Different Paths

"Hah…hah…hah…" Devil stood in the centre of the 6th Layer of Abyss, panting for breath as crimson miasma tumbled out from the countless wounds across his body. He was grievously wounded, but his eyes contained no fear towards the four monstrous beings facing him. No, in his gaze, there was only endless hatred and killing intent.

In fact, his killing intent was so strong that it had formed a gaseous red mist surrounding his body. It was for this reason that the four beings – the four Dao Immortals of the 6th Layer of Abyss, and the four leaders of the ruling regional devil tribes, stood a certain distance away from him after attacking from afar.

For now, they just stared at Devil coldly, showing no intention of attacking again.

"Mortal, your strength surpasses all common sense. However, you are too rash – with your talent, you should have secluded yourself away until ascending to the Immortal Step, but instead, you slaughtered your way through all five regions and even attacked our tribes! The audacity of such a mortal…I don't know what's wrong with your mind!"

When the Northern Devil Tribe Ancestor, a titan of a man standing at over 300 feet in height, stared down at Devil and spoke, the ancestor's blurry black body trembled and released countless waves of dao. Any other cultivator would be torn apart by these ripples, but Devil just glared back at the titan defiantly.

"Pathetic…you speak down to me and call me 'mortal', yet the four of you actually joined together to ambush me in secret! You clearly fear me! Hahahaha…"

As Devil laughed crazily, he stood up straight, ignoring his injuries which were worsening by the second. His injuries were nothing normal, and he knew that before long, he was going to die.

The four Dao Immortal devils fell silent and continued to watch Devil with aloof gazes. His words couldn't move their hearts, but what he said was true – they were wary of him. They had never encountered a mortal like this before – a mortal who had killed multiple Ancient Immortal Realm devils and demons, and could even pose a faint threat to Dao Immortals!

How was this a mortal? He was no mortal, he was just…

'The Devil!' The four of them couldn't help but think of the title that this man before them had so bolding proclaimed. Yes, that was how he had referred to himself, when he publicly declared war against the entirety of the devil races, after stating that he was the only true devil in this world!

And honestly, they admired his strength, his will, and his fighting spirit…but they still believed that he was too stupid.

"Regardless of your strength and potential, because of your idiotic actions, you will die here today. You have been afflicted by each of our full strength strikes imbued with our daos; even a Dao Immortal would die to this. It is impressive that you have clung to your life until now, but it is futile – give up, mortal, you…"

The Southern Devil Tribe Ancestor continued to speak, hoping to crush Devil's will to fight back. Like the other three, he wanted nothing more than for Devil to just give up and die already. When the Dao Immortal devils saw the gaseous killing intent surrounding his body, they were extremely wary of what he might try in his death throes.

However, as the smaller, but just as powerful Dao Immortal devil ancestor continued to speak, Devil's expression changed. He could no longer hear what those around him were saying, and for a brief moment, he actually completely forgot about his current perilous situation.

Suddenly, the killing intent and hatred within his eyes froze as devil stood up straight and stared into the distance dazedly.

Then, in the next moment, that killing intent and hatred that he had been cultivating in his heart, suddenly broke past an unseen limit, the limit that had eluded him for over a year now!

"UNACCEPTABLE!" Devil suddenly roared out without warning, startling the four devil ancestors and causing them to hastily retreat as Devil's aura exploded into a whole new realm!

Devil's eyes became so blood shot that his gaseous killing intent started to leak from his eyes, before condensing around him, until it started raining down in a storm of crimson fluid!

But this was far from the end. The gaseous and liquid red killing intent formed a violent storm, forcing the four devils to retreat even further. Before they could even process what was going on, the storm transformed into a hurricane, which rapidly imploded in on itself, until it was fully absorbed into Devil's body!

The gaseous and liquid killing intent was no more, but the terror revealed within Devil's aura was many times greater than before. Devil's entire body, but especially his hair and eyes, were now glowing red…

"Solidified killing intent!"! The Eastern Devil Tribe Ancestor cried out in horror.

