Chapter 939: Reasons for the Humanitarian Alliance

The ultimate goal of humanity is 'to replace Heaven with man'.

What is meant by 'replacing Heaven with man' is that 'man' as a concept replaces everything, becoming the 'Absolute Entity'.

So, what is the Absolute Entity?

It refers to the ultimate nature of all reality.

The fundamental reason for the generation, existence, development, and change of all things in the world.

A red object is 'red' because we perceive it as red; to creatures without red vision, it is not red.

So, what color is it really?

Or, what is it really? What is behind this object? What is behind red?

From this perspective, the Demonic Dao is an obstacle. If you think about it carefully, as long as I think, no matter what I think about, 'I' am already pre-existent. Therefore, we cannot transcend the limits of 'I' to explore the true 'Entity'.

All the proofs you can provide are inevitably filtered through the perception of 'I'. The true Entity seems not to exist, or at least cannot be perceived.

This 'I' is an existence that all cultivators are bound to perceive.

But if you accept and sink into it, that is 'entering the Demonic Dao'. You no longer pursue the things behind it, but merely pursue self-interpretation, and naturally, you enter the Demonic Dao.

Therefore, this obstacle is called 'Demonic Obstruction', and the Demonic Dao parasitizes all Dao paths, drawing sustenance from them.

But... the 'Entity' behind the Demonic Obstruction should exist, right?

At least, humanity and Shaman Dao believe it exists.

Both humanity and Shaman Dao believe that there is an ultimate foundation for all things in the world. This ultimate Entity, which transcends everything, becomes everything, and interprets everything, is what they consider the 'Ultimate Great Dao'.

This Entity is called 'natural' by Shaman Dao.

And humanity wants to replace this thing, so that 'natural' is no longer the Entity of everything, but 'man' is the Entity of everything.

This plan is called 'to replace Heaven with man'.

Li Qi listened silently to Zhang Zong's introduction.

"The goal of the Manifested Daoist Faction is 'to replace Heaven with man', but not as the final goal, but as a stepping stone. When 'man' completes the replacement of Heaven with man, they can then break away from humanity and directly achieve 'existence independent of all Entities', thus directly achieving the goal of '逍遥'."

Zhang Zong poured Li Qi another cup and said, "What do you think of this plan?"

"That's... nonsense." Li Qi shook his head, "If humanity truly becomes the Absolute Entity, will the Dao Sect still have a chance to break free? Won't they be completely controlled by humanity?"

"Furthermore, even if humanity is willing to let go, but... if they cannot break free under the control of 'natural', can they break free under the control of 'man'? If they break free, where would they go?"

Zhang Zong explained, "Looking at the situation of humanity, there's no need to fear them going back on their word. Even in the worst-case scenario, if humanity itself cannot let them break free, they will simply give up their jurisdiction over them, granting them 'de facto 逍遥', and will absolutely not interfere in the slightest. Humanity still has its credibility."

He continued to brew tea with beautiful and elaborate movements, water flowing like a waterfall, yet not a single drop spilled, dazzling to the extreme, with small rainbows fluttering within.

But this technique did not interfere with his normal speech. Zhang Zong said, "However, we also feel that even 'nominally being controlled by others' is not true 逍遥, so the Hermit Faction did not join. But recent events have involved too much. I cannot conveniently say what exactly is involved, but I can tell you that because of these involvements, I ultimately came."

"Ah, I've pretty much understood. So the Manifested Daoist Faction feels that by following humanity, there's a chance to achieve 逍遥... That's not entirely incomprehensible, I suppose. What about the Dao of Reason? Do you know about the Dao of Reason's situation?" Li Qi asked again.

"The Dao of Reason's situation is actually quite similar. Do you know the Dao of Reason's philosophy?" Zhang Zong began to explain.

Li Qi nodded.

Of course, he knew the Dao of Reason's philosophy. He had once befriended a Dao of Reason cultivator for a period and even formed a study group with him. He still remembered the other person's name, Wang Dun.

The Dao of Reason does not seek to explain 'why', but simply describes, predicts, understands, and applies natural phenomena based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation.

