Divine Pursuit

When a living being surpassed the Divine Step, they also surpassed the limits of what the Origin could endure. In order to protect itself, the Origin would expel them from the world, into the outside expanse of Chaos which surrounded the Origin.

"Old Thief was actually an outsider!" Justice Deity's golden eyes widened and she exclaimed. She clenched her fists tightly…in the end, that demon overcame the Origin – this was what the Divine Court was trying to prevent the most right now.

"Not just Old Thief…Old Thief and the Primordial Devil were both Origin Incarnations of the God of Sin…" Law Empyrean muttered.

"Brother…was an outsider…?" The Primordial Spirit muttered in a daze. By her side, the Primordial Asura also showed a rare, stunned expression.

"The God of Sin has left the 2nd Origin Era, this matter is of no importance. What I do find very amusing however, are his parting words. Law Empyrean – or should I say, Evil God…what was it you were saying earlier about protecting this world's righteousness? Hahaha, to think that the Divine Court, the self-proclaimed leader of the righteous path, was actually being led by the Evil God! The ending to this Era is turning out to be quite entertaining!"

Defiance Sovereign's words sobered everyone up, and for a moment, all eyes landed on Law Empyrean.

"You believe the words of that demon, the God of all things sinful? The God of Sin is notorious for being a hateful creature, he was clearly making a futile attempt to spite me in his final moments in this Era." Law Empyrean replied, as if this should be obvious. His words hit the mark though; many people nodded, thinking that what he said sounded very reasonable.

The divinities from the Divine Court accepted Law Empyrean's rebuttal immediately. Law Empyrean had led humanity and the righteous path for over two million years, he was renowned for being the figure head of all things good and lawful. Calling him the 'Evil God' really was a bit unbelievable…

Of course, not everyone was so easily convinced, and Defiance Sovereign wasn't about to let this go.

"The God of Sin and the Evil God have been at odds in every Era." Defiance Sovereign smiled. "If the God of Sin was going to spite someone in this world, then he would spite the Evil God. Law Empyrean, I have long since deduced that you are an outsider from the 1st Origin Era, and now, I can say with certainty – you are the Evil God!"

"Defiance Sovereign, stop distracting everyone from the truly important matter at hand!" Law Empyrean replied sharply. He pointed into the distance, past the Primordial Sage, and towards Yaan…who was already fleeing once again at his fastest speed.

Immediately, the Divine Court members started conversing openly, trying to divert attention away from their leader and back to their original target.

  "The heart demon is escaping!"

"He recovered far too quickly!"

"To recover his wits faster than us divinities, and after seeing something so world-shaking…as expected, he is too dangerous to leave alive!"

"The matter with Law Empyrean can wait, killing that little calamity is of the greatest importance! He even destroyed the Spirit Plane, who knows what will happen if we let him live!"

The divinities were once again left feeling shocked when they saw Yaan fleeing in the distance. It had only been a few seconds since the pressure formed by the God of Sin's Origin Ascension vanished, but based on how far Yaan had fled, it was clear that he started fleeing the very second that he was able to move. Everyone else was left feeling stunned by the God of Sin's identity and his parting words, but Yaan had already recovered his wits…

It should be known that for many of the divinities present, that aura of Origin Ascension was the most powerful aura they had felt throughout their long lives…and yet, this little immortal actually recovered before them!

However, Yaan saw things slightly differently.

'The God of Sin bought me some time by distracting them with what he said, but…will it be enough?'

The God of Sin didn't just call out Law Empyrean to spite him, because it was clearly his way of buying Yaan a few seconds to distance himself from his pursuers. It was only natural that the divinities, these beings who stood at the peak of the world, would be distracted when the God of Sin suddenly claimed that Law Empyrean was actually the God of all things Evil…but why would Yaan care about something like this when his life was in peril?

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

"UNCLE!"

A crazed, blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the vacuum of space, attracting everyone's attention due to the sheer killing intent and madness behind this voice. The voice was filled with so much bloodlust and insanity that even the divinities were startled for a moment. Many glanced back, only to find an immortal woman, shrouded by a mist of darkness, blood and destruction, shooting past them at an incomprehensible speed for an immortal.

Yaan naturally heard Shi screaming at him, but he didn't look back. He felt her aura approaching as it grew larger and stronger by the second, but he ignored her and continued to flee. Shi could not keep up with him, she could only chase after his shadow. He didn't need to worry about her, no matter how much killing intent she felt towards him.

He still had no idea why she wanted to kill him so badly, but now wasn't the time to think about it.

