Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor
chapter-1197

1197 A System of Conformity

[AN: I've retconned the . Wang Wei is still in the second level of the Golden Body of Merit.]

The Grand Dao Source manifested before Wang Wei, and he calmly watched his Dao Imprint change. There were more runes, and the imprint was embedded deeper into his Dao, but all the changes had occurred on a surface level.

'It's harder to detect and erase,' Wang Wei thought. 'More importantly, it now has the ability of [Motion].' Before dying, all Empyreans could activate [Motion], and their Dao Imprint would detach them from their Dao and move around the Grand Dao Source, making it harder for anyone to find it and kill them.

Everlasting Empyreans do not have to use this ability since it's passive for them actively. It will immediately activate as long as their bodies and souls dissipate or stop working.

Wang Wei then summoned his Dao Will, feeling the slight change in essence. He could now suppress lower-tier Dao Wills or even render them useless. Now that the Dao Imprint had strengthened, the Dao Will followed since one of its primary purposes was to grant Eternals and Everlasting an advantage over the lower Emperor Class.

"[Zoning]," Wang Wei muttered. His Dao Will gained this new ability to counter the [Motion], which allowed his will to search for a person's Dao Imprint in the vast sea that is the Grand Dao Source. Wang Wei created his True Will to test it out, and he was immediately satisfied with the result. More importantly, the [Zoning] Ability improved drastically. Once he adds his Karma Dao, tracking and eliminating people's imprints will be relatively easier.

Once these two aspects finished elevating, Wang Wei felt the baptism headed for the next step - his Awakening. Once he activated it, 11 Fate Palaces appeared above his head. They looked magnificent.

"They appeared less ethereal than before. It seems they are no longer a decoration, and I can use them in battles," Wang Wei noticed. His mind went on overdrive, thinking about using them directly as weapons or, better yet, creating techniques that fit with the palaces.

"I guess that's better than nothing," he muttered before focusing on the remaining baptism. Nothing significant occurred until the flesh baptism.

"Third Heaven?" He muttered as he clenched his fist. His cultivation increased by one layer, a great benefit given his realm. "This should be the effect of the Yuandao Root."

According to his calculations, the baptism should have only increased his strength by half of a Heaven, meaning his flesh would increase from 74% to 75% Grand Dao Source. However, the effect of the Yuandao Root was added for the last half.

"I'm now an Empyrean, but the process felt underwhelming." He shook his head. Despite this thought, he was happy with his strength - especially since he reached this realm at the young age of 1.5 Yuan Epoch. It would have been much earlier had he not spent so much time on becoming an Indestructible Emperor.

As he calmed down, Wang Wei started brewing an idea, but he still needed some data. Before that, he needed to get acclimated to his newfound power. He accessed the Dream World and started fighting with the 50 Empyreans again, this time only using his cultivation and not his flesh. It took Wang Wei no time to acclimate to fighting with most of his abilities - except for the Grandmist Wheel.

The wheel, by itself, had no bearings in battle despite its size disparity between Empyreans. Ordinary Empyreans had a wheel between 6 to 9 Zhang, while Everlasting went from 10 to 12. However, their size only indicates their advantages in creating worlds and life to help them cultivate. In simple terms, the bigger the wheel, the faster the cultivation.

Despite the inherited classification of the Grandmist Wheel, sentient beings are intelligent and innovative. As such, through the development of civilization, many ways have been created for the Grandmist Wheel to be helpful in combat. The most common ones are using the world created as explosions or weapons, creating unique life forms that can fight side-by-side with their creator - or better yet, fuse with the creator to boost their strength. Lastly, reverse the Cosmos Grandmist into the Final Grandmist to kill people.

Wang Wei needed time to understand and use these tactics in battles, so he spent a few years fighting with these imprints. He did not waste much time since these 50 individuals were the perfect teachers. All of them have lived for so long that they've mastered these basic tactics.

After opening his eyes, Wang Wei started deducing information and deriving new ideas. His purpose? How to make his Empyrean Realm unique. He thought something new and unexpected would occur since he was an Immeasurable Emperor. Still, nothing happened. No new ability, blessing from the Heavens, or even a simple reward of merit.

