HomePull StringsChapter 713: Enemy of All Living Beings!

Chapter 713: Enemy of All Living Beings!

After sending off Mosquito and making arrangements for the Golden Lotus affair, Li Changshou’s mood was somewhat affected.

He wasn’t particularly happy; on the contrary, his mood was rather low and heavy, even tinged with a sense of powerlessness.

[The Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods, the transformation of barbarians into Buddhists, Buddhism’s rise to prominence, Taoism’s decline, and the Minor Tribulation of Journey to the West.]

This was a complete chain of cause and effect.

In essence, it was all one matter.

Within this were interwoven both the Heavenly Dao’s calculations regarding living beings and the various schemes of the Sages.

But at its root, it was the Dao Ancestor who had first drawn this direction—’ The West must rise to prominence’—thereby triggering the game between the Sages, with Master Great Clarity representing Taoism and the Two Western Sages representing the Western Teaching, leading to the subsequent series of conflicts.

The Sages used living beings as chess pieces, while the Dao Ancestor used the Sages as his pieces.

The Dao Ancestor had always stood at the highest level, and his purpose had been crystal clear from beginning to end.

Namely, to reduce the influence of living beings on Heaven and Earth.

Following this line of thought backward, the Dao Ancestor’s calculations, or rather this plan, had continued for far too long, running through the entire development path of the Human Race.

Though many links lacked concrete evidence and only showed traces, Li Changshou still indulged in some appropriate conspiracy theorizing.

The Dao Ancestor’s calculations regarding the Human Race should have been like this…

[Honorable Dao Ancestor accepted Goddess Nüwa as his disciple and guided her in the Way of Creation.

Later, Goddess Nüwa created the Human Race, who possessed innate Dao bodies and strong reproductive capabilities, could adapt to various cultivation methods, and even explore cultivation methods on their own.

At this time, the Heavenly Dao predicted that the Human Race would flourish and become the protagonists of Heaven and Earth, but this was merely a prediction, also part of the Dao Ancestor’s calculations.

Great Clarity Laozi appeared, accepted the Master of the Great Law of Xuandu as his disciple and established the Human Teaching to educate humanity. The Heavenly Dao thus bestowed merit, and Laozi achieved Sagehood.

Original Beginning Heavenly Lord and Teaching Master of Clarity followed their Senior Brother’s example, establishing the Enlightenment Teaching and the Severance Teaching based on their respective understandings of the Great Dao.

The Enlightenment Teaching signified the interpretation of the Heavenly Dao, a product of a common ideological trend after the rise of the Ancient Heavenly Dao;

The Severance Teaching’s doctrine of seizing a lifeline from the Heavenly Dao and opposing the Heavenly Dao’s control over all things represented a kind of rebellious thought common to youth.

The Heavenly Dao bestowed merit, and the Original Beginning Heavenly Lord and Teaching Master of Clarity achieved Sagehood.

The other two holders of the Purple Qi of Chaos, Honored Lord of Initial Creation and Honored Lord Who Tends Toward Success, also wanted a piece of the pie but were driven out by Great Clarity Sage, thus harboring some resentment.

Li Changshou already had ample evidence that humanity’s initial cultivation methods must have been passed down by the Three Sages of Taoism.

The Human Race welcomed their first great prosperity, gathering and hunting on the Five Continents, living like spiritual beasts but with rapidly developing spiritual wisdom.

Demons emphasized individuality—the stronger an individual’s aptitude and comprehension, the higher their potential.

As the saying goes, a dragon’s nine sons each differ, and the Demon Race also follows a ‘bloodline system.’ Those with high bloodlines, good aptitude, sufficient comprehension, and high appearance were the rising stars of the Demon Race.

However, the Human Race was created by Goddess Nüwa’s divine abilities, and even the first generation’s bloodline had no connection to Goddess Nüwa, only possessing more spiritual power.

Thus, in their struggle against nature, the Human Race began the path of collective cultivation.

