Chapter 262: Journey To Uniqueness

"Seems like you might have some guesses," Xuan Zi said, having noticed the change in his countenance. "Mind sharing?"

From the corner of his eyes, Xuhan noticed Mu Ran shaking his head, wide-eyed. Getting the cue, he coughed awkwardly and answered, "It's not a secret I can reveal, sect master. My hands are tied here."

Fortunately, Xuan Zi didn't push the matter, even though Xuhan did notice a hint of dissatisfaction and disappointment in his eyes.

"Fine. But keep in mind, this secret might just be the reason behind the current situation your dao tower is in."

Feeling miffed, Han Xuhan tried to redirect the conversation.

"Sect Master, back when I re-entered my body and discovered the mental demon for the first time, my dao tower wasn't situated where it is right now. My dao tower has always been situated in a seemingly endless plane. There was no sea of light, no black clouds blocking the sky. So why did it change after the fusion?"

Instead of answering, Xuan Zi stared blankly at the sky for a few seconds. Then with a wave of his palm, a glassy blanket seemed to envelope the entire mountain, separating them from the outside world.

"Now, we can speak without so many restrictions," he said, calculating something on his fingers.

"As for your question, the situation you are in is so complex and unique that I believe you're the first cultivator in history to have reached this state in this way...and I'm not praising it.

We can separate your journey to the Totality of Autonomy into several phases. Firstly, when you allowed your minions to cultivate, they generated a level of fundamental, secondary control over your own dao tower, dividing it into portions that could be deemed as their foundations.

"Secondly, when you discarded your body and cultivation to possess Fang Xie, you severed your connection to your dao tower, which resulted in the destruction of your foundation by the heavenly laws, as there can be no tower without an owner. However, while destroying your dao tower, the heavenly authority also must have realized that parts of your dao tower have other owners, although secondary in nature. So it seems that the law spared Zhanxian, Tun Shi Tian, and Hai Yin Zhe's portions of the tower and only destroyed yours. What it failed to perceive, was that even its destructive measure didn't fully wipe off your control over your dao foundation. Whatever secret it is you're not telling me, this secret enabled you to retain that power behind heaven's scrutiny!

"The third change took place when the mental demon possessed you. As you've mentioned, when you met the demon for the first time, your dao tower was still inside the spiritual world you were familiar with, which many call the Heavenly Dao Domain. It is believed that all cultivators under heaven's rule nurture their foundations in this spiritual domain. But once the mental demon tried to take over the control of your body, it resulted in the expulsion of your spiritual world, the roots of your foundation from the Heavenly Dao Domain.

"Why would such a consequence come about, you ask? It's because the current heavenly court is determined to wipe off every trace of the demon race from the macrocosm. Even a mental demon occupying a small corner in a cultivator's spiritual world would attract heavenly punishment the moment it reveals its trace. The problem here is that the demon possessing you entered your body AFTER your dao tower was destroyed and deemed non-existent by the heavenly laws. This demon isn't a mental demon of your own, but it is occupying your spiritual world through a forced procedure forbidden since time immemorial! So when it revealed its existence and tried to take over the control of your body and spirit, the heavenly law was immediately attracted, but since your dao tower had already been destroyed, it could not rain down deadly punishments on your spiritual world.

"This was a paradoxical situation, and as an impartial judge, the heavenly authority could not incriminate the foundations of your minions. It instead made a cunning decision and expelled your spiritual world, and that in consequence took you and your minions out of the Heavenly Dao Domain, placing you inside the Totality of Autonomy, a spiritual world that is rumored to exist outside the control of heavenly law, outside the scope of Celestial scrutiny, the primordial spiritual world that has existed since the creation of the world of cultivation and perhaps even before that!"

Amidst the echoes of Xuan Zi's voice, Han Xuhan found himself so confounded, so overwhelmed by the perverse depths of the world of cultivation that he couldn't form any coherent thoughts for a long time.

Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou, and Xiao Wu, who were standing just a dozen meters away, looked as shaken as he was.

Finally, he managed to get his thoughts in order and asked the biggest questions he had at the moment.

"Sect Master, what is this demon race, really? And what conflict do the celestials have with them?"

Xuan Zi rubbed his temples, appearing tired.

"It's not that the Celestials have a conflict with them in general, disciples Xuhan. Only the current Celestials in the Heavenly Court have a prejudice against them. But even with this concealment spell protecting us, I cannot tell you much about it, mostly because I myself am an ant compared to the Celestials. I'm not privy to their secrets, or the politics in the heavenly court. The only reason I know that the demons are hated by them is because the entire macrocosm has witnessed the purge of the demon race in the hands of the heavenly court since the beginning of this millennium. Perhaps you can ask the demon in your spiritual world about it. I have a suspicion that he's not a simple demon out on an adventure to possess humans. There's a lot he's hiding from you, the most important among which is what kind of demon he is."

Mouth open, Han Xuhan tried to come up with a response several times before managing to say, "There are different types of demons?!"

Xuan Zi chuckled. "What's with the narrow outlook? Demons are spiritual beings. Having little ties with the material world makes them more prone to variety compared to humans and beasts. To my knowledge, there are two major categories of demons- ones that have to rely on a 'host' to define their existence, generally labeled as mental demons. The other category is free from such burdens. They have their own, unique existence, fashioned by themselves and the world they live in. They are true demons, also sometimes referred to as liberated demons. Of course, this knowledge I'm imparting to you is something I've come across through hearsay, gossip from cultivators far, far senior to me in age. So don't put too much value on it and work out your own conclusions."

A whole new realm of possibilities opened up in front of Xuhan. So there was an angle he hadn't considered? The demon inside him had claimed himself that he wasn't a manifestation of Xuhan's own mental disturbances! He wasn't Xuhan's mental demon. Then was he a true demon? What was the implication of that?

But as he stared eagerly at Xuan Zi, no other revelation followed.

"Is that all?" Han Xuhan asked, disappointed by the lack of information. Xuan Zi shrugged helplessly.

"I'm not thousands of years old, disciple Xuhan. How am I to learn of matters erased by the heavens centuries before my birth?"

That made sense. So Xuhan moved on to the next question.

"Sect Master, is there any relation between this Totality of Autonomy and the totality belonging to these demons?"

Xuan Zi shook his head. "Not as far as I know. I've told you already, even the existence of the Totality of Autonomy is a rumor. Many cultivators treat it as a baseless myth. I was a skeptic too...until today. Every detail you mention about it fits right in with some of the rumors."

"Do the rumors explain what this sea of light is? Or what this so-called Obsidian Leviathan is? And why is Master acting like that since he heard about it?" Xuhan said, gazing at Kong Ye who was still crouching in a corner of the yard, mumbling unintelligible words to himself.

"The sea of light is supposed to represent the primordial universe in its rawest form. It is said that the universe in its entirety is a mere reflection, a shadow, a projection of a collective mass of light. This light is not what we perceive as light around us, but the true originator of all lights, all energy, all material, all consciousness, all elements of reality.

"The obsidian leviathan, on the other hand, points to the end point of everything that exists; the devourer of all; the conclusion of time, space, and reality; the reaper of consciousness and energy. With the sea of light, it forms the perfect coexistence, like Yin to Yang.

"And the reason the proof of their existence has broken your master is because he was banished from his home world over an argument concerning this very issue."