A Defiant Punch
Yaan had many doubts regarding Defiance Sovereign's claim.
Firstly, saying that he knew the Primordial Sage's true intentions was dubious enough.
Secondly, even if this was the truth, why would he offer this chance to Yaan, rather than taking it for himself?
However, Defiance did not given Yaan any time to ponder over this. This 'test' of his was not optional, but something that he had decided, and when Defiance made a decision, that decision became the world's truth.
If Defiance wanted to attack him, Yaan would be attacked. If Defiance wanted to test him, Yaan would be tested.
Since it was like this, Yaan narrowed his eyes, revealing his own blazing killing intent within his gaze as Defiance's battle will exploded outwards in an eruption of black, gold and crimson waves. When Defiance Sovereign saw the traces of blazing killing intent within Yaan's gaze, his golden eyes shone brilliantly, and an entertained smile crossed his face.
"Burning killing intent, to attain such a level of killing intent in this small Era, how interesting! But just this…is not enough to take my punch!"
Yaan could hardly believe that a monster so huge could move so quickly. Defiance stepped forwards, sending his star sized fist hurtling towards Yaan as it emanated a blinding golden light, before the surrounding space could even break down under the strain.
It was only when the fist reached a hundred feet away from Yaan and the pressure of this golden will slammed into him, that the Qi Plane finally reacted.
BANG BANG BANG!
Explosions of broken space echoed out in every direction along the path of Defiance Sovereign's sole punch. Yaan saw space not only tear open, but explode into giant, deathly dangerous holes, attempting to suck in everything in the surrounding region in order to mend the instability in the World Plane.
Fragments of space were catapulted in all directions, many hurtling towards and past Yaan, right as the golden fist arrived.
Looking at Defiance Sovereign now, Yaan finally understood. This man, like Yaan himself, possessed an Absolute Domain!
A domain…of Defiance!
The Defiant Will within the domain caused space to tremble in fear. This defiance caused the entire region for hundreds of millions of miles around Defiance Sovereign to transform into a black and golden zone that belonged solely to him. The Defiant Aura permeated this space with so much power that even Yaan felt a terrific life and death danger flood his every sense.
Despite its immense power, it somehow felt effortless, as if Defiance Sovereign was not deliberately releasing his domain, as if his domain simply 'happened' when he struck out with his true Defiance!
In this single moment, Yaan was able to learn a lot about Defiance Sovereign. He learned that this man truly refused to comprehend not only the Heavenly Dao, but dao itself - all dao aside from his dao heart of defiance was simply disregarded as an inferior power by Defiance Sovereign; he relied on his Defiant Heart, his Defiant Will, his Defiant Cultivation, and everything that he possessed, born of his Absolute Defiance.
This was his domain - Absolute Defiance!
Yaan felt like an ant standing before a god. It was as if Defiance Sovereign had created his own world, blasting away any traces of the Heavenly Dao and the Qi Plane, and anything else that may or may not exist. All was replaced with his gold, black and crimson world, this world of pure, unadulterated Defiance.
'So this is Defiance Sovereign's Divine Power!' Yaan thought solemnly.
Divine Power…
It was something that Yaan was still comprehending, something that he didn't fully understand yet, despite possessing a true Divine Power himself.
Yaan understood the function of his own Divine Power, however. He understood that when he took that 10th Step, reaching the peak of the Divine Stairway and the Ruthless Inheritance, he rapidly plundered 'Divine Essence' from the world - a power that he still did not truly understand - and this Divine Essence fused with his cultivation, taking him to the Divine Step and creating his Divine Power.
Yaan could not speak for others, but his Divine Power was not merely some ability, it wasn't just a simple aspect of his cultivation, it wasn't just the manifestation of his dao - his Divine Power was his everything.
In a way, his Divine Power was a completely new ability, something he had never possessed before. But from another perspective, his Divine Power was nothing new whatsoever, and was simply the perfection of all that he had accumulated over the years.
Prior to reaching the Divine Step, Yaan had personally created and developed many different powers and techniques throughout his life. That said, he had actually devoured, plundered and stolen, far more powers and techniques from others, such as those from his Dao Clones and the Primordial Devil.
For example, after the Dao Clone of Soul died, his karma with Yaan was severed. Yaan reabsorbed that portion of his dao, the portion lived by the Dao Clone of Soul. With this absorption, he inherited the Dao Clone of Soul's various unique powers - namely, his killing intent, and his domain of slaughter.
But how could Yaan, someone without a dao heart of slaughter, use a domain that was created, powered and sustained, by a heart of slaughter at its core?
Well, he was actually able to utilise this power as soon as he absorbed it, but like all of his plundered techniques, he could not combine this power with his other techniques in a complete, perfect combat system.
Back then, he had possessed many powers like this, and whilst they were all individually strong, they were never truly 'his', and therefore never fit together, making it such that his arsenal of abilities was somewhat disjointed and chaotic.
