294 Dao Splitting Technique

When Yaan returned from devouring the Fragment of Mind, he once again experienced a backlash, but a much more severe backlash compared to when he had devoured the Fragment of Qi.

However, these backlashes carried no danger whatsoever.

The backlash he experienced, was a backlash of the emotional storm which assaulted his heart after devouring the life which he had just lived.

Yaan had experienced 'other lives' in the past when he used certain formations to cultivate his Psyche Power, and whilst each of those experiences was very realistic, nothing could compare to the experience of devouring these fragments…because this time, it was as if he had truly lived those lives; it was as if he had truly been the two fragments, Hukon Qi, and Knowledge Immortal.

And so, after devouring those lives, he experienced an emotional storm of melancholy and confusion, the likes of which would tear anyone else's sense of self to shreds.

However, after resting in the Spirit Palace for six months, Yaan had fully recovered. In fact, not only was he fully recovered…but the cracks across his Dao Soul had shrunken once again.

From the perspective of the Spirit Plane Lord and the Primordial Sage, it looked like absorbing those fragments was healing over his damaged Dao Soul! To the Spirit Plane Lord, who believed that Yaan was her brother, this made perfect sense…but the Primordial Sage had other thoughts.

Only Yaan knew the truth, that devouring the fragments was not directly mending his broken Dao Soul, but rather, it was the fact that he was finally finding his own path and walking along it without any doubts in his mind that allowed his Dao Soul to somewhat recover.

It made Yaan wonder…one day, if he completed his path…would his Dao Soul be completely mended? Would he become whole, just like every other normal living being…?

He didn't know if this would ever happen, but he knew one thing for sure - he was on the right path.

And so, with the two fragments devoured properly and no seals remaining on his Dao Soul, Yaan assured the Spirit Plane Lord once again that he was fine, before continuing to study the Primordial Sage's 'Dao Splitting Technique'.

The Dao Splitting Technique was the method that she conceived after watching the Primordial Devil forcefully split his own Dao Soul into five separate fragments. She took this hasty, forceful tearing, and used it to create a method without the same level of danger as the Primordial Devil's forceful splitting.

However, there was one key aspect to the splitting of the Dao Soul that she could not control.

'When I fragment my Dao Soul once again, so long as each of the produced fragments becomes a complete being in its own right, it will be reborn onto the plane with which it is the most connected. Meaning…my Dao Clone of Qi will be born onto the Qi Plane, my Dao Clone of Mind will be reborn onto the Sage Plane, my Dao Clone of Soul will be reborn here, on the Spirit Plane…and the remaining part of myself will stay here, unmoving, unconscious…observing and experiencing.'

Yaan had been meditating on the Dao Splitting Technique for 30 years now, however due to the Spirit Palace's distortion of time, only three years had passed by in reality.

Yaan's eyes slowly opened, filled with a mixture of wisdom, resolution, and a faint hint of madness. As he opened his eyes, the mad elephant, which the Spirit Plane Lord reluctantly allowed to enter her Spirit Palace after taking appropriate measures to ensure that nothing within would be damaged by its innate aura of destruction, also opened its eyes. It could sense a hint of madness from the child on its back, and it could feel that this strange person was planning something insane.

Ignoring the two divinities, who had become alert to Yaan's sudden awakening, Yaan looked down at the mad elephant and smiled.

"Little elephant…feel free to accompany whichever me you desire."

The mad elephant was confused by his words, but the two women nearby realised that by saying this, Yaan meant that he intended to go through with the Dao Splitting Technique right here and now!

"Brother, wait, don't be hasty! A technique like this, it can't be rushed! You-"

"It's ok." Yaan turned to the Spirit Plane Lord and smiled. "I'm ready."

After saying this, Yaan paused, then decided to leave each of the divine women with some parting words; the last words that he would speak from his 'full' self in a long while…

"Spirit Plane Lord, please treat my Dao Clone of Soul as your brother…I am sure that you will see many similarities between that Dao Clone and your brother of the past. And Primordial Sage…well, I'm sure you already understand what I want from you."

The Sage just nodded silently. The two of them didn't need to say any more than this.

After confirming the two women's ascent, Yaan's eyes suddenly exploded with a golden light of immense proportions. The dao of life and death, specifically, the dao pertaining to samsara – rebirth – enveloped his gaze, causing the Spirt Plane Lord to narrow her eyes.

"So he had already comprehended the Heavenly Dao's entire dao of rebirth…I understand now, since it's like this, he truly is prepared…" She muttered to herself.

Golden vortexes spiralled within Yaan's eyes. Each vortex seemed to be rotating in both directions simultaneously, creating an extremely confusing illusion. The illusion of these vortexes grew larger and larger. Eventually, they completely surrounded Yaan, until they were no longer mere illusions.