The four devil ancestor's shared a glance with one another, and then, without hesitation…these revered Dao Immortals all fled in opposite directions.

Gaseous killing intent was a terrifying ability. Liquid killing intent was almost impossible to attain, even for Dao Immortals. As for solidified killing intent, the final form of killing intent wherein one's killing intent fused with their body, causing their body to become killing intent itself?

This was such a rare ability that there were not even ten recorded cases of it being achieved across the four planes throughout history!

Devil was seemingly oblivious to his achievement right now, and nor did he care about the fleeing devils. No, the killing intent within his heart was too great right now, because…

"The Dao Clone of Qi, that little peace-loving human clone, actually achieved a named dao heart before me?! He actually reached the Immortal Step before me?! He actually…became a Dao Immortal…BEFORE ME?!"

WAM!

Suddenly, an immense wave of aura erupted from Devil's body. The speed of this aura's travel could not be described with words, instantly catching up to the fleeing Dao Immortal devils. All four devils showed shocked and horrified expressions at the same time, and quickly turned back towards Devil, intending to defend against his 'attack'…

But before they could even fully turn around, their spirit bodies, their consciousness, their entire cultivation bases, all of their treasures, their Dao Souls, and even their dao hearts…were completely slaughtered, and then devoured into Devil's expanding aura.

Devil's aura, filled with his hatred and killing intent, continued to spread out, until it had covered the entire 6th Layer of Abyss.

The 6th Layer of Abyss fell silent.

Within the 6th Layer of Abyss, there were now only three living beings; Devil, the Primordial Sage, and the Spirit Plane Lord. The Primordial Sage had naturally been following Devil this entire time, whilst the Spirit Plane Lord also watched over him in secret, though she already possessed a body which resided on this Layer of Abyss anyway, as she did on every layer of the Spirit Plane.

The Spirit Plane Lord stood in the air, by her sister's side, and stared down at Devil with shining eyes.

"Brother…this killing intent, it's just like brother's used to be!" She exclaimed excitedly.

As for the fact that Devil had just unknowingly wiped out all traces of life from the 6th Layer of Abyss…she didn't care. Naturally, the Primordial Sage cared even less. Right now, both women were fully focussed on watching Devil's sudden explosive growth, which had been triggered by the Dao Clone of Qi's success, something that Devil immediately felt as soon as the Dao Clone of Qi successfully overcame his tribulation.

When the Dao Clone of Qi ascended to the Immortal Step, it was as the Dao Clones expected; a chain of events immediately took place.

The first of these events, was the Dao Clone of Soul finally surpassing his own heart, ascending in the same way as the Dao Clone of Qi by using his newly named dao heart - the heart of slaughter - to ascend to the Immortal Step!

However, because of the nature of Devil's enlightenment…he hadn't even realised himself what had happened.

In Devil's eyes, everything had turned into a sea of red. In reality, the world had also turned into a sea of red…

Because Devil didn't just ascend to the Immortal Step by attaining an immortal stage dao heart - he immediately formed a true domain!

This was Devil's ascension. His cultivation was that of the soul, the opposite of the Primordial Devil's devotedness to the path of body tempering. However, Devil had transformed his soul into a Slaughter Spirit. He hadn't realised it, but because of his variant spirit soul, the only way that he could reach the immortal step was via the dao of slaughter!

But Devil didn't comprehend the Heavenly Dao; he didn't comprehend the earthly dao of slaughter, but instead, created his own heart of slaughter. The act of attaining such a heart, which was untainted by any earthly dao comprehension, caused him to immediately form a true domain, a domain of slaughter so powerful that upon its formation, it swept through the entire 6th Layer of Abyss and slaughtered every living creature within! The scale of this domain was simply monstrous, and naturally, Devil's domain wouldn't usually be this large, it had only become this way as a result of his sudden ascension…and its fusion with his impending tribulation…

And yet, even now, as Devil's hair and eyes shone with a blinding crimson light, he wasn't thinking about his own ascension. He wasn't thinking about his path of cultivation.

