396 Divine Truth Art
The moment Yaan stepped into Rainbow Mountain and entered the layer of black light at the base of the mountain, he immediately felt as if he had returned to his days as a weak Qi Gathering Realm cultivator, hardly better off than a mortal without spells and treasures.
His footsteps didn't pause, he walked up the mountain, observing his surroundings in interest.
He attempted to activate Reveal Truth, but found that his Quasi-Divine Spell simply could not be activated. On the other hand, Conceal Truth was unrestrained – though it was highly limited by the suppression of his cultivation and Divine Power itself.
With each step that Yaan took up the mountain, climbing as would an ordinary mortal, his comprehension of this place, and also of the daos that were being 'suppressed' and those that were not, started to rise at a shocking rate.
Yaan couldn't help but feel excited about this discovery.
This mountain was essentially the perfect place for him to process, digest and integrate his devoured comprehensions from the Boundless Dao Library!
'The daos that are 'suppressed' are not just the Heavenly Dao's earthly daos, but dao itself! However, calling it suppression is incorrect – I expect that of everyone here, only the Primordial Sage has realised this. How could the boundless dao be suppressed by some mountain? No, what is actually being suppressed, is our perception of those daos, and our ability to manipulate or utilise them in any form. The dao is still present, but we cannot sense it…but of course, within each layer, certain daos are less restricted, whilst some are completed unrestrained and even enhanced.'
The 'illusion dao' was both heavily restricted, and completely unhindered, in this bottom layer of black light on Rainbow Mountain. Yaan could not use his Quasi-Divine Spell Reveal Truth, and he felt sure that even if his dao body was here, he would be unable to use the original Dao Spell Reveal Truth either.
However, this did not mean that the illusion dao was being suppressed; in reality, only one side of his ability to use the illusion dao was suppressed in this place, the side of illusions that allowed one to see through the truth of all things – the truth fragment of the illusion dao.
On the other hand, his Conceal Truth Quasi-Divine Spell was completely unhindered here, allowing Yaan to enter the mountain and casually walk through the black layer without anyone noticing a thing. This was because in this black layer, the concealment and deceptive side of the illusion dao was not suppressed – that is, the deception fragment of the illusion dao.
As Yaan looked up, he could see nothing but darkness, but likewise, he knew that nobody would be able to see him in this place. In fact, his usage of Conceal Truth was rapidly growing stronger as his comprehension of deception and concealment was extracted from his Dao Soul, and digested into something that could truly manifest in reality.
His cultivation body could not perceive or comprehend dao, but he could still draw upon the comprehension hidden deep within his Dao Soul, converting those understandings into real world applications when fused with Divine Essence. Essentially, he could create Divine Spells, simply because his foundation was so phenomenal that he wasn't lacking anything other than time, circumstance, and practise!
And so, Yaan remained unhurried as he travelled through the black layer. This layer of darkness which shrouded the base of Rainbow Mountain was unnerving to others because they couldn't see their enemies. Yaan also couldn't see his enemies, however…he could hide from any enemies better than anyone else in this world!
In fact, this environment was so beneficial to Yaan's ability to conceal his presence, that even those outside of the mountain completely lost all sight of him as soon as he entered.
Yaan's field of view was limited to several feet around him. His Illusion Sense was completely suppressed, it seemed that all sorts of spiritual senses were suppressed in this place, forcing everyone to rely entirely on their mortal senses.
In this regard, Yaan was actually much better off than the others – he possessed a profound body tempering cultivation, enhancing his mortal senses beyond that of any other cultivation path. Aside from the Sage, everyone else on the mountain was a Qi Refiner, and whilst they could urge their Divine Qi to enhance their eyesight, the effect wasn't that amazing. Anyway, Yaan also possessed a Divine Qi refining cultivation base, so his already superior eyes benefited from this same enhancement, just like the others.
Likewise, his soul cultivation helped to boost his senses further as he urged his Divine Soul Power into his eyes, ears and nose. As for his mind cultivation, well, the Sea of Consciousness was directly connected to one's perceptiveness, so his Divine Sage Power provided yet another boost to his senses.
