Splitting

"The Karma Dao Ancestor is essentially equivalent to a cosmic tier." Yaoguang sensed the mystical qualities of this Dao Lord-tier Dao fruit. If he were to gather all the shares of the Grand Dao of Karma at this moment, he could use the power of this Dao fruit to become the new Karma Dao Ancestor. Unfortunately... The Nine Rulers and the Lord of Yuanxi were watching right beside him. Absorbing enough power from the Grand Dao of the Void and the Grand Dao of Time was already his limit. If he were to absorb the power of the Grand Dao of Karma on top of that... The Nine Rulers and the Lord of Yuanxi would definitely intervene and stop him. If things went sideways, the flames of this great war might shift from the Fate Dao Ancestor straight onto him. Not that shifting it over would really matter... Yet he hadn't watched enough of the show. He didn't want to wrap up his role and exit the stage so early. With those thoughts in mind, he had already begun comprehending the ultimate insights of the Grand Dao of Karma alongside his true body. With the breakthrough of that final threshold, his true body within the Chaos World seemed to reach an epiphany. At this moment, the total area of his entire world was in no way inferior to the Ancient Immortal Realm. At most, its internal complexity could not yet compare to the Ancient Immortal Realm. Countless planes were stacked layer upon layer, with the primary planes filling his vision like vast star domains. Each plane could accommodate the development of a faction on the scale of the Yongsheng Sect or the Xingri Sect. Taken alone, each plane was sufficient to nurture figures of the True Immortal rank. And such planes... Numbered in the hundreds of millions. Relying on these planes and foundations, combined with the three thousand Grand Daos and the Lord of Heavenly Dao "copied" from the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm... Though his three thousand Grand Daos could not match those of the Ancient Immortal Realm, and his Lord of Heavenly Dao could not match the Hunyuan Realm's Lord of Yuanxi, the combination of the two gave him a strong degree of certainty that he could emerge victorious if pitted against either world alone. Yet this was not his limit. As he digested the insights of the Grand Dao of Karma one by one, with a single thought, every plane throughout the entire Chaos World trembled faintly. Where there was a cause, there was an effect. When one plane served as the "cause," another plane would inevitably emerge as the "effect." Through this method, the gestation of planes was no longer a slow evolution, but a fission on the level of karma. Like an order-of-magnitude growth in binary. ... The Nine Great Groups. With the breach of the Gate of Karma, the Hunyuan Realm camp descended into an ocean of joy. Everyone cheered for this momentous victory. Even the Nine Rulers were no exception. Smiles covered every Ruler's face. "Good, good, good! Yuxiao, you did splendidly. You truly did not disappoint us." The Lord of Creation offered Yaoguang ample encouragement. "You flatter me, Ruler. So, shall we continue on to shake the Gate of Fate next?" Yaoguang looked in another direction. "The Grand Dao of Fate is the head of the three thousand Grand Daos. The Gate of Fate formed by the Fate Dao Ancestor will also be the crux of the war between the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm. Once the victor is decided there, this two-realm war that has lasted for several million years should finally come to an end." "No rush. Rest for a while first." The Lord of Creation simply waved a hand. Yaoguang looked somewhat surprised upon hearing this. "Shouldn't we strike while the iron is hot, taking advantage of all the immortal spirits' soaring morale to shatter the Gate of Fate in one fell swoop?" "Rest assured, we have everything under control. Go take a rest. Besides, you have rendered great merit; the rewards due to you will certainly not be lacking." Having said that, the Lord of Creation quickly shifted his gaze to the other Rulers. In their exchanges, the Rulers issued various directives one after another. Instantly, the publicity channels of the Nine Great Groups went into full swing. Under the publicity campaign they had long since prepared, virtually all the credit for breaching the Gate of Karma was pinned onto the Nine Rulers. Never mind Yaoguang; even the Lord of Yuanxi was reduced to a mere bystander in this propaganda, someone merely acting in coordination with the Nine Rulers. Some narratives even compared the efficiency of the Lord of Yuanxi leading the offensive against the Ancient Immortal Realm to the efficiency of the Nine Rulers spearheading the attack on the Gate of Karma. Naturally, the comparison was made very subtly. It fully praised the Lord of Yuanxi's capability and impartial stance, but also expounded that in an external war, one still needed to display sufficient decisiveness and boldness to concentrate all the Hunyuan Realm's power and deliver a fatal blow to the adversary. Otherwise, remaining tepid and insisting on sharing benefits equally across the board would only lead to a myriad of issues. War was inherently an unleashing of savagery; destroying the enemy with maximum efficiency was the supreme objective. Therefore, the Lord of Yuanxi was suited for preservation, governance, and development. Real external warfare and instruments of violence were better left to the Nine Great Groups and the Nine Rulers. That the Nine Rulers had breached the Gate of Karma—against which the Lord of Yuanxi had been helpless for millions of years—was the ultimate proof. Although these statements did not win universal agreement upon circulating, through the Nine Great Groups' relentless promotion, brainwashing, and the ironclad reality before them, the Nine Rulers' prestige nonetheless surged to an unprecedented zenith. The Virtual Immortal Realm overflowed with paeans praising the Nine Great Groups. Even factions that originally disliked the Nine Great Groups' overbearing ways or harbored hostility toward them fell silent at this moment. Tyrannical though the Nine Great Groups were, in a moment decisive to the two realms' war, they still knew how to tell right from wrong on major matters of principle. And