The Dao of Reason believes that 'why' has no end.

Constantly asking 'why', even if one eventually finds that Ultimate Great Dao, which can explain all 'whys', there will still be one final 'why' that can absolutely never be resolved, hanging overhead.

That is: 'Why is there an Ultimate Great Dao?'

The three words 'why' are inherently unsolvable.

This is also what the Dao of Reason says: there is no need to explore that so-called 'Dao'.

Exploring the essence of all this will ultimately yield only nothingness.

Therefore, one only needs to explore and then apply. Don't think about those unnecessary things; it's just a waste of time.

"It's good that you know." Zhang Zong also nodded, then began to tidy up the water, as the tea was almost finished.

As he tidied, the teacup and tea water automatically floated up, and he said, "The Dao of Reason's reasoning is the same as the Dao Sect's: if the 'ultimate answer' cannot be found, then why not create one?"

This answer stunned Li Qi.

But it seemed... impossible to refute.

Indeed.

If the Ultimate Great Dao is unknowable, inexpressible, or even unsolvable, then... wouldn't a closed loop suffice?

As long as humanity is helped to become the 'Ultimate Great Dao', then the question 'Why is there an Ultimate Great Dao?' will have an answer.

The answer is: "The Dao of Reason created it."

The Ultimate Great Dao can interpret all questions but cannot interpret itself.

So the Dao of Reason interprets the Ultimate Great Dao, and then the Ultimate Great Dao interprets everything else.

It's like the Penrose stairs, a staircase that goes up and down simultaneously.

Or, for example, that self-referential drawing of hands and a pen.

Two hands reaching out from the picture, each holding a pen, about to draw the other.

The left hand draws the right hand, while the right hand simultaneously draws the left hand.

This image is intuitively impossible.

Because if the left hand doesn't draw the right hand, the right hand cannot draw the left hand.

Similarly, if the right hand doesn't draw the left hand, the left hand cannot draw the right hand.

But if they succeed, then both hands exist simultaneously. Humanity becomes the ultimate answer that created the Dao of Reason, and the Dao of Reason also created humanity as this ultimate answer. Both are causes of each other and exist simultaneously.

This way, the Dao of Reason's biggest problem is solved, and this might even become an opportunity for the First Grade.

In that case, it's not incomprehensible that nearly half of the Dao of Reason's active forces chose to support humanity; in fact, their choice is quite understandable.

"Then... what about Martial Artist?" Li Qi asked again.

Zhang Zong finished tidying the tea set, then, with his hands tucked in, said, "There are also several factions within Martial Artist. For example, the 'Stopping Conflict for Martial Arts' that you learned about before, which emphasizes using martial force to protect something. You used to have a Fourth Grade Dharma Protector who was a Martial Artist, didn't you? She was like that."

"And then there's the 'Martial Arts for Conquest' faction. So, for this faction, is there any goal more tempting than 'Heaven'?"

Li Qi nodded, and now there were no more doubts.

For these Martial Artist who desire to conquer all things, conquering Heaven is probably extremely tempting. Following humanity means challenging the ultimate essence of all things.

Following Shaman Dao or Buddhism would absolutely not lead to such a grand goal. Shaman Dao would even hinder these Martial Artist and become their enemies of conquest.

So, following humanity, conquering all the way, how exhilarating!

All beings say the will of Heaven is high, then let us see if my fist is higher than the will of Heaven?

"Then I pretty much understand." Li Qi sighed, "Alas, it's difficult."

Zhang Zong laughed heartily, as if seeing Li Qi's troubled face was a pleasure. However, after he had laughed enough, he changed the subject: "Alright, let's talk about something else that's relaxing, for example... aren't you curious about what those nineteen Universes I experienced were like?"

"You can talk about it?" Li Qi was surprised. This probably involves one's origin, right?

"If you can listen, I can speak." Zhang Zong replied.

"Then I wouldn't dare refuse. You know I love hearing about these things." Li Qi immediately made a 'please' gesture.

Thus, the topic shifted again, returning to casual conversation.

Zhang Zong's topics were indeed very interesting. He recounted the different types of Universes he had encountered.

