Dao Exploration Illusion

'Huh…?' Yaan thought to himself, feeling confused by everything around him.

The moment he consumed the Rank 7 pill, he forgot everything. He forget himself, his current situation, and before long, he forgot his own life, becoming fully immersed in his own immortal dao comprehension; the dao of illusions.

'Where am I…?'

For a moment, his mind was hazy, but in the next instant, his eyes opened wide.

In this single instant, it was as if he had become someone else entirely.

An incredible rage overtook his mind and heart, causing him to roar out in anger.

"Heavenly Dao, you dare to interfere with this devil's reincarnation?!"

There was no response, but a certain understanding was born in his heart.

"This was caused because I unknowingly allowed the cursed Heavenly Dao to enter my heart in order to facilitate my reincarnation…damnit! At this rate, my entire dao heart will shatter!"

In this moment, the red-haired devil, in his state of being neither alive nor dead, made a shocking decision.

"I have no choice but to fragment my Dao Soul into five parts! Only like this can I remove the Heavenly Dao's influence!"

With an enraged ferocious roar, the terrifying red-haired muscular being tore apart his own Dao Soul into five separate fragments. This was an incomprehensible decision; perhaps only this devil could actually attempt something so insane and survive!

At this moment, Yaan lost contact with the other four fragments, experiencing his journey as only a single one of them.

For a long time, he lay dormant…

He entered a living being, but it was not suitable, so he was passed along to the next…

And the next, and the next, and the next…

After 1,800 years, finally, his Dao Soul awoke.

He blinked his young eyes dazedly, looking at the woodlands around him, feeling confused for a moment. This feeling lasted until his father called out to him, telling him to stay away from the dark forest.

Right, he had to go home, his mother was giving birth, he needed to meet his baby sister…

"Hah, hah, hah, hah…!" Yaan gasped for breath, his eyes darting about wildly, feeling confused and disorientated. For a moment, he struggled to recall what was real and what was not.

This feeling only lasted for a few seconds, before it faded away, leaving Yaan in deep contemplation. Even the immense slaughter in his soul could not distract him from his musings, as this illusion was simply too intriguing.

"This pill should have the effect of immersing its user in an aspect of their dao which is of great importance. Then for me, the matter of great importance is…my creation."

Yaan felt oddly calm, given what he had just witnessed.

"At this point, I cannot deny the truth. I am one of five fragments of a being known as the Primordial Devil…supposedly, I am the Fragment of Dao. I saw it in the illusion…the Primordial Devil's reincarnation went awry, forcing him to split his Dao Soul into five fragments in order to survive."

There were simply too many factors pointing towards this end. It was absurd, but Yaan had experienced so much absurdity in his life so far, that nothing seemed too farfetched any longer.

He stood up and walked out from the temple, gazing into the sky with a deep sigh.

"This life, this world…just what is it all for?"

**********

Primordial Mountain, the official headquarters of the Primordial Alliance, the strongest organisation on the Blood Plane, and the greatest enemy of the Divine Court.

The Blood Plane Lord sat atop his throne, looking out with a bored expression at the empty war hall. This was the place where the strongest divinities in the Primordial Alliance met for important meetings, but for the most part, it remained empty.

Right now, only a red-haired man with a large muscular build, and a young girl with emerald eyes and a black crystal embedded in her forehead remained here.

They were the Blood Plane Lord and the Primordial Sage!

The Blood Plane Lord, or the 'Primordial Devil' as he preferred to be called, despite having not yet regained that title, did not have much to do. He enjoyed fighting, and he wanted to train to become more powerful…but annoyingly, he needed to wait.

He needed to wait for a certain 'fragment' to reach a certain level before he could regain his former prestige.

"He has learned of and accepted his origin." The Primordial Sage suddenly spoke, causing the red-haired man's eyes to widen as he suddenly sat up.

"What? How?"

"The Fragment of Qi left him the Rank 7 Dao Exploration Pill. He saw his creation...but he failed to realise the full truth."

"And you didn't interfere?" The red-haired man asked plainly.

"Now that he is on the Blood Plane, it is acceptable for him to learn more. This much is still permitted within the divination's path." She replied with her ever-monotonous voice.

The red-haired man slowly nodded.

All of this was the Primordial Sage's plan anyway, there was no point in him overthinking it. If he was able to regain his former strength, and even go beyond that level, then that would benefit the both of them.

At this moment, the Primordial Sage said something else. These words stirred the red-haired man's heart even more than before.