Because Yaan's cultivation bases were illusions reborn through his Divine Power, he could be considered to have four separate Divine Powers, but at the same time, he possessed just a single cultivation base, formed from the perfect symbiotic fusion between all four paths. Perhaps this was the reason that nobody else had ever successfully cultivated all four cultivation paths to this extent before Yaan – it was only possible to possess such a contradictory cultivation base, if you removed the usual rules which bound all things real, converting cultivation into an 'illusion'.
He had Illusion Qi – Illusion Variant Divine Qi. He had Illusion Soul Force – an Illusion Variant of the Divine Soul Force generated from the Divine Spirit Soul. He had Illusion Sage Power – Illusion Variant Divine Sage Power, the power of a Divine Sea of Consciousness.
Everything about his cultivation bases was an illusion, allowing Yaan to overcome the limitations of possibility, ignoring the constraints of this world, and cultivating a path that only he could walk.
Of course, Yaan actually followed his own self-created Dao Path of cultivation to reach this point, his four paths of cultivation were just a single part of his Dao Path.
He did wonder though…how did his four paths of combined cultivation compare to Shi's single path – the Origin Path? Was one better than the other? He would definitely like to capture Shi and study her body if he ever had the opportunity to do so, but he felt like this was unlikely to ever happen, with her being completely insane and easily capable of destroying her body. Besides, her original Origin Path was no longer purely that of Origin, as she had now transformed into destruction itself, so perhaps studying her wouldn't do any good anyway.
As Yaan proceeded through the black layer, he both climbed the mountain, and walked around its circumference. He was in no hurry; he had already watched the earlier battle and concluded that the divinities had entered a stalemate that would not be broken easily. They had found the layer on Rainbow Mountain which least hindered their abilities, and they would not leave this layer until they spotted a change or chance.
Land Deity was positioned in this lowest black layer, as this was the layer wherein the earth dao and all of its derivatives were not suppressed.
The Sage was at the opposite end, sat atop the peak of the mountain in the white layer.
As for the four 'enemies', they were scattered throughout the rainbow-coloured layers.
No two divinities were positioned in the same layer, so all conflict had ceased for now. At this point, everyone had deduced that the only way to break this stalemate, was to comprehend the mysteries of this Rainbow Mountain, and use this to their advantage.
Yaan continued to wonder around the black layer, concealed by the comfort of darkness. Even though he could not see much, this didn't bother him, because in this place, it was basically impossible for him to be seen.
At some point, Yaan stopped using his Qi, Soul and Sea of Consciousness to enhance his senses.
After an unknown period of time, Yaan closed his eyes, and urged his ears to close from the inside, such that he could not hear. After some thought, he did the same with his nose, removing his sense of smell, and he controlled his body to dull all tastebuds within his mouth.
Finally, after walking like this for quite some time, one by one, he cut off the tactile sensations across the surface of his skin, until eventually, he could not feel anything of the outside world.
In complete darkness, with no awareness whatsoever of his surroundings, Yaan continued to walk. In this state, even if he walked directly into another of the divinities on this mountain, he wouldn't even realise it…
But perhaps, neither would they.
Gradually, Yaan felt like he was beginning to understanding the concept of 'Concealing the Truth' from a slightly different perspective compared to his Dao Spell.
And so, he continued to walk. Each step that he took, was a step closer towards reaching a certain understanding.
Conceal Truth utilised principles of the dao that were not restrained in this bottom black layer, so Yaan was not hindered as his Conceal Truth Quasi-Divine Spell started to utilise more Divine Essence from his Divine Power, in a more efficient manner, until eventually…
After walking in circles for close to a full day whilst slowly ascending the mountain, Yaan encountered Land Deity, who was sat on a boulder, staring past the boundary, into the layer of red. He could not use his powers to pass from the black layer into the red layer, but he could make out the vague silhouette of a figure just several feet beyond him…
He knew that this person was Volcanic Deity, a fiery man who cultivated a fiery dao, and was known for his fiery temperament. However, even in this situation, the bare-chested Volcanic Deity didn't dare to casually encroach into the region of black light, for he knew that doing so would result in his definitive loss.
As the two adversaries stared at the vague figure of the other cautiously, neither noticed the approach of a child wearing a silk red robe, a robe with four golden runes inscribed on its back – one representing each path of cultivation. This was the unique feature of Yaan's cultivation body that his original self and dao body did not possess.
