Chapter 1163: A Fable
Jiang She just watched Wu Shuangjiang pick up his brush to compile historical records, as if he were an outsider merely observing the excitement.
Since he had chosen to let Wu Shuangjiang write history, Chen Ping'an had effectively ceded "reputation" to Wu Shuangjiang.
This "historical record" of such and such—forget official dynastic histories—its content was even wilder than unofficial histories.
Jiang She shook his head and chuckled, "How did you become the Hidden Official, so timid and fearful of suspicion of 'claiming Heaven's merit as your own'? Or is it that you're afraid of bearing karma, not daring to meddle in the chaotic world of Qingming?"
Jiang She muttered to himself, "Speaking of which, I can understand it to some extent. Among the three elements of position, reputation, and substance for the culprit who plunged an entire world into chaos, Chen Ping'an, who only has an empty reputation, is the most disadvantaged."
Wu Shuangjiang smiled and said, "I suspect that up in Heaven, there's also an unofficial history worthy of the name: how in the mortal world, Chen Ping'an slew Jiang She in a decisive battle, usurped his position and seized his name, and during all this, Zhou Mi's plans fell short by one move—unable to kill him, he instead became an ally, offering considerable assistance?"
Chen Ping'an grunted, not denying it.
Jiang She was stunned. Scholars these days really have dirty hearts!
Wu Shuangjiang said, "Hidden Official Chen, you can name your price now."
After today's battle, "out of thin air" he had gained two lifebond flying swords, plus the four imitation swords he had gifted.
As a sword cultivator, he believed that when it came to forging swords, Chen Ping'an would have plenty of work to do.
Jiang She suddenly asked, "Aren't you curious why I gave up... struggling in my death throes?"
Chen Ping'an said, "I didn't ask. But on the Night Sailing Boat, you'd have to explain yourself anyway. By then, you'd only be more embarrassed, and maybe no one would even want to listen to a single sentence. That would be truly screwed up."
Jiang She was immediately deflated.
As an elder, I say a few words to you, and you hold a grudge?
Jiang She muttered to himself, "If you three were weak, then death means death, loss means loss, escape means escape—the outcome would be whatever it is."
"Likewise, if you won cleanly and decisively through your own skill, without any dragging feet, then as I end up in my current situation—possessing nothing, neither human nor ghost, neither deity nor immortal—I will naturally accept it."
At this point, Jiang She's eyes sparkled, "Aside from regretting that I couldn't use both of my complete states to truly test the veracity of Zheng Juzhong's 'your death or mine,' everything else has been exhilarating. Of course, the invisible suppression of numerous great Daos is utterly infuriating. That I failed to recover my cultivation at its peak was also within your calculations. The Way of War thrives on deception—it should be so."
"This time I emerged from seclusion, my bold declarations before were no false words, nor did I deliberately deceive a young junior. It's just that I had another path I wanted to try, but only on the premise that I knew the first path wouldn't work. Only after you successfully blocked my way and robbed me of that path do we have this conversation now."
Jiang She glanced at Wu Shuangjiang, then at Jiang Shangzhen, and said, "When a real man encounters the right moment and holds his position, he cannot afford to be mired in sentimentality. It's not that he doesn't care at all, nor is he purely cold-hearted. This is far more honorable than the intrigues of later dynastic courts and the political marriages between mountain immortal mansions and mortal clans."
"Therefore, either I, Jiang She, would open the first page of a new chapter with murderous intent, or the name 'Jiang She' would write a bloody ending in the old chapter. Either the old kills the new, proving the past superior to the present, or the new beheads the old..."
Finally, Jiang She seemed to pronounce his own epitaph, "Victory and defeat, life and death—I brought them all upon myself."
Cui Dongshan nodded.
Without such a disposition, without such boldness, Jiang She would not be Jiang She.
This was probably what the old saying meant: a dead tiger still maintains its formidable stance.
Jiang Shangzhen sighed.
No wonder he was the Military Prime Ancestor—his words carried such momentum. Though his tone was calm, like casual conversation, listeners couldn't help but be moved.
If he could adapt and apply this style to matters of the heart, wouldn't he be invincible? What fairy maiden or chivalrous woman could resist?
Jiang She glanced sideways at Jiang Shangzhen, "You bastard, a dog can't change its habit of eating shit. I wasted my previous high opinion of you."
Jiang Shangzhen looked helpless. You keep picking on me, don't you?
"But don't celebrate too soon."
