6th Heaven Hall of Rebirth

After spending 12 years journeying across the 6th Layer of Heaven on the Spirit Plane, Yaan finally reached his last destination on this layer.

The Divine Court's 6th Heaven Hall of Rebirth, one of the 13 Halls of Rebirth that made up the recently destroyed cycle of rebirth. Although the cycle of rebirth had been destroyed over three centuries ago now, and these 13 grand palaces no longer served the same function as in the past, they still remained in place as the Divine Court's base of operations on the Spirit Plane.

The Spirit Plane Lord hadn't bothered with the Divine Court in this time, something that made many of the Divine Court's divinities feel uncertain. They had half-expected that after the cycle of rebirth became defunct, she would take the opportunity to slaughter every member of the Divine Court who remained on the Spirit Plane, but this didn't happen…

Even so, they didn't drop their guards. Although the Spirit Plane Lord hadn't yet acted against them, they never forgot that she was one of the Primordial Demons, and the eternal enemy of the Divine Court. The fact that she was allowing them to remain on the Spirit Plane even after they stopped being useful to her, meant that she simply didn't want to restart the war right now…

But eventually, that war would continue, and when that day arrived, there was no doubt in their minds that the Spirit Plane Lord would target every single member and subordinate under the Divine Court on the Spirit Plane.

They knew that eventually, this day would come, but how could the Divine Court simply give up on their territories on the Spirit Plane? Honestly, the divinities were still trying to fix the cycle of rebirth, but this was looking to be too difficult; even now, they didn't know just how and why the cycle had been destroyed.

Not only that, but recently, an unknown phenomena resulted in all of their subordinates on the 6th Layer of Abyss, including the leading Dao Immortal subordinate, to lose their lives! All that remained of this eery happening was a deep aura of killing intent.

It was fortunate that the stronger Divine Court subordinates had left Abyss after realising that the cycle of rebirth could not be repaired shortly, meaning that there was no reason for them to stay in that dreadful place. The environment across Abyss was unaccommodating for orthodox cultivators, and everyone under the Divine Court cultivated orthodox methods. Because of this, the Divine Court's Transcendents were now stationed on the Central Layer, with a single Transcendent overseeing each Layer of Heaven. As always, the true members of the Divine Court, the three Divine Step soul cultivators, stationed themselves on the Central Layer, guarding the Central Hall of Rebirth.

Devil's existence in Abyss went unnoticed by the Divine Court, despite how rampant he had been running during those years. This wasn't strange though - one of the conditions that the Divine Court had to abide by in order to remain on the Spirit Plane, was that they stay within their own territories, without interfering with the outside world. Because of this, they only noticed that something was amiss in Abyss after Devil slaughtered everyone, including their own subordinates, on the 6th Layer.

But, thanks to the agreement with the Spirit Plane Lord, they couldn't even investigate this matter properly…

Of course, Yaan didn't know about everything that the Spirit Plane Lord had been doing to protect him from the Divine Court in secret, but he knew that she must be doing something, since neither he nor Devil had been bothered a single time during their time here.

When the Primordial Sage watched Yaan approaching the 6th Heaven Hall of Rebirth to place down his 3,000th formation on the 6th Layer of Heaven, she fell into deep thought.

Yaan naturally anticipated that she would start to suspect certain things, and he was sure that after placing down this 3,000th formation, which differed from all those he had laid down before it, her suspicions would grow stronger. After all, he was responsible for the cycle of rebirth's destruction, and now, he was placing down a formation within a previous cornerstone of that cycle.

When Yaan considered how the Primordial Sage would react to this development, he felt somewhat uncertain. The Primordial Sage said that she wouldn't hinder his path…but just how far could he push this? When she eventually realised what he was creating, would she still remain indifferent, watching from afar as he continued with his plan?

He could only hope that she would continue in this way, because there was nothing he could do to prevent the Primordial Sage from following and watching him. This was the biggest uncertainty in his plan, but this plan of his had always contained a high degree of risk and failure.

However, Yaan had a feeling, one that he couldn't properly explain. He felt that for whatever reason, the Primordial Sage placed greater value on her observation of his path than anything else…perhaps, even beyond the lives of her fellow Primordial Demon siblings.

Yaan passed through the formation wall protecting the 6th Heaven Hall of Rebirth from the outside world. It was as if he had slipped through an illusory veil, entering a world of gold, where even the air itself shone with a golden glimmer.

In the distance, 3,000 miles away, a grand palace exuded a golden aura. It was clear that this palace, which sat at the centre of the 3,000 mile radius formation, was responsible for the strange aesthetic of this golden world.

Yaan continued to travel forwards as he sat atop the mad elephant's back. The mad elephant's aura of destruction rampaged in all directions, just like always. Strangely, this didn't attract any attention from the Divine Court subordinates within the golden palace.

It wasn't until Yaan and the mad elephant reached the palace itself, and directly smashed through the closed golden gate positioned in the centre of the golden walls, that those within became aware of their presence.

