Conferred God: Got cramped at the beginning

Chapter 1021 The Essence of Humanity, The Vast Ocean of the Heart

"Where is the Blood Maple Forest? Have you confirmed it, Senior Sister?" Ao Bing asked.

Blood Maple Forest—that is the only place known to everyone where Chi You was sealed.

However, what people know about the Blood Maple Forest is limited to that one name and the fact that it was where Chi You's head was sealed.

No one knew where the Blood Maple Forest was or how to get there.

Many years ago—before Ao Bing attained enlightenment—the Blood Maple Forest experienced a strange disturbance in the world.

But that was a very, very long time ago.

Over time, even Ao Bing, a Great Luo Immortal, could no longer clearly remember what happened back then.

The only thing he could confirm was that after the strange events in the Blood Maple Forest, powerful figures from all over the world had followed those events.

However, the fact that the Blood Maple Forest subsequently fell into complete silence is enough to prove that those who went to search for the Blood Maple Forest did not find it.

"The Blood Maple Forest isn't anywhere else," the Li Nu said, shaking her head with an extremely complex expression. "It's right here within the human realm."

Things between heaven and earth can be real or unreal.

Real things need no further mention—mountains, trees, rivers, the sun and moon, all living things, etc., are all real things!
And the intangible things... there are many more.

That human way is a kind of 'illusion'.

Although it truly exists between heaven and earth, it is just like the primordial energy of heaven and earth.

In reality, what is called humanity is merely something that comes together from the sentiments of the people.

It is something that was born from the ancestors and emperors of the human race, who gathered and united the will and emotions of countless people by using the concept of 'humanity'.

While it's true that this thing doesn't exist, the power of humanity is clearly visible.

It can be said that it exists, but it only rises and falls with the changes of the human race and fluctuates with the thoughts of people's hearts, and is completely unaffected by forces outside the human race.

Moreover, the embodiment of humanity is not found anywhere in the world, nor in the human emperor.

And there, in the countless people of the human world.

It's something like an 'idea' or 'thought'.

The immortals and gods between heaven and earth, and the countless cultivators who can come into contact with the human realm, are virtually inexhaustible.

There is only one path that leads to humanity.

That is, the Immortal Path among the Five Immortal Paths!
The path of immortals is a path of cultivation that draws power from the roots of humanity—it serves as an anchor point connecting the paths of immortals and humanity.

The immortals who uphold the path of immortality seek the source of their power, tracing back to the origin—ultimately, what they arrive at is a vast ocean formed by the seven emotions and six desires of countless human beings.

This vast ocean is humanity!

That was the most terrifying forbidden area in the entire world.

Although it is called the Way of Humanity, what flows within it is not just the thoughts and emotions of the human race—other living beings in the world, their seven emotions and six desires, their thoughts, are also sinking into this vast ocean, eventually becoming indistinguishable from this ocean, and then being stained with the traces of the human race.

For example, the good cats of humanity—that's because those cats, their thoughts and emotions, over that long period of time, have completely sunk into the vast ocean of humanity, becoming a part of humanity.

As a result, countless mortals among the human race would unconsciously feel a sense of goodwill upon seeing those cats.

And that's what makes this vast ocean so terrifying!
The thoughts of all living beings in the world are deposited here, just like countless streams of water flowing into the four seas—and these so-called 'living beings' naturally include the existence of the Great Luo!

The Great Luo themselves are in a state of perfect harmony and without leakage—their thoughts and ideas naturally do not leak out.

Once it falls outside, it becomes a manifestation.

But what about them before they made Ronaldo great?
There is no naturally born Great Luo Immortal in the world!

Every great Luo grows through countless trials and battles.

As they grow up, their thoughts also merge into the vast ocean of humanity, and as time goes by, they become indistinguishable from that ocean.

It is precisely for this reason that among the countless beings in this world, the vast majority of Great Luo Immortals have a heartfelt fondness for the human race.

Because the past of the Great Luo Immortals and the vast ocean formed by the thoughts of the human race are already an inseparable entity.

