The Dao Path
Before anything else, Yaan needed to unlock the two seals on his Dao Soul. Until he unlocked both of those seals, the sealed Fragments of Qi and Mind would remain in a state of incomplete fusion with his Dao Soul. He needed all three fragments to fully fuse and integrate with his Dao Soul before he could even attempt to extract his own conceived fragments from his Dao Soul.
Aside from that, the experience of fully absorbing the Dao Soul fragments into his own Dao Soul would be an invaluable experience, and it would drastically assist him in comprehending the Primordial Sage's technique, which she had created after watching the Primordial Devil's five-way fragmentation…though, this technique had never actually been put into practise, since almost nobody in this world would be able to use it.
But Yaan wasn't concerned. The Primordial Devil managed to succeed back then, despite ripping apart his own Dao Soul without any prior planning or any sort of technique. Compared to that, Yaan's own Dao Soul fragmentation should actually be much easier and safer.
Of course, others could never succeed in using this technique. It was only possible for Yaan, for two simple reasons.
Firstly, his Dao Soul was one that had always been damaged - even if he received a horrendous backlash to his Dao Soul, he should be able to endure, survive, and eventually recover.
Secondly, his Dao Soul was far from ordinary. Yaan's earliest Dao Soul was the product of the Primordial Devil's heart demon devouring and fusing with a human child's Dao Soul. It also contained the additional fusion of three more Dao Souls due to him devouring the Fragments of Qi, Mind and Soul. Because of this, splitting his Dao Soul back into separate fragments would be much easier, even if his own self-created fragments were different than the original fragments which he had devoured during his life.
Yaan sat down within the Spirit Palace main hall, an extremely spacious hall and not the sort of place that he would typically choose to cultivate. His environment didn't really matter though, Yaan wasn't the type to care about small things like this.
He had requested the two sisters to remain nearby, such that if something went wrong, they might be able to assist him.
At this point, Yaan was just shamelessly asking them for a level of help that even Rank 9 Immortals would kill to receive…and yet, the two sisters were all too willing to do whatever they could to assist him.
However, before Yaan began, the Spirit Plane Lord had one concern - and it was a very reasonable concern.
"Brother…you swore a dao oath to never again cultivate…but your plan to fragment your Dao Soul, creating three Dao Clones to live as each separate part of your dao heart…could this count as cultivation? Will unlocking those seals count as cultivation? Does pursuing your dao heart…count as cultivation?"
Her concerns weren't without reason, her questions raised a very good point.
Basically, Yaan didn't know…but what he did know, was that eventually, if he continued following this path of his further, and further, and further…then eventually, he would almost certainly end up breaking his dao oath.
He didn't know what exactly constituted 'cultivation', but he had his own thoughts on this matter.
"A dao oath is a promise sworn on your dao heart, a vow to yourself. Nothing aside from you and your own heart is involved in this oath, meaning that it will only be counted as cultivation, if I consider it to be cultivation." Yaan replied calmly, clearly having thought through this matter already.
"But you intend for your Dao Clones to cultivate, do you not?" The Primordial Sage pointed out, getting to the crux of the matter directly.
"Yes, almost certainly." Yaan nodded.
As he spoke, the abyssal cracks across his illusory body started to re-emerge. Whenever the cracks grew deeper and lost the stability which was maintained via their perpetual cycle of creation and destruction, his control over hiding these cracks from his illusory body would suffer.
The Spirit Plane Lord's eyes widened, and when she realised what Yaan was about to do, she almost cried out…but he spoke quickly, before she could say anything to stop him.
"I swore a dao oath to never cultivate…but so what? The core fragment of myself will not cultivate any of the four paths of cultivation, but as for the three Dao Clones…the Dao Clone of Qi will embark upon the path of Qi refining. The Dao Clone of Mind will cultivate its mind by forming a true Sea of Consciousness and cultivating Psyche Power. The Dao Clone of Soul will use slaughter to forcibly cultivate its Spirit Soul, until it becomes a true Slaughter Spirit. Am I cultivating, if it is not my core self pursuing the four paths, but instead my Dao Clones; entities born from the fragments of my Dao Soul?"
