Grasping Benefits in Disaster

Below Yaan's feet, red sand released a powerful heat energy into the air above. The heat energy was strong enough that mortals and weaker cultivators would be burned to ash, only those at the Immortal Step and above would be able to stand here comfortably.

This sand spread out for as far as the eye could see, but with Yaan's Illusion Sense, he could see that this desert was a few million miles across.

Even seeing this far actually required him to exert some effort, which was not normal for a divinity on the Qi Plane. However, Yaan was no longer on the Qi Plane, but the Blood Plane!

As he stared up into the sky silently, watching as bright lights continued to flow out of the giant spatial tear which had ripped the sky in two, Yaan realised that the Qi Plane…might not exist any longer.

Across the Blood Plane, all manor of living beings were also staring up at the sky. From divinities, to immortals, to weaker cultivators, mortals, beasts and even normal animals, practically all of them stopped what they were doing and stared up at the sky in shock.

The majority of the lifeforms in this world were feeling unprecedented shock and terror. In fact, only those few who had witnessed the cause of this cataclysmic event, actually understood what was going on, and why this had happened.

Yaan continued to watch in silence as the Qi Plane was dragged through the spatial tear. This spatial tear was caused by Shi interfering with the collision of powers between Defiance and the Heavenly Dao, but as more matter from the Qi Plane was dragged in, it grew wider at an alarming rate.

People, planets, stars, and even space itself; everything from the Qi Plane was being pulled into the Blood Plane. The operation of the dao of space was becoming chaotic now, as the fabric of the Qi Plane was forcefully fused into the fabric of the Blood Plane.

Like this, the Blood Plane was forcefully expanded and gradually developed a starry sky.

Before long, the destruction began.

Yaan first saw stars falling into the Blood Plane's sun. Stars were giant celestial bodies, and life-stars were even larger…however, compared to the Blood Plane's sun, they were insignificant.

Even compared to the Blood Plane's crimson moon, those stars were miniscule. Even so, the explosions created by the stars crashing into the moon could be seen from all across the main land mass on the Blood Plane - the giant continent which the sun and moon had orbited for the past three million years.

Soon enough, just as Yaan had anticipated, some stars started falling down, crashing into the continent itself.

With a sigh, Yaan furrowed his brows.

"What a mess. Hopefully this disaster doesn't completely destroy everything, otherwise the plan to conquer the Four Divine Star System will fall apart."

For now, Yaan didn't move and simply continued to watch everything unfold. Although the scene above was truly apocalyptic, he didn't feel particularly concerned, since a falling star didn't pose him much of a threat. Even with the suppression of his power on the Blood Plane, evading a star wouldn't be an issue.

Not long after Yaan was dragged back to the Blood Plane, the majority of the Qi Plane had made its way through the spatial tear. It wasn't long before the flow of bright lights in the sky came to a halt, and the spatial tear started to slowly close.

"Looking at things now, most of the stars seem to be settling into orbit around the continent. There are clearly seven clusters of stars, meaning that the seven star systems have retained their prior structure. Around 10% of the stars, and likely their surrounding planets, were either dragged into the sun, or crashed into the moon and continent. No matter, I can work with this. In fact…"

A scheming glint flashed through Yaan's gaze.

Although the passage of the Qi Plane into the Blood Plane had ended, stars were still falling from the sky, and he could see that the presence of the giant spatial tear was still causing many issues up above. The spatial dao was in chaos, destruction was prevalent in every direction, countless lives had already been lost, and those who managed to survive were either desperately trying to keep ahold of their lives, or they were strong enough that they were trying to prevent further damages from spreading.

"The majority of the divinities will be occupied with trying to protect their assets right now…this is the perfect opportunity, I can take advantage of the chaos to take some assets for myself!"

Yaan's eyes shone with the light of Reveal Truth. He slowly looked around, before his gaze settled on a particular chain of fate. This chain was one that he recognised, because he had already followed this chain once before - it was the connection between himself and Zue Yin.

There was also another chain, with fate far more powerful than that between himself and Zue Yin. This was the chain of fate between his two bodies, his dao body and cultivation base body. 

When Yaan entered the Boundless Dao Library, his two bodies lost their mental connection, each not knowing what the other was experiencing. After returning to the Qi Plane, the connection was re-established - this was why he was able to quickly discern that no time had passed in the outside world, even though he had spent so long inside the library.

His cultivation base body was with the Primordial Sage, continuing with their conquest of the Four Divine Star System.

However, Yaan did not follow this chain of fate. For now, he was concealing his aura with his dao body. He wanted to take advantage of the chaos, so he would avoid contact with anyone else for as long as possible.

When Yaan took his first step, he immediately felt an extreme resistance that he had not encountered on the Qi Plane. The spiritual pressure on the Blood Plane was far more intense than the Qi Plane. The pressure was so powerful that it even limited divinities in the level of power that they were able to muster.

Resisting this pressure to follow the chain of fate using his 'Two Steps of Fate' travel method was simple enough, but maintaining his aura concealment at the same time was quite taxing. Regardless, Yaan didn't falter and took the first step.