as countless immortal spirits across the Hunyuan Realm continued their rapturous cheers, the will of sentient beings was swept along, gradually shifting toward the Nine Rulers. Control over vast amounts of the Hunyuan Realm's computing power steadily fell into the hands of the Nine Rulers. To this, the Lord of Yuanxi made no attempt to intervene. Even though He often understood this was momentum manufactured by the Nine Great Groups, He still placed no blockade on the information. Impartiality and fairness. That was the very creed He was bound to uphold. If even He—the manifestation of the will of all living beings—refused to follow these rules, then... It would be a catastrophe for the entire Hunyuan Realm. And precisely because He guarded this bottom line, in the end... The Nine Rulers gained the upper hand. For the first time, the Nine Rulers' control over the Hunyuan Realm's computing power surpassed that of the Lord of Yuanxi. ... "Good grief. Instead of hurrying to breach the Gate of Fate, they're running ideological propaganda to seize power?" Having watched for a while, Yaoguang gradually understood why the Nine Rulers had paused their assault on the Gate of Fate. To them, breaching the Gate of Karma was the ultimate achievement. Now that they had this achievement, they naturally wanted to maximize and secure the credit it represented. Once they digested these benefits, it would not be too late to deal with the Fate Dao Ancestor, who was already like dry bones in a tomb. Otherwise, once the Ancient Immortal Realm was wiped out completely, they might never have another opportunity so ripe for seizing power smoothly. "Looks like this propaganda and groundwork won't stop until it goes on for several millennia to brainwash all the immortal spirits in the Hunyuan Realm and cement their impressions." Yaoguang complained speechlessly. *Boring. I want to see rivers of blood.* He was still waiting for the Fate Dao Ancestor's counterattack to stage the final showdown between the two great worlds. Who ever heard of taking a halftime break? Such arrogance... Did they really think they had the Ancient Immortal Realm completely in the bag? At this moment, he almost wished the Fate Dao Ancestor would jump out right away and slap the Nine Rulers across the face to teach them some humility. Then again, the Grand Dao of Fate, the Grand Dao of Karma, the Grand Dao of the Void, and the Grand Dao of Time were the four Supreme Grand Daos. Even if Fate was the foremost of the four, the Dao Ancestors of the other three had all been eliminated, and the Gate of Karma had been breached. To the Nine Rulers, the Lord of Yuanxi, and all the immortal spirits of the Hunyuan Realm, victory was indeed already in their grasp. Popping champagne at halftime was ill-advised. Yet three-quarters of the match had already passed. Small wonder the Nine Rulers relaxed and pivoted back to politicking and power struggles. Shaking his head, Yaoguang felt reluctant to quit halfway when he had watched the show this far, unwilling to miss the grand finale. So he bided his time. While watching the Nine Rulers gloat and monopolize the credit, he focused his concentration on accelerating the fission-like reproduction of planes throughout the Chaos World via the Grand Dao of Karma in his true body. And this fission process lasted several millennia. As the karmic evolution and entanglement within each plane reached their zenith... Finally, at a certain moment, plane after plane that took itself as the "cause" split off its corresponding "effect" plane! In an instant, the entire Chaos World effectively multiplied by two. Volume, matter, energy, Dao influence—everything without exception doubled in a sudden surge. It was akin to a country's GDP growing not at five or ten percent a year, but skyrocketing directly by one hundred percent! This abrupt transformation... Instantly imparted an incomparable sense of immense power to Yaoguang. A power so tremendous it defied words. If previously he had only surmised that he might have forged a path distinct from both the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm, then at this moment, he could formally proclaim to all living beings in existence... Well, at this point, the only ones qualified to speak with him were the Fate Dao Ancestor and the Lord of Yuanxi; the Nine Rulers seemed not quite up to par. And at this moment, he could openly tell the Fate Dao Ancestor and the Lord of Yuanxi that through learning from the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm, he had truly surpassed his forebears, forging a brand-new path far mightier than either the Ancient Immortal Realm or the Hunyuan Realm! A profound joy welled up from the depths of Yaoguang's heart. Never had he felt so relaxed as he did today. The gloom had vanished entirely, leaving a vast, open expanse. The crisis of the war between the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm had completely dissipated with the plane division brought about by the power of the Grand Dao of Karma. He only needed to spend a few thousand more years mastering his newly gained strength to fully possess the power to stop the two worlds from continuing their clash. Like an older brother, he could press them both down—one in each hand—and make them sit together to properly discuss peaceful coexistence. "No, that might not be quite enough." Yaoguang reined in his thoughts slightly. "Although I'll be able to defeat both of them by then, what if... they're unyielding and would rather die than submit?" He pondered for a moment. Once he mastered his power, he could indeed defeat the combined might of the Ancient Immortal Realm and the Hunyuan Realm, but if the two worlds chose mutual destruction... He still would not be able to prevent it. "Just to be safe, I'll split them once more! In any case, breaching the Gate of Fate will take at least thirty to fifty thousand years. Even calculating on thirty thousand years, the splitting and mastering process could still go on for two or three more rounds." After two or three more rounds of division, the gap in strength between them would be so vast that even if the Hunyuan Realm and Ancient Immortal Realm wanted to drag everything down with them, they wouldn't have the power to do so.