"He is about to awaken her."

"Sura…" The red haired man muttered.

"It is not yet time to meet them." The young girl reminded him.

"I know." The Blood Plane Lord slumped back down in his chair, wearing an irritated expression. "Couldn't you do something to hurry up his progress at least?"

"I will not interfere until the correct time."

***********

After recovering from his experience with the Rank 7 pill, Yaan tried to understand if and how his illusion dao comprehension had improved. He had the vague feeling that he had touched upon something…upon multiple things…but it was impossible to pinpoint exactly what this was.

Dao comprehension was illusive. Sometimes, it was blatantly obvious what you had comprehended. Other times, it was impossible to see the results immediately.

Regardless, eventually, the results would begin to show.

For now, many of the details surrounding his existence were still dubious in Yaan's mind, so even after seeing that illusion, he refused to accept any firm conclusions.

In the end, Yaan couldn't deduce what he had gained other than the hazy memory of his creation, so he moved on without overthinking it too much.

Yaan lifted up the rough stone ring, holding it on the palm of his hand. This stone ring had been with him ever since he stepped onto the path of cultivation.

The ring itself had never been of use, but early on in his cultivation, Rui had been extremely helpful.

Yaan had long since gained the ability to reawaken Rui from her slumber, but he decided not to do so until he was confident that he could resist any potential malicious attacks from her. She knew soul spells, and if he only possessed a mortal soul, he would be completely defenceless.

Now, Yaan had a slaughter variant Spirit Soul. Rui, in her weakened soul form, could not touch him. Even if she was once an esteemed immortal, she was now just a pitiful injured woman.

"She said that three drops of Rank 6 beast blood essence would be sufficient…" Yaan muttered to himself.

Ever since he rampaged across the 22 provinces, he had looted many useful things. Even before the rampage, he possessed 6-Star Realm blood essence, but now, he actually had Rank 6 beast blood essence too!

"She said three drops…I'll try one first." Yaan decided.

He took out a glimmering drop of Rank 6 beast blood. As the blood drop drew closer towards the ring, the ring began lighting up with various symbols. There were nine symbols in total, all blood-red in colour.

He placed the blood drop onto the ring, causing the symbols to glow brightly. The brightness increased and increased, further and further…

But Rui did not awaken.

Before the symbols started to lose their lustre, Yaan added another drop.

The symbols glowed brighter than before, illuminating the room in blood-red light.

Suddenly, a faint silhouette of a woman began to emerge from the ring. She struggled to properly emerge, and floated in the air weakly. She showed a tired expression, as if she was about to lose consciousness at any moment.

"Do you have more…?" She asked with a faint voice. Her gaze drifted across towards the vial of blood in Yaan's hands and her eyes shone briefly.

"I can't maintain this form for long…just one more…."

Yaan remained silent, watching and observing Rui carefully.

Even in her weakened state, transparent and pale faced like a ghost about to vanish from this world, her beauty was practically unparalleled. When he had first met this woman, he had been young and completely awe-struck by her charm.

Her unblemished black hair, her robe that perfectly accentuated her curves, those red lips and brown eyes, the face of an immortal beauty, not belonging to this world.

Seeing her current weakened appearance, Yaan remained unmoved. He stared her in the eyes, waiting for her to drop the act.

When Rui saw Yaan's eyes, she realised something.

She immediately straightened up, looking at Yaan with an indifferent gaze, her elegance returning and the somewhat pitiful expression from before was nowhere to be seen. She did not look weak in the least, though she really was more transparent compared to when Yaan had seen her in the past.

"You've grown up." She stated plainly.

"It's been over 200 years." Yaan replied.

Rui's eyes widened slightly.

"So long? I'm surprised that you actually survived for so long in this world without my assistance…"

Yaan narrowed his eyes.

"You really are weakened right now?"

"Yes." She nodded. "One more drop will stabilise my awakening, I won't ask for more than that right now."

Yaan nodded, then flicked one more drop onto the ring. He made sure to place the vial back into his storage ring before placing a single drop onto the ring, cautious that she might have some method to steal everything all at once.

He would not allow Rui to become too powerful.

With the third droplet of blood, Rui's form solidified. Her former splendour returned, her figure giving off a faint but pure white light. She exhaled deeply, and the indifferent coldness in her gaze became even stronger.

She stared at Yaan silently, whilst he stared back at her.

"Smart, waiting until you reached Rank 5 before reawakening me. You have clearly understood that nobody in this world can be trusted, not even those closest to you." She finally spoke after a period of silence.

