Chapter 409: An Unlikely Alliance
After taking Xuqi Laila back to Rainbow Mountain, Yaan simply left her to her own devices. His only request was that she cultivate diligently. If she needed anything, he tasked Land Deity, who also spent his time cultivating on this mountain, with taking her on as an honorary disciple.
In the end, she just sat down, ignoring the curious divinities, and started cultivating. This alone was enough for the Paradise Sect divinities to understand that she was no ordinary Dao Immortal.
Yaan didn't question the Sage about his suspicions, but he did keep an eye on her. However, as always, the Primordial Sage was unreadable. Either she had noticed his suspicions and was pretending not to notice, or she genuinely didn't know about the connection between herself and these various individuals.
Yaan's cultivation base body secretly read Xuqi Laila's memories…but he found nothing. Literally, nothing. This girl's life was so boring that he even felt a bit speechless.
She had cultivated in solitude in the Xuqi Dynasty, entering the Xuqi Sect entrance examination once…before returning to her isolated cultivation. She fled Yushu Planet long before the Primordial Devil arrived, after realising that the planet was no longer safe. She then wandered the world cautiously, before using an old forgotten spatial array and finding herself in the Cosmic Ocean Star System…
After that, she created a simple treasure boat, then sat down and entered secluded cultivation for thousands of years, ascending from the True Immortal Realm, to the Ancient Immortal Realm, to the Dao Immortal Realm, without so much as moving.
Finally, Yaan arrived, taking her away…and she entered secluded cultivation in a small cave upon Rainbow Mountain. Yaan didn't doubt that so long as she wasn't disturbed, she would just continue cultivating without moving.
Compared to Yaan, her cultivation experience had been so peaceful! Was this the blessing of great talent?
In the end, her path and Yaan's were destined to be different. Yaan was forced to follow the demonic path of blood and slaughter, fighting for every opportunity as he overcame his mediocre talent and set about cultivating an entirely new path. Yaan no longer needed to care about 'talent' and his dao comprehension was very impressive, but even now, secluded cultivation could only help him to comprehend supplementary daos. If he wanted to further cultivate his dao heart, his only choice was to accumulate experience.
Xuqi Laila's heart was the heart of cultivation, so she could comprehend her heart just by cultivating normally…
Yaan's heart was the heart of fate, he needed to go out into the world to comprehend fate if he wanted to move forwards.
But even so, Yaan didn't feel any envy or regret. He had chosen to cultivate the dao heart of fate, because he wanted to change the fate of this world. To change the world, he must involve himself in worldly matters, he couldn't just seclude himself forever.
"Cultivation is unique for all manner of life, no two paths are ever the same. This is the nature of cultivation, and the nature of dao itself…" Yaan mused as he considered his next options.
In the end, he decided not to continue following these similar threads of fate, but sat down beside his cultivation base body and simply observed the many threads of fate around him. After encountering and analysing the strongest similar threads of fate, he was able to discern the identity of the person on the other end, so long as it was someone he had met before. Even if he hadn't met them, he could still comprehend the most important details about their life.
Several weeks passed by.
Yaan opened his eyes with a strange look.
'Three million. Three million of these threads of fate share that similarity. Three million individuals, all with similar fates, and all have influenced my life in one way or another, either directly or indirectly.'
He now felt certain that these people shared some sort of unknown connection between one another, not because of any sort of enlightenment, but as individuals. Unfortunately, even now, Yaan couldn't understand just what this connection was…
'The Primordial Demon sisters, Zue Yin, Ji Suzu, Xuqi Laila, Bloody Totem Tribe Leader…throughout my life, these people, and others, have been drawn to me…but why? I still can't understand the link between them, nor why they have been fated to affect my life…'
This feeling of his life and fate being manipulated from the shadows was unnerving, it reminded Yaan of his early life, during the time when he had finally come to realise that something was amiss with the various strange events that had been happening to him, and all the karmic connections that he shared with seemingly unfamiliar people and things.
