Chaos and Fate

Again…

Once again, someone had willingly sacrificed their life to save him.

It was true that Yaan had established the Paradise Sect with the aim of spreading his ambition amongst all living beings who had no hope of transcending this Era, but even so, whenever someone actually gave up their life for him so sincerely like this, it always made him feel…

Confused.

Why? Why was it that they were willing to give up their lives for him? Did they truly believe in him, in his path, his vision for the future?

With Zue Yin, he felt that this should be the case.

He would think about this some more later. Right now, dealing with Defiance was the most pressing matter.

Now that he had some time to think, Yaan's Sea of Consciousness rumbled and countless thoughts and ideas flashed through his mind with every breath. Even though he had only been bought a few seconds, this was more than enough time to muse over thousands of potential ideas.

Should he face Defiance directly, or continue to escape? Should he attempt to hide? He could probably succeed in hiding given his abilities…

However, what would be the point?

Defiance was right – if he always ran, hid, and tried only to survive, then he would never grasp the will needed to surpass the Origin. Those who could transcend an Era were all incredible mighty figures with complex dao comprehension and unshakeable wills, how could any of them live their lives so meekly?

To transcend the Origin, one needed to attain absolute confidence in themselves and their dao, Yaan understood this much.

So then, he would fight!

But how?

Yaan wanted to fight back properly, but he wasn't like Defiance, he couldn't care less about fighting openly, proudly and in an upfront manner. Victory was victory, so long as he managed to overcome his enemy, then any tactic was acceptable.

If he couldn't win this battle alone, then should he join forces with someone else?

He quickly gave up on this idea. Ignoring the very low likelihood that anyone would be willing to stand against Defiance to begin with, he didn't have enough time to seek out an ally and convince them to join him.

Suddenly, Yaan felt like all his efforts to establish the Paradise Sect were nothing but a joke. What was the point in developing his own force, if that force couldn't even stand by his side in his moment of need?

No, that wasn't quite right…the concept of establishing his own power wasn't wrong, it was just the timing that made it turn out poorly. The current world had already completely eliminated the existence of mortal life, this was no longer the same cultivation world that it had once been. At this point in time, as the 2nd Origin Era approached its end, the weak would be unable to continue living. More and more beings would lose their right to exist, as the strong fought rampantly and the world was broken down, one rule at a time.

Yaan could only sigh in his mind. Perhaps, if he truly wanted to explore the path of establishing his own force, he could only do so in a different Era…

But for that to become a possibility, he first needed to transcend the Origin!

Ever since his experience in the Boundless Dao Library, Yaan had the distinct feeling that the concept of an individual's 'will' would be the key factor in facilitating his ascension. In fact, since Progenitor Yang, his supposed future self, had clearly placed emphasis on this point, wasn't this fact already set in stone…wasn't this fate?

No…theoretically, if he was to truly believe and accept all that he had learned since becoming a divinity…wasn't his success already guaranteed…?

Origin Fate…

Just what was it? Just what was fate, exactly? Was the future truly fixed?

No, that was only 'his future', but it was actually the 'world's past'…and the past was not something that could be changed. At least, even Origin Gods did not seem to have the power to change the past.

Red chains had been flowing through Yaan's eyes for several moments now as he pondered over his options. Eventually, as his two streams of thought collided in waves within his Sea of Consciousness – the waves of fate and will – Yaan suddenly had an idea. However, this idea was not simply reckless, it was an absolute gamble, where the price for guessing wrongly would be his life.

"I want to understand will…but I'm not the God of Defiance; his will is not my will. I want to understand fate…I want to understand my will of fate. I have always grown by taking risks. I have always survived by putting everything on the line. My path has always been fraught with danger, to the extent that it seems statistically impossible to have survived as many near-death situations as I have. If it wasn't chance…then, was it fate? Or was it my own will? Is there even any difference…?"

As Yaan mumbled to himself, the red chains in his eyes suddenly came to a stop. At the same time, Yaan looked up, only to see Defiance staring down at him.

Unknowingly, Yaan had transformed back into his original appearance, and Defiance had returned to face him. There were no living beings in the immediate vicinity; even the Transcendents from Planet Phoenix had been killed by Defiance's pressure now.

Suddenly, Yaan felt inexplicably calm. A faint smile appeared on his face as he realised that there was only one way to confirm his musings.

He would just risk it all. If he failed, he would die. If he lived, he would take one more step forward.

"Defiance, attack me with everything you have. I won't defend myself. I too wish to test the so called 'Origin Fate'…"

Defiance Sovereign narrowed his eyes, squinting at Yaan as if trying to see through him. It was clear that he didn't trust Yaan's words at all.

Regardless, he didn't plan to let Yaan go either way, so before he could potentially try anything else, Defiance attacked.

