Immortal Ascension Tribulation

Nirvana Rebirth was a bizarre and unusual process. At the instant the rebirth was triggered, Yaan died.

Sort of.

What actually happened, was that every drop of his Life Essence, all 1.7 million drops, entered a state of pseudo-death. If these drops truly died, an intense aura of death would be released, but that did not happen. However, neither were there any signs of life on Yaan's body; he truly looked like a dead person, the only oddity being that he emitted no aura of death.

The Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation was unique in that no signs of the tribulation could be seen in the outside world. This was unlike the tribulations that immortals were forced to go through at regular intervals, which always produced enormous, catastrophic scenes in the outside world.

With Nirvana Rebirth, the first step was to go from life to death. Every drop of Life Essence within Yaan's four cultivations suddenly lost their power of life, as if lingering on the border of death.

For the cultivator, this was akin to experiencing death, the feeling was exactly the same as truly dying. This step already caused 90% of cultivators to fail. The feeling of death simply overwhelmed them, they were unable to come back from it, they were swallowed up by death before even experiencing the true nature of their tribulation.

The Nirvana Death Heavenly Calamity gave cultivators the opportunity to experience a sort of death, wherein their body, cultivation, soul and mind, were completely destroyed, and they only survived thanks to regenerating themselves from their Life Essence. Ga Shu went through this, and it was a big help to him, preparing him for his tribulation. Ga Shu's dao of life also assisted him in getting through this period of experiencing death…

Yaan had neither of these experiences to help him. During his calamity, he was not fully destroyed at any point. However, Yaan had actually experienced death before, and those experiences allowed him to get through this first stage of the tribulation without any difficulties.

Yaan had memories of dying and reincarnating. He had once used an immortal pill, which showed him the Primordial Devil's death and the creation of the five fragments…he now understood just how valuable that experience had been!

But also, back in the True-False Illusion World, Yaan had allowed the illusion of himself to kill him…

He remembered killing himself, and he remembered being killed. He remembered the feeling of truly, actually dying…yet finding that afterwards, he was able to continue living.

So, when Yaan experienced this familiar sensation once again, he did not even feel fear. He was calm, allowing himself to go through this cycle of life and death…

Suddenly, Yaan found himself standing in a vast, empty space. He looked around, but there was simply nothing here, it was just endless emptiness. After pondering for a moment, he stepped forwards.

After taking that first step, the ground beneath his feet appeared suddenly, gaining some sort of form. The ground looked like an endless still lake, so still that Yaan could see his reflection clearly, as if he was looking into a mirror. He squinted his eyes, only to find that his reflection continued staring back at him, without a change in its expression.

Suddenly, a feeling of disorientation came over him. Yaan quickly looked up, no longer wanting to observe his reflection. However, when he looked straight forwards, he found that he could still see a mirror image of himself…

No, this was no longer a mere reflection, this was an illusory copy of himself! The copy was also standing on the mirror lake, staring back at him silently. Yaan also observed the copy in silence for some time, before finally speaking when he realised that he was unable to see through the copy at all.

"What exactly is my tribulation?" Yaan asked calmly, facing this perfect copy of himself without anything stirring in his heart.

Others might become shocked when faced with a perfect copy of themselves, but Yaan had encountered this exact situation multiple times before now. Besides, he knew that this was merely an illusion. This was his immortal tribulation, a tribulation which would attack him with illusions!

If he could overcome the illusion tribulation, he would survive and become an immortal. If he could not overcome the tribulation, he would die and fall, fading from this world's memory and disappearing into obscurity…

The copy smiled faintly, then glanced at Yaan as if examining him. The copy did not immediately respond to Yaan's question, but instead began speaking in a relaxed manner. This only made Yaan feel more wary.

"I have been watching you for some time now, but this is the first time that we have actually met."

Yaan frowned, then replied:

"Do you think that speaking mysteriously will be enough to shake my heart? What sort of illusion is this? If you don't hurry up and explain it, I will just have to assume that I need to kill you in order to succeed!"