Jiang She clenched his fists on his knees, "Imagine switching places. If you were one of the deities stationed in the Ancient Heavenly Court, watching those swarming qi refiners, as numerous as locusts, as dense as ants, what would you think as a deity?"
Wu Shuangjiang flicked his sleeve, conjuring the scene Jiang She had described. Everyone felt as if they were standing at the gate of the Ancient Heavenly Court, looking down at the earth from Heaven.
They saw countless living beings gathered in four directions, beginning their ascent to Heaven. Aside from two Ascension Platforms, countless Daoists were ascending together.
On the vast earth, it was as if a brilliant river of stars had been laid out, even more dazzling than the one in the sky—like the pure Dao heart of a Daoist whose Dao name was "Mortal World."
Led by countless "Wu" (shamans), they built high platforms and lit bonfires. But this time, they were no longer entertaining or appeasing the deities, begging for Heaven's charity and forgiveness; instead, they were praying for the sake of mortal beings. One by one, fires lit up, ancient languages echoed in succession, the great blaze spread across the plains, connecting patch by patch, and winding fire dragons appeared.
Jiang Shangzhen's mind trembled, he murmured, "How could the mortal world produce so many simultaneous... self-sacrifices?"
Cui Dongshan explained, "Because we never lived in those years of suffering. We never experienced over ten thousand years of taking complete self-determination for granted. Having had ten thousand years of human hearts relaxing and flourishing naturally, the mortal world has changed—for better and for worse. It's like Bai Jing saying that nowadays, Daoists laugh without truly laughing, cry without truly crying. Her implication is that our Dao hearts have become so complicated that I am no longer 'I.' Just as Jiang She feels that today's Daoists are far more skilled at calculating human hearts than they were ten thousand years ago—able to be both circuitous and precise."
Take the Battle of the Sinking of Tongye Continent, for example. There were elderly figures like the Old Heavenly Lord of Taiping Mountain and Xun Yuan of the Jade Gui Sect, as well as "middle-aged" ones like Jiang Shangzhen. But the majority who sacrificed their lives were still young people.
Perhaps the mortal world ten thousand years ago was still a naive young man.
Jiang She looked at the several porcelain figurines Cui Dongshan had crafted and smiled, "When creating humanity, the deities did not act without consideration. They carefully set up several barriers to prevent these ants from growing too powerful in the mortal world, becoming greedy, and coveting more."
"For instance, the pursuit of immortality, of living as long as Heaven and Earth."
"Ants made of dust on the earth actually dared to aspire to enter the divine temple."
"How could they extract the most abundant and pure incense from the mortal world to make the deities' stainless golden bodies eternal, while ensuring that the sources of this incense obediently complied? The people on earth would forever face one thing: the unknown of 'Dao' and the fear of 'Heart.'"
Heaven's might was vast and majestic, the deities were awe-inspiring, unfathomable, and elusive.
Led by the "Wu," all mortals on earth prostrated themselves, begging for Heaven's forgiveness, yearning for gifts, and avoiding punishment.
Their hearts were filled with terror and extreme fear, daring not to harbor any rebellious thoughts.
"Since fear comes from the unknown, once you know it, it becomes ordinary. Then you will no longer resign yourself to fate; instead, you will develop unwillingness and rebelliousness. There will be various tests to find out where the boundaries lie—this is human nature."
The human body is a vessel for incense. The pain in the human heart is the source of devotion.
Naturally, the deities would not allow humans to find the source of pain. In the early days of the mortal world, on the land, people were busy with survival, with selfish desires, with making mistakes, with internal conflict.
Human nature is a bowl of muddy water. But precisely because it is muddy, it has vitality.
Divinity is a bowl of clear water. The deity and the divine position are merely the bowl that holds the water.
Fan Junmao, the Mountain Lord of the Southern Peak, when she, as a reincarnation of the divine path, encountered the Sword-Bearer descending to the mortal world, did Fan Junmao have any thought of resistance? No—she willingly submitted, offering her neck to the blade.
Jiang She said, "The unprovoked calamities of heaven, the numerous disasters on the earth, the constant decay of the physical body and various diseases, the rampant behavior of the monster races including various carnivorous creatures—all these, beyond the greatest fear, gave rise to the most abundant emotion in humanity. And one day, it overwhelmed pain."
Cui Dongshan said, "It was anger."
Jiang She laughed, "It seems that Mr. Zheng doesn't possess the emotion of 'anger.'"
Cui Chan was certainly very formidable, very similar to Zheng Juzhong. But Jiang She would never think that the Embroidery Tiger lacked "human touch."
