Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 836 Yuanshi Tongtian Morality
"But what all living beings need is a guide, not a dictator. Only by seeing more possibilities can we break free from the existing shackles."

The halo of the Taiyi Dao Fruit behind Chu Tai's head became brighter and brighter, and the black light gradually drove out the white light, but Yuanshi Immortal Venerable obviously had different ideas.

“The conflict between reality and ideals is inevitable. You and I both know the beauty of dreams, but we also know that dreams cannot be everything in life.”

"The vast majority of people are likely to be crushed and killed by pressure before they can break free of their shackles."

"It is precisely because we know the mistakes and horrors of the future that we should help them avoid danger."

"To bear the disgrace of the country is to be the master of the country; to bear the misfortune of the country is to be the king of the world. As the Kunlun Immortal Venerable, I should make the best arrangements for all living beings in the world..."

Above the Immortal Venerable’s head, auspicious clouds rose, golden lamps appeared, and infinite white light illuminated the boundless heaven and earth.

"There's nothing wrong with avoiding danger, but we should encourage them to explore bravely."

“We cannot claim to be doing this for all living things, but then rashly manipulate certain lives and drive them toward destruction.”

"One person is like dew, and the world is like rivers and seas. But rivers and seas are also formed by accumulated water. If there is no dew, how can there be rivers and seas?"

"To regard life as a bargaining chip is a blasphemy against life!"

"As pioneers, we are just like parents to their children. No matter how we try to stop them, they will eventually grow up. We can't always keep them under our wings. They will also face their own challenges."

"We can provide a safety net, but we cannot regard them as our appendages, and we should not sculpt them into the perfect image in our minds for the so-called best future."

As Chu Tai refuted, the black light swallowed the white light, the [Taiyi] Dao Fruit suppressed the Qingyun Golden Lamp, and the Immortal Venerable's eyes were calm.

"All living beings are different. Wisdom, wealth, and status are what they desire. If they can control themselves, height, weight, and appearance are also what they desire."

"If there is no one to control, the strong will take possession of everything with power and wealth. Who can check and balance them? Who can guarantee the survival of the weak? If they cannot even survive, what else can they talk about?"

"It is our duty to check and balance the strong and sustain the weak. If we cannot provide guidance, what difference is there between us and non-existence?"

Chu Tai firmly disagreed with the Immortal Venerable's words. He almost scolded: "Then it doesn't exist!"

"Life cannot be put on a scale to be measured! All living beings should not be copied from a template. If all living beings really need to be the same, then the Supreme Dao Ancestor should not have given all living beings spirituality!"

Chu Tai looked towards the Immortal Master Yuanshi with a firm gaze. At this moment, the debate between the two sides had reached a point where they were irreconcilable.

The Immortal Venerable's philosophy, after all, is to equally deprive everyone of their right to choose in order to allow more people to survive.

All living beings are no longer a collection of individual entities, but an individual called all living beings.

Therefore, in order to continue the individual called "living beings", the Immortal Venerable can abandon a small part of the construction of this individual.

In his opinion, it was like a person giving up a part of his hair or a small section of his finger in order to survive.

It may affect your life in the future, but at least you are alive now, and there is a possibility of recovery in the future, so why not do it?
But all living beings should have their own characteristics. If all living beings really appear the same and are all arranged by one will, then what is the difference between them and puppets?
"We should guide them towards a better future, a future where everyone is united and everything they want can be achieved!"

Auspicious clouds spread out above the Immortal Venerable's head, revealing a paradise where countless living beings lived and worked in peace and contentment. As he said, everyone had a perfect appearance and could change it at will according to their own thoughts, and whatever they thought and desired in their hearts could be satisfied.

"How many people will have to be sacrificed for such a future, and is there still a future?"

"If the sacrificed people cannot enter the paradise, can this paradise really be called paradise?"

"If you sacrifice wisdom and rationality in exchange for getting what you want, isn't that really what you want under your control?"

The black light emitted by the Tao Fruit of Taiyi fell into it, illuminating all sentient beings who were unable to reach the paradise or were sacrificed.

Piles of bones form the foundation of the paradise, but they can never enter it.

At the same time, when the black light fell into the eyes of the creatures in the paradise, it gave them new desires, and they asked for more and more, and the paradise gradually could not be maintained.

