Thirty Years

Crossing from one star system to the next was something that only divinities could achieve, due to the complete lack of energy within the vast regions of space which lay between each star system. The Neutral Star System wasn't the furthest star system from the Four Divine Star System, where Planet Yushu was located, but even so, Justice Deity needed to spend a full day travelling before she arrived at her destination.

Justice Deity's long distance travel speed was only average for a divinity, but this was still a speed that would leave any immortal staring after her trail with helplessness. Like all divinities, she had the ability to move much faster if she used certain methods to manipulate the dao of space, but these methods would result in catastrophic damage being inflicted upon the Qi Plane. No divinity would choose to do this unless it was a life or death situation, and Justice Deity was even less willing to do something so destructive.

Justice Deity still made use of the dao of space as she travelled, this was something that almost all divinities would learn to do. Her comprehension over the dao of space wasn't yet at the divine stage, but she had comprehended multiple immortal stage fragments of this dao, and when combined with her Divine Power, her will, and other abilities, she was able to create a spell which allowed her to travel long distances rapidly.

As she travelled, a golden cross, very similar to the one that could be seen within her eyes, shone beneath her feet. This wasn't a treasure, but part of her spell, and it caused her entire body to glow with the golden light of justice.

One day later, she arrived at Planet Yushu. At first, she concealed her aura and stopped outside of the planet's bounds, staring at the wasteland of a world down below as she carefully examined the situation.

Justice Deity was a principled, righteous and sometimes headstrong woman, but she wasn't stupid; no divinity was truly stupid. Some divinities sometimes came across this way due to their incomprehensible eccentric actions, but this was only because they were doing their utmost to live according to their dao heart. For divinities, living according to their dao heart was the most important aspect of their cultivation, because only like this could they further comprehend their dao heart to greater heights. This was the core of a divinity's cultivation.

She always lived according to her heart of justice, but that didn't mean she would rush into a situation without properly understanding it first. This was especially true when she could see such an immense aura of injustice; only a fiend of a being could create such a dark and evil aura, and she would truly feel bitter if she ended up rushing into a trap set by a demonic path divinity.

That said, an immense rage boiled in her heart as she felt the aura of resentment and hatred which filled this entire dead planet. It didn't take her long to determine that this entire world had been laid to waste by a single entity's domain. She knew that this was definitely done deliberately, because the level of Slaughter Aura filling this planet could only form due to intentional slaughter.

Justice Deity narrowed her eyes, staring at the Northernmost region of the planet. What she saw caused her eyes to widen in disbelief.

"That's…the Primordial Devil?! How can this be, didn't the Primordial Devil die? No…master told me that he had likely survived, I just didn't want to believe it…damnit all! The Primordial Devil survived, and as soon as he returned to the world, he actually committed such an atrocity! I must inform the Divine Court…"

Justice Deity immediately retrieved a talisman. She injected her Divine Qi, imprinting a message onto the ancient paper. The talisman then burned to ash after releasing a burst of golden light, before completely vanishing from this world.

These talismans which could even communicate across star systems were shockingly valuable and difficult to produce, but discovering the Primordial Devil's whereabouts certainly warranted their usage.

After quickly sending her message to her teacher, Justice Deity continued to examine the Primordial Devil warily. She saw that he was sat down with his eyes closed, and since he clearly hadn't noticed her presence, she assumed that he must be training…

However, just as she was about to retreat, she paused.

The Primordial Devil was one of the strongest beings in her world, on the same level as her teacher. Justice Deity hated the demonic divinities more than anything else and wanted nothing more than to bring them all to justice, but she knew her limits. If she went down there to face the Primordial Devil, she would be throwing her life away. The loss of her life, would be a huge loss to the righteous path.

She was not conceited, but she fully understood the value of her life. She knew that if she died, then she would be unable to save others, and more demons would get away with their hateful atrocities in the future. She valued her own life very highly for this reason.

She would flee and allow someone stronger than her to deal with the Primordial Devil, because she could not face him herself…or so she had assumed, at first. As she turned to leave, Justice Deity noticed that the Primordial Devil's aura was not what it had once been.

