373 Divine Beast Sector

Yaan's cultivation body travelled with the Primordial Sage to the Divine Beast Sector, the largest, richest and most prosperous sector in the Four Divine Star System. This sector lay in the centre of the star system and held both a Primordial Treasure and a Divine True Inheritance. Combined with the massive number of Life-Stars and Life-Planets, not to mention the Divine Formations left behind by the four Divine Beasts before their passing, this sector was by far the most valuable in the star system. 

Poison Deity, the only Heavenly Deity in their group, had been sent to this sector, along with one of the Primordial Sage's bodies. Even so, she was apparently having trouble, barely holding on and defending the star system from a joint attack against three other deities.

Naturally, those three were extremely on edge when they saw that Poison Deity was accompanied by the Primordial Sage. Even if this was just one of her weaker bodies, the fact that the Sage was here meant that Poison Deity was not acting alone, but in a group under the Primordial Sage's orders. They knew that if they wanted to succeed, they needed to act quickly, or else Poison Deity's reinforcements were sure to arrive soon.

Unfortunately, even after half a day, even though Poison Deity was battered and soaked in blood, she was still managing to hold on, buying time before the Sage and Yaan arrived. Her opponents were starting to grow anxious and restless, attacking with growing recklessness and using invaluable rare treasures in an attempt to deal with Poison Deity once and for all…unfortunately, she was a Heavenly Deity, whilst her three adversaries were just Earthly Deities. Even though all three were above average for Earthly Deities, they could not defeat her in a short period of time.

In fact, they already knew that killing Poison Deity would be impossible, they were only trying to force her to back off so that they could either attempt to take away the Divine True Inheritance for themselves!

After half a day of struggle, just as Poison Deity was considering giving up and retreating, a black portal started to form behind her. Seeing this, the three Earthly Deities showed grim expressions and tried to rush past her to disrupt the portal's formation, but the bloodied and battered woman felt a final surge of drive fill her soul when she realised that her backup had finally arrived.

So long as she could hold on for a few seconds, this battle would be as good as won!

Finally, two small figures emerged from the black vortex, before the portal closed behind them. 

The region immediately became silent and still. Poison Deity exhaled in relief and quickly flew to the Sage's side, while the three opposing Deities showed grim and alert expressions as they attempted to flee using their own methods.

All three were human, but they used very different methods to escape.

The largest of the group was actually an Aztec body temperer! Even for an Aztec, he was extremely large at over thirty feet tall, and he was so heavily tattooed that barely any skin could be seen. The most eye-catching thing about him however, were the sharp bone protrusions extending from his elbows, knuckles and forehead.

To the left of the Aztec, was an old woman. She wore rags, but aside from that, her features were hidden by a mist of constantly morphing shadows. Like the Aztec, her cultivation wasn't often seen on the Qi Plane, but unlike the Aztec, she was a soul cultivator.

To the right of the Aztec, a tall, slender, veiled woman, surrounded by currents of water and wind, stared towards Yaan and the Sage, her gaze flickering back and forth between the two. She was clearly a Qi refiner…

When Yaan examined this trio, he raised an eyebrow. The Sage had given him fairly detailed descriptions of all the divinities across the remaining three planes, so he immediately recognised all three. Seeing them all together was a bit strange however…

'Bone Deity, a lone demon from the Blood Plane. Shadow Deity, a lone demon from the Spirit Plane. Typhoon Deity, a lone demon from the Qi Plane…as far as I know, none of these three have any connection with one another. Did they decided to team up for the sake of these two treasures?'

Before the Sage could act, Yaan suddenly shot forwards, before stopping right in front of the frightened trio.

"You have a choice - submit, or die."

Before the three could flee any faster, three vortexes appeared behind them, from which, three Primordial Sages stepped out and blocked their path of retreat. When the three turned to look at the Sage with dark expressions, her three bodies stepped forwards.

They hurriedly turned back towards Yaan, only to find that he was now holding a sword, and gradually, a terrifying killing intent akin to a blazing flame was spreading out from his person, its intensity growing by the second.

"Make your choice."

*****

Meanwhile, back in the Nine Colour Nebula Sector.

This was Yaan's home-sector, and the location of the entrance to the Boundless Dao Library. It was also the start point of this conquest, and one of the furthest sectors from the Divine Phoenix Sector.

