章 336: Time Flies By
When Devil set his mind to something, he became obsessed, fully focussed on his goal, leaving him unwilling and unable to even so much as think about anything else.
Time and time again, he crushed the crimson heart within his sturdy palm. When the heart was crushed, it released a wave of Slaughter Aura filled with vitality. Devil could not absorb this vitality since it was only suitable for body tempers, but he could slaughter the released vitality, producing a second overlapping wave of Slaughter Aura, the type that he could absorb in his current form. This second wave of Slaughter Aura served to strengthened his spirit body and domain.
He grew ever so slightly stronger which each cycle, but the memories which flooded into his mind following the endlessly repeating process were too complex for him to retain. They simply flashed through his mind, then vanished once he existed the illusion. This left him with a strange, ancient feeling, as if he had understood something, yet he was still unable to keep his grasp over what exactly it was that he had learned.
On and on Devil went, repeating the same thing without end. Each time, he absorbed more strength, and each time, a certain patch of memories stayed with him, becoming clear in his mind. However, so far, the only memories that he was able to cling onto, were those from before the Primordial Devil attained divinity.
The memories of a divinity were too overwhelming for anyone below the Divine Step to process.
Regardless, Devil refused to relent on this task.
Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times, millions of times…more, and more, and more…
He refused to stop. He refused to give in…
He refused to admit that he could not take away the Primordial Devil's 'inheritance'!
*****
Meanwhile, outside of the inheritance realm, on the Qi Plane, three individuals sat within a simple temple placed on the surface of Planet Yushu's moon.
Law Empyrean stared at the Primordial Sage intently.
"Sage, what is the meaning of this? I thought we agreed to not interfere with the goings on down there, so why did you suddenly transport that Devil to one of your hidden micro-realms?"
"I already told you before." The Sage replied plainly, completely unbothered by the suppressed killing intent within Law Empyrean's eyes. "I promised to grant one request for each of those clones. You can rest assured now - I have fulfilled my obligation. I will not be interfering any further, aside from continuing with my role as the Qi clone's teacher."
Old Thief stayed silent for once, sitting back with a smirk as he saw Law Empyrean's restrained annoyance.
The Primordial Sage always came across as reasonable at first due to her extreme rationality…until she became unreasonable. She lived according to her own rules, and she was completely unapologetic about it. Old Thief had experienced this many times, as had Law Empyrean, but even so, it never became any less irritating.
In the end, Law Empyrean simply looked away, directing his gaze back towards Planet Yushu as he shook his head.
"Regardless of what that Devil is doing, the fact remains that the final battle between those things and the Primordial Devil will take place on that little planet down there. The jumbled mess making up the karmic fate of this matter is truly extraordinary…I just wonder, do the two of you really plan to sit back and watch with indifference?" Law Empyrean turned back, glancing at both Old Thief and the Primordial Sage as he spoke.
For once, Old Thief had no snide remark. In fact, he looked somewhat serious, but his serious expression had a strange, dreamy quality to it…
"I am only here to watch the finale unfold, and to prevent any external parties from interfering with their fated battle. The outcome of this battle…will be decided by the side that deserves to emerge the victor."
"I am also of this opinion." The Primordial Sage added plainly.
Law Empyrean glanced between these two, but trying to read either of their thoughts was impossible. The Primordial Sage had always been an enigma, but in truth, Old Thief had always given him a strange feeling too. This feeling had increased further and further in recent days, leaving Law Empyrean feeling wary.
The fact that Old Thief had somehow discerned his true identity, yet had kept this a secret for so long and only now used his knowledge to blackmail him, only further exacerbated Law Empyrean's uncertainties.
In an attempt to probe further into Old Thief's motives, Law Empyrean decided to keep this conversation going for just a bit longer.
"Old Thief, were you not close friends with the Primordial Devil for so many years? Not only did that devil fall into my trap because you were easily led in as the bait, but now, you are really going to sit back and watch as he fights against an enemy that none of us truly understand? Where is your pride as a divinity, as an Empyrean? You are merely a degenerate with a worthless heart. Really, how did someone like you even become an Empyrean?"
His words were clearly taunting, but his last line expressed his genuine curiosity and confusion. In fact, the Primordial Sage also glanced at Old Thief to gauge his reaction, because she had thought this same question many times over the years.
However, once again, Old Thief didn't act in his usual explosively confrontational matter. He continued staring down at Planet Yushu with a dreamy gaze, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
"Indeed…" Old Thief muttered, causing Law Empyrean to narrow his eyes when this argumentative eccentric agreed with him. This was actually the first that Old Thief had agreed with him, ever since their first encounter two million years ago!
Old Thief sighed and slowly shook his head.
"It is as you say; I lack pride. And without pride, I am merely a degenerate…"
The Sage and Law Empyrean looked at Old Thief deeply, but his expression was strangely unreadable right now. He didn't even seem to care that he was once again revealing some of the truths hidden deep within his heart…as if he expected that before long, none of this would matter…
*****
Within the Heavenly Path Province, Yaan opened his eyes and briefly looked towards the South, where he knew Devil had been sitting for a long period of time. Devil suddenly vanished without a trace, something that naturally attracted his attention.