He was only thinking about his hatred towards these devil tribes for pushing him into such a pitiful state…and his even greater hatred towards the Dao Clone of Qi for beating him to the Immortal Step, despite living such an easy-going and peace-filled life!

As for how Devil knew about the way that the Dao Clone of Qi had been living his life…it was somewhat complicated.

As soon as the Dao Clone of Qi reached the Immortal Step, the karmic link between himself, the other two Dao Clones, and the main body, materialised to such a powerful extent that the other two Dao Clones could immediately feel his presence. They could feel his Immortal Ascension, and they could feel the dao that he had chosen for himself.

As Devil felt all of this, he ground his teeth and madness exploded within his heart like a storm within a chaotic sea. Even as his various tribulations and calamities descended, fusing together within his domain and attacking him with the might of the Heaven's wrath…the hatred and killing intent in his heart only grew stronger!

The Spirit Plane Lord's eyes widened in disbelief, and even the Primordial Sage stared at Devil unblinking, as he slaughtered his own fused Dao Immortal Ascension Tribulation, killing not only the external tribulations, but the internal tribulation of his Immortal Ascension, and the tribulation of his dao heart.

He did all of this without even realising it himself…

The madness in Devil's heart after devouring the Heavenly Tribulations only amplified further. In this moment, he could clearly feel the Dao Clone of Qi's presence, and due to his maddened heart which had practically lost itself to insanity, he widened his eyes and forcefully stared through time and space, gazing at the Dao Clone of Qi with a gaze of immense hatred.

On the Qi Plane, the Dao Clone of Qi, who had been sitting alone in his temple with a severe expression whilst contemplating the gloomy revelation that he had reached after the chaos of his Immortal Ascension came to an end, suddenly blinked and looked around in confusion.

"Just what is this gaze looking at me with such killing intent…? It feels so far away…wait…Devil?!"

Yaan leapt to his feet and immediately left his temple. He stared into the sky, and his jaw dropped. Yaan wasn't usually one to lose control over his demeanour like this, but right now, he couldn't help it. After all…

A fissure in space had appeared directly above him, within the Heavenly Path Province! Not only that, but this fissure was actually being held apart by two glowing red hands, and just beyond the fissure, Yaan could see a pair of red eyes staring at him with monstrous hatred!

"The karmic river!" Yaan couldn't help but exclaim.

Naturally, he had also felt the connection of karma that manifested itself so strongly upon his ascension to the Dao Immortal Realm…but this…

How had Devil followed this karmic link into the karmic river, and then somehow tracked him down?!

Moments ago on the Spirit Plane, on the 6th Layer of Abyss…

"YOU PEACE LOVING BASTARD, I'LL KILL YOU!"

Devil had completely lost all reason. After sensing the karmic connection between himself and the Dao Clone of Qi, he reached out with his glowing red arm and grabbed ahold of the karmic chain, before tugging on it so hard…that space was ripped open, and he was yanked into the karmic river!

His intention was to drag the Dao Clone of Qi towards him, but how could that be possible? In the end, Devil messed up; he pulled on the karmic chain with so much force that for a brief moment, space ripped itself apart and he was dragged into the karmic river, the very same karmic river that the Primordial Sage had once used to transport his complete self to the Blood Plane!

When Devil suddenly vanished from Abyss, and the Spirit Plane Lord caught a glimpse of the glowing green chains within the karmic river before the fissure of space immediately closed behind him, she stared into space dumbfoundedly.

"How…how did this happen?!" She cried out.

For a while, the Primordial Sage by her side was silent. As always, the Sage was completely unexpressive, but the pause before she responded showed that she was not expecting this to happen.

"This is beyond my expectations…for an immortal to enter the karmic river, I never thought that such a thing was possible…"

"Sister, you have to do something!" The Spirit Plane Lord quickly turned to face her sister with a hurried look. "He'll definitely die in that place if you don't help him out!"

"Don't worry, sister. One of my bodies lives within the karmic river, I won't allow him to die so stupidly."

