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43.79% Desolate Fate / Chapter 187: Pseudo-Domain

Bab 187: Pseudo-Domain

Yaan's progression through the Tower of Mortal Dao was more arduous than for others. He did not try to protect his heart, instead, he knowingly allowed the tower's pressure to land upon him, doing nothing to shield his heart from its weight. In a way, he was making things more difficult for himself, but in another sense, this was the only way that Yaan was able to climb the tower.

He did not turn away from the difficulties he faced. He did not try to block the suffering that he felt. He allowed it all to land upon him, braving the pain without having any doubts in his mind and heart towards his way.

The heart was something that all cultivators would do their utmost to protect and nurture, but Yaan's treatment towards his own heart was ruthless. Perhaps, denying the existence of his own heart was his most ruthless action yet.

However, the continual raining down of the tower's pressure caused him to grow weary and exhausted. His heart was worn down by the ongoing assault, growing tired and detached, until eventually, he seemed to become completely exhausted, and he was unable to go on.

It was at this point that Yaan lost consciousness. His heart was so tired, so weakened, that it threatened to collapse at any moment; truthfully, pushing himself to this extent was extremely dangerous!

And yet, Yaan did not give up. Even when his heart became filled with the desire of wanting to stop, another part of him refused to allow himself the luxury of giving in!

Yaan ended up falling into a semi-comatosed state, a state wherein he conserved the last remnants of his energy, allowing him to persevere on the brink of defeat for a while longer.

From the moment that his heart started to grow tired, an aura of pain began spreading outwards. This agonising aura which made others become filled with a sense of dread, was caused by Yaan's choice to ignore and trample on his own heart,

His dao heart, the core of his being, was crying out!

But Yaan ignored this cry, he ignored the pain, convincing himself that it did not exist.

Yaan experienced a unique enlightenment after emerging from his self-imposed illusion of mortality following Granny Ging's death back in Tian Village. This enlightenment caused him break out from one illusion, only to unknowingly impose an even deeper illusion upon himself, convincing himself that he did not possess a dao heart at all. Without even realising it, he was sinking deeper and deeper into this delusional illusion with every passing moment, allowing Yaan to overcome the usual limits of a Foundation Step cultivator, granting him the strength to persevere until the point that he was quite literally about to die from the collapse of his dao heart!

When he finally lost consciousness, his desire to push forwards and his determination to overlook his heart continued to rage on. With his heart split in two, the first part crying out, begging him to acknowledge the truth of his heart's pain, and the second part ruthlessly crushing every feeling within his heart until those emotions were stomped down into a cold sense of indifference…the aura of agony swept outwards.

Whilst the crowd was enraptured by Xuqi Laila's shining brilliance, Yaan's agonising aura actually began to lessen. Or, more accurately, it began flowing backwards, returning to Yaan's body, then sinking deep inside him.

Crack!

Suddenly, a noise heard only to Yaan echoed out like a deafening roar within his soul. His heart's internal turmoil shattered into countless fragments as an enormous crack reflecting the abyss spread out across his dao soul. The giant crossed his dao soul, before branching out, then again, and again, countless times, until Yaan's entire dao soul became covered in these dark cracks.

The dao soul was neither a physical nor spiritual entity, and it possessed no innate appearance. If a person's dao soul did manifest with an 'appearance', then it would simply reflect the person's own perception of themselves.

Typically, cracks on the dao soul represented damage caused by a heart demon. But then again, a heart demon which was allowed to grow to this degree should be more than to enough to completely obliterate a cultivator's dao soul…

And yet, Yaan did not die. Instead, at this moment, he finally opened his eyes.

The moment Yaan opened his eyes, the crowd instinctively looked towards him, no longer distracted by Xuqi Laila's incredible performance. The crowd fell silent as chills ran through their bodies. Almost every single person present felt their skin crawl and their hearts began palpitating wildly…even Origin Soul Realm cultivators were no exception to this!

Whilst the immortals of course weren't affected to such an extreme extent, they were still shocked beyond reason.

Whoosh!

At the exact same time, all three immortals stepped forwards, reappearing right beside the tower. They stared inwards, focussing on Yaan with serious expressions.

Yaan's physical eye colour was red, but he had been concealing his eyes subconsciously, making them appear brown until now. In this moment though, his eyes were neither red nor brown. In fact, one eye was emanating a blindingly bright white light, whilst the other eye was pure black like the abyss, depleting all light from the surroundings.

The pressure being released by Yaan right now was no longer a formless aura which could only be felt within the tower…because now, the pressure emanating from Yaan could no longer be restrained by the Tower of Mortal Dao!

