Heavenly Despair
The first step towards immortality, was Nirvana Life. Upon stepping into the Nirvana Life Realm, a cultivator, a beast, or any other living being, would be granted with their Heavenly Blessing. Three years later, the accompanying Heavenly Calamity would naturally descend upon them to balance this blessing; this was Nirvana Death. If the being managed to survive through their calamity, they would still be afflicted by the Heavens' curse of death, forcing them to tackle their Immortal Ascension Tribulation - Nirvana Rebirth - shortly after. Of course, it was only possible to even attempt Nirvana Rebirth if you had attained immortal stage comprehension in a dao…
The success rate for overcoming Nirvana was extremely low, but those who did survive, would reach the True Immortal Realm. At the True Immortal Realm, a being's Mortal Life Essence was converted into Immortal Life Essence, granting them 'immortality'…
But not quite.
Upon reaching the True Immortal Realm, a True Immortal Tribulation belonging to each of the eight elemental earthly daos, would descend every 300 years. Only after overcoming all eight of these tribulations, would an immortal escape from the Heavenly Dao's wrath, entering the Ancient Immortal Realm, and gaining 'immortality'…
But still, not quite.
Ancient Immortals were not faced with periodic tribulations, in fact, they were no longer bothered by the Heavenly Dao, no longer how long they lived for. Some Ancient Immortals could live for tens of thousands of years because of this…but eventually, they would die.
The cause of death? It was the death of the dao heart.
All living beings possessed a dao heart and a Dao Soul. Aside from the four Primordial Demons, every living being in this world was born with a mortal dao heart, sometimes referred to as an 'unnamed dao heart'. There was no set time limit on the lifespan of a mortal dao heart, but it was definitely limited - eventually, once the cultivator grew old and weary of this world, their heart would die, their dao would die, and they would be truly, completely gone.
The only way to overcome this pitiful ending, was for an Ancient Immortal to attain an immortal stage dao heart - otherwise known as a 'named dao heart', due to it gaining a more clear form that could be named with absolute certainty. This enlightenment was nothing simple, and upon the dao heart ascending to this stage, the being would undergo a unique tribulation that came not from the Heavens, but from within themselves, called the Dao Ascension Tribulation.
At this point, if they successfully overcame their Dao Ascension Tribulation, they would become a Dao Immortal, with a truly endless lifespan. Dao Immortals did not need to worry about old age and longevity, only about threats from others stronger than themselves, and for this reason, the Dao Immortal Realm was often considered the first realm at which a being gained true eternal life.
This was the path of cultivation - this was the path permitted by the Heavenly Dao.
But there were those who took a different path. It was very rare, but occasionally, a prodigal True Immortal would gain enlightenment and attain a named dao heart, resulting in all of their remaining True Immortal Tribulations descending at once, at the same time as their Dao Ascension Tribulation. It was to be expected, but this usually resulted in death.
There were even rarer exceptions to the Heavenly Dao's permitted path - those who attained a named dao heart before even reaching the Immortal Step! There were records of this happening to individuals during the Nirvana Realm, and sometimes even before the Nirvana Realm. In these cases, the individual's Nirvana Rebirth was triggered not by their immortal stage earthly dao comprehension, but by their immortal stage dao heart!
However, to this day, the only being to ever succeed in reaching the Immortal Step in this way, allowing them to completely skip past the Nirvana Realm, the True Immortal Realm, and the Ancient Immortal Realm, directly becoming a Dao Immortal…was Defiance Sovereign.
Others had tried, but only Defiance had ever succeeded.
And right now, Yaan's Dao Clone of Qi was attempting a very similar feat. He wasn't quite the same as Defiance, since he had stepped into the Nirvana Realm normally and only gained enlightenment into his dao heart during the Nirvana Life Realm, but the challenges that he needed to face were the same.
Above the Heavenly Path Province, Yaan appeared outside of the formation. Others couldn't come and go as they pleased, but he was the master of this formation, so Yaan could naturally pass through. His appearance immediately attracted the attention from thousands of the Demonic North's elites…including multiple immortals.
Seal Immortal had already been paying attention to this place, since the Heavenly Rebirth Formation had suddenly appeared within his territory, but now, after Yaan triggered a Heavenly event so shocking that ripples of the Heavenly Dao spread out across the entire Northern hemisphere of Planet Yushu, the other immortals quickly rushed across to investigate.
But Yaan couldn't care less about those immortals. In the past, every single one of these figures were beings that he would need to pay close attention to, but now…
They were irrelevant.
