Destiny is ashes

Chapter 1118 If you're a martial artist, go to extremes!
Absolutely not! Absolutely not!

Dao Ling's voice, a composite of many voices, angrily proclaimed: "We've thought of a solution! We've thought of it! We just don't know it yet!"

[Our original selves, our earliest selves, must have already considered that answer—stagnation and giving up are themselves a form of decline. How could we not have realized something so simple! It certainly caused us distress, but we absolutely have the ability to resolve it!]

"I know."

Faced with Dao Ling's rather weak explanation for the loan, An Jing did not scoff at him. Instead, he calmly said, "What you're trying to say is that you are not the Heavenly Demons, but merely maintaining a cradle that can nurture hope, waiting for the birth of hope and miracles?"

At this point, An Jing felt that things were getting a bit complicated, so he shook his head slightly: "Let me put it more simply."

"Are you waiting for someone like me?"

Yes, yes...

An Jing's words instantly enlightened the Dao Spirit. It fell silent after An Jing revealed the answer that even it didn't know.

After several breaths, they whispered: "Yes. Indeed. That's what we think..."

As long as eternity and reincarnation can continue, then one day... people like you will emerge, do better than us, and change the world...

At this point, Dao Ling's tone regained its strength: "But doesn't this prove we are not true demons? Temporary retreat cannot be seen as admitting defeat! Patience and forbearance are absolutely not a form of depravity!"

[We face everything head-on, we gamble everything, even if such a thing truly exists. But what if we fail? Even we would never arrogantly gamble with the future of all living beings!]

"Yes, that's why I'm willing to talk to you. Otherwise, you would have been completely refined by me."

An Jing held the Imperial Book and said slowly, "As the founder of the Heavenly Sect, even if Xuan Tianji really fell into depravity later, his original intention was absolutely correct."

"He probably, like me, foresaw from the will of Heaven what was to come... or rather, from his perspective, the return of the Heavenly Demons that would arrive 30,000 years later."

"Then Fu Xie will return, forcing the Heavenly Dao of Tianyuan and Dahuang to seek cooperation, and even making the Heavenly Dao of Huaixu take the initiative, willing to loosen its shackles on martial artists... This terrifying 'Second Demonic Tribulation,' which is even more powerful than the first Demonic Tribulation, is coming. Xuan Tianji sees no hope of defeating that Demonic Tribulation, because Huaixu now is much weaker than the Dao Court of yesteryear, far too much weaker."

"So he chose this path, intending to escape that calamity and to nurture hope..."

"That's what he thought, but he didn't do it."

When An Jing opened his eyes again after closing them, a faint firelight flickered in them: "Dao Ling, when it comes to a matter, you should look at what people do, not what they say."

"The Great Chen Dynasty is essentially a feudal dynasty. It may have some enlightened policies, but its core purpose is simply to maintain stability. It neither encourages martial arts among the general public nor tries to cultivate more 'different and special people,' that is, holders of destiny."

"You don't want the number of martial artists to exceed your control, nor do you want the power of martial artists to be too strong. The Heavenly Official who bestows the Ranks is the core of the Imperial Dynasty. Everyone else should be recruited—any genius must be under your control to be considered a genius, otherwise, they are a threat."

"You have no special policies to encourage, promote, discover and support geniuses. You even encourage internal strife among martial artists to deplete their strength and prevent them from threatening your rule."

"The number of martial artists has not increased. In other words, the possibility of hope being born has not increased either."

"Suppressing martial artists, stifling geniuses, and encouraging infighting—in other words, ignoring words and judging by actions, you have been reducing the probability of 'hope' being born."

"If this isn't a true demon... then what is it?"

Knowing and doing are two different things. Everyone's slogans may be incredibly beautiful, but everyone's actions may deviate greatly, or even be completely opposite. That's why it's so difficult to achieve unity of knowledge and action.

At that very moment, An Jing's aura began to rise continuously. His comprehension of the Five Emperors' Law was manifesting within the Heavenly Punishment Realm through the Cave Heaven Law.

Within his grotto, countless transforming furnaces vaguely sensed that the 'water' and 'law' they had originally lacked—the principles of restraint, discipline, and order—began to spring forth and become perfect from nothing.

An invisible shackle was placed on them, but instead of imprisoning them, it allowed their boundless vitality to condense and sublimate, initiating a new round of transformation that would make them more stable and powerful.

"I was indeed born."

Boom! A massive, visible shockwave erupted from An Jing's center, spreading outwards. Layer upon layer of five-colored spiritual energy rings swept outwards from the top of the Ping An Company building, forming ever-expanding halos in the sky, rotating like star rings.

The young martial artist calmly said, "But my birth has nothing to do with you."

"I am who I am, just an accident, a miracle."

"If you follow your order, even after hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of years, I'm afraid there will never be another me."

"In fact, the imperial dynasty was not prepared for my birth."

"You can't say you're moving toward that future if you're not prepared to face it."

In the boundless light, Dao Ling felt a pressure almost like facing the heavens and earth... It was not a kind of terror, but a feeling of insignificance, like lying on the ground in the middle of the ocean, on the boundless land, looking up at the sky, and the feeling of falling naturally that would arise, the feeling that one is rapidly shrinking and becoming powerless.

—The Heavenly Dao. Has the Heavenly Dao of the Tianyuan Realm descended upon An Jing?!
Even with this feeling, knowing the arrival of the Heavenly Dao, it still tried its best to refute: "But if that's the case, the demonic invasion will continue... Even if there's no differential treatment based on talent, even if the distribution is completely fair and just, and everyone has it, no one will feel joy! Because that's human nature; what everyone has is taken for granted, and what others have that one doesn't, one will envy! As long as this kind of thinking exists, depravity will never disappear."

[This is essentially the same system as that of emperors and officials, no different at all, and even more complicated... It will give the Heavenly Demons more room to lurk!]

As long as humanity remains human, negative emotions such as jealousy and greed inherent in human nature cannot be eradicated. Any attempt to establish a fair and open system will ultimately be exploited by these "human weaknesses," leading to a faster collapse. Therefore, rather than striving for impossible ideals, it's better to simply adopt the existing dynastic system, using high pressure and resource control to "suppress" the evil in human nature, maintain absolute stability, ensure that even if some people fall into depravity, they won't cause too much trouble, and minimize the destructive power!

In that case, we can simply wait!

"So why not just brainwash them all?"

An Jing sighed deeply: "I've never really understood it. Martial artists are supposed to be people whose thoughts are beyond the realm of common sense. Your thinking shouldn't be so simple... So why don't you do it that way? Since the problem lies in 'human nature'."

"Then why not attack it?"

"Completely brainwash humans into new humans; or kill them all and stuff them into magical artifacts to simulate reality; modify the essence of the soul, modify the nervous system in the brain, and fundamentally solve things like 'I am jealous of others's good things and I am angry about others' bad things.'"

"In fact, wasn't your previous idea quite good? Everyone becoming a beehive, becoming offspring with semi-independent will, I think that works too. Everyone acting for one will, moving forward for one dream, that's not unacceptable either."

"Or something even more difficult, completely altering the human body, existence, and thought patterns, turning humans into entirely different beings? For example, beings that don't need food, sleep, sex, or mating, but are self-sufficient and perfectly complete?"

At this point, the image of Shenmu flashed through An Jing's mind, and he couldn't help but sigh, "Shenmu is quite good. He can directly choose the possibilities he wants from the timeline. He can directly reject bad futures and only be born in the timeline he wants."

"If humans could do that, it would surely be the ultimate evolution and ascension."

(End of this chapter)