Nirvana Realisation

The silver-haired Yaan finally left seclusion calmly after spending 32 years in the cultivation chamber below Elia's abode. As he exited the cave, a golden cloud began to manifest high up in the sky, immediately attracting the attention of every living being on and around Heavenly Path Mountain. Most people were stunned by the unknown Heavenly scene above them, but those who were more knowledgeable and recognised this golden cloud as the Nirvana Life Heavenly Blessing felt even more shocked.

Whoosh!

As soon as Yaan appeared, Elia rushed to his side. She looked at him anxiously and asked:

"Yaan, is this really ok? Aren't you being a bit rushed? I reached the Peak Origin Soul Realm some time ago, so I know how easy it is to step into the Nirvana Realm, but shouldn't you prepare more first?"

Yaan smiled and shook his head as he patted Elia's shoulder gently to reassure her. He felt warm in his heart to know that there was someone in this world who would genuinely worry about him like this.

"I'm already fully prepared. It's a bit complicated, but in a way, I have already been through the complete Immortal Ascension three times. I really couldn't be anymore prepared, and I assure you that I will succeed."

"Three times…?" Elia looked at him dazedly, but Yaan just shook his head again, not wanting to explain this matter which pertained to the Primordial Devil, and his own death.

The fact that he was the Primordial Devil's heart demon, the fact that he had died, and the fact that he had lived a mortal life in Namuh Village, were the three things that Yaan had decided to keep hidden from Elia.

He hid the first because this information was truly too dangerous, the second because he wasn't entirely sure how to explain it, and the third because those mortal memories were precious to the him of right now, and he couldn't bring himself to share these memories with anyone else, not even Elia.

"Elia, you should get to a safe distance." Yaan reminded her. "Interfering with Heavenly events is dangerous and can result in retribution. Even if you're just standing by my side, there's still the risk that you will be targeted by the Heavenly Dao."

"Ah, that's right…" Elia came to her senses and quickly nodded. She glanced up at the golden cloud in the sky, a type of cloud that she had only seen once before when Zue Yin underwent her own ascension, and she cast Yaan a deep look before moving far away.

As she flew off, she also made sure to push any other sect members in the vicinity further down the mountain. This was being very cautious as these people really couldn't be said to be 'interfering' with Yaan's Heavenly Blessing, but she always preferred to lean on the side of caution when it came to her sect members.

Yaan stood at the peak of the mountain and looked up calmly as the golden cloud continued to grow larger. A strange stillness enveloped the mountain as everyone fell into silence, unable to find the words as they stared up at the golden sky above.

"It's larger than Zue Yin's, and hers was by no means ordinary…" Elia muttered to herself.

She was right, this was a very large Heavenly Blessing. It was larger than Zue Yin's, who had awoken and refined her bloodline, and larger than Ga Shu's, who cultivated the dao of life.

However, when the cloud stopped expanding after covering the entire mountain, making it visible across the entire Northern mountain range, Yaan felt like it was quite ordinary. Compared to the Heavenly Blessing that his main body had received back then, it wasn't so impressive. Of course, his blessing from back then was an anomaly, and was even used by the Heavenly Dao as a method to take his life by manipulating its own Heavenly Balance.

For an 'ordinary' Qi refiner, this blessing was completely monstrous, but this was to be expected, since this Dao Clone had essentially stepped into the Nirvana Realm at just 32 years of age, a feat that would usually be completely impossible.

A cultivator's Heavenly Blessing would be more powerful depending on the attainments of the cultivator. The silver-haired Yaan possessed multiple immortal stage dao comprehensions and over 700 drops of Mortal Life Essence…

All three of Yaan's Dao Clones had been reborn as true mortals, with the normal amount of life essence for a mortal, which was usually around 100 drops. Yaan's main body needed to retain the absurd quantity of Life Essence sealed within his Dao Soul in order to sustain its illusory form, but aside from that, he couldn't control that seal or the release of the Life Essence within it anyway. Creating three mortal Dao Clones with a normal amount of Life Essence was the best he could do.

The entire Greenwood Mountain Range seemed to fall silent. The golden cloud above Heavenly Path Mountain was a known phenomenon to some, whilst to others, it was a complete unknown. But regardless of their knowledge, every living being couldn't help but stop what they were doing to look up at the sky in shock, because the Heavenly aura coming from above was simply too much.

With Yaan stood atop the mountain peak, a golden rain showered down upon him. He stood there calmly and absorbed every single droplet of this golden rain. Compared to the storm that his main body had been forced to endure on the Blood Plane, this much was nothing, allowing him to absorb each and every single drop, something that practically no cultivator had ever achieved.

As Yaan stared up at the sky, he narrowed his eyes in contemplation.

