Conferred God: Got cramped at the beginning

Chapter 991 The Struggle Between Righteousness and Profit
The essence of "wealth" is "profit"!
What is "profit"?
All that fills the universe and flows endlessly is profit!
Between heaven and earth, among all living things, nothing can escape the yardstick of "profit".

Rare treasures and innate spiritual roots that shimmer with bright light.

The profound techniques and supreme cultivation methods pursued by practitioners.

Even the majestic Heavenly Court, high above the nine heavens...

Even the "faith and righteousness" that has been praised for thousands of years, and the "love" that makes people fall into depravity...

All of these things, from the profound mysteries of the Dao to the smallest speck of dust, can be described with the word "value"!
What is its value? Its quantity determines its "profit"!
Therefore, seeking wealth is the pursuit of profit.

They exhaust all means to make the "value" they possess ever expand and become ever more vast.

With this as the guiding principle, all schemes, all deceptions, and all betrayals will have a foundation and will all be "worth it".

This is the true meaning of "wealth"!

This is the way of 'wealth', the way of 'profit'!
In the past, some people said: A gentleman loves money, but he acquires it in a proper way.

But after Zhao Gongming, who used the power of the God of Wealth to achieve great supernatural powers, and after the Gods of Wealth in the Ministry of Finance used profit to control the situation of the entire world.

Countless immortals and gods, and even mortals, in the world suddenly discovered:

Those who follow the Way will never gain wealth or profit.

In the struggle for wealth and profit, those who are virtuous will always be prey for others, the targets of the hunt.

"Brother Gongming," Ao Bing spoke slowly amidst the rolling heads.

"You allow the officials of the Ministry of Finance to act recklessly and pursue profits by any means necessary."

"Do you want to have a battle of wits with me?"

Ao Bing's words were incredibly sharp.

Similarly, upon hearing Ao Bing's words about "the struggle for the Dao," Zhao Gongming felt an endless thunderous roar echoing in his heart.

The gods of the Ministry of Finance were now in a state of panic.

Ao Bing's character is clearly laid bare before everyone's eyes.

—That was a peerless, ferocious god who could ruthlessly attack the human emperor because of 'faith'!
No one doubts his determination and ability to reform the Ministry of Finance.

No one would believe that he was joking when he spoke of "the Way of contention".

"Fellow Daoist Ao Bing, are you threatening me?" Zhao Gongming glanced at the 'Book of Life and Death' in Ao Bing's hand—compared to the Book of Life and Death in the Netherworld, the book in Ao Bing's hand was much closer to the Book of Life and Death.

The Book of Life and Death in the Underworld has no jurisdiction over Taiyi.

But the 'Book of Life and Death' in Ao Bing's hand was completely filled with Taiyi's name!
"Does Brother Gongming think I'm a threat?" Ao Bing frowned slightly.

"If it weren't a threat, why would you act this way, fellow Daoist?"

"Hearing your words, fellow Daoist, I also think of the gods of my Ministry of Finance."

"In this world, those who uphold the way of wealth and prosperity are also good."

"They were all utterly wicked."

"The way of wealth is inherently the way of seeking profit." Zhao Gongming said calmly, though he felt deeply wronged.

"How can it be that in Fellow Daoist Ao Bing's eyes, the pursuit of profit, if not bound by integrity, would be a betrayal of the Way of Pan Tian?"

“Brother Gongming, there’s no need for such pretense before this Execution Platform.”

"You, the God of Wealth, know the way to seek profit, and I know it even better."

Ao Bing raised his voice slightly.

“Brother Gongming, you gods of wealth are best at measuring everything by its ‘value’.”

“In your eyes, nothing is immeasurable.”

"If that's the case, then why haven't you, the gods of the Treasury, measured the impact you have had on heaven and earth with your own methods and given a specific number?"

“Those numbers, whether large or small, positive or negative, should be clearly displayed in the Lingxiao Palace.”

"Isn't it obvious whether the gods of your Ministry of Finance have been wronged or whether they are more beneficial or harmful to heaven and earth?"

As Ao Bing spoke, he reached out and split the list in two, handing the part that had already been decided to be executed to Zhao Gongming.

“Brother Gongming, since the manifestation of the Way of Gold and Wealth, few of the gods who possess gold and wealth in the world have been sent to death row.”

