Tearing them away from the Dao of Anger was like tearing a piece of his soul out by the roots, but the steely focus of his mind stopped him from being distracted. He directed the energy back within his Dao and the crack started to recede. Then a sudden and sharp feeling of wrongness overtook him as he saw veins of red start to spread across the white surface of his beleaguered Dao. He had unwittingly furthered his own destruction by corrupting his Dao with the energy of his other one.
The corruption spread quickly, and the wrongness was almost too distracting to work past. Sam roared and forced himself to concentrate. The only hope now was to stabilize the process and to make sure that the merging of the two energies did not end in catastrophic failure. The only way to do this was through drastic measures.
Sam grabbed the entire orb that made up his Dao of Anger and forced it to move towards his other Dao. They started to repel each other with a force like magnetism, but within his own soul, Sam was king. He crushed the two orbs together, creating an explosion of polychromatic light that whited out his vision and caused him to fall unconscious. He had no time for such a thing however, and he forced himself awake. In front of him was a scene that looked like the death of a planet.
Strings of chaotic energy danced around a field of shattered matter, which glowed with an ominous light. Sam could feel his soul tearing and featuring at the seams, and he slammed his will down on the two Daos before they could undo him. The pain was so intense, that Sam’s conscious thought was overwritten, leaving only the force of his raw will to continue. This was clearly not the correct way to fuse Daos, but he had no choice.
With a final cataclysmic crash, the matter and energy fused into a new orb, one made out of a mixture of his two Daos. It looked like a celestial orb of pure light, that was suffused with veins of a darker substance that looked vaguely like gemstones. It had not finished fusing however, and there was still a small band of unmerged Dao energy.
As this happened, Sam was torn away from this sight, and into a Dao vision. Three men stood in front of a wizened old woman, who was standing above them on a dais. Millions of people watched from large stands in the background, and as Sam’s view panned out, he saw that there were billions there, the full population of a planet. The woman raised a gavel and slammed it down, silencing the whispering that was coming from the myriad of people that were there.
“There will be order in this court!” She said, her voice somehow transforming from the soft and shrill voice of an old woman into the strident tones of a proud queen, full of vigor and vitality. “Good. The three men who stand here today have been accused of the murder of the righteous king of this planet, whose family is here today with us.”
The vision panned out to a small podium upon which an incomplete family stood, a middle aged woman, two younger girls and a young man. All four of them were blurry eyed with tears, but Sam could tell that something was amiss. The vision drew attention to the fact that the queen held a small vial of a colorless liquid, which had the appearance of tears. Why this was, Sam did not know, but he waited for the vision to explain it. The judge continued as everyone looked at the woman and her children.
“How do the guilty plead?”
One of the men, a broad shouldered, strong jawed specimen, in short an ideal image of what a man should be, stepped forwards. He jutted his chin out and turned to address the entire crowd rather than just the judge.
“My brothers and I plead not guilty! These foul beasts that you see here, these wretches who seek to frame us with their crocodile tears, are the kin of the most heinous of men, namely the late king. He was the man who killed our sister, the man who ravaged our village in his lust and greed. He desecrated the women of our small community before killing them, all while their male relatives watched. The proof of this lies in our immaculate Daos, which would have shattered if we had killed him without just cause. You see, my brothers and I are all followers of the Dao of Justice, and our personal path is that of retribution. I invite all here with the necessary skills to analyze the state of our Daos!”
The judge leaned forwards and inspected the men before leaning back and nodding.
“There can be no doubt about it, these men speak the truth.Their actions were rage filled and brutal, but they acted in concord with Justice. For this, I find them not guilty. And as to the people who aided the late king in his endeavor…”
The vision faded away, but the message was clear. Anger did have a place, as long as it was tempered with a desire for justice. All three men had been followers of the path of Anger as well as of Justice, but they were clearly in control of their emotions, despite the stress that they were under. This would be Sam’s path now as well. The orbs slid together with a crash that sounded like the sundering of a world, and they finally fused perfectly.
Sam felt a surge of power course through his body upon witnessing his success, and he was thrust back into the real world. His skin glowed with light that quickly faded away as he looked at it. More importantly, there was a new notification.
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You have gained a new Dao!
Dao Fragment of Righteous Anger(Incomplete)
Salvaging your soul and body from the mistakes of muddling your path should have been impossible, but you did so anyway. As a result, your new Dao is not fully formed, and for it to be considered a true Fragment stage Dao, it must be integrated with your spirit more effectively. Righteous Anger is the purest and most virtuous form of wrath that there is. Rather than selfishly indulging in your own anger as a palliative for your inner suffering, you instead use it as a shield and sword with which to protect the innocent.
As a Fragment level Dao, however incomplete it is, you gain a bonus to your stats from the integration of your concept with your soul and body. As you progress in your comprehension, these bonuses will increase.
+3 to all Physical Stats
+2 to all Mental Stats
Sam laughed out loud as he saw that he had succeeded, but the notifications were not done yet.
You are the first being in your universe to form a Dao Fragment. Your title has been altered to reflect this. The title, [Dao Paragon of the 10,239,428,157th Universe:Celestial] has been changed to [Greater Dao Paragon of the 10,239,428,157th Universe:Celestial]. You have further demonstrated your boundless talent with the Dao by continuing to shoot past all expectations. +30% to all stats, rounding to the nearest whole number.
Sam was glad that his altering of his stats had the desired effect on the rendering of his titles into words. It was more of an OCD thing than anything else, but the unclear delineation of where his title began and ended was annoying him. Now that it followed the same rules as his skill notices, he was satisfied. The best thing was still to come, which was to check his stats. Sam heard someone clear their throat beside him, and he remembered what he had been doing before he had created his new Dao.
“Did it work?” Lao asked, trying, and failing to hide his curiosity. Sam nodded and the other man smiled.
“Good, good. I sense that you have passed a qualitative threshold in your Dao. You seem much stronger, and the turmoil in your soul has vanished. Why don’t you check your stats now to see what changed?”
Sam nodded, not bothering to tell the man that was what he was about to do.
Sam Atlas
Human
Mortal Tier
G Rank
Class:Dao Visionary
Level 32
(3 free stat points)
Strength
56
1.375x
Constitution
39
1.375x
Resilience
33
1.375x
Dexterity
31
1.375x
Intelligence
40
1.375x
Wisdom
55
1.375x
* Health 390/390
* Mana 400/400
* Stamina 840/840
* Dao
Dao Fragment of Righteous Anger
* Skills
1x Common, 2x Rare,1x Epic, 2x Legendary
* Titles
1x Celestial
* Temporary Titles
1x Epic, 1x Legendary, 1x Mythical
* Dao Heritage
Dao Incarnation of Existence
* Party
Torturna Salvinii-Brescon: Level 26. Health 350/350
Rax:Level 25. Health 370/370
* Skill Branches
Muscle Density Enhancement(Level 1)
Basic Weapon Knowledge:Blunt(Level 1)
* Weapon Style
Flowing Water Style
* Weapon Mastery:Implement Stage 5
* Elemental Affinities
Earth:1% Mastery