But with the formation of his Divine Power, all of his techniques and powers, whether learned, created or stolen, were fused together into one perfect system power. This combat system was sustained by a core; his dao heart of fate. This was his Divine Power.
His self-created techniques, the spells learned from texts, the treasures looted from enemies, the cultivations and powers that he had devoured from so many others, the countless memories and experiences accumulated over the years, and his heart that had been through so much struggle to finally reach its completion. In the past, it had all felt so disjointed and disordered, but now, Yaan understood - it was all one and the same.
His Divine Power existed as a single power, but it also consisted of many powers. It was both real, and an illusion.
To Yaan, illusions formed the fundamental law of operation that allowed his Divine Power to thrive.
Yaan's life was sustained by the illusion of life that he created for himself.
His body, too, was an illusion that reflected his own self-image.
His four paths of cultivation, devoured from his three Dao Clones and the Primordial Devil, were all fused into his Divine Power. Now, with his Divine Power, Yaan could manifest the four reborn cultivation paths as illusions at the Divine Step. Of course, he had not truly mastered the utilisation of these 'cultivation paths'. He simply hadn't yet had sufficient time to devise proper spells to make use of his cultivation bases.
Every single aspect of Yaan's being was an illusion; to Yaan, an illusion was as real as anything else.
His cultivation bases were illusions, but so was he. His power itself was an illusion, and yet the strength which crushed his enemies was overwhelmingly real.
Illusion and reality, Yaan's understanding and control over this dynamic was below none. With a Divine Power that was based on the principle of converting real to illusion and illusion to real, as and when he pleased, he possessed a unique perspective on this life and this world.
Even his Dao Treasure had become part of his Divine Power…
Yaan's Divine Power, could be defined as 'Two Steps of Fate', and these two steps were showcased in his current exchange against Defiance Sovereign.
Yaan's wooden sword had once possessed a treasure spirit, but it lost its spirit during his activation of the Karmic Annihilation Formation. From that point on, his Dao Treasure, although seemingly perfect, had actually been flawed due to 'lacking a treasure spirit'.
With the 1st Step of Fate, Yaan took his wooden sword, this real Dao Treasure of his, and he crushed it beneath his foot.
But that wasn't all. His Divine Power was the perfection of his every ability and power. How could a sword be perfect, without sword arts, martial proficiency, experience, memories, and killing intent?
With the 1st Step of Fate, he crushed the sword of his dao, and he crushed the dao of his sword.
Yaan crushed not only his sword and his sword arts, he crushed every single memory that he possessed of swinging a sword.
Practising his sword arts in peace in his temple gardens…
Committing massacres with his sword whilst waging war across the lands.
His sword had been swung to calm his heart…
His sword had been swung to sink his heart in blood.
With one step, all of it was crushed beneath the 1st Step of Fate.
The 1st Step along his path of fate, was the real step, the step that took the flaws within his life and dao, then crushed them under his foot.
His 2nd Step along his path of fate, saw to the rebirth of his crushed dao…its rebirth into a new, flawless, illusory power.
The wooden sword did not forget that it had once been an empty sword, flawed and missing its spirit…
But now, it was a simple wooden sword, not a sword that lacked a treasure spirit. After being crushed in reality and reborn through his Divine Power as an illusion, the flaws inherent to reality were washed away from Yaan's sword, and he now held out a simple wooden sword, illusory, and flawless.
To Yaan, illusions of powers were not inferior copies, illusions of powers were those powers perfected!
When Yaan held his wooden sword and stepped not backwards, but forwards towards Defiance's golden fist, he and his wooden sword seemed to become one. It was as if Yaan's sword dao, a dao that he had unknowingly cultivated across the years of living his life through the sword, had become one with his sword, and one with himself.
When Yaan held his Dao Treasure, which was now an illusion and superior to its past self in every possible way, he could feel his entire life's comprehension of sword arts flowing through his sword and body. Everything he had learned, everything he had created, everything he had practised, both in peace at home, and at war on the battlefield.
The serenity of his love for sword arts manifested as a gentle illusory breeze around him, somehow brushing past the overbearing Defiance contained within his opponent's domain.
At the same time, his killing intent erupted with boundless raging flames of bloodlust, filled with the lives he had taken, the pain he had slashed through, and all that he had been through with a sword in his hand.
As Yaan moved, the world around him slowed down to suit his pace. He did not care about Defiance Sovereign's impossibly fast punch, because that was Defiance Sovereign's pace, not his own pace.
The world for hundreds of millions of miles around Yaan was suppressed by the pressure of Defiance, but in the small radius of just a few feet around Yaan himself, this golden Defiance…vanished.
Or rather, the Defiance in this small space within reach of Yaan's sword, became nothing more than a painting.
Yaan naturally countered Defiance Sovereign's Absolute Domain with his own Absolute Domain, but he saw no reason to contest with Defiance Sovereign for sheer power and magnitude of strength. So long as he and the world within the reach of his sword became the world of his painting, then Yaan's power to manifest his illusions as reality became the one true sovereign power within that small region.
