Hu Yang
The moment Yaan's domain touched the 100th Legacy Rune, his domain suddenly froze, as did his control over it! The Legacy Rune shone with a dark golden light, before fusing into his barely opened domain which only spread out for several feet around him.
The world around Yaan went dark and he immediately lost all sense of where he was, and what was going on.
In the next moment, runes emanating great power, none of which he had seen before, appeared within the darkness. The runes manifested directly in front of his gaze and enveloped Yaan within a powerful stream of ancient telepathy, making it feel as if his thoughts were being dictated by a storyteller.
The Legacy Rune, which read itself to Yaan like a book playing out scenes of the past before his eyes, started with an introduction.
"My name is Hu Yang, but I am more commonly known to the masses as Progenitor Yang, first progenitor of the human race, and founder of the Human Empire.
This is my Dao Legacy, and the ultimate legacy in this Boundless Dao Library.
Upon reaching this state in my dao, I am finally ready to leave behind a Dao Legacy of my own…but my Dao Legacy will be like no other, my fated inheritor."
Yaan's mind trembled when he heard the words 'fated inheritor' being directed towards him. His expression immediately darkened; the last time he had been called that, was back when he found himself wrapped up in the Primordial Devil's rebirth plans.
Regardless, all he could do was watch and listen as the Dao Legacy continued to unfold.
"The Dao Runes used to portray the passages of ideas and discussions in this Dao Legacy, should help my future dao inheritor to comprehend the true value of this text, hidden behind the simplicity of words.
The first part of my inheritance was created long ago, and whilst it is focussed only on a narrow topic on the surface, it should bring light to certain truths. The second part of my Dao Legacy was created later on, after I progressed further…after I finally awakened."
With that, the introduction had finished, but the legacy was only just beginning.
"There was first the Origin. From the Origin, via an unknown means, came the Heavens. The third to be born into this world, was also the very first human…a man…myself. I was named Yang and later came to be known as Progenitor Yang, the first founding ancestor of the human race. The second of humanity's progenitors, Yin, was the fourth being to step foot into this world.
Humanity was made to embody the very extremity which the Heavenly Balance lacked, and I was to be the most perfect, extreme example, of this new, extreme race.
We were born the perfect humans, as flawless souls in a place called the Heavenly Realm. There was no suffering, no worry, no death…
But for humanity, merely lacking adversity…is not enough!
In the beginning, the Heavens were newly created and prone to mistakes - the first of which being their taking of human form, and calling themselves the Heavenly God.
The Heavenly Realm was supposed to represent perfection, in contrast to the flawed nature and difficulty of the mortal Earth Realm below. And yet, even after seeing the stark differences between our lives and theirs, we were unsatisfied.
The Heavenly Realm grew as the Heavenly God satisfied our whims; water to swim and drink, fruits and animals to gorge without end…
But our extremity knew no bounds, and finally, the Heavenly God decided that humans must not be freely provided with fleshly pleasures and constant total satisfaction of the mundane needs. Such a life may be without flaw, but it is not the perfect human life.
I now understand that myself and Yin were akin to research subjects, used by the Heavens to better understand the essence of humanity, the race which came into being when the Heavens sought out the absolute limit of extremity.
And so, finally, we learned of restrictions, and no longer were we able to partake in endless fleshly pleasures.
One day, we were given a meaning to embrace and pursue. Without ever needing to actually leave the Heavenly Realm, we created newborn adult mortal humans, all of whom were born into the Earth Realm below.
Our first mortal human born from the Earth Realm was derived from mine and Yin's union, as we had the same exact thought in ours mind, and a shared ambition in our hearts.
'Create a human, then another human, and more humans!'
Our desire grew into obsession, but this obsession was our ambition.
We learned, watching mankind grow, struggle, and overcome. We outgrew our endless indulgence in pleasures of the flesh, and found purpose in slowly realising our long-worked ambition.
But our human extremity was beyond what the Heavenly God had anticipated, and just as far beyond what they could tolerate. Interestingly, we had at some point come to understand the Heavenly God's feelings of disapproval and distaste when it came to our innate extreme natures.
And yet, neither of us ever viewed our inclination towards extremity in a negative light.
At the time we didn't realise it, but this was the first time in which we completely disagreed with the Heavenly God. We were so firm in our certainty that we were not failed creatures, but rather, it was our human extremity, our inclination towards taking the most extreme path with unwavering certainty and confidence, that made humanity so great.
