Chapter 394 - Conquest Ambitions

After leaving Planet Hydra, Yaan made his way towards the centre of the Divine Hydra Sector, where a certain Divine True Inheritance was being guarded by a short impish looking man known as Titan Deity, accompanied by one of the Primordial Sage’s bodies.

Very little was known about Titan Deity, even his title remained a mystery to Yaan. However, he was still just an Earthly Deity in the end, and it only took a glance for Yaan to see that he held unwavering loyalty towards the Primordial Sage.

After exchanging some brief pleasantries with the pair, Yaan searched the region for some time. After finding no traces of any other divinities in the region, he didn’t waste much time and soon departed, now heading towards the Divine Dragon Sector.

The Primordial Sage no longer tried to instruct Yaan on where he should go to further their conquest. At this point, their victory was all but assured, it was only a matter of time before the star system fell completely under their control. She also knew that Yaan had his own objectives, and he had no intention of following her orders.

On the surface, this battle for supremacy over the star system might seem like a mutual effort between Yaan, the Primordial Sage and the 15 Deities, against the rest of the divine world and those who opposed their aim to take everything for themselves…

But the way Yaan saw it, their successful take-over was only a matter of time. The Divine Court had already given up on this star system, and the Primordial Asura and Primordial Spirit had agreed to provide assistance in exchange for the Infinity Lake and Spirit Palace, before leaving this place for 10,000 years. This left only individual divinities and small groups of Deities to contest against…

It really wasn’t even a contest, their success was just a matter of time.

In reality, this was a competition between Yaan and the Primordial Sage, to see who could contribute the most to the conquest efforts, but more importantly…to see which of them could develop the greatest influence amongst the divinities in the Four Divine Star System by the time this conquest was over.

Naturally, from the get go, the Primordial Sage held a massive advantage in this competition. She had planned the entire conquest, and she started out with 15 Deities under her command. On the surface, it seemed that this wasn’t much of a competition; how could Yaan possibly come out on top?

The Sage had declared Yaan her ‘equal’ to those 15 Deities, but in reality, Yaan could at most be considered the vice-leader of this conquest, and of the group in general.

But he had no interest in being some vice-leader of a group formed by the Primordial Sage.

If he was going to lead, then he might as well actually lead…and this had been his intention from the beginning.

Since becoming a divinity, Yaan had a simple goal - seek dao, and find the path to transcend the Origin.

He had started from a point of severely lacking understanding. After completing his dao heart, where was he supposed to go from there, how could he improve by another entire realm - no, how could he progress to an entirely new, higher Step?

Foundation Step - the mortal realms of cultivation, wherein the foundation for one’s future attainments were built.

Immortal Step - the immortal realms of cultivation, wherein longevity was rapidly expanded, and the aim was essentially the pursuit of overcoming the limitations of lifespan via transcending tribulations.

Divine Step - no longer split into clear realms, but titles and benchmarks used to differentiate tiers of divinities from one another. The pursuit of the Divine Step for Deities was simply to seek the completion of their dao heart. The pursuit of the Divine Step for Empyreans was to pursue the elusive higher Step, which was shrouded in mystery, leaving the path ahead unclear.

And finally, the Origin Step.

The Origin Step was attained by transcending past the Origin. At this point, at least in the 2nd Origin Era, remaining within the world of the Origin was impossible, as the cultivator would be expelled by both the Heavenly Dao and by the Origin itself. It was believed that this was due to the world being unable to endure the power of an Origin Step being - otherwise called an Origin God - and thus, they would be forced to transcend past the Origin, entering the vast expanse of Chaos which existed between the Origin and the Void.

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Prior to the Origin Step, the Origin could not be left, and the Chaos could not be entered. But then, as soon as one did reach the Origin Step, they could no longer remain within the Origin, forcing them to leave, entering the Chaos. This was simply a fact of the current world, this was the nature of cultivation as pursued by all Empyreans.

Unfortunately, unlike the previous steps and realms of cultivation, the path forwards was unclear. Upon becoming an Empyrean, anyone whom was not an outsider would be stumbling through the dark at this point, forced to trailblaze their own path of cultivation. Perhaps, there was no set path, and at this point, cultivation became a completely unique endeavour for all manner of life.

This was the nature of cultivation, changing at each realm, drastically changing at each step.

Yaan still remembered the days when his cultivation entailed meditating and refining spiritual energy into Innate Qi to cultivate his Qi, and consuming body tempering resources to cultivate his body.

Now, the path ahead was unclear…but gradually, he was building up an idea regarding how he should approach his pursuit of the true path onwards.

Splitting himself into two bodies was an opportunity that came about by chance, but he was now realising that this separation of his dao from his conventional cultivation, might just be the luckiest chance he had obtained at the Divine Step.

Even his gains from the Boundless Dao Library had only been so fruitful because his dao body was particularly suited towards comprehending the Legacy Runes.