But more accurately speaking, the Tower of Mortal Dao was not designed to block an aura such as this, because this aura…contained immortal power!

Black and white illusions surrounded Yaan. As he looked upwards slowly, his feet left the ground, and under the disbelieving gazes of the crowd, he slowly began to drift upwards…

In this tower that suppressed all cultivation, leaving those inside as helpless as mere mortals, Yaan was actually flying!

But really, the fact that he was able to fly was the least shocking matter. What shocked the immortals more than anything else, was the power that Yaan was currently displaying.

"Pseudo-domain! This is a complete pseudo-domain!" The Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord cried out in disbelief. She was simply unable to contain her shock, because this completely overturned her world view!

How could a mortal cultivator utilise an immortal ability?! How could this child use a power that even she had not yet attained?!

Gradually, she began to feel that this child, whom she had previously only considered to be a talented prodigy, was actually somewhat unfathomable…

Slowly, the female immortal turned to face the Immortal Ancestor.

"Pristine Qi Immortal, just who is this 'disciple' of yours, really? Is he a reincarnated immortal?"

"I said this before…he is my successor." The Immortal Ancestor replied calmly. He did not look at the shocked immortals beside him, but kept his gaze focussed on Yaan.

As Yaan ascended upwards, the illusions surrounding him became increasingly vivid. Unlike the previous times when he had displayed his incomplete pseudo-domain, the illusions this time were far more chaotic, far more agonising, and far less coherent.

Figures formed from white light were continuously born, screaming out whilst clutching their heads in pain. The reason for their pain were the black cracks which endlessly spawned upon them, tearing them apart and releasing waves of anguished aura. The endless cycles of birth and death contained traces of the dao of life and death, but the illusion itself was sustained by the dao of illusions…

This was proof that Yaan's illusion dao had reached immortal stage comprehension!

It was difficult to classify the minor differences in levels of dao comprehension, but there was a very clear boundary between mortal stage dao comprehension and immortal stage dao comprehension. At the mortal stage of dao comprehension, tiny aspects of the earthly dao were comprehended. All Foundation Step cultivators comprehended different aspects of the earthly dao; they might comprehend a larger, single portion of the dao, or they might comprehend various minor aspects of the dao.

Mortal stage comprehension was unordered and incomplete, but immortal stage comprehension was different. To comprehend one of the 3,000 earthly daos to the immortal stage, was to comprehend a complete fragment of that earthly dao! Someone with this stage of comprehension would still only understand a single fragment of that earthly dao, but they understood this portion of the dao in its entirety! Their comprehension was complete, it was ordered, it gave them a clear view of the dao as a whole. With dao comprehension at the immortal stage, it became far easier to manipulate this dao comprehension, allowing them to use their dao comprehension as the foundation to form a complete pseudo-domain!

Comprehending an earthly dao to the immortal stage was one of the prerequisites to becoming an immortal, but even so, not all immortals were able to form pseudo-domains. To do so, their comprehended dao needed to be compatible with the formation of a domain, but even then, deducing the method to form the domain using this comprehension was a huge undertaking in and of itself.

So naturally, the immortals felt stunned that Yaan, a young Foundation Step cultivator, was actually able to achieve such a feat.

The Immortal Ancestor showed nothing on his face, but his heart was truly stirred. The reason for him pushing Yaan into this trial, was exactly because he wanted to see the full extent of his dao comprehension talent for himself!

After coming to understand Yaan, he also wanted to see the direction of development of his dao heart…

'It is just like she said, his talent in perceiving dao is unreasonably high…the Primordial Devil originally did not comprehend dao, but after fragmenting into the five fragments, the Fragment of Dao retained the greatest dao comprehension talent. This fragment is indeed suited to becoming the core of the reborn Primordial Devil…but his dao heart, why is it like this? Is it because his heart is incomplete? This makes some degree of sense, since the Fragment of Dao would naturally be more severely affected by the incompleteness of our fragmented dao soul…but there is an alternative possibility.'

The Immortal Ancestor narrowed his eyes, staring at Yaan intently, trying to see through the secrets that even Yaan did not know he possessed.

Yaan drifted upwards slowly, passing through the centre of the tower, ascending past the stairway which spiralled around him.

He reached the 21st floor, then the 22nd…

23rd, 24th, 25th…

The tower's pressure weighed down on Yaan's heart, but this only caused the white illusory figures to scream out with greater intensity. The figures expanded, until they encompassed the entire floor surrounding Yaan. The black abyssal cracks continued to wreak havoc, tearing apart the white figures without mercy.