Within that vast ocean of humanity lies the past of the Great Luo Immortals in another dimension—their journey from the heart.

And that is the wickedness of humanity.

After the Great Luo Immortals stepped into the human realm, what they faced in this human realm was another version of themselves.

Of course, the past self could not be a match for the current Ronaldo – but the traces from the past can easily make Ronaldo and his ilk indulge in nostalgia.

For Da Luo, this longing might only last for a moment—but within the realm of humanity, time is meaningless.

A moment can also be eternity.

When Da Luo reminisces about his past, it is enough for that person to project the past of Da Luo onto the present of Da Luo, thereby borrowing the great power of Da Luo.

This would be enough to distort the very time of the Great Luo Immortals, causing them to wallow in nostalgia indefinitely. Ultimately, while it would be impossible to replace those Great Luo Immortals, it would infinitely increase their affinity for humanity, making their stance increasingly biased towards humanity.

As far as Ao Bing knew, the mythical era of the ancient human emperors was also a dividing line in the course of the world's changes.

Before that, the Great Luo Immortals between heaven and earth could create incarnations at will, whatever they saw when they felt something in their hearts became that incarnation.

But after the mythical era of the Human Emperor, most of the Great Luo Immortals in the world, when they wanted to create an incarnation, would choose to start with the human race.

There are many different reasons for this.

But in any case, the influence stemming from humanity, from the vast ocean of the heart, must account for one of them.

The existence of humanity, the existence of the ocean of the heart, are so dangerous to the Great Luo, let alone to beings below the Great Luo.
Since the Primordial Celestial Venerable transmitted the Dao of Immortals, countless immortals in this world have attempted to bypass the Primordial Celestial Venerable's cover and trace the source of that divine power; he is not the only one.

Without exception, all those gods were corrupted by humanity, transforming from gods standing between heaven and earth into human gods who descended to earth.

As time went by, the existence of humanity became increasingly taboo, causing countless cultivators to both desire and fear it.

At this moment, what did Ao Bing hear from Li Nu?

The place where Chi You's head was sealed, the Blood Maple Forest, is hidden in the human realm, hidden in that vast ocean of the heart.
How could that be? That's a dangerous place that's extremely forbidden even for a Great Luo Immortal, and it's also a place that countless Great Luo Immortals are watching closely.

The era of Xuanyuan was a pivotal moment in the changing landscape of the world.

But back then, the human race was far less powerful than it is now.

At that time, how could Xuanyuan have kept Chi You sealed in the ocean of the heart from everyone? How could he have concealed the changes caused by the Blood Maple Forest in the ocean of the heart and kept them from everyone?

For Ao Bing, this was an unsolvable mystery—and for Li Nu, it was an even greater shock!

"Humanity, indeed." Hearing Li Nu's truly shocking response, Ao Bing couldn't help but sigh deeply, reaching out his hand with profound longing.

He was also familiar with the essence of humanity.

Even his understanding of humanity surpasses that of most Great Luo Immortals in this world.

After all, one of his incarnations, Lord Yunzhong, is one of the beings in this world most closely connected with the human realm—his attainment of immortality occurred even earlier than when Yuanshi Tianzun established the path of immortals.

In the hierarchy of immortals, the ancestor of all immortals is the Primordial Heavenly Venerable.

The first deity below him is Yun Zhongjun.

Among the immortals, other immortals who wish to touch the most fundamental power of the immortal path, that is, the power of the vast ocean of the heart, need to bypass the blockade and restrictions of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable and step out of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable's protection.

But if Yun Zhongjun wanted to touch the most fundamental power of the immortal path, and to touch the vast ocean of the heart, all he needed to do was have a thought.

At the same time, because Yun Zhongjun himself, as the first god of the immortal path, his existence is also beyond the limitations of the immortal path.

From the very beginning, he was a deity who achieved his status by taking advantage of the fate of the Chu state. Therefore, from the very beginning, Yunzhongjun had a very close connection with the human race and was one of the legends of the human race itself.

At the same time, Yun Zhongjun also carries the karma of Donghuang Taiyi on his shoulders.

