Chapter 279 - The Ruthless Inheritance

“I understand now, brother. Your Dao Soul is incomplete. You possess the core portion of your dao heart, but also the conflict within your heart that came about due to your altered path, and because of this, you have lost all desire towards this life…but I believe in you. Even if your heart has changed, I know that you are you, brother! I know that deep inside you, the spark of hope is waiting to reignite the fires of passion in your heart, and I will definitely be the catalyst to restart that fire!”

Yaan looked at the Spirit Plane Lord calmly. He saw the pain in her eyes, hidden deeply away, and the determined resolution that burned within her soul. He always thought it was strange that she revealed her heart so openly to him, but he supposed that it was because she thought he was her brother…

“Fine.” Yaan gave a single nod, causing the Spirit Plane Lord’s eyes to light up with joy.

“You will allow me to help you?”

“I will…” Yaan sighed, making him sound unwilling…which he was.

The Spirit Plane Lord had been deceived, but she wasn’t stupid. She glanced at the Sage and smiled lightly, knowing that her sister must have played a pivotal role in his unexpected cooperation.

Her sister had always taken action silently, without telling anyone what she was doing, or why she was doing it. In fact, she had even lied to them before…but in the end, her actions had always been for the benefit of the four of them; the four Primordial Demons. Because of this, they had always trusted her implicitly.

“I’m glad…I know that right now, you are without hope…I know that right now, you do not have the memories of the past…I know that right now, you feel nothing towards me…but you are my brother. I believe in you, and I will always be there to help you. Please, just trust me this once…Yaan.”

She looked at Yaan with a gentle, understanding gaze. For the first time, he felt like she was actually talking to him, and not the shadow of her brother that she saw within him. Unfortunately, this only caused the bleak, empty feeling within him, to grow even deeper.

The Spirit Plane Lord didn’t waste any time. She waved her arm quickly, causing the world to blur before Yaan’s eyes.

When everything stabilised, Yaan looked around and realised that they were once again standing above the Infinity Lake. However, his gaze was not attracted towards the strange lake waters, but towards the strange structure before him.

The Infinity Lake was truly enormous, so enormous that Yaan could not see any of the other inheritances on the lake when he was standing beside another inheritance. Even the monstrous black stair case a few hundred feet ahead of him, which towered up an unknown distance into the sky, could not be seen from by his mortal vision from elsewhere.

“Another inheritance?” Yaan asked plainly.

“Mm, because…I want to understand you.”

Yaan silently turned to look at the Spirit Plane Lord as she stared at the black staircase intently. The Primordial Sage lingered a hundred feet away from them, simply watching, with no apparent intention of interfering.

The Spirit Plane Lord spoke to Yaan as she looked at the staircase, and as she spoke, her voice carried a dreamlike quality.

“In the past, there was a notorious demon known as the Ruthless Empyrean. He was an ally of ours, but he died just before the war one million years ago. He was strong…extremely strong. This inheritance is by far the most terrifying inheritance in my possession, because he killed himself to create this inheritance. He knowingly and deliberately killed himself…in his pursuit of true ruthlessness…”

Yaan turned his gaze away from the Spirit Plane Lord and stared at the black staircase. He could feel an overbearing pressure exuding from the staircase. He didn’t doubt that most people would be too terrified to even step foot on it.

“The shape of this inheritance is partially modelled after the Divine Stairway, which is the tribulation that lies between immortality and divinity. No matter where you stand around the inheritance, it looks like the staircase is directly in front of you. However, the Divine Stairway is gold, whilst this inheritance has no splendour, only darkness. The Divine Stairway has ten stairs, but this inheritance…does not seem to have an end.”

Yaan looked at her questioningly, but she did not respond. Instead, she shook her head lightly and waved her hand once again.

Yaan found himself slowly being pushed backwards. As he moved back, the staircase became smaller, but not just because he was moving further away. It was as if it was actually shrinking as he moved back….

Once he could no longer see it, he moved forwards, until finally, he was only a few feet away. When he stood at the bottom of the staircase, he looked up, but he could see no end to the dark set of stairs.

“From here, even I can barely see the top…and if I step onto the first step, I will no longer be able to see its end. In fact, after entering this inheritance, nobody has even been able to see its end.” She explained before continuing.

“This inheritance is filled with the Ruthless Empyrean’s insanity, his crazed pursuit of greater heights. It is filled with the overwhelming ruthlessness that he showed to all manner of life in this world…but more so than anything, it is filled with the ruthlessness that he inflicted upon himself. He could not even escape from the fatal claws of his own ruthlessness, resulting in his death…and the birth of this inheritance.”

After a moment, Yaan finally spoke.

“If I step onto this staircase…”

“After stepping onto the first step, you will immediately understand. But, let me warn you – the fatal threat that you feel is absolutely real. If you try to resist the inheritance’s rules, it will destroy you. If it cannot destroy you with normal means, it will self-destruct and destroy you that way. Unlike most inheritances, this one will not give any leeway.”