It was difficult to see clearly due to the chaotic nature of the illusion, but if someone looked closely, they would see that the white figures resembled the many people whom Yaan had wronged in some way throughout his life.

If someone listened closely, they would hear that the figures were not actually screaming at Yaan with hatred, but rather, they were begging him to stop…

But the dark cracks opposed the white figures and contained no mercy. The abyssal cracks resolutely obliterated the figures, not caring for the pain and devastation left in their wake. The entire atmosphere around Yaan was now filled with thick black cracks, partially obscuring his body from view. Flashes of Yaan's rising figure could be seen now and then, ascending through the tower silently, as if everything around him was simply irrelevant.

Quietly, Yaan ascended.

Yaan's will to ascend manifested in the form of greater, larger black cracks, causing chaos to rampage all around him.

In his pitch black eye, only ruthlessness could be seen. This was the portion of himself that Yaan focussed on; everything else was irrelevant. He believed that only this darkness could help him to ascend further. Even though he was in a dazed, semi-conscious state, this idea lingered on his mind, driving him to embrace this growing destructive force which was tearing apart his dao soul.

All Yaan could feel was ruthlessness, he refused to acknowledge anything else.

The audience felt the same way as they watched him. They were thrown into a state of overwhelming terror caused by this ruthlessness, leaving them unable to speak and unable to move, yet unable to look away.

Were it not for the immortals shielding them from Yaan's pseudo-domain, these Foundation Step cultivators would not be able to endure it. After all, Yaan was currently using an immortal power; those below the Immortal Step could not withstand such might!

The nature of a cultivator's domain was to take absolute control over the immediate region around themselves, by imbuing this region the power of their dao heart. Whilst a pseudo-domain used an earthly dao as its core instead, the power of the dao heart was still a key component.

To push one's domain onto another being, was to impose one's dao heart onto them! As such, those within the vicinity of another cultivator's domain would clearly feel the full, unhindered power of its master's dao…

Out of the many Foundation Step cultivators in the crowd, only one person was able to see through the ruthlessness of the black cracks. This person was by no means extraordinary compared to the others around her, but she was able to see through something within this chaos for a simple reason…she knew Yaan better than any of these people, and thus, somehow, she was not all that shocked by his sudden burst of might.

Whilst Zue Yin could not claim to share a close relationship with Yaan, she had known him through the various phases of his life. She had seen him grow, change and develop…and she had seen him step deeper and deeper into the demonic path as walked further along his path of cultivation.

Zue Yin gazed deeply into the contrast created between his white and black eyes, and for the first time, she felt as if she was able to see part of the truth within Yaan's heart, past the ruthlessness which he showed to the world…

When she saw past this false face, this face which he showed to the world, and even to himself, she realised that Yaan's immense demonic ruthlessness, his overbearing and tyrannical demeanour…and perhaps his entire demonic persona…was in truth just a mask.

Behind the mask, there was a simple young boy. Only, this boy who looked so fragile without his demonic mask, no longer had a normal pair of eyes, because the cruel passage of time had caused desolation to accumulate within his lonely gaze.

Zue Yin finally realised that Yaan was not truly ruthless…she had misunderstood him…everyone had misunderstood him…and he had misunderstood himself.

But she also knew that he had been forced to put on this mask, and to wear it every time he looked in the mirror, because if he did not, then he would be unable to continue along his path, the only path that he had ever known.

Two streams of tears unknowingly fell from her eyes. She could not look away from the young child floating silently up through the screaming ghosts and the merciless abyssal cracks, as if this world of madness and torment was simply where he had always been.

"I misunderstood him,…he never became a demon, not truly…but he was never righteous, either. He was always just…Yaan…"

Suddenly, Zue Yin felt like the very concept of righteous and demonic was nothing but a joke. Who in this world could truly be defined by a single word? Who in this world was truly aligned with a single extreme ideology?

Zue Yin bit her lip, staring at Yaan with pain in her eyes.

"Yaan…why did you choose this path? Why did you do this to yourself? Why does it have to be this way…? Why do you have to walk alone, without anyone to accompany you, without anyone to confide in, when you're clearly so lonely that it hurts…? It's not fair, Yaan…you're far too cruel to yourself…"


Bab 188: A Growing Pseudo-Domain

When Yaan started to ascend through the tower, he drew the full attention of the entire audience, so nobody noticed that Eccentric Granny began to follow him up the stairway. By the time Yaan reached the 27th floor, the Hukon Clan Ancestor finally noticed this bizarre scene. He looked away from Yaan for a moment, staring at Eccentric Granny oddly, before his brows furrowed deeply in realisation.

