Chapter 789: Definition of the world

When the Heavenly Dog landed, thunder and lightning flashed all around, and disaster followed.

One must know that the omen represented by the Heavenly Dog is ‘disaster’.

The atmosphere became turbid and humid due to the Heavenly Dog’s arrival, making it difficult for people to breathe; humans always felt tired and weak, then their minds became sluggish, and later their entire bodies became feeble.

Green scum began to erode and cover the earth, and these scums would squirm, occasionally bursting open from constantly expanding bubbles. These bubbles were somewhat like the poisonous gas emitted by decaying matter at the bottom of swamps, but the difference was that when the poisonous gas emerged, it would transform into venomous bees and locusts.

At that moment, strong winds uprooted houses and trees; one could see flying locusts emerging from the ground, leaving no grass untouched, acting like ghosts and monsters.

The surrounding weather was chaotic, the seasons were out of joint, droughts replaced yin, rivers ran dry and valleys emptied, rocks flowed and mountains scorched, there were no wisps of clouds in the sky, and wild gales swept across the land.

With the Heavenly Dog’s arrival, strange disasters appeared frequently.

The moment this Eighth Grade demon beast landed, it began to tear!

He bared his sharp teeth and, together with Zhang Xu, who was like a swimming Dragon beside him, completely widened the opening!

Meanwhile, the Human Dao Commander, after a brief hesitation, had already drawn his sword and advanced.

With his appearance, the Martial Dao Divine Intent spread all around; clearly, this Human Dao Commander also cultivated the Martial Dao.

However, his Martial Dao Divine Intent… was somewhat peculiar.

When he joined the battlefield, his Martial Dao Divine Intent melted and integrated into the battlefield.

One could see that the surrounding flowers, trees, poisonous insects, venomous bees, floor, soil, and even the various deceased soldiers and their equipment, as well as all things visible before them, all radiated an intensely sharp aura, like countless divine weapons and sharp swords!

This entire world was a sword.

From this Martial Dao Divine Intent, Zhang Xu felt… an arrogance that permeated the heavens and earth.

The entire world, under the control of the Martial Dao Divine Intent, had become a ‘tool’.

Humans need the world to become a sword, and so the world will become a sword.

What is a sword? A sword is an instrument of war created by humans. So, when humans need a sword, when they need to wage war, they will transform the world to create swords.

This is what the Martial Dao Divine Intent of an Eighth Grade Human Dao cultivator sought to express.

As for martial arts, or any respect for the sword, there was none.

It’s merely a tool, why should it be respected?

This is a sword, nothing more, no pretense. So-called swordsmanship, Sword Intent, Sword Qi, and sword realm are merely methods to better wield this weapon; it’s nothing extraordinary.

This filled Zhang Xu with shock and anger.

He was also a Martial Artist, and the education he received from a young age, as well as his own understanding, taught him to hold reverence for his skills and weapons.

If you only treat a weapon as a tool, how can you ever understand its Divine Intent?

However, such conflicts of Dao were utterly meaningless; the two sides were destined to meet in battle anyway.

Three Eighth Grades began to fight.

Two Martial Dao cultivators and an Eighth Grade demon beast initiated this war with the most intense methods.

Within a two-mile radius, layers of self-generated Sword Qi intertwined to form a unified world of swords. In this world, all things were swords; besides swords, there was nothing else, and nothing was anything but a sword.

But within it, Demon Qi continuously spread disaster, and Zhang Xu’s own Martial Dao Divine Intent also began to manifest.

This Baiyue Commander’s Martial Dao Divine Intent was born from self-reflection and adherence to his own being.

When his Martial Dao Divine Intent unfolded, he was almost unaffected by external disasters and Sword Intent, and he seemed to have formed a certain connection with his weapon, which imbued the weapon with some spiritual essence.

As a commander, although his talent was decent, he was largely incompatible with Shaman Dao, which demands extremely high talent. He also lacked the ability to seek out cultivation methods from other Daos, so cultivating the Martial Dao was almost the only way for him to reach Eighth Grade.

It was also for this reason that he developed reverence for his Dao, gratitude for his long spear, and trust in it.

Trusting those around him, trusting the spear in his hand, and then revering all of it—such sincerity provided him with motivation. Those familiar with Zhang Xu knew him to be a gentle person, meticulous and serious in everything, whether training soldiers, fighting, or in daily practice. He possessed a mindset akin to ‘piety,’ and this mindset gave him extraordinary drive, leading to Zhang Xu’s current achievements.

