Profound New Daos

12 daos, and now, 13 daos…

Based on his understanding of every known cultivation path across the 2nd Origin Era, Yaan didn't understand it at all.

Why was it that when they wrote their legacy texts in the language of the 1st Origin Era's Dao Runes, those cultivators all imbued a very specific number of daos into these runes? Yaan struggled to find even a few traces of those mysteries when he studied the runes, but by sublimating his Dao Soul in the dao waves of the Legacy Runes, everything became much, much clearer.

The Dao Runes of the 1st Origin Era, and the Divine Runes of the 2nd Origin Era, were not typical 'languages'. These 'languages' existed naturally throughout the world, but the bizarreness didn't end there…

If two people wanted to explain the same concept using these runes, what they created would look totally different.

Firstly, based on their own personal differences in understanding, their writing styles in these languages would vary massively, so even if they tried to produce the exact same thing, they would actually end up phrasing it completely differently.

Secondly, a single rune could represent a word, a phrase, an idea or concept, an expression of thought and contemplation, or anything else imaginable. However, each rune was created based on the creator's own dao. Because of this, every single Dao Rune inscribed into the original texts by each of the Legacy Authors, was unique to the creator's own dao comprehension, and no copies would be seen in any other Legacy Rune.

This made the language impossible to learn by any conventional methods, but Yaan never planned to bother with this anyway - these were no longer typical 1st Origin Era Dao Runes, but Dao Runes that had transformed after going through the Origin and entering the 2nd Origin Era, where their original meaning was distorted. These Legacy Runes were probably unique to the Boundless Dao Library, and trying to comprehend something so absurdly complex was impossible, especially considering that Yaan had never even seen a glimpse of the 1st Origin Era.

He understood the principle behind these runes, but recreating them would be a heavy undertaking.

Yaan understood that to inscribe their own Dao Runes or Divine Runes, cultivators used their dao heart to guide their hand. Naturally, this meant that if he wanted to create his own Divine Runes, the dao of fate would be concealed within.

He also understood that depending on the subject of his creation, other daos would be imbued naturally into the runes. If he wrote about his understanding of fire, then his own dao of fire comprehension would fill the runes. At the same time, the Heavenly Dao's earthly dao of fire would also make its way into the runes, but its presence would be much less noticeable unless the Heavenly Dao was specifically being discussed.

"If I could create my own Divine Runes, I am certain that my dao of fate would pervade each and every rune, overpowering any other dao within the runes. Unless I was focussing on a particular dao, the other daos imbued into my Divine Runes might not even be noticeable. Perhaps my dao of illusions, and maybe my dao of karma, would appear here and there, but that's only because my understanding of these daos has reached such a high level, and they are now thoroughly integrated into my Divine Power…"

Thinking this, Yaan nodded to himself as he reaffirmed his previous guess.

"If a dao is integrated into the foundation of your cultivation itself, then it will no doubt manifest within any of these apex runes. So then, in the 1st Origin Era, the majority of those powerful cultivators who left behind legacies in this library…had exactly 12 daos ingrained into their cultivation base?"

When he thought about it like this, it didn't sound too far-fetched.

"There is still a single major dao predominating each Legacy Rune - the dao of the author's heart. The dao heart is a mysterious thing, but it's an irrefutable truth that at higher stages, one's dao heart can be summarised with a single dao."

It wasn't long before Yaan found another Legacy Rune. This was the 17th now, and once again, he observed 12 daos clearly within. He started looking for any traces of other daos that might have slipped in…

Yaan could indeed perceive other daos, but their presence was too faint for him to single out and identify.

The 18th Legacy Rune, 19th, 20th…

25th…

30th…

40th…

50th.

50 Legacy Runes! 

Yaan wasn't keeping track of the passing time, nor did he know what was happening in the outside world. Honestly, the longer he spent in the Boundless Dao Library, the less he cared about any of that.

Even if his cultivation base clone was in immediate peril, Yaan wouldn't leave this library prematurely just to save it. He would rather let his own Divine Step clone perish, than miss out on the bountiful fruits filling this wonderful sea of gold!

"After taking in 50 Legacy Runes, I can more or less confirm my previous guesses. Also, 12 daos really is the most common here - 43 of those Legacy Runes were imbued with 12 daos from their creators, 2 had an additional dao at 13, and the remaining 5 had either 9, 10 or 11. Legacy Runes formed by cultivators with more daos contain more mystery and perfection."

