387 Carnage

When Yaan opened his eyes, it took him a moment to process what was happening. At first, all he could see was a blindingly bright white light in every direction, but he quickly found the source of this light…and this power.

It was Defiance clashing with the Heavenly Dao using his Hate Spell!

But how could this be? Did Defiance use the spell again? Was his battle still ongoing after so long? Or was this a new battle?

No, more importantly, what happened to the Boundless Dao Library?

Yaan glanced around, quickly coming to understand what had happened, and what was now happening.

In the end, he succeeded in devouring the Boundless Dao Sea. He had no idea how long he had spent on this gruelling task, but it felt like it had been an extremely long period of time. After he finished devouring the Boundless Dao Sea, the Boundless Dao Library was simply no more, and the remaining space collapsed in on itself as he was expelled. Not even the doorway leading into the library remained, it was truly completely gone.

There was no time to think too deeply into all of this, because after emerging from the library, he found himself in the exact same predicament as before. Even though neither the Heavenly Dao nor Defiance were targeting him, he was too close by, the shockwaves from the collision between these two apex forces was enough to rip his body apart!

However, just as Yaan was about to retreat, he paused. 

He found himself in the same situation that had forced him to escape previously, but he…was not the same.

Blood flowed from the countless cuts across his body as he slowly turned towards the blinding explosion, rather than turning away. The light was so extreme and the shockwaves so violent, that his eyes immediately turned bloodshot and started dripping blood.

"This is the power of the God of Defiance and the Heavenly Dao…the Heavenly Dao is a unique entity with its own way and powers, but the God of Defiance is simply a human who cultivates his will. The God of Defiance is the strongest…and this strength originates from his will. Meaning, his will is the strongest. Meaning…his will is stronger than mine."

After a moment of silence, Yaan narrowed his eyes and took a step towards the explosive collision.

"Unacceptable."

Yaan had never been one to care about pride, and he was well accustomed to living in a world where others possessed superior strength compared to himself. However, in this moment, he felt completely unwilling…unwilling to accept that anyone in this world possessed a superior will, a superior willpower, compared to himself!

It was unacceptable!

Yaan considered his will of resolution and perseverance to be both his greatest strength, and his most valuable asset, so how could he accept that he was inferior to anyone else in this regard? He understood that will was something that was cultivated slowly over time, and Defiance was simply far, far older than him, but even so…this didn't mean that he had to accept it!

"If my will is inferior to Defiance's will, then I will just use Defiance's will as the grindstone to further cultivate my own will! To simply lower my head and accept that my will is below another…would be akin to accepting that I am innately inferior!"

Yaan stopped for a moment and stared into the explosive light. The longer he remained here, the more intense the explosive ripples became. All he could see was blinding white light in every direction – not even the spatial cracks caused by the massive surge of power could be seen behind this light!

"Stepping into this chaotic battle would be completely irrational…" Yaan mused. A slight smile slowly spread across his face. 

"But will is not a rational thing."

He no longer hesitated in his actions, activating Reveal Truth and charging into the fray. He wanted to see exactly what was going on in the midst of this clash between the two strongest entities in this world. That said, even if there was nothing to gain by diving into this zone of destruction head-on, Yaan would still choose to do so…

He had always been rational enough to pick his battles, choosing to attack when the benefit matched the risk, and retreating when it did not.

Right now, Yaan was acting in opposition to his usual nature, taking on a tremendous risk, when there was no obvious benefit to be found…

But looking at it from another perspective, that was in itself the benefit; he was seeking his dao by tempering his will, what greater reason could there be to embrace danger than this?

After emerging from the Boundless Dao Library and finding himself in this region of blinding light, he felt somewhat disoriented and confused. After looking around, and especially after activating Reveal Truth, he was able to understand what was happening…even though it was difficult to believe.

It wasn't that Defiance and the Heavenly Dao had been battling for a long time, nor was this a separate fight entirely. In reality, this eruption of power, was the very same explosive collision that forced him to escape into the library previously.

Between Yaan entering the Boundless Dao Library and leaving, no time whatsoever had passed by!

This overturned everything that Yaan had previously believed to know about the dao of time and its operations. There were many treasures in this world that could distort time, and even a few that could distort time without affecting the dao within, but even the most profound of those treasures could only accelerate the passage of time by a factor of ten. 

It would be easy to accept if the Boundless Dao Library surpassed this acceleration factor, it was a heaven-defying treasure after all…but this?

'How is this possible? How can it be that not even a single second passed by, given how long I spent inside the library?' Yaan narrowed his eyes, but quickly dispelled these thoughts and focussed on the present. He didn't have the luxury of being distracted right now.

He took a step as he urged Reveal Truth to illuminate his eyes with a light that outshone even the endless whiteness around him. Of course, this light was self-contained and didn't spread out further than his own eyes, but by holding nothing back and recklessly channelling all of his efforts into his gaze, he was finally able to see through a portion of the chaotic battlefield.

The world before his eyes distorted as Yaan approached two distant figures. They each stood at countless miles tall, one man, and one being of all-coloured light. Both held out their right arms and pointed at the other with their index finger, releasing torrential spiralling streams of destructive power towards the other.

As soon as this shocking image came into Yaan's view, he coughed up a lungful of blood. He didn't bother wiping the blood away, instead becoming even more determined and taking another step.