However, he wasn't the same as before. Yaan now understood that this fate was unusual, so unusual that it couldn't possibly be the plot of a single individual. All of these individuals were certainly involved in this fate, but he didn't think that any of them, not even the Sage, were scheming against him.
He could only conclude that this was some sort of remnant from the 1st Origin Era. Something had happened in the 1st Origin Era, something so world-shaking that the fate from that event had carried over to the 2nd Origin Era…
'So I'm being affected by something that I will do in the future…in the past. Why does this feel like another paradox? Is it really just like Progenitor Yang claimed…that fate itself is a paradoxical force of nature? The past affects the future, and the future affects the past. It's like I'm living through the end of a story that has already been written, whilst simultaneously creating the beginning of that very same story. Hah…'
For now, Yaan no longer felt like investigating these shared fates any further. He had already deepened his understanding of fate, and as a result, he could feel his Divine Power growing stronger as a whole. The core of his Divine Power was his dao heart of fate, so when that core became stronger, so did everything about him.
Rather than continuing along this line of investigation, there was another thread of fate that interested him even more, but for a different reason.
For a while, Yaan stared at this thread of fate with a melancholic expression. He also glanced towards another thread of fate that was somewhat similar to this one, only, this fate had already reached its end; the person whose fate this was…had perished.
Actually, they had perished thanks to Yaan's actions on the Spirit Plane.
He could not change the past, but even if he could, he wouldn't change his actions just for the sake of one individual. Rather than dwelling on the painful past and the cruel decisions he had been forced to make in order to survive, Yaan wanted to move forwards.
And so, he stepped onto the thread of fate, this fate which he knew would most likely lead him into some sort of trap…
The fate that would take him directly into the heart if the Divine Court's territories in the Divine Star System…
The fate that he shared with the reincarnation of his father.
*****
Within Divine Heaven, one man faced another, each wearing calm expressions, clearly unintimidated by the other.
Law Empyrean had cleared out Divine Heaven, the headquarters of the Divine Court, for some unknown reason. Until recently, there had been 24 cloud seats in the micro-realm of Divine Heaven, with the golden cloud for Law Empyrean and the 23 silver clouds for each of the other divine members.
Now though, there were only 21 clouds; three members of the Divine Court had died during the chaos caused by Shi, when she broke out of the Eternal Prison. A lot had happened since then, but the Divine Court Lord had managed to hold everything together, preventing any further deaths.
Well, the status of Love Empyrean was up for debate, though…
At present, the only member of the Divine Court in Divine Heaven was the Divine Court Lord - Law Empyrean. As for the other person present…
It was Defiance Sovereign!
Were the divinities of the world to learn of this meeting, they would be filled with shock and suspicion. Defiance Sovereign was notorious for almost never cooperating peacefully with others, but more importantly, he was regarded as the Divine Court's number 1 adversary, they were irreconcilable enemies!
"Evil God, to invite me into your headquarters, I was honestly expecting a trap. I must say, I'm somewhat disappointed." Defiance glanced around, laughing slightly, before looking back towards Law Empyrean with a piercing gaze.
Law Empyrean, the bearded man dressed in the robe of an emperor, carried with him an aura of authority and majesty that lost to none. At least, that was usually the case…when facing Defiance Sovereign, his aura of supreme might was thoroughly suppressed, but even so, he still came across as calm, collected, and above all others.
Defiance on the other hand, carried an aura of reckless freedom, wanton savagery and violence, and an arrogance that even the Heavens did not dare to refute.
"God of Defiance, we may have had our differences in the past, but at present, we share the same objective." Law Empyrean responded, simply ignoring how Defiance addressed him as the 'Evil God'.
Ever since that day, when Law Empyrean and multiple others had claimed that the Divine Court Lord was in fact an outsider - the Evil God - rumours regarding this matter had spread like wildfire. However, Law Empyrean had treated these rumours with complete disregard, dismissing all such claims as nonsense spouted by their enemies in order to seed discord into their ranks.
