Twisting fate.

Wu Motian shook his sleeves, and faint mist rolled out.

He let out a small smile.

The mist coiled up, and glowed in faint florescent light.

It rose higher and higher buffering the sky in a cowl, and the once clear sky began to darken as clouds gathered.

Thunder hummed, and lightning circled.

With another sweep of his sleeve golden light flashed and the dangerous stretch of thunder clouds disappeared and the gold dawn of the sun reappeared.

Human deference was as the name said, the put away ones humanly qualities to become more.

Some called those who walked this path Divinities.

It wasn't the same as the primordial manuscript's with the essence of Heaven and Earth bottled into a Jindan. It had long since passed such an era since the former Heaven's will bad died.

Instead Humans observes the lifetimes of the Devas, and Asuras. These innate powers, that compelled forth their wilful nature from Heavens bosom.

Humans thus brought an epiphany, to become Divinities. Rather than to accommodate the Heavens, allow it's will within them. They became those who borne their own Heavens, their own wills.

The first one who earned such esteem, the current Heavens Will seized All of creation. It's Heaven became the Heaven's above all, and thusby restrained all others.

It was no longer a simple partner to enunciate the Daos will, now it became a living breathing power.

This was the Era of seizure, and Sovereignty, of made Gods who conquered the Dao.

Of course this was a saying more than an actual representative of such beliefs.

Regardless, fundamentally the way of cultivation had changed, and while there were some downsides for example the power of cultivation in the initial stages were unmatched. A divinities powers were incredibly weak as a human deference Cultivation, only a step more powerful than humans. Yet Qi cultivation made one immediately powerful, even a lowly ant could sweep the skies atop a blade, and steer the clouds. Only when Divinities reached Divinity crossing did the power scale reverse.

..

Human deference was to extinguish ones mortal roots.

The first Three stages were to convert one's body (spirit roots, Dantian, etc), the next three one's mind and spirit, and finally the last three possessed the solidification of one's rebellion from man.

Then was Divine Gate stage, where one had to open the inner world of their body. Celestial energy would wash within them, and from a sea.

From the sea the person must slowly describe their way, it must produce a gate for one to pass through. This was a continuation of the final stage of Human deference. One's will must be solid, must be firm. It must form a steady gate such that one can pass through it to a place known as the Divine Cauldron. There one's body would again be refined, and the inner realm inside them would break away and become a Celestial Realm. Within such a Celestial Realm life grows, one can accommodate plants, animals, and even worlds. Finally one would cross into Divinity crossing.

The final route upon a mortal.

One would from a sea from Chaos type celestial energy, the more dangerous and powerful the sea the more powerful the transformation of the sea.

One literally had to cross this sea with their body.

Then they had two choices to undergo Nirvanic Undeath, thus by becoming true Immortals unable to die by any natural means. They are as long lasting as the Heavens, limitless and with infinite vital energy. The second is Nirvanic rebirth, with this one is completely reborn. Although not Immortal, one refines their body and soul with various treasures that become natal treasures, and their potential becomes increasingly stronger.

A Nirvanic Undeath evolution makes one a Sky Immortal, while a Nirvanic rebirth makes one an Earth Immortal.

In addition, through a Nirvanic rebirth one is completely cleansed of the foul mortal air, and any other issues from innate diseases and other issues, meanwhile all addition qualities such as innate natural bodies become stronger guided by the forces of Heaven and Earth.

So even if one is corrupted by the waters of the Hell, their soul in shambles they can return better than ever!

Thus concludes a brief analogy of the first few steps on the path of a Cultivator.

The first sign of a person breaking through to Divine Gate is the facility to accommodate Celestial energy and do brief feats of magic.

Summoning the rain, and thunder is such a brief magic used by Immortals.

It concludes a connection between one's Dao, and Heaven. The separation of Earth, and the refinement of the human essence into an Immortal avatar.

Wu Motian shook his head and stepped on air, he began to float a few inches off the ground.

His robe swaying in imaginary winds, and his hair twisting.

Before long the wind ceased, and he fell gently to his feet.

"At least now to perform basic spells I don't need to waste my lifespan..."

He looked at the veins of black on his fingers stretching up his hand.

He frowned.

His Dharma idol split from his head, from it's eyes golden flames fell and split the black veins apart from his flesh.

Then he ate some pills and the torn veins healed again.

Corruption, Corruption!

Somehow this cancerous energy kept returning to his body, nearly engulfing him. One thing Wu Motian at least gathered is the more negative energy is produced for example anger, sadness etc around him or by him speeds up the corruption. When he killed the monks they died with anger at their fellow brothers dying, at themselves dying and more, that all caused his corruption to exceed it's normal growth speed.

Furthermore this corruption in turn manipulated him, making him cold and distant, chasing him to perform more acts that cause negative energy.