"Kill me? You think that you possess the qualifications to kill the Heavenly Dao?" The copy smiled strangely, chuckling when it saw Yaan furrow his brows.

"You're claiming to be the Heavenly Dao? This…" Yaan paused for a moment.

He did not believe that the 'person' before him was the Heavenly Dao itself, however, this illusion was part of his Heavenly Tribulation, meaning that it was certainly created by the Heavenly Dao. Did this mean that, in a way, the Heavenly Dao was speaking to him through this illusion…?

Yaan smiled and shook his head.

"You think that calling yourself the Heavenly Dao whilst copying my appearance will shake me? Try harder. You are just an illusion which is designed to say whatever it takes to shake me. You are not sentient, you are not the Heavenly Dao."

The copy sighed. It ignored Yaan's question, which did not show his true thoughts, and instead got to the crux of Yaan's doubts regarding this situation.

"You are considering the possibility that your tribulation is simply using your own mind to create this illusion, in which case, this would all merely be a manifestation of your own deceived mind. But, that is not the case. In fact, I have no intention of deceiving you…in this tribulation, I will only show you the truth. But of course, in order for you to acknowledge this truth, you must first accept that I am indeed the Heavenly Dao…"

Before Yaan could react, the copy before him suddenly released a pressure. There was no sound, there was no destructive force, and yet…this pressure was simply terrifying! It went beyond Yaan's understanding, it was so immense that he couldn't even react!

It was impossible to properly describe this pressure with words alone, and when this aura collided with Yaan, he completely froze in place.

The copy's appearance had not changed, but it looked so large right now…

Yaan immediately understood. This pressure, this aura, this size and presence…it could only belong to one entity.

The heavens, the Heavenly Dao!

This aura transcended anything else that Yaan had ever felt before by such a large degree that he was rendered immobile, unable to even form a thought. The aura contained no malice, nor any love. There was no desire for more, nor the willingness to accept less. This aura, was the aura of balance itself.

This perfectly balanced aura could only be displayed by the Heavenly Dao. A normal illusion could not hope to reproduce this aura. The aura was indeed produced by an illusion, but that illusion…was the Heavenly Dao's illusion!

When the aura subsided and Yaan found himself facing his own mirror image once again, he wasn't quite sure how to react.

Was he supposed to attack? Attack that thing?!

He would die, there was no question about it. Attacking recklessly right now would be the worst possible decision.

After the copy stopped releasing that overwhelming pressure, Yaan exhaled deeply. He looked around, but there was only emptiness for as far as the eye could see. Only himself, the illusory copy, and the lake beneath their feet remained.

Yaan was intelligent enough that he understood what was going on, only…he didn't understand why.

"You tried to kill me during my Heavenly Blessing. You tried to kill me again during my Heavenly Calamity. So why, now, in this tribulation which should have become overwhelmingly powerful due to the skewered heavenly balance, are you wasting so much of my tribulation's power, just in order to speak with me?" Yaan asked directly, narrowing his eyes and keeping his sharp gaze locked on the illusory copy.

The copy smiled back at him. Only, after confirming that this illusory copy of himself truly was a vessel of the Heavenly Dao, that same smile now looked far different in Yaan's eyes.

It contained no hate towards him, but nor did it feel a trace of sympathy towards his struggle, which it had been watching over, just as it watched over all living things. That smile was simply a copied expression, there was no meaning behind it whatsoever.

Yaan fell into thought.

He knew that his Heavenly Blessing was so extreme only because the Heavenly Dao had interfered, going against its normal operation in order to target him.

Heavenly balance…

What was heavenly balance exactly?

Compared to other Foundation Step cultivators, Yaan's understanding of the Heavenly Dao and its tendency towards balance was vastly superior. He had been taught not only by Rui, but also by the Fragment of Blood.