It was precisely because Jiang She could feel a wordless, immense anger from Cui Chan.
This enormous, silent anger made Cui Chan like a blazing sun placed in the mortal world.
However, Cui Chan was too proud to ever deign to put it into words, never wanting to be understood.
Zheng Juzhong was different.
If he weren't extremely clear that the Dao of the Three Religions' Founders and the Little Confucian Sage would never allow the mortal world to repeat its mistakes, Jiang She would almost mistake Zheng Juzhong for a reincarnation of part of the Supreme Deity's Heavenly Dao.
This misconception of Jiang She's was also reflected to a certain extent in Yu Dou of the Jade Capital.
Zheng Juzhong's wisdom, Yu Dou's rationality.
To say that a deity is full of humanity—opinions vary.
But to say that a qi refiner cultivates the Dao to the point of being devoid of humanity—that is definitely an insult.
Chen Ping'an said, "Before fear, anger, desire, and so on, or perhaps beneath them, the true foundational color of human nature might be hunger."
Zheng Juzhong nodded lightly.
"To prevent our transgression, becoming increasingly 'non-human deities,' the ancient deities set up several barriers."
Jiang She said, "First, at the birth of humanity, there was both a survival-driven human nature and a hidden instinct for death hidden within. Don't go into details—look around the world, it's everywhere. Indulging in various desires without restraint, the desire for food and drink, overeating, sexual pleasure, excessive pursuit, and so on—failing to preserve spirit and wasting mental energy. The flooding of the seven emotions and six desires is no less than a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, consuming human lifespan. A hidden death wish in human nature limits the height of the human world."
Cui Dongshan said, "Cultivators advocate purifying the heart and reducing desires, distancing themselves from the mundane world, not involving themselves in worldly affairs, pursuing their original face, recognizing their true self, seeking inwardly, and heading toward Heaven. In short, cultivating the Dao is about going against human nature. 'A cultivator is no longer human'—hits the nail on the head. It is the best answer to this great difficulty."
"Second, 'life is a journey to death'—the physical body's constitution determines the length of human life. Short lifespans and fragile bodies make humans controllable, reducing their possibilities."
"But if humans were too weak, easily becoming food for the ground-based monster tribes, then incense would be scarce, and the existence of humans would be meaningless. For the deities, this was a considerable paradox. Thus, martial arts were given to the mortal world earlier than magical techniques and divine abilities. But the Golden Body realm was a bottleneck—no more was given to humanity."
Above the Golden Body realm of martial arts was the Far Wandering realm, where the human body could "take flight" like a bird, becoming "feathered."
Because humans taking to the air and leaving the earth without permission was deemed a transgression by the deities.
Jiang Shangzhen asked curiously, "Why did the deities, who never made mistakes, change their minds?"
If humans had always been limited to limited martial arts without divine techniques and magic, how could there have been the later Battle of Ascending to Heaven?
Cui Dongshan said, "Doesn't Chief Zhou possess a Cloud Grotto Blessed Land that is a source of abundant wealth?"
Jiang Shangzhen was puzzled, "Yes, but what does that have to do with my question?"
Zheng Juzhong provided a more detailed explanation, "When you possess a lower-grade blessed land, you want to upgrade it to a medium-grade one. Once it's medium-grade, you want it to become high-grade. With a high-grade blessed land, you want it to connect with a cave heaven, forming a contiguous heaven-and-earth structure. Then you want to create a complete, self-circulating small thousand world. Finally, you want to gather three thousand small thousand worlds to form a great thousand world."
Wu Shuangjiang added, "Even if you don't want to acquire more yourself, there will always be people around you who hope to bring it about."
Jiang She continued, "Third, the Ancient Heavenly Court would not sit idly by. Whenever there was an occasional exceptional person in the mortal world, Heaven and the deities would reach out and 'nip it in the bud.'"
"For example, later reincarnations of cultivators and dynastic changes are also manifestations of 'Heaven's aversion,' used to discard the old and welcome the new. Ten thousand years ago, the Three Religions' Founders and this group of Daoists couldn't completely replace the old Dao with a new one. They reserved and inherited many 'Dao traditions,' hoping to continuously improve and correct after 'taking control.' Thus came..."
Wu Shuangjiang smiled, "The riverside council, where the Dao Ancestor took the lead in establishing the Ten-Thousand-Year Covenant."
"Several worlds, including the Savage Wasteland, would each try to find, for the mortal world, some optimal solution that could create a delicate balance among complex human nature, pure divinity, and also what could be called pure bestiality."