Collective ascension, collective comprehension of the immortality of true spirits, called Qi Refiners.

During this period, due to factors such as comprehension, cultivation methods, and aptitude, large numbers of Qi Refiners would be stuck at each bottleneck, creating a ‘pyramid’ structure among Qi Refiners, as well as tribes and leaders.

According to Senior Suiren’s description of ancient times, the strongest in a tribe was the leader, and Senior Suiren was one of the strongest among the ancient human tribal leaders.

After experiencing a not-so-brief prosperity, during the interval of the War between Immortals and Demons, a butcher’s knife fell upon the Human Race’s head.

That massacre of humanity was not just for refining demon-slaying treasures; there were several deeper factors.

First, the Demon Court did not want to see the rise of a third force besides Immortals and Demons.

Second, the Dao Ancestor wanted humanity to harbor sufficient hatred toward the Demon Race, making it convenient to purge the demons after abandoning the Demon Court.

Third, the Demon Emperor had already seen through the methods of the Heavenly Dao and Dao Ancestor. Though the Demon Court appeared prosperous, it was actually on the brink of collapse and had to forcibly compete with humanity for survival.

Therefore, the Demon Court desperately tried to exterminate humanity.

Subsequently, the Human Race rose completely. The Magic represented by Senior Suiren overthrew the Demon Court, and in the later era of Great White Golden Star, Li Changshou eliminated the remaining demons.

The Human Race became the protagonists of Heaven and Earth, beginning the process of separation between immortals and mortals.

During this period, the Dao Ancestor secretly made another calculation.

By modifying the laws of reincarnation, using the Six Paths Reincarnation Disk as an operational platform, he reduced immortals’ fertility rates while allowing mortals to multiply rapidly.

In ancient times, everyone could cultivate, yet the Human Race could still reproduce in large numbers.

After ancient times, especially after the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the Central Divine Continent, crowded with immortals, had to rely on children seeking immortality from the Southern Jambudvipa Continent to maintain the succession of various sects.

The Immortal-Making Gate was a typical example.

By the time of the Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods, during the early stages of tribulation brewing, the immortal sects of the Central Divine Continent were at each other’s throats. Large numbers of immortal sects collapsed, greatly reducing humanity’s middle-tier combat strength, and the Heavenly Court rose to power accordingly.

The main purpose of the Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods wasn’t actually to weaken Taoism.

The Severance Teaching claimed to have ten thousand immortals in attendance, but the dense ‘forest’ of sects originally in the Central Divine Continent was the main body of living beings’ power in Heaven and Earth.

Of course, the Sages’ dao fields also had to be in otherworldly places to maintain their mystique.

But at this time, under Li Changshou’s operations, not even one in ten major sects remained in the Central Divine Continent, and many sects’ ‘outstanding graduates’ were directly connected with the Heavenly Court’s military resources.

This was the Dao Ancestor’s greatest purpose.

Once these things were completed, when the Heavenly Court and Buddhism stood side by side, the Heavenly Court would be responsible for monitoring the Three Realms, while Buddhism would be responsible for spreading its teachings, educating humanity to abandon so-called ‘demonic nature’ and focus on goodness and forbearance.

The key lay in these two words: forbearance.

What was most precious to the Human Race was not their ancestral heritage, nor the empty position of the protagonist of Heaven and Earth, nor that flame of civilization.

Rather, it was that spirit of never admitting defeat, never fearing failure, constantly moving forward and blazing new trails.

Senior Suiren had said at the end that it didn’t matter if the flame of civilization was extinguished, it would be lit again, because Senior Suiren was wrapped in this spirit, wrapped in this thought.

Heaven had once driven humanity to the brink of extinction, yet humanity still stood up.

But if this spirit were extinguished, diluted by Buddhist teachings, no matter how prosperous the mortal world became or how numerous the human population grew, they would be nothing more than vessels for the rotation of true spirits—the Dao Ancestor’s ideal carriers for true spirits.