The Heavenly Dao was the law of the four planes. It could not be felt directly, but its presence was made obvious through the 3,000 earthly daos. According to the Fragment of Blood, the Heavenly Dao thrived on the concept of 'balance'. The more balance there was in this world, the stronger it became. When the balance was disrupted, the Heavenly Dao was weakened.

This was the reason for cultivation being so difficult. This was the reason that very few possessed the talent to cultivate, because if all living beings possessed the talent to cultivate, the overall balance in the world would collapse. This was the reason that each cultivation realm was blocked by a boundary - the realm boundaries prevented too many powerful cultivators from appearing. Only those who gained the qualifications to ascend were able to do so.

This was the heavenly balance.

Surpassing mortality and stepping into the Immortal Step was a huge detriment to the world's balance, and as such, the Heavenly Dao countered the disruption via the three Nirvana trials of Blessing, Calamity and Tribulation. The strength of these trials varied, depending on the cultivator's power, and therefore their ability to disrupt the world's balance should they reach the Immortal Step.

This was also the heavenly balance.

But Yaan's blessing was hundreds of times greater than it should have been! As a result, his calamity was also hundreds of time stronger! These two things did not cancel each other out, because neither the blessing nor the calamity should have been so vast in the first place!

This was not heavenly balance, this was the Heavenly Dao deliberately disrupting its own balance! This was equivalent to the Heavenly Dao inflicting an injury upon itself, just so that it could kill Yaan!

So, why would the Heavenly Dao, an existence which only ever acted with the goal of sustaining balance, disrupt its balance in order to kill Yaan? There was only one possible answer…

Somehow, disrupting the balance by killing Yaan, would actually save the heavenly balance from an even greater disruption! Apparently, Yaan's existence was too big a threat, so much so that the Heavenly Dao wanted him dead, even if it needed to act against its own nature in order to kill him!

In all likelihood, the only reason that his blessing and calamity were not made even more imposing, was because this level of disruption was deemed too excessive by the Heavenly Dao.

Yaan had been expecting a truly horrendous ordeal to meet him within his tribulation. After all, he took too much from his blessing, then proceeded to take even more from his calamity…

But instead, the Heavenly Dao had used up a large portion his tribulation's power, just so that it could speak with him.

The Heavenly Dao was not an inherently sentient being…however, it encompassed all things. The Heavenly Dao could, under certain circumstances, communicate with the lives that it governed in this world!

But again, this went against its way of balance! It had taken human form, and humans did not pursue balance, they pursued extremes!

When he thought about these things as he faced the illusory copy, Yaan could only feel baffled.

As the copy continued to remain silent, Yaan continued to make deductions.

"I understand…" Yaan spoke, finally recovering from his shock. "You are, at the very least, speaking on behalf of the Heavenly Dao, and you are indeed planning to kill me with this tribulation. So tell me, why did you decide to take this approach? The power of my tribulation could have been used to attack me directly, or to deceive and trap me within an illusion, but instead, you are burning through so much power just to…chat?"

Finally, the Heavenly Dao's illusion spoke once again.

Yaan now felt that he needed to pay close attention to each and every one of its words. Every single seemingly insignificant word spoken or action taken by this illusion, was already part of his tribulation. The Heavenly Dao had deemed this the method with the highest chance of killing him, so how could Yaan remain relaxed?

"Firstly, I needed you to accept the truth, that I am no random illusion, but rather, I am speaking on behalf of the Heavenly Dao. Now that you have accepted this truth, I need you to accept that in this illusion, everything you see, hear and experience, is the full, unadulterated truth…"

Yaan remained silent. Clearly, the Heavenly Dao was about to reveal the next part of its ploy.

Even though he had prepared himself, Yaan could never have predicted what came next.

"I swear on my, the Heavenly Dao's own dao, that this tribulation, is one of pure truth. I will uphold this truth, for the entire duration of your present Nirvana Rebirth Immortal Ascension Tribulation."

