Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 796: Second-Rank Earthly Immortal
'So when we fight, do sentient beings really have a choice?'

Chu Tai looked at the countless living beings under the Dongyue Dharma Realm, and some insights arose in his heart.

'This is the scene that the Supreme Daoist Ancestor saw back then. All living beings are not the same kind as the gods and Buddhas. There is no need to care about their thoughts? The choices of all living beings are meaningless...'

A gleam of light appeared in Chu Tai's eyes, and the Taiyi Dao Fruit slowly turned and connected with the Dongyue Dharma Realm.

Wisps of incense and prayer power gathered around Chu Tai, including positive forces such as integrity, intelligence, bravery, purity, hope, kindness, etc., as well as negative forces such as fear, dread, anger, sadness, and pain.

In Taoism, these forces are usually regarded as spiritual emotions derived from the wonderful Qi of the human being, and as distracting thoughts derived from the mind after birth, which will pollute one's own Taoist heart and nature.

You can comprehend and absorb this kind of emotion and power, but you cannot empathize with it too much, as it will be even more difficult to be in unity with all living beings.

Even for the monks who practice the way of the gods, they only use these incense, vows, thoughts and beliefs as a kind of driving force or raft. In essence, they are still pursuing the priesthood corresponding to the authority of the gods, or the origin of heaven and earth.

The whole process is actually a process of imitating Shintoism and integrating into heaven and earth. In other words, it is a variation of the unity of man and nature.

But for Shinto, it is completely different. Although the divinity and original intention of Shinto often overlap with the immortal way, the acquired Shinto, especially the acquired way of the true gods, places great emphasis on empathy.

For the most orthodox gods of acquired incense and worship, being able to sense the spirits of all living beings, absorbing their emotions, knowing their sorrow, prayers, integrity, and anger, that is true compassion. It is to truly integrate oneself into the believers and know what they are seeking.

Then, among the spiritual emotions of all living beings, one will naturally reach the state of "knowing it through divine guidance" and will not be limited to the limitation of "existing in people".

Because "it exists in people" is based on the one-sidedness of personal perception, it is impossible to fully grasp the mysterious concept corresponding to "it is clear from God".

But the gods are of one mind with all living beings, and they understand many aspects of the spiritual emotions of all living beings, so they can naturally achieve a relatively complete "divine understanding".

And this "divine enlightenment" can also be called [divinity] or even [priesthood].

Then, one takes oneself as the object, and divinity and priesthood as the raft, and step by step merges with the origin of heaven and earth, integrates into it, completes the fusion of oneself with the world, and becomes a part of the world.

This process is like the process of believers believing in God, preaching God, and integrating into God.

And now, Chu Tai is integrating his own emotions into the spiritual feelings of many sentient beings in the Dongyue Dharma Realm, feeling their feelings and accepting their thoughts.

This process is actually very dangerous for immortal practitioners.

Because the faith is too extreme and too pure, it is possible to lead out the little power left by the Supreme Taoist Ancestor in the spiritual nature of all living beings, and then affect the gods.

For gods, this influence is correct belief and correct thought, and it is the highest embodiment of faith.

But for the immortal cultivators, this thing is the most poisonous of all poisonous incense, and it is a power that can directly affect one's own mind.

Theoretically speaking, if more people uphold this belief, they will be able to shape the gods into the form they wish.

There are even such people who believe in God. If their faith is strong enough and they have been practicing this path, when the god they believe in goes astray or makes a mistake, they can help correct the path, or even directly usurp the throne, or resonate with the priesthood and let it move on its own.

After all, the [divinity] and [priesthood] of the gods that come from the faith of all living beings are sublimated from the spiritual emotions of all living beings.

This kind of [divinity] and [priesthood] will naturally choose individuals who are more in line with the corresponding Shinto concepts.

Of course, such concepts have basically cut off the idea of ​​becoming a god for most people. Therefore, within Dongyue, the division of priesthood is not based on this most orthodox path to deification that everyone can take.

Instead, it is a system of enthronement that combines the god of incense, the god of nature, and the god of civilization. That is, a supreme deity is established, and then the concepts of nature and civilization are gathered from top to bottom, with the help of incense to derive the position of the god.

But it should be noted that these derived deities can save people from many troubles, but they do not prohibit those who obtain the deities from practicing the most orthodox way of worshipping gods.

The most typical example is Chu Tai. He let the incarnations of Donghuang, Da Siming and others practice this kind of Shinto righteousness, perceive the changes from the emotions of all living beings, understand themselves in the emotions, gradually distinguish between differences and develop independence.

