Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Open-ended!

"..." Yri solemnly looked at Yan Zaizen. The look in her eyes was dark, nearly disturbingly so.

As if Yan Zaizen knew her thoughts, he helplessly shook his head. "You’re likely thinking how can a Path be open-ended when the future has already been determined as Divine and Immortal. However, I was thinking about the truth of the Soul Source Path - personal introspection."

At the Astral Soul Realm, Yan Zaizen felt his sense of self reach a deep and unwavering end. Since then, he knew who he was and his own demons. None of them bothered him, none of them could. His Dao ensured that he would continue forward endlessly.

"If the Soul Source Path truly was about one sense of self and self-improvement, then when you reach a certain point, how do you move forward?"

Scoffing coldly, Yri spat, "There’s no person in this world that understands themselves completely, without doubt, or heart demons that plague them both consciously and subconsciously. A fear, a doubt about oneself or another, or even a question of oneself such as ’what if I was taller, had a smaller nose, or was born to this person,’ would need to be personally inspected and understood why such questions are born."

"The path is as endless, and as long as your road, there is only moving forward." Yri was nearly done with this conversation. To her, Yan Zaizen didn’t understand that even those who focus on self-enlightenment their entire lifetime might never truly teach a complete state. This was why no one doubted the legitimacy of the Soul Source Path, including the fact the Heavens accepted it.

Yan Zaizen softly shook his head in refusal. He didn’t feel that was the case. One could do away with all that with a simple way: acceptance of all flaws. When you accept yourself completely, such vain thoughts and senseless doubts would vanish. After all, you would accept your ignorance and pursue knowledge and change one step at a time.

The reason he knew this was possible because he had reached it. He had doubts, unclear thoughts, but he lived a life without regrets, accepting all his flaws, and pressing forward relentlessly. He wouldn’t change those things unless he could, and if he couldn’t, he would accept it.

He never once thought about being stronger the moment Pinaka was taken away. He only thought of how to save her.

He never thought about the what ifs or doubts in himself because it was accepted. He wasn’t stronger, this person should’ve done this, or I might’ve been able to do this if so and so.

It didn’t conform to his Dao or was infused into his soul.

A choice made is a choice lived with.

If the peak of personal introspection was stated to exist, then he had clearly reached it.

This is what he believed.

"To be open-ended means it was open for interpretation, changeable by nature. The Soul Source Path has been set and completed, there’s proof, and the Celestial Seers have validated this. The Divine and Immortal Realm exist; people have tread it. This extends from my time and even yours. It’s simply not possible." Yri helplessly stated. It was like talking to a child.

For those two Realms to exist, someone had to reach it.

"..." Yan Zaizen responded with silence.

He closed his eyes.

Yri watched and felt like Yan Zaizen had accepted defeat. While it may be harsh to say, it was best that he rid himself of such a tedious thought process where there must be a mystery despite the path being fixed.

Inside Yan Zaizen’s body, his soul floated about calmly. It bobbed up and down slowly as if it were a ball on the surface of water moving about. Yan Zaizen’s soul form had characteristics of his Dao, Soul Bloodline, and self.

The Black Hole rested at his glabella, his eyes, and his palms. They seemed dormant.

"Open-ended means it is open for interpretation, changeable by nature. Paths aren’t capable of being changed. This is a basic fact. A Path is either born perfect or not, and this is based on the law it thrives from. The Herculean Path uses the Herculean Law...the Sirius Path using the Sirius Law...the Heavenly Path uses Heavenly Law. This law incorporates all aspects of itself."

"Logically speaking, a path cannot be changed; it is perfect. It would be like changing the Heavenly Genesis Path and making it the Heavenly Qi Path, one without heavenly dimensions and a structure capable of housing heaven’s power. The Heavenly Creation Path would subsequently fail. That would be an incomplete path...an imperfect path..."

Yri’s words triggered something in Yan Zaizen. It was profound and elusive.

"A broken path, a broken path. A person has walked this path, reached the end of this path, this is proof, therefore impossible for the broken path to be broken. A riddle! Or is it?!" Yan Zaizen’s soul started to thrum slightly. The trembling echoed within his soul sea.

"The Herculean Path has a Herculean Law, but within this law are a myriad of forms. From undying to unbreakable! It is like Fire and Water! Yin and Yang! A Law within a Law. A person can take a single path or all of them, but..."

"The Soul Source Path isn’t much different. A person uses their own form of introspection to advance in much the same way as one comprehends laws of the Heavens to advance! The introspection is different for every person but reaches the same level! The world will say the Soul Source Path’s laws are understanding emotions!"

"Bullshit!! In my opinion, the Soul Source Path is linear. There is no Emotional Laws but a single law. In the Heavenly Path, there is another Path! The Essence Path primes one to reach the Heavenly Path, and then the Heavenly Path is wildly divergent. If the Heavenly Path has one, why can’t others?!"

As he spoke his mind, his soul underwent mysterious changes. These changes were minute and unnoticeable, even to himself.

"A broken path! A flawed existence! Doubts, emotions, and belief! I know! I know!!" Yan Zaizen soul stopped bobbing about, stopping its thrums, and even the minute changes occurring ceased.

"If the first step is introspection, then the second should be self-actualization! It has to be! A person wanted to be Divine, so they were Divine! He later wanted to be Immortal, so he was Immortal!" This thought would cause many to experience dark faces like Yri, disbelieving and ridiculing Yan Zaizen for his ignorance, lack of wisdom and intelligence. They would sneer and laugh. They would say how wrong and ridiculous he sounded.

However, while they would say this, Yan Zaizen felt free.

This freedom was pure and had no limits on the breadth of his mind. People always had doubts, so they always had limitations. People always had emotions and thoughts, so their imagination and belief were wildly divergent. Wasn’t that what the Soul Source Path is about? Overcoming one’s own delusions of self.

A vain, callous woman who believes she is humble and caring.

An arrogant young master who believes there is no greater sky than his family.

A person who believed that only they held the talent to reach the peak of cultivation.

A soldier unsure if what they’re doing is right but continues to slaughter the poor and weak on the orders of others.

These were all flaws in one’s heart, but what others also don’t understand, they are also doubts and imagination! They cover these doubts with their imagination.

However, when these doubts were swept away, what was left was imagination, untouched, and limitless at that moment, then anything was possible.

The soldier could turn their weapons against their commander, protecting the poor!

The person could understand that reaching any peak isn’t limited to himself and stably walk their own paths alongside others, growing and developing!

The young master can stop living in a well and focus on becoming the very sky! Unsurpassable!

The woman can accept who she is and become who she was meant to be or change it altogether!

In the Astral Soul Realm, the soul loses its fetters, and it can leave the body!

Symbolically, it aligned with his own understandings. When one reaches the peak of this level, their belief and imagination were as far as the multiverse itself.

Yan Zaizen knew that he had reached a critical point. This point was the current limit to his soul, and just ahead was what lay beyond. However, it was blank and empty.

A smile crept on his soul form and his true body.

As long as one didn’t understand that the Soul Source Path was about self-actualization, they would never be able to see this step, this final step!

They would only think that they have yet to clear all their doubts, demons, and understood themselves enough. That’s why it was blank!

"Let’s do this!"