The True Sage

In Yaan's eyes, thousands, then tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and eventually, millions of chains of fate were rapidly connecting to the Primordial Sage. Nobody else could see this, but as Yaan activated Reveal Truth and his own chains of fate flowed through his eyes, it was as clear as day.

These threads of fate cut through her body, piercing directly into her Dao Soul. The 'Dao Soul trait' - the familiar feeling that Yaan could sense from the Sage, her two sisters, and many other female beings in the world - was the source of attraction and connection between these chains of fate.

Abyssal cracks spread across the Primordial Sage's body; she had now reached the point of no return. Normally, she would have destroyed this body to remove those cracks and prevent them from spreading to her Dao Soul, but she was in a strange state of enlightenment, a daze similar to Justice Deity, and she could not escape from her comprehension into her own heart.

Normally, Yaan's words would never be able to shake the Primordial Sage's heart. No matter what he said, she would only entertain a brief rational thought over his words, and never let him sway her heart. However, Yaan had spoken to her while in a state of Void comprehension, resulting in the Sage becoming completely entranced by his gaze, and forcing her to accept his every word as the truth.

When he revealed the truth to her while simultaneously connecting with her on a deeper level in that state of Void, the Sage knew that Yaan was speaking the truth.

Her heart really wasn't the heart of void, but the heart of dao.

It seemed impossible, but was a heart of dao really any more shocking than a heart of void? In Yaan's opinion, it was not, because a heart of void was impossible, but a heart of dao was only highly improbable.

He had to give his thanks to the deceased Heartless Deity and her inheritance for his understanding this time. If not for her inheritance, he might not have realised the truth - that a dao heart could not become truly empty, and would always contain some sort of desire. Desire was an inherent quality of life, and without at least a trace of desire, life could not persist.

The chains of fate continued to accumulate, all piercing into the Primordial Sage's Dao Soul.

And then, there number of chains of fate binding the Primordial Sage, reached one fewer than three million.

Via the Sage, three million individuals were now connected.

Those who were still alive froze in place and the light faded from their eyes. No matter what they were doing, when the Sage entered her state of true enlightenment - enlightenment into her heart of dao - those individuals froze completely. It wasn't just their bodies, but their minds, their souls, their very daos. The essence of their life had frozen and they were no longer drifting along the world's river of time, because they had now been completely captured by the Primordial Sage's dao, losing all control over their very existences.

There were far more dead out of the three million than there were remaining alive in this hell-scape of a world. Those individuals, after dying in the truest sense of the word, wherein their Dao Soul broke down and their dao was reabsorbed by the Origin itself, should have fused with the origin, losing their existence entirely. However, the Primordial Sage somehow contradicted this law, re-establishing the existence of their daos, even as they lay dormant within the depths of the Origin, in a place that could not be touched by man!

And yet, right now, the Primordial Sage was touching that place. Not only had she touched upon the essence of the Origin, she had actually dragged out the annihilated daos of those whom had been completely absorbed, using the power within the Origin to reverse their destruction, re-establishing their daos, and fusing those daos into her fate!

Yaan could see exactly what was happening, but he doubted that the Primordial Sage was doing any of this consciously. The ability to see the chains of fate in this world was unique to him - at first, he could only see the threads of fate that connected to him personally, but as he developed this ability further and fused his comprehension of fate into his gaze, when he activated Reveal Truth, he could see all manner of fate, so long as that fate was at least vaguely related to him in some way, and it was strong enough to form a chain that he could see.

Anything to do with the Primordial Sage was also related to Yaan. He had already determined that those three million individuals, in some way or another, had affected the course of his life. Because of this, and because of his powerful fate with the Sage, Yaan could see everything clearly at long last.

Because he could clearly see the almost three million chains of fate, most of which stretched deep into a place that he had never known existed until now, Yaan's eyes widened and his heart roared wildly.

In this moment, as his gaze followed those chains of fate to their ends, he felt like he could see the essence of the Origin itself…

It was not a physical place within the world that could be reached by travel, rather, it existed everywhere throughout the world simultaneously. It was a layer of the world so ethereal that normally, it was invisible even to the strongest of cultivators. Finding this Essence of Origin was normally impossible, so interfering with it was even more impossible…

Yet right now, Yaan was watching the Primordial Sage pulling on those chains of fate - or perhaps to her, those connections were something else entirely - but either way, she dragged the daos of the dead out from the hidden Essence of Origin, towards herself!