Similarly, Chu Tai can also practice this method.

And that's what he's doing now.

At the beginning, the incarnation of Donghuang would not stop his actions. After all, this method was also a first-class method of clones and incarnations. If it was practiced to perfection, it could even separate a corresponding incarnation, response body, or wish body from any wish of any living being.

If Chu Tai could do some research and create more incarnations, it would be best if he could create a Dharma body corresponding to the Lord of the Dongyue pantheon.

But the incarnation of Donghuang soon realized something was wrong. He found that Chu Tai did not have a differentiated consciousness, and he seemed to be really following this divine path.

He hurried forward to stop it, but the Donghuang Bell moved without wind, awakening Chu Tai from his spiritual state.

"What do you want to do? Are you really going to become a god?"

"Don't worry, I know the limitations of the acquired incense and fire way."

Chu Tai replied with a smile, comforting the Donghuang incarnation.

Dong Huang was still a little worried and said, "Do you really know what the problem is? Although the incense god path is progressing rapidly, according to the situation of Da Tian and I, we can quickly support you to the second level, but once you go far on this path, you will inevitably be limited by the path itself and it will be difficult to make further progress in the future."

The words of the incarnation of Donghuang are not alarmist, although the way of worshipping gods through incense and burning candles is very orthodox and also very mysterious.

But its limitations are also very obvious, that is, people, or the human Yuan Miao Qi.

Human individual existence is bound to have limitations. Even if one can feel the feelings of all living beings and share the same heart with them, this can only reduce the one-sidedness of the limitations, but one's own limitations are not resolved.

It is like when a person sees a white flower, the concepts and emotions derived from the human Yuan Miao Qi can only be based on this white flower.

But the growth, change and withering of the flower itself is a natural concept and will not change due to personal thoughts.

Even if the human Yuan Miao Qi is used to derive [divinity] and [priesthood], it is still limited to self-cognition.

Because this flower may not be white, or in the eyes of other creatures this flower is not white.

This is also the reason why Shinto used [divinity] and [priesthood] as rafts to connect to the origin of the world in the later period.

If you don't do this, no matter how powerful your supernatural powers are, it will be difficult to enter the third level.

Unless one occupies the vast majority of human Yuan Miao Qi, or even occupies the concept of "human", one can thereby master the concepts of all human cognition.

But this process is actually a way to connect to the origin, just transferred from the world to [people]. Even the future of this choice will be more dangerous, basically combined with a certain ethnic group, a certain concept, it is difficult to have a future.

As far as Chu Tai himself knows, there are many beings exploring this path. The totem gods of the early years and the tribal gods worshipped by all spirits are all such beings.

Even a certain Saint King who supported the idea that humanity only exists among humans tried to grasp a similar concept through this. However, in the end, he failed because he failed to completely cut off all living beings and was backlashed by humanity. He himself died, leaving only an incomplete Saint King's Avenue to protect the Central Plains.

This is also the reason why the incarnation of Donghuang does not want Chu Tai to delve deeper into this path. There have been too many failures before.

Dong Huang stared at Chu Tai, looking at the remaining wish power around him, and asked, "Why do you keep these?"

"In the past ten years, although I have helped the East to revive and revitalize the Taiyi Immortal Sect, sitting on Mount Dongyue and watching you and others travel to various places, do I really still have the empathy I had in the past for all living beings?"

"If you are cultivating the immortal way, this thing is optional. It would be best if you have it, but not having it will not affect your pursuit..."

Before the incarnation of the Eastern Emperor finished speaking, Chu Tai interrupted him: "If it were any other path, it might be as you said, but I chose [Choice], and it is no longer an external matter. If the spirits I protect do not have the right to choose, how can I practice my Dao fruit? And if I choose to impose my own choice on all living beings, then what is the meaning of their choice?"

At this point, Chu Tai stretched out a hand, grabbed the remaining wish power, and whispered: "Can I use a sentence like 'for your own good'?"

The incarnation of Donghuang then realized that Chu Tai was probably gaining some insights because of what he had said before.

He asked, "So what do you want to do?"

“Give sentient beings more choices.”

Chu Tai looked at the border, stretched out his hand, and took out a golden, Ruyi-shaped bell hammer, and gently knocked on the Donghuang Bell.

"Since this is your choice..."

The incarnation of Donghuang sighed, merged into the Donghuang Bell without resistance, and turned into a mysterious light that continued to spread upwards.