Shi shot past the Primordial Sage, whilst the Sage made no effort to hinder her movement. She also knew that this girl could not catch up to Yaan, she was more concerned by the crowd of divinities.

"Uncle! Why are you running?! Stop running away, let me kill you, let me destroy you!"

'Why would I?' Yaan thought wryly.

"Uncle! Why won't you stop, why won't you die?! Just die, stay dead, let me kill you! I want to kill you! I want to destroy you! Uncle! Get back here and let me annihilate your existence from this world! Why won't you listen to me?!"

Shi's killing intent continued to grow stronger by the second. It reached such immense heights that she attracted a fair bit of attention…

Many of the less experienced divinities were thinking the same thing…

What was wrong with the immortals in this place?!

The Primordial Devil, Yaan, and now this unknown woman…never in their lives had they encountered such insanely powerful immortals before, and now, three of them had suddenly appeared in rapid succession!

"Sage, if you do not move, we will be forced to fight you. Even if it's you, fighting alone against a dozen divinities in this situation is simply madness. You have always been the most rational of us, so be rational now – move." Law Empyrean stared into the Primordial Sage's emerald eyes coldly.

"I will not move. Whilst I cannot defeat you if you all work together, I can stall for long enough to give Yaan time to escape. Just allow him to step onto the Ruthless Inheritance, you will still be able to kill him once he fails."

Law Empyrean fell silent, but his eyes showed that he was unwilling to do this. He was unwilling to let Yaan step onto the stairway despite the Ruthless Inheritance being an infamous death trap. Yaan had already achieved multiple miracles today, Law Empyrean did not want to see him achieve another one.

Everyone around him felt the same way.

Yaan had shone too brightly in the darkest way imaginable, and now, the world had turned against him.

As he fled, Yaan sighed in his mind.

'The Sage was once my greatest enemy, yet now, she is the only one by my side…'

Before anyone else could make the first move, the Primordial Sage suddenly slammed her two palms together. Just before she shut her hands, deep black runes could be seen on either palm.

The divinities opposing her all raised their guards, many taking out their treasures or preparing spells. Despite having the overwhelming advantage in terms of numbers, they all remained wary of the Primordial Sage.

Why was it that everyone feared the Primordial Sage? Was her combat prowess really so incredible?

No, that was not the reason.

The psyche path was regarded as the weakest path in terms of combat, and whilst the Primordial Sage had obviously gone far beyond anyone else in her journey down the psyche path, she could only be considered average for a divinity when it came to 'fair combat'.

But like Yaan, the Primordial Sage did not intend to fight fair. In fact, throughout her three million years of life…she had never once fought a 'fair fight'.

The Primordial Sage was terrifying because her battle tactics could never be predicted. She fought not with strength, but with information, schemes and wit; this was the Primordial Sage's power.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

"Hmm?" Law Empyrean's gaze shot to the side. He narrowed his eyes when he saw that every single immortal and Transcendent in the vicinity, with the exceptions of Yaan and Shi, was suddenly flying towards them…

His eyes widened and he looked at the Primordial Sage sternly.

"Everyone, guard against them-!"

BANG BANG BANG…

Before he could finish speaking, countless explosions erupted throughout the world. Around one half of the explosions appeared nearby the group of 12 divinities, forcing them to divert their attention to defend themselves, whilst the half of the explosions erupted further away, often close to the other divinities who had opted to stay back and watch from afar.

Eventually, the sudden onslaught of explosions subsided. None of the divinities were seriously injured, and yet, many of them stared into the wreckage of the explosions with shocked, enraged, and pained expressions.

They were all dead…all of the immortal and Transcendent survivors from the collapsed Spirit Plane had been killed by the Primordial Sage with a single move!

"Primordial Sage!" A teenage boy with seven-coloured fluorescent hair roared with bloodshot eyes. He was the one of the Divine Court's divinities from the Spirit Plane, and the strongest soul cultivator in the Divine Court. He had been holding his tongue until this moment, even after witnessing the destruction of all that he had ever known and loved…

But this was the last straw, and finally, he snapped. He glared at the Primordial Sage hatefully and raised both hands above his head. His hair shot out in seven directions, rapidly forming seven complex runes from the countless individual strands. Each rune grew rapidly, eventually reaching 10,000 miles in diameter, each space 10,000 miles apart above him.

The seven runes formed within seconds, then each rune shot a beam of light into a central location, exploding outwards and forming a giant ball of white light the size of a moon. This was only the beginning however - the ball of light continued to grow larger, and as the teenage boy pumped out more and more Divine Power into his spell, his two juniors from the Spirit Plane stepped forwards to defend him.