That's where the bet between the demon race and the human race took place.

Although the bet has not yet been decided, with Donghuang Taiyi as the anchor, Yun Zhongjun is not at all at risk of being 'corrupted' by humanity.

—That was the only one in the immortal path who didn't care about the boundary between humans and gods.

He is also the only deity who can freely enter and leave the human world without worrying about being entangled in human karma!
Before Ao Bing killed the First Emperor, he used the incarnation of the Lord of the Clouds to disrupt the situation of heaven and earth, casting the remaining fate of the Chu Kingdom in the Cloud Cave Heaven and the remaining fate of the Chu Kingdom in the Chu mythology onto Xiang Yu.

For other immortals or gods, simply preserving the fate of a powerful vassal state would be enough to kill them beyond any hope of survival.

But Yunzhongjun not only maintained the fate of the Chu state after its demise, but also sent that fate back to the human world—and after such an act, he remained completely unharmed.

Its special status in humanity is evident.

Li Nu's idea was to use the power of Yun Zhongjun to open a passage in the human world to the vast ocean of the heart.

Looking across the entire world, Yun Zhongjun is perhaps the only one who can directly open a passage to that forbidden land without causing any major changes.

Furthermore, before Ao Bing broke through his barrier, the incarnation of Yun Zhongjun was besieged and killed by powerful figures from beyond the realm—which led to a significant case in the world.

This ensures that when Yun Zhongjun is born, he will definitely attract attention—and then, someone will follow the clues and discover that Li Nu is spying on the secrets of Blood Maple Forest and Chi You.

In this way, someone who is already caught in the calamity will naturally step in and drag Li Nu into the calamity, so as to touch upon the secrets about Chi You that Li Nu wants to touch.

“A very thorough consideration.” Ao Bing nodded.

Thus, with a thought, the Cloud Lord, who had always stayed within the Cloud Cave Heaven and hidden in human mythology, once again stepped out of his divine kingdom.

And among all the beings in the world, the first to discover this were not ordinary immortals or gods.

It's the demon race!

The State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was one of the feudal states of the human race—but it was not merely a feudal state of the human race.

The State of Chu was a kingdom jointly created by humans and demons.

Within the territory, the majority of the inhabitants are humans, but they also revere the demon gods who built the Chu Kingdom.

At the same time, the existence of the Chu Kingdom was also the gambling table for the game between the human race and the demon race—of course, in the end, it was the gambling table that was overturned, and the game has not ended to this day.

At that time, there were also many demon gods in the State of Chu.

After the fall of the Chu Kingdom, some demon gods joined the ranks of Yunzhongjun.

For example, witch spirits.

Some demon gods, through the channels of Yun Zhongjun and the Dragon Clan, returned to Nanzhanbuzhou.

For example, the soap song.

Another group of demons joined forces with Xiang Yu during his era—and were eventually wiped out by Han Xin.

For example, Xiong Ba.

Those Xiong Ba and his gang who were wiped out along with Xiang Yu are another story.

But Zaoge, as a traitor to the Phoenix Clan, has always been keeping an eye on the Cloud Cave.

—The most powerful era of the Chu Kingdom was when the King of Chu led a large army to Luoyang to challenge the throne.

That era was the one that these demon goddesses, together with the Lord of the Clouds and the rulers and ministers of the Chu Kingdom, devised in the Cloud Cave Heaven.

Zao Ge has an immense longing for that era.

When Zaoge was in the Chu region, he was worshipped by the human race. The life and customs there were completely different from those in the Southern Continent.

At the same time, as a rebel against the phoenix, he is also a true phoenix.

This is why, after returning to the Southern Continent, Zaoge was extremely out of place among the other demon gods there.

And the more this is the case, the more Zaoge misses the era of the Chu Kingdom.

—As the last refuge of the Chu region, the Cloud Cave Heaven naturally garnered her immense attention.

That is why, as soon as Yun Zhongjun stepped out of the cave, he noticed the song of the Cloud Cave and, following the senses passed down from the Chu Kingdom, confirmed Yun Zhongjun's whereabouts.

(End of this chapter)