Another hundred years passed.
Yin Na was now a 50,000 li soul.
He always learned from his mistakes and rarely made the same mistake twice.
He reminded himself that although his movement appeared slow and insignificant to himself— thousands, if not millions of tiny 1 li to 100 li souls were flying around him in fear and awe of his mass, while eating after his waste (the tiny light orbs that he was now continuously shitting).
“How did the three ‘suns’ come to be?” Yin Na pondered.
It was a question that he had meditated upon during the past hundred years. It was like asking questions about the stars and planets embedded within the Heavens, they were vast and unknowable and almost terrifying to fathom.
“What trials and setbacks did they overcome to become the top three? What kind of personality, what strong will and tenacity and personal Dao did they profess to have when they were alive? Are they this big simply because they got here first?
“How has this realm maintained itself this long? Do the three ‘suns’ believe that if they devoured the other two that they would be able to ‘win’ this little game, and return back to the ‘real world’ of the living? Is there really no other alternative?”
Yin Na observed over the months and years how the three suns were not only enemies but constantly allying with one another whenever a fourth ‘sun’ was contesting them for size. The three suns would abandon their constant pursuit of one another in order to immediately swallow the new challenger. The one who successfully eats the new challenger becomes slightly larger in size and becomes the one which the other two suns avoid.
No particular sun maintains their size and therefore dominance for a prolonged period, as the time they spend chasing the other two suns causes them to lose mass as they leave behind numerous light orbs for smaller souls to devour. By then, they would return to equilibrium as they resume their lethal dance over the years.
Yin Na not only meditated on the nature of his current predicament, but also had plenty of time to contemplate and even rethink his personal philosophy of the Dao of Benefits.
“My Dao of Benefits has never brought me directly to harm,” Yin Na thought. “But this is the first time that I’ve really ‘lost’ a gamble. This is a loss so drastic that I quite literally lost my life, and if not for the Jade brick my consciousness would have been obliterated, and that would truly have meant the end for me.”
Where did he go wrong?
“Perhaps I should have let Tian Ji Han and that one last Yellow Fox Sect girl go, it was inevitable for my deeds to have been discovered, anyway. I could have cultivated in peace for a while with all the myriad knowledge Deng Tai Fan taught me, obtaining even more gains and benefits. Yes, my uncharacteristic surge of killing intent to defeat my nemesis, Ji Han bro, was what landed me in this predicament!
“There is little benefit in mulling over past regret and actions, unless one seeks to learn from them. Why was I so adamant in killing Tian Ji Han? Because I got too greedy, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone that day.
“But after much introspection, I’ve realized that there was another crucial element to my failure: I could not kill, or should have not killed Tian Ji Han!
“Tian Ji Han was my Dao brother and only friend whom I could call an equal. Over time we developed to become polar opposites of each other in values.
Although I could belittle Brother Ji Han by saying that his priority in life was to obstruct and impede my Dao of Benefits while I was politely minding my own business in accumulating spirit stones and followers, the truth was that my Dao had also begun to include impeding and obstructing the righteous path; his Dao of Benevolence!”
Yin Na recognized that just as Tian Ji Han’s goal was to make things difficult for him, a huge motivation of his own existence was to make his former Dao Brother’s life miserable.
Yin and Yang, Immortal and Demons, heroes and villains lived their entire lives in conflict, but they derived meaning and even enjoyment from this constant opposition!
“Father’s third rule, ‘benefits are sweeter when they are taken from others,’ I have followed and preached all my life.
“Why else did I spend days, months and sometimes years to establish trust and friendship with other cultivators throughout my life, only to rob them blind or stab them in the back? Why else do I continue manipulating and hurting lovers and Yao Guai such as Mao Shiqi so shamelessly? The most pleasurable theft of benefits resulted from the most elaborate schemes!
“But I do not wish to be defined as someone who is the antithesis of righteousness; who only does the opposite thing of his foes. I must remind myself that Demonic acts are not for evil’s sake, but only for benefits.
“Now that Brother Ji Han is dead, even if I successfully return to the living world, I am going to have to rekindle or revise my Dao of Benefits so that I have a fresh understanding of my father’s philosophy, as well as newfound motivation bereft of Tian Ji Han in the picture.
“Father, I’ve lived my life in devotion to your teachings. Would you consider it respectful for me to revise them? Would it be filial for me to alter the Dao of Benefits according to my own understanding and experiences?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Many times Yin Na wondered if his father’s own soul was also not permanently dead, but wandering and engaging in its own struggle in some realm or plane of existence such as the one Yin Na was in. The world of cultivation was such that the permanence of death was unlikely if one had strong foundations, and made all the right preparations.
Yin Na’s father was a strong cultivator who was killed by Hidden Fist Sect members when he was at the late Nascent Soul stage. He had developed a reputation for greed and cunning that Yin Na had worked all his life to surpass.
