Bab 320: The Shadow of Destruction
On the Blood Plane, within Primordial Mountain's War Hall…
For the first time in many years, the Primordial Devil leapt up from his throne and ignored the two pitiful cultivators whom he had been torturing to quench his irritation towards Yaan. Ga Shu and the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader were both in an awful state at this point, to the extent that they couldn't even groan in pain.
The moment the Dao Clone of Qi reached the Immortal Step, the karmic link between Yaan, the Primordial Devil, and the three Dao Clones, became abundantly clear for all five beings to feel. They could instantly sense the connection between one another, and they all came to a certain realisation…
Firstly, the Primordial Devil only now realised just what Yaan had done. The Sage had already told him that Yaan was alive on the Spirit Plane, but she annoyingly refused to tell him anymore than this, claiming that he needed to 'handle his own heart demon by himself'. Now though, with the sudden materialisation of the karmic chains, he could see Yaan's main body on the Spirit Plane, as well as the three Dao Clones that he had created…
Like the Primordial Devil, Yaan also sensed the Primordial Devil's presence, as did the three Dao Clones. The Dao Clones could also sense one another's existence, but beyond that, they could finally feel Yaan's gaze which continued to linger over them.
They were only able to 'see' one another for a brief moment, before this brief flash of visual acuity vanished into thin air. However, the sensation of connection between them remained…
"So that's his game! That little abomination of the dao, is actually so abominable that he created his own path of cultivation…the dao path?" The Primordial Devil's expression flicked between various emotions, but predominantly, his eyes were filled with a boundless killing intent.
He fell into silence for a moment, whilst the Primordial Sage watched him quietly from the side. As for Ga Shu, he just about managed to raise his head and smirk at the Primordial Devil - whom he now knew was also the Blood Plane Lord, and the source of Yaan's creation. As for the Bloody Totem tribe Leader, she strained herself, but in the end, she was too exhausted to even lift her head up. However, when she felt the fluctuations in the Primordial Devil's aura and heard the words that he muttered, she smiled ever so slightly in relief.
Although she acted strong, this was just because she didn't want to give this deranged devil the satisfaction of seeing her suffer. In reality, his torture was too horrendous, and she just wanted it to end. Hearing that Yaan had finally made some sort of connection with this heinous monster, she knew that her suffering would soon reach its end, and she would finally be able to join her tribesmen in their eternal slumber.
The Primordial Devil rapidly processed everything that he had just seen, and all that he could still feel. He could feel four distinct karmic connections, and he could tell where each connection led, and to whom it belonged.
"His main 'body' is still on the Spirit Plane, and under little sister's protection. Damnit, if only she knew the truth, she would capture that bastard for me and allow me to finally devour him!" The Primordial Devil growled in anger.
"If you rely on others to help you defeat your heart demon, you will inevitably fail." The Primordial Sage reminded him. "You cannot think of Yaan as a normal enemy, but as a flaw that exists within your heart. You must overcome this flaw with your efforts alone, or else your defeat is a certainty."
"Tch." The Primordial Devil clicked his tongue, but he knew that what she said was true. Even so…
"I don't like the fact that you're lying to little sister. She trusts you implicitly, Sage, and you are abusing that trust."
"I am doing it for all of our benefits." She replied plainly.
The red-haired behemoth just shook his head and didn't say anything else. They had argued about this multiple times ever since Yaan's rebirth onto the Spirit Plane, but neither of them ever relented. It was a pointless conversation to repeat yet again, so he dropped it, and instead focussed on what was right before him.
"The Dao Clone of Mind, the one calling himself 'Knowledge', is a failure. He remains on the Sage Plane, and has even given up on all hope of ascending to the Immortal Step. The two that I will be fighting, are the Dao Clone of Qi, and the Dao Clone of Soul…both of those bastards are too deplorable! The first reminds me too much of my original heart demon, and the second is simply asking for death by calling himself 'Devil'!"
The Primordial Devil snorted coldly as the killing intent built up within his gaze. Whenever he thought of the Dao Clone of Soul, his killing intent erupted to entirely new heights…
"That trash…actually copied me! He ascended to the Immortal Step using his dao heart, and simultaneously attained solidified killing intent!" The red-haired giant exclaimed as his body glowed with a faint but bloody red light.
However, he sneered and shook his head…
"He might be strong for a Dao Immortal, but he's still too lacking…what good is there in solidifying your killing intent if your body remains a spirit? That false devil…does not know the meaning of killing! A heart of slaughter? There is no heart behind his slaughter! He tried to copy me, yet his heart is not one of pride…he is…a failure!"