‘My dao body will pursue dao in various unusual and abstract ways, such as seeking answers to the mysteries that still allude me in my life, and comprehending fate through the threads of fate that connect me to others. My dao body will also need to meditate on my gains from the Boundless Dao Library. My dao body has no need of being in the spotlight…but my cultivation body will be the opposite.’

Yaan silently mused to himself as he departed from the Divine Hydra Sector, with Typhoon Deity, Shadow Deity and Love Empyrean silently following behind.

The two Earthly Deity women were very careful not to interrupt their ‘leader’, the World Demon, whose reputation was simply so terrifying that they had doubted the stories, until experiencing his terror for themselves. They both stared at his back cautiously, each with various thoughts flashing through their minds.

Their eyes occasionally flickered towards Love Empyrean, this woman with beauty that surpassed anything they had encountered in their long lives. The fact that this woman was for some reason willingly following the World Demon, only further enhanced Yaan’s mystery and prestige in their eyes.

‘My cultivation body will be my more public self, for now at least. I will use this body to conquer the Four Divine Star System, to gather territories under my name, and to rope in other divinities to serve under me. I will spread my reputation throughout the world, and along the way, I will develop my own sect…the Paradise Sect!’

Yaan smiled ever so slightly as he thought of his future plans.

The Paradise Sect was a group that he would soon spread throughout this world. This was a group that he would lead, but the people in the Paradise Sect would not serve him…but his ambition.

The world was ending, and Yaan fully planned to take advantage of this fact. He understood the human heart, he understood the fear that the powerful cultivators throughout the world must be feeling right now, but most importantly, he understood the despair that they would be facing, as they were forced to confront the futility and meaninglessness of a life that was destined to come crashing down into nothingness.

What the Paradise Sect offered was not any tangible benefit, but hope. Hope, and a meaning to live for in these final chaotic years. Yaan believed that as the state of the world continued to decline over the coming years, this hope would become the most valuable asset that the people of this world would do anything to latch onto.

That only left the question…did he have the ability to create, inspire and lead such a group?

For a long time now, he had, for the most part, cultivated in relative solitude, focussing on himself and the pursuit of his heart. Back on the Spirit Plane, he had been relatively unknown despite travelling across the entire World Plane and setting up a giant formation, until the very last moment when the world learned of his terror. When he started his path of cultivation, he was also like this, mostly keeping to himself and focussing on cultivation without making a name for himself.

However, Yaan also knew how to be brazen, and he knew how to lead. The best example of this was the life he had lived on the Blood Plane, leading the Bloody Totem Tribe to glory and prosperity, waging war across the lands and spreading his fearful name into the hearts of countless lives.

When there was no need to enter the public eye, he always chose to keep to himself, simply because it was more simple. However, he was not afraid of conflict, he did not shy away from fame when there was a benefit to be found, and he most definitely knew how to lead a large organisation.

When it came to his experiences, there were also the lives he had gone through with his Dao Clones and the Fragments from the Primordial Devil’s botched reincarnation, further enhancing his experience in various matters…

And of course, he had absorbed the memories of two other divinities - Heartless Deity, and the Primordial Devil.

After ascending to the Divine Step, the Primordial Sage returned the memories of the Heartless Deity to him, the memories that he had been granted from the Heartless Inheritance. The Sage originally took those memories simply because at the time, his cultivation had been too weak to tolerate them without his mind collapsing.

His Dao Clone of Soul had devoured the Primordial Devil’s memories in the inheritance left behind for his reincarnation. After reaching the Divine Step, Yaan became able to process those memories, giving him an additional three million years of memories.

The memories of the Dao Clones and Fragments were clear in his mind, but the Heartless Deity and Primordial Devil had simply lived for far too long. Unless he spent several thousand years meditating on those memories, the majority of them would remain as blurred, vague recollections in his mind, until he specifically focussed on certain memories, shining light on those memories and granting clarity to those moments from the past.

He didn’t have the luxury to spend so long just to properly elucidate those memories right now, but he certainly would at some point in the future.

The point was, Yaan had a bountiful collection of life experiences to draw upon, making it such that no matter how he decided to live his life - in solitude or in the spotlight - he was confident that he would be able to thrive and excel.

For this reason, his cultivation body had settled on two straight forwards goals.

Firstly, this body would comprehend the nature of divinity, Divine Power and Divine Essence, doing so by creating Divine Spells. He would start by taking his Dao Spells and turning them into Divine Spells, then from there, he would try to create more Divine Spells, perhaps drawing upon both his Dao Spells and Sword Arts to create something new. Perhaps eventually, he would be able to create an entire Divine Art - a series of connected Divine Spells that made up a complete system of powers which covered all areas.

He would devise these Divine Spells between periods of activity, like right now, as he attempted to create a Reveal Truth Divine Spell as he travelled to the Divine Dragon Sector. Yaan had the feeling that he would experience even greater success if he worked on refining his Divine Spells in the midst of battle though…which led to his cultivation body’s second goal.

This conquest of the Four Divine Star System was just the beginning. In Yaan’s pursuit of dao…

He was going to conquer the world.