Hope in Death

Justice Deity, whom no longer resembled her former self, but rather looked like she was in the midst of undergoing a metamorphosis, stared down into the net of destruction with a vacant gaze. Every now and then, confusion would flicker through her eyes. Occasionally, she showed a mortified expression, but at other times, her face contorted into depraved amusement.

Seeing this, 'Law Empyrean' grinned broadly. He also no longer resembled his former self; his stoic but upfront nature was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an unhidden evil that filled his very dao.

"Fight, fight, fight and destroy! Hahaha, excellent, amazing, hilarious! Injustice, do you see this?! This is what an Era of preparation looks like! This is what the 2nd Origin Era's evil looks like!"

She did not respond, but a hint of a smile appeared on her lips. Immediately after, however, her smile vanished and that same look of confusion returned.

The man by her side simply chuckled.

"Watch closely, Injustice. The more devastation you observe, the more your evil heart will awaken. When you finally attain your true dao, we will leave this Era behind."

*****

It would be no exaggeration to say that the current battle between Yaan and Defiance Sovereign was the most exaggerated and terrifying one versus one battle that had ever taken place in the 2nd Origin Era. The reason for this, was mostly thanks to the Evil God, but it was also due to the various final signs of the end of the Era that had shaken the world up until now…

The more the fabric of the world was destroyed, the weaker the Heavenly Dao became, loosening the restrictions over all manner of life within the world. Especially within the cosmic destructive net, the restrictions were growing weaker by the second, allowing Empyreans like Yaan and Defiance to explode with a level of power that simply could not be seen in the past.

Countless exchanges took place with every breath. With every exchange, the world was torn apart, planets crumbled to ash, stars exploded and many of the surviving living beings were crushed to death pitifully.

As the world approached the end, fewer and fewer beings would be able to survive. In the current world…mortal life had already become impossible. Only Immortals and above could survive, but even they would struggle to keep ahold of their lives, especially when two mighty beings were fighting with their everything, holding nothing back without a care for their surroundings.

Yaan was even willing to destroy the Spirit Plane to facilitate his own survival and pursuit of dao, so why would he care about the lives of these individuals? As for Defiance, he had never cared about others, not in this Era at least.

It was clear who held the advantage in this battle – Defiance.

But even so, despite maintaining his advantage, Defiance was unable to obtain a final victory. No matter how much he pushed Yaan back, no matter how many times he slaughtered his body, Yaan continued to fight back, his expression unchanging and his confidence unwavering.

Because of this, Defiance rapidly adapted to the loosening restrictions in the world, and even facilitated the instability further. If he couldn't kill the World Demon with his current strength, then he would just become stronger! If the world refused to let him become stronger, then he would destroy those restrictions with his own hands!

This sort of will was unbelievable, it was like a mountain that never stopped growing larger, impossible to climb no matter how fast you ascended.

And yet, Yaan was able to persevere. He followed Defiance up this mountain of strength, refusing to be left behind. 

Suddenly, Defiance stopped attacking. Yaan didn't bother following up, he really didn't see any point in doing so. He knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat Defiance in this battle, he would already consider it a success so long as he could survive.

However, Defiance seemed to think differently.

"Is this your idea of 'comprehending will'? You're good at surviving, but is that truly wilful? You view the fact that you have survived until now as an achievement, you believe that your survival is proof of your will…but if you are satisfied with merely surviving, if you see survival alone as some sort of victory, it only shows that you view others as being above yourself."

Yaan considered his words and ended up nodding. What he said made sense.

"I can't deny it. Most of my life was manipulated by those around me, I have always been living beneath the strength of others, struggling to survive and improve. The fact that I have survived until now really is an achievement, all things considered."

Defiance laughed mockingly and shook his head, folding his arms and looking down with a gaze that disdained to even bother disdaining him.

"That is not wilful. All living beings want to survive, you just happen to be better at it than most. Are all living beings wilful, just for fearing death? Of course not, if everyone is considered wilful, then the reality is that nobody is truly wilful. Surviving is a skill that cockroaches take pride in – you are at most the king of cockroaches."

King of cockroaches? Yaan felt amused. Was he being taunted right now, or was that really all he amounted to in Defiance's eyes?

Being looked down upon by Defiance didn't bother him. He had long stopped caring about the opinions of others. So what if others looked down on him? And caring about what Defiance thought of him made even less sense, since this man's innate nature was to look down on everyone and everything in this world.

That said, despite how he acted, Yaan was considering Defiance Sovereign's words seriously right now. On one hand, Defiance was clearly trying to convince him to fight back with greater will, and therefore, perhaps, more recklessness. On the other hand, he wasn't lying when he said that Yaan's current tactic of 'surviving' couldn't be considered wilful…at least not in this situation.

In a situation where survival was all but impossible, clinging to that one thread of life truly was an act of great will. However, in this battle, Yaan had a high degree of confidence in his ability to survive. Since that was the case, there was nothing impressive about merely enduring and surviving.

