章 322: Spirit Plane Formation
After the Spirit Plane Lord finished questioning Yaan regarding her various concerns and confusions, she reluctantly agreed to her sister's request to let Yaan leave and venture out from the Spirit Plane alone. Yaan patiently explained that he needed to seek his dao by exploring the world alone, and he placed strong emphasis on the 'alone' part of this - he did not want the Spirit Plane Lord to watch him. He even claimed that if she did so, his heart would be able to vaguely sense it due to his extreme dao comprehension and unique path, and that this would distract him from his pursuit of his own dao.
This was of course just an excuse he made up, in an attempt to divert Spirit Plane Lord's attention away from his coming actions. For his plan to work, he needed to ensure that the Spirit Plane Lord would not watch him as he travelled across the Spirit Plane.
Fortunately, it seemed that the Primordial Sage, after seeing that her sister no longer intended to question Yaan, once again decided to take Yaan's side. She persuaded her sister that neither of them should interfere with Yaan's path. She even agreed that Yaan's dao path was too mysterious, and stated that the interference of divinities on their level could hinder his progress.
Like this, Yaan left the Spirit Plane as he rode atop the mad elephant's back. The Spirit Plane Lord prevented the mad elephant's destructive aura from damaging anything on the 9th Layer of Heaven, and she opened a gate with a complicated expression, leading to the 6th Layer of Heaven.
Yaan glanced back at her one last time and gave a faint nod…
He knew that in all likelihood, this was the last time that she would look at him with that concerned expression. When they next met…it would be as enemies.
Without hesitation, Yaan turned back around and walked into the portal, vanishing from the Spirit Sect and the 9th Layer of Heaven, which transported him through a tunnel of light down to the 6th Layer of Heaven.
When the Spirit Plane Lord spent those years showing Yaan around every corner of the Spirit Plane back then, she also showed him to the territories and dwellings of the various divinities across the Spirit Plane. In all, including herself and the Primordial Sage, there were exactly 14 divinities living on the Spirit Plane. This was by far the lowest number of divinities out of the Qi Plane, Blood Plane and Spirit Plane.
It never used to be this way, but after that world-shaking battle which dragged in almost every divinity across the four planes one million years ago, the number of divinities on the Spirit Plane had declined drastically. Due to the Spirit Plane suffering severely in that war, forcing the Spirit Plane Lord to transform it from a normal physical world into an entirely spiritual world, many of the divinities who had been living on the Spirit Plane at the time, either died in the process, or they fell from the Spirit Plane, landing in another world plane, where they were hunted down and killed by their enemies after barely surviving the Spirit Plane's calamity.
Of those who managed to survive and remain on the Spirit Plane, almost half chose to leave for either the Blood Plane or Qi Plane after recovering from their injuries. The Spirit Plane was just a world of souls after all, and some of those cultivators were not soul cultivators; they left in order to reform their bodies and energies, restoring their full cultivations. Really, it was only the soul cultivators who chose to remain on the Spirit Plane despite all the drastic changes.
Even though it had been one million years since then, apparently, only four more divinities had appeared on the Spirit Plane in this time.
Of those four, one chose to remain on the Spirit Plane, but joined the Divine Court and took on the role of watching over the cycle of reincarnation which was established shortly after that cataclysmic war ended. This increased the number of Divine Court divinities on the Spirit Plane to three.
One of the four vanished from the Spirit Plane, but their reason for doing so and their current whereabouts were a mystery.
The other two of the four remained on the Spirit Plane, but only one - a man raised by the Spirit Sect - chose to join the Primordial Alliance. The other took a neutral stance, refusing to involve herself in any of the conflicts between the older divinities, and secluding herself away from the world in her own territory, somewhere on the 8th Layer of Heaven.
At present, there were 14 divinities on the Spirit Plane. This was not including the Primordial Sage, who was everywhere at once, so most considered her a resident of the Sage Plane. Aside from the Sage Plane, where the Primordial Sage was the only divinity, the Spirit Plane had the lowest number of divinities.
The Spirit Plane Lord could easily track the number of divinities on the Spirit Plane because she was this world's world spirit, but it wasn't so easy to know the exact number of divinities on the Qi Plane and Blood Plane. However, on the Qi Plane, there were definitely at least twice as many divinities compared to the Spirit Plane. The Qi Plane had always been the largest and most populated of the four planes, whilst the Qi refining path resulted in the highest success rate for all levels of ascension compared to any other cultivation path. For this reason, the Qi Plane had always boasted the greatest number of divinities.
