No Longer Just A Dao Clone

On the Qi Plane, Yaan sat opposite from Elia and June. Devil was not present right now, and he had not yet met Elia, because Yaan wanted to explain some things to her before they met.

Elia could see that Yaan was looking somewhat troubled. This was very unusual for him, causing her to feel slightly worried. She had witnessed the sight of a devilish looking figure appearing from a tear in space, but after that, the explosive shockwaves caused her vision to blur for a moment, then when she recovered her senses, there was nothing to be seen aside from two overwhelming auras emanating from opposite ends of the Heavenly Path Province.

She had sensed Devil's aura when he lost consciousness, but neither she nor anyone else dared to investigate. Even when unconscious, Devil's aura was simply too terrifying.

"Elia…you already know this, but there are some things that I haven't told you, about myself, my life…and most importantly, my future." Yaan began slowly, struggling to think of how to go about this, and just how much he should say.

Elia bit her lip. She reached out and grabbed his wrist, then looked into his eyes with a firm gaze.

"Yaan, no matter what it is, I will always support you. You can tell me anything you want to, but if there's something that you don't want to tell me, no matter the reason, that's also fine."

Yaan's expression softened slightly, and despite everything, he couldn't help but feel a ray of warmth in his troubled heart. He smiled at Elia gently and gave a slight nod, before continuing with a serious expression.

"The person who suddenly appeared within the Heavenly Path Province is another one of my Dao Clones. He came to this place because before long, an enemy of ours is going to appear…an unimaginably strong enemy…"

The Primordial Devil was currently at the Dao Immortal Realm, just like the Dao Clone of Qi and the Dao Clone of Soul. However, Yaan would not underestimate him just because of this – both Yaan and Devil were powerful for Dao Immortals, that was undeniable…but the Primordial Devil was an innate monster. He had lost his divinity, but he was still one of the original four beings of this world.

Back when the four Primordial Demons were born, they were already at the Dao Immortal Realm. The four Primordial Demons were the only living beings that had ever been born at such a high realm, already possessing named dao hearts. Not only that, but even after human cultivators started appearing, and even after those cultivators reached the Dao Immortal Realm, they were still no match for any of the Primordial Demons.

The Primordial Demons had always reigned supreme, and when it came to direct combat ability, the Primordial Devil had always been the strongest. Only the other Primordial Demons, as well as Defiance Sovereign, had been able to face the Primordial Devil in combat whilst at the same realm. All others were, and always had been, beneath him.

For this reason, Yaan didn't underestimate the Primordial Devil. Even Devil, despite his pride, knew that the Primordial Devil would be a difficult opponent.

When Elia heard the seriousness in Yaan's tone, her heart skipped a beat. An enemy so powerful that the current Yaan felt pressured? Yaan, a Dao Immortal?

June had been silent until now, but when she thought about what Yaan had just said, she looked at him oddly.

"Yaan, you said that the person who arrived recently is another one of your Dao Clones and came here to help you, and I can definitely feel the connection between you two…so why did he immediately attack you?"

"Ahem…well, that's not important. All you need to know is that we are allies." Yaan coughed and brushed off the question, not wanting to worry her by mentioning that Devil was basically just a madman.

Yaan sighed and shook his head, then turned back to Elia and got to the point that he was most concerned about discussing with her.

He wasn't going to mention anything about him being the Primordial Devil's heart demon, as he saw that as unnecessary. However, there was one matter that he couldn't ignore.

"Elia, my the main body…well, it's possible that my main body might be scheming against me…I…am no longer just a Dao Clone, and have become a separate individual compared to the 'original Yaan'…whatever that even means…"

"Huh?" Elia blinked and looked at Yaan with a confused expression. "What…? Yaan, I don't understand…why would you scheme against your own clone – no, I mean, how can a clone become independent? No, wait, then…who is…the real Yaan…?"

Yaan tried not to show the pain on his face, however, Elisa noticed the emotion in his eyes, something that shouldn't have been possible, given Yaan's vastly superior cultivation. Naturally, June could also sense Yaan's pain, since she was linked to his very dao.

"I can't answer that question, Elia, I'm sorry." Yaan finally replied bitterly.

