Library Transformation

Yaan stared ahead, watching the thread of fate between himself and the Legacy Rune start to regain its vibrance as the flow of karma reversed. The karmic end was slowly drifting away, very gradually heading towards the point of karmic beginning.

Finally, still staring intently at the rune, Yaan muttered to himself calmly.

"I completed a dao heart of fate, because the fate of this world fills me with frustration and repulsion. I do not wish to align myself with fate, nor to follow its flow. My fate is not the fate that this world uses to bind me, but the fate that I will create to unbind the world. Paradoxes…I don't quite understand…is this a manifestation of my own dao? Or is this trial laid down by the fate of this world, like a defence used by fate to prevent anyone from interfering with its operations? Perhaps…I will not understand the answer to this until I complete this first paradox in its entirety. Oh well, it seems that I don't need to worry about that until the 1st Origin Era…if I even get there…"

Yaan was about to say aloud, 'perhaps I'm fated to reach the 1st Origin Era now', but he closed his mouth and chose to hold his tongue. He didn't want to speculate when really, he had no clue how this all worked. He also did not like the idea of his success being assured because of some twist of fate, the very thing that he was striving to overthrow.

"Fate has always struck me maliciously, it is never good in the end. I must ensure that I build the foundation of fate within my heart strong enough that the current fate of the world cannot corrupt my dao. Anyway, since this Legacy Rune is still here…"

Yaan took a step forward and smiled.

If the author of this legacy truly was him, then Yaan still needed to fully inherit this 'Dao Legacy' - after all, the thread of fate before him was still not properly resolved on his end.

It still sounded a bit unbelievable, but if it was all true, then Yaan knew that whatever lay in store for him would probably be quite shocking.

"If I was in the position of my 'future self', forced to seed the beginning of this karmic fate to create the paradox which I had already brought to an end in the past, then I would definitely exploit this paradox to the most extreme of extremes!"

Yaan's eyes gleamed with madness as he reached out. The danger that he felt in his heart grew more intense with each inch he approached closer…

Whether or not this danger was real might seem questionable…would his future self really take the risk of changing the past, or even accidentally killing his past self?

Yes, he would absolutely do that.

Over his many years of fighting, scheming and killing his way through the cultivation world, Yaan had developed his own style of ruthlessness. His ruthlessness was even acknowledge by the fallen Ruthless Empyrean and the will he left behind to watch over his inheritance.

Yaan would be as ruthless as he needed to be to his enemies, but to himself, he was even harsher, even more demanding, and far more cruel than he should need to be.

Yaan knew himself too well. As soon as his dao made contact with the remaining Legacy Rune and its ancient power, he would be thrust into a life and death crisis that could potentially kill him.

But it was also his style to choose the risks that he took carefully. For every risk, the reward would need to justify it.

"Well then, my self-proclaimed future self…let's see what you left for me. If you disappoint me, then I see no reason to believe a single word you said, and I'm sure that you're all too aware of that truth. Show me the power that I can attain…by one day becoming you!"

Just before his hand reached the dark golden rune, Yaan spread out his domain.

However, this time, it was different. Far, far too different…

When his domain touched the Legacy Rune, everything froze.

Yaan froze, the golden waters froze, the Legacy Rune froze…and his domain froze, spreading out no further.

Terrifyingly however, Yaan's mind remained fully active. It was as if he had been totally paralysed, and was left able only to observe.

The Legacy Rune started to shine with a brighter light than before. Previously, when Yaan returned from that dark world and the Legacy Rune had lost over two thirds of its lustre, he assumed that it must have weakened due to releasing those portions of will from within.

Yaan finally understood that he had severely underestimated the power that was the will within the dao heart.

The dao in the dao heart was enlightenment, understanding, and alignment with the true self. However, dao itself was formless and without power…

That said, when someone devoted their entire life to pursuing their dao heart, it was only natural that they would cultivate a certain will within their heart. This was the will behind their dao, the will to seek, create and live for their dao!