Yaan stared with wide eyes as, in an instant, the illusory copy of himself collapsed into golden light. The golden light formed a rune of incomprehensible complexity, and as Yaan narrowed his eyes and examined this rune, he felt as if he was staring into dao itself…

The golden rune seemed to embody all things in this world. It continuously transformed, but at the same time, it seemed to never change. It was changing endlessly, becoming animals, plants, continents, clouds, disasters, cities, rivers…and yet, it remained as a still golden rune throughout all of this.

Yaan's body shook and he took a step back without realising it. He eyes widened in shock, because he could feel each and every one of his dao comprehensions growing stronger and stronger, the more he examined this rune!

Yaan came to an understanding in this instant. He no longer doubted the Heavenly Dao's words, because right now, the Heavenly Dao was exposing its true nature to him. This nature was revealed due to the Heavenly Dao swearing a dao oath right before him!

Could a mere illusion allow Yaan to stare into the Heavenly Dao itself? Could an illusion result in so much improvement to his dao comprehension in every single earthly dao?!

This was an illusion, but it was not deception. This…was truth!

Daos he had never even considered before, such as the dao creation, the dao of destruction, and the dao of creation and destruction, began engraining themselves into his Dao Soul!

He had suddenly gained insight into the dao of creation and destruction, a principle dao!

His dao of life and death grew stronger, as did his dao of illusions…

In particularly, a certain fragment of Yaan's illusion dao comprehension catapulted upwards. It was because of this understanding, that Yaan's remaining doubts towards the Heavenly Dao's words finally crumbled.

Yaan had immortal stage dao comprehension into the dao of illusions, specifically, the fragment related to concealment and deception. But now, he had gained powerful insight into another fragment. He almost fully comprehended this fragment, but his complete comprehension was being held back for an unknown reason…

This fragment could only be called 'truth'.

Indeed, 'truth' was one of the fragments of the dao of illusions, and it seemed that this tribulation…would be heavily focussed on truth…

The Heavenly Dao swore a dao oath to Yaan. Yaan understood dao oaths well; he understood that the Heavenly Dao could not, would not, break this dao oath!

Everything it had told him until now, was the truth…

Everything from here on, would be the truth…

The illusory Yaan did not reappear, but gradually, that golden rune, the rune which represented the dao oath sinking in and binding the Heavenly Dao's own dao, started to vanish. Or rather, that rune fused into the space around them, causing the previously empty space to fill with a golden sky and golden mist, enveloping Yaan with a feeling of 'truthfulness'.

Yaan was naturally wary of being deceived, but as he thought about everything that had happened until now, he realised that all of this being an elaborate lie…was pretty much impossible.

It was clear that the Heavenly Dao had expended a huge amount of his tribulation's power, just to get to this point. It used all of this power, just to convince Yaan that what it was about to show him was the truth…

"I understand." Yaan finally spoke after a long period of time. "You believe that showing me a certain truth will cause me to fail my tribulation. Everything until now has been to convince me of your sincerity…and you have succeeded."

That aura released by his false illusory self, was the aura of the Heavenly Dao.

And that golden rune…

That golden rune was a glimpse of the true Heavenly Dao! Only the true essence of the Heavenly Dao could possibly allow his every single earthly dao comprehension to improve simultaneously! The Heavenly Dao showed its very essence to Yaan, allowing him to see the dao oath as it bound the heavens themselves!

It did not hide anything, and as such, it became clear that this was truly a tribulation like no other…a tribulation of truth.

The Heavenly Dao would not destroy Yaan with deceptive illusions, but by recreating a certain truth from illusions, and showing him this truth without any tricks.

Now, with his dao of illusions truth fragment bordering on the verge of immortal stage comprehension, if Yaan truly was shown a genuinely shocking truth, he would immediately gain complete comprehension over that truth fragment. If the 'truth' shown to him was merely a lie, he would not be able to take that final step.

Because of this, he would be able to ascertain the truthfulness behind whatever he was about to be shown.