"Let's see if, after ten thousand years of recuperation, the mortal world could produce a more powerful 'second wave of Daoists.'"
Zhou Mi believed the Three Religions' Founders had failed—completely.
Wu Shuangjiang suddenly asked, "What does Ancestor Jiang think?"
Jiang She smiled, "Not bad, not good—just so-so."
"On one hand, it kept the slightly larger ants on the ground just as slightly larger grasshoppers."
"On the other hand, if such an ant became a spirit and luckily flew up to the blue sky, it could also fill the increasingly numerous vacancies in the Ancient Heavenly Court."
"So initially, the two 'Ascension Platforms' of the 'under-heaven' (used as a verb) took on a new function: to guide earthly immortals to divine positions."
Jiang She's use of the term "under-heaven" was a verb.
A kind of equilibrium.
The Ascension Platforms were originally shortcuts for deities to descend to the mortal world, but they became the only path for sentient beings to cultivate and become deities. Ascending the platform was a huge gamble. Those who failed, who didn't reach the top, completely perished in body and Dao, turning into ashes of calamity, falling back to the earth. Those who succeeded were the absolute minority.
Old Man Yang of the Yang Family Medicine Shop, who became one of the twelve high-ranking deities, the Azure Child Heavenly Lord, was the first human to reach the top of the Ascension Platform's Ascension Realm.
Thus, he was also called the Ancestor of Earth Immortals and held goodwill toward humanity.
But the vast majority of ancient Daoists still refused to walk the Ascension Platform. As a result, the ascent to Heaven was obstructed. Daoists were forced to develop laterally, like water overflowing to the surroundings. They established more and more Dao grounds and cave dwellings, like thorny brambles with sword tips pointing to the sky. Each Daoist exhausted their mental energy, imitating divine powers and delving into more and more magical techniques. More and more cities gathered mortals. Though a bit crude and rough, they were full of vitality.
Daoists occupied cave dwellings, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. But since they would eventually reach the end of their lifespans, they began seeking the inheritance of Dao traditions and lineages, taking disciples without blood relations, thus spreading out branches. They recorded magical techniques and divine powers one by one, passing on their own "Dao," as if allowing life to continue in another form.
The walls of cities grew higher and higher, and the number of people inside grew larger. Thus emerged the prototypes of later rules, rites, laws, and village covenants.
Everywhere on the mortal earth, there were boundaries, crisscrossing. With a default "morality," good and evil naturally differentiated.
Once they wore clothes warm enough for protection from the cold, they began to pursue beauty, splendor, and elegance unrelated to survival.
Compared to the nearly eternal deities, humanity on earth had a fleeting lifespan, as if born and dead in an instant. Their hearts wavered in seeking the Dao. Compared to the vast and boundless heaven and earth, they felt their own insignificance and emptiness. The emergence and development of language and writing deepened the layered hunger and exhaustion within the human heart.
"Then the fourth barrier appeared. First, humans tempered their physical bodies to strengthen them. Then they cultivated magical techniques. If lifespans could be extended and human nature could be purified, their mode of existence would increasingly resemble that of deities. Chen Ping'an's so-called 'hunger' was infinitely amplified. In the earliest times, humans killed monsters for survival. When humans killed other humans—the conflicts and slaughter among ancient Daoists—it was to become different kinds of deities faster, earlier, and higher. Each layer of realm had a corresponding bottleneck. The most critical was the Heart Demon that surfaced, casting shadows over Daoists."
"But the first Daoist in the mortal world—his appearance was one of the greatest variables."
"It was he who taught Daoists that the Dao could be cultivated this way, that the path could be walked thus. There was no need for mortal struggle, crossing a single-plank bridge."
"At first, his transmission of the Dao was not obvious, but as time passed, more and more Daoists felt that he was right."
"Finally, the fifth—the total population of humanity. Without this foundation, how dare you dream of ascending to Heaven to wrestle with those deities? Do you think that the current several worlds have a dense and numerous population?"
Jiang She sneered, "Compared to the complete mortal world of antiquity, the scale of living beings today is practically on the verge of extinction."
As incense flourished and grew, the Ancient Heavenly Court produced a large batch of new deities. For example, those in charge of marriage, life and death, ghosts, and so on. The more deities in the Heavenly Court, the more pure incense was required. In the eyes of the mortal world, those celestial stars, some bright, some dim, like lanterns shining eternally, were not only the countless corpses of deities but also considered the lifebound stars of humans—the "deity candidates." Later cultivators developed stellar guidance techniques. Beyond the ancestral homeland, every star in the sky was a human's lifebound star. But later cultivators who created this technique didn't even dare to believe it themselves.