The Primordial Sage said this, but tracking Devil down within the karmic river was easier said than done. By the time she had crossed the countless glowing green chains and found him by following the explosive killing aura that had plagued the river and caused karma itself to tremble, she paused, then stared strangely as Devil, now covered by his own bloody miasma, continued to hold onto that same chain that had dragged him into the river…and ripped open the spatial wall between the river and the Qi Plane.

A few seconds later, he tumbled through, vanishing from this unique place, that until now, only the Primordial Sage had been able to enter and exit as she pleased…

On the Qi Plane, Devil finally managed to force the fissure open wide enough that his Immortal Slaughter Spirit body was able to roughly slip through. He was horrendously injured, covered in his own crimson miasma, causing Yaan to pause and stare up at him dazedly. After all, his sudden appearance was too unexpected, and now that he was here, he looked like he was on the verge of death!

Yaan had always thought of Devil as his future ally in their inevitable battle against the Primordial Devil. As such, when he saw Devil in such a miserable looking state, he hurriedly approached him, intending to use his full power to heal over his wounds.

"Devil, quickly, you need to-"

"PEACEFUL QI BASTARD! YOU'D BETTER GRIT THOSE TEETH!"

Before Yaan could process what was going on, Devil's fist had slammed into his face.

BANG!

Devil punched Yaan directly in the jaw, causing Yaan - whom was now a formation spirit - to cough out a lungful of blood, whilst somehow knocking out half of his teeth. This was a bizarre scene to behold, but aside from causing the entire Heavenly Rebirth Formation to tremble briefly as Yaan shot across the province and slammed into the Southern formation wall, it didn't actually badly injure him, but it severely shook his mind.

The fact that his teeth had shattered, even though he was a formation spirit…was caused entirely by Devil's own will, and his desire to see Yaan's teeth shatter.

When Devil saw Yaan slump pitifully to the ground on the other side of the province, a smirk flashed across his face.

And just like that, seconds after their violent reunion, both Dao Clones lost consciousness due to their injuries.

*****

On the Sage Plane, Knowledge sat within the Dao Formation with a blank expression.

"Just what are those two doing…?" He couldn't help but mutter to himself. Thanks to Devil's interference with the karmic links between them, he had witnessed the entire scene from start to finish.

Knowledge could only sigh and shake his head. The other two had ascended to immortality…but he had not, and he would not.

He was a purely rational being, and for that reason, he was aware of his limitations. He knew that he could not do as they had done, ascending to the Immortal Step by attaining a named dao heart. The truth of the matter was…his heart was simply too weak. Knowledge knew this, and had long since accepted it.

However, he was still more intelligent than both of those other two Immortal Dao Clones combined.

"How can they act this way, when the Primordial Devil has finally sensed our existence? Do they not realise that if Devil can follow our karma across world planes and into the Qi Plane…then so can the Primordial Devil?"

Knowledge sighed and looked up with a melancholic expression.

"I suppose it doesn't matter, now, though. They have also realised it, just like I did over a year ago; the main body has been watching, experiencing, every moment of our lives. However, those two have reached the Immortal Step…they have become different to me. I am aware that I am simply a part of Yaan, but those two…have finally become their own independent existences. We have finally…all realised our own truth."

Knowledge sighed once again, closing his eyes and having one last thought before forgetting about this matter and continuing to comprehend the Dao Formation.

'I wonder how this will play out…I wonder…if the result even matters to Yaan, or if the path itself is the result that he seeks…'

*****

On the Spirit Plane, on the 9th Layer of Heaven, within the main hall of the Spirit Palace, a desolate looking red-robed child had been lying atop a slumbering elephant for many years now. The flow of time within the Spirit Palace was accelerated by ten fold compared to the outside world. This distortion of time had largely assisted Yaan with properly processing all three of the Dao Clones' lives simultaneously.

Slowly, Yaan opened his eyes. For a few seconds, he stared up at the ceiling with a tired expression, before sighing and slowly sitting up. Noticing his movement, the mad elephant immediately opened its eyes and looked up.

With a smile, Yaan looked back down at the mad elephant and softly patted its head.

"Good morning, little elephant. Sigh…if we want to survive, then we can't keep sleeping forever, can we? Come…let's go for a walk."