"But in my opinion, it's not that your God of Finance is well-behaved, it's just that the influence of the God of Finance on heaven and earth is not so obvious, so it's hard to determine whether they should be sent to the death row."

“The measurable principle, as the foundation of the God of Wealth, is that you should be able to measure the impact you have on heaven and earth and on all living beings.”

"Brother Dao, would you like to give it a try?"

"It's no different from anything else."

"We will digitize the impact caused by these evil gods on the list."

"Then compare it with the numbers of your Ministry of Finance gods."

"If the negative numbers of your Ministry of Finance gods are greater than those of the evil gods on this list, then voluntarily come to the Execution Platform, how about it?"

As he spoke, Ao Bing raised his hand again and beckoned to a dragon god.

The law of death he violated was none other than blood sacrifice.

While he was in seclusion, some evil cultivators in the mortal realm performed a blood sacrifice in the waters under his control, and he unknowingly consumed that blood sacrifice...

After this experience, all the gods in the human world learned that when they went into seclusion, they should seal off their divine realm and sever all ties with the human world... lest they be inexplicably sacrificed and then unconsciously consume that blood sacrifice.

Compared to other evil gods, this dragon god is truly somewhat 'wronged'.

But a law of death is a law of death.

Whether you act voluntarily or passively, touching it will result in certain death; there will be no mercy whatsoever.

In fact, while Ao Bing was in seclusion, there were quite a few immortals and gods in Pan Tian clamoring to abolish the Heavenly Law of Death—and their reasons were quite valid.

When a person dies, all is over—everything that he had taken from his world and everything that the world had nurtured him vanishes.

This is a tremendous waste of the very essence of heaven and earth.

But as long as he is alive, anything is possible—he can abandon evil and do good, or he can go to the battlefield in the heavens to redeem himself through meritorious service, and so on.

Such arguments have a considerable following among Buddhists, especially within the Buddhist community.

—After all, the path to immortality values ​​life!
The response from Yang Jian, the God of Justice, to this claim was also quite direct.

Anyone who feels that the law of death should not exist can simply make a mark on their body so that all the gods and immortals in the world know: you will not die if you are killed, you will not die if you are eaten, you will not die if you are sacrificed, and you will not die if you are tortured.

In this world, no matter what kind of crime it is, if it involves your existence, it will not be used as a standard to determine whether it violates the law of death.

After this response, the talk of 'abolishing death' within Pan Tian was finally suppressed. After dealing with the Dragon God, Ao Bing paused slightly with his vermilion brush, and then turned his gaze to Zhao Gongming.

"Brother Dao, why are you silent?"

After calling out to Zhao Gongming, Ao Bing continued to bow his head and execute the sinful immortals and evil gods on the list.

"Is it that you can't do it, or that you're unwilling?"

Zhao Gongming, however, remained increasingly silent.

When Ao Bing brought up the concept of 'quantifying the influence of heaven and earth' during the confrontation with the Dragon God, Zhao Gongming fell silent, and his aura became somewhat stagnant.

After Ao Bing defeated the Dragon God, when asked again, "Is it because you can't do it, or because you're unwilling?" Zhao Gongming became even more silent.

At this moment, he didn't even dare to look at Ao Bing anymore.

Meanwhile, in the Ministry of Finance, those gods of wealth who studied and controlled the ways of wealth even had thoughts of escaping from the Ministry of Finance and hiding in the demon realm of the Southern Continent.

In that instant, the surging baleful aura emanating from the Execution Platform seemed to seep into the golden palace of the Ministry of Finance, staining all the 'gold and silver' within it with a layer of rust.

Meanwhile, the Great Luo Immortals in all directions, listening to Ao Bing's words, remained silent.

Everyone knew that Ao Bing had found the biggest weakness... or rather, the biggest flaw in the Golden Path!

Before this, the path to wealth was something that all the immortals and gods in Pantian wanted to touch, something that even the Great Luo Immortals who did not approve of the path of seeking profit had to come into contact with.

After that, the path to wealth will become something everyone avoids like the plague.

There is a saying in the world: "A lowly position carries great power."

In this world, the status of those gods of wealth is truly one of low rank but great power!

Some of them had barely achieved the immortal body, and were still incredibly far from the Taiyi realm, let alone the Daluo realm.

