Chapter 457: Contending for the Heavenly Mandate

As Xu Jia spoke these words, Xu Zhangshou, who was facing him from across the distance, changed his expression.

Deng Yin heard other voices in his ears; it turned out that both men were anxious—one was his master, Chusanzi, who had been delayed from ascending due to the burden of his own household, and the other was his senior brother, Xu Zhangshou: "Deng Yin, he is a reincarnation of an Outer Realm Heavenly Demon, skilled in bewitchment; do not let your original heart be lost. You bear the demonic sins of past lives, and your karmic obstacles are extremely deep. You must constantly wipe them away to avoid falling into the Demonic Path; do not let hundreds of years of persistence go to waste."

For no reason, hearing these words again, a sense of annoyance arose in Deng Yin's heart, but he still maintained his outward appearance well, saying coldly to Xu Jia: "Nonsense!"

Xu Jia chuckled: "Presumably, voices have already appeared in your ears by now. Is this because they are worried about you, or are they guarding against you?"

"The slogan of Shushan is to eliminate demons and defend the Dao, not to save demons and defend the Dao. Instead of being trapped in a dilemma within Shushan, it would be better to cut the Gordian knot. If you truly yearn for the righteous path, then confine yourself in the West Kunlun Snow Cave. If your heart leans toward the Demonic Path, then abandon these sect ties and switch to cultivating Demonic Path techniques. After switching to the Demonic Path, I can even teach you a method to control demons with demons; your temperament might even return to normal quickly. It is precisely this chaotic state of mind, alternating between the righteous path and the Demonic Path, that is gradually dragging you down."

"It is true that your demonic sins are deep and you are suited for cultivating the Demonic Path, but demonic debts and grievances are not impossible to resolve. How many demon lords have not turned to the Buddhist path? With your talent, you are actually no worse than Xu Zhangshou; why must you be a step below him in everything?"

Xu Jia was not just shooting off his mouth; every word he spoke utilized the Three Corpses Demon-Capturing Secret Incantation. This secret incantation was originally used to hook out the Three Corpses Gods and eradicate them so that one could cultivate a flawless body. Now, using it in reverse, it became a way to hook and capture the Demon Seed of others.

Deng Yin was in the Yang Spirit realm and would not be hooked so easily, but the Demon Seed and demonic obstacles within his body were all stirring. Without using the Nine Heavens Profound Origin Great Art, it was difficult to suppress them, and once he used the Nine Heavens Profound Origin Great Art, he appeared extremely passive.

Amidst this tug-of-war, Xu Jia suddenly felt a crisis, a sense that a great disaster was imminent.

Chusanzi and Xu Zhangshou, master and disciple, were both at the pinnacle of the world, only lacking a bit of Daoist Practice to ascend. Especially Xu Zhangshou, who was determined to ascend as a Golden Immortal and almost forcibly suppressed his realm, thus confining himself within a Blessed Land of the Immortal Mountains.

Even the Cave Heaven Blessed Land of the Desire Realm could hardly contain him; only Cuiping Mountain, rumored to be an immortal mansion and immortal mountain that fell from the heavens, could contain a Heavenly Immortal in the world. Otherwise, he would have to leave the Central Plains and head to the North Pole Heaven Pillar Mountain, which led directly to the Form Realm and was one of the Daochang of the Tianpeng Great Sage.

Because Ren Changshou had extremely high cultivation and nothing to do, he became interested in deducing the lineage, planning for his disciples, and guiding the Heavenly Mandate, wanting all good things, treasures, and famous immortal mansions to belong to his own descendants, even setting things up for the next six generations.

Precisely because of this, for an outsider like Xu Jia, Xu Zhangshou had almost become the "incarnation of the Heavenly Dao," actually detecting Xu Jia's Daoism of using the Seven Star Lamp to hide his soul and escape fate in the Western Regions, calculating Xu Jia's most critical point in one go.

Xu Jia therefore stopped speaking and focused his mind on the confrontation of the Heavenly Mandate.

Comparing the Heavenly Dao to a computer, Xu Jia was the invading virus, and Xu Zhangshou was the activated antivirus software.