She recalled how her teacher mentioned that the Primordial Devil had most likely reincarnated, causing her to stop in her tracks. She hadn't even considered the possibility before now, but could it be that the Primordial Devil had truly reincarnated…and that he had been forced to re-cultivate his power from mortality?!

Justice Deity turned to face the Primordial Devil with a serious expression. Before doing anything hasty, she first retrieved a scroll from her spatial ring. After chanting some incomprehensible words, the scroll immediately vanished, as did Justice Deity herself.

This was her most powerful concealment method. Although it rapidly drained her power and could only be sustained for a few minutes, she wanted to ensure her safety, given the risk that she was about to take.

Justice Deity's golden eyes shone with an immense light, but this light was completely concealed from the world thanks to her treasure scroll. She used various methods, each more powerful than the last, to examine the Primordial Devil, but he still didn't show any sort of reaction.

The more methods she used to assess the Primordial Devil, the more certain she became of her guess. If the Primordial Devil still possessed his divinity, he definitely would have noticed that he was being watched right now, even if he wasn't able to ascertain her exact location. The treasure scroll concealed all traces of her spells from the world, even from the target of her spells, but the Primordial Devil had some of the sharpest instincts amongst the divinities…

She was now sure of it; the Primordial Devil, for whatever reason, was currently a Dao Immortal!

Justice Deity's concealment ended. She returned to the world, but now, she showed no signs of retreating.

"I cannot pass up on this chance. It is possible that this is all trap to lure me in, but I must take this risk! I cannot allow him to get away, nor to spend another second growing stronger…I must fight!"

She came to her decision, showing a firm expression. She calmed herself as she thought about the grandeur of the character she was about to take on.

However, just as she was about to move, she froze once again.

"Master!" Justice's eyes went wide and for a second, she was so shocked that she just stared at the ever-stoic man before her.

After confirming that the man before her really was her master - Law Empyrean, the Lord of the Divine Court - Justice Deity, immediately took a step back and bowed.

"Justice greets master…" She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end, she added: "I didn't expect you to reach me so quickly, master…"

She glanced up, but as always, her master was completely unreadable.

He was a stoic man, with the appearance of someone in his thirties. However, nobody would ever mistake Law Empyrean for being so young.

In fact, Justice Deity had heard rumours that her master was the oldest living human cultivator.

Some of the more fantastical rumours even said that her master was the creator of the Qi refining path.

The most extreme rumours were basically legends, describing Law Empyrean as the first human born in this world of the four planes…

She did not know which of these were true, and which were absurd exaggerations. However, it was a fact that her master was the first being across the four planes to reach the Divine Step, and that was two million years ago.

"Justice, you may leave. I am already handling this matter."

Justice Deity raised her head and looked at her master in surprise.

"Master, you were already here?"

"This matter is complicated, do not involve yourself. Return to the Neutral Star System and continue searching for demons there. Your power to see through injustice is irreplaceable for our mission."

Justice sighed in her heart, but she wasn't surprised that he didn't give her a straight answer, her master was always like this. Imposing, stoic, and impossible to see through.

In the end, all she could do was bow to her master and take her leave. However, she would definitely use her information network - something that all divinities would possess, at least on their own World Plane - to monitor the situation in this sector of the Four Divine Star System. She would never go against her master's orders, but she also wanted to know what exactly was going on. If anything happened close by to Planet Yushu, she would immediately be informed.

Law Empyrean stared after Justice Deity for a long time after she departed. Eventually, he returned to Planet Yushu's moon, then sat down at the table, opposite from the Primordial Sage and Old Thief.

Justice Deity wanted to understand the situation, but she didn't realise that her master's feelings were very similar to her own. Whilst Law Empyrean could see what was going on down below, and he understood the overall situation, he was still in the dark regarding one thing…

The core of this matter, the Primordial Devil's heart demon…what exactly was his current status?!

