398 Seeking Death

Death Empyrean…

Throughout the many years gone by in the 2nd Origin Era, there had been fewer than 30 Empyreans. As of today, if you included Death Empyrean, then there were just 10.

The fates of those past Empyreans varied. Some died, either to other Empyreans, giant wars, or cosmic scale natural disasters. Some ascended, transcending the Origin once again. In many cases, it was only during their moment of ascension that the world would learn of their true identity, and whom they were in the 1st Origin Era.

There were also cases like with the God of Sin, wherein two completely separate individuals turned out to be the different Origin Incarnations of the same Origin God. As far as Yaan was aware, only the God of Sin managed to become an Empyrean with two incarnations, but there were several Empyreans who had fused with their subsidiary Origin Incarnations, some of whom were Deities, some immortals, some mortals, and some not even sentient beings.

Then there were other Empyreans, who simply vanished without a trace. Since every Origin Ascension created such a massive wave throughout the world, those who vanished were mostly presumed dead, it was unlikely that anyone could transcend the Origin without being noticed.

As such, Death Empyrean, who had vanished a million years ago during that great war, was presumed dead. However, as it turned out, his so called 'inheritance' was no inheritance, but his own self, sustained in a state of quasi-death as he pursued his dao with unimaginable patience.

After watching this Empyrean recover such a strange body which partially drew from the flames of a raging sun, and partially dragged the non-existent life-force from Yaan's illusory dao body, Yaan had to wonder what this person's plan had been, had he not encountered a freak like Yaan who could help him to take this last step…

In the past, all those to attempt the Death Inheritance were killed almost instantly. Others might be shocked and confused if they were to witness such a scene, but Yaan could clearly see the karmic chains of death which extended from the glowing skeletal body, like the tendrils of a horrendous monster. These were the chains which had allowed Death Empyrean to survive in that state for so long - through his deathly karmic chains, he devoured their entire being, consuming Divine Life Essence to nourish and sustain himself.

Yaan couldn't begin to fathom his entire plan, but it was clear that Yaan's arrival had stimulated the change that Death Empyrean had been waiting for. Unlike all other divinities, Yaan did not possess Divine Life Essence, because he didn't possess Life Essence to begin with. Prior to the Divine Step, when he was embarking upon his own dao path, he discarded his Life Essence and transformed into a being that did not rely on such essence to live.

When Death Empyrean attempted to drain Yaan's life-force, what he received was not the usual Divine Life Essence that he had grown accustomed to, but the deathly still lack of life that somehow sustained Yaan's existence.

'Right now, Death Empyrean is in the process of pursuing his Origin Ascension; this was triggered by myself, and him attempting to devour the Life Essence which does not exist within me. Were it not for me, he would have never found this stimulation, and he likely would have perished along with the end of this Era…'

As the deathly karmic chains shot towards him, Yaan narrowed his eyes and tried to see through his opponent. Even Reveal Truth had its limits, but he gradually reached a certain conclusion.

Yaan felt certain that Death Empyrean was an outsider, an Origin God who came from the 1st Origin Era. Why did he feel so certain of this, despite having virtually no evidence to support this belief?

The main reason was because Death Empyrean was acting in a way that suggested he had been seeking this result for a very long time - and indeed, he had been laying in wait patiently for a million years now. If he wasn't an ancient existence from the 1st Origin Era, then just why would he choose to take such an insane path?

As Yaan weaved between the deathly karmic chains, which only grew stronger as Death Empyrean's white force of life was rapidly burned to ash, he looked into his opponent's eyes and saw the gaze of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. There was no way that he could hold such certainty and resolve, unless he had already been through something similar before now.

Actually, Yaan was suspicious of every single one of the Empyreans in the current world. Many of the Origin Gods had already undergone their 2nd Origin Ascension and left this Era behind, but others would choose to linger for as long as possible, even if they had the ability to ascend at any moment.