Defiance Sovereign's gaze shone brilliantly. Normally, it wasn't possible to see anything within Yaan's domain unless you were also within the domain, but right now, Yaan's domain had overlapped and even rewritten a small portion of Defiance Sovereign's domain. Because of this, Defiance saw it clearly…
He saw clearly that he was looking down at the living embodiment of the Heavenly Dao.
However, he already understood the deceptive nature of Yaan's domain, so he did not let any emotions cloud his heart. He continued to punch out towards Yaan, watching as the 'Heavenly Dao Sword' in his vision gently tapped his fist, exerting practically no power.
Cling…
Agile Illusion Art, 2nd Step!
What better move could Yaan use to counter a single, direct strike, than the 2nd Step of his Agile Illusion Art - the step made for countering and reflecting!
As soon as the faint sound of collision echoed out and entered Defiance Sovereign's ears, Defiance felt an unparalleled illusory power, a power that painted over his own Defiance! His Defiance was transformed into a painting, then channelled through Yaan's sword, before exploding back towards him!
Yaan's Absolute Domain suddenly exploded out, rapidly growing larger and larger, until it had encompassed one half of Defiance Sovereign's own Absolute Domain of Defiance, causing the Defiant Will…to become a painted Defiant Will.
At the same time, the Defiant Will within his punch was reflected back towards Defiance Sovereign. The reflection of his own Defiance exploded towards him as Yaan's burning killing intent suddenly filled his entire painted world. Yaan no longer looked like the Heavenly Dao that Defiance Sovereign hated more than anything else in the world.
Finally, Defiance saw the true nature of Yaan's power - a domain that made the entire world look like a painting. An illusory burning killing intent filled his painted world, acting as the force of reflection which erupted from his simple wooden sword, forcing back the Defiant Will.
Two powers exploded within the depths of space, one gold, the other crimson.
A child in a silk red robe held out a simple wooden sword in one hand, as his feet refused to budge a single inch.
In opposition, a giant so large that he dwarfed life-stars in size held his golden-aura coated fist against the wooden sword, feeling his own Defiance becoming distorted and confused as it was transformed into an illusory painting and battled back by the burning killing intent.
Blood dripped down from Yaan's nose and mouth, but he stared up at Defiance Sovereign, his eyes wide and filled with his own will, his will which dared to defy Defiance!
The act of rewriting and overpowering even half of Defiance Sovereign's domain was far from easy. With every portion of Defiant Will that he painted over, Yaan felt a storm of raging Defiance exploding directly through his sword, into his illusory body, and into his dao heart. Defiance Sovereign's will was so immense that every single attack of his would strike his foe's Dao Soul and dao heart, inflicting grievous injuries, and terrifying them under his indisputable authority.
Blood poured from Yaan's nose, eyes, mouth and ears, but he refused to step back.
Defiance Sovereign narrowed his eyes. Even now, he could not see through Yaan's dao heart…
The storm of their two erupting powers continued to rampage for several minutes. Yaan knew that Defiance had truly only struck him with a single punch. This was merely a single pulse of the man's Defiant Will, and yet, Yaan was forced to continually fight back with his own power and dao, just to negate and reflect enough of Defiance's will that he was able to stay standing, without taking a step back.
Looking at their exchange from the outside made the pair look even, but Yaan knew that Defiance Sovereign held the overwhelming advantage from start to finish.
When the two powers finally subsided, they stared at one another in silence.
Defiance Sovereign stood tall and firm, not the least bit injured, despite receiving a portion of his own attack reflected back upon him.
Meanwhile, Yaan's face was pale, blood continued to flow from his orifices. After a minute passed by however, these wounds cleared up, as did the wounds across his Dao Soul which he hid from Defiance…or at least tried to hide.
"Your ability to heal your broken dao is remarkable." Defiance Sovereign finally spoke.
Yaan blinked in surprise. From what he understood of Defiance Sovereign, this man did not praise or compliment others…
"Our daos are similar, yet also opposites." Defiance went on. "My dao stands firm and unyielding, an impenetrable wall that cannot be so much as scratched. Your dao is open and defenceless, not even attempting to protect itself, accepting every attack and embracing torturous agony, before recovering from those injuries, always learning from its weakness. Interesting…kid, you pass my test."
By now, Yaan had recovered from his injuries. His gaze flashed imperceptibly…Defiance Sovereign didn't say it directly, but he started speaking the very instant that Yaan's Dao Soul recovered fully. Clearly, he recognised when Yaan was injured, and when he was not. This was already far more than anyone else could see past his illusory facade.
Defiance Sovereign was even more shocking than Yaan had anticipated, and he had already regarded this man with the utmost caution. Yaan proved that he could stand his ground in the face of Defiance Sovereign's punch…but Yaan was clearly far worse off from this exchange, despite having to exert much more effort than his opponent.
"Defiance, since I seem to have met your expectations, tell me…what is the Primordial Sage truly after, and why did you seek me out?"