"A shared objective?" Defiance raised an eyebrow, before a mocking smile crossed his face. "You mean to say that you wish to ally yourself with me? Pray tell, little Evil God, just what goal is it that the two of us share…and just why the hell would I ever bother to ally myself with a useless wretch like you?"
"The World Demon and the God of Destruction." Law Empyrean replied immediately.
Defiance fell silent for a moment, so Law Empyrean went on.
"The Paradise Sect has grown at a terrifying rate. The World Demon has taken advantage of the chaos to create this sect, and if this momentum continues, it will pose a risk to everyone in this world. I know you don't care about that, but you do care about the fact that the World Demon is currently hiding the God of Destruction in his possession…and you also care about defying the order of the Origin Fate."
Defiance's mocking expression slowly faded away.
"You claim that we share the same objective, but that is simply untrue. I only wish to kill the God of Destruction - if I could kill the World Demon, that would also be good. You, however, do not believe in the possibility of opposing the Origin Fate. You have no intention of killing either of those two, you merely wish to imprison them to remove them from your path until you transcend this Era. Just what benefit is there for me, to join forces with you?"
"God of Defiance, I have already laid down the groundwork for the capture of the World Demon. They will expect this trap, but the world will never expect the two of us to cooperate. I indeed only wish to capture those two, however, my plan involves allowing you to attack the World Demon with as much lethal intent as you please. Should you fail to kill him, he will be weakened and I will capture him. As for the God of Destruction…you should have realised by now that she cannot, and should not, be killed this early on."
Gradually, a smile filled with intrigue moved Defiance's lips, causing the entire golden aura in Divine Heaven to become tinted with a bloody mist.
"Well well, you really have conceived quite the intriguing plan this time. You understand that even for me, defying the Origin Fate is something that cannot be taken lightly. Fine then, I accept your proposal for a temporary alliance. That said, if at any point I feel like your plan is subpar, I will ignore these arrangements and do as I please."
"I would expect no less." Law Empyrean nodded lightly. He then waved his hand, causing a dozen flashes of silver to illuminate a dozen of the silver clouds around the outer edge of the hall.
When the 12 Divine Court members found themselves summoned into Divine Heaven, and they saw Defiance Sovereign sat there with an amused smile, facing their leader…
All bar one individual present felt so terrified that they could only swallow their doubts and sit there in silence.
But as always, there was one person who dared to question the Divine Court Lord.
"Master!" Without hesitation, Justice Deity leapt from her seat, stormed directly across the hall, past Defiance Sovereign, until she was standing before the imposing Divine Court Lord.
When Defiance Sovereign saw this display, he examined the girl closely. He seemed to have noticed something, causing a glint to flash through his gaze.
"Master, how could you ally the Divine Court with Defiance Sovereign?! Defiance Sovereign is a dreadful demon listed on the Divine Court's List of Evil - he is a heinous monster whom we can never, ever, under any circumstances, cooperate with! Master…first, you took so many innocent lives in the Four Divine Star System…now, you ally us with a true demon…master, I have always been the first to defend your name, but now…you are truly acting like an Evil God!"
Law Empyrean stared down at his hot-blooded disciple expressionlessly. Her innate heart to do good and serve justice shone through the golden crosses in her eyes. Her aura was filled with indignation, pain, confusion, and a sense of loss.
She had always loved, admired, and trusted her master, but recently, ever since the World Demon made a name for himself in the world, her master had been acting out of accordance with her moral principles. She didn't know what was going on, nor what she, with her meagre strength, could even do…
Law Empyrean showed no emotion towards his disciple's struggle.
"Justice, one day…one day very soon…you will understand why I am doing all that I am. On that day, my beloved disciple…you will learn the true meaning behind your heart of justice."
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