All of this originated from that.

This is the ‘Dao’ within one’s body, representing a person’s overall view of all the knowledge they possess, the way of thinking they employ, all their perceptions and perspectives on the world, their judgments on the value of all things, and so on.

And such a perspective needs to be combined with actual practice.

If one becomes overly immersed in constructing the Dao within, then it requires an equal or even far greater amount of practical experience to counterbalance and compare with one’s own Dao. Only then will one not stray; otherwise, it is easy to fall into the Demon Dao.

This is the essence of ‘Mortal World refining the heart’: you need to practice, otherwise you will only go astray. When reality and your Dao do not align, you either modify your own Dao or you must firmly adhere to it.

However, if the world and your Dao are severely misaligned, and you yourself are unwilling to change, it is very likely you will fall into the Demon Dao, becoming an extreme solipsist who believes the world is wrong and he himself cannot be wrong.

But one also cannot be without thought, solely relying on practice.

The benefit of thought lies in its overarching perspective, allowing those in lower dimensions to gain a glimpse of higher-dimensional vision and methodology. With this vision and methodology, one can guide their own practice.

Otherwise, one is merely a headless fly.

In the process of guiding practice, one will encounter ‘contradictions.’ Resolving contradictions, or recognizing contradictions, means either transforming reality or changing oneself.

But ultimately, if you want to forge your own path, combining your cognition and practice, you must base it on reality.

Just like now.

A Dao struggle.

This is a Dao struggle.

The support of the Demon Dao, the arrogance of the Human Dao, and Zhang Xu’s anger.

The Dao struggle was vividly displayed at this moment.

They swung their swords, thrust their spears, and fought with all their might, not for anything else, but to implement their will to transform the world.

This world should not be as the other side describes it.

You say the weapon in my hand is a tool, I say it is not.

You say all things in the world are tools for humans; I believe you lack sufficient respect for the things that help you.

Such a struggle cannot be reconciled.

From the First Grades of both Human and Shaman Dao sides—those indescribable, unimaginable, terrifying existences whose divine powers are beyond comprehension—down to Zhang Xu, that Heavenly Dog, and the Human Dao Commander before them… all of them fought for the same reason.

Death, blood, and all sacrifices were for this.

The war sweeping across the heavens was not about seizing interests, but about the ‘right to define’ this world.

Or rather, what they were fighting for was the Universe itself.

Thus, this war was no longer a vile struggle for profit.

For the Human Dao, what they contended for and defended was a world belonging to humans.

And for the Demon Dao and Shaman Dao, they were protecting a world where all things could coexist.

Perhaps for Zhang Xu, the Heavenly Dog, and the Human Dao Commander at this moment, they could not truly and deeply understand what they were protecting, but they all understood at this moment the reason why they had to fight.

There was no compromise, no retreating.

Even on such a small battlefield, where the highest combat power was only Eighth Grade, they still wielded their weapons to defend their own Dao.

The Human Dao, who viewed the world as a tool, and Zhang Xu, who held reverence for the world, with these two emotions, their weapons fiercely collided, and their Martial Dao Divine Intent also clashed, stirring up ripples.

Zhang Xu roared as he thrust his red great spear, while the opponent calmly parried the spear shaft. Sword Intent emerged from the ground like bamboo shoots, seemingly intent on piercing through people, but the power from the disaster pushed the Sword Intent back.

Two different Divine Intents, two different spirits, two different viewpoints, fiercely sparked, and these sparks were so magnificent that even with countless, intensely thick blood flowing within them, they could not obscure the brilliant light, like a galaxy of silver flowers—that was the phantom of ‘Dao’.

This is the Dao struggle, the longest-lasting and most irreconcilable major war in the entire Universe, and it will continue indefinitely.

The day the Dao struggle ends will be the end of all wars.

Because that represents the Fusion of all viewpoints and the unification of all thoughts without divergence.

At that time, one Dao could integrate all thoughts, unify all disputes, and eliminate all differences. Everyone would be surprised to find that their Dao was ultimately the same as others, that an ‘ultimate’ answer had appeared. This answer would be sufficient to explain all problems, to answer all things in the world; it would be the key to everything, a key that could open the doors to all problems in the world.

