Against The True Gods

In Caine's past life, before he ascended to the seat of Council Lord, he bore two titles: The Cursed Child and The Blessed Child.

But these titles weren't simply a result of his actions or achievements.

In the cultivation world, anything could happen. Miracles and misfortunes intertwined, and as a result, strange phenomena unfolded. One such occurrence was the existence of blessings and curses.

In rare cases, children could be born crippled, just like Caine had been. But in even rarer cases, this crippling wasn't an accident—it was a trade-off. In exchange for a curse, these children received godly and divine abilities.

For example, a child born blind might develop senses sharper than those of the gods themselves.

Caine was often speculated to be one of these cursed children. His curse was his crippled body, but the trade-off was a mind of terrifying brilliance, teeming with outlandish ideas and schemes. Though Caine wasn't a cursed child, most people thought it to be the case.

Opposing the Cursed Children were the Blessed Children.

These children were born without curses or afflictions. At the moment of their birth, the heavens themselves would part, showering them with blessings tied to their aspects—be it their body, mind, soul, or affinity.

Blessed Children grew to become gods among gods, rivaled only by Cursed Children who had shattered their curses and fully cultivated their potential.

These two classes of entities were rare beyond imagination. Even rarer than those like Caine—those born with immeasurable grade innate circles.

And that was just considering mortal-grade Cursed and Blessed Children. When one began to encounter immeasurable Cursed and Blessed Children, the sheer power and potential became truly terrifying.

Now that one understood the essence of the Blood Ascendancy Stage and the horrors of Cursed and Blessed Children, the final pieces of Caine's plan could fall into place.

Where had Caine gone after Augustus cast him into reincarnation? What force had intercepted his soul? And what had happened as a result?

The answer was simple: The Sinner.

It was The Sinner who had intercepted Caine's soul. And not only did he intercept it, but he also bestowed two gifts upon him.

The first gift was the ability to ask three questions of his choosing. The second was far darker.

WHOOOSH!

Caine's body rippled violently. His robes tore apart, exposing intricate black, white, and silver curse marks that he had kept hidden since the night before his final duel with Soran.

These were his curses.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOM!

The pillars of milky white qi pouring down on him thickened exponentially, as if trying to suppress and counteract the curse marks.

Caine's plan was deceptively simple yet deeply layered. He had set three goals.

The first was to transform his aspects into Blessed and Cursed Immeasurable Aspects—simultaneously.

The second was to harness the clash between the curses and blessings within his body, using the resulting pressure and refinement to advance through the Blood Ascendancy Stages.

And the third…

CRACK! BANG!

Caine's heart shattered. In that same instant, his stars exploded. His body shriveled, reduced to a skeletal husk, barely clinging to life.

…was to shatter his Dao Heart and stars over and over again until he attained absolute perfection.

This was why he had chosen the Void Meditation Mode. The process would require an immense amount of time, far beyond what any normal mode could allow.

The agony would be hellish. But Caine knew it would all be worth it in the end.

And he wasn't going to stop there.

"ARGHHH!"

A roar of pain tore from Caine's cracked and bloody lips. He forcefully split his mind into hundreds of fragments, each working independently.

Why waste time enduring pain passively? As his body underwent torment, he would push his mind into overdrive. He would deepen his comprehension of techniques, analyze his abilities, and strategize endlessly.

He had reached this point in his life by being relentlessly ruthless with himself. By holding himself to an impossible standard.

He would never stop.

This was how he had become the First Blight.

The Great Betrayer.

One of the few mortals in existence who had outsmarted and slaughtered gods like they were mere cattle in his eyes.

Excellence paved his path, and he walked it without hesitation.

BANG!

Caine's stars and Dao Heart entered a cycle of destruction and rebirth. They shattered and reformed repeatedly. With each shattering, a strange aura fed into his curses. With each reformation, another aura nourished his blessings.

BOOOM!

His body crumbled, fractures spreading like spiderwebs across his flesh. Half his form glowed with radiant, beautiful marks of gold, white, and emerald. The other half was marred with sinister marks of black, silver, and scarlet.

His veins ruptured, one after another, yet his body endured. His aspects—Soul, Body, Mind, World, and Qi—twisted and morphed in real time, evolving under the pressure of transformation. Each aspect split into three natures: one neutral, one cursed, and one blessed.

The process began.

***

Above Caine, in the void where the World Will Eyes rained blessings upon him, two figures stood.

They were humanoid yet featureless. One figure was composed entirely of pure white qi.

The other, a swirling mass of pitch-black qi.

"We should investigate this," said the white figure, Yin. "His affinity to Fate might be trying to warn him."

The black figure, Yang, shook its head. "You imply his affinity to Fate rivals or surpasses ours. That's quite the claim, Yin."

"But it's plausible," Yin replied softly.

Yang sighed. "We've already done as much as we can without disrupting the balance of the world. What will happen will happen. There's nothing more we can do."

"Whether the world falls into ruin or ascends to glory… who can say?"

Yin's form shimmered. "I long for an era of peace. I'm tired of so much conflict."

"It would be nice," Yang agreed. "It truly would."

Suddenly, a third figure materialized beside them, its form composed of shimmering silver qi. Discover stories at My Virtual Library Empire

"But that's impossible," the silver figure said.

"Not unless we achieve power far beyond our current limits."

"The boy's audacity and drive for power should serve as an example to us."

"An example?" Yin questioned. "It will consume him. You saw how potent his Heart Demon was."

"Precisely why we should take note. We can learn from his inevitable failure."

The three figures fell into silence, their forms dissolving into motes of qi, leaving the void to its endless, silent watch.