Shangyuque

Chapter 358 What Dao Ancestor Immortal Venerable? He's just the number one male prostitute in the Great Heaven and Earth!
Wang Yulou genuinely wanted to be fair to his subordinates, to the cultivators in the Red Serpent War meat grinder, to the cultivators who died in the Immortal Alliance battle, and to give the Immortal Alliance a fair chance, but he failed.

Now, having redefined the principle of fair power, the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable has succeeded.

This is not absurd; the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable, who controls the strongest productive forces, is capable of defining too many things.

But this did not stop Han Zhan, who was standing in the crowd, from feeling an uncontrollable surge of murderous intent.

The mysterious savage elephant, I want to kill it!

The domineering Jade Palace, I want to kill!

Old Deng, who holds a high position in the Ten Provinces Court and eats lavishly every day, should all be killed!

He could also feel the gazes from all directions, but he couldn't be as composed as the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable.

Therefore, he chose to bow his head and hide his murderous intent.

Han Zhan is not an individual, but a representative of a group.

There will always be newcomers, filled with murderous intent, kneeling and weeping beneath the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable, expressing their boundless loyalty.

The Immortal Venerable simply waved his hand, and Qin Churan gracefully entered the arena beside him.

Will an accident happen at this moment?

The Immortal Lord did not know.

In fact, everything went very smoothly.

Those True People who participated in the struggle for the Dao Fruit seemed to have long since secretly accepted that the Dao Fruit was irrelevant to them.

A large portion of them share similar ideas with Han Zhan—if they can't compete for first place, they'll aim for the top five, or at least the top ten.

Even those in the top ten can change their own development trajectory.

Although the narrative emphasizes that the final victor must be the most outstanding, in reality, cultivators who have truly reached the Real Person realm understand the logic that there is a chance if they keep going—of course, this is different from Lao Mang's secret despair.

The difference lies in the fact that different people perceive the Dao fruit differently.

Lao Mang was too ambitious, the situation was difficult, and his personal competitiveness was insufficient, so he was overwhelmed by his own ambition.

Those who participate in the Dao Fruit competition are basically in the stage of 'I'll eat a few bites first to make sure I'm not hungry.'

Above the Dragon Seeking Field, nearly a hundred True Immortals stood in mid-air, listening to the admonitions of the Dao Ancestor Chongliu.

"Since the Water Purification Ancestor began replenishing the water for heaven and earth, twelve hundred years have passed."

Chongliu Daozu, a disciple of Jade Palace Immortal Venerable, serves as the current face of the Liezhou Dao Court—its number one ox and horse.

He is the one who does things openly, and the Black-haired grandson whom the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable relies on more, is not so famous.

Because Black-haired Grandson has a deeper connection with Jade Palace Immortal Venerable, this chess piece naturally received more care from the Immortal Venerable.

This may sound counterintuitive, but it is true—pieces that are at the forefront are always more likely to wear down.

For example, when Chongliu was there putting on a show of giving instructions and using the competition where the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable was distributing favors to build consensus within the Liezhou Dao Court, many cultivators on the stands of the Dragon Seeking Arena started criticizing him directly.

"Tsk tsk tsk, sometimes I don't understand why a Dao Ancestor, a Celestial Venerable, and a leader of a Dao Court would need two names."

The Pure Water Dao Ancestor and the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable, Dao Ancestors from beyond the heavens, are ultimately not the original Dao Ancestors of our world. They only give opportunities to their Daoist partners, and yet they still pretend to fool us. Do they take us for fools?

"You don't understand. You and I are not fools, but there are countless cultivators in the Dao Court. There are hundreds of thousands of people attending the ceremony today alone."

With hundreds of thousands of cultivators present and tens of millions of cultivators absent, such a large number will surely attract a large number of people who believe in them.

Thus, the Dao Ancestor and the Immortal Venerable achieved their goal.

"What can we do? Just watch ourselves get killed by these powerful cultivators?"

"Hard to say."

Silence fell over the stands once again.

The most important strategies are always incredibly simple.

It is clear that the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's methods are not particularly sophisticated.

But why is it that it has been able to get to where it is today, and why is it able to manage so many cultivators from the Liezhou Dao Court and the Four Spirit Realms?