But before then… blood has not yet dried, the Dao has not yet reached its end, the answer has not been found, but the right to interpret the world is imminent… Therefore, only the blood on the sword’s edge is indispensable.

— — — — — — — —

Several hours later, Zhang Xu suddenly opened his eyes.

“The Junwei is awake! Doctor, quickly!” a voice came, and Zhang Xu recognized it as his adjutant’s.

He wanted to stand up cleanly and decisively as before, but the pain throughout his body forced him to lie down. He couldn’t move any part of himself except his eyes.

His throat felt like it was on fire, dry as a piece of rawhide, without a drop of saliva; even touching it with his hand felt dry.

However, the next moment, clear warm water was offered to him. He took two big gulps and finally felt a little better.

“How… how is the war?” Zhang Xu finally managed to speak, though his voice was hoarse.

“We won, we won, Junwei! The enemy was repelled, and we are currently reorganizing. Don’t speak, your injuries are too severe,” the adjutant said.

But Zhang Xu didn’t hear the rest of the words.

Because when he heard ‘we won,’ the tension in his heart immediately dissipated, and he fell back into a coma.

By the time he woke up again, it was already dark.

Sleep… or rather, unconsciousness, had restored some of his strength. The smell of medicine all around indicated that he had received good treatment, and the pain in his body had significantly lessened.

Getting up again, he looked around. He was in a tent, surrounded by junior officers and a doctor.

“What happened? How are my injuries?” he asked, his tone restored to its calm steadiness.

As for the battle, he only knew that he had won.

Since they won, there was no need to focus on it. He should first check on himself, lest he die here.

“The injuries are stable now; the doctor did an excellent job,” the adjutant said with a smile.

The group of junior officers behind him, those soldiers, also praised enthusiastically, as if nothing had happened.

Zhang Xu glanced at the sweat on the doctor’s head and the faint bloodstain on his neck… He knew that these men must have previously held swords to the doctor’s throat. If he had died while treating Zhang Xu, the doctor would likely have died too.

“Doctor, how long until I can get up?” Ignoring them, Zhang Xu asked directly. As for the bloodstain… he pretended not to see it; nothing had happened anyway.

The doctor wiped his sweat and said somewhat timidly, “The Junwei is strong, and with the internal Qi used for healing, plus my medicine, you’ll be able to get up by tomorrow at the latest.”

“Tomorrow? That fast?” He widened his eyes in surprise.

With such severe injuries, he could get up tomorrow? Was this truly a divine healer?!

“It’s not a matter of medical skill… but rather logistics. The General’s medicine cabinet is so abundant…” The doctor wiped his sweat. These people, their medicine cabinet was full of thousand-year-old Spirit Medicine. Such medicine didn’t even need processing; eating it raw could cure one.

It was clear that this team indeed bore a heavy responsibility. The doctor himself was a renowned physician in the region, pressed into service as a military doctor, considered temporary conscription.

“Oh, that’s good. Doctor, please go rest,” Zhang Xu dismissed the doctor.

The doctor quickly nodded and then left the place.

Inside the tent, only a group of soldiers remained, surrounding Zhang Xu.

“Don’t do such things again. The old man is not young, and he came to save lives. Be more polite,” Zhang Xu said, semi-reclined.

The others quickly nodded.

Then, Zhang Xu continued, “What are the casualties?”

The adjutant immediately stepped forward to report, “Only the vanguard suffered severe casualties, about three hundred people. Those Human Dao cultivators… truly aren’t afraid of death. After our reinforcements arrived, they immediately chose to retreat, and they didn’t rout; it was an orderly withdrawal, with a dedicated unit covering their rear.”

“And…” Recalling this, the adjutant paused, seemingly not having fully recovered from the shock, but after a moment of silence, he continued, “And the combat will of those who covered their rear was incredibly terrifying. Forty men held their ground and blocked our assault team for eight whole hours, giving the main Human Dao forces ample time to retreat. In the end, we didn’t capture a single survivor.”

The adjutant still felt lingering fear thinking about this.

How could anyone remain so resolute in a desperate situation?

Didn’t they feel fear? Didn’t they know that covering the rear was a suicide mission?

Zhang Xu, however, shook his head: “More than three hundred people… that’s too many. We are an isolated army now, with no supplies.”