At that time, humanity’s meaning of existence would be merely to give meaning to the existence of Heaven and Earth, without posing the slightest threat to Heaven and Earth.]

“Ah…”

Li Changshou stretched and gazed at the azure sky above the treetops.

This was the fundamental reason why he had no choice but to oppose Heaven.

For humanity, the Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods was originally a good thing, and the rise of the Heavenly Court was also a good thing. The separation of immortals and mortals, with mortals becoming the main body, was neither good nor bad—each life had its different meaning.

But when these good things became steps in the Dao Ancestor’s plan to achieve his goals.

That became very difficult to evaluate.

Looking at the Investiture of the Gods from this perspective, one would find that the Great Tribulation had lost its meaning—humanity had already lost what it was meant to lose.

The Dao Ancestor’s move of ‘monkey business’ was truly supreme.

By establishing the contradictions of Heaven and Earth as conflicts between the great teachings of the Sages, thereby attracting the attention of all living beings, he inadvertently completed the most important step in his plan.

By the way, the convergence of human fortune in the Central Divine Continent and Southern Jambudvipa Continent was also a game set up long ago by the Dao Ancestor, which isolated the humans of the Three Thousand Worlds from the rules of the game.

Most terrifying of all…

The plan concerning humanity was merely one link in the Dao Ancestor’s ancient arrangement.

Li Changshou didn’t know if he had gone mad, still having the confidence to say it was seven-three or fifty-fifty against such an opponent.

He indeed had this confidence, and this was a conservative estimate under normal circumstances.

There was no other reason—that ‘tsundere’ Senior Lang while saying he hadn’t left anything good for him, had left too much heritage, hidden within those few classics.

On the title page of the last classic, Senior Lang had written in crooked handwriting:

[As long as the precious flame of thought does not extinguish, it will become a beacon illuminating freedom.]

Li Changshou stared at these words and made a bold inference.

‘Senior Lang’s time of traversing from Earth should have been during the era when the Blue Star’s internet was just beginning to become widespread.’

If this was true, then all ‘effects’ had found their most fundamental ’cause.’

Boom!

Without warning, the Heavenly Court suddenly shook gently. The Jade Capital Supreme Heaven Palace was wrapped in streams of auspicious light, slowly rising within the Heavenly Court to the center of the Thirty-Second Heaven.

Following this, the Jade Pool, Tushita Palace, and Great White Palace were similarly wrapped in immortal light, rising to the Thirty-First Heaven…

The Hall of Clarity returned to the Twenty-Eighth Heaven, with direct access to the Heavenly Court…

Throughout the Heavenly Court, immortal mountains shook and immortal palaces moved. One empty great hall after another slowly condensed, distributed among the Twenty-Eighth to Sixteenth Heavens according to the number of celestial cycles.

The Department of Stars, Department of Thunder, Department of Fire, Department of Water, Department of Finance…

The Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Hall of Incense, the Hall of Spirit Officials…

After being busy for half a day.

The Heavenly Court was ready, waiting for the proper deities to take up residence.

Li Changshou vaguely sensed something and a slight smile appeared in his eyes.

It seemed that his words before the Dragon Mother had taken effect—the Honorable Dao Ancestor was beginning to grow impatient and act earlier than the original plan.

Is the Dao Ancestor panicking?

In truth, he had been panicking for a long time.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many disciples from both the Enlightenment and Severance Teachings killed when Taiji slew Shiji.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have pulled Li Changshou into the dreamscape to ‘threaten and tempt’ him, even saying such heartfelt words as ‘you were originally meant to be my successor.’

In the ancient Primordial Times, there was a rule: when someone’s background was exposed, their combat power would be greatly reduced, and their heart would be filled with various panics.

His struggle with the Dao Ancestor, and his game with the Heavenly Dao, actually had a similar rule.

Once he understood the Heavenly Dao and the Dao Ancestor, he targeted the Dao Ancestor’s weakness.

