Chapter 177: with translation of chapter title

In the Eastern Wasteland, on Jade Capital Mountain.

Above the heavens, the Sun and Moon Dual Pupils were happily studying the "little toy" they had just obtained.

To Him, this was naturally just a little toy; whether it was the original master of the Golden Crow true fire, Di Jun, or later Jiao Ming, the two combined could not withstand a single whim of His!

What intrigued Him was the origin of this cluster of fire:

On the sun star, the three Golden Crows are still playing house; how could there possibly exist such a mighty flame?

Even more astonishing, the fire was stained with another kind of Heavenly Dao power…… a power utterly different from His own, and purple in color!

"Another Heavenly Dao?"

He inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity, yet no matter how hard He tried, He could not recall where He had seen it before.

This was unimaginable to Him, for under the Heavenly Dao, nothing is unknown; if He felt it familiar, He would surely remember it!

And the fact that He could not remember it in itself meant there was something fishy about this.

Thus He fell into contemplation.

And after He fell into this strange contemplative state, it was as if He had lost his network connection; His entire train of thought inexplicably froze, and He knew nothing of worldly affairs……

"Good."

On the mountain, Hongjun looked with satisfaction at the Sun and Moon Dual Pupils trapped in the disconnected state; His scheming had not been in vain, and events finally unfolded as He had anticipated.

"You?!"

Seeing purple threads swirling in Hongjun's eyes, the Number Three Little Bird first stared, then went on full alert:

This Hongjun before Him, though His outward form remained the original Hongjun, had long since had His inner self replaced.

He, clearly, was that Heavenly Dao sage from another realm!

"Are you afraid of Me?"

The sage chuckled:

"I am actually saving you……"

"Saving me?"

The Number Three Little Bird dared not believe a word of it:

"If you had come directly across worlds, I would have no doubts, but you……"

"I want to know, is he still alive?"

Facing the Number Three Little Bird's questioning, the sage gave a light laugh:

"Truly worthy of being the new protagonist chosen by the transcendent existence…… In a sense, you are actually smarter than Jiao Ming, at least he wouldn't suspect Me right away."

"As for your question……"

The sage said with a smile:

"Rest assured, he's fine; once I settle all matters, everything will be alright."

Hearing His words, the little bird's heart eased:

No matter what, this old Hongjun is a friend I've known for a long time; if He's unharmed, that's naturally best……

"What exactly is Your purpose?"

Because I had previously blindly trusted the otherworldly sage, I never considered that He might have ulterior motives; but now, thinking back, the problems along the way are huge!

First doubt: if the sage truly wanted to create a Heavenly Dao, He could probably just pinch one into existence on the spot.

But He did not act personally; instead, He entrusted the task to me, this little bird whose feathers aren't even fully grown, having me and old Hongjun work as subcontractors……

Second doubt: as a Heavenly Dao sage, He could not possibly be unaware that a overly singular true-spirit component would cause the Heavenly Dao to develop a stronger self-consciousness!

Yet He did it anyway, having me slay the three ancestors to gather half a true spirit, then extracting the other half, thereby creating this living father that transcends Hongjun's plan.

Clearly aware of the problem, yet He put on an act of "all safe and sound," making it hard not to suspect a conspiracy behind the scenes!

In short, the Number Three Little Bird feels extreme apprehension toward this seemingly harmless Heavenly Dao sage before Him.

It was also my own carelessness, assuming He had history with Jiao Ming and thus naturally regarding Him as one of our own, so the due vigilance never came into play.

Now the living father has been created, the otherworldly sage has descended, Hongjun is possessed, and the living father seems to have been implanted with a backdoor by Him, causing a crash.

All developments have far exceeded my plans and imagination……

The more one thinks about it, the more terrifying it becomes!

"As for purpose……"

The sage smiled and countered:

"What do you think I could possibly want?"

Upon hearing that, the little bird's mind sprang forth a string of evil purposes exhausting imagination:

Enslaving the Wasteland, wanton slaughter, annexing the two realms, devouring the Heavenly Dao, becoming Pangu……

But these thoughts were quickly dismissed by him himself:

"No reason, it's unnecessary."

He is already a Heavenly Dao sage, controlling a muscle-bound simpleton as a palu; whatever He wishes to do, He can easily satisfy it in His Wasteland!

Honor, status, profit, power…… He lacks none of them, and moreover a sage's desires could not be so voracious; the above evil schemes are utterly meaningless.

Then, what exactly does He seek?

The little bird couldn't help recalling the bits and pieces of Jiao Ming and Him, trying to infer from Jiao Ming's memories of Him what His desire actually is.

But after thinking it over, Jiao Ming's vast memories across three lifetimes contain no related information; in Jiao Ming's impression, the Daoist Hongjun has always been a detached, benevolent, upright positive figure.

Even if He has many shady schemes and plots, they are merely necessary means for Him to achieve righteous ends.

In short, He is indeed an old schemer, yet He is an old schemer of the good camp, as the saying goes: 'To accomplish extraordinary deeds, one must have extraordinary means.'

Only a mighty being like Him, who dares to employ both dark and light means, can truly lead the myriad spirits of the Wasteland, mired in the era of the three tribes, into the future's bright great road!

By contrast, Jiao Ming…… although he too would take necessary measures when desperate, his mindset is overly simple; just a couple of misdeeds make his state of mind waver on the brink of collapse, and with too much impropriety he would truly dare to kill himself……

translation

Number Three Bird suddenly realized what:

Saint Hongjun, what wish could he have to fulfill?

