Chapter 948: The Secret of the Ancient Times: The Origin of the Dao (Part 3)

Jiang Lü had been talking about the Primordial Era.

Ever since the birth of the Heavenly Demon, the reopening of the Universe became a matter of course.

All living beings fell into extreme suffering, because the Heavenly Demon would easily treat all of this as nothing and destroy it, then reshape a brand new world.

In addition, new Rank Three beings began to appear; besides those naturally born Rank Three and Rank Two beings, Mortals also began to touch the power of Rank Three.

After one reopening after another, every existing entity with substantiality began to make its own choices.

The Universe became unimaginably complex; when an existing entity with substantiality faced multiple choices, it would choose all options, thus creating many different time dimensions and different Universal histories.

In the evolutionary process of this Universe, each stage had many different creatures, and each creature at every moment faced many possible paths, and when combined, each stage and every moment of this Universe would produce countless small Universal possibilities.

These substantially existing entities could perceive the entire physical Universe from multiple spatio-temporal perspectives, or even from all possible spatio-temporal perspectives. Creatures that could perceive the Universe from all possible spatial perspectives were consistent in their scope of perception; their differences were reflected in their insight.

This insight depended on the individual's intelligence and ability. These substantially existing entities not only possessed all-encompassing perception but also all-encompassing decisiveness.

They could exert their influence in various places in space-time; of course, depending on the individual's different intelligence and ability, they would vary in intensity and accuracy.

In a sense, these Rank Three existences were non-material, metaphysical beings, like chess players in a game struggling in the material Universe.

Although there was a material aspect, there was no systematic physical world as we know it. The entity's perceived reality depended entirely on mutual influence. Each individual emitted a flood of sensory 'images,' and the psychological Law that governed the interaction between minds determined the nature and outcome of these images.

The complexity of the Universe escalated to an unparalleled degree.

Hao Tian's initial choices ultimately created such existences, and they even shaped a Universe with no objective physical essence, as metaphysical existences, they could not constitute any substantial influence on each other.

Under the influence of the Heavenly Demon, another mind-based system emerged. There, those substantially existing entities conceived their own physical world, which, though illusory, was reliable and practical. The world was filled with their various fantasies, and these subjective worlds, through their extraordinary and precise calculations, connected to each other, forming a perfect system.

The Spirit Dao and the Demonic Dao thus became stable, and the birth of 'All Heavens' also occurred.

However, some people had had enough.

Some people were tired of being manipulated like this, being entangled in this great net of all things, unable to find liberation, constantly being rewritten, constantly being pulled, just like a puppet on strings.

Moreover, while the puppeteer controlled the puppet, the puppet also tugged at the puppeteer with its meager strength. No one could find liberation; everyone was pulling at each other.

He felt an immense lack of freedom, bound by this net, tied and dragged by this net, rolling around within it, yet always unable to escape. Mortals sinking into the Mortal World could not perceive it, but he, using his wisdom, detected the existence of this net, and was thus exceptionally pained.

To escape this net, he resolutely gave up everything.

So, this young man gave up wealth and glory. Under the Bodhi Tree, he began to ponder: From where do old age, sickness, death, and all kinds of unsatisfactory things come?

On the Bodhi Tree, the moon rose and set, tides ebbed and flowed.

Under the Bodhi Tree, he sat in meditation, contemplating in silence.

Ultimately, he comprehended the true nature and mystery of the Universal life, and through this method, he could eliminate the current complexity and nihility of the Universe.

The Heavenly Demon felt threatened, because this was a method to eliminate demonic thoughts, so the Heavenly Demon came knocking, wanting to prevent him from achieving the Dao. The Demonic Army surrounded him, and demonic thoughts invaded.

However, it ultimately failed. The first 'Buddha' appeared. Buddha means 'enlightened one.' He was called 'Buddha Ancestor,' meaning the progenitor of all Buddhas. That's right... all Buddhas.

There was more than one Buddha.

He proclaimed that all living beings are Buddhas, and all things, all existences with higher wisdom, can attain the same liberation as him, forever escaping inverted dreams, forever escaping old age, sickness, and death, and forever free from the troubles of demonic thoughts and external wars.