"If all beings are one, then the sacrificed ones are the past of all beings. Then the you of the past is not you? And all beings are reincarnated. How can you say that those people did not enter the paradise?"

Celestial music resounded, golden flowers fell, and the bones turned into fertile soil in the paradise, and his image also appeared in the paradise.

Then the clear light cleanses, the desires of all beings fade away, and they are able to control themselves, reconcile the relationship between heaven and man, and their desires are no longer without limits.

Chu Tai smiled and said, "Then you are on my path. In the final analysis, the conflict between you and me is still a conflict between heaven and man. If there is another one, then heaven is great, man is great, and heaven and man are one."

"Then I'll get involved too?"

As a light laugh sounded, the shadow of the overseas Tongtian Immortal appeared in front of the two.

Yuanshi Xianzun looked unhappy and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"It's rare. Now you can only show some emotion in front of me."

Tong Tian Xian Zun sneered, flicked his sleeves, and a cloud of light appeared. He lay on it, looked at Chu Tai and said, "Boy, your theory sounds good. Are you interested in practicing with me?"

"I previously debated with the Immortal Master Yuanshi, and I roughly understand his path. I wonder what your path is?"

Tong Tian Xian Zun laughed and said, "What path can I take? Isn't it just cultivating myself? I am different from my Taoist brother. He is a hard worker. He always thinks that he has a high level of cultivation and should care about all living beings. He thinks all day long about how to help all living beings avoid problems. But in my opinion, this is all bullshit!"

Tongtian's expression suddenly changed, and he said with disdain: "All living beings have their own destiny. Why should he pinch his hand forcibly? Now it's good, and he has put himself in it. The more the catastrophe comes, the more ruthless and desireless he is. He only has a little popularity when he meets me." "What you call cultivating yourself is to teach immortal methods indiscriminately, which has led to an increase in the number of cultivators, a decline in spiritual charm, and even the development of some cannibalistic methods?"

Yuanshi Immortal Venerable showed a little anger and said: "If it weren't for your reckless behavior, which led to an increase in the number of immortals, this catastrophe could have been postponed for three hundred years."

"If it is postponed for three hundred years, either the conflict between the gods and humans will become more serious, or your Kunlun lineage will be able to dominate the world. No matter which one it is, more people will die, and you will never be able to regain consciousness."

After Tong Tian Xian Zun responded coldly, he looked at Chu Tai and said, "Although I don't like Brother Yuan Shi's philosophy, he is indeed not the type to let you die for the so-called overall situation. He wants to kill himself first, cut off the unnecessary emotions, and then push the plan forward. According to his plan, even if it fails, someone will cut off the heaven-man channel, and he himself will be used as a sacrifice to repair the damage caused."

"But I think this is wrong. The life and death of all living beings are arranged by him. They live because of him and die because of him. In the end, we should be grateful to him. How can this make sense!"

"So I chose to teach the scriptures. As long as they are willing to listen to my teachings, I will accept everyone. I don't care about their future practice, and I don't set rules for them. All choices are left to them."

"During this process, I don't care if they benefit the world or cause chaos. Everything is their own decision, and they will bear the consequences themselves."

After hearing this, Chu Tai, who originally had a slight favorable impression of Tongtian Immortal Venerable, immediately determined that this person was not normal either.

Finally, he couldn't help but say, "But, without the magic you taught me, the disaster they caused wouldn't be so serious."

"Then there won't be so many people who benefit from those who do good deeds."

Tong Tian Xian Zun chuckled and retorted, but Yuan Shi Xian Zun scolded him, "But the nature of sentient beings is easy to indulge, but difficult to restrain. If you don't restrain them, how many people will be good? Your disciples are said to have thousands of immortals coming to pay homage, but most of them are furry and horned people with no ethics or morals."

"So-called ritual ethics are nothing more than restraints to constrain people's hearts. They are the worst way to wear down one's nature. Besides, most of my disciples are not human. Why should we practice according to human requirements? If one loses one's nature, can one still be considered a cultivator?"

As Tongtian Immortal Venerable spoke, three flowers and five energies emerged on the top of his head, five white waves washed back and forth, water splashed, and endless rosy light surged.

Countless complicated causes and changes rushed into the black and white chess game, messing up the black light interpreted by Chu Tai and the white light interpreted by Yuan Shi, without any order at all.