The clever ones among ordinary cultivators can see that the Immortal Venerable is intentionally creating more people to bear the consequences in order to maintain the stability of his own system, but they cannot comprehend the deeper underlying logic.

In reality, the Immortal Venerable simply seized those key opportunities, accumulated the momentum for victory, broke through the limits of individual development, and built a ruling system centered around himself.

"Hard to say?"

"Everyone dislikes that woman and suppresses their dissatisfaction, but the problem is never that woman, but our beloved Pure Water Dao Ancestor and Jade Palace Immortal Venerable."

"Since the Dao Ancestor Immortal Venerable can stir up the situation to such an extent, all we lesser cultivators of the Dao Court can do is conform to the trend he has created; this is the most advantageous path for ourselves."

Everything hinges on victories at crucial moments and during key changes.

For ordinary people, it means fastening the first button of their lives correctly.

For cultivators, it's about seizing those crucial opportunities.

Simple instincts drive people to believe that hard work is worthwhile, that tomorrow will be better, that the future will be bright, and that as long as they cultivate themselves, there will be hope—but in reality, if they miss key changes and opportunities, once or twice, they gradually lose all chance.

Just like now, many people clearly know that Chongliu is talking nonsense, and many people clearly know that Chongliu knows he is talking nonsense.

But this absurd thing, and the Liezhou Dao Court, the Water Replenishment Conference, and the Immortal Venerable System, which still managed to do this absurd thing despite the opposition of the vast majority of people, just happened to be able to continue operating.

The cruel reality that productive forces determine relations of production is that when an individual's mastery of productive forces reaches a certain level, a tremendous qualitative change will inevitably occur, thereby establishing relations of production that depend on that individual.

The cultivators watching the Dao Fruit competition at the Liezhou Dao Court were all dependents within the production relations established by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable. If they didn't participate, there were plenty of other cultivators who would.
Therefore, hatred is useless. Only those cultivators who can accept the situation of the Red Lantern and the Immortal Cultivation World, just as the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable accepted the situation of the Red Lantern and the Immortal Cultivation World, can cultivate their own variables and opportunities while accepting some of the realities.

In this dimension, anyone who still struggles with whether the Immortal Venerable is good or bad must be part of the 'cost-bearers'.

The Immortal Venerable is not human, but his cultivation influences everyone.

The power of the Immortal Venerable is so great that even Dao Ancestors and Golden Core cultivators dare not utter a word.

To resist at this time is to gamble your life for victory when the 'enemy' is at its strongest. It might have a good outcome, but if you lose, you will lose everything.

"Fellow Daoist, your words are more enlightening than those of Dao Ancestor Chongliu. May I ask, who exactly are you, Fellow Daoist?"

"Cough! Cough!"

The cultivators from the Dragon-Seeking Sect, disciples of the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable, realized that they had completed their task of 'guiding people's hearts' somewhat hastily. After coughing awkwardly twice, they quickly tried to make amends.

"I'm no saint or anything. I'm just a rogue cultivator who's been studying how to change one's fate for a long time. I've slowly figured out some tricks of the trade."

Alas, it's so difficult. The path is right there, but for cultivators like us at the bottom, even if we see it, we don't have the strength to climb it.

Let's not talk about that anymore, let's just enjoy the view. Hmm, Fairy Chu Ran is so beautiful.

The immortal is micromanaging.

Since this is a crucial moment, don't pretend to be calm and collected.

Knowing when to give your all and actually doing so is what a practitioner should be like.

He promoted Qin Churan, used bait to lure people in, tarnished his own reputation, manipulated public opinion, cultivated those who would bear the consequences, gave his subordinates hope, and deliberately used a roundabout method to lure Huanpei—all at once.

It's great to have multiple ways to cook a fish, but you have to be very careful when doing it.

The cultivators of the Liezhou Dao Court in the stands were expressing their dissatisfaction, but this did not affect Chongliu; it continued to output power.

"During the Water Replenishment Era, countless Water Replenishment Heroes were born. It is because of the selfless dedication of one cultivator after another to the cause of Water Replenishment that the Liezhou Water Replenishment Spiritual Land has achieved its current prosperity!"

Those who are dissatisfied, have opinions, or think they can refuse to be fuel for the Immortal Venerable's cultivation are not the Immortal Venerable's target group.

In the end, they will use force to filter out those disloyal cultivators of the Liezhou Dao Court who are unwilling to dedicate themselves to the water replenishment cause.