Nobody would dare to get close to his massive tribulation, which had covered thousands of miles of the sky after his Nirvana Death Heavenly Calamity fused together with all eight True Immortal Tribulations. Right now, those immortals couldn't touch him; the only threat that Yaan had to deal with, was his tribulation.
And as for afterwards?
Well, either he would die…or he would become a Dao Immortal, making him the strongest immortal on Planet Yushu. As such, he really no longer needed to care about anyone else on this planet.
He did have one concern, which was regarding the Divine Court. Would they take notice of his tribulation and investigate? When Yaan thought of this, he shook his head with a sigh. If it came to that, he would deal with it later…for now, he needed to face the tribulation above him…
And within him.
Others could only feel the immense Heavenly pressure caused by the nine-coloured tribulation cloud that had blotted out the sky, but Yaan could simultaneously feel the building tribulations within him. He was using his dao heart to forcefully suppress these tribulations whilst he formulated a strategy, but he knew that he couldn't hold out for long.
He quickly recalled the scene that he had witnessed back on the Spirit Plane. He now felt very fortunate that the Spirit Plane Lord had actually shown him Defiance Sovereign's partial inheritance, because otherwise, he would have taken much longer to formulate a strategy.
"Defiance Sovereign made it look easy…but Defiance is a monster, this will not be easy. The fused Heavenly Tribulation in the outside world isn't actually a problem. Or at least, it wouldn't be, if I didn't also have to deal with my Immortal Ascension Tribulation and my Dao Ascension Tribulation at the same time. My only choice is to copy Defiance's method…to fuse my two internal tribulations into one, then defeat it before my external tribulation descends!"
Yaan's eyes shone with resolve as he came to his decision. He knew that he only had at most another half minute before the tribulation cloud above completed its fusion and descended upon him. His best bet, was to fuse his Immortal Ascension Tribulation with his Dao Ascension Tribulation, then defeat this tribulation, before destroying the Heavenly Tribulation above!
This sounded difficult, but it would actually be even more difficult than it sounded. After all, the Immortal Ascension Tribulation alone often took multiple hours, sometimes even days…
Yaan's eyes shone with intelligence as he concocted a hasty scheme.
"I will use my illusion dao to fuse my two internal tribulations together…this will be extremely dangerous, as it will allow the Heavenly Dao to attack my dao heart directly, but it's my only choice! Because this way, using my understanding of the illusion of truth, I can alter the flow of time that I perceive within my fused internal tribulation!"
Once Yaan came to a decision, he never hesitated, no matter how dangerous it might be. The sense of crisis in his heart was amongst the strongest that he had ever felt in his life, it truly felt like a helpless, despair-inducing situation…
Yaan smirked.
The world around him vanished, and he found himself standing within in world of infinite darkness. This darkness carried with it the feeling of despair that had just been overwhelming his heart, only now, using his understanding over illusions, Yaan could see this emotion in visual form.
"Heavenly Dao, did you think that filling my heart with despair would be enough to shake my resolve? My life has been an ongoing fight against despair…try harder."
The world trembled around him, and Yaan prepared to face his internal tribulation - his Immortal Dao Ascension Tribulation!
"Hmm?" Yaan narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he found himself standing in the air once again, back in the real world.
This…was not what he had expected.
He had expected to encounter something like his last Immortal Ascension Tribulation, where he was thrust into an illusory world…but he was certain that this was no illusion, but the real world.
"Just what is going on? I can feel the presence of my tribulation, and the external Heavenly Tribulation is still above me…it's…what is this…?!"
Yaan quickly stared up into the sky in shock. The despair that he had forcibly wiped from his heart threatened to come back in full force when he saw that the tribulation cloud in the sky up above, had turned pure white. It shone with the light of the heavens as a single rune sat within its core…
He wasn't sure how he knew this, but when Yaan stared into that rune, he understood its meaning - defeat.
The Heavenly Dao was claiming that he had already been defeated.
As the light of the white cloud grew brighter and brighter, the cloud continued to expand whilst rising higher and higher into the sky. However, after a few seconds passed by and Yaan finished inspecting the cloud using Reveal Truth, his expression changed again and became extremely gloomy.
"Heavenly Dao, you malicious entity! Why is my tribulation not targeting me…but the Heavenly Path Province?! Is this your Heavenly Balance, dragging unrelated people into your damned tribulations?!"
As soon as Yaan spoke these words, which echoed up into the sky, before bouncing off of the white cloud and reverberating across the Demonic North down below, his expression became strange, because he immediately realised the fault in his own words.
