Chapter 235 - A Clear Mind and Open Eyes

When Yaan’s soul ascended into a Royal Spirit, the Primordial Sage naturally saw him descend into madness. However, she decided that for now, she would not act. Even in his maddened state, his cultivation continued to progress at a rapid rate, there was no reason to get in the way of this.

The Blood Plane Lord was growing increasingly restless these days. Perhaps it was because he knew that the show was reaching its climax, that he was unable to tolerate this wait.

The Primordial Sage watched Yaan from within his sea of consciousness. She had resided in here for some time, completely unseen by Yaan. She understood better than anyone that the root cause of his insanity could not be cured…unless he attained a Myriad Sage Grade sea of consciousness.

Attaining a Myriad Sage Grade sea was also necessary in order for Yaan to truly reach the Peak Vital Qi Spirit realm. If his soul became an Imperial Spirit, he would only be a pseudo Peak Rank 5 being; he needed both the Imperial Spirit and the Myriad Sage Grade sea in order to truly reach the peak of the Foundation Step.

Yaan was currently far away from achieving this, but the sage was not concerned. After all, she had planned all of this out long ago, and as events unfolded and changes took place, she continually adapted and altered her plan, easily keeping up with the waves thrown at her by this world which was forever trying to resist her terrifying insight into karmic fate.

“It is time.” The Primordial Sage informed the red-haired man.

He immediately sat up, then laughed excitedly as she displayed the image of Yaan, walking across the land of corpses, completely oblivious to the monster he had become.

At the same time, the Primordial Sage was in Yaan’s sea of consciousness. She suddenly flew out from his sea of consciousness, but Yaan didn’t notice a thing.

At the instant she flew into the outside world, two giant black vortexes appeared in the sky, a hundred feet above the pair. Yaan looked up sharply, and upon seeing the vortexes, he let out a blood curdling roar. After releasing this roar which would shake the minds of all who heard it, he didn’t hesitate to charge up.

The Primordial Sage besides Yaan glanced at him, and instantly, he froze. With a single glance, Yaan’s mind and body came to a standstill!

Immediately after Yaan stopped moving, four figures descended, two from each of the portals up above. Two of these figures, one from each portal, were motionless, and after they descended, they stood side by side, facing Yaan with different frozen expressions on their faces.

The first of these two figures had the appearance of a middle aged man. Strangely, his appearance was somewhat similar to Yaan’s, in the same way that the Fragment of Qi looked a bit like an older version of Yaan when the two stood side by side. This similarity was hard for others to notice, but if Yaan was in his right state of mind, he would definitely see it immediately.

The man had long black hair and ordinary brown eyes. He looked quite normal, only, there was one strange thing about him…he did not possess a physical form, he only existed as a soul!

He existed as an ordinary spirit soul, the same sort of human spirit soul that could be found in abundance across the Spirit Plane…

The second figure was an old man. He also looked similar to Yaan in a way, but it would be very difficult for others to recognise this similarity. The old man’s hair was grey, but not ragged. He was old, but not decrepit looking. In fact, his eyes contained a depth of ancientness. Unlike the middle aged man by his side, he did not look dazed in his frozen state, but instead, he had a look of acceptance and understanding…

The old man was even more strange than the middle aged man, in that he possessed neither a body nor a soul! He existed as a bizarre entity, made entirely from consciousness itself. Usually, entities like this could only be found on the Sage Plane…

Next, the other two figures descended, one from each of the two black portals…they were both the Primordial Sage!

The Primordial Sage was currently floating by the red-haired man’s side in Primordial Mountain’s war hall…

The Primordial Sage was also looking at Yaan calmly, having just exited his sea of consciousness…

The Primordial Sage had just descended from the first black portal, having travelled here from a secluded location on the Spirit Plane…

The Primordial Sage had also just descended from the other black portal, having left her home world; the Sage Plane!