However, these gods of wealth who have only achieved immortality can easily manipulate numbers throughout the entire world by virtue of their power.

The influence they exert on the world is so great that it can easily surpass that of the Great Luo Immortals!

That is why, when they have a negative impact on the world as a whole, that negative impact is exceptionally large!

If we don't measure it with specific numbers, then any impact or change can be easily dismissed.

But if we want to measure it with a specific number:
Let's take a very simple example.

The principle of "a life for a life" is the most basic law of death—that is, if immortals or gods kill mortals without cause, it is the most basic law of death.

How much is a mortal's life worth?
Under the system of Heavenly Gold, Earthly Silver, and Human Copper, a dozen or so Human Coppers can buy the life of an ordinary person.

—And when those immortals and gods were corrupt, what was the value of the wealth they corrupted?

Even measured in gold, it amounts to tens of thousands.

If measured by this standard, then the blasphemy of any immortal or deity is equivalent to the lives of tens or hundreds of thousands of mortals.

This is how ordinary gods and immortals commit blasphemy.

And those gods in the Ministry of Finance, when they play the game of numbers, the profits and wealth they seize from the resulting changes in the numbers are thousands or even tens of thousands of times greater than those of ordinary gods!

If we were to follow Ao Bing's method and measure that influence on heaven and earth into a specific number, and use that number to determine whether someone deserves to die or live...

So, if all the gods in the Ministry of Finance were dragged out one by one and executed on the execution platform, there would surely be those who died with resentment.

But if you cut off every other one, you'll definitely miss them.

It was at this moment that Ao Bing asked another question.

"Brother Gongming, by your standards of wealth and power, how much is the friendship of the Jie Sect disciples worth?"

"Cough cough cough cough!" Beside Ao Bing, Zhao Gongming coughed violently, and in the midst of the coughing, this Great Luo Immortal almost vomited blood.

Already suffering from Dao injuries, Ao Bing's words nearly shook his Dao fruit.

"Brother Gongming, don't you understand yet!" Ao Bing's voice rang out again as he looked at Zhao Gongming vomiting blood.

"There is a difference between Pan Tian and the Four Directions Great Heaven!"

"What the four directions of the Great Heaven seek is endless indulgence and absolute freedom."

"But the essence of Pan Tian lies in self-discipline."

"The rules of heaven are bound by reason and emotion, hence the saying: 'Human feelings are just as important as the law.'"

"And the faith I uphold is also bound by the laws of heaven."

"To break the rules of heaven because of faith is also to break the rules of heaven."

"Similarly, if one violates the heavenly rules because of loyalty and righteousness, then before the gods of heaven and earth understand his grievances, even if he has violated the heavenly rules, they will wait until he has settled his debts and grievances before they will settle the score!"

"The favor of Heaven's rules does not equate to absolute correctness."

“Under the principle of faith and righteousness, even divine rules do not represent absolute correctness.”

"In the vast universe, nothing is absolute!"

"Everything is interconnected and relative!"

"Everything must be subject to constraints."

"Either it's self-restraint, or it's restraint from others."

"And your path of wealth, Brother Dao—when you attained enlightenment, you attempted to connect the path of wealth to the five directions of the Great Heaven and Earth."

"But when you use the Way of Gold and Wealth to influence those five great worlds, you yourself are also influenced by the four great worlds outside of Pantian!"

"That unrestrained absolute freedom has unknowingly spread into your Dao fruition and into your path of wealth."

"So, whether it's you, Brother Dao, or your disciples and followers who practice the Way of Gold and Wealth, it's all the same."

"And even others, those who pursue profit through the pursuit of wealth."

"Then everyone, unconsciously, wants to pursue that unrestrained, unbridled, absolute freedom."

"How could you possibly know that the only consequence of absolute freedom is collapse!"

"Brother Daoist, why don't you turn back now? When will you ever get another chance?"

Ao Bing pressed his vermilion pen heavily onto the register.

The splashed ink dots transformed into chains, wrapping around Zhao Gongming's body.

Before Zhao Gongming could even think things through, the "battle of the Way" that Ao Bing spoke of—the battle between "righteousness" and "profit"—had already begun, catching Zhao Gongming and those gods of wealth completely off guard!
On the execution platform, the sound of chains rattling violently could be heard.

Zhao Gongming's Dao fruition then manifested.

(End of this chapter)