The Path of Conflict

*“I follow the Path of Conflict.”* (**Chapter 675**).

**Zac** created his **Path** after witnessing the final battles between the **Anointed Zhix** and the **Dominator Zhix** **[Chapter 554]**.

The problem was that there had been a fundamental barrier to his improvements all this while; deciphering how all his unique points fit together. There was undeniably a theme of Life and Death, but he hadn’t really figured out how to fuse that with his axe-work just yet. Zac realized that he had looked at it all wrong until now. He had thought of his cultivation path as one of duality, where life and death were the main components. He had two races and two classes and even two remnants to match them. However, there were a third in the mix. Life and Death weren’t the concepts that defined him or his rise after the Integration. It was his struggle. His path was one of struggle, where the flames of war would open the path of Life and Death. His path was one of a Defiant Struggle that would pave a bloody path all the way toward the peak. It wasn’t a duality he was looking to create, but a trinity with the axe in the center. The axe contained his struggle, his determination, and his undying will, and those things could even influence life and death itself as long as he became powerful enough. It would be the catalyst, the seed for change. **[Chapter 555]**

## **Formalising his Path**

The first change was that all three Skill Fractals that came with a Dao Vision had changed, not only **[Axe Mastery]**. The other two skills, **[Forester’s Constitution]** and **[Bulwark Mastery]** were transformed as well. Their fractals had looked like an axe, a tree, and a shield respectively, but they had now looked like abstract skill fractals just like all the others.

The second change was that actual objects were moving about in the mind space of his soul.

In the absolute middle of his mind, Zac saw a small spiritual avatar in his likeness. It was holding **[Verun’s Bite]** in its hand, and it kept swinging it as it dodged and pivoted in place. It looked like the small spirit-copy was fighting an endless number of invisible enemies, and the constant battle was generating some sort of power that Zac could sense hidden within the avatar.

Pure streams of the Dao from the surroundings were steadily entering the avatar's body as well, like his miniature self was a black hole. The energies came from the two objects that were slowly orbiting his avatar. The first of them was the chained coffin hovering from the branch of a dead tree, with a dying sun serving as its backdrop. The scene looked almost exactly like his vision earlier, and half of the energy that his avatar was absorbing was the deathly haze that escaped from within the coffin.

The final addition was unsurprisingly the Bodhi Tree that he had witnessed in two Dao Visions by now. Its canopy formed an almost perfect circle, and the leaves continuously radiated golden energy that slowly drifted toward avatar Zac.

The energies of the two apparitions continuously clashed as they formed a black-and-gold nebula that swiveled around the avatar until they were swallowed.

It was obviously his three Dao Fragments given form, and Zac started to understand what was going on as he looked upon the scene. This was an actual embryonic representation of his cultivation path, where the “core” of his Daos had moved from Skill fractals to his Soul. It seemed a lot more logical compared to before, though he didn’t know if there were any real benefits of the change.

**[Chapter 586]**

## **Stances**

Zac decided it was better to progress in the two paths separately until he understood more about what the paths entailed. Neatly separated with his Human side representing life and nature, and his Draugr side representing death and desolation. **[Chapter 486]**

He initially tried to incorporate everything he had envisioned, the trinity of life, death, and conflict, but it quickly became apparent that it was simply too huge a task. So Zac came up with a plan. His first step would be to better mix Bodhi and Axe, Life and War, in his human form, while focusing on Coffin and Axe in his undead form. It was based on the creation of his Bronze- and pink flashes, or rather his Annihilation Sphere and Origin Mark. One half of him would delve into the depths of life through conflict, while the other into death and conflict. **[Chapter 678]**

Strength was the basis of victory and survival in his Evolutionary Stance, and without enough strength, his Inexorable Stance would be useless. **[Chapter 710]**

If the death-aspected side of his cultivation represented finality and inexorability, then the life-aspected side represented endless possibilities. The two concepts were opposing and irreconcilable, but Zac still felt it was the right way to go. Zac's path is a path of purity. **[Chapter 728]**

### **Evolutionary Stance**

The heart of the Evolutionary Stance was change and freedom. Life always finds a way; if one path closed, there would still be innumerable other paths to success. Evolution was endless, everchanging. The Evolutionary Stance represented the ability to break those chains of fate and the laws of nature themselves. **[Chapter 727]**

Zac birthed and discarded one move after another in an endless cycle, each attack a life going from birth to death in the span of a breath. Each one was unique and unpredictable. He was becoming an agent of Chaos, infecting fate with an unerasable tinge of uncertainty. And the motor of it all was Life. Life was the source that kept filling Zac with inspiration, while his weapon was the delivery method. **[Chapter 727]**

Life was full of endless possibilities and unpredictable, but it was also extremely efficient. Excess was a luxury of humans rather than a truth of life. The wolf wouldn't go on a mad slaughter and kill more than it could eat. It would be a waste of energy. Plants and beasts wouldn't evolve features that served no purpose, since every morsel of energy was needed to survive in the wilds.

