397 Death Empyrean

Stood atop the peak of Rainbow Mountain, all became clear in Yaan's shining eyes. At this moment, his cultivation body was exerting the peak of its Divine Power, cycling all four of his cultivation bases to the acme in order to fuel the Divine Essence needs required to keep active three Divine Spells simultaneously.

Reveal Truth, Conceal Truth, Define Truth!

Normally, even activating a single Divine Spell was a difficult undertaking for most divinities, often coming at a high cost, either resulting in some form of backlash, or needing profound resources to power its activation. Many Divine Spells could only be used in conjunction with Divine Treasures, and likewise, those Divine Treasures could only be activated when used together with the Divine Spell.

Yaan's three Divine Spells were not like this; they needed only his Divine Essence to maintain their activation, and thanks to his four paths of Divine Rank cultivation, he had ample Divine Essence. Of course, the fact that the three spells were all connected and belonged to the same Divine Art, his newly named 'Divine Truth Art', massively reduced the consumption and difficulty of activating the spells in parallel.

The gains that Yaan had reaped from creating these spells and this art were not small. In fact, his current cultivation body was much stronger than his original body had been, prior to splitting into two selves!

But that wasn't his only gain. Yaan had gained enlightenment into his own Divine Power, and how it connected to his Dao Soul. He had developed a better understanding of Divine Essence, divinity in general, and its connection to his own dao.

Because of this, transforming his Dao Spells into Divine Spells actually resulted in those same Dao Spells experiencing their own explosive growth in strength! Even now, his understanding of the spells was continually growing, as creating the same spell in two very different forms allowed him to delve deeper into the principles behind the spells themselves, as well as the dao which supported their operation…that is to say, his own dao.

With some further refinement, Yaan was sure that his Define Truth Divine Spell would not only serve to further develop his Absolute Domain, but in time, he would come to develop a Define Truth Dao Spell too.

He had the idea that eventually, once he re-merged his two bodies back into one, perhaps at that point, he could find a way to fuse all of his Divine Spells with his Dao Spells, ascending his dao to entirely new heights.

As he stood there, gazing down at the painted mountain, which nobody but he could see in this painted form right now, Yaan casually mused over these things. He was in no hurry, because as of right now, his power upon Rainbow Mountain exceeded that of the others by so much that he felt like a god facing mortals. With a single thought, he could paralyse or slaughter every single life form upon the mountain, and they would die without ever sensing the danger to their lives. Of course, if they had multiple bodies like himself and the Sage, they would survive, but their losses would not be negligible regardless.

Illusions…were somewhat terrifying.

"I finally understand the concept of a Divine Power. Initially, upon ascending to the Divine Step, it feels like your Divine Power is your everything – and in a sense, this is true…almost. The Divine Power contains all of the accumulations from your life, but it is separate to the Dao Soul, even though like the Dao Soul, its core is my dao heart. Essentially, my Dao Soul is my true self, and my Divine Power is my weapon. That's not to say that my Divine Power should be underestimated, much the opposite in fact – without my Divine Power, my Dao Soul is practically naked and powerless, as all of my power is contained within my Divine Power."

After a moment of thought, Yaan's eyes shone with a strange light.

"To transcend the Origin, perhaps it is necessary to fuse my Divine Power into my Dao Soul! At that point, my true self and my strength would become one and the same…is that what it means to transcend the Origin, to reach the Origin Step, to become an Origin God? The complete transformation of the most fundamental aspect of oneself…throughout all my years of cultivation, I have never come close to achieving anything near this. My Dao Soul is simply the essence of my dao heart and all of my dao comprehension; it is the truest form of my dao. Dao itself does not possess the faintest hint of power, however…we manipulate dao with various methods to create power…"

Spells utilised the dao comprehension within the Dao Soul, and often the dao within one's dao heart, then infused this flow of dao into things like Qi or Soul Force to create a real world powerful effect. But as for dao itself, it was powerless, formless…

But maybe, there was a way to give the dao within one's own heart true power!

"If I want to become a true Origin God, I must overturn this common sense…and give my dao true power!"

As Yaan thought along these lines, his eyes shone brilliantly, as his previous learnings from the Boundless Dao Library started to show their worth.