It sounds like the Immortal Venerable is a beast, and in reality, the Immortal Venerable is indeed a beast.

There's no other way; the competitive environment is like this, and the Immortal Venerable is already quite human-like.

The actions of the Jinzhou Dao Court are truly outrageous—choose the most useless person, give them the opportunity to obtain the Dao Fruit, and then let this useless person thoroughly annoy Wang Yulou.

Under this approach, the cultivators of the Jinzhou Dao Court had no chance to participate in the allocation of Dao Fruit opportunities.

It is actually an internal requirement: the opportunity for Dao Fruit given by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable will yield a black-hearted Dao Fruit. You must not accept this black-hearted Dao Fruit and can only accept the 'proper Dao Fruit' given to you by the Immortal Venerables of our Jinzhou Dao Court.

To prevent you from making mistakes, we'll destroy this evil fruit first.

The problem is that the Immortal Venerable's wicked Dao Fruit guaranteed him a place in the Transformation Realm, while the Jinzhou Dao Court's legitimate Dao Fruit...
In short, it's even more absurd.

Of course, there will also be the most outstanding cultivators from the Jinzhou Dao Court who will emerge victorious in the competition and obtain a portion of the Dao Fruit given by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable.

This is unstoppable—the more brutal the place, the more resilient individuals it has.

"Master has decided to select cultivators who have made meritorious contributions to replenishing water from the Dao Courts of the Ten Provinces and impart the wonders of the Great Dao to them!"

"Help him directly enter the Transformation Realm!"

It's impossible to directly enter the Transformation Realm, but when it comes to propaganda, you always say things that sound good.

But the polite cultivators of the Four Spirit Realms don't care about this or that.

After Chongliu explained the Immortal Venerable's incredible benefits, the cultivators watching from the stands immediately started criticizing him.

"Damn it, how did Qin Churan end up contributing to the hydration? Didn't she just suddenly appear out of nowhere?"

This shows that he still hopes the rules should be followed. He thinks that since the disciples of the Immortal Venerable are making grand pronouncements, at least you should at least follow them a little.

However, one of Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's aims was to tarnish his own image and thus lower his subordinates' expectations of him.
The complexity of spiritual practice dictates that there are no simple solutions.

What seems like a roundabout way is actually the fastest route.

The Jade Palace Immortal Venerable clearly understood the difference in efficiency.

Rather than have his subordinates offer their loyalty with resentment, the Immortal Venerable would rather not see them turn on him after his defenses are breached and his illusions shattered.

It is well known that fans who turn against their idols are always more destructive than haters.

Therefore, self-defilement is not an absolute method with only purely negative effects.

You wouldn't know that.

An old immortal, suddenly seized by youthful exuberance, spent the night battling a fairy by lamplight.

Fairy Chu Ran, behind our backs, has been replenishing the Dao Ancestor's water quite a bit.

"When it comes to replenishing moisture, Fairy Chu Ran is undoubtedly the most meritorious!" All contradictions turned into sexual repression. This cultivator believed that the Immortal Venerable was also sexually repressed, which was why he was so doting on his little Daoist partner.

"Alright, alright, you Foundation Establishment cultivators, why don't you take a piss and look at yourselves in the mirror? Even if you could just give away Dao Fruits, it wouldn't be your turn or mine. Say less."

This is someone with a clear mind who knows they cannot jump out and directly confront the tangible black hand of the Immortal Venerable.

"He can do it, but we can't talk about it? It's fine to do things privately, but don't put on that act."

To do something so shameful while still wanting a good reputation—what's wrong with the Taoist Ancestor? He's still a shameless man trying to maintain a virtuous image.

"What Dao Ancestor, Immortal Venerable? In my opinion, he's just the number one slut in the entire universe!"

The Four Spirit Realms are not short of men; in the face of the Immortal Venerable's treacherous hand, someone finally stood up.

Totally crazy!

I'm done living!

"You sons of bitches, you're the ones who're yelling the loudest! Enforcement team cultivators, listen to my order, arrest those people!"

The Jade Palace Immortal Venerable has no shortage of dogs.

Something unknown bit the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable. Of course, the Immortal Venerable didn't need to bite back himself; naturally, Xiao Deng would offer his loyalty to the Immortal Venerable.