A golden blade suddenly sliced through Yaan's Dao Soul, cutting away three fragments in one swift motion. Despite the agonising pain which accompanied the immense feeling of life and death crisis flooding through him, Yaan remained unfazed, as if his own suffering, his own life and death, had nothing to do with him.

WAM!

A golden flash of light so bright that it could almost obscure the Spirit Plane Lord's view for a brief moment filled the Spirit Palace…

In the next moment, Yaan was lying unconscious atop the mad elephant. However, this 'Yaan' could hardly be called his full self.

His aura was so weak, his presence so vague, that it was almost as if he didn't exist. All that remained of his original self, was the pain that had accompanied him throughout his life, and his tenacious will and perseverance which clung to this life, without really knowing why.

In this state, Yaan was essentially nothing – or at least, that was what his Dao Clones would believe.

Only Yaan knew that his core self had become an existence of pure observation and experience. From hereon out, he would watch over his Dao Clones as they lived their lives according to their own hearts. He would become a silent observer, a shadow lingering within their path, experiencing the life that he had breathed into them.

The Spirit Plane Lord's gaze was slowly drawn away from the sleeping red-robed child which remained atop the mad elephant, and towards the man, who looked similar to Yaan, yet also different, standing a few feet ahead of Yaan and the elephant.

The man, who looked to be in his thirties, glanced back with his blazing red eyes, allowing his matching crimson hair to sway about with his unrestrained movements. When he saw the slumbering remnant of the one who had created him, the red-haired man showed a pondering expression, before turning away and facing the two divinities who were now staring down at him.

"You are…the Dao Clone of Soul?" The Spirit Plane Lord finally spoke after a long period of unusual silence.

She couldn't help but feel stunned, because the 'Dao Clone' before her eyes, looked like an exact half-way point between Yaan and the brother she had once known!

The Dao Clone of Soul looked up at the Spirit Plane Lord with a gaze without fear. He knew all that Yaan knew – that is, aside from the fact that the core Yaan was still watching him. He knew what he was, he knew why he had been created, and this didn't bother him, because he was Yaan, and Yaan was him…

However, he was the side of Yaan born of the Primordial Devil. He was the part of the Primordial Devil's heart which was contained within Yaan's own heart, combined with the opposition to the devil that existed alongside this. He was a contradiction – but he was proud, unrelenting, and unrestrained.

In essence, he was Yaan's most demonic side in its purest form.

"You will not address me as the 'Dao Clone of Soul'…" The fiery haired man spoke in a domineering tone.

Despite being a mere newly incarnated Spirit Soul – essentially a mortal human spirit on the Spirit Plane – he felt no traces of fear when facing these two powerhouses. He knew what he was, and he knew the precariousness of his situation…but he was the part of Yaan that contained the desire to exploit this sort of situation for his own benefit, whilst remaining strong, tall, and unhindered in his actions!

"Immortals often abandon their mortal names when they ascend, due to this being a form of rebirth for them…as such, I will do likewise." As he spoke, the red-haired man cracked a faint smile.

"From here onwards I will go by the title 'Devil'. And this Devil…will dive into the Abyss, and cultivate himself into the first true Slaughter Spirit in this world!"

Devil…by taking on this title, he was directly challenging the Primordial Devil! It was like he was saying: I am not the original devil, but I am the new devil which has surpassed you – I am simply the Devil!

The mad elephant stared at the Devil before it, before glancing at the slumbering, weak-looking child on its back. The elephant only needed to take a single glance at each being before it came to its decision.

The mad elephant shut its eyes, rested its head and went back to sleep. It still needed to rest after its thousands of years of walking, and it chose to rest here, with the weakened strange child resting atop its back.

At the same time that Devil was born onto the Soul Plane, a faint glimmering consciousness appeared on the Sage Plane…

The Primordial Sage immediately collected the precariously existing Dao Soul of Mind, and she took it to the centre of her world. After securing its existence and ensuring that it would not dissipate with its new body, the elderly Dao Clone turned to face her with a serene expression.

"My name is Knowledge…and I will continue training just as the Fragment of Mind trained in the past."

"Of course." The Primordial Sage nodded. "Use the Dao Formation as you please. If you feel the need to study in another manner, inform me and I will arrange something new."

The Dao Clone of Soul – now called Devil, and the Dao Clone of Mind – now called Knowledge, were successfully born into their respective worlds. They each had the assistance of a divinity to help them to progress…but the Dao Clone of Qi had no such assistance.

A teenage boy, or perhaps he would be better described as a young man, appeared in a Dark Forest on the Qi Plane. Although this forest looked identical to countless others in this world, he immediately knew where he was.

The Dao Clone of Qi looked like a midway point between Yaan and the Fragment of Qi. He had long silver hair, gentle green eyes, and a gaze that was filled with his yearning to return home.