"Otherwise, do you think how we ascended to Heaven back then, and how many years or decades that battle lasted?"
"In the Battle of Ascending to Heaven, every single Daoist who left the earth, at that moment, became a true 'self'—a brand new, immensely powerful deity—because each of us bore an unimaginably flourishing incense from the mortal world!"
"All cultivators were ascending deities. That was truly a heaven-and-earth overturning."
At this point, Jiang She looked at Zheng Juzhong and the others, "Nowadays, the mountain and river deities occupying temples—how much pure incense can they consume?"
Jiang Shangzhen asked quietly, "What is 'ancestral homeland'?"
Unfortunately, no one answered that question.
Assuming the Dharma-Ending Age would inevitably come, with spiritual energy of heaven and earth ceasing to exist and magical techniques and divine powers disappearing, Zheng Juzhong and Cui Chan had found two escape routes: one seeking outward, the other seeking inward. For example, gathering a handful of like-minded great cultivators, forging ahead together, ascending beyond Heaven into the vast, boundless void, concentrating spiritual energy, searching for the corpses of deities, and constructing something akin to "exclaves" of a certain world suitable for mortals to live, procreate, and develop different... civilizations.
One sought inward—within the human body's small heaven and earth, changing one's mode of existence to pursue another kind of infinite territory. Or creating a crude existence that could be understood and seen with the naked eye to solve the "immediate crisis"—like porcelain figurines!
When negotiating with someone like Zheng Juzhong, empty words of great principles, no matter how beautifully spoken or rigorously reasoned, were still meaningless. So at that time, Zheng Juzhong asked Cui Chan to give a concrete example. Cui Chan said that in his hometown, the Bottle Gourd Continent, inside the Pearly Pearl Cave Heaven, there was a porcelain mountain that could be used to try it out first.
"Back then, you were the first to break through the bottleneck of the Golden Body realm, allowing pure martial artists to overturn the earth and travel far—that was a major taboo that drew the attention of the deities. But besides you, all the martial artists who reached the Far Wandering realm were killed off, not a single one escaped. Did you receive protection from some supreme being—the Armor-Bearer?"
Jiang She pointed upward at the canopy. For her, such secrets were trivial matters. Why go far when the answer was near?
Jiang She pointed at his own head, "Do you think the great trends of the mortal world are all produced by 'caution' and 'calculation'? Wrong, completely wrong."
Jiang Shangzhen nodded deeply in agreement. Anyway, this was an insinuated jab at clever people like Chen Shan Lord and Mr. Zheng.
Jiang She raised his hand and clenched his fist heavily, "They are all born from brute force colliding with the situation. Who isn't groping in the dark? How can you see tomorrow? Whether you'll live through today is already uncertain."
Jiang She pointed at his heart, "The difference between Daoists and deities—the true lifebound lies only here."
Jiang Shangzhen sighed with emotion. Ancestor Jiang's words truly resonated with me—they hit the mark.
Cui Dongshan scolded with a laugh, "Get a few words in and your blood starts boiling. If Chief Zhou had lived ten thousand years ago, he'd be that starving guy who dies in front of a pancake."
Wu Shuangjiang said, "Not entirely."
Jiang She laughed mockingly, "Oh?"
Wu Shuangjiang said, "Suppose the tide of the times dictates that at a certain time and place, a hero will inevitably rise to accomplish great deeds. Then whether 'that someone' is me cannot rely solely on gambling."
Jiang She said calmly, "That's because you lucky ones have never truly known despair."
Jiang She sneered without reason, "When it comes to naming things, you kid still lack a bit of skill."
The three layers of the martial Ultimate Realm (Vigorous Qi, Returning to Truth, Spirit Arrival) were all named by Jiang She.
In temples and Daoist shrines, mortals light three sticks of incense; with sincerity, they can communicate with deities.
Yet they do not know that the human body itself is a divine temple, where anyone can ignite a stick of heart incense.
Why is there a prefix "pure" for martial artists?
Because the martial artist's body becomes a deity, the self-body's heaven and earth is the temple—only because that wisp of pure true qi is the incense!
The presence or absence of pure true qi is the key to whether one can become a martial artist. The thickness, strength, and length of that wisp of pure true qi determine the breadth of the martial foundation and the height of achievement. How could a martial artist not regard it as life?