Senior Suiren had pulled him aside to say that the Dao Ancestor couldn’t be trusted.

Senior Suiren, being in the midst of things, felt that although the Dao Ancestor had betrayed some of his original promises, he had indeed given humanity a decent future.

But in Li Changshou’s view, the Dao Ancestor was inherently the enemy of all living beings—not even a single hair of his could be trusted.

“Let’s continue resting for a while.”

Li Changshou muttered to himself, continuing to relax his mind.

Starting from this small disturbance in the Heavenly Court, the Dao Ancestor’s killing move and his chance to increase his odds of victory were about to arrive.

And so, half a year later…

Under the starry night, the Southern Jambudvipa Continent lit up with dots of light—the hundred household lanterns.

Outside West Qi City, two layers of continuous military camps were scattered about, and torches filled all four city walls, with soldiers standing guard everywhere.

After the Ten Ultimate Arrays, the Heavenly Court suddenly announced with great fanfare that they would investigate and punish those immortals who violated heavenly law by privately interfering in mortal dynasty warfare. Both the Severance and Enlightenment Teachings fell quiet.

The Shang army had already fought past Mount Qi and had vaguely surrounded West Qi City.

But the Enlightenment Teaching’s immortals brought out their trump card ‘Formation Diagram,’ allowing the Zhou army to lay down a mysterious formation outside West Qi City, temporarily blocking the tiger-like advancing Shang army.

Among both the Zhou and Shang armies, the generals from the Enlightenment and Severance Teachings were now doing their utmost to disguise themselves as mortals, fearful of discovery by the Heavenly Court.

In reality, the Heavenly Court’s thunder was loud but its raindrops were small—they had merely announced with no practical action.

It was just one of Li Changshou’s small schemes.

The starlight suddenly flickered unstably. That Ink Qilin, already familiar to the Shang army, treading on streaks of black flame, slowly approached from the eastern horizon and landed at the east gate of the Shang army’s central camp.

Along the way, soldiers bowed their heads in salute, their eyes full of reverence.

On Ink Qilin’s back, though the white-haired Grand Preceptor Wen Zhong of the Shang nation wore a faint smile, it couldn’t hide the weariness beneath his features.

“Master!”

Before the great tent, two young commanders came forward to support him, but Wen Zhong waved his hand and nimbly jumped down from the Ink Qilin. The Ink Qilin slowly rose into the air and went outside the camp to find a place to rest.

“Master, how did it go?”

“Let’s talk inside,” Wen Zhong said thus and stepped into the tent.

These two young commanders were Wen Zhong’s disciples, considered the fourth generation of the Severance Teaching.

Before the Ten Ultimate Arrays, Wen Zhong didn’t know what had come over him, but he felt inexplicably old at heart, feeling that after years of warfare, he suddenly had an inescapable weariness.

‘I should take some disciples.’

Wen Zhong had thought thus at the time, and so took these two disciples.

In the blink of an eye, they had become capable of handling matters independently.

Sitting back in the Grand Preceptor’s chair, Wen Zhong slowly let out a breath and set up a barrier.

The two disciples brought tea and took away their master’s removed armor, and each seemed to have words they wanted to say but held back, concerned about the results of this journey.

“Master, were you unable to persuade Senior Uncle Master Lü Yue?”

“Senior Uncle Lü Yue is unwilling to act against mortals,” Wen Zhong said. “His words make sense—using his poison pills on ordinary mortals would not be much of an achievement.

Senior Uncle Lü Yue also said that if it were a thousand years ago, he might have agreed to this matter.

But now, he is the Vice President of the Immortal Alliance and must be mindful of this position. If he directly acted against mortals, even just using some laxatives, it would bring shame to the Severance Teaching and tarnish the reputations of the Immortal Alliance and Heavenly Court—unworthy of being Great White’s brother.”

The two young commanders exchanged glances, each sighing lightly.

“Then, Master, are we going to have to fight head-on with the Enlightenment Teaching?”