Yaan smiled, then grinned, then suddenly burst out into manic laughter.

"Heavenly Dao…Heavenly Dao! You truly are the ultimate force in this world! You are not a being of high intellect, yet your ability to seek the path of balance allows you to scheme like this out of instinct alone! Impressive, truly impressive…"

Yaan muttered towards then end, then looked up with a cool, calm expression.

"How impressive, that such an entity would go so far to kill me. I wonder, is this because of something the Primordial Devil of the past did? I can't imagine how I, in my short mortal life, could possibly pose any sort of threat to the heavenly balance…"

After pondering for a moment, Yaan spoke to the golden mist. The illusion of himself was no longer present. Instead, only this golden mist remained. It was an illusory mist which imbued every principle of the Heavenly Dao's illusions into its form, but Yaan couldn't care less about who or what form he was speaking to.

"Fine then, let's do this. What truth do you plan to show me?"

Whoosh…

The golden mist blew without any breeze, phasing through Yaan's body and leaving behind a message, or perhaps just an understanding, within his mind.

Yaan's eyes widened.

He originally expected that in order to pass this tribulation, he would be forced to face the 'truth'…but that was not the case. The Heavenly Dao had already overstretched the limits of its disruption to its own balance, and now, it needed to return balance to this tribulation. As such, Yaan would not be forced to face the truth.

If he took one step back, he would step away from the truth. He would be turning a blind eye to the truth, and yet, he would still pass his tribulation! He would become an immortal, but at the same time…he would never truly master illusions, he would forever lack the component of 'truth'. Also, if he really took that step back, he would be rejecting the truth of everything that had happened here, losing all of the dao comprehension that he had gained, as well as the memories of this whole experience…

On the other hand, if he chose to step forwards, he would see the illusion of truth that the Heavenly Dao had prepared for him. If this illusion really was the truth, he would fully comprehend the illusion dao's truth fragment…so long as he accepted the truth that he was shown, he would pass the tribulation and become an immortal!

By stepping backwards, there was zero risk, but the rewards would also be low. By stepping forwards, he would gain unimaginable benefits, and he was seemingly taking a tiny risk, right?

But clearly, the Heavenly Dao set up this situation knowing that Yaan would choose to walk forwards. Then, it believed that after seeing the truth, he would be unable to accept it.

It was an open plot, there was nothing hidden here. It was a blatant trap, and yet…

Yaan did not move immediately, not because he was hesitating, but because his heart was beating wildly. This understanding towards his two choices was imparted to him by the Heavenly Dao…but the Heavenly Dao also briefly explained to him, one of the illusions that he would be shown.

It was the truth behind his existence. It was the truth that he had been searching for all this time, the answer to the question…who was he, exactly?

Yaan slowly looked up, staring ahead into the golden mist. He gradually calmed his heart, spending a fairly long period of time in doing so. He knew that the longer he spent in this tribulation, the more Life Essence he would lose in the outside world…

But he didn't care about a minor loss in Life Essence, he had plenty to spare. It was essential for him to think about this carefully before going forwards.

Yaan did not believe that he would be so useless as to reject the truth, but at the same time, he had a strange feeling in his heart, causing him to recall something…

He recalled when the Fragment of Blood had told him something, and it caused him to reach a now-hidden realisation. For whatever reason, at that time, he had chosen to seal that memory away after feeling a deep terror when he was forced to face his own deduction of a potential truth…

Of course, with that memory sealed away, Yaan did not consider it significant in this situation. That sealed memory was only one possibility of the truth, right? It could stay sealed for now - it was no longer important, because right before him, was the actual truth…right…

In the end, Yaan decided that the feeling of fear within him, was not because he felt afraid of the truth, but because he feared the Heavenly Dao's schemes. After all, this monstrous entity had planned everything far too intricately, would it really make such a simple mistake?

In the end, Yaan forced himself to show a firm, resolute expression. Finally, he took one step forwards.