After all, just overcoming the 2nd Origin Era wasn't the end. After this, they would need to step into the 3rd Origin Era, so it made sense to remain within this Era for as long as possible, to witness the end of the world. Perhaps the experience would promote their growth, improving their chances of success as they continued to walk along the Origin Step.

Yaan understood this logic all too well. Sometimes, the benefits might not be obvious at first glance, but there was always some potential to be found when seeking dao.

Take right now for example; Yaan could attempt to flee, or he could bring his cultivation base body, or he could even inform the Sage of what was happening to gain her support…but he did not do so. He decided to face Death Empyrean with his dao body alone, because this was a tempering experience, and he had the vague premonition that if he succeeded, his gains wouldn't be small.

'If I'm right and Death Empyrean really is an Origin God, then it seems that even for the Origin Gods who have already undergone Origin Ascension in one Era, repeating this in another Era is no easy feat. If not for my stimulation, he might have perished in this Era, but he had no choice - he needed to do this to further his dao…'

The matter of Origin Ascension was confusing to Yaan, as there didn't seem to be many similarities between the different Origin Gods and their approaches towards ascending. It was as if they all had their own needs, whether that was furthering their dao, refining their dao, mending a flaw in their dao, or perhaps, something else entirely.

Take Defiance for example, he didn't even pursue dao…

Before long, Yaan no longer had the leisure of simply analysing Death Empyrean in an attempt to build up his understanding of the Origin Ascension. With every passing moment, this guy's aura of life was fading away, but at the same time, his aura of death was growing stronger and stronger.

The white light which made up his skeletal body and eyes had faded to a flicker, but those karmic chains surrounding him now emanated an aura of death so powerful that this entire region of space had become death itself. The spatial dao was being suppressed, space itself could no longer be seen; there was only death.

Even a normal Deity would be able to see this much, but Yaan was using Reveal Truth combined with his domain, painting a picture of death like no other. The more that Death Empyrean's aura rose, the more Yaan could see of his past of death…

However, Yaan could see that something was still limiting him. The death aura was powerful and painted a cold world of ghosts and bones, but he could feel that there was so much more hiding within Death Empyrean, but it was currently trapped, unable to find a release.

This was further proof that Death Empyrean was actually an Origin God. Yaan could see every trace of the death that he had spread throughout the 2nd Origin Era, but there was a hundred times more death hidden within his inner potential - this must be the death that he had caused in the 1st Origin Era!

The powers of different Eras were incompatible with one another, so no matter how much stronger Death Empyrean might have been in the 1st Origin Era, he couldn't manifest that power here. If he did manage to release that power, that would symbolise his 2nd Origin Ascension.

Actually, Yaan would quite like to see another Origin Ascension.

The world was eerily silent, given the intensity of the ongoing battle. The stronger Death Empyrean grew, the more tricks Yaan was forced to utilise in order to fight back. He started by using his Absolute Domain to paint the world into a illusion that was more advantageous to him, the he used Reveal Truth, allowing him to see through the most dangerous deathly regions around his foe. With Conceal Truth, he was able to continually evade and escape from the ever-growing black karmic chains, but soon enough, even that wasn't enough!

Yaan had long since drawn his wooden sword, cutting through the chains and suffering from heavy backlash with each collision. He utilised his general sword art - The Sword Heart Art - to perfect his footwork and nimbly slip past the mountains of bones and wailing ghosts, but he was beginning to struggle.

The more he struck back at Death Empyrean, the stronger this monster grew!

It was a horrifying power to fight against. Every single clash felt like his victory, yet every time, his opponent came out on top, even growing stronger! Yaan had whittled away his life-force until it was merely the faintest flicker within his eye sockets, but it was as if killing his life only fuelled his death!

Yaan tried using the 1st Step of the Agile Illusion Art. His body became a blur, flickering past a weaving nest of black chains and piercing directly into one of the two lights within Death Empyrean's eye. The light was immediately extinguished and Death Empyrean's aura of life grew weaker, but at this moment, his previously expressionless black skull formed a jarring smile.