Yaan smiled softly as a terrifying pain overcame him. Just by voicing his plans out loud, he was already beginning to renege on his dao oath!
"I don't care whether or not it counts as cultivation. I will do what I need to do. Dao oath or not, it doesn't matter. I vowed not to cultivate, but now, I am going back on that vow by having my Dao Clones cultivate. As for my core self…my core will not cultivate any of the four paths, but will instead cultivate a new path…a flawless path…"
Yaan's entire illusory form was now covered in deep abyssal black cracks. The aura of agony was impossible to hide from his aura, but Yaan's expression remained unchanged. He just shook his head with a slight smile that contained no happiness…it was as if he didn't even care that he was on the verge of being destroyed due to deliberately and knowingly breaking his own dao oath…
"Anyway…I formed and broke multiple dao oaths when I challenged the Ruthless Inheritance, did I not?" Yaan pointed out.
The black cracks now reached his face, and before long, those abyssal cracks spread into his eyes, tearing them open and revealing endless darkness within.
Seeing this, the Primordial Sage stared intently, whilst the Spirit Plane Lord came close to panicking when she saw that Yaan's current state was already extremely precarious!
"That's different, it's completely different! Vowing to never cultivate is a much deeper promise than vowing not to take another step up a staircase! The backlash from breaking a severe dao oath like this will kill you!"
"It will harm me, that's for sure…but it won't kill me." Yaan spoke with certainty. "By cultivating the world's natural paths with my Dao Clones, and cultivating my own self-conceived path with the remaining core of my Dao Soul, I will definitely survive."
The Spirit Plane lord furrowed her brows.
"What do you mean, you intend to cultivate your own self-conceived path?"
Yaan sighed as he looked away from the two women. He had some complex feelings when it came to 'cultivation'.
"I have already cultivated all four paths…and I failed. I no longer feel any desire towards reattempting this endeavour, even though I could probably succeed this time. I will no longer follow any of the four paths, because…I no longer need to constrain myself behind the confines of any of the four states of life. I will directly cultivate my Dao Soul itself - this will be the four planes' fifth path; the dao path."
There had always been four major paths of cultivation across the four planes, but now, there were five!
And this fifth path could only be called the 'dao path', because it neglected all else and focussed solely on the cultivation of the Dao Soul.
The Spirit Plane Lord, and even the Primordial Sage, both looked at him deeply.
They hadn't mentioned it, but they had all realised that in Yaan's current state, although it might seem precarious to exist with an illusory body and nothing else, the benefits of this impossible form were actually so immense that it was difficult to truly believe…
The physical body, the Qi, the soul, the mind…these were the four states of life. Some beings possessed all of these things, others only possessed one.
Almost all cultivators believed that the improvement in their dao comprehension ability which accompanied each increase in their cultivation realm, was caused by their higher realm allowing them to better perceive the earthly daos which existed all throughout the universe.
But the truth was not like this at all. In reality, higher cultivation realms did not improve a cultivator's dao comprehension ability at all. The only exception to this, was when a cultivator ascended their Dao Soul itself into a higher state of being - this could only be achieved by attaining a named dao heart for immortals, and a complete dao heart for divinities.
The states of life functioned as a boundary between a living being's Dao Soul and the outside world, blurring and weakening their perception of the dao. When a cultivator increased their cultivation realm, it weakened that boundary, allowing them to better perceive the earthly daos.
The Primordial Devil's innately incredible dao comprehension talent was almost entirely forced into his heart demon during his fragmentation and rebirth, so Yaan's ability to comprehend dao was also fundamentally excellent. However, now that he no longer possessed a physical body, a spiritual soul, a real mind, or any sort of Qi or other energy, his Dao Soul was unhindered, directly in contact with the outside world, allowing him to rapidly perceive the earthly daos to a degree that even most divinities would find absurd.
But of course, there were also many downsides to his current state…
For one, there was a reason that living beings didn't exist in this world as their Dao Soul alone, aside from the fact that maintaining this state should be impossible due to the Heavenly Dao's laws…
The four states of life surrounded the Dao Soul like a suit of armour, keeping it safe and protecting it from the harsh outside world. A Dao Soul which was in direct contact with the world…was a Dao Soul that would always be in a state of immense torment and pain.