Which cultivator's nature and Dao heart would not be gradually influenced and tainted by their lifebound objects?
For example, Lu Zhi and her two lifebound flying swords. Or Gu Can and his water-charcoal snow dragon.
Jiang She said, "Pure martial artists—why are they the least afraid of karmic entanglement? Military generals seizing power, plotting usurpation—countless examples. Would a cultivator dare to casually massacre an emperor or monarch, a high-ranking minister bearing the literary fortune of a dynasty? In the end, they only become national preceptors, state-protecting true persons, imperial offerings of a certain surname. Such immortals, at the slightest violation, face tribulation. But a martial artist dares to take an emperor's head, dares to chop it off. Take the lineage of Wrong-Redressers, for example—how many women have twisted the necks of a nation's ruler, thrusting swords and knives into the hearts of so-called 'Nine-Five Supremes'? Every single one of them relied on a martial foundation."
The higher the martial arts in the mortal world, the purer the incense, the more it connects with deities.
The more martial artists above the Golden Body realm, the denser the incense rising from the earth to Heaven.
Do you think the only culprits for the collapse of Heaven's Dao were the Water-Fire Conflict?
The Sword-Bearer and the Armor-Bearer parted ways much earlier.
"The Water-Fire Conflict that shook heaven and earth—that was just the 'inevitable' result of countless 'accidents' converging."
The true origin lies with the Armor-Bearer, the Sword-Bearer. And that existence.
"Since a conflict over the Dao arose, each wanted to restore the original source. Did you think they had lost their minds?"
Countless corpses of deities created the stars set on the "Dao"; their shattered golden bodies formed what later generations called the River of Time.
Humans settled near water. Ancient Daoists also "drank water" from the River of Time, becoming qi refiners. Magical techniques and divine abilities began to be spoken of as two different things. Divine abilities could only be granted by Heaven; magical techniques were sought by oneself. Daoists who possessed both began slaying deities, causing more deities to fall to the mortal world with their "divine abilities," which evolved into more magical techniques.
But once there were Daoists who learned the method of climbing mountains, they began to abandon the seven emotions and six desires of human nature. Thus, Heart Demons arose, following the "Daoists" like shadows.
They were like drowning water ghosts trying to drag others down.
Hence, the trouble caused by extra-worldly demons was described as "flooding."
Military cultivators were relatively the furthest from the River of Time. And because they received the merit protection of the Prime Ancestor Jiang She—"first to slay a deity" and "pioneer of heaven and earth"—military cultivators, like pure sword cultivators, were the least afraid of the suppression of "new Dao in the mortal world."
Cui Dongshan said, "According to the earliest agreements and alliances, both the military lineage and sword cultivators could each occupy a world. Jiang She, with his unparalleled meritorious service, could even establish a religion and be called an ancestor. It was Jiang She who allied with a part of the sword cultivators, wanting to take over the ruins of the Heavenly Court, which led to that internal conflict."
It was Cui Dongshan speaking, but Jiang She looked at Chen Ping'an and sneered, "It sounds fair—extremely fair. But you, who are about to become the Great Li National Preceptor, how could you not know the trap here?"
"First, establishing a religion and being called an ancestor means the least freedom. The slightest stir in one's Dao heart will accelerate the process of Dao-transforming heaven and earth."
"Second, if the military lineage occupies an entire world, would war still be waged or not? If they fight, nations war, the people suffer, the land is covered with the wailing of the bereaved—how is this different from the past? If they don't fight? If they don't fight, damn it, they're not the military lineage! To put it bluntly, even if the military lineage changes its face, comparisons are inevitable. The human heart fears contrasts..."
Jiang Shangzhen couldn't help but interject, "You can fight! Why not? Senior just needs to pull strings from behind the curtain, control the world situation, foster a batch of puppets to sit on the dragon throne as emperors. One nation recuperates, another goes to war. Some build up armaments and stockpile strength, others provoke border conflicts. Or maintain overall stability, and every two or three hundred years, let dozens or hundreds of nations fight a major war—isn't that also a case of 'long division must unite, long unity must divide'?"
"Or, you could be crueler."
"Beat an entire world to pieces, until no other living being survives. As the only remaining existence, can't you take the opportunity to testify Dao on Dao, becoming the first sixteenth-realm cultivator of the new mortal world?"
"The cruellest: don't fight in your own world, but pick another world as an imaginary enemy, fight until both world Daos collapse—maybe the opportunity is even greater? The Savage Wasteland Grand Ancestor attacked Haoran, but he couldn't significantly increase his Dao power during the war. But Jiang She can—more Bai Ze than Bai Ze himself."