"The Jade-skinned Dog is coming! The Jade-skinned Dog is coming! Run!"

"How many of you jade-skinned dogs are female cultivators?"
"Following that beast, do you want to sell your asses?"

"I'm right here, grab me!"
"I just don't understand. He's clearly fooling everyone, so why are you all so upset when I say a few words?"

Brother Bu Huo remains steadfast—sacrificing himself for righteousness, today is the day!

Seeing his arrogance, the Jade Dogs immediately pounced on him, and the area on the stands instantly descended into chaos.

Chongliu frowned, but maintained his own pace, because his master had not expressed any opinion.

The seats of the Dao Ancestors were unusually quiet.

How many years have the lower-level cultivators been cultivating?
They were all alone, living like wandering ghosts in the cultivation world, so naturally they had no scruples.

The Dao Ancestors sitting beside the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable were all warriors who had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, carrying the burdens of their arduous journeys and lofty aspirations.

Those sunk costs hijacked their decision-making.

Under the momentum of Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's victory, even if they had grievances, they would basically return to a special logic—was Jade Palace Immortal Venerable deliberately testing whether anyone wanted to resist his order and authority?
Therefore, the more the immortals' hooks swayed, the more firmly the Dao ancestors sat.

The "Don't Live" guy dares not live, but the "Old Deng" guys desperately want to live.

Because they do have a lot of cows.

In a sense, this also shows that those who have stable property have stable minds.

"Brother Bu Huo" was dealt with quickly, without even needing to defend himself.

They were directly ground to ashes.

The act of resistance, given the near-total monopoly of productivity by the high monks, had no impact whatsoever on the situation.

The explosion was silent, truly silent.

In the end, with the rebels reduced to ashes, the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable once again achieved a victory that was hardly worth mentioning.

He even felt a little bored—he had thought there would be rivers of blood.

Then, the Immortal Venerable yawned and urged.

"Alright, let's get started. Stop with the small talk."

Jade Palace Immortal Venerable was truly bored.

The suffering of the wild elephant was gradually revealed, and so was the suffering of the Jade Palace Immortal.

Back then, Xiaoyu told Wang Yulou that longevity wasn't so appealing, and the cultivation of the Golden Core was extremely arduous. Those who attained the Dao even had to deliberately find opponents to keep their goals anchored.

Even for someone of Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's stature, these words of advice only resonated with him after he had truly experienced them.

Allies and partners outwardly smile and are not easily attacked by opponents—they greatly respect the interests of Jade Palace Immortal Venerable. Even though the huge risk of the Jade Pendant could explode at any time, it just doesn't.

The pressure may seem nonexistent, but it is actually so great that even the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's deliberate attempts to lure the snake out of its hole by feigning weakness could not succeed.

Do those people really obey the order given by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable?

Bullshit!

They're just waiting for a better opportunity to deliver the final blow.

But these things are not difficult for the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable.

No matter how difficult or complicated, it's not difficult.

The so-called competition among the top talents of the ten states for the Dao Fruit is nothing more than a bone casually tossed out by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable.

The judgment of the Great Heaven and Earth Golden Elixir Clan was correct. With the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's caliber, he could win either way. If he failed, he could try to win again from another direction.

His only two troubles right now are the conflict between Wuji and Wuji—which he can't control, and Huanpei's spying—which he can't control either.

We can only drag it out, because time is on our side.

All he had to do was keep searching for the path to supremacy until he found it.

The momentum of victory has accumulated sufficiently, and all troubles and unexpected events are controllable in the mind of Jade Palace Immortal Venerable—completely under control.

When the path of change reaches its ultimate point, secondary changes can be ignored with absolute power, and primary changes become relatively simple.

But this process is just too boring.

At the end of his cultivation journey, Mangxiang saw only a dead end.

What the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable saw was a numbness of having no direction, yet having to move forward.

Only by losing sight of our original aspirations can we reach greater heights.

Without the initial aspiration, there is a lack of interest in continuing.

In theory, the point is to keep going.

In fact, in order to approach the absolute rationality of the Dao seekers, the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable has already abandoned too much of his ego.

In this process, the foundation of his personal subjectivity was actively dissolved by himself.

But there is no answer to this question, and no one can give the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable an answer.

Qin Churan is victorious.

Win, win, win! No one can stop us, no one is stubborn, no one dares to go crazy.