When Yaan found the 51st Legacy Rune, his eyes shone expectantly.

He had found all that he could about the differences in dao and cultivation between the two Eras, but recently, he noticed something else.

Aside from the 12 daos which came from the legacy authors themselves, traces of the Heavenly Dao slipped in here and there, filling most of the Legacy Runes with anywhere from a few to a few hundred daos. These daos were only present in meagre traces however, Yaan couldn't really identify any of them - the fact that they were so heavily distorted after undergoing the Origin Era transformation certainly didn't help his study.

But he finally noticed that in every single Legacy Rune, there were two particular daos that were present across the board. The reason that he noticed these daos, despite their presence being almost negligible in most of the Legacy Runes, was because he noticed that one of these daos was connected to every single one of the daos under the Heavenly Dao, and the other…was connected to every single dao within the legacy, without exception!

The first of these unique daos was easy to assess. Since it appeared in the background behind every trace of dao from the Heavenly Dao, it could only be the dao of heaven! The dao of heaven was an elusive and heavily debated dao throughout the world, mostly because it was said that only Heavenly Deities and Heavenly Empyreans, those who had comprehended every single earthly dao to the divine stage, could even perceive the existence of the dao of heaven!

The Heavenly Dao was an entity, it was not actually a dao itself. Some believed that the Heavenly Dao actually possessed a dao heart of heaven, and it used this dao of heaven to govern the world from above, standing forever supreme above all other life.

Yaan didn't know what was true and what was speculation, but for the first time in his life, he could actually perceive - albeit very faintly - the dao of heaven!

Perhaps this was why the Heavenly Dao didn't want him to enter? Because in this place, the dao of heaven could be observed and studied?

No, if that was the case, then why target only him and the Sage specifically?

Anyway, compared to the dao of heaven, Yaan was actually far more intrigued by the strange dao that lingered around each and every dao throughout these Legacy Runes. Like the dao of heaven, perceiving this very faint dao directly was only possible because it had undergone a transformation, and that 'transformed state of dao' was much more noticeable compared to any unchanged dao.

By the time he had studied 60 Legacy Runes, Yaan was able to confirm his guess.

"The dao of origin…" Yaan muttered to himself, hardly daring to believe in his own conclusion.

"Dao encompasses all things, so naturally, if there is something, there is also a dao of that something. However…I have never heard a cultivator suggest the existence of a 'dao of origin'."

Slowly, Yaan smiled, his heart filling with anticipation.

"The dao of origin…compared to any other dao outside of my dao heart of fate, what dao could possibly be more impressive than the dao of origin? The Origin is the world, the birthplace of all things, it is existence itself!

Of course, there was also the vast expanse of Chaos outside of the Origin, and then there was…the Void.

Origin, Chaos, Void, these were the three conceptual 'zones' that made up quite literally everything in the universe, as well as the nothingness that existed outside of that everything.

"The Origin is what allows the world to exist, it is what allows life to exist, it is the reason for all things actually existing. The expanse of Chaos outside of the Origin might seem shocking from the rumours, but Defiance also once said that beyond the vast expanse of Chaos, is the Void. The Void is the end of existence; eternal, timeless, nothingness. I haven't yet seen this wider world with my own eyes, but I live within the Origin, and I once caught a glimpse of the Void. I might be the only non outsider to understand that the expanse of Chaos…is in reality just the unstable boundary between the Origin and the Void, between existence, and the lack therefore of!"

Yaan took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes as he approached the next Legacy Rune. 

At first, when he entered this library and discovered the Legacy Runes, he only wanted to understand the nature of these runes themselves.

Before long, he wanted to comprehend the enlightenments left behind in these legacies from the powerhouses of the 1st Origin Era.

Now, he had a grander goal…he wanted to comprehend the dao of heaven…and the dao of origin!

"Comprehending the dao of heaven, even by the smallest trace, will massively enhance my ability to comprehend the earthly daos underneath the Heavenly Dao. As for the dao of origin, I really have no clue, but the dao of what is quite literally the ancestor of all existence must be useful somehow, right?"