'The Heavenly Dao tried to kill me in the past, but this blessing, although very large, actually seems about right considering my attainments. Has the Heavenly Dao given up on killing me…or does it not recognise this Dao Clone as being the same living being that it schemed against in the past? It's even possible that the Heavenly Dao believes me to be dead…'

When Yaan thought about the fact that his main body now lacked any of the four components that constituted a 'life', he knew that it was quite possible that the Heavenly Dao had simply overlooked his survival; it wasn't an innately sentient entity after all, it operated based on its own laws, and if something outside of those laws appeared, it might be possible for the Heavenly Dao to make a mistake!

However, he had assumed that the Heavenly Dao would take notice of these Dao Clones, which were born into new lives from fragments of his main body's Dao Soul.

'Either the Heavenly Dao doesn't recognise the Dao Clones as being the same as my complete self, or it has given up on killing me for whatever reason. No, actually, there's another possibility…'

Yaan narrowed his eyes, watching the Heavenly Blessing fading away after leaving him with over 200,000 drops of Mortal Life Essence; far less than he had attained in the past, but far, far more, than any normal cultivator could hope to achieve.

'It's possible that the Heavenly Dao has noted the existence of myself and the other Dao Clones, and it still wishes to kill the main body…but it doesn't see the need to target me in order to kill the main body…'

Once the golden cloud completely vanished, the world returned to normal, as if the previous shocking phenomenon had simply been a dream. However, the powerful aura of Nirvana Life which Yaan freely released into the world from the peak of this mountain proved that it was not a dream, and was very much real.

Before long, Elia returned to his side. She stared at him in amazement, unable to muster up the words that she wanted to say for a long time. When Yaan noticed that Elia was staring at him, he gave a light cough and retracted his aura, realising that to lower realm cultivators, his Nirvana Realm aura was a bit much.

And to a woman like Elia who was close to him, his aura was somewhat enchanting…

She blushed slightly after realising that she had been staring, but she quickly shook her head and recovered.

"Yaan, your Nirvana Life Heavenly Blessing…wasn't it a bit extreme?"

"It's about what I expected." Yaan replied with a smile.

"Amazing…" Elia stared at him and muttered. She once again couldn't help but remember that this Yaan before her was merely a single clone of his, and not even his main body, yet this clone was already enough to overturn her understanding of the world…

When she thought along these lines, she couldn't help but voice a question that had been lingering on her mind for a while now. Yaan saw that she looked hesitant about speaking her mind, causing him to smile amusedly, but when she finally faced him seriously and asked her question, he suddenly felt like his entire world had frozen over.

"Yaan, I know that the you before me is one of your three clones, and your main body is asleep…it's amazing that your clone has reached the Nirvana Realm, and I truly believe that you will succeed with your Immortal Ascension. But…what then?"

"Huh?" For a moment, Yaan couldn't understand what she was asking.

But then, it finally hit him.

It hit him, only now in this moment, after he took his first step towards immortality - he had no idea what his main body's plan was.

This fact alone wasn't what caused his mind and heart to tremble furiously. What truly caused his heart to shake, to the point of even feeling a slight hint of trepidation…was the fact that he hadn't even considered this until now.

He had been born as a Dao Clone of the main body…

Why?

To perceive the dao path that his main body had conceived, right?

But…to what end?

The three Dao Clones had always had it their minds that they needed to strive to reach the Immortal Step, but it was only after taking that first step, that the restraints which Yaan had placed upon his three Dao Clones started to loosen.

In this moment, this moment when not only the Dao Clone of Qi, but also the Dao Clone of Mind and the Dao Clone of Soul all mysteriously reached the Nirvana Life Realm at the exact same moment, they all realised the same thing.

They had all been born whilst unknowingly feeling the urge to strive for the Immortal Step as quickly as possible, without ever thinking about why they were doing this, or what the main body's end game might be.

The main body was hiding something from them.

The trigger for this realisation had been made possible thanks to their Heavenly Blessings, which seemed to completely overlook their existence, as if the Heavenly Dao had given up on killing them…or perhaps, the Heavenly Dao did not see the need to kill the Dao Clones in order to kill the main body.

This Heavenly Blessing had left Yaan with a lot to think about…

He was yet to realise that this was already part of the Heavenly Dao's scheme against him.

The core of Yaan's self remained in the Spirit Palace on the Spirit Plane's 9th Layer of Heaven, sound asleep atop the mad elephant. He would not awaken until the three Dao Clones truly reached the Immortal Step, at which point, he would take his first true step onto the dao path; the path that only he understood.

No matter what happened, no matter what his Dao Clones decided to do, no matter who tried to scheme against him…Yaan simply did not care. He remained asleep, existing only as an observer to how his Dao Clones decided to live their lives and seek their hearts. That was all that he needed to do.