“Master, now that our army has surrounded West Qi City if we don’t fight this battle and withdraw instead, the army’s morale will surely scatter and spirits will fall. If Zhou nation’s Ji Chang and Ji Fa, father and son, take advantage to rally their troops, Chaoge will be in danger.”

“Alright, alright,” Wen Zhong smiled bitterly and waved his hand. “How could your master not know these things? Go now, let me think it over.”

“Yes.”

“Yes!”

The two disciples bowed with clasped hands and withdrew.

Wen Zhong sighed lightly, staring at the terrain map of Mount Qi’s surroundings hanging to the side. His body slumped in the chair, his eyes full of weariness.

He had done more than just ask Lü Yue.

But for some reason, the seniors and peers within the teaching who had always been quite friendly to him were now avoiding him.

Several good friends who had previously agreed to come down the mountain to help, even his senior brother Yu Hua, all said they needed to go into closed cultivation…

Wen Zhong couldn’t understand it, couldn’t make sense of it, but vaguely knew it was related to the two experts who had slain a Sage in the Ten Ultimate Arrays.

What grand scheme could he see through?

He was just the Grand Preceptor of the Shang nation, just a third-generation disciple of the Severance Teaching, just an insignificant little figure in this world of Heaven and Earth.

But…

“Your Majesty,” Wen Zhong muttered to himself, “this old minister can only do this much.”

Slowly taking a breath, Wen Zhong sat up straight, light flashing in his eyes, and walked to that hanging ‘simple’ terrain map.

The original plan remained unchanged—in three days, the Shang army would advance on all fronts, they must break through West Qi City!

West Qi City was the Zhou people’s core territory, where their talents and nobility were gathered.

As long as they took this place, even if the Zhou nation didn’t fall, it would decline for ten or twenty years!

This was the Shang nation’s last hope, and also the period His Majesty urgently needed!

His Majesty was mortal, with a limited lifespan, and after His Majesty’s passing, his successor would hardly have such determination.

The life and death of the Shang nation all hinged on this battle!

His Ancestral Master’s Sage Way was to seize a lifeline for all beings of Heaven and Earth!

His way was simply to seize a lifeline for this Great Shang.

No, the night was long and full of changes. Delay would breed variation.

“Summon the commanders of the three armies!”

Wen Zhong shouted toward the outside of the tent: “Let each army slaughter deer and butcher sheep tomorrow to boost the soldiers’ spirits!”

“Yes!”

A unified response came from outside the tent, and messengers rushed away one after another, their calls spreading from camp to camp.

Sudden wailing came from within West Qi City as if some important person had perished.

In the Shang army camp, frequent movements began under cover of night. Soldiers were urged to sleep early, and by before dawn, thick meat fragrance was already wafting through the air.

At dawn, drums thundered, and the ground gained countless winding dragons as the various Shang army unit flags danced in the wind, a killing air filling Heaven and Earth.

The Zhou camp… hung up banners refusing battle, holding their breath, and focusing within their formation, standing ready.

In the Shang army’s central tent, Wen Zhong slowly donned his armor and conjured a water mirror, looking at the weathered face within.

The face reflects the heart, appearance stems from the mind.

Today’s battle sought to overthrow West Qi above and overthrow the Zhou army below. Once the battle began, living beings would suffer, yet each served their lord with unwavering loyalty.

‘Master, I must make the Shang foundation flourish again in my hands!’

Your Majesty, you are resisting the Mandate of Heaven, fighting against Heaven itself.

The one who wants Zhou to replace Shang is the Heavenly Dao, Your Majesty…

“Has the Grand Preceptor made up his mind?”

A soft call came from behind. Wen Zhong froze for a moment, seeing in the water mirror the young Daoist who had appeared silently behind him.

The visitor hadn’t concealed his appearance, yet Wen Zhong found it quite unfamiliar, taking a moment to recognize who it was before hurriedly turning to bow.

“Wen Zhong pays respects to Star-Lord Great White!”

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