Destiny is ashes

Chapter 1141 New Way and New Demon
Blood soaked the soil, broken organs mingled with turbid fluids flowing, and Canglin stood atop the corpses, clutching the neck of the last dying rider, taking a deep breath.

The air was cold and damp, carrying a sour and stagnant atmosphere. A dozen or so mangled corpses were scattered unevenly around the convoy.

Death was so swift that Canglinzu was actually a little regretful at this moment, regretting that he had killed too quickly and had not instilled enough fear and despair—but he also regretted that he had killed too slowly. All of this had been foreshadowed. As the companion star of destiny, he, located in the Da Chen military headquarters, should have collected this relevant information long ago, but he only found out now.

"call……"

Having calmed down a bit, Canglinzu raised his head. His eyes, which had been slightly narrowed, now gleamed with a cold, star-like light as he met the gaze of the rider who was staring at him in terror: "You..."

"What exactly are we going to do with those children?"

"How could... how could the path to ascension pioneered by our senior brother be turned into this?!"

The surviving rider coughed up blood violently, a look of bewilderment and injustice in his eyes: "Injustice...injustice! General..."

"Puppet puppets have existed since ancient times... they didn't just start with the Ascension Path..."

His words were fragmented, and although they were merely sophistry or explanations, they clearly came from the bottom of his heart: "There have always been noble people who despise the lower classes for being dirty and are unwilling to have personal contact with them."

"Puppet concubines, puppet lovers... these things have always existed, and the methods for giving them intelligence are ancient and have never ceased, even with the changing of eras. To be honest, as long as there are people, these things will exist..."

Seemingly to prove his point, he even invoked the name of the Great Chen Holy Ancestor: "The Holy Ancestor even... encouraged this matter back then!"

"The Holy Ancestor believed that rather than letting those noble sons harm the common people and cause trouble, it would be better to let them play with lifeless puppets. At least... at least it would prevent them from causing any more heinous troubles..."

"The Holy Ancestor is right, so why are you still doing this?" Cang Linzu asked coldly. Moreover, this explanation completely failed to account for why these people wanted to use those refugee children as 'playthings'. This was completely contrary to the Holy Ancestor's teachings.
Unless... these aristocratic families have never treated ordinary people as human beings from beginning to end!
But when confronted with Cang Linzu's questioning, even though he was dying, the rider stammered, his eyes darting around, and dared not tell the truth.

There will always be this kind of thought. That's just how humans are. They have so many thoughts, even those they consider self-evident and truthful. But when they actually say them out loud, they know how absurd and ridiculous those words are.

Canglinzu had no patience. With a thought, wisps of deep spiritual energy flowed from the shadow. Jidu's divine power, like a living thing, merged into the rider's shadow and then directly invaded his heart, stirring up the darkest part of his heart, which was also real.

The rider's body trembled violently, his wandering eyes quickly becoming blank, then losing their luster, empty and lifeless. His lips trembled, and then he murmured in a dreamlike tone, "Equipment..."

"what?"

The voice was too soft. Canglinzu frowned, realizing he hadn't heard clearly, and ordered, "Louder!"

The rider, in a flat, monotone voice, told the truth.

"A puppet... is a tool..."

"Tools... are ultimately not people."

He revealed the most fundamental reason.

“What’s the point of bullying an instrument? It’s just a tool. You hit it, and it pretends to be in pain; you torture it, and it pretends to suffer; you order it around, and it pretends to be submissive… It’s not satisfying at all, it’s all fake, not real!”

"It has to be a human being! If it's not human, then it's meaningless!"

At this point, the rider's tone rose, filled with a twisted excitement, a longing: "It's that feeling... when the other person clearly wants to kill you, but you can only swallow your anger!"

"It's that feeling where the other person still has a glimmer of hope and dignity, but you crush it bit by bit, until they are completely desperate and powerless!"

"It's that sense of control! That exhilarating feeling of having another person's dignity, will, and even life and death completely in your grasp!"

“General Cang, just like you’re choking me right now, I just want to step on other people’s heads—although the men always keep saying things like ‘they are not equal beings,’ even I can see that they know very well that those people are people, just like them, just like me!”

"That's what makes it interesting!!"

"People only get pleasure from stepping on others! What everyone has is the same as what no one has! It must be something that others don't have, only I have! Something that others can't do, only I can do! Only this kind of superiority, this feeling of being high and mighty, is interesting!"