The fact that Yaan ended up travelling to the Divine Phoenix Sector first, leaving the Boundless Dao Library far behind, made Yaan suspect that the Sage may have anticipated his decision to seek out Zue Yin. After all, the Sage originally wanted to take the Boundless Dao Library for herself, she was only allowing Yaan to enter alongside her now because she had no way to stop him. Anyway, now that such a massive doorway had appeared, it seemed more likely that the both of them would be able to enter.

Yaan and the Primordial Sage stood side by side, staring up at the giant doors. Yaan tried attacking the doors with around half of his full strength moments ago, but the doors didn't so much as tremble, no matter open. Now, Yaan stood back and examined the doorway thoughtfully, since it was clear that no matter hard he hit it, pure strength would not be able to open this door.

Defiance Sovereign watched the pair from afar. He was still dealing with the lingering damage caused by the tribulations, retributions, and the enraged Heavenly Dao as it broke down further thanks to his ploy. That said, his decision to stay here to 'recover', was not because of his injuries, but because he was waiting for those two to enter.

He really had no intention of entering the Boundless Dao Library, it honestly didn't interest him at all. Besides, the doorway was far too small, and he wasn't going to lower himself just to fit in.

And so, Defiance Sovereign watched the pair silently. Yaan and the Sage naturally knew that they were being watched, but given Defiance's condition, and the fact that he really looked like he wasn't going to interfere, they didn't pay him too much mind and continued to examine the entrance.

"Sage, do you have any ideas? Have you see this doorway before?" Yaan asked, probing her mind.

Unfortunately, the Sage lightly shook her head.

"This is my first time seeing this door. I have examined the key over the years, and I have seen the memories of certain individuals who saw the entrance in the 1st Origin Era, but it has changed. The Boundless Dao Library was washed through the Origin, it has ascended into a higher plane of being, much like when Empyreans transcend the Origin and become Origin Gods."

"How exactly can a library 'ascend' via something so abstract?" Yaan frowned. "Is it just that the entrance was reinforced and made more difficult to enter?"

After a moment of silence, the Sage replied:

"It shouldn't be limited to just that."

Yaan finally understood now, why the Sage was so interested in the Boundless Dao Library. It was simple - she didn't understand it. For the Sage, who was nigh omniscient with her mental connection to the minds of all living beings below the Divine Step, encountering something that left her feeling completely clueless was extremely rare. On top of that, anything in this world that she didn't understand, was without a doubt something incredible.

The fact that the Sage didn't act immediately proved that she also didn't know how to enter, or perhaps, she didn't know if it would be safe to do so.

Yaan continued staring at the door as a strange feeling arose within his heart. After some thought, Yaan subtly activated Reveal Truth. For a moment, he saw a very brief illusory flicker between himself and the door - or rather, something beyond the door…

Unfortunately, this illusory thread vanished the moment he took notice of it. No matter how hard Yaan searched, he couldn't find the slightest trace of what he had just sensed, and he had the feeling that it would not return. This was very strange, making him wonder if he had been mistaken during his analysis…

'No, how could I be mistaken? I definitely felt a hint of karma between myself and whatever lies beyond that doorway! Could it be…that I also played a part in constructing the Boundless Dao Library? In that case…does this mean that I really will succeed in transcending the 2nd Origin Era, and I will go on to become the 1st Origin Era's World Demon, just like Law Empyrean claimed…?'

Yaan had considered this matter several times over the past few years. Supposedly, not only Law Empyrean, but other outsiders from the 1st Origin Era truly believed that he was the 'World Demon' who rose to fame in the 1st Origin Era. However, this left Yaan feeling perplexed - he was quite certain that this 2nd Origin Era was his birth Era, so if he really did end up in the 1st Origin Era, it could only be after he transcended the Origin in this 2nd Origin Era.

Going back to past Origin Eras was supposedly very possible, Defiance did exactly that after all. But this only gave him even more questions…

Did this mean that he was fated to succeed in ascending past the Origin in this Era? Was he also fated to become the World Demon in the 1st Origin Era…?

Even though Yaan possessed a dao heart of fate, his understanding of fate was still too shallow.

For now, he pushed these thoughts aside and focussed on what was before him right now. Perhaps, he would be able to find some answers beyond those doors.