For example, the Universe that was reopened for the fourth time.

There, the strong nuclear force was much weaker than in the current Universe.

In this situation, a large number of protons moved away from each other, making it difficult for them to approach and Fusion. Therefore, to form a star, an extremely large mass of atoms needed to gather.

In such a Universe, space appeared extremely empty, containing only a small number of colossal stars.

When the strong nuclear force is weak enough, it is sufficient to form such a Universe—

In this Universe, there was only one star, and this star contained all the matter in the Universe.

This would be a highly condensed star, but there was almost no interaction force between the substances, and the amount of radiation it released might not even be as strong as an ordinary sun's radiation.

This was a stable, dense soup of matter, a star with a radius of six hundred thousand light-years.

Because this star was the collection of all matter in the Universe, the size of this Universe was also only six hundred thousand light-years in radius.

After all, spacetime still needs basic units to define it. No matter how large space is, if it's absolutely empty, then it has no meaning.

The situation of this Universe greatly broadened Li Qi's mind.

Because he knew that the strong nuclear force between matter acts through mesons. The strength of the force field depends on the number of mesons, and this number of mesons is adjustable for a Third Grade.

Once the number of mesons decreases or increases, that location becomes an 'anomalous area' that can be used in Third Grade battles, like creating a parallel Universe.

Similar conversations continued, discussing different Universes and different forms of existence.

Zhang Zong continuously narrated his extraordinary experiences. His rich experiences and the fact that he had reached the Third Grade, possessing a clearer mind, enabled both Zhang Zong and Li Qi's rationality and sensibility to better understand the Universe itself.

From the constantly reopening Universes, their view of the Universe now seemed less and less incredible.

Certainly, the Universe is of course beyond the Third Grade. The Third Grade exists as the basic constituent material of the Universe, so for the Third Grade, the Universe itself is still full of incredibility.

Zhang Zong and Li Qi did not doubt in the slightest that the Universe is 'self-sufficient'.

It is a system without logical basis, with no creator. Even if the First Grades constantly trace back and reopen the Universe, they can only return to the 'beginning', which is the moment the Universe was created, and cannot go to a more distant past.

Because there is no more distant past. Before the birth of the Universe, spacetime itself did not exist, so you naturally cannot reach a non-existent place.

For the First Grades, their starting point is the instant the Universe was born. Interfering at this instant allows them to interfere with all the properties of the Universe, but they cannot transcend the Universe itself.

After all... the Universe is not just an ordinary 'Observable Universe', but the beginning of everything.

The meaning of the Universe is all time and all space; it is everything, a function that contains all things, a book that records all books.

Even the so-called 'multiverse' imagined by Mortals is far from being able to match the vastness of this 'true Universe'.

After all, the number of multiverses conjectured by Mortals might not even compare to the infinitely expanding Observable Universe today.

The true Universe itself is 'True · Infinite'.

Behind every moment of the Universe, infinite existence is at work.

In their discussion, Li Qi and Zhang Zong continuously tried to glimpse into every insignificant cosmic event, attempting to discover the essential characteristics of the infinite existence behind it. This infinite existence does not have a real name; we tentatively call it 'Dao'.

However, although they could glimpse, they gained nothing.

Although they could perceive a tiny bit of 'Dao' in all events and in every event, if they continued to trace it, they found that they could never find an end, as if the end was also 'infinite'.

Undoubtedly, Zhang Zong and Li Qi were already Third Grade, but when they began to confront the Universe directly, they also found themselves facing a terrifying existence. But precisely because of its infinitude, they could not impose any characteristics upon it.

The Universe contains everything, even the Universe itself.

Therefore, the Universe is infinite, not just real number infinite, but also higher-order uncountable infinite, continuum infinite, a collection of infinities and infinities.

And discussing the reopening of the Universe is like studying the properties of all rocky planets in the entire Universe through a single stone.

Despite this, Li Qi and Zhang Zong remained tirelessly enthusiastic.

This is the joy of pursuing the Dao!

This discussion lasted for twelve years.

Then, both of them stopped in time.

Time was almost up; it was time to find Xiang Liu. (End of Chapter)