The Primordial Sage was in many places at the same time. She had eyes and ears watching everything throughout the four planes, and her methods of observation were not only limited to her unknown number of bodies.

For this reason, many considered her the most terrifying existence across the four planes. She was shrouded in mystery, the likes of which even the strongest divinities could not see through.

As the two young girls with green emotionless eyes and a black crystal embedded in their foreheads exited the black portals, the portals immediately closed behind them. Without hesitation, both sages flew towards their third body, the body that had been living in Yaan’s sea of consciousness until now. As soon as they made contact, the three fused together, forming a stronger body that she could use to monitor the next set of events.

All of this took some time to describe, but it happened in an instant. After the three sages fused together, Yaan regained control over his mind and body. Of course, he was still lost in the depths of insanity, he was unable to think rationally…but the Primordial Sage had naturally accounted for this.

Yaan did not notice the brief period of time in which he was frozen. He did not even think twice when he saw the middle aged man standing before him.

A killing intent like no other suddenly took over Yaan’s heart. He had been lost in slaughterous desires for a long time now, but this feeling…this was different!

This feeling was similar to the killing intent he had felt back when he first met the Fragment of Qi! It was similar, but less intense, compared to the killing intent he had felt back in the 4th trial realm, when that red-haired behemoth of a man stared at him with that prideful gaze!

This was a killing intent that wasn’t born from the slaughter which pervaded Yaan’s body. This wasn’t caused by his slaughter dao comprehension either…

This was a killing intent born from his dao heart, a killing intent which enveloped his very dao soul!

The killing intent in his dao soul was not as severe compared to the time he faced that red-haired giant in the inheritance, but Yaan was not in his right mind right now. He was being controlled by his slaughterous desires, he had no control over his actions…even without the mysterious killing intent which was born from his very dao heart, he would still attack this man without hesitation!

Yaan charged forwards, and without even using a weapon or any sort of real method, he swiped at the middle aged man with his bare hand. He instinctively utilised his slaughter force, forming an enormous grey demonic claw, which crashed down onto the helpless frozen spirit and destroyed his soul with a single strike.

Strangely, no slaughter aura was born from this killing. No slaughter aura entered Yaan’s body, but…something else did.

The middle aged man’s body collapsed into golden light. When the crazed Yaan saw this light, he frantically attacked it, but his arms simply phased through it. The golden light formed a twisting flow which poured into Yaan’s body, into his soul, and even into his dao soul!

For a brief moment, a hint of clarity appeared in Yaan’s eyes. The slaughterous insanity which had plagued him for the past two and a half years was frozen, as if it was being made to wait whilst something more important took over.

“What…” This was all Yaan managed to utter, before the world around him suddenly vanished.

The moment the golden light finished fusing with his dao soul, Yaan entered an illusion.

He had no name, since he had no parents. He was born into the Spirit Plane, with no understanding of the world, or of himself. His appearance was already middle aged when he entered this world, and it did not continue to age during his short experience of life.

The nameless spirit wandered across this place, this strange place where illusory spirits of all shapes and forms flew about, making unique sounds as they moved. The nameless spirit looked around at the fluorescent trees, which shifted in size and colour endlessly, forming a forest of incomprehensible wonder.

The nameless spirit had only ever known this forest, though, so he didn’t think anything of it…

His life consisted of him walking through the forest, with a dazed expression on his face. He observed everything around him, but he could not understand what was going on, or what he was meant to do.

Abruptly, Yaan returned to the real world, the illusion fading away into obscurity. However, the memory of that strange forest remained with him, unlike the time he killed the Fragment of Qi, after which, he had immediately forgotten everything that he witnessed.

Yaan looked around quickly, only to find another strange person standing before him. Naturally, it was the old man. Unfortunately, after returning from the illusion, Yaan’s insanity returned in full force.

This time, when Yaan attacked, he was surprised to find that his attack was many times stronger than before! He shattered the old man into fragments of all-coloured light, having no time to process the fact that unknowingly, his soul had ascended into an Imperial Spirit, before everything went black.