Time passed by very quickly. A lot was happening in a very short period of time. Describing the current events took quite some time, but in reality, only a few seconds had passed by since the Sage entered her state of true enlightenment,

Within a few seconds, those previously annihilated daos were reformed and forcefully dragged out from the Essence of Origin, eventually fusing into the Primordial Sage!

Only Yaan could clearly see the exact events from start end ; only he knew what was happening right now. Everyone else was more distracted by what they could see in the normal world…

The Sage wasn't just absorbing the daos of the dead. Retrieving long-gone daos from the Essence of Origin took time, so she actually started with the daos of the living.

The distance of the individuals from the Sage was irrelevant, the speed at which they were absorbed was solely dependent on the strength of their dao heart.

Many individuals whom Yaan did not know, collapsed into golden light all across the world.

Within the net of destruction, in all seven star systems…

Outside of the net of destruction, on the continent down below…

No matter how far they were, it didn't matter. Frozen in time, these individuals didn't even resist; their only resistance came from their daos being naturally repelled by another dao absorbing them. Unfortunately, without the movement of the dao heart's will, these daos could not resist the Sage's state of enlightenment.

Yaan watched silently as the first dao was completely absorbed. It crossed space and time as if the distances didn't exist, travelling along a path of karma, along the innate connection that it shared with the Sage.

It was only in their final moment in life, in the brief instant of clarity after their dao was fully absorbed, that the pitiful individual was released from their frozen state for an unwilling final farewell to the world. They barely had enough time to show a look of shock and horror.

The individual was killed, collapsing into golden light as their dao fused into the Primordial Sage's Dao Soul.

As she absorbed that dao, the Primordial Sage's ever-still face suddenly contorted. Just like the individual she had absorbed, she showed a look of shock and fear, combined with an immense confusion stemming from someone else's dao suddenly fusing with her own, an action that instantly twisted her dao heart, changing her in ways that only she and Yaan could understand.

Yaan watched as she absorbed more and more.

Each individual awoke from their frozen state in the moment of their death for a single instant. It was only long enough to react with a simple emotion as they were removed from this world forever.

Some felt fear, or even terror. Most felt confused and shocked. Others looked bitter, smiling helplessly as they came to an understanding, clearly affected by the Primordial Sage's enlightenment.

There were some that understood the truth in their final moments, but most did not.

With each dao absorbed, the Primordial Sage's expression contorted, making her look like a completely different person. In fact, after each dao devouring, her face looked very much like a fusion between her own face, and the face of the person she had absorbed…

When dozens of daos were being absorbed into her Dao Soul every singe second, her expression became a blur of overwhelming emotions. Her aura became chaotic, the abyssal black cracks completely covered her body. She was growing stronger by the instant, but she was also walking along a dangerous path, with each step taking her closer and closer to her own demise. Her dao was being tainted by the countless daos that fused with her own, it was impossible for her to remain unaffected when so many lives, so many daos, suddenly became one with hers.

She had barely comprehended the reality of her own true dao, yet her understanding was now constantly being shattered and reformed without mercy, time and time again!

Yaan watched as Ji Suzu was absorbed. In her final moments, she opened her eyes, blinked, looked around…then lay her head back down, shutting her eyes and falling asleep as she was devoured.

It was a quiet ending for a person with no close friends, family, or even enemies, but Yaan would remember her. This was a true dao seeker, a person who chose to live by their dao, up until the moment of their death. The Sage seemed to feel this too, because her body trembled, and for a moment, she nearly passed out.

But she endured.

Xuqi Laila was the last to go. Despite being a young immortal, her dao heart was much stronger than any Transcendent.

As Xuqi Laila's dao was absorbed, she turned and looked the Sage in the eyes. She did not say anything - she didn't have the time. However, the Sage understood the meaning behind her gaze.

You had better cultivate properly.

Xuqi Laila did not even care about her own life and death. She only wanted to cultivate, and if her dao was destined to be absorbed by another, someone with whom she clearly shared fate, inevitably leading them to this day well…it was fine so long as that person continued to use her dao to cultivate properly.

