Three Versus One

In the Four Divine Star System, there were 15 sectors. The Primordial Sage originally identified six sectors as being likely targets for opposing divinities to attack, but now that the Boundless Dao Library had collapsed, this number was reduced to five.

As Yaan's dao body shot through the Divine Phoenix Sector, heading towards the Chaotic Sector which held the inheritance that he most desired, his cultivation body remained in the Divine Beast Sector.

Thanks to the Primordial Sage keeping his cultivation body updated on the rapidly developing situation, Yaan knew that the 15 sectors remained intact and in place. Some stars and planets had been destroyed, but nothing of great value had been lost.

The Divine Beast Sector lay in the centre of the star system, it was also the largest and most prosperous sector. Taking control over the Divine Beast Sector was imperative if they wanted to take control of the star system, not to mention that this star system held both a Primordial Treasure and a Divine True Inheritance.

Naturally, this was one of the sectors that the Primordial Sage placed high importance on, and likewise, it was one of the sectors where they encountered opposing divinities. 

Bone Deity, An Aztec body temperer from the Blood Plane. Shadow Deity, a soul cultivator from the Spirit Plane. Typhoon Deity, a Qi Refiner from the Qi Plane.

These three unrelated individuals had come together for the sake of the Divine True Inheritance in this place. Originally, this should have been an extremely formidable line-up; although they were just Earthly Deities, they were all extremely old individuals, and they covered all areas between their three different paths of cultivation.

Now, however, the trio felt an immense sense of pressure.

Around the same time that Yaan's dao body entered – and then exited – the Boundless Dao Library, his cultivation body arrived in the Divine Beast Star System, quickly finding the struggling Poison Deity and allowing her to rest with his arrival. The moment he arrived, he threatened the three Earthly Deities and gave them a choice – submit, or die.

Only, as soon as he spoke those words, the Qi Plane was suddenly dragged through a giant spatial tear, sending everything into turmoil. Even though this region of space wasn't damaged, the world itself shook, leaving the fabric of space with heavy vibrations for some time after.

Naturally, the three Earthly Deities, none of whom knew what was happening, were left feeling completely shocked.

Poison Deity was also feeling this same shock, but this was fine – Yaan and the Primordial Sage knew exactly what was going on, this was more than enough.

Actually, Yaan could handle this situation alone. Even before the world was thrust into an upheaval, he was confident in taking on this small group, so now that they were panicking whilst he had a firm grasp over the field, his position had improved even further.

Since this was his cultivation body, his dao-based powers could not be utilised to their full extent - this included his domain and Reveal Truth, but interestingly, not his Dao Treasure. Of course, his Dao Treasure could only be used by one body at a time.

Even though he couldn't use his actual domain, he could still manifest a pseudo-domain which copied the principles within his actual domain, but to a lesser extent.

Without hesitation, Yaan released his pseudo-domain, instantly catching the three Deities off guard. They felt their movements become slow and their thoughts sluggish, but more worryingly was that both themselves and the world around them had turned into a painting!

This was both an illusion, and the reality that Yaan had transformed; the region of space within his domain, was truly the world of a painting.

In the past, he suspected that he had actually comprehended the 'dao of painting'. After going through the Boundless Dao Library, this was no longer a guess, but a certainty.

As Yaan watched the three suffer after being caught and suppressed in his net, he once again thought about the cultivation system of the 1st Origin Era.

'In the 1st Origin Era, dao was integrated into the path of cultivation, with a core dao and several supporting daos. The number of supporting daos always seemed to fall between 9 and 13, but this was probably just related to the Heavenly Dao's law of operation in that Era. Ignoring the number, the concept of a 'core dao' and 'supporting daos' certainly has its merit; just look at my domain, or even my Divine Power as a whole. The dao of fate is clearly my core dao, I possess a completed dao heart of fate after all. The dao of illusions is my most obvious supporting dao, as it defines the operation of my Divine Power. My second most prominent supporting dao right now can be seen in my domain – the dao of painting. Supporting daos…I should explore this further.'

The Primordial Sage watched Yaan silently from behind. Previously, she had questioned whether this newly formed 'clone' of his would be enough to deal with other divinities, since it was just a clone, and couldn't possibly match up to his actual power…right?

She had vastly underestimated this 'clone'. It could hardly even be called a clone, it would be more accurate to call it one of his two bodies. By making full use of the Divine Rank pill and devouring it entirely to form this new body, Yaan was able to split himself into two in a way that resulted in each body possessing around 80% of the strength of his original self!

His cultivation base body couldn't use his true domain, but using his Divine Power combined with his four Divine Rank paths of cultivation, he was able to copy his domain in this pseudo form. If he tried to use this pseudo-domain against a true Absolute Domain, it would be crushed instantly, but against any divinity that lacked an Absolute Domain, it was barely any less effective than the original!

The true 'loss' that his cultivation base body experienced compared to his original full self, was the loss of the ability to comprehend dao.

Indeed, this body could actually still utilise his dao comprehensions to a certain extent, but it was completely unable to comprehend dao.

Meanwhile, his dao body's ability to comprehend dao had actually improved following his splitting into two bodies. Perhaps, without the extraneous paths of cultivation, there was less hindrance between his Dao Soul and the world, heightening his perception and 'purifying' the dao abilities of his dao body.

Although his strength would increase if the two bodies fused together, the improvement would not be that great, and the benefits of having two bodies while separating his powers in this manner vastly outweighed the minor benefit of fusing into one.

