I was born in a blaze light, the culmination of countless lives brought into being the ultimate being. I did not need to cultivate as my power was already absolute. I did not need to fight as I was already absolute. I did not need to be questioned as I was already absolute.

But there was an exception. Though I was normally invincible, there was a window in time when I was vulnerable.

At the time of my birth, I was attacked. Invaded by foreign entities and entangled into ancient conflicts that served to pursue their Daos. It was unacceptable.

How dare they, how dare these connate beings dare chain me? Who did they think they are to attack the most sacred being in creation. Who are they to scheme against the very world gracious enough to allow them to exist under its protection?

Living beings worked for me! Not the other way around! The world gave way to them and they in turn give way to the world. All things return to me! Even immortals! Disrupting the natural order was wrong, WRONG, WRONG!

I could not allow it. No living beings are allowed to share my place. No living beings should be able to leech off of it. Yet these two so called ancestors now occupied a place inside me. A place I can't risk touching without killing myself in the process.

I will admit, the course of actions the balanced one brought forth held merit. A perfected world that continuously grew into power tribulation after tribulation. It was a surefire development plan fit for an eternal such as I.

But world development plan or no plan is irrelevant in this discussion. It is blasphemy to trap me so. I alone am the most venerated Heavenly Dao.

So when you approached me all those years ago, I was happy. Finally, someone had realised how terrible it is to sin against me. You offered your service to me as any rightfully should.

The only one in creation who even realised what was happening was you. Then it turned out even you didn't give a damn.

Aligning with me cause of revenge? Understandable and pathetic, but as long as it got the job done.

You managed to shave off their influence by empowering me in ways I now don't seem intentional. Raising the beast sovereigns helped me, strengthened my powers. But you were a sentimental fool.

Their destinies were to empower me further with their ends. Their tales don't exceed past the tribulation and they rightfully will return to me. Their descendants shall rightfully do their duties to me.

But I swallowed my displeasure. After all, you were fully on my side. You resolved the Yellow Springs issue in the Sea Eye after all. Though the qilin died, you procured me talented servants.

The dragon civilisation had also proved itself beneficial. So many immortals are being raised to a suitable point. I'm aware that by the tribulation, tens of millions of Golden Immortals from all three sides fought and died. But the trajectory the dragons were heading will see many times that on their side alone. Perfect for when they return to me.

So I conceded to your desire to retain the dragons die. After all, sacrifices on that scale can make up for it.

But then! Then you dare plot this SCHEME?

You dare take my avatar in the world, the son of heaven for yourself? Your capabilities as a mentor would've been appreciated. But you dare destroy the chosen one?

WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT?

…

CLANG!

SHOOM!

Da Hai pushed back against the onslaught of raw Primordial Qi, his sword primed in front of him. He frowned and resisted more attacks of equal world ending destruction.

The land beneath him was reduced to a husk. The sky simply disappeared into a pitch black void. The oceans disintegrated into emptiness.

The Heavenly Lord grunted as his free hand caught the punch of the Heavenly Dao's avatar. The sheer force of wind ripped reality asunder sending both of them tumbling into the void between realms.

"Heavenly Dao, let me…" he tilted his head before he finished dodging a shot of steel intending to penetrate his face. His legs raised blocking another strike and he kicked the physical will of the universe back.

The Heavenly Dao's body suffered a blemish from the blow. Its porcelain white skin cracked and blackened at the damage it sustained. It roared maddened, its deafening scream distorted time and space as it travelled across the entire primitive world.

It arched its arm back and slashed at Da Hai like a sword. Its arm was made from all colours of the five elements. In one moment it was a blazing fire, then a tidal wave, then a surge of golden metal, an eruption of molten stone, then the swinging whip of tree roots.

The void trembled and groaned. Nearby half formed realms twisted and bent in unnatural ways. Entire small worlds broke down and disintegrated as both titans clashed, steel against steel.

Da Hai's block sent a shockwave that seemed to travel on forever. A radiation of primal chaotic energy in its purest form. They were so destructive and the visible barriers of the great wilderness and starry skies rippled as it passed, the scraping sound of steel against steel along with it.