Just like how life was efficient, so did Zac need to become more discerning in his combat style. His combat style would still be marked by randomness and unpredictability, but he would need to be in the driver's seat. This would create a targeted evolution rather than series of random events that might or might not end well. It was important to distinguish between concept and application. In true evolution, most mutations failed and 99% of all species perished sooner or later. But that outcome was obviously not acceptable when he was fighting. He couldn't let himself get maimed or even killed just because randomness dictated it. And as he controlled evolution, he was controlling fate. If fate wanted him to perish, he would break through fate and find a way. **[Chapter 727]**

*Each swing left golden arcs behind as motes of stardust stuck to the bone edge. The arcs seemed like the leaves of the bodhi, not one exactly the same as the others. It was alive; everchanging and evolving, eternally struggling against death. It was the predator stalking its prey, it was the plant mutating to endure the harshening summers. It was everything, constantly adapting. It might be struck down, but it would never give in. It would rise up again to defy fate, stronger, evolved. And this dance would continue until the end of time.* **[Chapter 747]**

*His swings no longer adhered to a fluid and ever-changing technique aimed at unrelenting offense. They gradually morphed the strikes from a primordial beast that fought for supremacy.*

*Every swing was a life, a death, and a reincarnation.*

*An endless cycle of rebirth Zac pushed forward. There was no such thing as defeat, there was only an endless series of new beginnings. His vines were no longer a supportive Armament aimed at forcing openings and pressure through constant harassment. They were his pack, nibbling at the flanks of their enemy. If they survived, they would feast. If they lost, they would die. Such was the law of the jungle. Such was the law of the Heavens*. **[Chapter 819]**

### **Inexorable Stance**

Zac’s undying side was like a spider trapping his targets in a web, slowly whittling them down until he launched a final strike. However, that combat style had a weakness; time. Anything could happen in a battle, and Zac thought of various ways to increase the speed he could squeeze his enemies to death. **[Chapter 705]**

*Zac soon looked at the towering treant as a representation of the living trying to delay the inevitable. The special Draugr sight that he barely utilized until now was fast becoming the key that showed how life-force constantly surged through the enemy’s body. Combined with his **[Cosmic Gaze]** he saw everything he needed to see to follow this new path.*

*Any time the giant tried to empower one of his skill runes, Zac was already there. An axe stabbed into his leg from behind and infused it with a corrosive rune. A chain shot toward a vulnerable spot to force a response. Zac himself unleashing a massive swing that even the treant would have to deal with.*

*Each little clash would mark the enemy for death and close another avenue of turning things around. This was not some sort of restriction of a skill, it was restriction through tempo. In fact, Zac’s actions were gradually slowing down compared to the frantic pace he kept just a few seconds ago. Death never rushed, it was slow and methodical; inescapable.*

*This was not the ruthless war of the jungle, but the endless war all beings fought against themselves. One represented change, the other was stillness. There was no need to finish the war, as death had all the time in the world. He only needed to keep up the pressure, to douse any hope of resurgence. Zac felt as though he was becoming one with his path once more, but nothing lasted forever.* **[Chapter 708]**

Zac felt that his Inexorable Stance would be pretty effective against the kind of combatant who uses precise calculations and predictions. So what if you could predict fate if fate was inexorable and unavoidable? His Inexorable Stance represented the ultimate fate of all living things. **[Chapter 727]**

*The Dao clouds churned as they were ripped apart by four chains dancing to the tune of inevitability, streaks of darkness forming an inescapable cage. They sealed everything they encircled, like a spider trapping its prey. It was patient, since death would always win in the end. They were the grinding gears of time, the inexorability of fate.* **[Chapter 747]**

*Until now, he had only fought one or a handful of enemies while utilizing his Inexorable Stance. In those battles, his tactics had been to restrain each individual warrior, directing the tempo of the fight while creating openings. Now, it was more about controlling the tempo of the whole battlefield while breaking apart their cooperation. He was like an inexorable army, pushing forward, neither fearing death or defeat. Any attempt of the enemy to swing the battle in their favor was crushed before it even had a chance to be started. Ambushes were turned into frantic last stands as wraiths, corrosive chains, and Zac himself appeared out of nowhere. Defenses and defensive lines were broken by brute force and the ghastly light of the lantern-wielding skeleton.* **[Chapter 770]**