Chapter 209: Claimed!
Now, the time had passed even further, and it was near time for night to arrive. Sun had turned orange, and it was now dipping down into the distance and would soon vanish, replacing the world with night.
Yet, the only person around him, Liyue, seemed to have become much brighter than everything. Her existence was striking, just like her true body. He was quite baffled by it but then saw her… pouting.
"What?" He asked, squinting. He was in a really, really good mood.
"You know… every most embarrassing thing about me now. So unfair…" Her face was flushed.
Her childhood, her days of suffering to handle Li Yao's illness before Han Li arrived, her tearful nights—nothing was a secret to him. Han Li smirked at her pout.
She tried to use her power, but it was useless. "And I wanted, I really WANTED to bully you for at least a bit at least..."
"Liyue, that's a bad way of thinking. Now you can bully all of the others, you know? I don't think anyone would be able to beat you even if they catch up with you in cultivation anymore."
Her eyes twinkled. "Really?"
The power to see the Existence was indeed a… cheat.
He nodded.
Then, he sat up, seriousness clouding his visage.
He had seen her memories from start to finish. He had obviously sensed… the Existence, too. It would not be too hard if another person who knew how The Existence worked helped out—just like Liyue was helped out to do exactly that by the Spirit.
But now he had more to be worried about. Seven Empty Spaces.
"When you were young, you happened to see a Detached Empty Space in the snow, and when you touched it, it sank into you."
She nodded, worried.
She had also seen her blurry childhood memories using the chance when he was watching it. From start to finish, she also understood that many weird things were happening even inside her own body that she didn't understand.
He had seen everything embarrassing about her, but it was rather… releasing. He had been laughing when some of her stupidness had passed by in the memories. It was such an… amazing experience. Who would be able to say that they had gone down the memory line of their lives along with the love of their life? She definitely counted her life as a blissful one.
He had seen her from her birth to this very day, including her brawl with The Spirit. He knew her like a part of his life.
"So that black orb I touched as a child was indeed a Detached Empty Space… so do they work like this? Becoming extra Empty Spaces in the toucher's body?"
Han Li shook his head. "Never seen this happen. Your body is weird, Liyue. I don't know; something's just… different about it."
"In a good way?"
"… I am not sure."
She bit her lips. "If I had an Empty Space naturally and gained more from somewhere. Like if the rest of the 5 in the total 7 were Detached Empty Spaces, we should have seen it in the memories…"
"I have two theories. A wild one and a wilder one," Han Li said. "Liyue, you were either born with 6 Empty Spaces in your body or… you can extract Empty Spaces from the dead."
"…What?"
"You have been to exactly five funerals in your life, and if you count those 5 Empty Spaces. Add the one you naturally have and the one you got in the snow; it adds up. That alone is unbelievable, but it even seems to make the taken-out Empty Spaces into your own." He then paused, "You have more Empty Spaces, but having them are just appearances… rather useless."
Han Li suddenly frowned heavily, and then his mind suddenly paused all functions.
… He was such a fool!
He slapped his thighs. Indeed!
Han Li calmed down forcefully.
His Heart Qi started to emanate out from him, and his Existence controlled it like a general watching over his soldiers.
It was the essence of his first life, Heart Qi. As strong as a Transcendent!
The ephemeral and impossible-to-control Heart Qi, until this point, was like an obedient child in front of his Existence!
Indeed, it was not that The Spirit had some unique way to control it but that it had sensed its… Existence! Since he had done that, too, he could also control the Heart Qi at his fingertips. Thousands upon thousands of doors opened in his mind.
Han Li could think of a bajillion ways to use this.
Clenching his palms in excitement, he used the power of the Existence on his eyes.
The Life Vision flared to life.
It was no longer just simply powerful; it was seeing straight to the soul of things.
He planned to first look at Liyue, but the first place his gaze moved to was his surroundings.
In every block of creation, from dust to wood, from the bed to floor, he could see something, a will, an omnipresent thing that was everywhere and in everything—for the first time, he had finally come to see the Heavens.
The consciousness of the… Great Dao Tree.
A solemn expression plastered itself on his face naturally.
It was an amalgamation of a complex thing. It just lay there, silent, powerless. Waiting to revive one day.
There was only a part of it here, while the rest of it was spread around the whole World of the Seven Continents. An immediate picture of the whole thing formed in his mind by just looking at one part of the consciousness.
Oh, Save me, child!
The cry of Heavens was discordant, but Han Li coldly pushed it aside without a thought.
He focused on its full form.
It was the form of a complete circle with an unbelievably complex pattern. Yet, in the huge puzzle piece, many things were missing. He focused on one part.
'The Lust Dao…'
That part was the Lust Dao.
'299' pieces among the '300' were not there. Indeed, looking into himself, those were his Talents now—it was part of his Existence. Then, his gaze moved elsewhere, and his face changed.
He could see many missing Daos.
'The Dao of Explosion is missing entirely,' he saw a gaping hole in the Heavens, 'and some other Daos under the Fire Great Dao are also missing.'
Han Li could also notice some others too. The other Inheritors… some of them had already made some of the Daos their own, and he was sorely lagging behind!
Han Li was the inheritor of the Life Great Dao among the Seven Great Daos, and he was the most backward among the Seven Sacred Demon Inheritors. He had been too cautious.
With an inquisitive gaze, he looked into his own Existence. The Talents he had gained were all inside there, forming its own incomplete circle—incomplete Heaven. One with him.
They had no connection with the Heavens anymore.
In totality, it was believed and known that there were "300" Magic Powers in each normal Dao and "3000" Normal Daos under all Seven Great Daos.
Han Li looked at the last Magic Power in the Lust Dao, which was not his own but the Heaven's. With just a gaze, the chant to call for that power came to his mind.
He just had to use it ten times using Dao Crystals as pay, and it would become his own. He had already used it nine times before; one more time and it would become his.
His gaze shimmered, and he looked for another Dao—The Dao of Starlight.
With just a glance, he could see all 300 Magic Powers available in that particular Dao, and he could also understand their chants. Of course, without their particular Spark or Dao Soul, he couldn't use them.
"Heh…" Han Li breathed out.
There really was…
He shook his head in disbelief.
It all made it seem so easy. It had always been there. He had just been too reluctant to claim it.
He almost wanted to kiss Liyue to breathlessness at the moment.
Eyes bright, he focused his gaze on the Lust Dao again and chanted the words for the last remaining Magic Power once. A Dao Crystal was lost.
The final Magic Power of the Lust Dao in the tapestry of the Heavens loosened and became a part of his own Existence.
Lust Dao vanished from Heaven and Earth.
The Dao of Lust had been claimed.