The only answer lies in Jiao Ming himself, because he died!

The Heavenly Dao Saint is desireless and seekless, but Daoist Hongjun can never forget the day his Dao friend silently fell……

"You want to revive Jiao Ming?!"

Number Three Bird blurted out, his face full of shock!

"Indeed."

The Saint praised him in one sentence:

"Jiao Ming is indeed not as clever as you……"

But the little bird had no mind to listen to His praise; his head was full of tangled thoughts, and these tangled thoughts linked together, forming a clear line of logic:

Why didn't He personally create the Heavenly Dao?

Because He didn't want to be exposed too early under the Heavenly Dao, lest it alert the Heavenly Dao.

Why, knowing that the true spirit being too singular would cause the Heavenly Dao to develop self-consciousness, did He still lure Himself and Hongjun to create the Heavenly Dao?

Because what He wanted was originally a conscious Heavenly Dao!

Why did He want to mix Jiao Ming's true spirit into the Heavenly Dao?

Because only then could Jiao Ming replace the will of the Heavenly Dao……

"But Jiao Ming is already dead! What you revive like this cannot be Jiao Ming!"

Number Three Bird couldn't believe:

"The true spirit has no consciousness and cannot be revived, just as Pangu's true spirit can only revive into the Heavenly Dao; Jiao Ming's true spirit also cannot revive into the true Jiao Ming……"

"It doesn't matter."

He gave a faint smile:

"As long as I consider him Jiao Ming, that's enough…… A will dominated by Jiao Ming's true spirit differs from Jiao Ming only in memory and personality, and both can be artificially shaped."

"You……"

Number Three Bird wanted to speak but held back; he found it hard to understand how deep the friendship between Saint Hongjun and Jiao Ming really was, after all he merely watched Jiao Ming's memories like a movie, making it hard to empathize deeply.

And Jiao Ming, he truly interacted with Him for hundreds of aeons, experiencing countless things together……

"Rest assured."

The Saint comforted him:

"This will have no effect on you; I will let Him help you attain Sainthood, and you will still achieve your desired perfect ending."

"Your Dao friend will gain rebirth, you will gain Sainthood, and that transcendent being will gain a perfect ending……"

Everyone has a bright future!

The Saint's comfort was effective; Number Three Bird's heart eased a bit:

If it's just like that, then it's indeed acceptable; besides, I have no other pursuits, as long as I can survive, everything will be fine.

As for who the Heavenly Dao is, he doesn't care, as long as it's not this current living father……

Using Jiao Ming to replace the Heavenly Dao's living father would actually be a good thing, because everyone can accept Jiao Ming's nature; if he became the new Heavenly Dao, a new eternal primordial chaos would arrive!

However, will He really be Jiao Ming?

【After comforting you, the Saint turned his attention to the sun-and-moon eyes; these two eyes of the Heavenly Dao now reveal a dazed state, completely unresponsive to worldly affairs.】

【Such an abnormal matter is naturally a pre-prepared move by the Saint: while mixing in a large amount of Jiao Ming's true spirit, the Saint also mixed his own true spirit into it; the Heavenly Dao itself never expected that, from the very beginning, a hidden door had been left for it……】

【Even if you didn't immediately realize His purpose with this series of measures, this foolish child of the Heavenly Dao naturally wouldn't notice much either.】

【The Saint's true spirit remains the Saint's true spirit; even if it becomes part of the Heavenly Dao, it still obeys the master's command.】

【Thus the Saint exerted a little force, and the Heavenly Dao fell into a frozen state; no matter how strong the primordial chaos's might, it cannot be used, only left to its fate!】

【And next comes the time for the Saint to revive his old close friend……】

【A person's self-identity is essentially determined by memory; memory and experience together shape an independent personality, so as long as memory can be altered, the personality and thought patterns linked to it can also be changed.】

【A clone injected with the original's memories, although it cannot become the true original, can identify itself as the original; if the memories are comprehensive enough, even he himself will not realize he is not that person.】

【And if a clone is made using the original's own brain as material, then given the original's memories…… would that count as his resurrection?】

【For Saint Hongjun, He must also be: a true spirit of Jiao Ming, memories of Jiao Ming, self-identity of Jiao Ming, and even this friend of His considers Him to be Jiao Ming……】

【Then, He is Jiao Ming!】

【With eager feelings, the Saint slowly inscribed Jiao Ming's memories into this dazed Heavenly Dao consciousness, every strand, every millimeter, not missing a bit.】

【He wants to create a world with Jiao Ming……】

【After everything was complete, even Hongjun, who had attained Sainthood for many years, couldn't help but call out that title with a trembling voice.】

【"Dao friend……"】

【He whispered softly.】

【The sun-and-moon eyes drooped, gazing at Him in silence for a while……】

【Bang!】

【Infinite Heavenly Dao might descended from the heavens, turning into a crimson, fire-like thunderbolt that struck straight onto the awaiting Hongjun's head, swift, accurate, and ruthless, forcibly splitting that possessing purple aura into ashes and smoke!】

【Hongjun's mortal body collapsed, pitch black all over, while the possessing otherworldly Saint was forced to depart his body; at the moment of ashes and smoke, the purple-aura Hongjun's face was full of bewilderment……】

【"I am not Jiao Ming; extraterrestrial heavenly demon, begone!"】

【With a mighty proclamation, the Jiao Ming revival match was formally defeated……】

……

(End of chapter)