The Primordial Devil laughed to himself darkly, before turning his attention towards the Dao Clone of Qi.
"As for that human Qi child…a heart of protection? A clone that values peace? He is not even worthy to be considered my enemy! But regardless, I will kill them both…they might be strong for Dao Immortals, but I was stronger than Dao Immortals before Dao Immortals even existed! My Immortal Step surpasses the Immortal Step of all others…the only possible outcome in this battle, is my victory!"
The Primordial Devil laughed crazily to himself. He had felt a deep, seething hatred towards his heart demon ever since he was forced to fragment his dao soul and reincarnate thousands of years ago. After clashing with Yaan back then, yet still failing to kill him, the Primordial Devil's hatred, and his desire to slaughter Yaan, only increased.
And now, finally, he felt like he could see the path ahead!
However, he didn't ask the Sage to open a pathway to the Qi Plane. He didn't know if she would be willing to help him, but either way, he didn't want her help…
"If that false devil can cross the world planes by climbing across the karmic chains between us, then why can I not do the same?! However, this will admittedly be quite difficult; that false devil only succeeded in this due to acting at the moment of his enlightenment. It will be difficult…but I will succeed!"
And so, the Primordial Devil sat back down on his throne and closed his eyes. Although he did not comprehend dao, he could still feel the karmic chains between himself and the two Dao Clones on the Qi Plane. It would certainly take some time, but he was sure that eventually, so long as he didn't relent and continued to search for the true form of these karmic chains, he would be able to enter the karmic river and cross over onto the Qi Plane!
His heart of pride would not allow him to even consider his own potential failure in this pursuit.
As the Primordial Devil shut his eyes, he pushed one small uncertainty from his mind…
'His main body…I don't understand this 'dao path' at all. Did he also reach the Immortal Step…? He certainly feels stronger than he was in the past, but for some reason, I can't ascertain his cultivation step at all…'
*****
The Primordial Devil was directly impacted by Yaan's Dao Clones ascending to the Immortal Step, and Yaan's main body waking up after reaching an unknown height. However, there was someone else who would also soon be strongly influenced by Yaan's development…
On the Blood Plane, within the Origin Continent, the micro-realm created by the Primordial Sage, a lone woman sat in darkness within a hollowed out mountain. At one point in time, this mountain belonged to the strongest clan of warriors on the Origin Continent, but in the battle back then, that clan had been completely obliterated…as had their enemies, all bar one lone woman.
Shi, ever since slaughtering the ruling power on the Origin Continent, along with killing her own allies in a fit of blood-frenzy, had secluded herself within Origin Mountain, leaving the sea of blood and corpses strewn around the surrounding kingdom as a reminder to herself of the death that she had caused, and the death that she was pursuing.
"Uncle…I must…kill uncle…death…I will…pursue death…for Uncle, I will become death itself…" Shi muttered. Her hair had become a mess over the years of seclusion, and the longer she spent 'meditating' in this state, the more incoherent and psychotic she became.
Shi was not just losing her mind - ever since she had witnessed her uncle's gaze back then in Namuh Village, ever since she had resolved herself to kill him, no matter the cost, her sanity had been slipping further and further, with every breath that she took. She had long since lost her sound mind, and yet somehow, she only became increasingly mad as the days passed by. It was as if her madness had no end.
The Primordial Sage had been silent ever since Shi secluded herself in this place. Shi was following the 'origin path', the path that the Sage had attempted to create as the path to surpass all other paths back then. She had believed her endeavour to be a failure, as the origin path was a path that could not be cultivated to immortality, making it one of the countless 'failed paths' that were not considered true paths due to their fatal flaws.
However, Shi was not only the first person to reach the peak in this path, but the only person that the Primordial Sage saw as having a chance to finally complete this path and ascend to the Immortal Step.
The Immortal Ascension of the origin path would be unique. Shi knew that the only way to reach immortality via the origin path, was by going through all three stages of Nirvana in a single step. However, that alone wouldn't be enough…
The origin path wasn't actually flawed, but rather, it was too perfect; this path was suppressed by the Heavenly Dao, and as such, it was impossible to even trigger the normal Immortal Ascension Tribulation using an immortal stage comprehension over an earthly dao. The only choice, was to follow in the footsteps of Defiance by ascending using the dao heart, and attaining a named dao heart to forcefully step through all of Nirvana, and the three Immortal Realms, all in one go.