"No…because my heart is the heart of protection, and because I gained enlightenment using my Sword Heart Art to paint the Heavenly Rebirth Formation with my dao…my home, and everyone in it, became a part of my dao…I dragged them into this, and that is what the Heavenly Dao is using to target me…"
Yaan's eyes shone with killing intent as he stared up at the cloud in the sky, which only grew larger, and larger, and larger - far larger than it should have been.
His anticipated 'fused internal tribulation' ended up manifesting itself in the outside world, because his dao heart was a heart based on something external - his home! Because of this, the Heavenly Tribulation cloud was able to absorb the full strength of both his Immortal Ascension Tribulation and his Dao Ascension Tribulation, causing it to reach an unprecedented level for a Heavenly Tribulation!
By now, every single living being across Planet Yushu could feel the Heavenly Dao's might weighing down on their planet. In fact, this might, which was designed to induce despair in the people in order to shake Yaan's resolve, even caused the planet itself to tremble in fright…
The killing intent in Yaan's eyes only grew stronger, but as he came to understand the situation, his heart became still. He stood silently in the sky, between the blinding tribulation cloud and the Heavenly Path Province down below, intending to stand between the two, without allowing the Heavenly Dao to get past him by a single inch.
"If I take this tribulation head on, it is almost certain that I will die. However, if I fail to protect my home, then my heart will crumble and I will still die. Heavenly Dao...you must believe that this is enough to make me despair, but you are wrong. Even if you crush the hopes of the people below me, even if you present me with an impossible situation, I will still stand strong and protect my home…no matter what I need to do to achieve this."
Yaan smiled lightly as he watched the Heavenly Tribulation finally stop growing any larger. When he looked up at this tribulation cloud, he felt certain that with his current strength, he could not prevent it from destroying the Heavenly Path Province. In fact, even if he stood between the cloud and his homeland down below, he would likely just be destroyed along with the province.
The Heavenly Dao was trying to induce despair in his heart.
"June." Yaan spoke gently. His wooden sword quickly manifested into a young woman by his side, who looked at Yaan nervously. Like Yaan, she could feel that with their current strength, they could not overcome this tribulation.
"Yaan, do you have a plan?"
"Mm." Yaan nodded softly and turned to look at her with a smile. "June, do you trust me?"
"I do." She responded without hesitation.
"Good. Then please…don't resist what I'm about to do."
June stared at Yaan for a moment, but her expression changed when the white cloud in the sky suddenly exploded with a thunderous roar. It was now so high in the sky that it was practically outside of the planet's atmosphere, so even though the tribulation had descended, they had a few seconds before it reached them.
She turned back towards Yaan and quickly nodded.
"I trust you, Yaan. Use me to defeat this tribulation using whatever method you need."
After saying this, her body flashed with light before she shot back into Yaan's hand in the form of a wooden sword. With his sword in hand, Yaan turned to face the descending tribulation, and stared into its abyssal might with a calm look.
The aura of despair emanating from the tribulation made even the immortals across the planet tremble in fear and trepidation.
Black lightning and rain born from the Nirvana Death Heavenly Calamity had fused with the eight elemental daos of air, water, fire, earth, lightning, thunder, dark and light. All of these fused tribulations were strengthened further by the aura of despair, born from Yaan's Immortal Dao Ascension Tribulation.
The aura of despair heavily afflicted the people in the Heavenly Path Province down below. Originally, they were unable to see outside of the formation…but the light shining down from the tribulation cloud opened up a transparent hole in the formation roof, forcing the living beings below Yaan to stare up at the apocalyptic scene that they could only assume spelled their impending deaths.
Yaan no longer had the hope of the people supporting him, but he stood firm and stared at the tribulation without blinking. His red robe fluttered in the chaotic winds, as did his long black hair. His appearance had returned to how it was in the past, causing both Elia and Aque Li to stare up at him with dazed, nostalgic expressions.
"Yaan…please be safe…" Elia clasped her hands together and stared up at Yaan without blinking.
Out of everyone in the Heavenly Path Province, only she still believed in Yaan. Only Elia refused to fold to the the Heavenly Dao's despair. She believed in him, because he…had promised to protect her.
Even though this was just one heart amongst countless of millions, Yaan could feel her hope clearly. A smile slowly appeared on his face, and although he was facing away from Elia, he could feel her gaze watching him.
