377 Hate

The human-esque figure of light did not possess a face, nor did it have any other sort of defining features across its humanoid body. It shone with a resplendent light of all colours, emanating the pressure of the Heavenly Dao itself.

This entity was no illusion, but this left Yaan and most of the others feeling both alarmed and confused…

How could the Heavenly Dao take this form…? How could the Heavenly Dao become the embodiment of that which it strove to suppress?!

The Heavenly Dao sought ultimate balance, but mankind did not care for balance, instead tending towards the most extreme of extremes. Man and the Heavens were in eternal opposition, so now, just how and why did the Heavenly Dao stand here with this body?

It was at this moment, that Yaan finally noticed the trembling across the three planes. This region specifically was suppressed by the Heavenly Power which froze and halted all things, but everywhere else throughout the world, the world itself was shaking!

When Yaan focussed his consciousness on his cultivation base clone, he could feel it far more clearly. The shaking of the world was so intense that spatial tears were randomly manifesting across the Qi Plane, resulting in several rarely seen natural disasters.

Cosmic waves spread across the seven star systems, shaking life-planets and sending smaller natural disasters across their surfaces.

Spatial implosions that appeared close to life-stars caused solar flares to erupt outwards, setting countless planets and moons alight.

Moons crashed into planets and planets were engulfed by unstable stars; the Qi Plane was thrust into terror…and this was only speaking of what Yaan could see himself. Who knew what might be happening on the Blood Plane right now…

The destruction inflicted upon the world was none of Yaan's concern. Even if these disasters became a hundred times worse, neither of his bodies would be in any real danger.

No, compared to the shaking of the world, the entity standing before him was far more concerning.

He could clearly feel this being staring at him, even though it had no eyes. Based on its previous words, it was focussed on himself and the Primordial Sage, and it was obviously Yaan's actions that attracted its appearance

'What did this entity just say…it made me? So then, this is truly the Heavenly Dao in humanoid form?' 

Yaan's mind was racing with thoughts and ideas, but he couldn't reach any conclusions with certainty. He only felt sure that he was indeed facing the Heavenly Dao right now, but beyond that…

Perhaps this figure spoke those words to distract him, or maybe the Heavenly Dao simply considered all living beings in the world to be its own creations. Or perhaps, it was implying that it had played some part in Yaan's creation, maybe because of its interference with the Primordial Devil's reincarnation. But then, what about the Sage?

Yaan cleared these thoughts from his mind and narrowed his eyes as he put all of his focus into freeing his body from this terrific Heavenly pressure. When he didn't try to resist, he was simply unable to move or utilise any of his powers, but as soon as he put up resistance, he felt an immense power crushing down on him, as if the Heavens themselves had focussed all of their power on him specifically!

Yaan's expression darkened when the figure lifted one arm and pointed directly at him. Yaan did not notice it, but from the Sage's perspective, the entity was actually pointing at her, and from the perspective of everyone else, it was pointing at them both at the same time. 

"I only wish to kill these two. Stay your hand and I will allow you to live until the end of the 2nd Origin Era." The figure of light spoke again as an overwhelming orb of all-coloured light started to grow at the tip of its index finger. Despite possessing no facial features, everyone present understood whom these words were intended for.

Yaan struggled as crazily as he could, eventually managing to break free from the freezing power. However, he immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood, and after taking a few steps back, the pressure amplified several fold and froze him in place once again.

He understood the situation, causing him to feel bitter. The Heavenly Dao wanted to prevent both him and the Sage from entering the Boundless Dao Library…it wanted this so badly, that it was acting against its own balance to kill them here and now! For whatever reason, it only wanted to stop Yaan and the Sage, and it seemed that it intended to leave the others alone!

Everyone could feel the shaking of the world growing more and more intense, making them feel shocked. At this rate, the three planes would be torn to shreds and the 2nd Origin Era would end earlier than anticipated!

Was something like this actually possible?! Why would the Heavenly Dao go so far, disrupting its balance to the extent that it destroyed the world, just to deal with two individuals?!

If it had the ability and willingness to do something like this, then why had it not already used this method to deal with all of the outsiders whom did not belong to this Era? Why target Yaan and the Primordial Sage, and not, say, Defiance Sovereign?

The only explanation, was that Yaan and the Sage had crossed the Heavenly Dao's bottom line.

But was it really so important to prevent the two of them from entering the Boundless Dao Library…?

Yaan struggled to open his mouth in an attempt to speak. The Primordial Sage's body was too weak to overcome the Heavenly pressure and speak, so Yaan could only rely on himself to attempt to reason with the Heavenly Dao. Unfortunately, the Heavenly suppression made every small movement excruciatingly difficult, and by the time Yaan managed to open his mouth halfway, the figure of light had almost finished charging its attack.