"If there is a power of my dao, then it is my will! With my will, I can manifest a domain based upon the core of my Dao Heart. I see, this is it, this is the key to my path forwards! The crucial connection between my Dao Soul and Divine Power…is my domain! My Absolute Domain was reborn through my Divine Power, despite being an ability of the Dao Soul. So then, if I truly wanted to fuse my Divine Power with my Dao Soul – if this truly is the right direction – then I must find a way…to fuse my domain with my Dao Soul!"

Yaan didn't know if this line of thinking was correct, and in fact, he was sure that he was at least partially off the mark. Finding the way forwards would be a long, gruelling path of self-discovery, and he could not consult others to pave the way for him, because everyone's path towards the Origin Step was unique to them.

Of course, learning the path that others had taken would certainly give him some more inspiration. If possible, he would like to speak openly to some outsiders who understood the Origin Step, but based on his understanding of those scheming individuals, perhaps Defiance was the only one that might possibly be willing to speak about the matter.

Yaan was stumbling through the dark, but he was certain of one thing, though. The name 'Origin Step' was not without reason, and it must be remembered that 'Divine Essence' was in fact some sort of power from the Origin itself - it might very well be better named 'Origin Essence'. As such, there was a very high likelihood that ascending to the Origin Step would involve the transformation of the Dao Soul using that very same power of the Origin. 

How he went about this was yet to be seen.

After pondering for some time, Yaan realised that rather than wasting time with his cultivation body on this Rainbow Mountain, he would be better off cultivating here with his dao body. It was fortunate that he had absorbed so much dao comprehension from the 1st Origin Era's elites in the Boundless Dao Library, giving his cultivation body something to draw upon and progress with as he climbed the mountain, but in the end, his cultivation base body simply could not comprehend any of the dao that existed outside of his own Dao Soul. 

Meanwhile, his dao body had only grown more perceptive when it came to perceiving and comprehending new dao enlightenments. He had been considering when and where he should go to digest his gains from the Boundless Dao Library, and now that he had discovered this Rainbow Mountain, there was no doubt in Yaan's mind that this would be the ideal place to do so.

Of course, right now, he needed to deal with these fellows on the Rainbow Mountain. There wasn't any rush though, they didn't look like they were intending to give up any time soon.

At the same time, as of this moment, his dao body had just reached the Death Inheritance, that giant black skull within the centre of a giant star. Yaan considered switching places with his bodies, which should be easy enough to achieve with his two steps of fate movement method, but in the end, he decided against it.

His primary goal in seeking out the Death Inheritance was to seek answers to the mystery that had lingered on his mind for many years now - just what was that entity of death who saved him back then, and why did it sacrifice itself to do so?

Honestly, the thick aura of death aside, this black skull in the Chaotic Sector didn't much resemble that entity at all, so he wasn't holding onto much hope. Regardless, Yaan was interested in this 'Death Inheritance' itself anyway, as the dao of death was one that he was quite proficient in.

It could even be said that the majority of Yaan's life and his path of cultivation, had been built upon a foundation of slaughter and death. If his core dao was fate, then his primary supporting dao was no doubt illusions. After that however, he couldn't really say which dao he had comprehended to a deeper level, but the dao of death was certainly in his top few.

Currently, Yaan supposed that his cultivation base body should be his stronger body in terms of direct combat might, but if he wanted to reap the most rewards from the Death Inheritance, it made more sense to explore it with his dao body. Anyway, the difference between his two bodies wasn't that huge, and perhaps his dao body would benefit from facing a difficult inheritance such as this, allowing him to process his gains from his newly learned Define Truth Divine Spell, transforming it into both a Dao Spell, but also an additional benefit for his domain.

And so, for now, Yaan chose to remain atop Rainbow Mountain, continuing his practise of his Divine Truth Art. 

Meanwhile, his dao body cautiously reached out with his domain, making contact with the cracked surface of the giant black skull.

In the Chaotic Sector, this sector now devoid of almost anything of value bar this one inheritance, Yaan's expression changed and he didn't hesitate to rapidly retreat. He ignored the searing flames of the imploding star as they were dragged towards the black skull, giving it his all to escape from the tremendous suction force which attacked him the moment he tentatively touched the skull.

There was no such thing as a 'standard' Divine True Inheritance, they were all unique, operating under different principles and entailing varying levels of danger and trial. However, Yaan had witnessed several Divine True Inheritances up until now, and had even taken three for himself, if you counted the Boundless Dao Library.

For this reason, he immediately recognised that something was wrong.