Divinities didn't talk about this much, and the Sage had also avoided going into detail. Now, Yaan finally understood.

Mortal, immortal and divine stage dao hearts could be attained via comprehension and alignment with one's own dao, and that alone was enough for the heart to ascend…

But what about after completing the dao heart?

Yaan had been wondering this for a while now. A divine stage dao heart was more commonly called a 'completed dao heart', because it represented complete understanding of the direction of one's own dao. Naturally, this was extremely difficult to achieve, hence the pitifully low number of Empyreans to appear over the course of the 2nd Origin Era.

But where could you even go from there? Yaan couldn't claim that he fully understood fate, but he understood how to continue walking along his own pathway of fate enlightenment. However, he now realised that understanding alone wasn't enough - he also needed to cultivate his strength of heart!

He watched the Legacy Rune shine with a dark golden aura that was ten times, then a hundred times, a thousand times, and finally 10,000 times brighter than its previous dormant state.

The smaller runes rearranged into a giant circular rune that rapidly snaked around him and suppressed him with more dark golden mist.

Yaan looked out into the golden sea, which had surrounded him in all directions for so long now, as it rapidly transformed into a vortex. He stared at the vortex, until it was so large that he couldn't see its end. By observing the power within the flowing spiral of golden waters as it seemingly grew without end, Yaan's scalp went numb and he continually assessed how large, and how powerful, this vortex was becoming.

Meanwhile, he was still frozen in place, hovering in the open region which granted him some hope of survival in the midst of this chaos.

Yaan broke out in cold sweat when he realised that the vortex had grown to at least several billion miles in width. His mind froze as he stared into the golden waters, and saw…

Legacy Runes!

He watched on with wide eyes as a previously intact Legacy Rune shattered into several fragments. Those fragments instantly fell apart into the smallest individual Dao Runes which made up the text in the original book, plus the various additions and alterations that had appeared after the transformation.

If that was all, Yaan would still be feeling relatively at ease. In the worst case scenario, if it turned out that this inheritance was actually just trying to kill him, he could walk along his chain of fate between his dao body and his cultivation body, leaving the library with just two steps.

But then, every single one of the foundational runes within the Legacy Rune disintegrated into thick golden power. Within moments, every perceivable trace of the thick golden power fused into the tremendously powerful golden sea vortex.

Yaan couldn't move right now, but even if he could, he would have no idea what to do. This level of threat was so far beyond him, and it had already surrounded him from every direction, that he couldn't do anything whatsoever.

Honestly, how was he supposed to fight back against something that was supposedly created by an older, wiser and stronger version of himself?

And so, Yaan relaxed. He didn't struggle, he didn't try to fight back, and he made no attempt to escape. Any of those things would be futile and result in his absolute loss, so instead, he focussed on analysing the situation.

Finally, he activated Reveal Truth.

One again, he was suppressed. He slowly ramped up the intensity over several minutes, but the suppression was simply too powerful to breach.

Then suddenly, Yaan pushed Reveal Truth to the limit for several seconds, before abruptly giving up without hesitation.

Soon enough, he developed a vague idea over what was happening right now.

Firstly and most crucially, was the suppression power within the vortex, created by a formation which activated at the end of the legacy. It seemed impossible that this had been preserved for so long, even through the Origin Era's cycle, but the truth was right before him.

Yaan had been allowed to inherit 99 ordinary legacies. After the 99th legacy was completely absorbed, the 100th Legacy Rune - the Dao Legacy of the world famous Progenitor Yang - would appear before him.

Unlike the Previous 99 ordinary Legacy Runes, which he had to search for with his own efforts, the 100th would descend directly before him. Yaan was guaranteed to tackle the 100th legacy, and now, finally, he could receive the plans that were set in motion in an entirely different Era.

The entire Boundless Dao Library had been transformed for this sole purpose!