Bang!

His step forced the shockwaves to part, at the expense of suffering the horrendous backlash of his leg exploding, then struggling to reform for several moments after. Countless cuts and cracks covered his body, but he didn't simply bleed from these wounds. Instead, a crimson vapour continually drifted outwards, causing a cloud of steaming blood to surround him within seconds.

He did his best to forcefully resist the collapsing space in the vicinity using his domain, but even he could not paint over these shockwaves, and even less so the spatial tears that were growing wider and more numerous by the second. Some of these cracks might lead to some other place, perhaps on the Qi Plane, or even the Blood Plane. Unfortunately, it was just as likely that falling into a spatial crack would be like jumping into a meat blender…the result would not be pleasant.

Regardless, Yaan had no intention of retreating.

If he, a being with the same realm of power as Defiance, couldn't even endure on the side-lines, then what right did he have to compete against this man in the future?

Yaan was no longer the weak, vulnerable person that he had once been. He was now a powerhouse of this world, a member of the elite who stood at the top. It was about time that he started acting like it.

"Defiance! Why must you be like this? At this rate, you will tear apart the world boundaries, do you not understand the danger this poses to us both?" 

Suddenly, Yaan found that he could hear the being of light – the Heavenly Dao's voice!

Naturally, Defiance wouldn't be persuaded by just this.

"This Era will not reach its true end for another 30 millennia, but even if I did bring an end to it all, so what? If destroying the world and slaughtering every living being allowed me to destroy you, I would do so without hesitation."

As Yaan struggled to approach closer to the preoccupied pair whilst attempting to study both of their shocking attacks, in the distance, the Primordial Sage, Love Empyrean, and Shi, all retreated in opposite directions.

After some time, Shi finally managed to stabilise her condition. Between fighting for her life under Defiance's assault, then struggling to escape in her injured state when Defiance changed his target to the humanoid incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, she was left in a truly miserable state. Being as injured as she was, she had no time to care about anything other than desperately trying to stay alive.

However, the moment her condition stabilised, her broken mind recalled what she was doing here in the first place. She sharply turned her head, ignoring the pain in her eyes and staring directly into the carnage.

"Uncle…"

For a moment, she was dazed…unfortunately, this only lasted for a moment.

"Damnit…DAMNIT! No! I won't let you ignore me any longer!" Shi's eyes turned bloodshot as madness encompassed her mind, body and heart. Without hesitation, she charged back into the fray, ignoring her injuries as they were torn back open.

Even as her body was stripped down to nothing but mangled flesh and blood, she continued to charge ahead without a care. Shi's madness was such that when she was truly focussed, she would rush to her own destruction without hesitation.

And right now, that's exactly what she did.

Shi lacked Yaan's strength, she was the youngest and weakest Empyrean in the current world. However, she did have one advantage, her chilling madness aside…

Destruction.

Shi's heart was a heart of destruction; her body and her cultivation were both born of destruction! She was the first being to ever cultivate destruction to this extent, and because of this, her ability to survive through seemingly impossible odds was not far from Yaan's!

Many beings in this world had experienced death in some form, and yet, they were able to grasp their own survival, returning to life once again. However, how many could claim that they were able to survive the absolute destruction of their own self?

The answer was clear - none.

In fact, not even Shi could achieve this yet, but she could at least approach closer to this limit than anyone else.

And so, as she charged into the blinding light, with no plan or thought other than bringing an end to Yaan's life, her body collapsed into a spiral of black lightning bolts. The lightning bolts, perhaps through pure chance, cut through the white shockwaves in a single moment, piercing into the centre of the collision of power between Defiance and the Heavenly Dao.

Everyone stared dumbfoundedly as the collision was briefly interrupted. It was only a single instant, but this created a vacuum within the centre of it all, and from that vacuum, arose a spatial tear so terrifying…that it sucked in the white shockwaves.

As soon as the white power was absorbed by the spatial tear, it rapidly expanded, causing Defiance, Yaan and Shi, to all cough up blood. As the world distorted, everyone struggled to endure.

As Shi's body reformed, the Heavenly Dao's body dissipated. The giant figure of light faded away, but before it vanished, it cast Yaan a meaningful look. In the end, it kept its silence and soon faded into obscurity.

Defiance's eyes widened when he saw this. He was shocked…and he was enraged. He turned towards Shi, the cause of his failure to finish his battle with the Heavenly Dao, and he roared with hatred and anger.

"You dare get in my way you crazy bitch?!"

Defiance was burning with hatred towards Shi and the Heavenly Dao, but before he could do anything, he froze.

It wasn't just Defiance…the entire Qi Plane, gradually…froze.

There was usually a certain flow to all things in the world, but in this moment, as the giant black crack grew wider, all things ceased motion. Then, slowly, that motion was reignited, but now, everything was circling around the giant tear!

Yaan ignored Defiance and Shi, because his full attention was on the giant spatial tear. He stared into the spatial tear with wide eyes, watching as he was dragged closer against his will. The force of power it exerted upon him was simply too powerful, he couldn't even move, no matter retreat!

On the other side, beyond the spatial crack, he saw a continent floating in the void of space. He also saw a giant moon and sun orbiting around this continent…

'The Blood Plane!'

This was Yaan's last thought before he was dragged into the spatial tear…along with the entire Qi Plane!