Duality of Sanity

With Yaan mentally unstable and unable to handle the investigation of the Bloody Totem Province's situation properly, Rui used soul spells on every 5-Star individual they encountered to gather crucial information.

As it turned out, Yaan and Ga Shu had been gone for an entire year now.

Around nine months ago, three months after Yaan's exile, news of his punishment was leaked. All those tribes that had previously feared the Bloody Totem Province found themselves filled with a second wave of courage, especially after discovering that both Yaan and Ga Shu had simply abandoned the province, and likely the entire kingdom, without so much as a word!

The kingdom immediately descended into a frantic war. The Bloody Totem Province that Yaan built up was no joke, even without him. They had hundreds of 5-Star warriors and countless more lower realm warriors! Their lands were vast and economically stable, but there was one small issue…

Yaan had previously declared war on, rampaged through and caused chaos within the Lunar Song Tribe! The grudge was irreconcilable, and the Lunar Song Tribe was completely justified in mounting of an all-out war against every tribe under the Bloody Totem Banner!

Their immortals could not act, but even so, their methods were too much to fight against. Over the course of the past few months, the Lunar Song Tribe alone had nearly annihilated the entire empire that Yaan had built up over the years.

Many of the formerly captured vassal tribes under the Bloody Totem Tribe had now switched sides, joining the Lunar Song Tribe. Some did this for revenge, but most simply saw this switch as the safest choice given the circumstances.

It was dire, but there were at least some saving graces.

Firstly, Yaan's demonic figure had been too firmly imprinted into the minds of too many people. Many believed that one day, he would return…and they couldn't be certain that he would care about abiding by his exile when he saw the ruins that had become of his empire.

The other, more serious issue, was Ga Shu.

Ga Shu was an immortal, he could not be ignored!

Ga Shu was formerly a member of the Greenwood Tribe, and it was known that he still cared for that tribe, despite leaving. He was an Aztec who married the ancestor of the Greenwood Tribe, a Fae woman, their story was known to many and had become a touching tale of love and tragedy.

Ga Shu was known to be extremely grateful towards Yaan, to the point of actual loyalty.

Naturally, nobody dared to so much as say a bad word about the Greenwood Tribe, but what if…what if when Yaan and Ga Shu returned, Ga Shu joined the Bloody Totem Tribe, then re-established the Bloody Totem Province, acting as the ruler, whilst Yaan remained the true ruler from the shadows…

Such a thing would be seriously pushing the bounds of the war flower law, but it could just about be done if they went about it in the right way!

And so, even though the Bloody Totem Province was assaulted relentlessly, with many of their vassals and riches plundered, there were certain lines which were not crossed.

The original Bloody Totem Province, meaning the former Starry Plain Province, remained its own province, governed by the Bloody Totem Tribe. No important members of the Bloody Totem Tribe, or at least no members who had a known relationship with Yaan or Ga Shu, had been killed.

They had certainly been stressed for this last year though, stressed beyond belief.

The tribe was not in ruins, but the mental state of every tribe elder was on the verge of breaking down. They had to deal with small wars endlessly on a daily basis, making true rest impossible.

They were still better off compared to the time before Yaan joined them…in a sense.

They now had multiple 5-Star warriors. They had greater riches. They ruled this dilapidated, war-torn province.

And they were forever plagued by the responsibilities of upper management.

Whenever the Bloody Totem Tribe Leader thought of Yaan, she felt aggrieved.

She could understand it if he wanted to leave. He had been exiled, he had little reason to stay, other than their minor arrangement. However…

Did he really need to go without saying a single word?!

She felt as if she had been used, as if the 'Red Demon' had treated her as his tool all along, a tool to achieve whatever incomprehensible goal he was trying to accomplish.

"Hah…" She sat back in her bearskin chair, staring up at her manner ceiling, lost in thought.

"L-Lord Tribe Leader! Lord Tribe Leader! I bring urgent news!"

As a messenger burst into her home, she scowled at the frantic looking young man and was about to berate him for his impudence. However, when he quickly explained the matter that was so urgent, she quickly jumped to her feet and left her manor house at her fastest possible speed.

"It's Lord Red! Lord Red has returned to his temple estate!"

Yaan tried to avoid coming into contact with too many people, or else he could not be certain that he would be able to control himself. Even now, Rui was already using soul spells on him repeatedly, just to help calm and sooth his crazed soul.

Once she had gathered enough information from the people in the province, Yaan immediately secluded himself away.

He locked himself away underground in his basement filled with multiple psyche cultivation formations. As for the situation above ground, it was impossible for others to even enter his garden, the formations he had set up made it impossible for anyone below 6-Star to even find the entrance.

"Hah…hah…hah…" Yaan breathed heavily, but even after trying to catch his breath and calm himself, the slaughterous desires did not let up.

When he gave in to the slaughterous desires, engaging in killing and bloodshed, he felt sane, free, unrestrained, and 'clear-minded'.

But when he resisted the slaughter, the opposite became true. Slaughterous thoughts that were not being fulfilled plagued his mind ceaselessly, causing his sound thinking to go haywire.

He didn't understand it…why was it so extreme?!

Why was a mere slaughter variant within his spirit soul so powerful that it could overwhelm his high level Thousand Sage Grade sea of consciousness?

Why was his own dao comprehension driving him towards insanity?!

When he had these thoughts, Yaan's eyes widened and he realised the truth.

His slaughter soul was currently a Noble Spirit, just a short step away from becoming a Royal Spirit. If he followed soul cultivation, his cultivation would be at just Rank 3.

