Meeting Defiance

"Sage, I need a portal to an appropriate location to face Defiance when he arrives." Yaan turned to face the Primordial Sage as soon as Defiance's presence vanished.

"You intend to do as he said and face him alone?" She asked.

"Yes. You can either send me to the best location that won't result in this star system getting ripped apart, or I can try to find somewhere myself." Yaan replied plainly, showing nothing of his intentions on his face.

The Sage simply nodded. She stretched out her palm, then a few seconds later, a portal started to grow. It took a few moments for the portal to manifest - if she was interrupted at any point during her portal creation, it would be cut off, but right now, nobody was getting in her way.

Before stepping in, Yaan glanced back at the other two Primordial Demon Sisters, then again at the Primordial Sage.

"You three should settle the matter regarding Infinity Lake and the Spirit Palace whilst I'm gone. Get to the point and stop wasting everyone's time."

Yaan stepped into the portal, then vanished from the region, leaving the three Primordial Demons, and a very uncomfortable Astral King, lingering in the vicinity of Planet Phoenix.

"You're really going to let Yaan and Defiance battle, without intervening?" The Primordial Asura asked with a narrowed gaze.

The Sage turned to her expressionlessly.

"You want to take Infinity Lake and the Spirit Palace? Even though the True Inheritances are no longer attached to the lake, it is still a Primordial Treasure. Sister Sura, you created the Spirit Palace, and Sister Spirit, it is your bound treasure. You can take the palace, but not the lake."

"Don't address us so closely like you used to." The Primordial Spirit glared, but a hint of pain stabbed her heart as she faced this traitorous sister of hers. "And you know as well as we do that the Spirit Palace is built into the centre of the Infinity Lake; one cannot be taken without the other."

"You are offering me nothing in return. This lake might have been yours in the past, sister, but now, it is in my territory, and you cannot take it away unless I allow you to do so." The Sage countered.

"That may be so, but if you don't let us take it away, we will hinder your operation in taking control over this star system. With Yaan occupied with Defiance, how do you think you will manage during this next hour if we truly let loose?" The Primordial Asura rebutted.

"How do you think you will manage when Yaan returns to this star system at an unknown time?" The Sage replied without skipping a beat.

The three fell silent for a moment. Whilst technically, the Primordial Asura and Primordial Spirit had something of an advantage in this 'mutually destructive exchange', nobody actually wanted things to go that way, since nobody would benefit in the end.

Suddenly, the Sage said something once again that caused the Primordial Spirit to snort coldly, and the Primordial Asura to fall silent.

"What I said before was the truth - like the both of you, I too can activate the stone ring. No matter what happens…we are not true enemies."

*****

Yaan stepped out from the portal, which promptly closed behind him. He looked around, but could see nothing whatsoever, even with his vast senses. When he activated Reveal Truth, he could see his chains of fate, allowing him to roughly deduce that he was now somewhere just outside of the Four Divine Star System. This region outside of the space within a star system was called deep space.

The Qi Plane was far 'larger' than any other World Plane had ever been, but it was mostly empty space. There were planets, and masses of space between the planets. There were stars, and even greater empty distances between the stars. The sectors were split up by natural regions of minor emptiness between parts of the star system…but the distance between each star system, was dozens of times larger than the breadth of any of the seven star systems.

The space out here between star systems was also completely devoid of spiritual energy and pressure, making it such that only Divine Step beings could even survive in this desolate environment.

Yaan stood there in silence, counting the time to the second since Defiance Sovereign had claimed that he would arrive in one hour.

Exactly one hour later, this deep space, this region of space most stable throughout the Qi Plane, trembled violently. Immediately, Yaan narrowed his gaze and became serious. He could already feel the aura of Defiance approaching, loud, proud and unrestrained; truly Defiant in every sense of the word.

He arrived after exactly one hour…to the very second.

BANG!

Defiance Sovereign slammed down his foot several hundred thousand miles from Yaan, but even this distance felt extremely close given the sheer size of this man.

As Yaan looked up at Defiance Sovereign and saw that faint smile and his blazing eyes, each of which burned with the size and power of an entire life-star, he recalled a certain fact about this man…

In the past, when the Primordial Devil reached the Divine Step, he arrogantly proclaimed himself to be the largest being to ever live.

In response to this, Defiance Sovereign, upon breaking through to the Divine Step not long later, became twice the size of the Primordial Devil!

Defiance Sovereign was originally a human, in this Era at least, yet he had cultivated his body in such an insane manner that he completely transformed himself into a monstrous titan that dwarfed all other living beings. His size was not just for show either - when it came to one on one combat, Defiance Sovereign proclaimed himself number 1, and whilst this hadn't exactly been confirmed, almost nobody dared to argue with him and claim this spot for themselves.

Only the Primordial Devil dared to argue against this claim. The Primordial Devil used to claim that he was actually the strongest, but he suffered narrow defeats at the hands of Defiance time and time again. However, the Primordial Devil never accepted those defeats, claiming that so long as he was alive, the battle was not yet over…

But now, Defiance had no 'rival' to keep him entertained. Yaan wondered if this was why he had decided to call out the newly ascended and world-renowned 'World Demon'…

Whilst he felt certain that Defiance Sovereign genuinely wanted to contest their strengths against one another, he knew that this man most certainly had some other intentions in calling him out. If he simply wanted to battle Yaan, he would not have gone to the trouble of ensuring that their battle would be out of the way of the star system, and most importantly, out of sight.