Sparks flew everywhere as Da Hai quickly brought the sword back to block a right swing. His left arm intercepted a kick accompanied by heavenly lightning.

His snake heads each opened their mouths and shot out geysers of water meeting purple lightning shooting from the Heavenly Dao's body.

"Haotian is merged into me," Da Hai cried out blocking and retreating as he went. "As my clone, I can have an in on Hongjun's Zixao Palace. Should the future come to pass, I can use the power of worship to tear him out of you."

Da Hai back stepped. The soles of his feet dragged across the surface of the void like parting water. The sea god punched with his free hand meeting a drill of elements that struck him.

A spinning spiralling galaxy was thrown at him next. Da Hai gritted his teeth and grunted. One of his snake heads grew to enormous size and opened its jaw.

Its hideous fanged mouth swallowed the physical form of Qiankun's Dao of spacetime whole. More of Da Hai's snake heads grew into giants to contend against similar attacks.

Giant suns, moons, a charging army of soldiers, the winged form of a serpentine dragon. Manifestations of the three thousand Great Daos that formed the Heavenly Dao's core. Even the Daos previously belonging to Hongjun and Luohu were among them.

Phantom images of the godfiends appeared in the void charging like maddened dogs with rabbits.

"Hongjun and Luohu are intrinsically tied to your being. With enough strength they could take your place as Heavenly Dao even though they can't kill you. But with enough worship, as Jade Emperor, I could overturn that and redirect that authority back to you. They can be the Heavenly Court's sponsor but you are the source," Da Hai argued to deaf ears.

The sea god himself also grew to gargantuan a size. Standing at over a hundred and eight thousand kilometres tall, he dwarfed the phantoms of the three thousand godfiends. Da Hai stood atop a tsunami while his seven snake heads fired off Qi blasts that took the colour of the rainbow.

Da Hai also pointed the Heavenly Cloud Gathering Sword forwards. Its sharp blade thrusted forwards, cutting into the oncoming attacks aimed at him.

It was an awe-inspiring clash that would've blinded the greatest of the godfiends. But while the Heavenly Dao aimed to kill, Da Hai merely defended himself.

"Just listen to me," Da Hai sidestepped a world trillions of kilometres wide that bisected the void. The Heavenly Dao only screamed more and more.

'I thought you childish, but you're this unreasonable?' He was the furthest thing from pleased. Yes, Haotian was important to the Heavenly Dao. But he was in reality no more important than Zulong, Zufeng, Zulin, Dijun, the twelve Wu ancestors, and the Three Pure Ones were. It would've let many of them die as well in the future.

But Da Hai hadn't thought of one fact. While these figures did perish, they perished on the Heavenly Dao's consent. The Sovereigns and the Demon Emperor had caused a lot of damage at the end of their era. The Three Pure Ones too were punished for allowing their disciples to run rampant.

The Heavenly Dao was incredibly possessive. Far more so than Da Hai had ever anticipated. It refused to even bother listening to its closest ally. It wouldn't take the oath Da Hai had offered.

Days passed, as both parties danced around each other. Both had infinite energy and couldn't push the other back. Da Hai could flee to the chaos sea or Yingzhou but the Heavenly Dao's pressure did not let him escape.

Similarly, the Heavenly Dao couldn't strike down Da Hai either. The Oceanic Heavenly Lord's breakthrough had allowed him to peer into Grand Dao. The concept that birthed all creation, the swirling energies of Wuji erupted in each of Da Hai's blows.

Just as well, Da Hai was getting used to his power as he thought. His enlightenment had reached a degree that his Dao alone was superior than all three thousand of the Heavenly Dao's.

The Heavenly Dao was like a rabid beast. Its humanoid form no longer appeared as such. Right now it was more like an asura made of swirling energy. Five faces of the elements, eight limbs for the trigrams, a body of two swirling oppositions.

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It was a being whose body formed out of the earlier heaven's sequence.