"This woman is able to ascend to the 27th floor…whilst also enduring an immortal pseudo-domain…"

Just as he spoke, Eccentric Granny paused, seeming to realise the same thing at the exact same time. She quickly looked around as if checking whether or not she had been seen, even though she obviously could not see outside of the tower. However, acting as if she had been caught out, she straightened up her body and coughed, then suddenly clutched her chest and yelled out dramatically.

"Arg! Oh no, my heart cannot take it anymore…ahem…Blegh!"

She suddenly coughed out a mouthful of 'blood', then pretended to fall back, even though she obviously jumped. She fell down, shooting past Yaan and almost brushing past his body, before she plummeted all the way down to the ground floor. When she hit the ground floor, she was immediately ejected from the tower.

The Foundation Step cultivators were still too distracted by Yaan to even notice this, but the immortals looked at the old woman weirdly as she flew away from the tower, looking completely fine and free from injury.

They didn't even know what to say. Even when she coughed out 'blood' just now, it definitely wasn't blood, it was merely a mouthful of the berries which she had been eating! She didn't even make a decent attempt to hide this fact!

"Sigh, these trials are for young people, I just can't hack it anymore…" Eccentric Granny flew away, blending into the crowd as she ignored the immortals' piercing gazes.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Ah, he's approaching Laila!" The Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord quickly stopped caring about the oddity called Eccentric Granny, returning her attention to the tower.

Yaan's ability to manifest a pseudo-domain was shocking, but honestly, she was more concerned about her own disciple.

Laila being ejected from the tower was the least of her worries. There was a very real chance that if Xuqi Laila entered the range of Yaan's continually growing pseudo-domain, she could become seriously injured, or even directly killed!

The immortals struggled to estimate the impact that Yaan's pseudo-domain would have on Foundation Step cultivators. This was an immortal ability, they could not analyse it in a short period of time. Still, the Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord just hoped that this pseudo-domain was much weaker than a pseudo-domain formed by an immortal.

This was entirely possible, Yaan wasn't an immortal after all, but they couldn't know for sure. As such, the Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord felt quite anxious as Yaan drew in closer and closer towards her disciple…

Even though she, as the immortal lord of the Xuqi Sect, understood this Tower of Mortal Dao better than almost anyone else in the Southern Continent, she still did not understand even half of its mysteries, nor did she possess absolute control over it. The Tower of Mortal Dao was a construct made to test the dao of Foundation Step cultivators, but it was certainly an immortal level object, and an extremely high grade immortal level object at that! Immortals were unable to enter the tower, nor could those in 'control' of the tower do anything other than move it within a restricted range, and open its entrance once every ten years.

The female immortal could only hope that this immortal construct, which had been provided to them by the Divine Court, would act like a proper righteous monument, protecting her disciple's life from the impending danger.

When Yaan reached the 30th floor, he was only five floors away from Xuqi Laila. At this point, she finally noticed the strange aura spreading up from below her. Xuqi Laila paused and looked down. Her eyes widened at the sight before her.

Glowing white figures were wailing like tortured ghosts, battling against abyssal black cracks as they were born and killed in an endless cycle. Chaotic streams of white and black power exploded out in all directions, giving form to new illusions, which quickly underwent their complete lifecycle in a short period of time. Despair, pain, killing intent, ruthlessness, desolation, all of these emotions blended together within the region, forming a confused mixture of feelings that could easily drive a person insane.

After staring down dumbfoundedly for some time, Laila realised that the illusions were growing stronger by the second, and drawing closer towards her! At this moment, she forced herself to look away. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then stared upwards with a burning gaze.

"Along my path of cultivation, there have always been distractions, trying to get in my way, trying to hold me back…but I will not get distracted…because all I want is to cultivate!"

And with that, she continued with her ascent, now moving faster, intending to outrun the monstrosity that was approaching from below.

By the time that Yaan reached the 35th floor, Xuqi Laila had already made her way to the 40th floor! Yaan was not drifting upwards very quickly, so Xuqi Laila was actually able to maintain the distance between them. However, she still felt an increasing sense of pressure, since Yaan's pseudo-domain was continuing to grow larger with each passing moment.

By now, the audience, although still feeling horrified by Yaan's pseudo-domain, finally noticed Laila and started to regather their bearings. After adjusting to the dreadful aura emanating from Yaan that remained even after the immortals blocked the majority of its power, those stronger and more mentally resilient individuals began to discuss the shocking scene amongst themselves.