'Is it really going to end like this?' Yaan thought as the bitter feeling in his heart grew stronger.

He really couldn't see a way out of this situation. Compared to the Heavenly Dao, even divinities could not fight back, not when the Heavenly Dao had given up its control over the world in order to muster its full strength to attack!

Nobody could stand up to the Heavenly Dao, at least, not now, not in this Era…

Just as Yaan was thinking this, suddenly, the Heavenly pressure rapidly subsided. In the next instant, a roar filled with boundless hatred filled the world.

"HEAVENLY DAO!"

In this moment, Defiance Sovereign released a roar imbued with a fury more immense and a hatred more obsessed than any roar in the history of this Era. This roar was so mighty, that the Heavenly Dao's pressure was countered in one moment, pushed back in the next moment, and very nearly extinguished in the next!

Shi, who had been standing closest to Defiance, let out a groan of pain as her body shook. Without warning, her body disintegrated into ash, and she very nearly died! It was only thanks to her fast reaction and her cultivation's nature of destruction that she managed to survive, but she broke down into countless bolts of black lightning, which struggled to resemble into her complete self.

Love Empyrean wasn't much better off. The Heavenly Pressure was wiped away, but not a second later, the pressure of Defiance slammed into her body. Like Shi, her body broke down into ash, but she managed to hold onto her life by quickly fusing her Origin Soul into her heart. Her heart shone with silver light and trembled as it resisted the waves of hate-filled aura.

The Primordial Sage directly exploded, but the collapsed energy left behind from her body's destruction formed an unstable vortex, from which, a new body of hers entered the world. She restrained her aura and quickly moved away from both Defiance Sovereign and the figure of light, but Yaan could feel that this new body posed him a greater threat than any of her bodies that he had seen before.

When Yaan felt Defiance's aura sweep past him, he coughed up several lungfuls of blood and miasma. His illusory body started flickering as abyssal cracks sprung up all over, but unlike the others, he didn't completely disintegrate. This was not a matter of strength, but simply thanks to the nature of Yaan's dao and heart.

Yaan's gaze flickered back and forth between the figure of light and Defiance Sovereign as he quickly retreated. He showed nothing on his face, but he secretly felt shocked.

'Just where did this power come from, was Defiance always this strong?! If he had attacked me with this much intensity before, there's no way I would have been able to stand my ground without retreating! I've never felt so much hate before! Unlike others, my Dao Soul is able to endure this sort of aura, but the initial impact nearly tore me in half!'

As Yaan thought this, the abyssal cracks across his body quickly healed over as he adjusted to the immense hatred which threatened to tear apart anything and everything in its path.

Yaan's heart was like a large body of water - no matter how large the impact, the body of water could only be stirred, not destroyed. Eventually, after the ripples settled down, his heart would always recover and become still once again.

Others could not say the same, resulting in their struggle when faced with this sort of unexpected attack. However, this was merely Defiance's explosive aura…he was yet to truly attack!

After reaching what he deemed to be a 'safe' distance, Yaan didn't continue retreating. In the end, he knew that he couldn't flee from the Heavenly Dao, he only hoped that Defiance could distract the Heavenly Dao enough that he could slip past and enter the Boundless Dao Library.

Based on the Heavenly Dao's reaction, it seemed very likely that pushing his domain against the seal would allow him to enter the library.

"God of Defiance, I have no business with you right now. There would be no meaning in us fighting here; neither of us can defeat the other in this Era." The figure of light said in response to Defiance's roar.

The Heavenly Dao spoke without any emotion, but it was clearly taking Defiance seriously. Apparently, it did not expect that Defiance Sovereign would be able to overrule its ultimate suppression so easily, forcing it to readjust its plans, for now not releasing its fatal attack against Yaan and the Sage.

Defiance did not relax or stand down when he heard this entirely rational response, but instead, the burning hatred in his eyes somehow grew even stronger. His entire being was shining with a dark, horrendous aura of absolute hatred, a hatred so thick that it actually started to exert a similar suppressive effect upon the world as the Heavenly Dao's own pressure!

The world around these two figures became so distorted that Yaan was forced to activate Reveal Truth, just so that he could see them clearly.

"Cannot defeat you?" Defiance Sovereign spoke back slowly. "You appear before me in this form once again, and you expect me to care about what can and cannot be done?"

As Defiance spoke, he took a single step forwards. His foot slammed down into the fabric of the Qi Plane wall, sending waves of cosmic power in every direction, resulting in an inestimable number of spatial cracks manifesting and closing in rapid succession.