As Yaan stepped forwards and engulfed the 61st Legacy Rune with his domain, he was actually focussing on something else, too. He was focussing on the dao of heaven, the dao of origin…and the connection between the two.

Yaan, like many cultivators in this world, had always wondered something…

Just what was the Heavenly Dao, exactly?

Back when he believed the Heavenly Dao to be the dao itself, the insentient force of nature that simply existed because that was how things were, this question hadn't bothered him much.

But ever since he came to understand that the Heavenly Dao was actually an almighty powerful being, different to any other form of life and seemingly restrained quite heavily by its own rules, Yaan really, really wanted to understand this oppressive thing more clearly.

He wanted to understand the source of the Heavenly Dao's power.

He wanted to find a way to use this power for himself!

The 61st Legacy was actually a 13-dao legacy, with numerous extremely minor daos that didn't even add up to one hundredth of a percent of the Legacy Rune. However, much to Yaan's pleasant surprise, this first Legacy which he tackled after deciding on his new goal in this library, immediately provided him with a great help!

"The dao of balance as their core dao, and the dao of extremity as their 1st supporting through 12th supporting dao. Interesting, so cultivation in the 1st Origin Era could also be like this, cultivating the same dao repeatedly for every supporting dao?"

When he thought about it, Yaan realised that this was not the case - this was an exception.

"The dao of balance is very similar to the fundamental ambition of the Heavenly Dao, and seeing them together, its clear that they share many qualities. For the sake of balance, their primary dao embodies exactly 50% of the total dao imbued into this legacy…and the dao of extremity embodies the other 50%."

After assessing the strangeness of this person's pursuit of dao, Yaan slowly started to understand certain things that he had never expected to comprehend so soon, all because he had sublimated his Dao Soul in the dao of a single Legacy Rune.

"Like the Heavenly Dao, this person pursued balance. However, ultimate balance without any extremity is conversely unbalanced. For true balance, there must also be ultimate extremity; that was supposed to be the role of mankind in the Heavenly Balance. This cultivator likewise pursued extremity to solidify their balance. They cultivated extremity itself, time and time again, until it was exactly equal to their core dao of balance."

"The resolve to pursue such a path is truly ambitious." Yaan nodded as he imagined it. "Thanks to this legacy I have finally comprehended a trace of the dao of heaven! The dao of heaven is balance, but that is just the beginning - balance is merely the necessary state of being for the dao of heaven to truly thrive. To cultivate the dao of heaven…is to control the fundamental laws of operation in the world! The 3,000 earthly daos, the various dao-based hurdles throughout all paths of cultivation, the blessings, calamities, tribulations and retributions…it is all the Heavenly Dao's way of cultivating its own dao of heaven. The Heavenly Dao controls the laws which govern this world, that is the dao of heaven. However…"

Yaan's eyes shone even more brilliantly than before, because his revelations didn't end there.

"The dao of heaven has nothing to do with creating the world, only controlling it. Most cultivators believe that the world of the four planes was created by the Heavenly Dao, but this is likely untrue. No, the birth of 'the world' was simply the natural course of events for the Origin, which is itself the source of all existence. The Origin created the world…or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that the Origin 'became the world', before the Heavenly Dao stepped into this world and enveloped it entirely. This world was originally devoid of law, order and control, so the Heavenly Dao elected itself as the governing body of the world, using the dao of heaven as its tool of enforcement…"

This understanding of Heaven was already vastly superior to the majority of divinities, but Yaan was actually more thrilled about his other gains just now…

He had developed initial comprehension of the dao of heaven, but likewise, he had comprehended the first, faintest trace, of the dao of origin!

The fact that the Heavenly Dao - and therefore the dao of heaven - had completely attached itself to the Origin, made it much easier to observe and understand the various transformations that 

both of these daos underwent during the change of Origin Eras.

Better understanding the role of the Heavenly Dao and the function of the dao of heaven helped Yaan to comprehend that which held most of the world's greatest mysteries - the Origin!

Long ago, he had seen a glimpse of the Void, the exact opposite of the Origin. This helped to validate most of his deductions regarding the Origin, and therefore the dao of origin.

"The Origin really is existence itself. All life is born within the Origin, all existence originated from the Origin. Only those who transcend their Origin Era can actually leave the Origin and survive in the vast expanse of chaos, a region of space that arises when existence and non-existence collide."