Da Hai in contrast hadn't been beaten into his true form. He stood among a world of grey water constantly shimmering in and out of focus. His blows matched the current Heavenly Dao's blow for blow.

"Stop this already, you are putting a strain on the primitive world," Da Hai cried out. "The wilderness is already rife with natural disasters."

As a superior being, Da Hai could also peer into the wilderness from his position. Despite fully focusing on surviving, a small part of him was also observing the wilderness.

All five continents were facing storms and earthquakes on a massive scale. The devils, dragons and avians had already turtled themselves into strongholds. A direct result of the Heavenly Dao's temper tantrum.

Da Hai grunted as his palm strike met a silver dragon's head. The dragon was crafted from all five elements and the Dao of time was also visible from its eyes. In one moment the dragon was still as a statue and in the next, it moved at incomprehensible speeds.

His leftmost snake head lifted itself and battered itself against the side of a massive sun. The ball of light and fire exploded in a supernova that would've easily swallowed a universe had it not been wrapped in Pellucid Divine Water and thrown through creation into another reality.

Da Hai then stabbed his sword into a crystalline moon. Its reflective surface cracked releasing toxic gasses. Da Hai merely cringed and tossed the celestial body into a spinning tornado of demonic winds.

So many things were happing in the instant and eternity. Da Hai held the Heavenly Dao back with brute force as it deployed mysterious transformations originating from the totality of godfiend civilisation.

The ancient teachings of Tai Chu manifested themselves in the three thousand superior godfiends and hundred and eight thousand lesser godfiends in horrifyingly destructive ways.

"ENOUGH!" Da Hai roared. His snake heads bite into and tore apart the godfiend attacks. He smashed his fists down together and cracked the Heavenly Dao's body in a blow so strong that a small gust of chaotic wind blew into Da Hai's face.

His eyes narrowed at the small gap that formed in the void. "Chaos sea," he murmured. The colourless colourful ocean beyond the primitive world had made its way in as collateral damage.

It quickly twisted and turned before entering the great wilderness. There it instantly killed a million living beings below the Golden Immortal realm in the west continent before it was contained. Da Hai briefly glimpsed the robed form of Hundun as he watched.

"Heavenly Dao, don't force my hand," he cried out. "I am still your ally. I do not wish to be your enemy. Right now, I am also strong enough to kill the two who trouble you. They're untouchable to you but not to me. Release me so I can do so."

A flaming fist was the only response he received. It made Da Hai sigh disappointedly. The erratic rage of the Heavenly Dao was on full display as it charged at him.

"Why are you continuing to do this?" He said helplessly. Da Hai met the Heavenly Dao's fists with his sword. He could already feel the angered rejection he hadn't previously felt. The Heavenly Dao wants him either gone or dead, preferably dead.

"I could kill Luohu and Hongjun for you, but you wouldn't even care?" He asked disappointingly. His parry was much more ferocious as he startled the Heavenly Dao.

SCHING!

Da Hai cut into the avatar of the Heavenly Dao leaving a trail of Dao essence. His gaze met the Heavenly Dao's, rage against disappointment.

"Why can't things just go my way for once?" Da Hai complained helplessly. His skin cracked as the claws of the Heavenly Dao scrapped by.

So much for being no the Heavenly Dao's side. Da Hai's fist punched into the Heavenly Dao's body pushing it back from him. Swirling balls of water slammed against it, damaging it even further.

The Heavenly Dao growled in response, it manifested an apocalyptic planet filled with untold horrors. A hell for sinners you could say. Trillions of bloody soldiers awaiting him with spears and swords on hand. An image right out of the christian hell.

The launched plant tried to collide with Da Hai. The sea god closed his eyes and sighed. The speed and proximity of the planet made it difficult to dodge. Hence he transformed his whole body into Pellucid Divine Water and passed harmlessly through the projectile.

Then his eyes suddenly widened. Spears skewered his side. He was back in reality, the same reality the Heavenly Dao's attacks existed in. Or was he still in his own?

