The Ancient Past

When Yaan finally stood up, the Spirit Plane Lord felt overjoyed.

When he slowly walked around the room, seemingly taking an interest in his surroundings, she almost wept from happiness.

Even though he was moving exceedingly slowly, as if he was trying to do as little as possible, it was still much better than lying down without even responding to her, right?

Yaan could only sigh in his mind, lamenting at his own helplessness. He just wanted to rest, but when he tried to lie down, emptying his mind and soul, the Primordial Sage stepped in, inflicting his mind with a horrendous, insanity-inducing pain. Even though Yaan's pain tolerance was incredible, after enduring that torture for so long, he simply became fed up.

And so, he could only do as the sage instructed. Although, in all honesty, she was only forcing him to do the bare minimum beyond merely existing. So long as he got up, walked around, and spoke with the Spirit Plane Lord, it seemed that the Primordial Sage would leave him alone.

At some point, it was clear that she intended to reveal herself. As for when that might be, Yaan neither knew nor cared.

After looking around this grand bedroom, which was draped in all sorts of fancy embroidery of various colours and threads, the Spirit Plane Lord led Yaan out from this room and into the palace corridors.

The palace was simply enormous, it was the size of a mortal nation, even though it was just a house for the Spirit Plane Lord's strongest body. This 'house' was situated within the centre of the Spirit Sect, which occupied the entire 9th Layer of Heaven.

Yaan had seen many grand feats of architecture in his lifetime, but this palace was on a whole other level…for one, it wasn't merely a building, but a complete treasure! This entire palace was a Divine Treasure, a treasure created by the Primordial Asura approximately 2.2 million years ago…

"Sister Sura created this treasure for herself, but after she stopped finding it useful, she gave it to me as a gift. Back then, myself, Sister Sage, Sister Sura, and you, brother, would all gather in this place, where we would hold feasts for just the four of us…"

The Spirit Plane Lord reminisced with a nostalgic expression, but every time she referred to Yaan as 'brother', he felt bitter in his heart.

"Spirit Plane Lord, please stop calling me 'brother'…" Yaan sighed and stopped walking, looking at her as he spoke.

She also stopped, and for a moment, she didn't turn towards him. After a few seconds, she looked back with a smile, and said:

"I understand. You don't have your past memories, so you don't consider yourself my brother. I will stop calling you brother for now…"

After some time, the pair ended up in the palace's main hall. At this point, Yaan looked around with wide eyes.

The Spirit Plane Lord laughed when she saw his expression. She showed a slightly embarrassed expression.

"I'm not much of an artist, but recently, I've found it fun to paint the good times we shared together in the past, back when it was just the four of us…"

Yaan remained silent as he looked around. This hall measured many miles across, and the walls were adorned with paintings of all sizes. They seemed to be positioned in a certain order, creating a story, painting a perfect picture of the life that the woman beside him had lived…

The life that she had once lived, but could no longer find, despite wishing to go back to that time, more than anything else in the world.

She spoke in a dreamy voice, explaining the scenes which were depicted in the paintings as Yaan silently examined them, one by one.

"In the beginning, three million years ago, it was just the four of us. Back then, we didn't have the title of 'Primordial Demons', because there was nobody else to call us as such…we were the first four living beings in this world, and it remained that way for many years…"

"We were each born into our own worlds, our own planes. Back then, the Spirit Plane was actually a physical world plane, so you and Sister Sura were able to visit as you pleased…haha travelling between the world planes has always been easiest for Sister Sage, though. She could always come and go as she pleased…even after the barriers between the world planes strengthened, she was always able to move between them…"

"Back then, we actually considered each other enemies. Sister Sage visited us all and told us about one another. We all tried to attack her, but she simply returned to the Sage Plane where we have never been able to reach, haha…after that, you were the first to cross over the planes. You fought against Sister Sura many times…"

"We all fought countless times over the years, even Sister Sage. But, we were always equally matched, and with just the four of us, we eventually grew tired of fighting each other. We didn't measure the passage of time back then, but one day, we stopped fighting, and instead became sworn brothers and sisters…"

"Life was perfect. It was just the four of us, chatting, laughing, exploring the vast, growing world. I didn't realise it at the time, but those days were truly blissful…in fact, even when we first discovered living beings other than ourselves, life was still so perfect! At that time, we started having great feasts after hunting so many new beasts, it was so much fun…but then, other intelligent beings started to appear…"

"The intelligent beings, like the humans, the giants, and the astrals, didn't concern us at first…they were intelligent, but they were weak. Even after they discovered cultivation, we didn't think much of it, because we were simply too far beyond them. Even when that man reached the Dao Immortal Realm, he was still so much weaker than us…"

"We were too arrogant."

"Two million years ago, that man - whom is now known to the world as 'Law Empyrean' - the founder and ruler of the Divine Court, was the first being to reach the Divine Step. Even we were not at the Divine Step…back then, we didn't even know that there was such a thing as the Divine Step! But he discovered it, and he surpassed us…"

"He discovered the way onto the Divine Stairway, but he hid his discovery from the world, even from Sister Sage. He reached the Divine Step before we even realised the threat. He formed the Divine Court, which existed solely to persecute us, the original residents of this world…"

"Those years were truly difficult. We were constantly running, fighting for our lives. But…at least we were together."

"Eventually, Sister Sage also reached the Divine Step. She guided us all, and one by one, we each reached the Divine Step. We formed the Primordial Alliance, and we each led great factions on our own world planes to fight back against the Divine Court. Since the Divine Court consisted primarily of Qi refiners, we made our base on the Blood Plane, where Qi refiners are the most suppressed…"

"It was difficult, especially for Sister Sura, who had to deal with the Divine Court's base of operations on her own world plane. But, we balanced the tables. Both forces grew stronger, until we were no longer groups of individuals fighting out our personal grudges, but enormous organisations, executing wars which shook the entire world…"

"Approximately one million years ago marked the largest war to date. That war was so enormous that there were 27 Divine Step casualties, but even more terrifyingly, the Spirit Plane…was almost destroyed."

"The Spirit Plane was originally just like the Blood Plane and the Qi Plane – it was a physical world. But, after that war, the war which shook the foundations of the world plane itself, the Spirit Plane collapsed. I barely managed to save my world by fusing myself into it and becoming the world spirit. The Spirit Plane became a spiritual world, all living beings in the Spirit Plane lost their bodies and became wandering souls, and I…am now unable to leave…"

"I have 10,000 bodies in this world. On the Spirit Plane, it is not an exaggeration to say that I am invincible. But…I can never leave. I am bound to this world forever…Sister Sura struggled to visit after the transformation, but she managed to stop by on occasion. But you, brother…you were born without a normal soul, you were never able to enter the Spirit Plane ever since that day…we were unable to see each other in person, ever since that day…"

The paintings ended after that. Obviously much had happened in the past million years since the collapse of the old Spirit Plane, but…the Spirit Plane Lord did not want to paint those things.

When Yaan looked up at this woman, he did not see the venerated Spirit Plane Lord, nor the feared Primordial Spirit…he saw a girl who missed the past, a girl who missed the days that she had once spent with her brother and sisters.

She was the ruler of this world, but only out of necessity. She never wanted any of this…she would have been happiest to continue living with the other three, as the only four beings in the world…

Yaan turned away from her and examined the paintings again. Whilst she said she wasn't an expert artist, these paintings were each so vivid that they felt lifelike, and when combined in this way, Yaan really felt like he could picture the story that she had painted.

Suddenly, Yaan felt an urge that he had not felt in a long time.

"Spirit Plane Lord…no, sister. If it's ok with you, I think I would like to paint."