He even said that he should have left this place already, because he had already attained the method to transcend everything, but he was unwilling to leave, because he still had one last obsession.

This obsession was his 'compassion.'

He was unwilling to be the only one liberated; he wanted all living beings to be liberated from all suffering with him. So, he gave up the final step of transcendence and chose to stay, spreading his wisdom and saving all from suffering.

If one's own nature is enlightened, all living beings are Buddhas.

At the same time, another wise man in the Human Race also found a similar answer. He discovered that... there were too many restraints in this world, and these restraints were all self-imposed.

To achieve true freedom, one must abandon the restraints one places upon oneself.

But some restraints are naturally existing in heaven and earth.

Heaven and Earth move on their own without human pushing, the sun and moon shine on their own without human kindling, stars align on their own without human arrangement, birds and beasts are born on their own without human creation—this is the work of natural, why bother to do it?

The reasons why humans are born, why they are nothing, why they flourish, and why they are disgraced, all have their natural principles and the Dao of natural.

This 'natural,' he discovered, was an existence more sublime than 'Hao Tian.'

He found an existence that transcended Hao Tian, transcended Tai Yi, transcended the Heavenly Demon, and transcended the Buddha Ancestor.

After much thought, he called it 'Dao.'

And to approach the existence of 'Dao,' one needed to cultivate 'Virtue' within oneself. Thus, the Dao operates in heaven and earth, and Virtue connects with the Dao, which is called 'Morality.'

Thus, he was called 'Dao Ancestor,' and another existence capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with Hao Tian appeared in the Universe. But he was still not satisfied; although he was much freer, he was still not completely free.

However, he no longer deliberately pursued unfreedom.

Because, when the mind roams at the beginning of things, within heaven and earth, beyond the Universe, heaven, earth, humans, things, sun, moon, mountains, and rivers, though different in form and nature, what they have in common is that they all rise and fall according to natural, and all move and stop according to natural.

Unfreedom, it seemed, was also part of natural. Absolute freedom, let it come slowly, just let it be.

After that, all living beings seemed to have found the existence of 'Dao,' but some of these 'Dao' were profound, some shallow, some truly capable of interpreting all things, while others were just nonsense, forced and contrived.

However, different Dao seemed somewhat incompatible with each other? Although everyone could interpret the same things, when put together, they seemed so disharmonious.

However, the emergence of 'Dao' began to accelerate the progress of cultivation methods.

With the Dao, the progress of Laws and techniques began to explode on a large scale.

Cultivation methods, and the various techniques that utilized cultivation methods, all showed terrifying growth under the guidance of 'Dao.' Previously, one could only exhaustively enumerate, but now with guidance, it was like having a map. As long as one followed the map and completed all the glowing tasks on it, techniques and Laws could quickly reach the Peak, like blind people on a dark continent starting to light lamps to find their way.

But... a problem arose.

That is, although Laws and techniques were easy to explore, the exploration of 'Dao' was far more difficult than Laws and techniques.

At this time, hybridization began.

Some wise men within the Human Race found the Dao Ancestor, hoping to learn his wisdom, and later became an important branch of the Human Dao.

Between Buddhas and demons, for some unknown reason, a large amount of communication also occurred, leading to a large number of transformations.

The original Shamanes and the Dao Sect learned from each other and together developed the concept of 'natural,' detaching the Shamanes from their original position as 'servants of deities.'

Martial Artists learned various ways to fight people, and they also began to consider 'what they were fighting for.'

Ultimately, the reason why the Martial Dao Orthodoxy was able to develop was inherently for the convenience of previous conquests; it was a set of methods developed by warriors exploring martial arts. Before this, no Martial Artist would consider why.

Why think so much? They cultivated for battle.

However, after this, they discovered... were they fighting for battle, or for something else?

On the other side, the demon race discovered that compared to deities, as well as the Human Race, True Dragons, and various Divine Beasts, these innately gifted beings, they were simply too weak. They had to find a better way to survive.

Thus, the demon race began their great experiment.

Demon-Yao, Yao God, demon dragon, and Demon Dao appeared one after another, even leading to internal divisions within the demon race themselves. Finally, a dangerous demon race great power even went mad and chose to stir up chaos in the world, historically known as the 'Yao Rebellion.' In this catastrophe, demons, humans, gods, Dao, Buddhas, Yao, and others fought in a chaotic mess.