Yaan examined the inheritance for a while longer, but he couldn’t really find anything. With a shrug, he walked forwards.

The closer he got to the first step, the more overbearing the killing intent exuded by the inheritance became. By the time he reached the first step, he understood…that this was the Ruthless Empyrean’s killing intent.

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This was a divinity’s killing intent, but it possessed no power. It deliberately made it such that even mortals could survive and enter the inheritance, but of course, any mortal would usually fall unconscious far before this point.

But, this made it such that Yaan, who was technically a mortal, could attempt the inheritance.

Even so, the Spirit Plane Lord watched from nearby, ready to act in case it looked like Yaan was in danger. She knew that it should be fine, but she still felt anxious. When she saw him taking the first step onto the staircase without difficulty, she exhaled a sigh of relief.

The moment Yaan entered the inheritance, the world around him became dark. It was as if the sky had turned into an ocean of blood, the air was saturated with vaporised blood, and everything around him, was made from solidified blood. The killing intent that assaulted him was so overbearing that even immortals would tremble in fear…

But Yaan didn’t feel much.

It was just killing intent, why would it scare him?

Why would he be afraid of death?

Currently, Yaan’s body was completely frozen. He was unable to move, he was unable to speak, he was unable to even form his own thoughts. As the killing intent enveloped him, his mind became scrambled, and the only thought on his mind, was the truth behind this inheritance.

The inheritance was truly terrifying – it actually used killing intent to explain itself to the challenger!

Killing intent could not stir Yaan’s heart, but it completely subdued his mind. As this killing intent swept through him, he felt like he was being controlled, like he no longer had any control over his own life, death and fate.

He was quite accustomed to this feeling by now, though.

And so, he now understood.

Before taking the next step, he needed to swear a dao oath…that he would not pursue this inheritance.

Then, after taking that step, he needed to do the same thing again.

And again.

And again.

This…was the Ruthless Inheritance.

The inheritance forced the challenger to walk against their own dao heart. If they lost heart, if they no longer wanted to continue, if they were no longer able to continue – they would be ejected from the inheritance in a pitiful state.

They wouldn’t be killed directly, but…just taking on this inheritance basically guaranteed that the challenger would damage their Dao Soul!

Perhaps Yaan was the only person in this world who could remain unfazed by such a thing.

It was also because the Primordial Sage had already explained to her the state of Yaan’s Dao Soul, that the Spirit Plane Lord was willing to allow him to attempt the inheritance.

It was also because they both knew that Yaan would be unable to resist the mental subjugation of the inheritance’s killing intent, that they were willing to let Yaan into this place.

His mind was currently filled only with knowledge of the inheritance. All he understood, was that he needed to swear a dao oath, then break that dao oath…

He did not realise that his appearance had returned to the appearance that he possessed when he first arrived on the Spirit Plane; plagued by countless black cracks, which continually broke him down, before they were healed over and he was built back up.

Yaan’s glazed eyes stared forwards vacantly as he started to speak.

“I swear on my dao, that I will not pursue the Ruthless Inheritance…”

A faint ripple spread out from his body as he swore a dao oath for the third time in his life.

After saying this, he took a single, slow step. As his leg moved forwards, the black cracks across that leg grew stronger and more violent. His leg trembled violently, but Yaan did not stop, placing his foot down on the step. As his foot landed, it was almost completely destroyed, but it stabilised after a moment, though the cracks were much deeper now.

He then moved his other leg, and the same scene repeated itself.

Yaan was now standing on the second step. For a moment, he stood there, his body trembling as the cracks moved up from his legs, to his stomach, torso, arms, neck and head. The cracks spread out, eventually settling down, dispersed evenly across his illusory body.

“I swear on my dao, that I will not pursue the Ruthless Inheritance…”

This time, deeper cracks spread out from Yaan’s mouth with each word he spoke. Now that he was on the second step, he was already in the process of pursuing the Ruthless Inheritance, causing him to suffer from the dao oath as he spoke it.

As he moved towards the third step, the cracks across his Dao Soul grew increasingly violent. Before long, more than half of his body was covered by these cracks, causing him to emit an aura of endless agony. This aura, which already surrounded his body in normal times, became ten times worse, but it was forced down by the inheritance’s killing intent.

The Ruthless Inheritance did not care about his feelings.

“I…swear…on…my…dao…th…th…that…I…I…I…”

The Spirit Plane Lord clenched her fists as she watched Yaan struggle to speak. She wanted to rush onto the staircase, ignoring her own safety to retrieve him, but she held herself back. She did this not because she was afraid to take the risk, but because she needed to put Yaan through this, so that she was better able to understand him…so that she could better understand the extent of his ruthlessness.

A person’s ruthlessness could tell you a lot about them. In the cultivation world, many cultivators had no issue with being ruthless to others, to a certain extent. Some demonic cultivators could be ruthless to others seemingly without limit.

But how many people could be ruthless to themselves?