Silence.
No one spoke.
Jiang Shangzhen asked cautiously, "Was I being naive?"
"You kid sure dare to think!"
Jiang She suddenly burst into hearty laughter, "I said you were smart. What's your Daoist name? I'll remember you."
Jiang Shangzhen grinned, "My Daoist name is Yuanshen (Primordial Spirit). My own ancestor's name is Jiang Shangzhen."
Jiang She glared, "Go play in the mud somewhere."
Jiang Shangzhen complained, "You're getting riled up again."
Jiang She looked dazed, recalling an old friend, "Someone once gave me that suggestion too."
But Jiang She had not accepted it.
Manipulating an entire world, playing with people's hearts, fostering puppets? How would that make him any different from the lofty deities?
Chen Ping'an seemed about to speak but hesitated.
Previously at the Demon-Suppressing Tower, the Ultimate Sage had personally mentioned something, saying he had "just figured it out."
If Chen Ping'an had chosen to disregard everything, joining forces with the overt sword cultivators and the covert Zheng Juzhong and Wu Shuangjiang to ambush and kill Lu Chen near the ruins of the Sword Qi Great Wall, then regardless of the outcome, the Military Prime Ancestor might never have manifested, or at least someone else would have taken that position.
Zheng Juzhong and Wu Shuangjiang had long planned to seize the position of the new Military Ancestor, involving the future trend of Qingming. The Dao Ancestor—did he not want to interfere? Even if the Dao Ancestor was aware, thinking it best to let things take their course, had the Jade Capital truly remained completely unaware, not detecting a single clue from beginning to end?
Zheng Juzhong joked, "It's always easier to be a thief than to guard against one."
Earlier at the Demon-Suppressing Tower, Chen Ping'an had suspected that Zheng Juzhong's third clone had long been in Qingming, plotting major affairs, seeking the identity of the new Prime Military Ancestor. At that time, the Ultimate Sage had only given a vague answer: "Hard to say."
Zheng Juzhong said, "Don't overestimate the omnipotence of the fifteenth realm. Those nearly at the Dao still have things they cannot do. Jiang She said that those who establish a religion and become ancestors are not free—that hit the mark. Moreover, at their position, the size, urgency, and importance of matters they see are also quite different."
A Night Sailing Boat's journey at sea was a good example.
Looking for a needle in the ocean is naturally as hard as reaching Heaven. Catching a specific fish in your own pond is also not easy.
Weren't Zhou Mi's hidden clues only discovered one by one until today?
Chen Ping'an said softly, "I feel like something is off."
Zheng Juzhong communicated via mind voice, "Because you overlooked Lin Jiangxian. To be precise, you didn't overlook him, but you underestimated this last Sacrificial Officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall."
On a certain register in the Jade Capital, the Dao Ancestor and his three disciples each wrote down names, totaling fewer than ten Daoists.
For instance, the Dao Ancestor wrote the name Lin Jiangxian. Yu Dou wrote that female sword immortal, Baolin. Lu Chen wrote the White Bone True Person.
Once the ten-thousand-year prison term was up, the Military Ancestor Jiang She emerged from Mount Yinghuo and returned to the mortal world.
For the old and new four worlds, Jiang She's choice would have far-reaching effects hard to estimate.
For example, the Haoran Martial Temple changing the hanging portrait of the ancestor, actively welcoming Jiang She back to the ancestral shrine to receive incense—that was one possibility.
Another possibility: Jiang She allying with Yu Dou and the Jade Capital. Or Jiang She not wanting to live under someone else's roof, going to Savage Wasteland to cooperate with Fei Ran.
Or Jiang She having the patience to wait another few decades for the reopening of the new Five-Colored World.
The Sword Qi Great Wall had been secretly intercepting martial fortune, quietly gathering it in one person. The one bearing this martial fortune was the last Sacrificial Officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall, Yan Guo. About three hundred years ago, he left the Sword Qi Great Wall first and went to the Pearly Pearl Cave Heaven on Bottle Gourd Continent, adopting the alias Xie Xin'en and becoming Old Man Yang's disciple. Finally, he went to Qingming, becoming Lin Jiangxian of Crow Mountain in Ruzhou. Not long ago, the former Executioner Hao Su also entered the Divine Firmament City of the Jade Capital. Who were they waiting for? Naturally, they were patiently waiting for the last Hidden Official, and Chen Ping'an just happened to become that last Hidden Official.