Yaan really did deactivate all powers available to him. He stood there calmly, with the chains of fate frozen in his eyes. For some reason, he didn't feel a trace of anxiety, as if the outcome to this seemingly terrible plan was already decided in his favour.

Defiance Sovereign's fist accumulated a tremendous wave of golden power. His domain rippled out, tearing into Yaan's illusory body and causing cuts to appear all over.

Yaan stood there, unfazed, as if everything before him was insignificant. Defiance felt doubtful as his fist reached several feet from Yaan's. Body. His illusory body started to tremble and break down, but Defiance wasn't one to pull back after committing to an attack. Even if his enemy prepared a trap for him, he would just destroy it with his fist!

This wasn't arrogance, it was simply a fact.

Suddenly, Yaan's eyes widened.

In an instant, Defiance's domain was forcefully pushed back within his body. The momentum of his punch was brought to a stop, the golden aura and will vanished without a trace, as if everything before had been imagined.

Defiance's eyes widened, but he quickly glared at the figure that had appeared before him and his prey.

"Damned prophet, what now?!"

The old man in the pale blue robe completely ignored Defiance, but he continued to hold up his arm, restraining Defiance completely his palm, which at a glance, seemed to lack any sort of power. It was as if he was a mortal, and yet, his power completely defied common sense!

Yaan was even more shocked than Defiance, but not because of the prophet's appearance. The reason that he had taken this risk, was because he vaguely felt that he was fated to survive regardless. No matter what happened to prevent his death, he wouldn't be too surprised.

No, Yaan was shocked because the God of Chaos was staring at him with a rage like nothing he had ever seen before. The old man released no aura, but the look in his eyes made Yaan shiver, as if he had taken a wrong step, as if he had committed a cardinal sin that he absolutely should not have touched!

"Are you kidding me, Fate?"

The prophet's words were like thunder in Yaan's ears, but the words were heard by nobody but him. In fact, the world around him had come to a halt. All living beings, and even the laws and operations of the world, had simply…stopped.

In Yaan's eyes, all he could see was the rage and frustration on the prophet's face.

"This is my last chance to save you, but how can I leave you if you're going to be like this?!"

His words made no sense, Yaan didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Save me? Why do you want to save me? Aren't you here to prevent the invasion of the Paragon Wills…?" Yaan asked, once again confused by this entity.

"I couldn't care less about some Paragon Wills, about the Origin Eras, the Chaos Era, the entire world, or any life that has ever existed! I care about none of it! That is…aside from you."

The prophet's anger rapidly subsided. He sighed, and once again looked at Yaan with that familiar, yet unrecognisable emotion.

Yaan really didn't understand him at all.

When he saw Yaan's confusion, the prophet shook his head and laughed. As he laughed, his figure started to become indiscernible, but he ignored his collapsing body and smiled at Yaan once again.

"You don't understand me, but I understand you, better than anyone else in this world as of right now. My dao eludes you, and I have never understood your dao, but even so…your dao is all I have left, Fate."

The prophet suddenly trembled so violently that he instantly vanished. Yaan's eyes widened even further as he felt time rewinding by several moments, until the prophet appeared once again. This time, he stared at Yaan with a severe expression, forcing Yaan to listen intently to his warning.

"Do not rely on fate; it might be your greatest hope, but it is also your greatest adversary. You must remember - you create your own fate! No matter what happens, you must never accept anything that contradicts this truth."

Just as suddenly as the world stopped moving, it started moving once again. However, it seemed that today, the normal operations of the world were destined to be thrown into turmoil.

The second the prophet stopped interfering with the world, the world once again froze. The prophet turned his head and looked upwards, causing him to sigh deeply.

A giant palm of incalculable size and power had manifested above the world itself. The palm descended at a speed that could neither be called slow nor fast, because in its presence, all things in the world were forced to stop, their gazes drawn towards the palm in shock and fear.

Everyone felt like this palm transcended anything they had ever seen before, it was too terrifying! Under its pressure, they couldn't do anything other than watch it descend!

But in reality, many of the beings watching, did not realise that they had actually seen the hand of fate before, it was just that their memories had been erased.

As for Yaan, he also could not remember the time when the hand of fate had threatened him. That said, unlike everyone else, he felt like this palm was vaguely familiar…

Of everyone present, only Defiance and the God of Chaos truly remembered the hand of fate.

As the hand of fate descended towards him, the prophet actually looked away, turning back to Yaan with a melancholic smile.

"I see…so you knew all along, how it would end between us. I finally understand, the way that you looked at me back then."

BANG!

The prophet was destroyed by the hand of fate. He was killed in every sense of the word…

This marked the death of the God of Chaos.