Yaan did not reply, but stared back at her with a narrowed gaze.

Rui suppressed a frown. She could not see through him at all, she could only tell that he possessed Rank 5 cultivation. Yaan was hiding the truth with his illusion dao, whilst she was too weakened to see through this concealment.

But his gaze made her feel unsettled…

In the next instant, Yaan's eyes made her own eyes flicker in shock for a barely discernible instant.

"Dao spell!" She exclaimed as Yaan activated Reveal Truth.

A few seconds later, Yaan deactivated the spell. Indifferently, he said:

"It seems that I guessed the name of this type of spell correctly."

"You actually conceived a dao spell without even knowing what one is?" She asked, barely hiding the incredulous tone from her voice.

The Yaan she remembered was a young, naive boy, easy to manipulate…the perfect tool.

The perfect ingredient.

Yaan stared at Rui for a long time.

There was something he wanted to know, and that was his main reason for using Reveal Truth on her…

Did she remember the happenings of the True-False Illusion World?

As far as he could tell, right now, she could not remember.

But this left Yaan feeling confused. Back then, the illusory Rui had manipulated him, all so that she could 'survive' the collapse of the illusory world.

She, an illusion, devised a plan to survive. Although Yaan's actions at the end differed from her predictions, it should not have affected her own plans…

Yaan slowly looked down at the stone ring. Now that Rui had awakened and had finished absorbing the blood essence, the ring returned to its usual dull appearance.

The illusory Rui back then had entered this black stone ring.

"Rui…what is inside this ring, exactly?"

Rui, who was still trying to see through the true extent of Yaan's power, was slightly surprised by this question.

"The ring is useless to you, there's no point-"

"I don't care about taking the ring for myself. I just want to know what is inside. How are you able to reside within it?" Yaan asked again.

Rui remained silent for some time as she pondered her answer.

"This is a complex matter. Why do you want to know?"

Yaan knew that Rui would not tell him this for free. He needed to give her some incentive. He would rather give her some information rather than more blood essence, so…

"I believe that a separate portion of your memories are still residing within the ring."

Rui stared at Yaan, but she could not see through his expression.

'He has become a true expert at hiding his emotions…' She sighed to herself. Yaan's immortal stage dao of illusion comprehension was not just for show.

"And why would you think such a thing?" She asked.

Yaan did not answer her question, but decided to rattle her in a different way.

"Rui…did you enter a certain inheritance as a mortal, an inheritance with a ten-fold accelerated rate of time, an inheritance that forced you to cultivate as a fiend until something unexpected happened?"

For the first time, Rui's indifferent facade broke down. It was only for a brief moment, but her eyes widened, showing her shock. She was completely caught off guard by this insight into her true past, something which Yaan could not possibly know about!

But the change in expression vanished in an instant, as if it had never occurred.

"Why would you say something like that?" She asked expressionlessly.

Yaan smiled. So it was true.

The information regarding Rui's exit from the inheritance as a vampiric immortal was recorded in the Southern Continent's library, but her entrance into the inheritance and her initial cultivation as a fiend was not.

Yaan only knew that she entered the inheritance as a mortal, because the illusory Rui within the True-False Illusion World had told him so.

With this, Yaan could confirm a suspicion that he had held onto for a long time….

The True-False Illusion World was no mere illusion. Or perhaps, it was more accurate to say that illusions were no less real than reality…

Yaan came to a decision. Perhaps this was a risk, but it was also an opportunity to gain more information, about this world, and about himself.

He was going to reawaken the illusory Rui.

"Rui, some time ago, I entered an illusion trial located at the Northernmost point of Planet Yushu. An inheritance world with a ten-fold acceleration of time. An inheritance focussed entirely on body tempering. During that illusion trial, within the 'True-False Illusion World', I met an illusory version of you. I know that you entered the Southern inheritance, because you told me yourself. You entered as a mortal, then emerged 200 years later as a vampiric immortal."

Rui listened calmly as Yaan spoke in a leisurely manner, but her heart was shaken.

Like Yaan, she had noticed many strange occurrences throughout her life. Many strange encounters and coincidences, as if fate was dragging her in a certain direction…

And now, from the sounds of things, this person before her…had a very similar experience to her.

The fact that the two of them had met was clearly no coincidence!

Yaan smiled. His eyes contained endless killing intent, but Rui did not care about that.

"Rui…I hope that we can work together, to unravel this mystery of our cursed fate."