Zheng Juzhong said, "Lin Jiangxian and Xie Shiji both broke through to the eleventh realm of martial arts almost simultaneously, which greatly affected Jiang She's strength. Otherwise, Wu Shuangjiang would have suffered more than just a collapsed Dao and one death."
In this fight, if we didn't talk about the subsequent "dividing the spoils," Wu Shuangjiang suffered the most loss in Dao, paying the same price as when he questioned the Jade Capital.
Chen Ping'an also paid a considerable price.
As for the real cost, probably because Ning Yao was present, Chen Ping'an couldn't say much.
What was beaten into a chaotic blob was not just those lifebound objects—it was also humanity and divinity.
One was relatively free, the other completely unfree. In any case, he had to force a smile and pretend to be relaxed. After all, he still had to go out to the Night Sailing Boat later.
If one said there was no benefit to the Dao at all, that wouldn't be true either. The essence of finding joy in suffering is only three words: look at the long term.
Zheng Juzhong said, "For more inside information, you can ask Yan Guo yourself in the future."
Chen Ping'an nodded.
Wu Shuangjiang saw that Jiang She no longer had the mood for idle chat, so he reminded, "We can talk about the deal now."
Chen Ping'an laid out his "asking price" unhurriedly.
"First, a spiritual book secret manual that can be used immediately, beneficial for a Dao testimonial ascension. Not essential, but it should add luster."
"Second, that Dragon-Resting Platform. Third, at least two spiritual qi rivers."
"Fourth, five hundred gold-copper coins. I can have Xiao Mo retrieve them."
Wu Shuangjiang chuckled, "Is that it? No fifth and sixth?"
Chen Ping'an said, "Palace Master Wu, don't rush. I'm having a bit of trouble speaking right now. Let me take a moment."
Cui Dongshan via mind voice, "Master, I heard the Year-End Palace has a secret celestial weapon that is truly priceless."
Jiang Shangzhen didn't want to be left out, "Mountain Lord, don't disdain divine currency as beneath you. Ask for eight or ten thousand Guyu coins—or even borrow them."
Zheng Juzhong said to Jiang She with a smile, "Senior, how about we go somewhere else to relax?"
Jiang She stood up, "Just what I was thinking. This place is full of murky air and filthy money."
Jiang She casually asked, "Mr. Zheng, what are your plans next?"
Zheng Juzhong said, "One will travel far beyond Heaven, following the Dao Ancestor's old path to see the true great thousand world. Possibly, I'll seek out a few small thousand worlds along the way to verify several long-puzzling questions, such as whether the scale of time truly exists. Why can the ancestral homeland be called the ancestral homeland? How do the thoughts of ordinary people in the ancestral homeland, of madmen, and of cultivators manifest differently beyond Heaven? Another will remain in White Emperor City to cultivate in seclusion. Another will go to Qingming to stir up muddy water."
Jiang She stretched and shook his head, clearly not very interested in Zheng Juzhong's explanation, and smiled, "Then I wish you all success."
Zheng Juzhong said, "Thank you here."
Jiang She was more curious about one thing, "You and that Embroidery Tiger only look alike, but you're fundamentally not like-minded. Why are you willing to favor him alone?"
Zheng Juzhong was silent for a moment, then gave an answer, "Talking with Cui Chan isn't tiring."
On the path of martial arts.
Once Jiang She dies, a great amnesty under heaven.
I remember Cui Chan once said.
The best words in the mortal world, regardless of length, whether brilliantly literary or plain and unadorned, are, in the final analysis, all a fable.
They can summarize history and prophesy the future.
Thinking back to that young man in black who held a white stone in the Colorful Cloud Bureau of White Emperor City, Zheng Juzhong felt a touch of melancholy.
Inside White Emperor City, after they had discussed the deal, Chen Ping'an asked if he could take a nap for a while—just a short time.
He lay on the ground and fell into a deep sleep.
Wu Shuangjiang, Cui Dongshan, and Jiang Shangzhen all left, leaving only Ning Yao sitting beside him.
In Qingming, at the small Daoist temple in Ruzhou, the lamp on the table flickered. The old man had already narrated the story, nearing its end, back to his childhood.
As a child, in the dead of night, he helped rush water to the rice paddies. A dark, skinny child lay alone on the ground, using his hands as a pillow, chewing on licorice root, crossing his legs, gently swinging a straw sandal, staring blankly at the starry sky.
Carefully, hidden in his heart.
It was as if an orphan, without money, had stolen the entire sky with his eyes.