He was actually being very considerate towards Yaan, given his usual brash and whimsical way of handling things. Clearly, he did not want to ruin Yaan's plans to establish himself on the Qi Plane, but also…he did not want any others to witness their battle. Or perhaps, there was something else that he wanted to handle with Yaan, away from prying eyes and ears…

"It seems that you were expecting me." Defiance Sovereign's voice boomed throughout the vacuum of space. There was no energy nor pressure to shake in deep space, but his voice, or rather, the overwhelming will contained within his voice, caused the very fabric of the world to tremble.

Yaan could also cause the Qi Plane's spatial fabric to shake, but he couldn't achieve this just by speaking normally. He had readily agreed to Defiance Sovereign's 'challenge', showing a complete lack of hesitance and fear before the other divinities, but in his heart, he was as cautious as he could possibly be.

He didn't fear any of the divinities, not even the other Empyreans, but he wouldn't underestimate them. And of all the divinities, Defiance Sovereign was the one who gave Yaan the deepest feeling of danger of them all.

Defiance Sovereign was unlike anyone else in this world, for a very simple reason - he was an outsider, but he did not hide this fact. He did not hide his identity, unlike every other outsider, going by the same identity of 'Defiance' in every Era. He freely spoke about the outside world and even about certain matters from other Eras - it was obvious that he did not fear being targeted by others.

But beyond that, Defiance had a major advantage over everyone else in the 2nd Origin Era - he was a 2nd Ascension Origin God, whilst all the other outsiders were merely 1st Ascension Origin Gods.

Each time a being underwent Origin Ascension, their dao was washed and nourished by the Origin. Their entry into the Origin, all that they experienced within the Origin, and their final ascension beyond the Origin, all provided them with an unprecedented growth of their dao.

Every other outsider was from the 1st Origin Era, and they all chose to enter this 2nd Origin Era next for whatever reason. Defiance Sovereign was the sole exception to this in the current Era.

Defiance was born in the 3rd Origin Era, but he then went back and entered the 1st Origin Era, and after overcoming the 1st Origin Era, he finally entered this 2nd Origin Era. Yaan didn't exactly understand how this backwards and forwards travel through time worked in the outside expanse of Chaos, but according to the Sage, it was almost certain that all of this was true.

This was Defiance's 3rd life through the Origin; he knew things that others did not, both about the past, and the future. His dao heart had also undergone growth beyond any other, making it very likely that he truly was the strongest living being in the 2nd Origin Era.

So although Yaan faced Defiance Sovereign calmly, having accepted his challenge and now fully prepared to engage the towering man in battle for whatever reason, he was extremely on guard, and he knew that whatever he was about to face…would not be easy to endure.

"I came to this place after you used Temporal Vision to look back into the past to inform me of your impending arrival…it seems that after our exchange is over, you will go ahead and initiate the beginning of the fate that led me here." Yaan spoke slowly, clearly probing Defiance Sovereign with his curiosity.

Defiance Sovereign smiled and looked down at Yaan with a teasing gaze.

"You're curious about how such temporal events are possible, and stable. You're wondering what will happen if I choose not to use Temporal Vision to call you out here. Unfortunately, such a thing is impossible - before coming here, I had already decided to use this method to watch your actions in the past, and to call you out here, away from the Primordial Sage. Once I make a decision, I do not change my mind. But regardless, even if I attempted to change the future and therefore the past, something or other would happen, resulting in the same outcome. Trust me…I have previously attempted to overcome this bizarre temporal fate, but it is simply not possible to change what has already happened…not like this, at least."

Yaan had many more questions, but for now, he saw the burning fighting will growing stronger and stronger in Defiance Sovereign's eyes, looking like it might explode at any given moment.

"Defiance, it's clear that we will do battle, but could you at least tell me why, before we begin?" Yaan asked, sounding neither arrogant nor humble. He spoke with an unreadable face, a tone devoid of any tells, and illusions covering his entire being, making it such that even Defiance Sovereign could not see past the face that Yaan wanted him to see.

"I am not here to kill you, but to test you. World Demon, aside from myself, do you know who else in this world dares to test the Heavenly Dao in this Era?"

Towards this sudden question, Yaan shook his head, though he obviously knew part of the answer already.

"There are two others. The first is yourself, this is undeniable given your destruction of the Heavenly Dao's dao of karma. The second…is Destruction. But Destruction is an entity of pure madness, she cannot be reasoned with, unlike yourself."

'Shi?' Yaan thought to himself. 'Shi has also - or perhaps, will also - harm the Heavenly Dao? This…isn't very surprising, given her absolute obsession with destruction. So, even the Heavenly Dao will not escape from her madness unscathed. I feel that this is likely part of the cause that will bring an end to the 2nd Origin Era…'

Drawing Yaan from his musings, Defiance stood up straight, took one step back, and formed a fighting stance that looked truly terrifying, given his immense stature.

"World Demon, I will strike you once, without holding anything back. My attack will be a simple punch, no more, no less. If you are able to block my attack without taking a step back, then you will pass my test. Should you pass this little test, I will tell you the real reason behind the Primordial Sage's desire to conquer the Four Divine Star System, and together, we will plunder this opportunity for ourselves."