However, even then…

"What is going on?!"

"Something just broke through the palace's main gate! It's…it's an elephant!"

"Just what sort of elephant is that?! This aura of destruction, my heavens, I've never felt anything like it!"

…

Yaan looked around casually as the mad elephant roared out loud, sending ripples of destruction in all directions. Countless soul cultivators were directly destroyed by this roar, whilst those who were further aware and strong enough to somewhat resist were blown backwards, sustaining traumatic injuries.

This palace was enormous, it was certainly a few dozen miles from end to end…but likewise, the mad elephant's aura of destruction was not to be underestimated. As soon as the mad elephant stepped into the golden palace, its destructive aura spread across the entire palace grounds.

'Interesting…' Yaan thought to himself as he searched for the Transcendent Realm cultivator.

'Until reaching the golden palace, I was able to disguise the mad elephant's aura from those within, despite all the destruction that it caused within the bounds of the formation. However, after breaching the palace - the centre of the formation - every single cultivator within became able to see through my concealment…however, they can only see the mad elephant, not me.'

Yaan had been concealing both himself and the mad elephant long before reaching the formation barrier, not because he intended to hide from those within, but simply because he wanted to test the full extent of his abilities.

In the end, the combination of this formation with the mad elephant's innate aura of destruction, made it impossible to properly conceal the mad elephant. However, Yaan himself was completely invisible to these cultivators…even to the Dao Immortals!

Just as Yaan was pondering over these things, he suddenly narrowed his eyes and stood up. He waved his hand, sending the mad elephant to the side with a gust of wind, then stretched forwards and held his palm out in front of him.

After the mad elephant felt bewildered, finding itself standing a dozen miles to the right of where it had just been, two things happened.

Firstly, every single living being within the golden palace, aside from the trio who had just barged in, vanished without a trace.

Secondly, a single figure appeared in their place.

The figure not only 'appeared', but actually attacked the mad elephant as soon as she arrived! Yaan acted quickly, moving the mad elephant out of harm's way, then blocking the attack by himself.

BANG!

Golden ripples spread outwards as a beam of golden light slammed into Yaan's palm. However, the beam of golden light never actually reached his palm, but dissipated a tenth of an inch before reaching him.

As the golden ripples erupted outwards, Yaan's eyes lit up with a light of indiscernible colour. He activated Reveal Truth, his dao spell, and the only real spell that he could use in his current state.

Immediately, his field of vision transformed. He saw through the distracting golden ripples, and the murky figure became clear in his eyes.

It was a woman with hair so long that it draped along the ground. Her eyes shone with golden light, and Yaan noticed countless golden chains linking between herself and the palace walls.

'I see, so she attacked using the formation…but did she attack me, or the mad elephant?'

Yaan narrowed his eyes. The attack had clearly been directed towards the mad elephant, but that meant nothing, it was possible that she had already seen through his concealment, but was pretending to be oblivious. Of course, now that he had blocked her strike, she could no longer pretend that he wasn't there.

Yaan continued to conceal himself and began walking towards the woman at a seemingly slow pace, yet each step crossed a mile of space, allowing him to reach her within seconds.

He stopped a hundred feet away and stared at the woman with a mixture of caution and intrigue.

He could feel a tremendous aura emanating from her body. He recalled the time he had met the Spirit Plane Lord in the True-False Illusion World, soon before she recognised him as her 'brother', and she had suppressed him with her divine aura. The feeling he got from this woman was similar to that time, but much weaker and more impure.

Yaan's eyes shone as he realised something unexpected.

'An Immortal Step being would definitely be suppressed by the trace of divinity contained within a Transcendent's aura…but I am not an Immortal Step being; this aura is unable to suppress me in the least!'

Yaan examined the woman carefully. Her gaze was vacant right now, no doubt an effect of linking her soul to the formation. This also made it extremely difficult to read her expression…

But how could she possibly conceal anything from Yaan, the master of illusions and concealment?

'She can see me.' Yaan immediately narrowed his eyes. He noticed that after coming to a stop, there was a faint flicker of light within the woman's gaze. He followed this flicker and traced the golden light through her soul, and eventually, he could see through the facade created by the illusion.

Beneath those golden eyes, there was an ordinary brown pair of eyes, staring at him with extreme wariness.

Now that he knew he had been seen, Yaan decided that it was time to attack properly. He took another step forwards and raised his right hand at the same time. An illusory wooden sword appeared in his hand, identical to the Dao Treasure possessed by the Dao Clone of Qi!

This was not truly a Dao Treasure, but an illusion of it. Even so, this was the strongest weapon that Yaan could utilise right now.

His Dao Treasure was connected to his dao, and his understanding of illusions was also connected to his dao. It was a strange connection, but because it existed, this illusory wooden sword was many times stronger than any other illusory wooden sword he was able to create!

