You've only been cultivating for a few years, and you're already talking about cultivating

Chapter 126 Faith

When the group entered the divine island, two cultivators blocked their way.

The two cultivators were exactly the same as the two who had blocked Qi Fei before. One of them stretched out his hand and blocked Long Shi's way, his tone neither warm nor cold.

"Halt. Check suspicious persons."

The Dragon Master thrust her belly forward, exuding an air of "Do you know who I am?" as she said, "We're here to participate in the ceremony. Can you bear the responsibility of delaying the descent of the divine child?"

The two guarding cultivators exchanged a glance, their gazes lingering on the Dragon Master's stomach for a moment before shifting away.

They understood the importance of the divine child better than anyone else.

The instructions from above were that no pregnant woman who came to participate in the ceremony should be neglected. Anyone who ruined the important event of the divine child's descent would be punished severely, even if it meant being skinned alive.

"No, no." The guard on the left quickly withdrew his hand, but still did not let them pass. "It's just that—someone tried to break into the divine island before, and we were afraid of delaying the safety of the divine child's descent."

Long Shi's expression remained relatively calm, but Wang Qin, the maid, and Zhang Jie all simultaneously turned their gazes towards Qi Fei.

The two guards followed their gaze and saw Qi Fei standing at the very back of the line, expressionless.

Seeing that everyone was looking over, Qi Fei looked at the two guards and calmly asked, "What are the distinguishing features of the person who broke in?"

"Leifa," said the guard on the left.

"True cultivation," the guard on the right added.

Qi Fei nodded, then raised his hand. A sword light flashed from his fingertips, lingered in the air for two breaths, and then disappeared.

"I am a sword cultivator," he said calmly, "not a lightning cultivator."

You're looking for lightning cultivators, what does that have to do with me, a sword cultivator?

He spoke with absolute certainty.

Wang Qin blinked. Right, he's a sword cultivator, not a lightning cultivator.

The maid and Zhang Jie also breathed a sigh of relief, their tense expressions easing considerably.

The two guarding cultivators were also intimidated by Qi Fei's confident demeanor. They exchanged another glance, their suspicion fading slightly, but not entirely dispelled.

"So who are you to them?" one of them asked.

Qi Fei slightly raised his chin, his tone carrying the kind of kindness mixed with a touch of authority that one might expect from an elder looking at a younger person.

"I am the Dharma Protector Elder of their sect," he said, "I am here specifically to protect these younger disciples."

The Dragon Master's face remained expressionless.

But Wang Qin's lips twitched!

Damn it, how can this guy take advantage of people like that?

Protector Elder? When did he, a storyteller on a boat, become the protector elder of her sect?

The two cultivators exchanged another glance, as if they wanted to ask something else.

Master Long grew impatient and urged him on.

Upon hearing this, the two cultivators stopped blocking them. They stepped aside, bowed slightly, and gestured for them to proceed.

The group successfully entered the so-called "divine island".

The sand beneath their feet was flattened and hardened by the magic array, feeling like walking on stone slabs. The white palace gleamed dazzlingly in the sunlight, its golden roof like a burning fire.

Qi Fei walked in the middle of the group and suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"You're all monks, after all," he said, his tone laced with undisguised sarcasm, "and you believe in gods. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Wang Qin remained silent. She was involved in the sect with Master Long; whether she herself believed in it or not was another matter, as she was trying to get others to believe.

She couldn't answer Qi Fei's question.

Master Long spoke calmly.

"Don't think that just because you're a true cultivator, you're powerful or justified. Gods aren't as superficial as you imagine."

Qi Fei glanced at her but didn't reply.

Master Long continued, his tone shifting from calm to a composed "I'm here to teach you a lesson" attitude.

"I have also studied the True Dharma. You True Dharma practitioners have a fatal problem."

"What's the problem?" Qi Fei asked.

"Where did the world come from?" the Dragon Master asked, a slight smile playing on her lips. "Or rather, what is the origin of the world?"

"You true Dharma practitioners always say that humans can never see the world as it truly is. Then, what is the point of your practice?"

She was asking a question that could drive any cultivator of the true methods mad.

She asked that question with ill intentions.

Are True Dharma cultivators powerful?

Great.

However, some obsessive questions can actually cost a true cultivator their life, such as this one.

Humans perceive the world through sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

But the world we perceive is the "name" of the world, the "shadow" of the world, something processed, filtered, and distorted by human senses. It is not the world itself.

Because once it is perceived, the world is no longer itself.

It was captured by your eyes, absorbed by your ears, and pieced together by your brain.

You think you've seen the truth, but what you've actually seen is just your own perception of "truth."

For a true cultivator to pursue this unattainable real world is itself a wrong path, and may even cause one's Dao heart to collapse and lead to demonic possession.

Dragon Master had already killed several True Dharma cultivators with this question. The corners of her mouth were slightly upturned, waiting to see Qi Fei's expression change, waiting to see him frown, ponder, and then turn pale.

Qi Fei didn't frown. He thought for a moment, not expecting that a pseudo-Dharma cultivator like Long Shi would ask such a question.

"I think," he said, "that the world was probably created within a complex environment of inevitable chance."

"Perhaps we are like the sand on the roadside. We appeared randomly, yet inevitably. That is our meaning."

"We are just like the sand on the roadside, a coincidence, and an inevitability. There is no difference between us."

Wang Qin was somewhat confused by what she heard.

Sand? People are like sand? She blinked, glanced at Qi Fei, then at Long Shi, but neither of them looked at her.

The Dragon Master understood, or at least half of it.

She understood that what Qi Fei meant was that both humans and sand appeared by chance, and there was nothing special about them, nothing noble about them, and nothing aura of being the "spirit of all things".

"Isn't it ridiculous that you're chasing after a real world that's impossible to reach?" she asked again.

Qi Fei shook his head.

"Of course it makes sense," he said. "It can help people stay more clear-headed and avoid getting lost in illusions."

When he said the word "illusion," his gaze fell on the Dragon Master. The meaning in his eyes was clear: the "god" you believe in is an illusion.

The Dragon Master's expression remained unchanged as he said, "The god we worship is not the god worshipped by fools and simpletons. The god we worship is the origin of all things, the first cause, and the ultimate reason."

She doesn't believe in a so-called "god," but rather in an abstract concept.