Death Empyrean's body of light was no more, all that remained was a black human skull, with a flickering white flame in a single eye socket. Yaan grit his teeth and tried to use the 1st Step of the Agile Illusion Art once again, but found that his four limbs had been bound and he was now unable to move!

"Peugh!"

Yaan coughed up bloody miasma as an intense dizziness overcame him. He forced himself to remain conscious, but he couldn't hang on like this for long. 

Death Empyrean was again trying to drain his Life Essence, but since he had none, it just ended up ripping open his illusory body.

"Interesting! A life without life, yet not sustained by death, but illusions! Perhaps if I-"

BANG!

Suddenly, as Death Empyrean held Yaan in place and attempted to cripple his fighting spirit with words whilst suppressing him with his vastly superior power, an eruption of life and death exploded between the two, sending them flying in opposite directions.

"Tch." Death Empyrean snorted coldly, but didn't say anything else.

He had fought and killed many, many people over his long life, so he knew when words were useless. Just now, even in such a situation wherein he couldn't move, he found that the red-robed boy somehow struck him with that wooden sword, slashing at the four chains which held his four limbs.

Agile Illusion Art, 2nd Step - Yaan's ultimate countering sword move!

Although his limbs were tied up and his body was on the verge of falling apart, for a brief moment, he intensified the illusion of his domain and redefined the nature of the situation, making it such that he was able to slash out once with his sword for a fraction of a second.

Yaan couldn't completely overturn logic, but he had truly redefined the truth in that brief moment, attacking when he was unable to attack - or rather, countering!

By countering the deathly absorption of the four karmic chains, Yaan ended up being the one to absorb Death Empyrean's life, rather than the other way around. The backlash was heavy and a trail of crimson miasma was left in Yaan's wake as his body shot back like an arrow, but he succeeded in freeing himself, and he extinguished half of the remaining flame of life in Death Empyrean's eye socket.

The moment Yaan stabilised himself, despite his injuries and exhaustion after being drained so heavily, his eyes shone brilliantly.

Just now, he had achieved something that is domain alone could not previously achieve - redefining a inescapable truth!

This could be considered a step towards his creation of a 'Define Truth Dao Spell'!

However, he found that the backlash for using this method was extremely great.

'There should be a similar backlash for my Define Truth Divine Spell, it's just that the backlash is proportional to the amount of truth that I change. Defining a Truth that allows me to attack a stronger opponent when I should be unable to do so, is a big alteration. This is good to know.'

He couldn't rely on this method too much, not with his cultivation base body or his dao body. Using 'Define Truth' in a similar way to his domain resulted in very little backlash, but the further he deviated from the natural illusions of his domain, the greater the backlash would be.

Since his cultivation base body couldn't use his true Absolute Domain, using Define Truth as a substitute was perfect.

But with his dao body, the effect could become much greater.

'My Dao Spells are all significantly stronger when used within my Absolute Domain, but this is a double-edged sword, I need to be careful until I refine all of my methods properly.'

Actually, Yaan wasn't entirely sure if he would end up creating a true 'Define Truth Dao Spell', or if continuing with this practise would simply ingrain the principles of his Define Truth Divine Spell into his domain. After all, this Divine Spell was based upon his dao body's domain.

He felt that redefining the truth within his domain was entirely possible, but as soon as he removed his domain, it would no longer be possible.

Yaan stared down his opponent, knowing that he didn't have long to finish devising a strategy. Unfortunately, there was a slight dilemma…

If he actually managed to extinguish the last of Death Empyrean's life, rationally speaking, he should die…only, he was an Empyrean of Death. What if killing him ended up actually helping him?

Yaan could have released his blazing killing intent to burn away Death Empyrean's life completely, but he now felt certain that even after Death Empyrean's life was extinguished, this fight would not be over.