"You could not defeat me in the 1st Origin Era, and you cannot defeat me in this 2nd Origin Era. Defiance Sovereign, stand down, now is not the time-"

"I will decide when it is the time for your death!" Defiance growled out hatefully with bloodshot eyes. His every syllable carried more killing intent than the last, and this killing intent fused with his aura of defiance. Eventually, his Defiant Aura transformed into a Defiant Domain, and his hatred and killing intent fused into its depths.

The Heavenly Dao remained silent. At some point, it had moved its pointed finger away from Yaan and the Sage, and towards Defiance. 

Defiance Sovereign stopped moving, causing Yaan's eyes to widen.

'Is Defiance actually going to back down?'

He was not.

"Heavenly Dao…my hatred for you has seeped into the depths of my blood and soul. I tried to kill you in the 3rd Origin Era, but I failed. I tried to kill you in the 1st Origin Era, but again, I failed. I failed, but my failures never dissuaded me from my pursuit, only causing the depths of my hatred to sink into the abyss of madness and obsession."

Everyone watched in silence, unable to muster up a single word in response. From his tone alone, everyone present could feel the unimaginable hatred that the God of Defiance felt towards the Heavenly Dao. However, nobody knew why he felt such hatred…

Not even the Heavenly Dao knew why.

"God of Defiance, your feelings towards me are misplaced. It is clear that I am fated to do something in the 3rd Origin Era - the Era of your birth - that will result in you developing this hatred. You have already experienced this event, but for me, it is yet to happen. Your hatred is pointless, as are all attempts on my life. God of Defiance, it is my fate to survive this Era. You must be aware of this since you claim that we will battle in the 3rd Origin Era, so why must you continue with this meaninglessness?"

"Pointless? Meaningless? Just what do you know of meaning?!" Defiance Sovereign laughed darkly for a moment, before throwing his head back and roaring with an unsettling, almost manic laughter. After several moments, his laughter abruptly stopped and he stared straight at the Heavenly Dao, his gaze now eerily calm.

"My hatred towards you is something that you cannot possibly fathom. My hatred is so deep, that I have been chasing you across three Eras now, seeking your death. I don't care about fate, I don't care about anything…Heavenly Dao, I just want you to die."

Defiance Sovereign suddenly lifted one arm, before pointing at the Heavenly Dao with his own index finger. His gaze took on a serene quality, but this calmness gave Yaan a terrifying premonition of what was to come.

Without hesitation, Yaan and the others all retreated. They all felt the same sense of impending crisis, and they were unwilling to linger around here for a moment longer.

That said, everyone kept their eyes fixated on Defiance and the Heavenly Dao.

"Three Origin Eras…for three Origin Eras, I have tried to kill you. For three Origin Eras, I have failed to kill you. For three Origin Eras…I have been developing a spell to kill you."

"A spell?" The Heavenly Dao asked sharply.

Defiance showed no change in his expression, but gradually, a strange, colourless orb of light, started to grow at the end of his index finger. Bizarrely, it appeared to be the exact opposite of the ball of all-coloured light that lingered on the tip of the Heavenly Dao's finger!

"Each of my battles against you resulted in my failure to kill you…but each of those battles taught me a bit more about you, Heavenly Dao. You so generously helped me to finish the creation of this spell when you attacked me with every earthly dao retribution under your skies. Even after finishing my spell, however, I could not effectively attack the omnipresent Heavenly Dao. That is…unless you were to take this form."

Defiance Sovereign felt that his spell had reached its pinnacle intensity. The colourless light was nauseating to look at, and yet somehow, Yaan felt as if it posed him no threat whatsoever!

"This is my Dao Spell, refined from my three Origin Eras of obsession and hate. It is the nemesis of your existence, so I suppose naming it something like 'Anti-Heaven' would be fitting…but I refuse to use your cursed name in the name of my own creation. And so, this spell will be called…"

The God of Defiance paused briefly, before saying:

"Hate."

As soon as Defiance Sovereign spoke that one, simple word, the world vanished from the perception of everyone in this region. In its place, what could be seen could only be described as…a world of hate.

Yaan struggled to remain conscious as a pressure akin to the Heaven's greatest threat descended upon the world. He vaguely caught sight of those around him also struggling; someone even collapsed after several moments, struggling to get back up.

A dark, crimson mist engulfed the world for as far as the eye could see. Gradually, the mist started rolling over itself until a storm of bloody mist engulfed all things.

Activating Reveal Truth, Yaan ignored the injuries rapidly accumulating over his body and stared into the depths of this shocking spell. 

He saw three figures, dark and blurry, their features could not be seen. However, their auras clearly depicted that they were just mortals - an adult man, an adult woman, and young girl.

The young girl stood between the adults, holding each of their hands and walking through the world without a care. Although the details could not be seen, Yaan felt as if he was watching a story, which depicted the essence of hatred itself, unfolding through their auras.

At first, there was an aura of blissful happiness.