Instinctively, Chu Tai wanted to stop him, but before he could do anything, he realized something was wrong, so he stopped and looked at Tong Tian Xian Zun, and saw that he smiled and said, "You are more sober than our Taoist brother. He took action directly at the beginning."

As he spoke, Tong Tian Xian Zun looked into the void and shouted, "Brother Daode, how long have you been standing there watching? Why don't you come out?"

Following Tongtian's shout, a white-haired Taoist slowly walked out. He looked at Chu Tai and said, "You are smarter than me. You didn't let Tongtian lead you to this fate."

Hearing this, Chu Tai guessed what Tong Tian Xian Zun was thinking. He looked back at him and asked, "You know there is something wrong with your path, but you don't want to change it. However, you are worried that you will lose control in the end, so you push Daode Xian Zun to Yuanshi Xian Zun's side?"

"No, I didn't push Brother Daode to the other side. He made his own decision."

"Speaking of which, his path is somewhat similar to yours. He also advocates change as the main thing, and believes that change is the only thing that never changes between heaven and earth, so we should not fix the future. But he also believes that we should try to reduce our interference in everything, slow down the changes of everything, and then achieve the results we want."

"The latter is reflected in Brother Yuanshi Dao's paradise, which is the heavenly beings whose thinking becomes slower."

"The former is reflected in my path, but not much. Generally speaking, he is the representative of the unity of man and nature. It's a pity..."

Chu Tai added, "You've gone too far. The chaos you've brought has exceeded the order that Yuanshi Immortal Venerable can maintain. Moreover, this world needs order and positive changes, so Daode Immortal Venerable has sided with Yuanshi Immortal Venerable and has stood against you."

"Yes, this is the problem I will face in the future. It is also one of the best futures that Brother Yuanshi sees. My sect is almost destroyed, and most of the disciples have ascended to the Heavenly Palace to become ministers of the Emperor of Heaven. This completely cuts off the possibility of the old gods returning and maintains the order of the current time period."

Tong Tian nonchalantly spoke of his inevitable failure in the future, then stared at Chu Tai and smiled: "But it's different now. Your joining and new choices have brought obvious changes to this future."

"When Brother Yuanshi still had emotions, he could have ignored it, or was willing to wait and see if you could bring about new changes. But when the calamity progressed and his emotions gradually faded, your existence became very annoying."

"Now, make a choice. Will you help Brother Yuanshi and Brother Daode to suppress me, or will you choose to join me in bringing new changes to this world?"

Upon hearing this, Immortal Master Yuanshi and Immortal Master Daode also looked at Chu Tai.

"Do I have to choose between the two of you?"

Chu Tai gave an unexpected answer. He looked at the world and said, "For me now, giving sentient beings more choices is my path, but I cannot interfere with them. No matter whether this interference is good or bad, and no matter whether the results they get after seeing more possibilities are good or bad, it doesn't matter to me."

"My existence is like an objective phenomenon that does not interfere with other things. It is just there to provide more information instead of helping people make choices."

“Is this your choice to give up yourself?”

The expression of the Immortal Master Tongtian turned somewhat ugly, while the Immortal Master Yuanshi and the Immortal Master Daode also frowned slightly.

Finally, Immortal Venerable Daode spoke slowly: "If you do not want to interfere with the changes in the human world, we may have to temporarily confine you here just in case."

"Banned me? I see, this is actually your purpose..."

Chu Tai smiled, the Donghuang Bell shook gently, and an illusory portal appeared above his head. Then his figure gradually faded and disappeared bit by bit in the current time period.

The three Immortal Lords all frowned. They could feel that Chu Tai's traces had disappeared in the current period of time, but his [Taiyi] Dao Fruit was still functioning normally. All living beings between heaven and earth could still sense more choices, and many forces were also driving changes, but they just couldn't sense Chu Tai's existence.

Tong Tian Xian Zun frowned and whispered: "His power is still running. His Dao Fruit must rely on something to exist in the world. Does it need to be sealed?"

When saying this, Tongtian looked at Yuanshi. Among the three, the one who most wanted to imprison Chu Tai must be Yuanshi, and the medium for Chu Tai to stay in the human world might also be his disciple Taiyi Zhenren.

Therefore, Tongtian was very curious about what choice Yuanshi would make at this moment.

(End of this chapter)