Once those several hundred immortals and Transcendents had been absorbed, the next to go was the Primordial Spirit.

The Primordial Spirit, perhaps because she was so old and wise in terms of dao, or maybe it was because she adamantly needed to know why this was happening, managed to look at the Sage and speak before being completely devoured.

"Sister…all along, you knew that we were one…?"

The Sage said nothing. The Primordial Spirit sighed, before collapsing into golden light.

In the moment before her face disintegrated into golden specs of light, a faint smile of relief could be seen on her face.

This faint smile appeared on the Primordial Sage's face, but simultaneously, an immense pain and sadness covered her expression. The confusing mess of emotions overlapped on her face, as if she had many faces, each of which was feeling something different. Just looking at this scene, anyone could tell that her dao heart was in absolute chaos right now.

Finally, the Primordial Asura was absorbed. As an Empyrean, her dao heart was so powerful that she was able to forcefully stop the absorption, causing the Primordial Sage to stumble forwards, resulting in a giant abyssal crack vertically bisecting her body in half. It was unknown how she was still holding herself together, despite being ripped in half…

The Primordial Asura stared at the Sage silently. If she wanted to, she might actually be able to resist this absorption…

Without a word, the Primordial Asura shut her eyes and collapsed into golden light. She showed no emotion, she simply…let go.

A dazed look appeared on the Primordial Sage's face. A faint killing intent lingered around her body, courtesy of the Primordial Asura's dao of slaughter, but this was somehow not the main emotion that affected the Sage upon absorbing her sister's dao.

The Primordial Asura felt no reluctance, because she had long since realised the truth of her existence; she had prepared herself for this ending. She knew that she was not the Core Origin Incarnation, but a subsidiary Origin incarnation. Her role was not to cultivate the strongest dao, but to cultivate a dao that could temper and assist her original, complete self's true dao heart - the heart of dao itself.

The Primordial Sage silently absorbed the killing intent, until her expression returned to normal.

Her reprieve was far too brief. As soon as she had somewhat recovered, an absolute storm of daos slammed into her Dao Soul. She wasn't doing this deliberately, the daos that she was unknowingly dragging out of the Origin shot into her body like a sharp arrows of torrential rain. There were almost three million of these daos, causing the Sage's eyes to widen and her body to tremble.

Thousands of faces overlapped, showing every possible emotion at every conceivable intensity. The Sage was trembling violently and the abyssal cracks were now covering 90% of her body…

Even Yaan was stunned by the fact that she was holding on in this state. He had assumed that if she surpassed 50% abyssal damage to her Dao Soul, she would die. For any being other than him, and perhaps Shi, that should be the case. The Sage didn't possess the same extreme will of survival as they did, so how was she holding on?

'I see, so the storm of dao absorption is actually forcefully holding her together. But, the moment this storm subsides, the Sage's will completely collapse…'

Yaan watched silently.

He saw Zue Yin's dao enter the Sage…

He saw the others, too.

Bloody Totem Tribe Leader…

Elia…

June…

Flora…

Seeing his mortal wife again made Yaan sigh in his heart. He couldn't help but recall the time back then, when he had allowed her to die, despite being able to save her…

Flora did not want to be saved by the methods of the cultivators, because she deemed those methods unnatural, and overall, bad for the world. She only wanted to die naturally, according to the natural cycle of life and death, whatever that may be…

She had been absorbed into the Origin, so her wish had been fulfilled…yet now, she was dragged out of the Origin and her dao devoured by the Primordial Sage. There couldn't really be anything less natural than this.

Yaan remained silent, watching without intending to interfere. He could allow himself to feel melancholic and nostalgic when he was reminded of the past, especially when he thought back on those profound events in his life that had led him to become whom he was today…but he would not dwell on these things, and he definitely would not allow these emotions to sway him.

His heart was firmly set on one thing and one thing alone; doing whatever needed to be done, in order to overthrow the world's fate, replacing it with his own.

Emotions were like scenery passing by - he allowed himself to feel such things and appreciate the view, but he would not allow mere scenery to distract him from his path.

Finally, the Sage had absorbed every single one of the near-enough three million daos.

Including her own dao, her dao heart was now a fusion of three million different daos, cultivated independently across three million entirely separate lives…could her heart of dao really withstand such a thing, could it maintain its essence after fusing with so many other daos?

