chaos and other Origin Eras, he chose to remain silent on certain subjects. The matter of the Hidden God was one such subject. He also wasn't one to mutter about world-shaking secrets when he was alone, so Yaan couldn't learn anything just by secretly watching over Defiance from the shadows.
As Yaan wandered the world, travelling from place to place, listening in on conversations, indifferently watching battles that would shape the future of the world, he started to wonder…was this how the Heavenly Dao felt?
To be invisible, unseen and untouchable, to observe without being noticed, to have such freedom as this…
He felt that he was experiencing at least one portion of the Heavenly Dao's existence right now.
When he had this thought, another idea entered Yaan's mind…
Could he spy on the Heavenly Dao?
Unfortunately, the Heavenly Dao wasn't exactly a place that he could walk into. It was omnipresent, but only appeared to attack, and occasionally bless.
That said, if someone managed to attract Heavenly Tribulation, it might be interesting to fly up into the Heavenly Clouds and look around. Normally, doing such a thing would get him killed, but now, even the Heavenly Dao could not perceive him.
Yaan spent some time wandering the world and exploring the ruins of what was once a thriving cultivation civilisation. Now, everything was so devastated that all that remained, was the aura of death and destruction.
Eventually, he grew bored of all the monotonous and pointless battles. For the time being, there was nothing interesting to see, and there was a better use of his time than this.
He returned to the Four Divine Star System, to Rainbow Mountain, which remained at the foot of the Heavenly Statue. He knew that Love Empyrean had done her best to protect this star system for him, but in the end, the implosion of destruction was too much for her to resist.
Even so, she tried her best, Yaan could see that clearly. Right now, she was lying down on Rainbow Mountain, looking up into the starless sky with a dazed expression.
"Why do I feel heartbreak, as if I lost someone precious…?" She muttered quietly, before sighing and closing her eyes. For some reason, in this dying world, she felt the most at peace when she lay down on this little mountain.
After watching her for a while, Yaan silently returned to the mountain peak. He was still the mountain owner and could control it with absolute authority, but he didn't do so; any interference with the world could potentially give away his presence.
He sat down and closed his eyes, intending to finally meditate on his many gains and discoveries, from the Boundless Dao Library and onwards. He would not be disturbed by anyone or anything, nor would he split his focus - he wanted to devote his full attention to the dao for an extended period of time.
In the current world, there was nothing else worth doing right now, only dao was worth his time.
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