"Primordial Sage, was there really a need to slaughter all of my remaining disciples?! You actually…you actually slaughtered almost every surviving living being from the Spirit Plane! Was this really necessary, has there not been enough death today already?!"

Everyone slowly turned away from the fog of blood that had enveloped the area. The aura of death and pain pervaded the entirety of this region, left behind by the Primordial Sage's massacre of the several thousand surviving immortals and Transcendents from the Spirit Plane.

Before, everyone had only been considering the Primordial Sage an obstacle, preventing them from reaching the fleeing heart demon, but now, many of them shifted their focus. Many of the divinities from the Spirit Plane had personal relationships with those immortals and Transcendents…they had worked so hard to defend them during the Spirit Plane's collapse, only for the Primordial Sage to abruptly kill them all for no good reason!

Killing Yaan was something they deemed necessary due to the threat that he posed, but now, the Primordial Sage had attracted their hatred on a personal level.

This was how the Primordial Sage fought. She focussed on her objective, assessed the situation, then used any means necessary to achieve her goals. 

"Why do you all look so surprised?" The Primordial Sage continued to stand in place, unmoved by the expressions of hatred and rage. "I believe that everyone is well aware of my abilities – manipulating a few thousand immortals and Transcendents to self destruct is nothing much."

"You-!"

"I don't have time for this! Sister, get out of my way!" The Primordial Spirit cut in. Her gaze was dark and vicious as she stared at Yaan and suddenly flew forwards.

It was clear that she had coordinated this move with the Primordial Asura in secret, because as she flew forwards, curving a few hundred miles to the right of the Primordial Sage, the Primordial Asura took off at the same time, only she went to the left.

Nobody else moved with them. Although there were another three members of the Primordial Alliance present, only two of them had chosen to join the group pursuing Yaan, and neither of those two were willing to leave the group and charge at the Primordial Sage.

The Primordial Alliance was not nearly as united as the Divine Court - it was an alliance, and each member had their own autonomy. If they didn't want to fight, they didn't need to fight.

The Sage quickly flew back and reached out to either side, pointing her palms towards the two women as they attempted to fly around her. Black tattoos covered her hands, before rapidly shooting up her arms, through her body, then connecting to the black crystal embedded in her forehead.

Crack!

Two giant fissures tore apart the space around the Sage, before rapidly spreading out until the spatial tear was obstructing the Primordial Spirit and Primordial Asura. The Primordial Spirit stopped and hesitated. In the end, she grit her teeth and flew further out to the side, attempting to go around. She knew that on the other side of these spatial tears was the Sage Plane, attempting to fly through would severely injure, if not kill her. It was easy enough to avoid, but it wasted precious time.

Despite her ferocity, the Primordial Spirit was badly injured right now. Until not long ago, she had been the World Spirit of the Spirit Plane, bound to the World Plane via her very dao. When the Spirit Plane collapsed, she was forced to fuse her 10,000 bodies into one, and she devoured many fragments of the devastated Spirit Plane in order to survive. Even so, her power had dropped too far, and she was only barely suppressing her injuries right now.

The Primordial Asura was in much better condition. Like almost every other divinity, she had been injured by the destruction of the karmic river…but so was the Primordial Sage.

The Primordial Asura stretched out her hand to the side, expelling a bloody mist from her fingertips. The mist rapidly congealed into a glowing red sword, which she used to slash out at the spatial fissure.

The Primordial Sage quickly shut the crack in space before the sword strike could storm through the spatial tear and into the Sage Plane. Just as the tear closed however, her body trembled.

"Primordial Sage, just what do you think you can do against so many of us?" Law Empyrean spoke with an overbearing tone as he held onto a ten feet tall book. From this book, a giant white chain had shot out and wrapped around the Primordial Sage. The Primordial Sage's body trembled; she was clearly suppressed by this shocking treasure.

This book and chain was a renowned treasure that Law Empyrean had refined long ago called Law Restriction. It was a Divine Treasure tailored specifically for his needs, and it was said that the white chain could restrict all things in this world!

Seeing that the Primordial Sage was being held back and targeted by Law Empyrean, the Primordial Asura quickly withdrew her sword, flying straight forwards as the spatial tear closed. In the end, she failed to actually inflict damage upon the Sage Plane, but that was never really her goal to begin with.

The two women shot past the Sage.