This was the first 'Dao Conflict' that swept across the entire Universe. Ultimately, the Human Dao completely broke with the Divine Dao, and the Shamanes also broke free from the original Human Race shackles. The true 'Human Emperor' began to appear, and at the same time, the third lineage of deities, the 'Human-Ghost,' also began to emerge, and the deification of Mortals became a reality.

From then on, the格局 of Heavenly God, Di Qi (Earthly Qi), and Human-Ghost was completely established.

The Arctic Demon Clan separated from the demon race; they abandoned their Physical Body and became another kind of existence, called 'Spirits,' or 'Ghosts' or 'Souls.'

The Human Dao also truly emerged. The Human Race who revered Heavenly God were eliminated, and the Human Dao embarked on a path of self-reliance, later even giving rise to the 'Emperor.'

Not an Emperor, nor a King, but an existence that transcended all of them.

It's just that this Emperor did not reach the end.

Of course, Hao Tian still did not interfere in any of this.

It was already hard to tell whether this was tenderness or cruelty. Hao Tian's non-interference caused so many tragedies and massacres, but if he had interfered... what would have happened then?

In any case, this Universal history, in terms of complexity, far surpassed previous creations, but the lives here, one by one, ended in tragedy sooner or later.

Although intelligence is essentially a very powerful ability, if this power is too strong, it doesn't seem to be very good, at least the outcome is not very good.

Now, these beings possessed a super intelligence beyond anything before. Their Divine Ability was enough to dominate physical energy, and they also had the keenness of intellectual activity.

In Jiang Lü's narrative, this triggered disaster. Life gained the ability to dominate physical energy, producing a certain fanatical quality. The keenness of intellectual activity went to extremes, which is the fanaticism of analytical and abstract thinking, completely ignoring things that intellectual activity cannot explain. And emotions, if without the criticism of intellectual activity and the constraints of daily life, would drown in daydreams, ultimately giving birth to the ultimate daydreams, namely 'Spirit Dao' and 'Demonic Dao.'

Li Qi was noncommittal. He didn't think the Demonic Dao or Spirit Dao were daydreams, but he also didn't stop Jiang Lü from continuing.

After that, the Universe quickly welcomed an important 'reopening.'

Under the leadership of Buddhism, the Universe entered 'destruction' and 'emptiness,' which they called 'Kalpa.'

Buddhism tried to create something called 'the Other Shore,' to allow everyone to 'cross over' the repeated Universal reopenings and escape the Demonic Dao's playful, unlimited refreshing.

The Shamanes joined this attempt, and some deities were also interested.

Thus, the 'Underworld Universe' corresponding to the Reality Universe was born. Buddhism believed that this way, all living beings would have enough time to think about what they truly were, instead of dying without understanding anything.

World Honored One Tathagata wanted to 'enlighten all living beings'; this was his final goal before transcendence, his ultimate 'Great Karma.'

The so-called 'Karma,' in Buddhism, refers to the actions of all living beings, especially those actions that can lead to future results.

The original meaning is: action, behavior.

In Buddhism, 'Karma' is regarded as the cause that drives everything, the 'cause' that creates, capable of attracting 'results' of happiness or suffering.

Karma is divided into three types: physical karma, verbal karma, and mental karma, meaning: what one does, what one says, and what one thinks, all count as 'Karma.'

And the Tathagata's Great Karma was his ultimate, the greatest action in this world, and also the 'last karma' he created.

Reincarnation was forged, and living beings could no longer 'die.' For Mortals, death was now not disappearance, but the beginning of a new journey, even if they themselves might be ignorant, this was the compassion of the Buddha.

The Shamanes were curious about the consequences, and some deities believed that losing death might be a good thing. With the three sides coming together, 'Reincarnation' was established.

The Human Dao disdained Reincarnation but did not interfere in any way; there was no need.

Hoping for an afterlife is merely the act of a mediocre person.

Then, the world gradually got on track.

The Dao Orthodoxys fought each other, engaged in internal strife, and... progressed.

In the process of holding each other back, they actually grew stronger and stronger.

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