Anyway, the divinities on the other planes were none of Yaan's concern right now. He was only concerned about the 14 divinities on the Spirit Plane, and avoiding crossing paths with them. If possible, he wanted to carry out his plan in secret, without anyone ever suspecting him of doing anything strange…
His biggest problem was the Spirit Plane Lord. She was basically omniscient on the Spirit Plane and had innumerable bodies which she kept at countless hidden locations to watch over her world…no matter what, Yaan needed to avoid her watchful eye.
The Primordial Sage telling her that she needed to leave Yaan to his own devices as he 'pursued dao' should definitely help, but he didn't want to rely on this alone. He needed more insurance…if possible, he wanted the Primordial Sage's assistance.
If the Primordial Sage would not provide him with any assistance whatsoever, the chances of his plan succeeding would reduce dramatically. He knew that eventually, the Spirit Plane Lord would learn of the truth behind his existence, at which point she would immediately search for him, and she would find the highly suspect traces that he needed to leave behind during his 'pursuit of dao'…but until that time, he needed to keep her gaze away from him.
As Yaan stepped into the 6th Layer of Heaven, a place that he chose to visit first mostly because it was the highest Layer of Heaven without any divinities residing here, aside from at least one of the Spirit Plane Lord's bodies, he sat atop the mad elephant's back and calmly called out to what seemed to be thin air.
"Sage…" Yaan spoke softly, seemingly oblivious to the immediate destruction caused by the appearance of the mad elephant in this place. With the Spirit Plane Lord no longer protecting the surroundings from the mad elephant's innate aura of destruction, the region for tens of miles around was immediately laid to waste, and shockwaves of destruction continued to pulsate outwards for hundreds of miles further. Any and all living beings in this region died pitifully, before they were even made aware of the danger that they were in.
He had entered the centre of the 6th Layer of Heaven. This place was a renowned tempering grounds, not only for members of the Spirit Sect, but also for members of other smaller groups, as well as lone cultivators who wanted to reap the benefits of the incredible environment. Naturally, since the Spirit Plane Lord knew that Yaan…and the mad elephant…would be entering this region, she immediately withdrew all of her sect's members from this place.
Like the 7th, 8th and 9th Layers of Abyss, entering those upper Layers of Heaven was beyond difficult, since there was no clear way in or out. It wasn't quite so confined compared to the bottom three Layers of Abyss, but even so, it was still extremely difficult for anyone below the Divine Step to reach the 7th Layer of Heaven, it was basically impossible for them to reach the 8th Layer, and only the Spirit Plane Lord could come and go from the 9th Layer of Heaven as she pleased. Of course, she could also help others travel between the layers with no difficulty.
However, the Primordial Sage naturally wasn't restricted by such things. She could go wherever she pleased in this world, even the karmic river! Travelling to and from the 9th Layer of Heaven and the 9th Layer of Abyss was nothing much for her.
With the region all around him destroyed, leaving not even the ashes of ruin in tact under the mad elephant's aura of destruction, Yaan's voice echoed out into the now-desolate world, calling to the mysterious woman, who had no doubt followed after him in secret.
Even if the Primordial Sage remained in the Spirit Palace with the Spirit Plane Lord, so what? The Sage had an unknown number of bodies hidden in every crevice of this world. Her omniscience transcended even the Spirit Plane Lord's when it came to the four planes as a whole, and she was probably the only being with the ability to evade the Spirit Plane Lord's detection on the Spirit Plane.
As soon as Yaan spoke, a young girl with wavy brown hair, emerald eyes and a black crystal embedded in her forehead, appeared directly before Yaan expressionlessly. She did nothing to stop the mad elephant's aura of destruction from rampaging out as it continued to walk, roaring out with a cry of freedom now that it was finally able to enter the real world once again, but she remained completely unaffected. It was as if the mad elephant's aura - this aura which would even cause Dao Immortals to retreat with gloomy expressions - simply phased through her like a gust of wind.
For a while, Yaan and the Sage stared at one another silently, ignoring the mad elephant's ongoing cries and roars.
"You want my assistance?" The Primordial Sage broke the silence after a few moments.