Yaan didn't notice Volcanic Deity on the other side of the boundary, and nor did he notice Land Deity sitting on the boulder.
For a brief moment, Yaan felt something – a hint of foreboding, warning him of a potential incoming danger…
Without hesitation, he cut off the last of his senses, his Illusion Sense and his keen intuition.
Immediately, the feeling of danger vanished.
Yaan continued walking, climbing up the boulder…and he walked straight through Land Deity.
As Yaan passed through the old man, then proceeded to enter the red layer, Land Deity did not notice a thing.
When Yaan entered the red layer, brushing shoulders with Volcanic Deity, he also noticed nothing.
As for Yaan, he was currently in a state wherein he could not and would not notice anything in the outside world, regardless of what happened. His cultivation body was unable to perceive dao anyway, so the different regions didn't actually feel any different to the portion of his Dao Soul in this body. Because of this, and because he had concealed not only himself from the world, but also the world from himself, he was actually unaffected by the red layer, which should not permit the usage of any method which utilised the dao of illusions!
This proved only one thing – Yaan's current concealment was so extreme, that he was even concealed from Rainbow Mountain's profound law of operation itself!
Yaan continued to walk in circles around the mountain, gradually ascending, one step at a time.
Through the red region, he entered the orange. He continued to conceal himself, this time concealing his essence from a different sort of suppression.
But even so, he remained concealed.
From the orange region to the yellow, from the yellow to the green…
He passed by Forest Deity, a woman with pointy ears whose body was covered in moss. Like the others, she didn't notice a thing.
From the green region to the blue, Yaan evaded the senses of River Deity.
From the blue layer to the indigo layer, then to the violet layer.
He passed Thunder Deity, and before long, Yaan stepped into…
The white layer.
He did not know how long had passed, he only knew that by the time he opened his eyes, he was standing at the mountain peak, directly behind the Primordial Sage.
In the white layer, the concealment side of illusions should have been the most heavily suppressed of all, and yet, at this point, when Yaan reopened all of his senses and no longer hid the world from himself…he still remained hidden from the world!
When his eyes shot open, they shone with a light of indiscernible colour, a light that shone more brilliantly than his eyes had ever shone when using his Reveal Truth Dao Spell!
In this white region, the 'truth' fragment of the illusion dao was not only unhindered, but actively strengthened. This fact, combined with his experience of ascending the mountain, refining his Conceal Truth method within each of the different operational laws of Rainbow Mountain's layers, resulted in a conclusion that would shock the world if they were to learn of what Yaan achieved on this day.
"In just three days, with the help of this Rainbow Mountain, I successfully created two true Divine Spells. Reveal Truth and Conceal Truth…have now become true Divine Spells when used by my cultivation body!"
Yaan spoke out loud with a smile, and yet, neither Rainbow Mountain, nor the Primordial Sage, even noticed that he was there.
At the same time, Yaan could now clearly see the entirety of Rainbow Mountain!
As a thought sprang to mind, Yaan's eyes shone with expectation.
"I understand now, the concept of a Dao Spell, the concept of a Divine Spell, and how the two are linked together, along with the Dao Soul and Divine Power. Since it's like this…it will be no problem for me to create one more Divine Spell."
"My pseudo-domain will no longer be a Quasi-Divine Spell, but a true Divine Spell!"
Soundlessly, Rainbow Mountain seemed to freeze, yet nothing actually so much as paused. Its laws of operation remained the same, and yet, they were completely overwritten. The mountain was unchanged…and yet, it was now a completely different mountain.
Rainbow Mountain, and everything within it, instantly became Yaan's domain! However, this was not actually a domain, but a Divine Spell that he had conceived based upon his true Absolute Domain and its principles…
As he looked down at Rainbow Mountain and all the people now trapped upon it within his power, everything had become a painting…and yet, because he willed it to be so, nobody noticed that Yaan had grasped their lives within the palm of his hands.
"I will call this Divine Spell…Define Truth! It seems that I have an affinity for creating spells relating to 'truth'. So then, this will be the direction of my Divine Art…I will call it, the Divine Truth Art!"