Although Xu Jia's Daoist Practice was lower than Xu Zhangshou's, his methods were more numerous; he was involved in side paths, the Demonic Path, the Buddhist path, Daoism, and even the Divine Path. Moreover, his traversal of this realm utilized the Chaos Pearl, the treasure of the Yellow Heaven Sect. This pearl was a vessel of the heavens, containing the coordinates of thirty Desire Realms, all of which were forcibly opened permissions. It was only later that the Yellow Heaven Sect was defeated, the Divine Path became obscure, and the permissions were slowly revoked; from originally being able to enter the realm with a physical body, it gradually became only possible to travel with the spirit or attach one's thoughts to a human body.

Xu Jia did not want to expose his true form, so he passed on information about the Wanshou Emperor of the Longevity Sect, connected it to the "Great Heng Dynasty," a historical dynasty of this realm that had passed away, and stirred up the Yellow Heaven Sect and the Huanglian Sect into a mess, pushing the information deduction onto the Yellow Heaven Sect Ancestor, "Zhang Jiao." Although Xu Zhangshou was a Heavenly Immortal, he could only calculate matters of this realm and could not have Omniscience over the ten directions of the world. In the chaotic information stream of Xu Jia, he seemed to have grasped something vaguely, yet vaguely grasped nothing at all.

He was a competitive person by nature, so he transmitted his thoughts to Chusanzi, and the two great Heavenly Immortals acted together.

Only then did Xu Jia feel the pressure and focus his mind to deal with this matter. Actually, it was not difficult; it was just that once it was confirmed that he was a visitor from outside the realm, and his location in the Huanglian Daoren's physical body was found, the rituals and tracks destroyed, and the Glazed Temple in the Da Mo Oasis demolished, Xu Jia would be excluded from this world.

"Since you want to see, then see clearly!"

Xu Jia successively threw out the Dutian Liehuo Zushi, the Ming Sect's Muni Dingguang, and finally evolved to the great vows of all living beings of "Thick Earth Three Feet," attempting to compete with the Heavenly Lord in height—a foot of grain high, a foot of clothing high, a foot of money high.

These great vows of all living beings, wrapped in the great desires of all living beings, were magnificent and vast, just like the forty-eight great vows of Amitabha, or like the Heavenly Venerable Saving from Suffering saving from suffering and difficulty, arriving upon hearing the call.

In an instant, all kinds of Cause and Effect that such practitioners as them avoided were rushing to entangle them.

"Xu Zhangshou, do you think the world is the family property of your Shushan? You can't wait to scrape the earth three feet deep just to fatten your own family's coffers."

"As far as this heaven and earth are concerned, there is no distinction between immortal and demon. As far as you are concerned, it is the same; there are only interests and closeness. Do you dare to accept such great vows?"

Xu Zhangshou frowned, identifying the root cause: "So you are a remnant of the Divine Path of the Great Heng Dynasty. The Divine Path is foolish and delusional, begging for this and that, but in the end, none of them act as the master. In the end, it is better to rely on oneself. The hierarchy of deities is distinct, their lifespan is long, and they are almost 'once proven, forever proven,' blocking the path of advancement. In the final years of the Great Heng, eight thousand people competed for a single position of Earth Deity. Only those with power, money, and connections could obtain the position, causing the people of the world to suffer from the Divine Path for a long time. It was only when the human path flourished that they overthrew the Great Heng and re-established the Martial Path and the Immortal Path, where power lies within oneself."

Xu Jia sneered: "It is still better than you locusts. To refine a flying sword, how many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures are consumed? To refine a furnace of pills, how many good things are plundered? After ascending, how much of the origin of heaven and earth is taken away? The creation of heaven and earth must first support you, this Heavenly Immortal. You intercept eighty percent of the Cave Heaven Blessed Land in the world, and only the remaining twenty percent is given to mortals. Thus, Heavenly Disasters and man-made disasters occur constantly. People constantly wage wars and kill each other for limited resources, just to distribute this little bit. If you were to die, and your Dao returned to heaven and earth, not to mention the whole world, even just the Sichuan region would surely become a land of abundance, with harvests every year."

"More talk is useless," said Xu Zhangshou. "If you have the ambition, fellow Daoist, just come to Cuiping Mountain."

After speaking, he forcibly cut off the connection and also said to Deng Yin: "Junior brother, find an excuse to leave Huashan. Senior brother miscalculated; this demon has a background and origin. You cannot deal with him. If you stay any longer, I fear your demonic obstacles will be provoked by him to recur, and you will lose another lifetime of cultivation."

(End of chapter)