At this moment, the teenage boy with seven-coloured fluorescent hair finally attacked. His two juniors quickly moved to the side, giving him a clear shot towards his target. He slammed down both of his hands, sending the giant ball of bright light, which was now several times larger than Planet Yushu, hurtling towards the Primordial Sage.

He wasn't the only one to act. After Law Empyrean tightened his hand, clamping down on the white chain such that the Primordial Sage was completely unable to move, the other divinities all attacked at the same time. Ten Divine Auras erupted outwards, pressuring the Sage even further as they used their fastest spells to assault her mercilessly.

Law Empyrean restrained the Sage with Law Restriction, whilst the strongest attack was clearly the giant white ball of light thrown by the teenage boy. The teenage boy's two juniors moved back to his side after he launched the attack, quickly erecting shields of light to protect him from any possible counter attacks. His attack was powerful, but it left him somewhat defenceless.

The two Primordial Alliance members also stayed back and attacked from afar. The first was a buddhist monk with a gentle smile, but his eyes shone with an evil light, showing that he had killed countless people. The second was a man from the Giant Clan who stood at several hundred feet in height. The Giant was accustomed to towering over all other living beings, but with Defiance Sovereign lingering nearby, he felt quite small right now.

They knew all too well just how terrifying the Primordial Sage could be, so they both stayed back, unwilling to step into the spotlight.

The last person to stay back was the unaffiliated individual. They wore a black robe, bamboo hat and veil, covering their appearance, making it impossible to even tell if they were male or female. Strangely, this individual, didn't even attack, they merely pressured the Primordial Sage with their aura.

Meanwhile, Justice Deity charged in with a golden sword in hand. The remaining Divine Court members followed close behind her, intending to support, but also protect her. Justice Deity was the young prodigy of the Divine Court, valued even by Law Empyrean - they could not allow her to get hurt here.

The giant ball of white light shot towards the Primordial Sage until it was merely inches face, making it look like she was about to meet her end.

But nobody truly expected that they would be able to kill the Primordial Sage today. After all, it was a well known fact that the Primordial Sage was the most unkillable divinity throughout the four planes. She had an unknown number of bodies; just killing one of her bodies was not enough to put her down.

As the several divine attacks neared in on the young-looking girl, pressuring her to the point that her body nearly broke down, time suddenly slowed down to a crawl.

A black vortex appeared a few thousand feet behind the Primordial Sage. From this portal, another of her bodies stepped out and pointed at the restrained Sage…

BANG!

Everything happened too fast for anyone to properly react in time – or rather, the Primordial Sage had twisted the passage of time such that everyone else was slowed down to a crawl, allowing her to act calmly and methodically. The restrained Primordial Sage suddenly exploded, propelling the newly arrived Sage backwards and towards her two sisters, whilst pushing everyone else further away.

In the current world, the only person whose understanding of the dao of time exceeded the Primordial Sage, was the Primordial Asura, and since she was currently more focussed on Yaan than anything else, the Sage was able to make use of this method to defend herself. Sacrificing a body, especially a powerful body like this, was not something she did casually, so it caught the divinities off guard…

Whenever she sacrificed a body like this, her overall power would decline. The drop wasn't huge, but even so, nobody had expected her to go this far just for Yaan's sake.

As the Primordial Sage turned around and chased after her two old sisters, who in turn chased after Yaan, the eruption of power brought on by the collision of divinities just now caused the entire world to distort. Countless spatial tears exploded throughout space, and the fabric of the Qi Plane in this region trembled violently. Everyone was forced to hastily avoid these spatial cracks, not wanting to fall victim to these calamitous things.

It was rare for divinities to use their full strength in battle, not because they feared the other divinities, but because the world was simply unable to withstand their might. Every time a divinity displayed their power, the world trembled and the fabric of the World Plane would sustain damage, often inflicting widespread disasters across a massive area. If they weren't careful, it was even possible to tear a giant hole in the World Plane, and if they fell into such a spatial hole, there was no saying what would happen, where they would end up, or if they would even be able to survive.

The Primordial Sage successfully escaped from Law Empyrean and the others, and she even managed to push them all back, but she was unable to catch up to the Primordial Spirit and Primordial Asura. Yaan could feel those two ferocious auras rapidly approaching, but there was nothing he could do other than run.

But unexpectedly, the Primordial Sage had one last trick. This was an attack that she had saved for so many years, specifically to use against her two sisters in case she ever needed to distract them.

This 'attack' was very simple – she spoke one short sentence to the pair telepathically.

"Sisters, in truth, I can also activate the stone ring."