Even if Yaan's Dao Soul wasn't so messed up, even if his Dao Soul was perfect and complete, without any defects or abyssal black cracks…just existing like this, with the Dao Soul exposed to the world directly, was enough to send anyone crazy due to the ceaseless pressure that descended upon them from every corner of the world.
Yaan could perceive every earthly dao to the utmost degree…but it was as if these 3,000 earthly daos were all weighing down on him, crushing his Dao Soul into the abyss and relentlessly trying to destroy him.
The pressure of life, the heavens, and the world itself, all weighed down on Yaan heavily. He could feel this pressure at all times, so it really couldn't be said that he was 'lucky' to have somehow attained this unique form, despite the clear advantages.
Hopefully, after creating his three Dao Clones which would each possess a normal state of being, this ceaseless pressure would ease off.
After removing the three fragments, only the 'core' of his Dao Soul would remain in place. As Yaan studied the Primordial Sage's technique for the next few days before he planned to undo those two seals, he developed a pretty good idea of what would happen to his core self, following the splitting of his Dao Soul…
He would remove every tangible part of himself when he split away the three fragments. This would include his talents, his intelligence and his very capacity for conscious thought, his dao comprehensions and comprehension ability - both intuitive and conscious…and the different sides to his personality which currently existed as an overlapping mess within his dao heart,
In essence, his core self would be left with nothing…nothing, aside from existing, whilst silently observing and experiencing the lives of the three Dao Clones.
After studying this technique thoroughly, Yaan knew that his core self would enter a sort of coma until the three Dao Clones reached a certain point. However, whilst he was in that 'coma', his core self would actually be experiencing the lives of the three Dao Clones simultaneously…
Yaan's plan to fragment his current Dao Soul to create three Dao Clones whilst his core self experienced their separate lives might seem strange to others, but only Yaan knew that doing this…would be the first step in his cultivation of the dao path.
And for reasons that he had decided to keep to himself, Yaan was going to hide this fact from the three Dao Clones.
After studying the technique, called the Dao Clone Technique, Yaan finally felt ready to remove the first seal.
He didn't need to use any fancy technique to sense and remove the seals. In fact, the Primordial Sage had offered her help, even saying that she could remove the seals for him slowly and carefully, but Yaan declined her assistance, deeming it unnecessary.
Perhaps the Primordial Sage had not yet realised just how deep Yaan's perception of his own Dao Soul had become, ever since being reborn into this unique, impossible state of being.
He shut his eyes, not minding the two women who watched him from a couple hundred feet away, one expressionless, and the other with a nervous look in her eyes.
He wanted them to be here, just in case. He felt quite certain that he wouldn't encounter any serious issues, but there would be some degree of backlash after he undid the Fragment of Mind's seal and finished absorbing its complete memories, simply because the Fragment of Mind had been a Rank 9 being, with a profound level of intelligence, a named dao heart, and a powerful Dao Soul. Trying to fully absorb such an entity into his own Dao Soul sounded suicidal, but Yaan felt confident that he wouldn't be in any serious danger.
But first, he would remove the Fragment of Qi's seal. This seal was looser compared to the other, since he had actually witnessed a portion of the Fragment of Qi's memories, before those memories were extracted from his Sea of Consciousness when the devoured Fragment of Qi was sealed within his Dao Soul.
After closing his eyes and turning his perceptive gaze inwards, instinctively using his dao of illusions to perceive his exposed Dao Soul, Yaan quickly found the seal.
It was a simple rune, with 9 points which he unravelled slowly, one by one. The rune, which was embedded deep into his Dao Soul, yet simultaneously sat there on the surface so clearly, released a burst of power each time he unravelled one of its nine nodes.
Yaan could feel a strange, warm power flowing into his Dao Soul, as a random array of images started flashing through his mind in an incoherent order.
After removing the first node, he stopped and examined the rune, as well as his own Dao Soul as a whole…
To Yaan's shock, he found that the power from the seal which was being absorbed into his Dao Soul, was actually sealing over those deep black cracks which had covered his entire body after he declared his intention to break his own dao oath!