It wasn't just his experience with inheritances that told him this, but rather, his lifetime of living on the border between life and death, and his experience with dealing with tribulation, calamity, blessing, and retribution.

Tribulations were essentially trials, containing both danger and reward. These were things that cultivators sought out, and were considered a standard occurrence throughout the cultivation world.

Then there were Blessings, direct benefits with no strings attached…of course, when it came to Heavenly Blessings, how could there be something so unbalanced? As such, they were always accompanied by Calamities, which were akin to trials, only without the reward.

Finally, were retributions; malicious attacks designed only to destroy and kill.

When Yaan made contact with the giant black skull, and two balls of white lights shone within its eye sockets, this eyes were at first illuminated by the absorbed star flames, but then by the force of life dragged out from Yaan himself. Yaan immediately understood that this was no tribulation…but a calamity or retribution!

'So it was a trap.' Yaan thought calmly, not panicking even as he struggled to escape and bloody miasma was drawn out from his body.

Gradually, the previously monstrous star started to flicker and dwindle, until the flames were all but extinguished. As the flames were drawn into the skull, the skull rapidly shrunk, but the white lights in its eyes became brighter and brighter.

Finally, once the star was fully extinguished and Yaan had only barely managed to escape from being devoured also, he stopped and stared at this monstrous creature, which was no longer trying to devour him, but simply stared at him with its shining white eyes.

It was now no larger than an average adult man - its overall body, that is. Like the white light in its eyes, the black skull had grown itself an entire skeletal body of pure white light. The light shone with the light of life itself, however…this light was too bright. With the help of Reveal Truth, Yaan was able to discern that within several minutes at most, this skeletal being would extinguish itself with its own flames of life.

The aura emanating from the skeletal being was one of pure death; the deathly aura stemmed from its continually dwindling life itself. Yaan hid himself with Conceal Truth as he assessed this creature using Reveal Truth, but he found that some powerful chains of deathly karma had tied the two of them together, making retreat as impossible as concealment.

"Finally, the one I have been waiting for…my fated inheritor! Kakakaka!" The skeletal monster laughed jarringly, but this only served to make Yaan frown.

If there was one thing he hated being called more than anything else in this world, it was 'fated inheritor'.

"Fated inheritor?" Yaan laughed mockingly and shook his head. "What does a dead man like you know of fate? There is no fate between us other than these karmic chains which you created to wrap around those who attempted your 'inheritance'. I assume that those before me were all killed by those chains, sustaining you in your state of quasi-death until now…but naturally, such karmic chains could not kill me."

Hearing Yaan's unflustered retort, the skeletal being's eyes shone with an even more brilliant light than before. 

"You are exactly correct. For some reason, I am unable to extract the life-essence from your body, I hardly even caused you significant injury, oh fated one…"

Like Yaan, the skeletal monster sounded unhurried and unconcerned, despite the fact that its life was rapidly fading, and its death was approaching closer by the second.

However, the closer this thing stepped towards death, the more powerful its air of death became. Before long, Yaan could feel a profound sense of impending death, as if his death was already a forgone conclusion in this unavoidable battle…

Naturally, Yaan had no intention of revealing his secrets to this monster.

On Rainbow Mountain, his cultivation base body was ready to walk across their thread of fate at a moment's notice, but for now, he remained still.

Without wasting any more superfluous words, Yaan no longer retreated, but released the full power of his domain, transforming the world around both he and his foe into a painting of death. He was already starting to impart some of the principles of his Dao Spells and Divine Spells into his domain, allowing him to see the past scenes of death that the skeleton up ahead had inflicted, way back then…

Countless trillions of lost, wailing souls, melting, screaming corpses, and trudging, confused skeletons, littered the world of this illusory painting.

Yaan was not surprised by this. 

'As expected of the Death Empyrean. His death has been a mystery to the world for the past million years, but now I understand. He never truly died, or rather…this fellow is attempting to transcend the Origin by surpassing the limitations of his own life and death!'

Yaan's gaze looked calm in this painted world, but hidden within that calm gaze was the burning desire to do battle.

Since becoming a divinity, he had battled and slain Deities, he had even exchanged a single move with Defiance, but this was different. The opponent before him was an Empyrean, a renowned being whose infamy instilled fear into the hearts of countless lives, even to this day. 

And Yaan…had walked directly into his trap!

This was a true life and death battle. Yaan wanted to see just how strong he had become…and whether or not this battle to the death could help him further his own dao!