Both women immediately stopped and looked back at the Primordial Sage with wide eyes, but the Primordial Asura looked especially shocked.

The distraction didn't last for long though. A second later, the Primordial Spirit snorted coldly.

"Is lying the only thing you know how to do, Sage?!"

The Primordial Spirit's words snapped the Primordial Asura out of her daze. After casting the Sage a deep look, the Primordial Asura turned away and followed after her sister, continuing their pursuit of Yaan.

Once again, Yaan wondered if this was the end. No matter how he thought about it, there was nobody else who might help him now, and he knew that he would be unable to escape alone.

Roar!

Yaan's eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly turned to his side. In all the chaos behind him, and with so much life and death pressure taking up his attention, he actually didn't notice the approaching figure to his right until it let out a crazed roar.

"Little elephant…? What are you doing here, why would you charge into such a dangerous situation…?"

Yaan continued to flee, not slowing down in the least, but he stared at the mad elephant. The mad elephant stormed towards him, its aura of destruction rippling out in every direction like never before. Spatial cracks manifested within its aura, as if the broken world around its body was part of the mad elephant itself.

The mad elephant's roar attracted some attention, but after a brief glance, the Primordial Spirit and Primordial Asura ignored the elephant and continued to chase after Yaan.

Yaan watched as mad elephant ran towards him, until he realised…the mad elephant was not running towards him.

The mad elephant's movement speed was incredible, faster than Yaan's own in fact.

Yaan was shocked by the mad elephant's sudden appearance, since he understood the mad elephant's resolute and survival-oriented personality which was very similar to his own - this was partially why the two of them got along so well. He didn't understand why it would take such an insane risk rather than simply fleeing…

But the mad elephant curved past Yaan, towards the two Primordial Demons who were now almost upon him.

For the first time, Yaan couldn't help but look back.

The Primordial Spirit, the Primordial Asura, the Primordial Sage…

Shi, the girl from his past, filled with maddening killing intent…

Law Empyrean and the other divinities who had been thrown backwards by the Primordial Sage's self-destruction…

Yaan didn't see any of them. All he saw, was the little elephant, as it stepped into the midst of the dangerous path between himself and his pursuers.

The little elephant paused, then looked back at Yaan and let out another resounding roar. This roar shook the world with madness, but to Yaan, this roar…sounded extremely sad.

Yaan's eyes widened in shock, and for a moment, he felt a stabbing pain in his heart as he understood what was about to transpire.

The little elephant did not speak any words, but he understood exactly what it was saying to him.

Goodbye, my friend.

"Little elephant-!"

BOOM!

As he stared into the destructive explosion with wide eyes, it was only now that Yaan realised…the little elephant was the only real friend that he had left in this world…

Sometimes, people would only realise the value of something when it vanished from their life.

Yaan immediately lost his senses. An explosion of unparalleled destruction instantly dominated the world, sending him flying and spinning so rapidly that he couldn't tell his left from his right. As the explosion, caused by the mad elephant's unexpected self-destruction, sent everyone flying in opposite directions, a single thought filled Yaan's mind.

'Little elephant, why would you do this? Why would you sacrifice your life? Why would you give up on your path…for me?'

Bang!

Yaan's illusory body slammed into something unimaginably solid, causing a powerful killing intent to enter his body, mind and heart, threatening to rip him apart from the inside out. He coughed up a mixture of blood and miasma, but he quickly sobered up and steadied himself.

As he looked up, he could hardly believe…

He had reached the Ruthless Inheritance.

The mad elephant's sacrifice had not been in vain, it was the final push that Yaan needed to reach his goal. For a moment, Yaan shut his eyes. He sighed and cleared his mind of all thought, knowing that he didn't have time to dwell on the mad elephant's death. If he wasted the opportunity that it had given him, then its death would truly have been for nothing.

Yaan opened his eyes, showing a look of tranquillity that did not match the desperation of his predicament.

He was ready to take the next step.

With a single step, he entered the Ruthless Inheritance once again. Unlike the last time he was here however, Yaan's mind was not suppressed into a daze by the inheritance's killing intent. Everything around him was dark, but he could still vaguely see his surroundings outside of this ominous stairway.

This time, he was not forced to speak by the inheritance's subduing killing intent. Instead, he spoke of his own accord.

"I swear on my dao that I will not pursue the Ruthless Inheritance."

Yaan fully intended to pursue the Ruthless Inheritance.

His Dao Soul was immediately inflicted with numerous abyssal black cracks, but Yaan's expression remained unfazed.

He took another step.