This is the true immortal of the Taoist sect.

This is a very mysterious experience.

Through the Taoist temple and the statue inside that resembled him in three or four parts, Li Daoxuan could vaguely sense the wisps of prayer power in the incense.

This power is extremely magical; it is different from magical power, and even more different from martial arts true energy.

It seems to exist between illusion and reality.

It contains some kind of rule of heaven and earth.

If one had to describe it, perhaps the word "divine power" would be appropriate.

Because Li Daoxuan discovered that if these powers could be gathered together and refined, this power could be omnipotent.

However, this force is also highly polluting.

That's right, it's pollution.

This power comes from the seven emotions and six desires of those ordinary pilgrims.

They burn incense and kowtow not only out of reverence, but more so to worship the desires in their hearts.

They prayed for protection, wealth, peace, and all things to go smoothly.

This power can grant them these wishes, but it can also corrupt the source of these powers, namely Li Daoxuan.

However, this force is currently very weak and cannot have any effect on Li Daoxuan.

However, if these problems accumulate over the years, they will inevitably lead to some hidden dangers.

Li Daoxuan seemed to be deep in thought, and muttered to himself:

"This is the way of the gods... Through these offerings and prayers, the gods can fulfill the desires of believers, and the believers will then contribute their offerings and prayers even more devoutly..."

If this cycle continues, the gods will become puppets of this power, and under the nourishment of endless desires, they will also give birth to even more powerful desires.

Li Daoxuan suddenly realized.

"I see... So in the Taoist mythological system, even gods need to be bound by the rules of heaven and earth, and have heavenly precepts and divine responsibilities."

In the Taoist mythological system, each god has a specific divine function, not because these gods can only do these things, but for the sake of two words—purity.

Amidst the offerings and prayers of hundreds of millions of believers worldwide, deities can only draw upon the offerings within the scope of their own divine authority.

In this way, one can discard many other complicated desires, thus maintaining the purity of the deity and preventing it from being corrupted by incense offerings and vows, thus becoming an evil god.

Thus, the Investiture of the Gods and the Heavenly Rules and Regulations came into being.

When gods make mistakes, the consequences are far more severe than for mortals.

After figuring these things out, Li Daoxuan had new plans for the Taoist temple.

He is the founder of Taoism and does not need these offerings and vows to help him cultivate.

He also looked down on these diverse forces.

Therefore, Li Daoxuan directly severed the connection between the statue and himself.

All the power of desire was concentrated in the statue, and a restriction was inscribed with the primordial spirit to prevent the statue from being corrupted by desire and turning into an evil god.

However, speaking of statues, Li Daoxuan suddenly thought of the Zixiao Palace built by his eldest disciple Qingfeng in the Jingming Cave Heaven on Qingxu Mountain, where a statue of him was also enshrined.

Because they lived in two different worlds, Li Daoxuan didn't notice this.

Moreover, the spiritual energy of Jingming Cave was previously scarce, so even with a large number of believers, it was difficult to generate the magical power of incense offerings and vows.

But things are different now. With the completion of Yujing Mountain and Lingxi transforming into a spiritual vein, even if the spiritual energy of the entire Jingming Cave Heaven has not recovered after so many years, the Qingxu Mountain area must have undergone considerable improvement.

Therefore, the statues in Zixiao Palace must have accumulated a great deal of divine power.

Li Daoxuan immediately found a quiet place, sat down cross-legged, and began to sense with his primordial spirit.

Following the power of heaven and earth, Li Daoxuan successfully sensed the existence of the Jingming Cave Heaven this time.

The will of heaven and earth in the Jingming Cave seemed to have gotten used to him and did not stop him, allowing Li Daoxuan's primordial spirit power to enter smoothly.

As expected, when Li Daoxuan deliberately went to investigate, he immediately sensed the more than ten-foot-tall Heavenly Venerable statue in the Zixiao Palace of Qingxu Mountain, as well as the vast and complex incense and vow power contained within the statue.

"Wow... as expected, this statue has also gathered divine power..."

Moreover, since Li Daoxuan is the original form of this statue, he can mobilize these divine powers without any hindrance.

However, these divine powers were so complex that Li Daoxuan couldn't immediately distinguish whether they were divine power or demonic power...

He was 100% certain that if these powers were poured into a mortal's body, the person's desires and obsessions would be amplified infinitely, causing them to fall into the demonic path and become a ruthless demon.

"Luckily, it was discovered in time... It seems we need to find a way to resolve this, or perhaps create a technique to extract the power of incense offerings?"

On the surface, this matter may not seem like a big deal, but Li Daoxuan knew that if it was left unattended, it would surely lead to a major disaster in the future.

Moreover, the source of these statues and divine power lies with him. As the Xuanhuang Dao Ancestor recognized by Heaven and Earth, if these statues were to be nurtured into evil gods, the Heavenly Dao Will of the Xuanhuang Great World would probably regard them as part of Li Daoxuan and would not take action to erase them.

Therefore, it is essential to take preventative measures in advance.

The best approach would naturally be to refine away the impure elements within these offerings and prayers, extracting only the purest prayers to transform into divine power, and then establishing a systematic set of divine rules so that all deities can only operate according to these rules, thus ensuring peace of mind in the future.

But this is also a major path, so how could it be created so easily?

"Sigh... this thing, it probably couldn't be created without hundreds or even thousands of years of seclusion..."

Li Daoxuan sighed helplessly.

Let's put this matter aside for now. Since we're already here, let's take a good look at the disciples' situation through this statue.

With a thought, Zixiao Palace suddenly trembled slightly, but no one noticed anything unusual.

There was only a little girl who was worshipping the gods with her mother, and she kept looking up at the statue of the Heavenly Deity out of curiosity.

The moment the statue trembled, the little girl's eyes widened suddenly, and then she tugged at her mother's clothes with delight, pointing at the statue and saying:

"Mother...Mother...the stone man's eyes moved..."

Upon hearing the little girl's words, the woman's expression changed drastically, and she looked terrified.

He slapped the little girl's hand, saying with great trepidation:

"Children speak without thinking, children speak without thinking... Your Majesty, the child is ignorant, please don't take it to heart..."

The little girl was confused when the woman pressed her head down and made her kowtow several times.

She bumped her forehead until it was red and her eyes were brimming with tears; she looked like she was about to cry.

Just then, a figure radiating golden light flew out of the statue, stood in front of the little girl, and looked at her with a smile.

The little girl immediately forgot to cry, staring wide-eyed at the golden-glowing deity, then tilted her head to look at the statue behind the golden deity, her eyes widening instantly.

Before she could speak, the divine being smiled and gently touched the little girl's forehead, and the redness and swelling on her forehead disappeared instantly.

"Don't cry, sweetie..."

The divine being gently comforted him.

Then he gestured for the little girl to be quiet, waved to her, and slowly disappeared.

And no one else noticed any of this.

The little girl snapped out of her daze, glanced at her mother, and seemed about to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

Before parting, the little girl looked back at the statue and gave it a bright smile.

She secretly waved at the statue and said in a childish voice:

"Goodbye, Celestial Venerable..."