Often, when walking the path of cultivation, being ruthless to oneself was necessary. Every immortal understood this well, and naturally, divinities had an even greater understanding of this fact.

But even so, very few people could be so ruthless to themselves that they would willingly and knowingly break their own dao oath. To most people, swearing a dao oath meant swearing a heartfelt promise to themselves, and they would do everything in their power to uphold that promise. For that reason, very few people would even attempt to step onto the 2nd step of the Ruthless Inheritance.

Of those who did take this step, the majority of them instantly died after their dao heart shattered into countless pieces.

Of those who survived, almost all regretted taking that step and immediately gave up on the inheritance. Those people would usually have difficulty making any further progress in their cultivation. The only way they could make progress, was by changing their heart.

The Spirit Plane Lord watched as Yaan struggled to speak. She watched as his heart was broken time and time again, yet for some reason, he continued to go on. Even though Yaan’s mind was clouded right now, that only further proved the twisted distortion within his heart.

From his efforts to go on, even in this state, it became obvious to the Spirit Plane Lord that his heart was one that had grown accustomed to being trampled. It had grown accustomed to the pain…but the pain only grew stronger as time went on.

This was the nature of trying to walk over one’s own heart. This was why nobody was able to obtain the Ruthless Inheritance…

Because in this world, nobody was truly ruthless.

“Little Sister, don’t lose hope. The fact that his heart is still striving to go on shows that there is hope for his recovery.”

The Spirit Plane Lord’s expression changed when she heard the Primordial Sage’s words of comfort. Her face became solemn and she nodded slowly. As she thought about it, she frowned, watching Yaan carefully, but still feeling somewhat lost.

“It’s strange…he has lost all desire, so why is his heart striving so hard to trample over itself…? It’s almost as if this is its natural state of being, or as if it has grown accustomed to being treated this way…”

The Primordial Sage remained silent, not mentioning that this was exactly correct.

It was hard to say what the ‘natural state’ of Yaan’s heart truly was, but his heart had always been stepped on, by himself and by the world. His heart was one that existed as the antithesis of the Primordial Devil’s heart, and in that sense, his heart really was built upon the principle of destroying itself…

A heart like this had never existed before in this world, so not even the Primordial Sage could understand it entirely.

“…Will…not…pursue..th-the…Ruthless…Inhe…Inheritance-”

Bang!

As soon as Yaan finished speaking this dao oath, an explosive sound could be heard spreading out from his body. His entire figure became hazy for a moment as he was enveloped by so many black cracks that he became difficult to see clearly. As these black cracks spread across him so violently that he looked like he might break apart at any second, Yaan immediately lost consciousness and fell backwards.

When he landed, he was in the Spirit Plane Lord’s arms, no longer on the Ruthless Inheritance.

A guilty look appeared in the Spirit Plane Lord’s eyes, but she shook her head and suppressed these feelings, then didn’t hesitate to take out some medicines, intending to nurse him back to good health.

“Don’t bother.” The Primordial Sage cut in. “This injury to his Dao Soul cannot be healed with medicines. He can only rely on himself.”

The Spirit Plane Lord paused briefly, but in the end, she shook her head, remained silent, and did her best to help Yaan anyway.

She already knew how difficult it was to help a person’s Dao Soul to recover. When Yaan first arrived on the Spirit Plane, he had been in a terrible state; his Dao Soul was exhausted and sustaining ongoing destruction, she had really felt helpless at that time. In the end, all she could do was reduce the time that Yaan needed in order to recover and wake up on his own.

She once again found herself feeling helpless. Her understanding of the Dao Soul was not sufficient to help him this time…for the Spirit Plane Lord, this sort of helpless feeling was something that she did not feel often.

She was the ruler of the Spirit Plane, feared and respected by countless lives. She stood at the peak of the four planes, her strength was unquestionable, she was an unfathomable divinity!

However…although her power was unquestionable, her dao heart had not reached the level that would allow her to understand the Dao Souls of others.

Thinking this, she turned towards the young girl by her side, who had remained silent ever since she started using her methods on Yaan.

“Sister, isn’t there anything you can do to help? You understand the Dao Soul as well as anyone in this world, surely you must be able to do something?”

The Primordial Sage shook her head lightly.

“I cannot help with something like this, because the damage he has suffered came from within himself. He inflicted this upon himself by breaking his own dao oath, so he can only rely on himself to recover.”

The Spirit Plane Lord remained silent, but she looked unresigned. Seeing this, the Primordial Sage added:

“You don’t need to worry, sister. Brother will definitely be able to recover from this. This sort of injury won’t kill him, he will be fine.”

“Fine?” The Spirit Plane Lord laughed bitterly. “Sister, my understanding of the Dao Soul might be shallow compared to you, but I can still see that he is suffering severely, and definitely not fine…”

“I only mean that he will get through this - not just this injury, but also his loss of heart. It was not a mistake to make him attempt the Ruthless Inheritance. So long as you continue to try, I am certain that he will eventually recover.”