"That's exactly right! It has to be a 'person,' otherwise it's meaningless!"

"You fucking beasts—" Upon hearing this, Cang Linzu felt a chill in his heart, followed by a surge of hot blood rushing from his heart to his brain.

He instinctively wanted to crush the head of the person in front of him, but the rider, whose soul had been connected by the power of the spirit and who was beginning to recount the endless twists of his heart, was completely oblivious.

He laughed and continued, "But people aren't really fun either. They're too fragile and too easily ruined. Besides, you can't mess with decent young men, and you can't mess with maids in your own home either. Other noble families and officials will attack you. The gentlemen care a lot about their reputation."

"So if you want to play, you can only go outside of Shenjing, or play puppetry in Shenjing... But now it's different, refugees are truly a gift from heaven!"

"The Holy Ancestor's approach was correct, but it was ultimately possible to circumvent it. We really have to thank the Ascension Path and the Natural Masters. This path, which transforms people into beings unlike humans, making them better, more beautiful, and more resilient, is also very useful in this regard!" "Being both human and puppet, resilient, versatile, and with all sorts of ways to play... The Ascension Path, which allows people to get infinitely closer to puppets, immediately attracted the attention of some important figures when it appeared."

"They ordered research, and the initial techniques of this method weren't difficult to grasp. Everyone quickly developed some techniques that could be 'put into practice'..."

The so-called "practical application" is to turn a living, breathing person into a tool that can be modified and manipulated at will.

One type is a toy.

This is the flaw of the Ascension Path.

Or rather, it is the unavoidable opposite of any path that elevates and analyzes the essence of life.

While granting people the power to ascend, it also gives another group the ability to completely transform their own kind.

Completely analyzing a person means that even thoughts and memories can be easily altered, and the soul itself can be dissected and decomposed, thus the person is no longer a person.

"Actually, no one dared to do it at first, because the Imperial Court was still considering whether these refugees could be used as labor to alleviate the labor shortage in the capital. After all, there are too many officials in the capital, and many low-level jobs are not being done. It would be a waste to just bring in refugees and use them as 'expendable resources'."

“But, puppets…”

At this point, the rider gave a strange smile: "The puppet has appeared!"

"The puppets imported from Tianjian Mountain and Mingjing Sect are really useful. With a little analysis, the related technology has replaced many workers, so there is no shortage of manpower. The refugees are no longer important. The disaster relief funds that could have been allocated quickly have been revised again and again, and have been delayed for a long time."

"That's why they're the masters and I'm just a nobody. The Song family next door went out to capture refugees immediately, which alerted us and other powerful families... Actually, this refugee camp has already been searched by the Song family and several other major families. We're just here to pick up a leftover."

The granary was full and fell silent.

Puppet technology... the path to ascension.

Its original intention may have been to replace human labor, but in the end, it has made people no longer human, made them lose their value, and turned them into materials that can be molded at will.

A new path will bring new demons.

This is a common sense.

However, how could he have imagined that before An Jing had even finished his journey, these people would release the new demon so easily!

Is it true that the righteous are one foot high, but the evil are ten feet high...?

"what!"

An uncontrollable rage surged from his heart, and at the same time, another kind of anger, a kind of fury that came from beyond the heavens, a kind of scorching rage that was as intense as the blazing sun and as intense as the trembling of a great earthquake, was burning within him.

【kill】

This anger stemmed from the wrath of 'Heaven,' and it uttered only one word: [Kill!]

—Kill! Only kill! Only kill!

His own anger merged with the anger of the distant 'divine will,' and this surging emotion made Canglinzu crush the rider's head in his hand. Blood and brains splattered, but he was completely unaware, and roared: "You all deserve to die!"

Why? Why can't everyone in this world cultivate themselves diligently and do their best? Why do we always have to think about stepping on others? Why can't we find joy and a sense of accomplishment from our own hearts? Why can't we seek our own happiness and find the strength to support our inner selves?

There must be exploitation, there must be oppression, there must be taking from others... Is self-sufficiency, even in the spiritual realm, really that difficult?
The next moment, he glared fiercely at Shenjing.

At this moment, Canglinzu already knew from the riders' memories their original destination: the place where these refugees were being processed.

The Milky Way meanders, and the capital city shines like a sea of ​​light, casting endless shadows.

The light reflected in the martial artist's eyes burned like a raging fire.

hum.

The figure of Cang Linzu disappeared.

(End of this chapter)