Yaan's eyes suddenly turned completely crimson as he slashed down. The golden air trembled, then seemed to retreat in fear, replaced by an ocean of red. Yaan's entire figure glowed red, as if his body had become killing intent itself!

This was another illusion. This time, he copied the Dao Clone of Soul's domain. Once again, this was not really the Dao Clone of Soul's domain, but a copy of it that Yaan had created using his illusion dao.

The golden-eyed woman took a step back, retreating as Yaan slashed out at her. She evaded his strike, but as her feet touched the ground, she found that he was already directly before her, having crossed the distance between them at an impossible speed!

Agile Illusion Art, the 1st step!

The woman's eyes widened in shock. She wasn't shocked by his movement speed; whilst impressive, it was within her expectations. No, she was shocked by how quickly he reacted…

'His reaction speed is too fast!' She thought to herself, then without having time to worry about what she was doing, she cut her connection to the golden formation, transformed into a beam of golden light, then reappeared 20 miles away.

Yaan narrowed his eyes upon seeing this. He had hoped that he would be able to catch her out by relying on his superior mental processing speed, but she clearly had some tricks of her own. By disconnecting herself from the formation, she lost the suppressive, tracking and attacking abilities of the formation that would allow her to fight without depleting her own energy, but she regained the ability to use her own unique methods.

'That was clearly the dao of light. This should be her main dao.' Yaan realised.

Yaan stopped attacking. He straightened himself up, then with a strange smile, he stared at the woman and waited. He knew that if he tried to chase after her, he would be unable to catch up to her speed. Instead, he decided to wait for his opponent to make her own move.

His opponent was clearly faster than him, as expected of someone with divine stage comprehension in the dao of light. So then, why was it that Yaan believed in his own speed?

It wasn't because he was faster physically, but because he was faster mentally.

He could only copy the Dao Clone of Qi's Dao Treasure and the Dao Clone of Soul's domain by using illusions, but the Dao Clone of Mind was different…

After severing his karma with the Dao Clone of Mind, Yaan's dao heart began to change. Although he had seemingly sliced off a portion of his own dao heart, it would be more accurate to say that the core of his dao heart had absorbed the extraneous portion into itself.

After the Dao Clone of Mind lost his life, Yaan's dao heart and Dao Soul started to reach a greater state of completion. After this change finalised, Yaan became able to utilise every single ability developed by the Dao Clone of Mind…including his heightened intellect.

Until now, the only abilities that he was able to utilise from the Dao Clones, were their dao comprehensions and nothing else. He couldn't use the Dao Clone of Soul's domain, nor his true killing intent. He also couldn't use the Dao Clone of Qi's Dao Treasure, nor his newly developed sword arts…

This was very strange. The Dao Treasure aside, why could he not even use the sword arts that the Dao Clone of Qi had created, given that Yaan had lived through the experience of creating those sword arts alongside the Dao Clone of Qi?

It was all to do with the karma between them, the nature of the Dao Clones, and the incomplete state of the current Yaan.

The Dao Clones were born from him…but they were not him. The current Yaan was also not his complete self, and he would likely remain in this incomplete state so long as the Dao Clones continued to exist.

Ensuring that he would reap the harvest of their dao comprehension was already his limit. The only way for Yaan to gain the remainder of their abilities, was by severing the karma between them, thereby absorbing the portions of their developed dao hearts into his own core dao heart. There were multiple potential ways that this could be done, however, the only reliable method was the same that he used with Knowledge…

Killing them.

When Yaan first created the Dao Clones, he had a rough plan, but he wasn't certain about everything. He created the Dao Clones not only to further his cultivation, but also to search for the answers to his uncertainties.

It was only after awakening, that some of his uncertainties were cleared up, and he realised the path that he needed to walk.

His path was the path of severing karma.

Only by severing the karma with the Dao Clones could he free himself from his own shackles. This was the first step towards severing his karma with the Primordial Devil, and he had determined that this was the only way to defeat the Primordial Devil, without losing his own life.

Yaan knew that he needed to sever the karma with his Dao Clones, he no longer had any doubt about this. However…what about the rest of his karma?

He had karma with many living beings in this world. Obviously, he couldn't sever his karma with the Primordial Sage, he simply didn't have the ability.

But in the first place, he didn't need to sever his karma with the Primordial Sage. She was powerful, but she was not a chain binding his heart…

When Yaan thought about this, his mind drifted towards Elia.

Elia, his childhood friend, and the person the Dao Clone of Qi treasured the most.

Elia was most definitely someone within his heart…like an emotional chain, binding his heart…

This was something that Yaan did not like thinking about. He didn't know if he needed to sever this sort of karma, but more importantly…he didn't know if he wanted to sever this sort of karma.

He would survive, no matter the cost…

This was what he told himself, but really…was this sort of price something that he could bring himself to pay?

Was this a price that he wanted to pay, just to ensure his own painful survival?

In his incomplete state, Yaan was unable to answer this question.