Yaan sighed when he thought about the vast bleakness of the world beyond the Origin.

"There is very little to be found in the expanse of Chaos, it's mostly just true Chaos, meaning few things can exist there without being instantly destroyed. And outside of the expanse of Chaos, is the Void. Out there in the endless Void…there is nothing. In the Void, there cannot be anything in any form, for the Void is the lack of all things. Even the birth of the Origin is probably akin to a miracle…no, how could it just be luck? Then, maybe, for existence to arise within the timeless nothingness of the Void, was actually inevitable…?"

"Perhaps this is yet another form of binary balance." Yaan suddenly realised. "Where there is existence, there is a counter; non-existence. Where there is non-existence, there is a counter; existence. The Void and Origin are the two greatest extremes throughout the universe, so extreme a pairing that Chaos arose between the two. This Origin…is the only Origin, because the Origin is not a physical object, but a concept; the concept of existence, and the infinite possibilities that may potentially arise from this existence. There cannot be 'another Origin', because the Origin is simply the boundless potential of existence itself."

Yaan silently made his way through several more Legacies. Even after completing 90 legacies, he continued to ponder the Origin.

"The Origin is, quite literally, the grandest thing in all of existence. The dao of origin is not just the Origin's law of operation…the dao of origin, is also the Origin itself! It is the source of all things that ever were, currently are, and ever will be. I have grasped a basic understanding of this dao, and yet, I can't think of a single way to actually make use of it."

After a while, Yaan chuckled to himself and shook his head.

"I'm sure that in the future, this understanding will come in useful."

He felt the same way about his brief insight into the Void. Right now, Yaan's minor understanding over the Origin and Void was basically useless to him, other than helping him understand the world a little bit better. However, he was sure that eventually, perhaps only after he transcended the Origin, these comprehensions would show their worth.

And so, on he went.

The 95th Legacy, the 96th Legacy, the 97th Legacy, the 98th Legacy…

Yaan had now sublimated his Dao Soul through 98 Dao Legacies, left behind by 1st Origin Era cultivators whom not only possessed completed dao hearts, but had also lived for far longer than anyone in the 2nd Origin Era, and refined their strength to heights never seen before in the 2nd Origin Era.

98 Dao Legacies, transformed from texts into runes that could directly sublimate his Dao Soul in those 98 powerhouses' daos, combined with the transformative power of the Origin entering a new Era.

Yaan had made sure to spend at least several hours meditating on his enlightenments after each 18 second sublimation of his Dao Soul. Meditating and contemplating those daos immediately after the experience was crucial to ensure that none of his understandings were lost, but even with this, he would need to go into secluded meditation for quite some time after he left the library in order to properly integrate and build upon his new understandings and his shift in perspective.

"I've not only gained some understanding of the Origin and a much deeper understanding of the Heavenly Dao, but my comprehension of so many daos has exploded upwards. I even comprehended a small portion of the dao of heaven…"

To measure Yaan's dao comprehension progression in terms of 'Immortal Stage' or 'Divine Stage' comprehension would simply not do him justice. Those terms, when talking about the earthly daos in the 2nd Origin Era, referred only to one's comprehension over the Heavenly Dao's current version of that dao. Immortal stage comprehension meant complete comprehension over a complete fragment of a dao, and divine stage comprehension meant complete comprehension over the entire dao.

But how could any dao ever be 'fully comprehended?' Dao was limitless, there was no end to its mysteries! 

In fact, Yaan now understood that in the 2nd Origin Era, the Heavenly Dao deliberately weakened certain areas of many of its earthly daos. It did this to hinder the progress of cultivators' dao comprehension, sometimes even leading them astray from the true essence of the dao.

And remember, there were only 2,995 earthly daos in the 2nd Origin Era right now. Across the 98 legacies, Yaan had been blessed with the chance to comprehend 83 daos that were not included in those earthly daos, and over two thirds of those were daos that he had previously not even touched upon!

Comprehending new daos was never a bad thing. Even if those daos weren't directly useful, comprehending dao in general helped cultivators to deepen their understanding of their own dao in their heart. Another benefit, was that these newly comprehended daos could be incorporated into new spells and techniques to form and enhance various supplementary mechanisms of the technique.