The footsteps of Defiance, and now also, the reincarnated Primordial Devil along with Yaan.
As for the dao heart that Shi was seeking?
It was the heart of death.
Death was a partial-principle dao, an earthly dao under the Heavenly Dao. However, who said that earthly daos couldn't become a person's dao heart? In fact, when it came to cultivators who had attained named dao hearts, comprehending an earthly dao via the heart was just as common as creating an entirely unique dao.
The Heavenly Dao had its own dao of death, but did that mean that the Heavenly Dao had a monopoly over death itself? Of course it didn't!
All earthly daos could be comprehended beyond the scope of the Heavenly Dao. Even when a dao was cultivated to the divine stage, representing that the entire earthly dao had been comprehended, it could still be cultivated further! Divine stage comprehension only represented a complete understanding of the Heavenly Dao's perspective of that dao - but dao was endless, and it far surpassed the Heavenly Dao, which had clear limits on all 3,000 of its earthly daos.
For the past tens of years, Shi had been trying to create her own dao heart of death. She had long since comprehended the dao of death to the immortal stage, and in fact, she had comprehended multiple fragments of the death dao…but even so, the dao heart of death still eluded her.
She ground her teeth in madness as she continued to seek her own heart. However, she felt like no matter how hard she tried to pursue it, something was still missing! There was a problem with the heart that she sought, and for this reason, she continued to fail.
But on this day, there was a change. The Primordial Sage who had remained silent and allowed Shi to cultivate her maddening heart in peace, finally broke the silence to inform Shi of a certain event…
"Your uncle has successfully cultivated his dao path to the Immortal Step."
The Sage said this, but in truth, the 'step' that Yaan had attained was too unclear. It was above the Foundation Step, and below the Divine Step…yet it did not seem to be the Immortal Step. This was something that even the Primordial Sage didn't fully understand yet.
But regardless of whatever it was that Yaan had attained, it was equivalent to the Immortal Step.
Shi's eyes shot open and she stared at the Primordial Sage with a bloodshot gaze.
"So uncle succeeded before me…I am still chasing his shadow…"
"Indeed. Your uncle is not an easy man to kill…" The Primordial Sage spoke slowly and deliberately, drawing Shi into her pace.
The Sage had long since seen through Shi's dilemma, but it was only now that she decided to help her. Te Primordial Sage had mastered the timing needed to manipulate a person's heart - and now was that time.
Now was the time to create the monster that she had envisioned…no, the monster that she had prophesied.
"Back then in Namuh Village…Yaan died."
"Huh?" Shi stared at the Primordial Sage blankly. For a while, she couldn't process her words, but when it finally clicked, she leapt to her feet and stared at the Sage with a burning gaze filled with confusion and hatred.
"What do you mean he died?! You told me that he had survived! And just now, you said that he reached the Immortal Step! Just what is the truth?! Just what…is my uncle?!"
The Primordial Sage had always hidden the truth from Shi, and Shi had always expected it to remain this way, believing that she would need to seek out Yaan for herself to learn the full truth. The Primordial Sage had deliberately led her to believe this, all so that her following words would create and even bigger shock.
"Yaan is the living embodiment of the Primordial Devil's heart demon - that is, the heart demon of one of the strongest beings to ever walk these planes. The heart demon's existence forced the Primordial Devil to reincarnate and fragment his Dao Soul. Yaan walked the path of devouring the various fragments, until finally, he learned the truth in his Immortal Ascension Tribulation…causing him to fail his tribulation. That was when Yaan arrived in Namuh Village, and decided to live his remaining years out as a mortal…your uncle. And in the end, he died…but death is not enough to kill your uncle, Shi…"
Shi stared at the Primordial Sage with wide eyes.
"Death…cannot kill uncle…?"
"Your uncle died on the Blood Plane, and he inexplicably destroyed the cycle of reincarnation, right as he himself reincarnated onto the Spirit Plane - an impossible feat, given that even his Dao Soul died. And this is only one example…your uncle has been through death in multiple different ways, Shi, yet none of these deaths have been able to kill him…"
The Primordial Sage continued speaking calmly as Shi's gaze trembled crazily.
