Legend of the Great Sage

Chapter 1680: Untainted

Li Liehuo and Chao Tianjiao both listened closely.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes took a moment to think before waving his hand and speaking.

"True Immortals are those who have Forged their Soul back into the Void. There's no need to elaborate on that, but so-called "back into the void" also refers to turning something into the void, turning something that exists into nothingness, becoming the representative of the Dao."

"That doesn't seem particularly inappropriate. Please elaborate further, old bro."

Li Qingshan clasped his hands. His hostility had vanished, replaced by some respect.

Looking at it now, the Elder of Heavenly Tomes had not let him down in any way. Instead, he had told him many secrets and even gifted him the Myriad Heavenly Tome.

Meanwhile, he had wrecked his sect and killed his disciples. The Elder of Heavenly Tomes did not seem particularly concerned by that, but he was still somewhat in the wrong.

At the same time, the Five Absolutes Immortal had gained a bit of the halo of an idol in his eyes.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes sighed. "Sigh, the people of the world only praise the good of gods and immortals! Yet, just how vast is the Dao? Just how insignificant is the will of man? Yet the likes of us try to control the Dao with our human wills, which is just as dangerous as a toddler trying to control a tiger. As time goes on, who knows who is controlling who."

Li Qingshan immediately understood what he meant. There was a saying, where man triumphed over the heavens. The Dao was unfeeling and unknowing, so it could be controlled by the will of man. However, just like how water could wear through rock, even extremely tiny influences would form permanent marks with the passage of time.

Whenever the will of man and the Dao conflicted, it would require the will of man to hold its ground, yet the Dao knew no exhaustion.

That was called the heavens triumphing over man.

He practised the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, so he understood best how a path chosen could influence the will of man. Even without the existence of the primordial qilin, the path of nature would still deeply influence his own nature, wearing away his human will.

And once the will of man ran out…

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes turned to Li Liehuo and asked, "My disciple Liehuo, if your flames never burn what you want it to burn and only burns what it should burn, what would happen?"

Li Liehuo imagined that and said fearfully, "Then… Li Liehuo would cease to exist."

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If the words and actions of a person conformed to how the Dao operated, raising the winds when it should and raining when it should, no more, no less, then even if that person was still alive, they would be no different from dead in the eyes of others.

Li Qingshan said, "If you don't possess any emotions, then you would just become a puppet of the Dao."

Even the primordial qilin did not completely follow the path of nature, choosing to assist empress Nüwa. That was the reason why it died, but it was also a manifestation of its will, signifying that it was a living creature and not dead.

"Master, then what can you do? The True Immortals in the heavens all seem very ordinary. None of them constantly undergo rebirth," Chao Tianjiao asked in a hurry.

She had received guidance from the Zhenwu Emperor, so she had a decent chance at becoming a True Immortal.

"There are two ways. One is to Merge the Void with the Dao, to make your will completely conform with the Dao. With that, the conflict between the two is completely eliminated. If the toddler can connect with the tiger mentally, such that they are inseparable, then he can control the tiger as he wishes, except-"

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes suddenly stopped.

"Except what?" Li Qingshan seemed to realise what would happen.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes only sighed.

"Master, what's the other way?" Chao Tianjiao asked. Her path of zhenwu was the Zhenwu Emperor's source of authority. She could never Merge the Void with the Dao and stand on equal footing with him.

"This method is much easier…" Then the Elder of Heavenly Tomes turned to Li Qingshan.

Li Qingshan followed up. "Since the will of a single person is not enough to control the Dao, then you gather the will of the populace. Getting the heavenly emperor to confer you godhood is enough."

He had already experienced that before. After swallowing the power of belief from the demonfolk, the primordial qilin's influence had drastically weakened. After all, how could the will of millions conform to a single path?

If they could not endure the corrosion, then they would strengthen themselves. If they could not control the tiger, then they would feed the tiger.

Chao Tianjiao immediately stopped worrying. If she could Forge her Soul back into the Void, being conferred godhood was nothing particularly difficult.

Actually, as long as she wanted to, she could erect many statues of herself right now. Who knew how many temples devoted to the Zhenwu Emperor there were scattered throughout the world. As the leader of the Six Ding, she could obviously stand right by his side and accept the worship and offerings from the people.

But it was public knowledge that the path of cultivation was about concentrating on a single aspect, while the will of the people was tremendous and extremely disorderly. Being influenced too much by the power of belief was not a good thing.

Chao Tianjiao thought, No wonder the True Immortals in the heavens all have some followers to some extent. I originally thought they wanted to help the world and refused to completely stand aloof from the mortals. So there's actually a purpose like this. Sure enough, nothing is done without reason!

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"Master, is this called fighting poison with poison?"

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes smiled. "You can't say that, but once you become a True Immortal, you better not copy this little bro and directly use the power of belief as a resource."

He sighed inside. He had roamed the heavens for many years and witnessed how his fellow immortals had changed. Just gathering the power of belief led to a very deep influence already.

It was probably unprecedented for someone to directly devour the power of belief for cultivation like Li Qingshan. Even the golden immortals of buddhism that placed great emphasis on their followers would never do that. No one could imagine just how Li Qingshan would turn out in the end.

"Old bro, why don't you use this method instead of constantly undergoing rebirth?" Li Qingshan had actually guessed the rough answer to the question already.

"Among the books you offered up to the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, there's this saying—How can you let purity like moonlight be tainted by the dust of the secular world?"

Back then, Li Qingshan had only recently joined the Myriad sect. In order to quickly gather contribution, he had copied out all of the books he could copy. One of them was the Fisherman's Father from the Verses of Chu. The author of the text had chosen to cast himself into a river to his death in the end.

Chao Tianjiao shuddered inside and gazed over. This improper-looking master who never acted seriously would actually rather enter rebirth than accept any faith.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes gazed deeply at Li Qingshan. "I think you understand that kind of mental state, don't you, little bro?"

Li Qingshan said nothing in response.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes said, "The people make you too human, while the Dao makes you too inhuman. I am only willing to dwell between the two."

Li Liehuo asked, "Then why don't you continue cultivating and Merge the Void with the Dao, master?"

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes pointed at the sky. "The path I walk is the heavenly emperor's path."

The path already possessed its ruler, so he could only become a subject.

"Why don't you change your path, master? As long as you pave a path different from the heavenly emperor's path, wouldn't you be able to Merge the Void with the Dao?" Chao Tianjiao asked in confusion.

She neither had the choice, nor had she reached that stage. However, the Elder of Heavenly Tomes had rebirthed before, so what path couldn't he choose?

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes was slightly angered. "Insolent brat, you sure say it easy! Do you think the Dao belongs to you and you can merge with it whenever you want to? Since the creation of all to the present day, there have been an immeasurable number of living creatures. Only around a dozen or two have managed to Merge the Void with the Dao, and probably no less than a hundred True Immortals have perished because of this. Do you want to send me to my death?"

Chao Tianjiao pouted. Master sure doesn't have much interest for improvement.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes blinked his eyes mischievously. "And if I do that, I won't be able to undergo rebirth anymore!"