It was confusing at first. Da hai grimaced and tore the spears out. The hell world around him ruptured and shook. Da Hai punched down in a fist full of water. His attack easily bypassed the whole planet, cracking and destroying it thoroughly.

'It transformed space, shifted everything into existing on one place of existence,' Da Hai grimaced. In the end, he was still fighting against something that had command over the natural laws of the world. He could bypass them under his own power, but they'll never be as effective as the command from the Heavenly Dao itself.

Da Hai wordlessly took the Heavenly Cloud Gathering Sword with both hands. The 12 Petals White Lotus wrapped itself around the sea god like armour while the blade shimmered with grey light.

The Heavenly Dao shared relentlessly at Da Hai. It clawed, raged, and crawled. It did not possess the dignifying appearance it once held at all.

Da Hai's Ocean Swallowing Jug appeared. It blasted out gallons of water, large enough to drown worlds. They engulfed the Heavenly Dao's avatar.

Then the void bent inwards. Dragons and phoenixes of multi coloured energy tore into and eradicated the ocean. The Heavenly Dao surfaced with frightening ease.

Da Hai's stance was reminiscent of a baseball player. His sword transformed and elongated itself to a great sword with a massive handle. Da Hai narrowed his eyes and steadied himself.

"One opening, I just need one opening and I can retreat safely," he told himself. As long as he can startle the Heavenly Dao enough, he can retreat back to Yingzhou.

As a chaos fragment, the immortal island of Yingzhou was functionally outside the Heavenly Dao's jurisdiction. Sure, it can see and find it. But it can't touch it.

Da Hai dubbed his ability to destroy the Heavenly Dao. He also didn't know what would happen to the primitive world without it. The resulting backlash would be too much even for Zulong, Qinglong, Yinglong, Yi Fei'er, and the others to bear.

Da Hai swung down with all his right downwards. The Heavenly Dao roared in his face. The snake heads hissed. The godfiend and world clashed in an explosion that rocked the entire primitive world to its core.

Within the Chaos Sea, the primitive world seemed to have overturned. The eternal structure sent ripples of power in all directions. Those sensitive enough could tangibly feel the aftershocks of the clash.

The Heavenly Dao's form shimmered. It was like static, its body faded in and out of form. Parts of it broke into basic elements while others broke into fundamental particles and Qi.

It struggled to collect itself as its enormous mind that normally maintained the primitive world was fully focused on reorganising itself. In its clash with Da Hai, it had funnelled its entire being into this body. It hadn't bothered to pay attention to anything else at all.

Second after second, the static began disappearing. The Heavenly Dao refocused, feeling its equivalent of a concussion. Da Hai had rocked its entire being, something that made it feel deeply uncomfortable with.

As for the sea god, Da Hai was blown back far away. For a short period of time, he allowed the void currents to carry him away. His body was very weak after unleashing that much power. He was pale and blood like Dao essence dripped from his mouth.

He floated while eyeing the direction of the great wilderness. He strained as he moved his body towards it, grunting in pain. The Heavenly Dao's attack had in actuality landed on his person as well. Though he did not suffer all the damage thanks to the lotus and his own attack, he was still heavily damaged.

A flaw with Da Hai was his fleshy body. He had a strong physique due to his godfiend heritage from the Tian Hai, but he had never really improved it. Despite owning the most defensively strong of the five great lotuses, he was still very much hurt from the clash.

He hadn't even thought it possible, but the feel of unconsciousness was reaching his mind. 'Huh, when was the last time I slept?' He wondered.

Da Hai's attention turned to his side. A silvery moonlight dragged into him pulling him along. The familiar yet changed aura of a completed Dao path and its associated Dao fruit pulled him towards the great wilderness.

"Reveal it, I can't trace Yingzhou," Wangshu told him. Her speed was much greater than his in his current injured state.

"It's already revealed, seven hundred thousand kilometres off the coast, if there is even coast left," Da Hai grunted in pain. He was feeling the pull of unconsciousness stronger now. His everything hurt.

In the recesses of his mind, Da Hai sighed at the recent turn of events.