The Sage explained to her that Yaan was born from the Primordial Devil's death…she explained that his fused self was born from the death of a human child named Yaan, after that child's Dao Soul was devoured by the Primordial Devil's heart demon…she spoke of the time that Yaan had passed the True-False Illusion World Trial, by allowing his illusory self to devour his own self…she also spoke of Yaan's experience with devouring the Fragment of Mind, essentially experiencing the killing of himself. She recounted how recently, his Dao Clone of Qi had died, only to reincarnate himself as a formation spirit…
Once again, the Primordial Sage stated emotionlessly:
"Death is not enough to kill your Uncle. Death will not kill him. Only by completely destroying him, will he be removed from this world."
"Death…isn't enough? But destroying him…destruction…"
As Shi muttered under her breath, Origin Mountain trembled.
"Destruction…" She muttered once again.
BANG!
Without warning, Origin Mountain suddenly exploded. It was destroyed so overwhelmingly that the rock turned to dirt, the dirt to dust, the dust to ash, and then the ash vaporised into a destructive wave which swept outwards and obliterated countless corpses which had been left to fester and rot in the region.
"I see…killing Uncle isn't enough…I must…destroy him…"
Each of Shi's words contained ripples of dao.
Suddenly, the Primordial Sage retreated. She stared down at Shi, who had just comprehended the dao of destruction to the immortal stage, and her eyes shone like emeralds.
Shi's bloodshot eyes regained a hint of clarity. The world became still as her madness seemed to subside…before erupting out in a wave of devastation, a wave of destruction, like none that had ever appeared before in this world.
"I will destroy Uncle."
BANG!
Countless ripples of dao exploded from Shi's body. The land in every direction around her was destroyed, turned to dust, ash, and then vanished from this world. The more destruction that she caused, the heavier this destruction became.
Destruction was a wave of momentum, and Shi was riding this wave into a massive enlightenment, and a monstrous enhancement to her strength. Others had realised the potential of destruction before, but historically, all those who pursued destruction, were in the end destroyed by their own crazed pursuit…
Until now.
In the end, Shi actually comprehended one half of the fragments that made up the dao of destruction, a partial-principle dao!
And in this same instant, as her eyes shone with the light of destruction, Shi finally succeeded. She succeeded with attaining a named dao heart - something incomprehensible given her young age - but it was not the heart of death; it was the heart of destruction!
As her heart filled with destruction, she was met with her three Nirvana events simultaneously…
All three were destroyed before they could even form.
The eight True Immortal Tribulations…
All destroyed.
And finally, her Dao Ascension Tribulation…
Destroyed.
She passed through her ascension with even greater ease than Devil, who had simply slaughtered all of his tribulations. She achieved this because Shi had gone a step further than slaughtering - she destroyed.
By the time she came to her senses, she realised that she was no longer on the Origin Continent, but standing within a desolate land, a land that she would later come to know…was once the land ruled by her uncle - the Bloody Totem Province!
Once prosperous, this land was now just a ruins of death and despair. For Shi to appear in this place, after destroying the entire Origin Continent, the formation which led into the micro-realm, and the micro-realm itself, truly felt fitting.
Shi's entire body was filled with an immense power, the power of the origin. She had become a being of pure origin, causing her body, soul, energy and mind, to all fuse together into one.
She had attained what Yaan had once sought, the fusion of all four paths!
However, her state was extremely strange. For some reason, she looked like her body was constantly being destroyed…and yet, this destruction was what sustained her. She had destroyed her own Mortal Life Essence, allowing her own unique Origin Life Essence to be born, which also prevented her from being destroyed by her own destruction.
Her existence was miraculous, it was something that the Heavenly Dao did not permit, but something that Shi had taken for herself anyway. The Heavenly Dao could not destroy her for this, because she had become the living embodiment of destruction itself!
As she stood high up in the sky, avoiding Shi's aura of destruction, the Primordial Sage stared down at Shi with a burning gaze. She knew that Shi, this mad woman with a heart of destruction, was destined to become a grand character in this world.
She had attained a named dao heart after living for less than 200 years - in this regard, she was the most talented living being to ever exist.
And yet, this prodigy…was completely mad. A single glance at her aura, or a quick look into her eyes, would tell you that much.
Shi's gaze burned with the flames of desire like never before.
"Uncle…even if I need to follow your shadow in order to reach your heights…one day, I will definitely destroy you!"
*****
On the Qi Plane, Defiance Sovereign opened his eyes once again. A faint smile crept onto his lips, and he repeated something that he had said many times in the past. This was something that he had experienced in the 3rd Origin Era, then again in the 1st Origin Era, so he had already anticipated that this same fate would replay itself in this 2nd Origin Era.
"When the first sign of the end of the world appears…the shadow of destruction is never far behind…"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone