At that moment, Qi Yuan remembered his old conversation with Thunder. He had once asked, “What if you are me? What if the stars in the sky are me? What if all living beings are me?”

Back then, Thunder chalked him up as mad. Now, Qi Yuan realized that it wasn’t madness, but ignorance. It was akin to a cat staring into a mirror, unaware the reflection was itself. However, after obtaining the Devouring Origin Physique, his understanding was complete.

“Ha! I see it now!” The Daoist has attained enlightenment! Thunder is me and I am Thunder! Qi Qi is me, I am Empress Earth! Shi Zhongshan is me, I am Erlang Shen. I am the Young Celestial Emperor, Dong Jianghe!”

Faces began to surface across Qi Yuan’s own—the long-dead Venerable Tianbao, the radiant Qi Qi, the wise Yulei, the Supreme Pure One. Countless visages emerged and overlapped.

Through them all, he laughed in boundless clarity. “So it turns out... All of this is me.”

In that instant, he understood that everything in this world was him. His divine spiritual energy underwent a tremendous transformation. His already chaotic Divine Domain grew even more turbulent. Yet within the chaos, all was unified.

“All beings are me! I am all beings! I finally understand the Dao De Jing[1]! The Dao gives birth to one. The One gives birth to the Two. The Two give birth to the Three. The Three give birth to all things. So it turns out, Lao Tzu was me. I wrote the Dao De Jing!”

It dawned on Qi Yuan that he had never plagiarized at all. Blue Planet never had to be erased from existence. Every creator was simply another version of himself. At that moment, he comprehended the Dao. He understood that Thunder was him. The Three Pure Ones and Six Imperial Lords he had visualized were all him.

Only when divine spiritual energy became truly unified could one condense the past self. When that unified divine power was tempered within the Greater Realm, it became the Ultimate One, forming the present self and allowing him to become a Yang Spirit. Now, the One was a myriad of beings. His divine spiritual energy was not merely unified, but the Ultimate One.

Enlightenment struck like lightning. “So, I am already a Yang Spirit.”

His colossal frame began to shrink. His aura, once vast enough to overturn heaven and earth, subsided completely.

The terrifying Blood Sun Great Sage stared in confusion, then in mounting dread. “What... what happened to you?”

For reasons she could not explain, an instinctive fear rose within her.

Qi Yuan’s voice rolled out like distant thunder. “You chose the wrong path. The road to Yang Spirit realm was never about forcing everything into one. It was about transforming into me. I am the sole existence across the heavens. You were never independent beings, just manifestations of me!”

“You’ve gone mad!”

In her eyes, he had truly lost his mind. She had once encountered a Yang Spirit like this before, whose path closely resembled Qi Yuan’s. Without hesitating any longer, she hesitated no longer.

Qi Yuan’s gaze turned icy. “You are the part of me that I despise. Die.”

With a gentle sweep of his blood-red longsword, a crack split across Blood Sun Great Sage. Before, such a wound would have meant nothing to her. Now, a chill ran through her entire being. She was dissolving at astonishing speed! Her existence was being assimilated, absorbed. She had never experienced it before!

Her voice trembled. “What are you doing?!”

Qi Yuan answered calmly, “I’m reclaiming myself.”

Like the Devouring Origin Physique itself, his blood-red longsword now seemed alive, gnawing through her existence.

In the distance, Blood God Great Sage finally lost his composure. A devastating strike tore through the void toward Qi Yuan.

Yet Qi Yuan remained utterly serene. “The Primordial World represents infinite possibility. So this is the true Primordial Yang Spirit!”

He swung his sword again. Behind him, millions of heavenly soldiers and generals manifested, raising their suona horns in unison. A bleak, piercing wail echoed across the universe as his blade drifted lightly across Blood God Great Sage.

Qi Yuan sighed softly. “We were one to begin with. Why struggle against yourself?”

He was the strongest he had ever been.

Blood God Great Sage stared at him in horror. “What are you?”

The two mighty Yang Spirits looked at him the way the alien demons within Earth’s End once had. Their faces filled with disbelief.

Qi Yuan smiled brilliantly. “I am you.”

Both Yang Spirits felt their blood run cold. They tried to flee but their bodies no longer obeyed them. After all, the Primordial Qi had long tainted them.

The Primordial World itself meant infinite possibility. It allowed visualization arts to give birth to gods. It allowed Qi Yuan’s visualization arts to manifest as reality. It even allowed him to declare he was Thunder, Qi Qi, and No-Food Goddess. Without these three conditions, even if the gods assimilated into him, he could never truly become them. Moreover, since he possessed the Devouring Origin Physique and the Qi Yuan Scripture, he could become the one who encompassed all beings.

His gaze deepened. “You have been touched by Primordial Qi. Therefore, you are me.”

The two Yang Spirits were frozen in place. Blood Sun Great Sage’s delicate face began to warp. slowly reshaping into Qi Yuan’s own features. Her colossal, celestial curves shrank rapidly, collapsing inward. Blood God Great Sage’s face transformed into a blazing star. In that instant, the two Yang Spirits became Qi Yuan.

Rage flashed across Qi Yuan’s face. “How dare you impersonate me? Seeking death!”

He delivered another blow. With that sword, he formally stepped into the Yang Spirit realm. His blade sliced through stars, and two colossal bodies disintegrated.

Across the boundless universe, two blood-red celestial spheres detonated violently, shattering into endless fragments.

1. Dao De Jing is a foundational philosophical text of Daoism, traditionally attributed to Laozi (also spelled Lao Tzu). It is one of the most influential works in Chinese thought and world philosophy. ☜