This time, Yaan did not experience any sort of illusion. It was as if there was a set of memories waiting for him, but for now, he did not possess the qualifications to see them…

When Yaan opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a mountain of corpses. He stared up at the sky, which had been died red with vaporised blood, and for a long while, his expression remained blank.

After two and half years, Yaan regained his sanity. This was not a temporary moment of clarity, but a final clearing of his mind. He would no longer fall victim to the slaughterous desires…they could no longer affect his mind.

The memories of the past two years came flooding back to him as he lay there. He remembered everything…

He remembered losing his sanity. He remembered killing…killing everyone he encountered. He killed enemies and allies alike, not caring about the consequences which would inevitably befall him for his actions.

He had killed warriors from this kingdom, as well as the surrounding nine kingdoms. He had offended everyone he could possibly offend, he had been labelled an insane monster, a being that could no longer be considered human…

But right now, Yaan did not care about that at all. No, he could not care about that right now, because he also remembered killing those last two people.

“The Fragment of Soul…and the Fragment of Mind…” Yaan muttered to himself after a long period of time.

How could he not understand what had happened? It was too similar, far too similar to his experiences with the Fragment of Qi!

Those two individuals looked like him! He felt an indescribable killing intent upon meeting them! He even experienced illusions after slaughtering the two!

He did not know why he was unable to recall the Fragment of Qi and Fragment of Mind’s lives, whilst he could recall every single moment of the Fragment of Soul’s short life. Regardless, right now, Yaan was not thinking about that.

He realised that he had reached the Peak Vital Qi Spirit realm, but he only felt bitter in his heart. Even though he had attained the Imperial Spirit and the Myriad Sage Grade sea of consciousness, he felt no joy.

“So it was like that…this ‘fate’ that I have been resisting so painfully, is not a fate laid out by the world…but by a person. Indeed…something planned out so excruciatingly like this, can only be the scheme of a person!” Yaan started off whispering, but by the end, a helpless rage filled his eyes and he roared out loud.

He was no longer afflicted by slaughterous desires. When he killed the Fragment of Mind and absorbed a portion of his power into himself, not only was his mind cured of the insanity, but he instantly attained the Myriad Sage Grade sea of consciousness.

Perhaps his clear mind which had finally attained its peak was responsible for Yaan’s realisation. Now that he had opened his eyes, this realisation now seemed so obvious!

All along…all this time…he had been dancing to someone else’s tune! All this time, when he thought that he had been walking against his so-called fate, he was actually just being controlled like a puppet by this master schemer!

“Everything I’ve been through, everything I’ve done, from my birth until now…was any of it my own decision? Do I even have free will in this life…? Do I even have the ability to make a choice for myself?!” Yaan suddenly leapt to his feet and roared at the sky.

His rage burned so intensely that the corpses below and all around him were swept up by his aura, blown back as a gust of wind spread outwards. The red atmosphere around Yaan vanished, leaving him standing in the sole region of clear sky amongst this bloody landscape.

At this point, the warriors from the surrounding kingdoms were unwilling to enter this place, knowing that doing so was akin to throwing away their lives. After two and half years of hopeless attempts, this place had become an absolute forbidden zone for everyone. As such, Yaan stood alone here, amongst the death and corpses, staring at the sky, speaking to himself, to the heavens…and to the one who was controlling his life and fate.

“Are you watching me now?! Can you hear me right now?! Are you actually…here right now?!”

As Yaan continued to release his pained voice, letting out his rage and his helplessness which was now finally bordering on despair, the Primordial Sage watched him emotionlessly. At the same time, the scene which was playing out before her eyes, was also being shown to the red-haired man, many miles away from this place.

As Yaan roared at this world, gritting his teeth in indignation and pain, the Primordial Sage remained apathetic, whilst the Blood Plane Lord just laughed.