This was an unnatural power, a side effect from his theorization of the powers of Evil spirits.

Yet it was not under his control, it spread without limit.

"The time I corrupted Lightning was when I was mentally unstable, I was also at the end stages of Human deference stage. Perhaps while cultivating subconsciously the power or the belief upon corruption was ingrained into my will and nature, and as a result it has become a permanent part of me. I'm like a source now... This is all just words till I reach Divine Gate stage, but if that's true that's an issue. The stronger I am the more this power will be produced. Even if I undergo Nirvanic rebirth, I don't know if I can rid myself of it."

There was nothing he could do, hence he though to work on halting the progress of the corruption, and continue on.

He swept his sleeve, and a golden flash surrounded him. The golden light transformed into a faint mirage of an immortal swan. It flapped it's wings and wind swirled around it.

It flew with Wu Motian on it's back heading into the sun.

...

Cosmic radiance sect, the Taoist capital of the realm, with thousands of pilgrimages being made towards the Abhijna mountain, where the sect lied.

Currently a group of men were discussing an issue.

"The Great Heart Temple, the white cloud Abode, the Seven realm School, and ten more religious regions have been razed to the ground! This must be an attack by the Empires, it religious persecution! We must fight back! Gathering the monks from the Shaolin temple on mount Dugu, and the Plum blossom fighters from Wudang, with the Great Waves sect, we should go to battle!"

"What of the scholars court?"

"Those fellows, aish, just leave them be. Let them cultivate peacefully without any care in their esoteric erudite schools!"

Just then a sudden rumbling shook the entire mountain.

The elders of the Cosmic Radiance sect jumped from their seats outside. Their prowess as Martial Gods exuding powerfully in heavy bursts.

Yet at what they saw their knees buckled.

A huge centipede with ten eyes blocked the sun.

Atop it was a youth.

The youths hair swayed in the wind.

"Immortal Destiny! Divine evil ærus!"

His burly body trembled, and the centipede shook with dark aura.

Spindles of shadowy fog fell and suffocated those below.

From their bodies thin threads of grey shot out connecting the cross on the youths head.

His red eyes buzzing in a faint holy, yet demonic air.

Everyone died instantly, over a hundred Taoist priest's belonging to the sect, a thousand civilian's having arrived for new year celebrations.

The youth smirked slightly.

He pointed his hand down.

"Immortal Destiny - Ærus immolation."

The centipede began to sparkle in black flames similar to the starry sky.

It dived down and broke the mountain into pieces.

...

Wu Motian frowned, and left his meditation. Chilling Immortal winds carried his robes up, and he carried a mysterious glow around his body.

He swept his hand into the sky, and the clouds Disappeared. The stars began to sparkle even though it was midday.

Wu Motian began to count with his hand, and muttered, "Why has the Destiny of Taoism fallen so much. Even my killing of the Great Heart Temple couldn't affect the Destiny of Buddhism... Has the ancient Abhijna Dragon met an accident..."

Everything gains a spirit, whether the mountains or trees. The more viscous the spiritual energy, or belief in a matter the more corporeal the spirit. In this realm of mortal all the mountains and seas had a very childish spirit, without any proper thought or understanding. Yet there were plenty of Demi Gods formed from various beliefs. There were deities of Hatred, greed, and even fortune. The three religions each held a Fortune spirit which prolonged and empowered the destiny of the religion meaning no matter what unfortunate fate they met they could survive.

They were called the Three Golden Dragons, known specifically by their abodes. Such as the Abhijna Dragon, the Avīci Dragon, and the Kunlun Dragon.

In fact in his past life Wu Motian has killed the KunLun Divine Dragon, the deity who was made from the religion of Confucianism. They had supported Ye Zheng, hence Wu Motian thoroughly cleansed their sects. In the past only the Taoist collective joined him to help, claiming he carried an Immortal destiny. Thus they were wiped out by Ye Zheng. This arm for an arm behavior wasn't unusual. It was only then when the Buddhists sects joined with the Martial alliance, and Ye Zheng to attack Wu Motian. He had been collectively blamed, and as a result was called by his infamous title, the Heavenly Demon.

He managed to kill a few higher-ups of the Martial alliance, and Buddhist sects before Ye Zheng powered up with his halo of providence and killed him.

Thus in this life Wu Motian had a deep relation towards the Taoist sects, and even aimed to protect them to a fair extent. Allowing all pilgrimages to be had, and all festivals to be conducted. He even made some slight manipulations to move the wars away from the Daoist mountains.

Yet he now witnessed the Daoist destiny crumble.

Stars disappeared from the sky quickly, and even he felt an intense pressure fall on his shoulders.

He commanded Omniscient sight, and grabbed a rapidly distorting thread and severed it with his mental energy. The thread snapped and the pressure disappeared.

Wu Motian had a struggling suspicion, and looked into his enemy.