For a normal divinity, absorbing even one immortal's dao into their own, would be an act of suicide. Yaan was able to endure other daos being fused into his own, because the nature of his dao included learning, adapting and evolving. He had no issue with taking from others whatever he found useful, and integrating their methods into his arsenal.

As for the Sage…

Yaan felt confident that she would be able to persevere. She had clearly entered this Origin Era planning to do exactly this in the end, meaning that she should have reason to believe that her dao heart can accept the fusion of many other daos.

Of course, those 'other daos' actually came from other incarnations of herself, so perhaps that would make it easier to tolerate?

The Sage fell into a daze as the chaotic emotions vanished from her expression. Her face once again showed a plain look, however, Yaan saw something in her eyes…

There was a look of melancholy, a melancholy that grew stronger and more pained when she looked up and made eye contact with him.

The moment they locked eyes, the Primordial Sage's body erupted with a transcendent light. The entire world froze under this light, and for the first time ever, the black crystal in her forehead…changed colours!

On closer inspection, Yaan realised that there was no longer any black at all, the crystal was now the colour of the entire spectrum of light. The source of this transcendent light was completely suppressing the world.

With a gentle sigh, the sort of outwards expression of emotion that she would never let slip in the past, the Primordial Sage's body finally became completely covered in abyssal black cracks. When the cracks reached the crystal of light in her forehead, one small crack spread through the crystal and, splitting it from bottom to top.

Suddenly, she exploded.

BANG!

Of course the Sage was not dead.

After the black cracks destroyed her body, the last traces of her false heart of void were destroyed. From the shell of her false dao heart, a new Sage emerged, a Sage whom looked mostly the same as before, only, there were some differences…

The black crystal in her forehead was no longer black, but white, and its light encompassed every colour in the spectrum of light. Aside from this, she looked much the same…to everyone aside from Yaan at least.

When Yaan looked into the Sage's indifferent, uncaring eyes, he saw the briefest flash of bitter melancholy and unspeakable pain. When she noticed his gaze, the light spreading out from her body grew stronger.

Yaan was blinded for a moment. When he looked back up at the Sage, he could no longer see those emotions which she had suppressed deep down within her heart, to evade his keen gaze. She was acting as if she was the same, indifferent, emotionless Sage, but Yaan had already seen the truth. Now, she was unable to deceive him, he could see clearly that, unlike in the past, this expressionless face of hers was a facade…but unfortunately, Yaan could no longer see past the facade.

This only happened when he faced those undergoing Origin Ascension! He could not see through the heart of an Origin God with his current cultivation, it seemed.

Transcendent light once again swept through the world, causing everyone's consciousness to reel crazily for several moments. By the time Yaan and the others had regained their bearings, they found that the pressure emanating from the Sage…was that of Origin Ascension!

'No, wait!' Yaan narrowed his eyes. He felt shocked, because this power…was not actually Origin Ascension!

Just as the Sage had dragged those daos out of the Essence of Origin, those daos had likewise dragged her towards the Essence of Origin! When everything was progressing so quickly, Yaan hadn't noticed it, but now, he could see clearly that beyond the blinding transcendent light, the Sage's body had become ethereal, as if she was half in this world, and half out.

This looked very similar to Origin Ascension, and she was indeed emitting the aura of a person ascending to the Origin Step. However…

With his gaze of fate, Yaan saw the Sage floating out from the normal world, and into the Essence of Origin!

After a few moments, a few other more observant individuals also realised what she was doing. They couldn't see it like Yaan, but they knew from experience that this was indeed possible. After all, this was how the Heavenly Dao 'ascended' after each Era; the Heavenly Dao did not leave the Origin, but sunk down into the depths of the Origin, absorbing and comprehending its power, until finally re-establishing a new Era.

But that wasn't all.

Once the Sage was 90% into the Essence of Origin, her aura's impact on the world had decreased to a level that allowed the other divinities to speak once again.

"As expected, it really was you." Defiance stared at the Sage. However, she completely ignored him.

Primal Savage's heart shook violently as a look of fear filled him.

"It was her?! You mean, she was the one, in the first Era…"

Up above, the Evil God stared down with wide eyes and clenched fists.