As the young man, who looked to be around 18 years of age, made his way through this dangerous forest without any difficulty, despite being a mere mortal human right now, he couldn't help but smile as nostalgia and expectation filled his heart.

Unlike the other two Dao Clones, this Dao Clone…did not want to change its name. It had decided that it would continue to go by the name that it had been given by its human parents; Yaan.

As Yaan walked towards Heavenly Path Mountain, his heart was filled with hope and joy.

******

At the same time that Yaan's Dao Clones were finally born into this world, a woman stood in the centre of a gruesome battlefield, panting for breath. Her hair was soaked red with blood, and despite wearing a cracked mask, her animalistic eyes were bloodshot and darted about in every direction. She was prepared to continue fighting, killing for as long as she needed to…however, as she slowly stood up and looked around, she realised that everyone was already dead.

All of her enemies, all of her allies, had been slain. Hundreds of thousands of corpses littered the battlefield, decorating the most horrendous war grounds that the Origin Continent had ever seen.

"Damnit, you bastards…" The woman's voice was filled with bitterness and pain, but most of all, madness, as she stared at the corpses of her fallen comrades. Her voice also contained her frustration towards this situation, and for some reason…a hint of envy.

"You promised me that you wouldn't die…you promised to stand by my side, to fight alongside me until the bitter end…why did you all go ahead and die without me? Why am I the only one who has to continue living?!"

The woman knew that she had fallen into a state of madness in the battle, something that often happened when she fought. Because of this, she actually ended up killing a large number of her own allies…however, both she and her own people had already known that this would likely happen, and they were ready to accept it for the sake of achieving victory in this battle.

What she couldn't accept, was that once again…she was the only one left.

On this bloody battlefield, Shi – the girl who had once called Yaan 'Uncle' – was the only survivor.

The remainder of her damaged mask finally crumbled, revealing her face beneath. A hundred years had passed since she left Namuh Village, and in that time, she had changed. She had grown older, now looking like a woman in her mid twenties. Her hair was longer than before, and her gaze was filled with more killing intent than anyone at her level should be able to possess.

She had changed…yet she was also exactly the same as the distraught young girl who left her village all those years ago.

Through gritted teeth, Shi did not even notice that she was finally breaking through the boundary which had restricted every warrior on the Origin Continent from progressing, ever since the origin path was first discovered by humanity…

"Uncle…I will definitely kill you…I promise, no matter what, I will kill you…I will…I definitely will…"

As blood dripped down from Shi's eyes, shedding the only type of tears that she had left within her, the Primordial Sage, who had been following and observing this girl ever since back then…finally revealed herself.

Shi froze, staring at the floating young girl before her. The girl's eyes glimmered like emeralds, and her forehead was embedded with a strange black crystal.

A sense of danger like she had ever felt before in her life rushed through Shi's body like a blood-curdling shiver, yet in the next instant, she froze.

"Tell me…how far are you willing to go, in order to take his life?"

"Take his life…?" Shi muttered back slowly and dazedly, until she realised what this entity before her was actually saying, and her eyes opened widely.

In an instant, it was as if she forgot all of her previous fear.

"Do you mean Uncle?! Do you…do you know where he is right now?! Tell me, I-"

"He is not someone that the current you can hope to stand against. The one you wish to kill is a being like no other. And you…are too weak."

For a while, Shi lowered her head. The world would be silent, but blood continued to drip from her body, causing an eery quiet dripping sound to echo across the dead battlefield.

"I know that…do you think I don't know that?" She looked up and stared the Primordial Sage in the eyes as her gaze burned with the flames of madness. "I know that Uncle is amazing. I know that Uncle is the most incredible being in this world – you don't need to tell me this. But still…no matter what…I absolutely must kill him!"

The Primordial Sage watched emotionlessly as a madness like no other tumbled violently through the girl's eyes. This madness had almost gained material form, and the Sage could tell that with a slight push…this girl might actually complete the path which she had experimented with back then.

The origin path – The Primordial Sage's attempt at creating a fifth path…her failed attempt.

Or so she had thought.

In the girl before her right now, she saw hope for this path to arise.

However, a fifth path had already been created now, preceding the origin path…

"The path that you walk is the origin path. You are the first to reach this point of near completion of this path. However, you should know that your uncle created an entirely new path for himself. You are merely walking in his shadow. So tell me, child…to what lengths are you willing to go, in order to attain the strength to kill your Uncle?"

Shi stared at the Primordial Sage with an unwavering gaze.

The fact that she was merely trailing behind her goal like a shadow that would never truly reach it could not shake her heart, because she already understood her position all too well.

"I will do whatever it takes…no matter what I must do, no matter what I must become…I must kill Uncle!"