He always told Yin Na historical examples and stories of cultivators who’ve left inheritances or traps which enabled them to live on indefinitely. He taught Yin Na about famous Immortals who have left clones which were only revealed under extreme duress or dramatic scenarios to be another extension of their existence.
“This is another thing which I need to address,” Yin Na recognized. “Aside from being Tian Ji Han’s archnemesis, underlying the basis of my actions and motivations was the need to impress and surpass my father.
“Father, if your death was somehow not absolute…if one day you revealed yourself to me as having been a clone of some Immortal…if I ever met you in some form of another, we shall battle!”
It would be the final act of filial devotion and respect he could offer to his cherished father.
“Yes, I shall wield my Dao of Benefits against yours, and we shall see whose philosophy ultimately prevails.”
To grow out of the shadow of his father’s influence and legacy, and to succeed as an Immortal, this would be the basis of his new Dao!
“Of course, this will only be possible if I manage to escape this realm.”
Yin Na’s ultimate goal was to devour the three suns, in the hope that this would fulfill the invisible, unspoken rule of this realm which would enable the rebirth of the cultivator.
But it would be really difficult to replace one of the three suns. The other three gigantic ‘suns’ were the souls of past cultivators. Despite a multi millennial rivalry, they have probably developed a human understanding, respect and fondness of each other.
This is why they would never accept the appearance of a rising forth sun. Not only was it strategic and enormously beneficial for one of them to devour a rising competitor, but also because they did not want to compete with outsiders.
Yin Na could think of numerous examples in cultivator and mortal history where the top dominating powers always ended in a stagnant stalemate between three.
三 (Three) ! It was truly the magic number for deception. It always made struggles and wars interesting.
Three made alliances and betrayals a way of life. Three entities in constant competition made it so that one careless mistake would throw the balance off so that the two losing forces would always ally in the advent of one dominating the rest.
How could Yin Na replace one of the three suns without attracting lethal attention to himself?
Just as the three gigantic soul orbs appeared like three ‘suns’ to him and the millions of other souls flying around this realm, his own 50,000 li soul appeared as an unmoving planet to the ants orbiting around him.
Up until now, he was a silent but fearsome competitor to these ants. His gigantic mass was to be aspired to, and his attention to be avoided. He was respected and followed as he regularly left thousands of light orbs in the wake of his slow movement as a 50,000 li soul.
In an invisible and nearly undetectable manner, each planet-sized soul such as himself was these ants’ entire world, for many centuries and millennia. In each world, there was a different ‘culture’ for the ants to follow.
The culture of the ants was dictated by the aggression and population of the numerous types of smaller sized souls which orbited around Yin Na.
He reached a breakthrough in his thought. After centuries of contemplation, he had obtained sufficient inspiration.
“Why had none of these souls successfully established a culture of cooperation?”
Yin Na had of course, observed other Soul Orbs attempting to create alliances and friendships through splitting themselves in halves and quarters and even smaller portions, then sacrificing these pieces of their souls to others in an unspoken act of goodwill.
However, these ‘alliances’ never lasted long. The cut-throat nature of the planet-eat-planet game was so that if one let down his guard, he would suddenly be devoured with barely enough time to react upon betrayal.
Yin Na theorized that each Soul orb belonged to and therefore retained the personality of their former cultivators in life. But this fact was overlooked by the threat of permanently losing one’s soul, which rendered all other souls as eternal enemies.
Cooperation never lasted beyond a few seconds or a few years.
Yin Na made his gamble.
He split his soul in half, then into quarters until each of his four souls were only 12,500 li in diameter each.
The massive planet that the millions of ants once regarded him as were in complete shock and surprise.
He was their source of nourishment and awe, and now he was split into four tinier planets at a much less threatening size.
But it did not stop there.
Yin Na split his souls again, and again, and again.
Centuries of accumulation that he willingly exposed to be vulnerable for all to see.
The fast-thinking Soul orbs immediately took their opportunity to pounce and devour the myriad tinier souls of Yin Na.
Massive gains and annihilation for other Souls occurred within seconds, it was a cataclysmic event!
Within mere seconds, as opposed to days, every Soul nearby was frantically scrambling to clean up after Yin Na’s mess and benefit from his destruction.
In the end, Yin Na was left with only a single Soul orb left at the size of 10 li in diameter.
Yin Na’s new transformation was not left unnoticed.
On the contrary, he was being followed or…oddly, being accompanied by other 10 li and even 100-li sized souls.
The other Soul orbs that once appeared like ants to him were once again on equal or more threatening stature.
Yin Na, after having shed his 50,000 li soul was now facing a sea of Soul orbs looking at him in anticipation. However, they merely surrounded but did not attack his vulnerable, tiny soul.
“I expected this,” Yin Na thought. “Like vultures picking off a dying lion, these Souls must have harbored a lot of resentment or jealousy towards mine for some reason. Here we go!”
The chase began.