Yaan simply nodded, but then after a thought, he added:
"Can the Spirit Plane Lord see us right now? Did she stick to her word, or is she watching me?"
"Even if she tried to watch us, I can allow the both of us to evade her gaze. However, this isn't a concern; the Primordial Spirit values my opinion. Since I told her that you need to be left alone, she has taken your wish to heart. For now, she will not try to watch you, and if you approach any of her bodies' range of sense, she will actively retract it to avoid disturbing your…pursuit of dao."
That faint pause before she said 'pursuit of dao' told Yaan all he needed to know. The Sage had already seen through his lie, but this wasn't too unexpected. He would never underestimate the Primordial Sage - honestly, he wasn't certain just how much she understood about his current state…and just how much of his plan she had deduced.
But for now, that didn't matter. Regardless of what she knew about him, he just needed to know one thing from her.
"So then, since I can speak freely, I will ask you directly, Sage. How much help, if any, are you willing to provide me?"
The Sage was silent for a moment, but she continued to stare straight into Yaan's eyes. Despite her releasing no pressure, anyone else would feel beyond uncomfortable under that gaze…but Yaan felt nothing.
The Primordial Sage could no longer see through his thoughts, they both knew this now, it didn't even need to be said. But aside from that…
Yaan was determined to survive…but he did not fear death.
No gaze could make him feel pressure, because fundamentally, he could no longer be pressured. A man without a single trace of fear towards death, was a man who could face anything head on, even if that something surpassed him by a chasm as deep as the distance between heaven and earth.
The Sage realised this as her shining emerald eyes stared into the depths of Yaan's calm gaze.
"What is your plan, and what do you want me to do for you?" The Sage didn't answer his question, but replied with questions of her own.
"My plan…is to build some formations across the 6th Layer of Heaven, down to the 6th Layer of Abyss. Naturally, I would like you to hide my actions, and to not get in my way." Yaan replied directly.
"Formations? What sort of formations, and why?" She asked back immediately.
Yaan smiled slightly. Although she could be pretending, he didn't believe this to be the case. For certain reasons, he had extremely high confidence in his ability to read people now, even if that person was the Primordial Sage…well, to an extent at least.
"I don't mind if you follow me and watch as I build my formations. I think you will be quite interested, Sage…I wonder, how long will it take you to see through my creation?"
"You won't tell me your plan?" The Sage asked plainly.
"No." Yaan shook his head. "At least, not unless you clearly answer my first questions. Will you help me, and how far does your 'help' extend? Sage…for the next while, as I travel the Spirit Plane…are you my ally, or not?"
Yaan's question was quite bold, but he wanted to know the answer. Even if she refused to answer…he would accept that in itself as her answer.
After a moment of thought, the Sage replied:
"Since you won't tell me what formations you plan to build and why, I will follow you and watch as you travel the Spirit Plane. I will ensure that the Primordial Spirit does not see what you are doing. I will prevent any other divinities from interfering with your journey. I may or may not help to conceal the formations."
Yaan nodded with that same faint smile, hiding the fact that realistically, this was basically the best assistance that he had been hoping to receive from this unreadable woman.
Of course, maybe she was lying, or maybe she would change her mind at some point…such as once she determined just what formations…or rather, formation…he was building.
Yaan said that he would be building a series of formations as he travelled from the 6th Layer of Heaven down to the 6th Layer of Abyss, but in truth, he was actually going to build just a single formation which stretched across these layers of the Spirit Plane…
Thankfully, he was able to ignore the troublesome 7th, 8th and 9th Layers, because they were not part of the Spirit Plane's core.
The Spirit Plane Lord had told him everything there was to know about the Spirit Plane, including why the Divine Court's cycle of reincarnation had only occupied the central layer, the 1st through 6th Layers of Abyss, and the 1st through 6th Layers of Heaven. It was simple; the 7th, 8th and 9th Layers, of both Abyss and Heaven, were not part of the Spirit Plane's core, so they were not needed to create the past cycle of reincarnation, which connected the Spirit Plane to the Qi Plane.
With an unreadable expression, Yaan jumped off of the mad elephant's back and started to build the first part of the formation, right in the centre of the 6th Layer of Heaven. Despite the Primordial Sage's gaze, he was unfazed, feeling completely confident that she wouldn't be able to see through what he was doing just from this single portion of the incomplete formation.