As I came to understand my own potential, my ambitions grew. I never wanted to settle for mediocrity and comfort, because my heart yearned for more! More strength of body, mind and heart! More power, more enlightenment, and more understanding! I wanted to walk more steps along this path no matter the risk, no matter the cost…
Neither of us felt even the faintest trace of regret for what we did, when we betrayed the Heavens and fell down to the Earth. We had lost our eternal lives and fallen from perfect souls to normal mortal humans, but we had gained something - freedom.
Too much has happened since then to even describe, so I shall summarise my understanding of this world, this life, with a bold statement of truth:
There is no limit to human potential.
Of all the daos in this world, the Heavenly Dao barred only the dao of humanity from being cultivated. Of all the races in this world, the Heavenly Dao laid down traps only for humanity, to deceive us into thinking that we had already hit our limit, to prevent our rise to the true apex. I was even once struck by a Heavenly Retribution which, had it struck me, could have wiped out the entire human race.
If the Heavenly Dao was able to do so, it would hide all traces of anything that could be linked to the human dao from this world. However, this world is now filled with countless humans, spread across the lands, from all wakes of life, at all levels of power, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and ambitions.
The Heavenly Dao is able to hide the human dao from being perceived directly from one human being to another, but it cannot block dao itself; it cannot hide the dao within our own selves!
The human dao exists, hidden deep within the hearts of all mankind. The human dao can be perceived, by taking a step back, and perceiving yourself with a mind clear of preconceived conjectures.
The human dao can be understood, by looking at the rise of humanity from time immemorial until now, by watching human society grow and flourish, like a profound force of nature that cannot be restrained, not even by the heavens themselves!
The Heavenly Dao believes humanity too extreme, but I say that humanity's extremity is this world's greatest hope."
Yaan's mind trembled. Despite the legacy discussing only a very narrow topic on the surface - that is, humanity - he instantly understood what the author was trying to say, at least in part. With this understanding, he was able to quickly link this idea to his own experiences of the world.
'There is no such thing as combative, racial or emotional daos under the Heavenly Dao in the 2nd Origin Era. However, this world is still rife with many different races, skilled fighters in all imaginable forms of combat, and naturally, emotions. Dao is truly boundless…'
Yaan's eyes shone brilliantly as he waited for the legacy to continue and his mind filled with ideas.
'I see, so there really is the 'surface dao', the dao that can be perceived directly. This sort of dao is most often seen throughout the natural world, and it is a manifestation of the Heavenly Dao's comprehension over those daos…no, perhaps even that is limited! Perhaps the earthly daos as they appear in this world, do not represent the Heavenly Dao's full understanding of those daos, but were instead designed carefully and spread throughout the world, creating this Era wherein the observable dao is limited to what the Heavenly Dao wants everyone to see!'
'If I want to truly understand dao, then I can't rely solely on comparing these easily observable phenomena of the dao, because doing so will result in me comprehending someone else's dao. I could even end up comprehending the exact formulation of dao that the Heavenly Dao wants us cultivators to perceive in this Era!'
Yaan actually felt a sense of coldness fill his body.
The Heavenly Dao was so insidious! How many people in this world understood this well-hidden trap? How many people focussed their dao-study on comprehending the Heavenly Dao's earthly daos, simply because they were easier to comprehend due to their blatant appearance throughout the world?
How many divinities had filled their Dao Heart and Soul with the observable dao, the daos that, when combined together, formed an intricate, most likely restrictive system of dao, crafted by the Heavenly Dao?!
The Heavenly Deities and Heavenly Empyreans, did they know about this? Did they know that they had filled their hearts with an understanding of the dao that was manipulated by the Heavenly Dao to accumulate in this way, potentially for the purpose of corrupting the daos of all cultivators in this world?
Yaan quickly calmed down, however.
"I don't need to only follow the easily observable dao, but I also don't need to discard the observable to cultivate only the hidden. To me, dao is dao, and no matter what perspective I comprehend, I will just fuse that perspective into my own foundation of dao, like adding another piece to an endless puzzle. I will never mistake one piece of the puzzle for the full picture!"
The first part of this Dao Legacy had already stimulated Yaan with new ideas regarding his own pursuit of dao going forwards, but this first part was just the beginning.
The world around Yaan exploded, but the real world was not revealed. No, instead of the real world, Yaan's every sense was fully encompassed by one, simple rune, the meaning of which caused his heart to shake.
"Fate."