For the real people participating in the competition, having a small opportunity to pledge allegiance to the Immortal Venerable directly in front of him is surely a stroke of luck.
Those who insist on showing their difference by defeating the Immortal Venerable's partner in situations where the Immortal Venerable is on his territory, in the welfare distribution organized by the Immortal Venerable, in competitions involving the Immortal Venerable's partner, and in referees who are allies of the Immortal Venerable, will never reach the peak of the Celestial Realm.

However, looking at the playful competitions in the Dragon Seeking Field, a rare hint of weariness appeared in the Immortal Venerable's eyes.

As a teenager, he felt happy just to be one step ahead of Wang Yu'an.

After entering the path of cultivation, Wang Yulou resolved to change the fate of his family. However, the old patriarch, who had dedicated his life to the family, warned Wang Yulou before his death not to be trapped by the family.

Later, Xiao Wang defeated many prodigies, even Mang Xiang, and gradually cleared the Immortal Alliance.

Next came the lightning-fast attainment of the Golden Core, achieving in one step what many Dao seekers could never reach in their entire lives.

Then he won and won, winning and winning, with one unexpected event after another, yet the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable still won time and time again.

Logically, this is normal. The Immortal Venerable is not an accident or a chosen one; he is simply someone who has only been able to reach his current position by winning and winning and winning.

However, the external pressure from the momentum of victory will also have an internal effect.

Like blowing up a balloon, the more it was blown up, the bigger and bigger it became. Through victory, the Immortal Venerable ascended to an even higher realm.

But every victory, every breakthrough, is a step from the existing comfort zone, from the existing 'level of competition where victory is possible,' to a level of competition that is less familiar, more stressful, and more difficult to achieve victory in.

Jade Palace Immortal Venerable had to run down, because if he didn't, he would be crushed by this pressure.

The Jade Palace Immortal once used future potential to leverage support and favorable circumstances, thus creating his own legend.

But now, the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable has won so much that he dares not use the future to support him.

From those old men who clearly hated him to death but remained completely silent, the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable saw a terrifying possibility.

He didn't believe he was strong enough to indiscriminately crush so many geniuses from all realms and so many geniuses from different eras.

However, they were also constrained by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable's powerful judgment and decisiveness, and by the situation in the Four Spirit Realms, and were firmly suppressed by the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable.

What Jade Palace Immortal Venerable might have seen was that if he took another step forward, he might really face the situation of being devoured by the internal pressure.

The internal conflicts within mortal organizations still have a pattern and logic, but the internal conflicts within cultivator organizations, which are composed of non-human Dao Ancestors and Golden Core cultivators, will inevitably tend towards extremism.

In the fishing round, the Immortal Venerable won again.

But the Immortal Venerable did not feel happy; instead, he was filled with worry.

The Jade Palace Immortal Venerable felt unfamiliar with the first time he had won and lost.

Now, it's unclear how many times the polarization has turned into a loss. Although there's only a tendency for the polarization to turn into a loss, the Immortal Venerable must make potential preparations.

In fact, the concern that Jade Palace Immortal Venerable saw in the silence of the Golden Core cultivators of the Liezhou Dao Court was correct.

The ten prodigies of the Ten Provinces vie for the Dao Fruit, while the Dao Fruit holders of the Fierce Province share wives.

As a result, they failed to catch the fish that the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable wanted.

However, in another dimension, it gave Jade Palace Immortal Venerable a special perspective for judgment.

From this perspective, the potential risks he saw, and the fact that the Wuji Dao Master couldn't tolerate the resulting variables and harms, thus forcing Huanpei to kill him, are consistent with this strategy.
This demonstrates the judgment and decisiveness with which the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable remained confident in persevering even in the most complex and challenging confrontations.

Nothing had happened, victory was in sight, and things were going incredibly smoothly.

But the Immortal Venerable saw the risks of the future in the silence of the old men.

It's a hellish joke that the old men did nothing and were obedient, yet the Immortal Venerable still saw through their ambition at a glance.

On the other hand, it was almost a stroke of luck that the Immortal Venerable saw the future risks in the unlucky guy's numb resistance.

At least, when the Jade Palace Immortal Venerable begins to take further precautions, the threat posed by the jade pendant to him will be greatly reduced.
(End of this chapter)