At the same time, Chu Tai took out all the talismans given by the three True Lords, shattered them with the Donghuang Bell, extracted the corresponding immortal concepts, and also extracted the Taiyi Immortal concepts from the Taiyi Immortal Sect.

The four were combined with the concept of "immortality" that he had already mastered, and integrated into the mysterious light of Donghuang.

The incarnation of Donghuang, which continued to grow larger and was integrated with the Dongyue Dharma Realm, easily replaced Hebo's position. He looked down at Dongjun and Shan Gui.

Among them, many principles in the mountain ghost's body were absorbed by it, and part of the second-grade [State] power corresponding to the Dao Fruit series was extracted. At the same time, the dragon veins, earth veins, and earth energy of the East were eroded by it. The aura of the Lord of Mountains, Rivers, and States, which was originally just a description, was completely stabilized.

Many heirs of the Holy King Way within the Central Plains sensed something was wrong, and the moment they looked at the incarnation of the Eastern Emperor, their eyes widened.

“Is this a terrestrial immortal?”

"What kind of earthly immortal can transform the entire East Land into his own dojo?"

"How dare he? He uses the entire East as his own training ground. Isn't he afraid of being..."

"Wait, it seems that this is not your Earthly Immortal..."

"This aura seems to be perhaps the Saint King Avenue?"

"No, it should be the way of the country, which seems to be mixed with the concepts of life and death and immortality..."

"What are you guys still talking about! Can't you see what this guy is going to do? Run!"

Following the shout of an heir, all the power of the Saint King Avenue that remained at the border began to shrink, and the Hun Tian Yi also wanted to escape back to the Central Plains, but how could Dong Huang let it go.

The second level of the Donghuang Dao Fruit system [Zhengshi (Earth Immortal)] shone brightly, attracting more power from the Donghuang Bell, and combined with the initially refined power of the Eastern Land, it transformed into a huge dark yellow hand that fell down.

He opened his five fingers, grabbed the armillary sphere and several successors of the Saint King's Way who were rushing forward, and shook it casually. Millions of soldiers inside the armillary sphere fell into the human world, while those successors of the Saint King's Way turned into ashes during the shaking.

During the whole process, the Avenue of the Holy King did not react at all, as if it was not the Immortal Path invading the Human Path, but rather a normal communication within the Avenue of the Holy King.

At the same time, some phantoms of living beings appeared behind Chu Tai's mind, and he felt the prayers of countless living beings in this land in the past.

"The days ahead will be better."

"This year's harvest will be better, so I can buy some things for my wife..."

"I hope the battle won't affect us..."

“I hope the child can…”

These many simple wishes are actually just a little yearning for the future and a little choice that one hopes to get. Chu Tai extracted this most core point.

Looking at the golden sand in his hand, in fact, when Chu Tai resurrected many lives last time, the wishes left by all living beings had been exhausted, and the power he sensed again now was not much.

But he is different now. He is a third-rank cultivator and has condensed the corresponding Dao fruit. He can let his own ideas run in the heaven and earth and put them into practice.

"The way of gods cannot be free from protection. Dongyue Dharma Realm should not only serve as the foundation of gods, but also as the greatest barrier to protect common people."

The Armillary Sphere and the treasures inherited by several successors of the Saint King Avenue were abandoned by the incarnation of Donghuang and merged into the Dharma Realm.

In an instant, the Dongyue Dharma Realm and the human world began to separate. From then on, cultivators above the fifth rank would be forcibly pulled into the Dharma Realm in battle, reducing the damage to the human world and leaving more space for all living beings.

At the same time, the second-grade Dao Fruits [Remaining in the World] and [Earthly Immortal] of the Donghuang Dao Fruit system are also automatically separated.

The former was integrated into the land of the East, and even followed the earth veins into parts of the Northern Wilderness.

The latter merged into the Dongyue Dharma Realm and turned into a luxuriant precious tree. Thousands of flowers sprouted from the emerald leaves, absorbing infinite light and prayers, and gathering the power of many civilizations, countries and beliefs. The petals fell, and finally only less than forty fruits were left hanging on the branches.

Each of these fruits is extremely round, and there seems to be life growing inside. They grow larger and smaller as the spiritual light of the earth changes, which is quite interesting.

Because of his cultivation and divine duties, Shou Daoren was the first one to be absorbed into the Dharma Realm. When he looked at the treasure tree in front of him, he was stunned for a moment. He felt the principle of his own longevity in the treasure tree.

(End of this chapter)