Frankly speaking, Yaan was not yet accustomed to standing at the peak of this world, and Defiance could see it clearly.

Seeing that Yaan was only considering his words and hadn't yet taken the bait, Defiance continued speaking.

"I suppose this might just be the difference between you and I – or rather, the difference between myself, and all other beings in this world. Compared to my will, all others are only cockroaches, scurrying about at my feet, taking pride in their will to avoid being crushed. Living like this, how could they ever understand the concept of true will; a cockroach will always be a cockroach, it will never stand at my height."

At this point, he wasn't even trying to hide his provocation. As Defiance Sovereign's words thundered through the world, many divinities rolled their eyes. Just who would be stupid enough to take this ridiculous bait?

But although they rolled their eyes at the ridiculousness, not one of these people would dare to speak their thoughts aloud. In the end, they really were just cockroaches, only able to hide and run away…

Suddenly, Yaan's eyes lit up. He looked up at Defiance and smiled as an idea sprang to mind.

"I see, so remaining as myself makes it impossible for me to understand your perspective of will? Perhaps you are right, Defiance. But you made one mistake…"

Without warning, a flash of blinding light erupted from Yaan's body. Defiance narrowed his eyes, but he didn't move, not even when Yaan rapidly grew larger, and larger, and larger…

From his childish stature, Yaan surpassed the heights of adults, giants, mountains, planets, and even stars!

Within mere moments, he stood opposite from Defiance, staring him straight in the eyes.

"Looks like I can stand at your height after all." Yaan laughed, copying Defiance's same mocking tone.

For the first time in Defiance's life in this Era, he was looking at someone just as monstrously huge as himself! However, it wasn't just Defiance's height that Yaan had copied, but his entire appearance!

"Even if my innate nature is that of a cockroach, why should I let that restrain me? If a cockroach can't comprehend will…I'll just become you."

"Become me? Haha…fool."

BANG!

Yaan didn't even see Defiance move. In fact, as he hurtled through space and his body was repeatedly torn apart, he couldn't even stabilise himself!

"To dare imitate me with this cheap trick…"

BANG!

He instantly changed direction, spewing up a river of bloody miasma as his mind and soul trembled.

"I suppose you can be considered the world's most audacious insect."

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

…

How did this make sense? How did Defiance become so much stronger, just like that?!

After some time, Yaan just about managed to stabilise his mind for long enough to act. His eyes shot open as a need to survive that he had not felt for quite some time urgently pushed him to move. He cancelled his transformation with his spells, retracting all of his powers and returning to his original form. He still felt an impending danger coming from an unknown direction though, so without hesitation, Yaan stepped onto the first chain of fate that entered his field of view.

The world twisted, and when he emerged on the other side of the cosmic net, his momentum caused him to crash into a Solar-Planet with so much force that it directly exploded.

Yaan's eyes darted about rapidly as he tried to deduce where he was, and how much time he had, before Defiance would arrive. It didn't take long for him to discern the truth, because he recognised the few beings that managed to survive the destruction of the planet…and he recognised whose chain of fate had saved him.

'Zue Yin…' Yaan thought mildly.

She was clearly shocked, but he didn't pay her any attention, quickly tending to his injuries. Just as he was looking around for another chain of fate to step upon, Zue Yin's voice echoed in his mind.

"Yaan, I don't know the situation, but it's clear that you're in trouble. Use that method of yours to disguise yourself as me. I will flee, everyone else will remain here. Hopefully this will be enough to trick your enemy and buy you some more time to do whatever you must to survive."

Yaan turned to look at Zue Yin with wide eyes.

How did she come up with such a plan in this situation so quickly, when even her elders were paralysed with fear? No, wait, why exactly was she willing to die for him…?

Zue Yin laughed when she saw his expression.

"So you can still feel surprised, huh?"

Without further hesitation, Yaan did as Zue Yin suggested, transforming into her. He then waved his hand, providing her with a portion of his Divine cultivation bases, granting Zue Yin with an extraordinary surge of power that she had never felt before.

She didn't say anything else and directly fled, using a speed that was usually only possessed by divinities. Like this, when Defiance soon arrived in this place, she really did attract his attention, if just for a few seconds.

Zue Yin smiled as she fled, imagining that by now, Yaan would have already recovered from his surprise and would be acting like her, putting on a shocked and terrified expression.

'Yaan, I'm not doing this for you, but for hope. In this game of chess known as life, I know that the most I can amount to is a pawn. Even you are not the player; the player is your ambition, the ambition of hope that you brought with you when you returned to me with the ideal of the Paradise Sect. You are not the player…but you are the king, and if you die, the game will be lost. If I can at least amount to a pawn in this life and protect the king, then at least there will still be hope. Compared to your role in this game, just dying is nothing much. Yaan…you'd better succeed.'

This was Zue Yin's final thought, before her body and soul were crushed to death under Defiance Sovereign's foot.