But he did not follow soul cultivation, he followed the Four Paths Cultivation technique. In this technique, even possessing the most primitive of spirit souls meant having Rank 5 cultivation. With his Noble Spirit, he had reached the realm of Mid Rank 5!

But his Thousand Sage Grade sea of consciousness was only equivalent to Rank 4 within psyche path!

In order for his mind to gain the sufficient tenacity to properly control his slaughter soul's existence, he needed to attain a Myriad Sage Grade sea of consciousness!

Slaughtering more was not the answer right now, in fact, doing so would only strengthen the slaughter soul, making the situation even worse!

"But how can I possibly obtain a Myriad Sage Grade sea of consciousness?" Yaan asked himself bitterly.

Slightly over one year ago, his sea of consciousness could manifest 9,200 psyche avatars. At that point in time, he had only just developed an Arch Spirit…

Now, one year later, his soul had become the higher ranked Noble Spirit and was merely 3% progression away from ascending into a Royal Spirit. During this past year, he had been forced to endlessly endure the torture of resisting his soul's slaughterous desires . He was made to ground himself in reality whenever he found himself lost in irrational and hectic thinking. He was constantly tearing down the overwhelming emotional urges that drove his mind towards insanity on a daily basis!

And yet, even with all that, he could now manifest 9,350 psyche avatars, just 150 more than before!

Starting from 9,000, the closer he stepped towards 10,000, the slower his progress would become.

"There is a reason that psyche cultivation is almost never pursued as a primary path." Rui appeared from the ring and sighed. "Most people believe that psyche cultivation is uncommon because the cultivation of the mind is too weak, that it lacks battle strength…but that is not the real reason. The real reason lies in the near impossible task of forming the Myriad Sage Grade sea."

Yaan nodded slowly.

Psyche cultivation was somewhat unique.

There were no special breakthroughs between the 'realms', though in truth, this was said to be because psyche cultivation progression followed behind the path that had already been opened up before it. When a person cultivated their primary path, they comprehended each realm boundary and weaved their way through the realms in a certain way. Taking psyche cultivation as the supplementary path, its progression simply followed in the footsteps of that preset path.

"Wait!" Yaan realised something, suddenly sitting upright. "My previous thinking was wrong! If psyche cultivation is a 'subsidiary' path to the Four Paths Cultivation technique, then it should be necessary to reach the Peak Vital Qi Spirit realm first! Only after reaching the peak of Rank 5 in another path, or rather in three other paths, can psyche cultivation actually have a route to follow and a destination to arrive at!"

Rui's furrowed her brows when she heard Yaan's deduction. Truthfully, she had never been overly familiar with the Four Paths Cultivation technique during her lifetime, though naturally she knew of its existence. Most of what she knew of this technique came from watching and observing Yaan's own progress.

In one of his moments of clarity, Yaan had found the true way forwards! Only, this truth made him feel even more depressed.

"If I develop my soul into a Peak Imperial Spirit, won't I completely and totally lose my mind? How am I supposed to cultivate my mind in that state?"

"Perhaps we can devise a treasure, or a spell, a technique, a formation, or something of the sort, to help retain your sound mind…oh, he's gone again."

Rui sighed as she watched Yaan's eyes fill with grey power and bloodshot veins like some sort of ferocious beast.

As Yaan rapidly switched back and forth between sanity and lunacy, Rui started experimenting with various low level, low cost soul spells on him. Each time she used a soul spell, it weakened her, but Yaan compensated her for it each time by allowing her to restore some of her strength using blood essence.

When Yaan understood her intentions, he gave her a dozen Rank 6 beast blood essence drops directly. At this point, there was no point in holding back…he was in a vulnerable state so frequently that if Rui wanted to harm him, she could do so even with a minimal amount of strength.

But that wouldn't benefit her. Right now, she wanted to see Yaan's progress.

Eventually, after experimenting with hundreds of soul spells and variations of those soul spells, Rui came across one in particular that showed serious promise.

"Duality of sanity…" Yaan muttered.

He did not learn this spell, since using it on himself would be a suicidal action due to his slaughter force.

In essence, this spell needed to be cast on him by Rui, once every 24 hours.

For 12 hours, it would actually completely clear Yaan's mind, giving him free rein over his thoughts!

Then for the next 12 hours, he would fall into a state of complete and utter madness. The slaughterous desires would become tens of time more dreadful, it would be horrendous for him to endure…

But this method granted him half a day of clarity every single day.

The price of casting this spell wasn't low; in order to affect the current Yaan, it would weaken her soul by an amount that could only be restored with one third of a Rank 6 blood essence droplet.

Yaan didn't need long to think it through. He agreed to go with this method, allowing Rui to cast the soul spell on him.

White mist poured into his soul directly, but hidden within the pristine whiteness was a horrendous darkness.

Yaan wasn't stupid, he had obviously watched her cast the spell on empty air beforehand, analysing the components within that mist using reveal truth, before allowing her to use it on him. Even when she did use it on him, he still activated reveal truth, cautiously checking that there were no issues.

As the white mist encompassed Yaan's soul, for the first time in what felt like forever, a feeling of relief washed over him.

He felt no aimless murderous intent!

He wasn't being driven mad by slaughter!

He could think clearly and rationally, with the full extent of his powerful mind!

With his sanity temporarily in check, Yaan's first course of action was to visit those people who had all gathered cluelessly throughout the forest above ground, searching for his temple home.