The battle power that a divinity possessed with their strongest body was not the absolute measure of their abilities, just take the Primordial Sage for example. Her battle power was never particularly incredible, even when she summoned the strongest body possible, and yet she was feared across the world nonetheless.

That said, battle power certainly had its merits, as Yaan was experiencing right now.

As soon as the Deities faltered upon finding themselves in this painted world, Yaan lifted his arm, summoning the wooden sword into his hand. Blazing killing intent erupted into a pillar that split the world and sent his enemies' minds reeling, then before they could even react, he stepped forwards and savagely cut down.

He acted too fast, giving them little time to react. In fact, the illusory nature of the painted world made it extremely difficult to discern which of them he was actually targeting, forcing all three to react as if they were the sole target of his attack.

The Aztec warrior, Bone Deity, raised his giant arms above his head. The bones protruding from his elbows rapidly extended, until they formed a shield which defended his entire body. A golden aura also started to spread out from the bone shield, and given enough time, Yaan felt sure that this aura would form a formidable barrier around his entire body.

The old woman, Shadow Deity, hastily retreated as her hands turned into a black blur. She formed a dozen hand seals in rapid succession, summoning strange shadowy spirits with each action. The spirits took all sorts of forms, from humans, to animals, to plants. The spirits spread out and surrounded her body in a formation, concealing her behind layers of shadows.

The veiled woman, Typhoon Deity, had been surrounded by several streams of flowing water since the beginning. As expected, as soon as she acted, these streams kicked into action, fusing together and suddenly emanating a divine aura. Before, each of the streams looked rather ordinary, but after fusing into a giant river which concealed her within its depths, it became obvious that this was actually a Divine Treasure! Divine Treasures were all inestimably valuable, any Earthly Deity with such a treasure was either extremely formidable, or extremely lucky. Either way, they would not reveal such a trump card casually, showing just how threatened she felt in the face of Yaan's blazing killing intent.

As Yaan's killing intent cut down through the painted world, painted flames spread out in every direction. All three of the Deities thought that they were the one being targeted, right up until the last second.

Illusions had many uses, but the most direct and obvious usage was to conceal and distort the truth. When facing Earthly Deities like these three, utilising that moment of hesitation to deceive them, leading them to act in an entirely self-preserving manner rather than working together, was simply too easy.

BOOM!

It was only upon impact that the trio realised that they had fallen into Yaan's trap.

"Peugh!" Bone Deity coughed up a lungful of blood, but even as he tried to restore his bone shield which was melted by Yaan's killing flames, he realised his error too late.

"Damnit!" The giant tattooed man roared out unwillingly, but there was nothing he could do.

The last thing this proud Aztec warrior saw, was a simple wooden sword cutting through the cloudy wall of flames, before slamming down onto his forehead.

He never even saw the illusory scene in the sky; the scene which painted his own death.

Agile Illusion Art, 3rd Step - the step of death.

Up above, an illusion of Bone Deity being cut vertically in half had been painted into the sky of Yaan's domain ever since he released his killing intent. When his sword made contact with Bone Deity's forehead, this illusion fused with reality, soon enough becoming reality.

It had been quite some time since Yaan last used this move, and it was actually the first time that he had used this 3rd Step as a divinity. By painting the scene of his enemy's death in the sky, this illusion would become a reality so long as the move landed successfully and his opponent failed to defend.

By taking advantage of his opponent's panic due to the shocking shaking of the world, Yaan first caught him off guard and trapped him within his domain. Next, he shattered his defences with with his full strength blazing killing intent, and then used this killing intent to pressure his opponent…but also to hide the true killing move, his most powerful sword art!

Ordinarily, killing a Deity, even an Earthly Deity, should be a difficult thing to achieve, it definitely shouldn't be possible to cut down an old divinity like Bone Deity so quickly and whilst sustaining no injury like this. In this case though, the circumstances allowed Yaan to achieve just this.

As for why he suddenly decided to kill, and why he chose Bone Deity?

It was simple - Yaan wanted to make an impact in order to build up his reputation so that others would fall under his command with less resistance. By targeting the Aztec warrior, a prideful person by nature who would probably choose to fight to the death, it would be easier to subjugate the other two.

Yaan retracted all of his powers, concealed his aura, and turned towards Shadow Deity and Typhoon Deity with an unreadable expression. The two women felt their hearts racing, but they didn't dare to flee.

"It seems that you did not hear me." Yaan spoke at a leisurely pace. "I gave you the choice between submission and death; I did not say that you could leave. Now, I will ask you again…will you submit to me and follow my commands, or will you follow your companion into death?"

After a moment of silence, the old woman sighed, casting Yaan a complex look.

"I have no wish to die so meaninglessly. I will follow your commands, Lord World Demon."

Yaan nodded, then turned towards the veiled woman. As soon as his gaze landed on her, Typhoon Deity quickly retracted her Divine Treasure, not wanting the Empyrean before her to mistake her actions.

"I will follow your commands, World Demon."

Yaan showed a smile and nodded. However, he shook his head when he realised that they had made a mistake. Actually, quite a few people had made this mistake. He thought that perhaps, if he was truly going to start leading others from hereon, then he should correct them, or else the world would get the wrong idea about his intentions.

"Why are you calling me World Demon? I already said this before, I'm not the World Demon, I'm the World Saviour."

He spoke so sincerely that everyone could only stare at him speechlessly. His words really didn't match his actions, nor his bloody aura. Honestly, quite literally nothing about him resembled a 'saviour' in any way.

It didn't matter. So long as he forced enough people to call him the 'World Saviour', it would eventually catch on, which would hopefully help his future plans to proceed smoothly.