Elia's eyes widened as she realised what she had just said, and upon reflection, she saw how her words made her come across as doubting him. Her heart skipped a beat and she quickly leaned in, now grabbing both of Yaan's hands, startling Yaan and making him turn back to her with his gaze which he had previously averted.

"Yaan, I can't say that I understand this at all, but I know that you are you! You are Yaan, my childhood friend, Yaan! You are the one who came back to me, you are the one who has been fighting so desperately to protect our home! You…you're the one who cares about me…you're my Yaan, I'm sure of it…"

"Elia…" Yaan looked dazed, causing Elia to laugh and cover her mouth as she pulled back, giving Yaan some space to breath. She smiled as the doubts cleared away from her heart, before reminding him of his own words from 35 years earlier.

"When you came back to me, you told me that you were born from the part of yourself that wanted to return home. That's you, Yaan. Not your 'main body'. Not any of the other Dao Clones. None of them came back to see me. You…you are the Yaan from Lightstone Village…the Yaan with the heart to protect his home. To me, that's all that matters. You are the only true Yaan to me."

After a moment of silence, during which time Elia felt worried that Yaan was still feeling troubled by this matter, he suddenly looked up and laughed.

"Haha…"

"Wh-what's so funny?"

"I was just thinking that you really are something, Elia. If only more people in this life were like you, maybe this world wouldn't be such a mess."

Elia's eyes widened and a hint of red crept onto her face, she quickly looked away and coughed, but she wasn't sure how to respond to Yaan's sincere compliment.

June looked back and forth between the two curiously, but she remained silent for now, much to Yaan's surprise.

"June…don't you have any questions, or maybe doubts, about all of this? You're connected to my dao after all, and my dao…is connected to his dao…"

June blinked and looked at Yaan blankly for a moment, before she shrugged and smiled.

"I don't know, Yaan is just Yaan to me."

"I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that, June…"

"Hmm?" June frowned and showed a confused expression, as if she couldn't comprehend what was so complicated about her cryptic comment.

"Yaan is Yaan! Understand? If I say you're Yaan, then you're Yaan!"

"Right…and if someone else shows up who you also say is Yaan, then what then?" He asked this in a casual manner, but frankly speaking, he was quite concerned about this…

After all, what if the main body had the ability to steal June from him?

"Then…Yaan is still Yaan, right?" June replied with a bright smile.

Yaan forced a smile and nodded. He had no idea what she meant by this, but he felt like asking anything else wouldn't get him anywhere, so he decided to drop the topic here.

When Yaan left Elia's temple, he glanced into the distance and took a step. He instantly reappeared above Heart Mountain, where Devil had been sitting and waiting for him ever since Yaan insisted that he needed to speak with Elia before they started planning.

Devil glanced at Yaan as he arrived, his expression filled with mocking disdain.

"Clinging to the emotions of your past mortality…pathetic."

"The opinion of a murder obsessed madman means nothing to me." Yaan replied plainly.

They both remembered the Elia of the past, but only the Dao Clone of Qi clung to the feelings that his past self had felt towards his childhood friend, and only he had returned to Elia, developing a whole new set of memories with her. Although they came from the same place…they were no longer the same.

Devil snorted coldly, but he didn't say anything else about the Dao Clone of Qi's decision to cling to his past. After all, he understood that this was the Dao Clone of Qi's path, and no matter what he said, this would not be changed.

"Anyway, for now, you need to stop wasting time on these mundane things." Devil went on. "We might have diverged far away from one another at this point, but we both share the same objective now. We have no choice but to kill the Primordial Devil."

"Right." Yaan nodded solemnly, but then sighed and shook his head as he looked up at the sky. "But, how? I mean, even if we win, we still lose, right?"

Devil fell silent and the look in his eyes became extremely dark. His path was one of endless slaughter, but he knew that if he tried to follow his path in the same brash way as he usually did when facing the Primordial Devil…he would also end up slaughtering himself.

Was that really the ending to his path that he desired?

Yaan sighed again as he realised that they only had one real option here. It wasn't exactly reliable, but they needed to at least try.

"Primordial Sage…you did offer us all a favour, did you not? Now is as good a time as any to have you make good on that promise."