Naturally, Brase, Keasal and Hukon Jong were amongst these few.

"It seems that we have underestimated this junior brother of ours, Brase…" Keasal commented wryly. Brase nodded, before sighing with a complicated look in his eyes.

"Just look around, not a single cultivator is able to remain unaffected by his power. This power is far too strange, it can even pass through the tower's walls! Were it not for the immortals protecting us, I fear that we would all be forced to retreat, at the very least…"

"Don't forget Xuqi Laila. She is only five floors away from him, yet she is able to continue climbing the tower whilst simultaneously resisting the dreadful power!" The Hukon Clan Leader added, his eyes flickering between the two. He was still unable to hide his shock. These two were juniors, were they not? Why were they both so ridiculous?!

Even the Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord was surprised by her disciple's performance. She had not expected that Laila would be able to continue ascending the floors with such ease by this level, it was almost as if she was only climbing an ordinary staircase!

The female immortal's gaze drifted back towards Yaan briefly.

'Laila, you have finally encountered someone who can stand on the same stage as you. This could be an excellent opportunity for you, in more ways than one…'

The truth of the matter was that the Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord wanted her disciple to lose to Yaan. Of course, she wanted Laila to excel, shining brightly as she made her way onto the stage of the Southern Continent…however, after witnessing Yaan's spectacular performance, she saw the opportunity for Laila to develop further, beyond her current limitations.

To develop through failure.

Since her birth until now, Xuqi Laila had outperformed her peers by such a huge margin that she had become distant, not considering anyone worth her attention. Perhaps, if she finally met her match, she would change, branching out her horizons and experiencing more of this life than simple cultivation…

Naturally, even if she knew about her teacher's thoughts, Xuqi Laila would not give up. In fact, despite what it might look like to everyone spectating from the outside, she did not even think of this current situation as her 'competing' against Yaan…she just wanted to continue climbing the tower.

She knew that if Yaan caught up to her, she would become distracted - she would definitely be ejected from the tower, she might even suffer serious injuries. The opportunity to climb the Tower of Mortal Dao did not come about often, and in fact, it was a rule of the Xuqi Sect that nobody was permitted to enter this tower more than twice in their lifetime! Laila did not understand the reason for this rule, but regardless, she knew that she needed to make the most of this opportunity.

If that dreadful power, which continued rising up from below, would cause her to fall, then she just needed to outrun it!

Laila continued to climb. She surpassed the 45th floor, at which point, her speed finally began to slow down. She had drawn some distance away from Yaan, but she knew that this would not last forever…

The black and white power below her, whatever it was, was steadily rising up. It was not fast, but neither did it seem hindered, rather, it was simply unrushed.

Yaan did not know that Xuqi Laila was ahead of him. He did not know that he had attracted the attention of the entire upper echelon of the Southern Continent's cultivation world. He did not know that the Xuqi Sect Lord had secretly contacted the Xuqi Dynasty's Supreme Ancestor, the most powerful immortal in the Southern Continent, and that this person was now watching him from the shadows.

Yaan was not fully conscious right now, he was not at all aware of his surroundings. All he could recall, was that he needed to continue. No matter what happened, he needed to go on…

A large man with a beard that extended down to his chest stood above the Tower of Mortal Dao, staring down with a gaze that seemed to pierce through the heavens and earth. This person was simply enormous for a human Qi refiner, he would tower over any normal man with his ten feet tall muscle-clad body. Despite his apparent old age, he looked to be in extremely good shape.

He was the Xuqi Dynasty's Supreme Ancestor!

Even the other immortals in the Southern Continent needed to treat this person with respect. He rarely made public appearances, in fact, he rarely even bothered to deal with the other immortals on this planet. However, when he received his junior clansman's message, claiming that a mortal cultivator had displayed a pseudo-domain within the Tower of Mortal Dao, he immediately left his secluded cultivation and appeared above the Xuqi Sect lands within seconds.

"It really is a pseudo-domain…" He murmured, narrowing his eyes. A flash of seven-coloured light surfaced within his gaze, then a moment later, he glanced towards the Immortal Ancestor with a frown. However, neither the Immortal Ancestor, nor the other two immortals, noticed his gaze.

"Pristine Qi took on a fiend as a disciple? Well, since this child is now cultivating the Four Paths Cultivation Technique, he is no longer a true demon, so I will let it slide for now on account of his potential…however, this boy's nature must be monitored."

The man said this to himself, but he showed no intention of making any move for now. He continued to watch Yaan silently, waiting to see just how far his pseudo-domain would grow.


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