He turned to the Sage slowly and asked:
"Devil has vanished, after waiting by the inheritance entrance for so long. Did he use his request with you to enter the Primordial Devil's inheritance?"
"He did." The Primordial Sage confirmed.
Yaan nodded slowly.
"This…is a surprisingly intelligent use of his request. If he can truly complete the inheritance, his power will certainly rise by leaps and bounds. However…he will always be limited, unable to attain a single trace of divinity. Until the Primordial Devil is defeated, none of us can take that final step. If we attempt to step onto the Divine Stairway, we will be restrained by the karmic fate which shackles us to the past."
"Your understanding of karma has reached a high level." The Primordial Sage gave some rare words of praise. "Despite lacking comprehension on a conscious level, you are able to feel the karma between yourself and the others, and you can even put it into words. However, on a conscious level, you do not truly understand the meaning behind the words that you are saying."
Yaan sighed and nodded glumly, what she said was true.
"This is a serious limitation over my progression. I can only understand one half of all earthly daos; I will never attain divine stage comprehension in a single dao, no matter what. This is my karmic fate…this is the restriction that 'Fate' placed upon me, to prevent me from becoming too strong."
The Dao Clone of Qi clenched his fists as he said this.
After comprehending karmic fate, he finally came to understand that his nature, and all of his limitations, were the fault of the main body. He also now believed that the main body's reason for doing something so hateful, was because he feared that the Dao Clones would turn against him, so he restricted their growth such that they would never be able to surpass him.
The Primordial Sage watched him muse to himself, but she said nothing. She didn't mention that his deduction, whilst partially correct, wasn't even close to the full truth. It had never been Yaan's intention to restrict the Dao Clones from progressing, just because he feared that they would surpass him.
In reality, Yaan did not care how strong, or weak, the Dao Clones became. His only desire was for the Dao Clones to comprehend dao in their own unique ways, and that he was also there to observe and experience their paths during this process, via the karma between them.
Yaan didn't care how strong the Dao Clones became, because he did not intend to ever meet them.
*****
The Dao Clone of Soul continued to madly devour the crimson heart within the 5th Trial Realm, which seemed to have no end to how many times it could restore itself after being crushed. It didn't matter how long this went on for, Devil would not stop until he had taken everything that he believed to be rightfully his.
The Dao Clone of Qi remained on Heart Mountain, accepting the Primordial Sage's teachings as he reluctantly moved on from the dao of karma, which he knew he could not comprehend any further. He had finished with the dao of illusions, the dao of formations and the dao of karma, and now, he moved onto the dao which he was most familiar with aside from formations…the dao of life and death. Occasionally, he would take a break from his study of dao to spend time with Elia and June, which always left him feeling refreshed and motivated. For some reason, he found that simply spending time with these two girls always wiped away his stress and exhaustion.
The Primordial Sage, Law Empyrean, and Old Thief, all watched the Dao Clone of Qi on Planet Yushu down below. They rarely spoke now, and simply watched, waiting for the day of the Primordial Devil's arrival.
And lastly, on the Spirit Plane, Yaan entered the 5th Layer of Heaven. The Spirit Plane Lord had already realised Yaan's plan to journey down through the Layers of Heaven, so she removed her Spirit Sect members from the 5th Layer as soon as Yaan arrived. Actually, it wasn't Yaan that concerned her, but the mad elephant, which caused rampant destruction wherever it went.
As years flew by, Yaan silently built formation after formation. His actions on the 5th Layer of Heaven strongly resembled his actions on the 1st; he built 2,999 formations, placing them down according to the mad elephant's whims, before directing the mad elephant to the 5th Heaven Hall of Rebirth to place down the 3,000th formation on this layer.
The 5th Layer of Heaven was larger than the 6th in terms of size, but the world's pressure and restrictions were less extreme, making it easier to move around at greater speeds.
Yaan had expected to enter another battle against a Transcendent Realm powerhouse upon reaching the 5th Heaven Hall of Rebirth, but as soon as he entered the confines of the formation, all of the guarding Divine Court subordinates…simply vanished.
It seemed that they had been given orders from the Divine Court to not interfere with his business…
After spending ten years on the 5th Layer, Yaan moved down to the 4th…
The 4th Layer of Heaven, eight years.
The 3rd Layer of Heaven, six years.
The 2nd Layer of Heaven, five years.
The 1st Layer of Heaven…still took him five years to complete. It seemed that this was his limit.
After finishing with these six Layers of Heaven, Yaan did not move to the Central Layer, but instead, had the Primordial Sage send him to the 6th Layer of Abyss. From there, he worked upwards, deeming this the best method to hide the incomplete skeleton of his grand formation from the world. He knew that as soon as the complete formation was finished, the Spirit Plane Lord's uncertainties would immediately transform into full blown suspicions.
After that happened, he would have very little time before he was forced to make his choice.
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