When the cycle of rebirth collapsed, many messages were sent from the Divine Court members and subordinates on the Spirit Plane to the Divine Court main branch on the Qi Plane. Soon after those messages were sent, the Divine Court noticed that the cycle of rebirth had been destroyed. This was a huge matter after all, how could they not notice something like this?

However, in truth, those messages sent from the Spirit Plane, never actually reached the Qi Plane.

After discovering the collapse of the cycle of rebirth, Law Empyrean did two things.

Firstly, he spread Yaan's picture across the Qi Plane, issuing orders that he be captured should any member or subordinate of the Divine Court find him.

Secondly, he made sure that all of the Divine Court divinities who were working on investigating the cycle's collapse…did not tell anyone that the Divine Court was now completely unable to contact their people on the Spirit Plane.

Indeed, the the Divine Court acted like their communication line was still functional, but in reality, after the collapse of the cycle of rebirth, they had actually lost the ability to send messages to and from the Spirit Plane! Since it was like this, they obviously couldn't send people back and forth between the Spirit Plane and Qi Plane either!

With time, they would discover a new way across, but for now, it was impossible. Law Empyrean absolutely didn't want his enemies to know about this.

Since this event came about so soon after he discovered that the Primordial Devil's heart demon had somehow transformed into a living human incarnation, he determined that it was extremely likely that the two were connected.

If the two were truly connected, and the Primordial Devil's heart demon was now on the Spirit Plane, then the Divine Court members on the Spirit Plane would no doubt issue the command for Yaan to be captured, or something of the like. By issuing this same order on the Qi Plane, Law Empyrean hoped that he would be able to hide this matter from others.

Naturally, the Divine Court divinities on the Spirit Plane also kept this hidden. Since only the divinities had the ability to investigate the cycle of rebirth in the first place, it wasn't overly difficult to lock down on this secret.

Law Empyrean glanced at the Primordial Sage and sighed in his mind.

'I have managed to determine that the heart demon still lives, and eventually, it will return to this place to battle the Primordial Devil. It is extremely likely that right now, the heart demon is on the Spirit Plane…but then, how did it manage to send these 'Dao Clones' to the Qi Plane? The only possibility is that the Primordial Sage provided assistance…meaning that the Primordial Sage, and therefore the Primordial Alliance, can still travel between the Qi Plane and Spirit Plane!'

This knowledge made Law Empyrean gloomy. His enemy now had a huge advantage over him, and he still didn't know if the Sage was aware that she possessed this advantage.

The three divinities all had their own thoughts, their own secrets that they were hiding from the others. They all had their own goals in staying on this moon, watching as the fated events unfolded on Yushu Planet. But through it all, they all kept their silence.

For almost 30 years, the three divinities sat in silence, as did the Primordial Devil. The Primordial Devil was not usually the patient type, but now, as the finale to his long awaited battle against his heart demon approached, he would not risk ruining his chances of success by involving himself in anything unnecessary.

However, almost 30 years after he killed the Dao Clone of Qi, the Primordial Devil's eyes shot open. He stared down with a gaze filled with hatred and killing intent, watching as one of his two remaining visible karmic chains…shattered.

"How can this be?! That fake devil, that Dao Clone of Soul…actually died?!"

The Primordial Devil could not contain his rage. He had been patiently waiting for the day that he faced the Dao Clone of Soul, waiting so that he could ruthlessly stomp on that little clone, just as he had done with the Dao Clone of Qi. He had been waiting with a heart filled with anticipation, so that he could destroy that Dao Clone whilst Yaan was forced to watch. He didn't exactly understand what it was that Yaan was doing, nor what he hoped to achieve, but he believed that after all three of his Dao Clones were killed, he would surely, finally, show himself…

But now, he didn't know what to think. His frustration at not understanding the situation fused with his anger due to this opportunity being taken away from him. His aura exploded outwards in his madness, causing cracks to spread across the surface of the planet.

"You little abomination of the dao, is this also part of your plan?! First, that emotional fool lost his heart before I killed him, and now, that fake devil died in my own inheritance…is this your way of mocking me?!"