At first.

The world of crimson mist trembled, then in the next moment, the woman and young girl were laying on the ground, their shadowy bodies ripped to shreds and barely even recognisable and releasing an aura of death. Lightning with the aura of the Heavens lingered above their bodies.

The world trembled again. 

This time, Yaan could no longer see the woman and young girl, but two graves, above which stood the adult man. The man stared up into the Heavens and roared, releasing waves of aura, one after the other, from hatred, to grief, to frustration, to confusion…to defiance.

The world trembled once again.

Everything disappeared as the crimson fog became thicker. All Yaan could see now, was the man walking slowly, striving to reach the Heavens above. His hatred was so thick that even as his body collapsed, his gaze did not leave the sky, but only seemed to become more and more obsessed as time passed by.

Eventually, the man could no longer be seen, all that remained was a face of shadows, and two ancient golden eyes, eyes that held a hate-fuelled obsession which had fermented over time.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the strange crimson world vanished and the world returned to normal…

Unfortunately, this 'normal' was even more terrifying than the world of crimson mist from before.

Yaan's heart thumped heavily as a grave sense of crisis washed over him. As soon as he regained his wits, he saw that unknowingly, the finger attacks of the Heavenly Dao and Defiance Sovereign had been released and were now moments away from colliding!

This spell of Defiance's was just as the man said - it was designed with the sole purpose of killing the Heavenly Dao. Because of this, the colourless orb of light which shot towards the Heavenly Dao's all-coloured orb of light actually posed Yaan no threat whatsoever. That said, the impact that would arise when these two attacks collided, posed Yaan the greatest threat that he had felt since rising to the Divine Step!

He was genuinely shocked. Based on Yaan's understanding of the world, until now, he had believed that with his current power, nothing in this 2nd Origin Era could take his life so long as he was careful. In his mind, the only danger remaining was the end of the 2nd Origin Era. As for everything else, such as the Empyreans and the Heavenly Dao, he merely saw them as obstacles that were standing between him, and his ascension past the Origin.

In this moment, Yaan was forced to reassess his previous belief…but now wasn't the time for that.

Without hesitation, he shot directly towards the Boundless Dao Library door as he released his domain without holding anything back. 

The ripples of aura from Defiance and the Heavenly Dao had already reached him, causing painted waves of aura to splash through the space surrounding him. He completely ignored this however, and he ignored the two attacks as they slammed into one another. Right now, the only thing that mattered was reaching that door!

Yaan was too close to those two, closer than anyone else. The Sage was not too far away from him, but she had countless bodies, and the entire Sage Plane was also part of her. Even if this attack did manage to harm her as a whole by destroying one of her bodies, she was unlikely to be seriously injured.

Naturally, Love Empyrean and Shi retreated at their fastest possible speed.

Yaan didn't pay any attention to the others, he was focussed on one thing - reaching that door! 

If he entered the library, he should be able to escape from this danger…of course, simply fleeing wasn't his only goal, otherwise he would probably choose to flee normally rather than taking this risk. After all, if he failed to enter the Boundless Dao Library, then with how close he was to the Heavenly Dao right now, he might even lose his life…

In reality, Yaan's eyes were shining with an insane gleam because of this opportunity! He was currently in the best position to reach the library first, and the Heavenly Dao was distracted, unable to block his path! He didn't know how this confrontation between Defiance and the Heavenly Dao would end, so if he wanted to take this chance for himself, he needed to go now!

Suddenly, an immense aura of destruction arose from behind him, and for a moment, Yaan felt like he was being dragged backwards! He quickly overcame this strange force, but in the next moment…

Bang!

Yaan's body shattered.

It was so sudden, but he was already prepared. Despite the fact that he was torn apart by a giant abyssal crack that bisected his body in two vertically, Yaan quickly reformed himself elsewhere in his domain and continued to rush ahead without pausing.

Apparently, the impact of the two attacks was silent, because Yaan clearly heard the sound of his body detonating.

When his body reformed, it was covered in several smaller abyssal cracks. Bloody miasma flowed out from his wounds, but he simply clenched his teeth and pushed himself to his limits.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His body was ripped to shreds repeatedly, and the detonations were getting worse and worse. Thankfully, he was able to use his domain to gather the fragments of his destroyed body, then reform them by painting himself a new body elsewhere in his lingering domain.

He was so close now, just a bit further!

Time slowed down to a crawl as Yaan finally reached his limit. After the last destruction of his body, he barely managed to reassemble himself, then once his body did recover, it almost collapsed yet again. Using every trace of will that he could muster, Yaan forcefully held his body together and urged his domain to spread out just a little bit further…

Thwip!

The moment the edge of his domain touched the seal of golden runes, Yaan vanished from the Qi Plane.