After an unknown amount of time, he opened his eyes with disappointment and realization. "So, that's how it is: A system of Conformity. No wonder I've had no success with the two Dao Imprints experiment."

Grand Dao encourages innovation and improvement during the realms of Mortality (0-9); that's how people get new cultivation systems and the Duyi Realm (Pseudo Dao Will).

However, from Tier 10 to 12, everyone's cultivation must conform and follow a similar path. Wang Wei broke the mold in the Great Emperor Realm by becoming an Immeasurable Emperor, but that was as far as he could go - as far as Grand Dao would permit uniqueness and exceptionalism.

'Grand Dao wants everyone to conform and, through the slow and tedious process of cultivation, lose their ingenuity and innovative spirit. However, once you've reached the peak of the Paragon Realm, a cultivator must either regain that spirit or preserve it if they want the slightest chance at glancing at Transcendence,' he thought.

Wang Wei was momentarily speechless. From a design perspective, this method was an excellent way to eliminate 99.999% of cultivators, blocking their way toward transcendence. It's a good way to eliminate those unworthy and cultivate only potent Transcendents. However, as someone forced to conform and live in a specific way, he was far from happy or understanding.

"Cultivators have achieved immortality and think they've escaped the shackles of time, but in truth, it is their biggest enemy," Wang Wei sighed before becoming slightly angry. If he still had access to his Science and Technology World, he might have found a way to bypass Grand Dao's restrictions and remain unique in all 12 cultivation realms.

"There is no point in crying over spilled milk," he uttered. "Anyways, I've always known that I needed to play the game before I could win it."

He composed himself before continuing with the process of uncovering his strength. Wang Wei controlled his Dao Imprint to begin stacking his Grand Dao Boosts. Most of his previous boosts did not need an upgrade, so he started the process.

The Battle Realm functioned the same way as the Ancient Fiendgod Realm. Every 2% of strength was 1-fold. Wang Wei had no issue with stacking until 5-fold when he received an immediate warning from Heaven and Earth that his power was too strong - even though he sealed the Boid Battlefield. He had no choice but to enter the Source Qi Space to continue.

As he expected, Wang Wei reached the 10-fold Battle Realm, or a fighting prowess of 89.999%. However, he did not immediately reach Taboo as he needed a key. So, he did a quick divination and knew the answer.

"I need to absorb another Perfect Tear or perfect energy on par with it?" His lips twitched as he remembered something. "Xu Junyao. Is Fate already scheming my meeting with her?" He knew how rare Perfect Tear was, and who else would have perfect energy in the upper dimension besides Xu Junyao?

Wang Wei resisted the urge to swear. "Forget it. I'll use the [Power of Nothingness] this time around to achieve Taboo." He already had an idea of how he would do that, so there was no problem. His body began to release a golden light, and he calmly watched it.

Wang Wei experienced a few disappointments during his retreat and breakthrough, and another one was his peak second-level Golden Body of Merit. He thought he would achieve the third level after absorbing the rest of his merit, but he could not be more wrong.

The difference between the third and second levels seems so vast that it appears impossible for anyone to achieve. He now understood that if not for the threat of that Eldritch Monster, he would never have achieved a peak second level.

"If I want to achieve the third level, I'll need to fulfill my destiny and get rid of the Parasites," Wang Wei muttered with a frown. "So, how the hell am I going to reach the unknown fourth level?"

He immediately realizes his plan will not work, meaning he needs another way to protect or hide from any Half-Step Transcendence. Then, his mind went into overdrive.

'A Heaven-Deceiving Formation should work, but Supreme Unity and Maitreya are not True Heavenly Dao. They don't need to play by the rules and accept the deception from someone weaker than them. So, if I want this method to work, I need something of similar essence to use as the formation's core.'

Wang Wei's eyes shone brightly. 'The Devil Primogenitor's broken Half-Step Transcendence Artifact.' He was immediately excited as this could work. The only issue was how to get to the trial in Primordial Chaos without these two knowing or interfering. Wang Wei did not mind such difficulty since he at least had a working direction.

However, just as the joy was about to settle in, he suddenly thought of something, and his complexion turned dastardly ugly.