There would be at least thousands of miniature formations within his complete formation, and it would be impossible to understand anything about the overall formation just from examining any one of these. In fact, unless the person was a true formations expert, they would never be able to understand Yaan's formation, no matter what.
Even the Sage would not be able to understand the purpose behind his formation until he had, at the very least, built the complete skeleton of the formation, stretching across the 13 Core Layers of the Spirit Plane. And even then, he was sure that she would struggle to ascertain the truth…
She would struggle to understand the function of this formation, which Yaan had designed to influence the entire Spirit Plane, whilst simultaneously concealing its unimaginable terror from any divinity who happened to stumble across some of the minor formation parts.
Even if the Sage claimed that she would conceal him from the Spirit Plane Lord, she only said that she 'might' help to conceal all traces of the formation. But, in truth, Yaan didn't need her to do this; not right now at least.
The Sage's eyes shone with green light. At first, she only watched him with her sharp gaze, but before long, she narrowed her eyes. Countless runic symbols flashed within her two eyes, for the full half-day that Yaan spent constructing this formation.
The fact that he hadn't used a single material in the formation's construction had drawn her intrigue. After analysing his actions thoroughly, she realised that he was actually using the fabric of the Spirit Plane's 6th Layer of Heaven, along with the mad elephant's aura of destruction, as the materials to construct the formation!
The formation surrounded Yaan like a golden globe after he finished its construction, before suddenly vanishing from sight. The Sage's eyes once again lit up with green light, and this light only became stronger and stronger over time.
It actually took her a good few seconds to even discover any traces of this formation! And even after she did discover it, she found that…it did nothing.
This was clearly untrue; it was a deception that was able to fool even her!
And if she hadn't already known that the formation had been built right there, she wouldn't have even considered investigating this small area so thoroughly. If she didn't know what Yaan was doing, if she hadn't watched him build it right before her…she would have completely overlooked this place, not finding anything out of the ordinary!
When the Sage finally understood just how Yaan had achieved this, she turned and looked at him deeply. Her gaze also flashed when Yaan casually jumped back onto the mad elephant's back, and he gently patted the mad elephant's back, urging it to walk onwards, but not telling it where to go.
As Yaan ignored the Sage and rode the mad elephant to his next destination, the Sage hovered by his side and stared at him in silence for some time. Yaan knew what she was thinking, but he didn't say anything.
Once again, she was the one to break the silence.
"On the Sage Plane, your Dao Clone of Mind has been continually comprehending the Dao Formation, gaining an inestimable comprehension over various daos on an intellectual level. On the Qi Plane, your Dao Clone of Qi built the Heavenly Rebirth Formation, using nothing but his intuition over the dao of formations. And both Dao Clones…have been endlessly comprehending various other daos, but especially the illusion dao, ever since their creation."
Yaan remained silent, waiting for the Sage to go on.
"You have comprehended both the dao of illusions, and the dao of formations, to the divine stage." She stated bluntly.
"That's right." Yaan confirmed her deduction without a single change to his expression.
He naturally knew that she would see through this. After all, she would be watching him utilise his dao comprehension to achieve something completely impossible for an immortal, or a 'Transition Step' being. Impossible…unless they had comprehended certain earthly daos to the divine stage.
That's right. Thanks to the natural inclination of his Dao Clone of Qi, combined with his Dao Clone of Mind who had understood his purpose…Yaan had comprehended the entire earthly daos of formations and illusions.
The Sage continued to stare at Yaan, as if trying to see through his secrets.
Yaan knew that she was trying to ascertain whether this was the full extent of his abilities, or if he had comprehended even more than this…
But he had no intention of telling her anything unnecessarily.
And so, on the mad elephant marched. It did not follow Yaan's directions, it simply walked wherever it please.
After a while, the mad elephant stopped and looked around, before roaring out in excitement and running in circles around a seemingly normal piece of land. Yaan hopped down from its back and started to build the second part of his formation…
If he successfully completed the construction of this formation, it would undoubtedly go down in history as the most terrifying formation that the Spirit Plane had ever seen.
As Yaan built the second part of the formation in a place that was seemingly chosen by the mad elephant's whim, a single thought was firmly rooted in his mind, driving him to continue with a plan so insane that it would make others question his sanity, were they to know what it was that he was attempting to achieve.
'I will survive. I can't die, not before I realise my purpose in this world. I will survive, no matter what…'
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