When he thought about it, he understood. Absorbing another being's Dao Soul would usually be impossible, but Yaan was inherently connected to those three fragments, just like he was connected to the reincarnated Primordial Devil.
If Yaan killed the Primordial Devil, he himself would also be destroyed…but with these three fragments, there was no such concern. In fact, due to the connection between them, it felt as if he was actually absorbing a missing piece of his own Dao Soul…and it also felt like his Dao Soul was being healed by this absorption!
And indeed, the cracks which had recently spread all across his neck, arms and face, rapidly started to subside, until they were no longer moving at all. His condition even stabilised thanks to the ongoing influx of the unique power from the partially opened seal. This unique power which came from the Fragment of Qi's entire existence, was the purest power of life in this world, beyond even Life Essence itself!
However, before long, Yaan realised that the influx of energy was starting to subside, and if he left it for too long, the absorbed energy would be torn back out from his body, before returning to the rune seal.
And so, he unravelled the 2nd of the 9 nodes.
The influx of power into his Dao Soul ramped up again, but at the same time, his mind started to become increasingly blurred. A series of images of a man's life, only in a dishevelled order that made no coherent sense, started to flash through his mind, making him feel slightly nauseous.
Yaan also felt something else flowing into him and fusing with his Dao Soul. This something wasn't the power of the Dao Soul itself, but the unique qualities that the Fragment of Qi's Dao Soul had once possessed.
His powerful Qi refining talent, his ability to comprehend certain daos to an oddly high level, despite his talent in other daos being non-existent, his intelligence, including small portions of his knowledge, wisdom and sentience…
Yaan could not absorb all of these things, but his Dao Soul seemed to absorb the 'potential' of these aspects from the Fragment of Qi.
He was glad to see this, because this potential would be of great use when he created his own three Dao Clones later on.
One by one, Yaan unravelled each of the 9 nodes. With each node that he unravelled, there was a large influx of power which fused into, and even somewhat mended parts of his half-destroyed Dao Soul. Whenever he felt this flow of power starting to subside, Yaan needed to unravel the next node, despite this turning his mind into an increasingly blurred mess of memories from the Fragment of Qi's life.
By the time he reached the 5th node, Yaan realised that the blurring of his mind had become so overwhelming that his conscious mind would completely lose its grip on reality within the next few seconds.
He didn't panic, and without hesitation, he unravelled the final 4 nodes as quickly as possible.
He had already expected that it would come to this; he was absorbing an immortal's memories after all. At a certain point, he couldn't just continue unravelling the seal slowly and carefully, because his mind was unable to resist the rising confusion. The only option was to rip off the bandaid, unravelling all of the remaining nodes, and allowing everything within the seal to storm into him all at once.
The Spirit Plane Lord was tense, and the Primordial Sage was also watching Yaan closely.
However…
Yaan's illusory body glowed with a bright white light whilst he remained seated. His expression didn't so much as change, and his illusory body actually looked like it was benefitting from the unsealing process, rather than suffering from the expected backlash!
Seeing this, the Spirit Plane lord looked at the Sage uncertainly.
"Sister, why does it seem like he's just consumed some sort of invaluable medicine, rather than receiving a harsh backlash?"
"The first seal was never going to be a problem, since the Fragment of Qi was only a True Immortal when brother devoured it - it is the second seal that will cause problems, since the Fragment of Mind reached the Dao Immortal Realm as a psyche path cultivator…but secondly, the backlash will only arrive following the complete absorption of the fragment's memories. That said, I also didn't expect that he would obtain such a healing benefit due to the absorption of the sealed Dao Soul power."
The Spirit Plane Lord nodded slowly, then turned back towards Yaan with a solemn expression. Since her sister said it was so, then the first seal really shouldn't be a problem - in fact, the backlash that Yaan would receive later on from the first seal, would be a good indicator of the danger that he would face when dealing with the second seal.
As for Yaan, right now, he wasn't thinking about any of this…
After finally devouring the complete Fragment of Qi and all that he had once been, Yaan immediately entered an illusion. He had already expected this, because he experienced the exact same type of illusion after devouring the Fragment of Soul…
He was currently experiencing the Fragment of Qi's life; every single moment, from his birth, until his death.