I alone have my own laws; I start by fabricating myths and legends of mountains and seas.

Chapter 139 Dead End

Xia Jie suddenly turned around, his gaze like lightning, shooting towards the Buddhist and Taoist camp: "What do you seek in your cultivation? Is it to transcend the sea of ​​suffering, or to establish your own faith?"

An old monk paused, his prayer beads stilled, and slowly opened his eyes, which remained calm and serene: "Those who cultivate themselves uphold the precepts and refine their minds, seeking only to understand their true nature and to liberate themselves and others!"

"Enlightenment? Self-salvation and helping others?" He repeated the old monk's words, his tone devoid of emotion, yet it seemed to lower the temperature in the room even further. "Interesting! Very interesting indeed! Let me ask you, when you chant scriptures, burn incense, and pray, do you know where the deities you seek are?"

The old monk remained unmoved, his withered fingers slowly twirling the prayer beads: "The Buddha sits in the heart, the Tao is in nature. The divine is not an external thing, but a reflection of the pure nature of all beings, and also the principle governing the operation of heaven and earth. Our cultivation is not to kneel and worship clay figures, but to wipe away the dust of the heart, to see the true nature, and to use this to save ourselves and others."

"Hahaha!" Xia Jie suddenly threw his head back and laughed, his laughter filled with sarcasm and a cruel insight. "I observe your auras; though they are mixed and weak, they have an extremely thin connection with the gods! You are merely ordinary mortals with a little more nurtured spirituality! Your so-called abilities are nothing more than begging for mercy from ghosts and gods!"

He stepped forward, an invisible pressure crashing down like a mountain: "What do you think those so-called gods, Buddhas, and celestial beings are? They merely exist by exploiting the power of incense offerings and the concepts of sentient beings! There were humans before there were gods! This path is blocked, or rather, the end of this path is already occupied by humans."

These words struck like a thunderbolt, resonating in the hearts of many Buddhist and Taoist practitioners! Xia Jie's words ruthlessly tore open the true nature of the existence of gods within the system of faith and divine arts: the existence of gods depends on the faith of believers! The abilities of believers depend on the blessings of the gods!

The younger Taoist priests and monks' expressions changed drastically, their eyes revealing shock and unease. Even the elders frowned, some even stopping their chanting and falling into deep thought.

"Nonsense!" An old Taoist priest with a gaunt face and a long sword on his back couldn't help but retort sharply, his eyes filled with anger. "Our Taoist sect worships deities, reveres the embodiment of the Great Dao, and emulates the ultimate principles of Heaven and Earth! How dare you, a demonic sect that feeds on slaughter and resentment, presume to speak of such things!"

"An incarnation of the Great Dao?" Xia Jie's gaze was like a knife, piercing the Taoist priest. "Ha! Observing the Dao of Heaven, acting in accordance with Heaven! Your vision is shallow; how can you know the essence of the gods? Let me tell you plainly: the path of faith can only accommodate one person; others who rely on this path are destined to achieve limited success!"

Xia Jie's voice was like a final judgment: "Your path may lead to genuine self-realization, but all your abilities depend on a powerful being, and you are like kindling that can be replaced or even stripped away at any time, without even realizing it!"

"Nonsense, you're talking nonsense!" The old Taoist's voice trembled slightly, a tremor he himself didn't even realize. The long sword on his back emitted a soft hum, a manifestation of his intense emotional turmoil. "True Martial—the embodiment of the Great Dao—how could it be—"

"What is it?" Xia Jie's voice coldly cut him off. "Is it the selfless and lofty ideal you imagine? Is it the manifestation of an unchanging, independent rule?"

He no longer looked at the old Taoist priest who had almost lost his Daoist heart. His gaze swept over all the Buddhist and Taoist practitioners, and his voice was like a declaration from the deepest hell: "The names of the gods and Buddhas you chant, the images of immortals you contemplate, are nothing more than a collection of concepts woven little by little over countless years by believers like you, with their faith, vows, yearning for beauty, and thirst for power!"

"First comes the prayer of man, then the ethereal form of the spirit; first comes the thoughts of all beings, then the authority of the spirit is gathered! This is the root of faith-based divine arts."

The bottom is also its greatest prison!

Xia Jie, however, remained unconcerned. He merely swept his gaze coldly over the crowd and continued to ask in his icy yet penetrating voice, "Have you never noticed? Among you, those who have awakened to so-called divine arts, how similar is the essence of the power they obtain—the light, fire, purification, protection, healing, and even faint prophecies and perceptions they wield in the name of the gods—to the power that devout believers of Western Christianity, Catholicism, and other chaotic sects obtain from their Lords, Gods, and angels?"

He paused, each word like an icicle, piercing the most vulnerable parts of everyone's hearts: "It's nothing more than different names, different appearances, and different rhetoric for incantations and rituals. At their core, they are all about communicating with a higher-dimensional being, begging for, exchanging for, or borrowing its projected power! The more devout, singular, and fervent one's belief, the stronger and clearer the feedback that will be elicited!"

"Do you really believe this power originates from yourselves? From your understanding of the Great Dao, of Buddhahood?" Xia Jie's sarcasm almost overflowed. "No! It only originates from your devotion to that conceptual aggregate! Like the lowest servant, who pleases his master and receives a small reward! As for whether the reward is gold and silver or rice, whether it's Eastern or Western in style, what difference does it make? It's all handouts!"

"Then think about it again," his voice suddenly lowered, yet became even more oppressive, "are most of those in China who can awaken this divine blessing elderly people over sixty and nearing the end of their lives?"

This question, once posed, was like a bolt of lightning, instantly illuminating the eerie feelings that many people had vaguely sensed but had never deeply considered!

Yes! In today's vibrant rise of internal energy martial arts, primarily driven by young and middle-aged people, those truly on the path of faith...

Those who demonstrate clear divine abilities are indeed mostly elderly people! They may be unable to embark on the path of martial arts due to declining physical functions and fixed physique, but because of their lifelong devout worship of Buddhism and Taoism, they have obtained some extraordinary spiritual responses in their later years!

"That's because," Xia Jie's voice revealed the cruel truth, "deep within the origins of Chinese mythology, at the end of that path of faith and deification, sits a being who has truly reached the pinnacle, controlling the source, and even, to some extent, defining this path!"

"Zhuanxu, one of the Five Emperors of antiquity!" He slowly uttered the name, as if it carried some ancient weight. "He severed the connection between heaven and earth, cutting off mortals' direct communication with the gods. He was also the one who coveted the divine position, slaying the old gods to establish himself! He needed the power of faith to maintain his existence and path, but he did not want those who came after him to follow this path. Zhenwu, Buddha, God, and Allah are all puppets in his hands."

"He has reached his limit! On this path, those who come after him are destined never to reach the same heights, let alone even come close! His grace is to bestow a spark of inspiration upon an aging man whose potential has dried up!"

"This is not a blessing, it is mercy, it is charity! It is using scraps to appease you useless people who cannot embark on other righteous paths, and incidentally harvesting your insignificant but worthless piety to add a few weak flames to His eternal throne!"

Xia Jie's words tore the faith and divine magic apart, leaving it bleeding profusely!

This is not a promising road, but a narrow dead end that has long been monopolized by landlords, allowing tenants to eke out a living in certain corners, and where their right to reside may be taken back at any time!