"So it was her! She was the one who followed the Heavenly Dao into the depths of the Origin rather than ascending like everyone else! She was the one who wiped all traces of her existence from the minds of all living beings, even affecting the memories of the those who ascended before she took action! She…is the Hidden God!"

Primal Savage stared at the Primordial Sage with a grim expression.

"Just what experience did she encounter that gave her such power? Every single Origin God completely forgot her existence after leaving the 1st Origin Era…even the Heavenly Dao forgot her! All I can remember is that she existed, and that she shook the world no less than Destruction, Defiance and the World Demon…how did she do it?! How did she wipe every memory of her existence?! How did she managed to enter the Essence of Origin?! Damnit, is that why she was able to reincarnate into this Era in such a shocking manner, because she remained within the depths of the Origin rather than ascending?! Damnit damnit damnit, how did she do it?! I'm even watching her right ow, but I still don't understand...how can I do it?!"

After Primal Savage finished rambling, Defiance looked around with a mocking smile.

"Don't lump me in with the rest of you. Did you really think that I would be so useless as to forget her? In this life, I have never forgotten so much as a single instant of any memory of mine!"

The Primordial Sage ignored the uproar that she had created. She continued to stare at Yaan, her gaze indifferent as always.

Because he knew that this was a false act, yet he still couldn't see any differences compared to her current act and her past self back when she had truly cut off her emotions, Yaan felt strangely irritated.

Did she really need to keep up the act when he already knew the truth?

Just as the Sage looked like she was going to fade away with saying a word, she opened her mouth and started saying:

"Yaan, you…we…"

She sighed gently and shook her head.

"Never mind. I can't hold onto that hope."

"What-?"

"Yaan." The Sage suddenly raised her head and spoke loudly, yet only he could hear her. Her emerald gaze shone brighter than ever before and pierced into his mind like a blade, forcefully reflecting her eyes throughout his Sea of Consciousness countless times. As she spoke, her words echoed within his mind, until he managed to finally rid his mind of her influence with great difficulty. By the time he looked up, she was already gone,

The Sage had left the 2nd Origin Era for good, along with the Primordial Asura and Primordial Spirit. Finally, the four Primordial Demons were no longer present in the world.

The Sage's words replayed in Yaan's mid several times before he turned to leave.

"The fate between us defies my understanding…in the next Era, should you still be willing, let us cooperate once again."

He wondered if she meant the 1st Origin Era or the 3rd Origin Era…perhaps, she already knew the order that he would pursue, and she meant for them to work together in both.

For now, he didn't overthink it. There were several matters that he wanted to muse over for some time, but right now, it was time to go. Not just away from this place, not just away from one person, or from a group…it was time to vanish completely.

Yaan wasn't exactly sure what had caused his priorities to change recently as he pursued his goal. His ambition had not wavered in the least, but his approach for the future was very different than his actions in the past…

Maybe it was the destruction of all mortal life, drastically reducing the value in nurturing a subordinate force. Maybe it was the continual destruction of the world, and how watching everything crumble piece by piece, made him realise the futility of fighting so desperately for such fragile things. Everything that he obtained would, in the end, turn to dust; people, places, treasures…all he could take out of the Origin, was himself, and his Dao Treasure, that was it.

Perhaps staring into the Void for 10,000 years had affected him more than he realised. Only time would tell, but regardless of the reason, Yaan knew exactly what he was going to do next.

He was going to leave the world behind, without leaving at all. He would become a ghost, concealed, unseen and indifferent, cultivating alone as the world collapsed around him.

Yaan created his own fate and dared to oppose the fate dictated by the world, but now, the fated end of days was no longer waiting to happen…the fate to end the world had struck time and time again already; the world had long since ended, the survivors could only wait for their turn to die. But of course, the heart of man could not accept such despair.

One by one, vast regions of the world met their end, ancient divinities lost their lives, and many of the Origin Gods chose to leave ahead of time, uninterested in hanging around any longer.

As for Yaan, he would remain until the end - thanks to his top-tier self-preservation abilities, bearing witness to the ultimate destruction of the world, intrigued him more than it concerned him. Yaan would cultivate, and he would watch everything crumble piece by piece, right up until the end. This was his only remaining interest in the 2nd Origin Era.