He had only used this method once before, and he conceived this method in a very short period of time. If he further refined this method into a spell, it would most certainly become a Divine Spell!

Despite how quickly he created this method, Yaan didn't find it strange at all. It was simply the most natural way of utilising the chains of fate, so it was normal that he had discovered this method of long-distance travel so quickly.

Some Divine Spells were conceived after spending countless years designing, testing and refining ideas, but other Divine Spells were created like this; in an instant. When someone ascended to the Divine Step, they would often find that their Divine Power, developed by refining their lifetime of cultivation experience into a complete system, could grant them many new methods like this once they started exploring the possibilities.

And so, Yaan took one step. His foot touched down upon the illusory chain of fate, but unlike the first time he had used this method, the chain remained mostly stable and showed no signs of collapse.

According to Yaan's will, he demanded that this illusory chain of fate must become real!

With his first step, the 'real' chain was dismantled and reborn through his Divine Power. With his second step, the chain was reformed into an illusion.

The remainder of the illusory chain was originally something that he could only see, but now, it was transformed into a more profound illusion, an illusory pathway that he could step upon, leading him directly to his destination.

It was an illusion, but this did not make it inferior. Instead, the illusory nature of the path allowed Yaan to ignore the limitations of all things real.

It was only his second time travelling along a chain of fate, but he had already made two improvements. Firstly, the chain did not become unstable with his first step. Secondly, when he took his second step, the chain transformed from a chain, into a path.

With two steps, Yaan vanished from the continent down below, arriving in the newly formed starry sky high up above.

Two Steps of Fate…

'These Two Steps of Fate are not just a simple travel method, but the fundamental law of operation that guides my Divine Power. The real is crushed with the first step, then reborn into a superior illusion with the second step. Perhaps I could use this concept to develop a series of Divine Spells!' Yaan mused, but didn't delve too deeply into it, now wasn't the time.

Now was the time for action, this was too good an opportunity to waste. He had many things that he needed to meditate on, between his Two Steps of Fate and his gains from the Boundless Dao Library, but all of that could wait for later.

Yaan once again found himself at Planet Phoenix. He saw Zue Yin on the planet surface, looking just as shocked as everyone else, but otherwise she was fine. After looking around and confirming that she wasn't in immediate peril, he turned away from the planet and flew off into the distance.

He was only using Zue Yin's chain of fate to quickly reach the Four Divine Star System, he didn't actually have any business with her. Zue Yin was the person he had chosen to take hold of the immortal world in the Four Divine Star System, she had her use, but he wouldn't waste too much time on her, especially not now that the future of this star system was unknown.

The Sage ensured that everyone continued with the conquest, but who knew whether the Qi Plane's star systems would actually be able to maintain their orbit around the Blood Plane's continent, or if everything was doomed to crash into the earth below.

And so, Yaan decided that now was the best time to take one of the Divine True Inheritances for himself. 

"There were previously four Primordial Treasures and six Divine True Inheritances in the Four Divine Star System. From the looks of things, the structure of the star system hasn't changed too much, aside from those stars which were thrown out of orbit and crashed after passing through the spatial tear."

Yaan knew that whilst most divinities would be busy with protecting their territories and trying to prevent any further destruction right now, there would be others with the same idea as him, taking advantage of the chaos for their own benefit. Naturally, the Four Divine Star System would be the focus of many greedy eyes, since it held 4 out of the 18 Primordial Treasures in this world, but also six Divine True Inheritances.

He wasn't particularly interested in the Primordial Treasures, since they were simply too difficult to take for oneself. Primordial Treasures couldn't be stored in any kind of spatial treasures, and even moving them was extremely difficult.

His cultivation base clone learned from the Sage that she had struck a deal with the Primordial Asura and Primordial Spirit. They were assisting with their conquest of the Four Divine Star System, and in exchange, they would be given the Infinity Lake and the Spirit Palace. This alone was not a good deal for Yaan's side, which is why the Primordial Spirit also swore a dao oath that so long as the Sage kept her side of the bargain, then both she and the Primordial Asura would leave the Four Divine Star System as soon as the conquest had ended, and they would not return for 10,000 years.

Yaan approved of this, since it would certainly help the conquest to progress more smoothly, and it dealt with those two troublesome women for a decent period of time. Honestly, he had no use for the Infinity Lake anyway.

Rather than the Primordial Treasures, which were basically impossible to steal, Yaan was much more interested in the inheritances. An inheritance could actually be fully claimed by one person, making them the perfect target given the current situation.

As Yaan flew away from Planet Phoenix, the region of space where he had just been rippled several times. Gradually, an old man dressed in a pale blue robe started to take form, but for some reason or other, his body looked extremely unstable, as if he was not meant to be here in this world, and might vanish at any moment.

The old man's blue eyes shone with the wisdom of time. He sighed deeply as he watched Yaan fly into the distance, but a slight smile filled with reminiscence appeared on his face.

The old man shifted his gaze away from the distant Yaan, and towards the spatial crack, which had almost closed entirely. His smile faded and his expression became somber.

 "When space is cracked and the 2nd Era returns to a single realm, those of the 4th shall descend once again…"