"Don't worry, Elia…I will protect our home. I will protect you. And I will even…protect myself. This is my heart of protection. So long as there is hope, our home will not fall."
After saying these words that only he could hear, Yaan raised the wooden sword towards the descending beam of chaotic dao lightning. When everyone watching saw that he was apparently planning to face this shocking tribulation head on, their eyes widened in amazement…but in the next moment, their expressions froze, unable to comprehend what they were watching.
Moments before the tribulation reached him, Yaan suddenly flipped around the wooden sword, turning its point to face him. Then with a manic grin, he stared into the face of the Heavenly Dao, the face that had manifested within the descending tribulation…
And he plunged the wooden sword directly through his own chest.
BOOM!
The tribulation did not reach Yaan, because as soon as he pierced his chest with the wooden blade, his body exploded out into countless streams of illusory lights. The tribulation was descending quickly, but Yaan's exploded body transformed into countless streams of illusory blood, shooting back down towards the Heavenly Rebirth Formation even faster. As for the wooden sword, after plunging it through his chest, the sword shot straight through him, vanishing into the Heavenly Path Formation…
Moments before his body was obliterated, Yaan laughed when he saw the ferocious expression within the tribulation, transform into a look of shock and confusion.
That was the last thing he saw before he died.
"What the?!" It was unknown who cried out first, but ripples of shock spread out throughout the Heavenly Path Province. Everyone had witnessed the bizarre scene of Yaan taking his own life, but everything after that transpired so quickly that nobody was able to process it.
He died…
Again, he died!
Yaan died, once again…
Suddenly, the entire Heavenly Rebirth Formation became soaked in crimson. It was the colour of blood - but it was also the colour of Yaan's demonic eyes, and the colour of his robe.
Right as the Heavenly Tribulation reached the formation, a giant arm struck out from deep within the Greenwood Mountain Range. The arm was monstrous and illusory, and it carried with it a giant wooden sword. As for the arm's point of origin, it was actually the Spirit Heart, the core of the Heavenly Rebirth Formation!
The sword pierced into the Heavenly Tribulation, and for a moment there was silence. The collision of the two powers was so immense that it caused all sound to vanish from the world - before sound returned, and explosive shockwaves erupted in every direction.
BANG!
The many curious spectators outside of the Heavenly Path Province had long since retreated as fast as possible, but for many, it wasn't enough. The residual shockwaves caused by the wooden sword piercing into the Heavenly Tribulation caused thousands of elite powerhouses to explode…including Seal Immortal!
The residual shockwaves from Yaan's battle against his Heavenly Tribulation had actually killed an immortal!
In their shock, everyone retreated further and further. The damage was catastrophic, and the loss of life in the surroundings was a tragedy that wouldn't be forgotten for a long time.
However, there was only a single explosive shockwave, before everything vanished without a trace. It took a long time for everything to settle, and by the time the dust and ash had subsided, the outsiders, and the people within the Heavenly Path Province alike, stared with dropped jaws at Yaan, who was stood quietly atop the surface of his red formation.
"How is he alive?! He definitely died!"
"Impossible! I saw him die with my own eyes! He suicided!"
"This, this is…just what is going on?!"
Yaan heard all of the shocked voices from around and below him. With a smile, he looked down, his gaze piercing through the now crimson formation, as his illusory eyes landed on Elia's trembling self down below. She was crying once again, as her heart had been thrust through too much turmoil in such a short period of time.
"Yaan…you did it…you're alive…but you…"
"In order to survive, I needed to die." Yaan vanished from the outside world and reappeared beside Elia in an instant. Even for a Dao Immortal, this travel speed…should not be possible. It wasn't just fast - it was literally instant, it was teleportation!
Elia's eyes widened, and suddenly, when she recalled what she had just seen, she understood.
"You reincarnated through the Heavenly Rebirth Formation?"
"I did." Yaan nodded. "With June's help, I was able to die before the tribulation reached me, causing its suppressive aura to break down. Then, I used the formation's reincarnation cycle to fuse with the core of the formation - the Spirit Heart - and I became the formation spirit."
When Yaan saw Elia's stunned expression, he chuckled and patted her head softly.
"Don't worry, Elia. I may have fused with the Spirit Heart and transformed into the formation spirit, but I'm still a Dao Immortal. I protected our home with no issues, and now, nobody on this planet can hurt us anymore."
"No issues?! You died! You died! You, you, you…you died!"
"Well, it happens." Yaan shrugged, then laughed again when her jaw dropped in disbelief.
"What? Did you think that dying would be enough to kill me?"