Chapter 98: Heart Demon Manifests the World; Sages Are Without Emotion

Long Yu Mountain, inside a guest room.

Fang Shi and True Person Long Yu stood facing each other, both with white hair, one young, one ancient.

True Person Long Yu said: "Before returning, if you wish to leave this world, you must understand its true nature."

"This world is in fact the heart demon of a transcendent."

"Heart demon, heart demon—how can you leave without breaking the heart demon?"

Fang Shi was stunned, connecting it to the world's oddities: "Could this heart demon be the demon god?"

True Person Long Yu nodded: "Correct—it is the demon god."

"The transcendent's honorific title is Hongzhen Damiao Cihui Tianzun."

"The heart demon seized her manifestation in this world and wielded her identity to tyrannize."

Fang Shi asked: "If the essence of this world is the heart demon, how can we oppose it?"

"Will your current actions truly succeed?"

True Person Long Yu smiled: "Of course they cannot succeed."

"Since this world is born of the heart demon, it is merely a cluster of the transcendent's torment."

"If you had left Yizhou long ago, you would have discovered that beyond Yizhou, the other eighteen provinces do not exist."

"Outside lies a formless, ethereal abyss—a chaos without light or shadow."

"Thus, no earth immortals can arise, nor can any earth immortals be born."

Fang Shi suddenly understood: torment is something you constantly recall, cannot resolve, yet cannot forget.

"You mean this world is cyclical."

"When the transcendent is troubled, this world evolves. When the transcendent forgets, this world vanishes."

"Thus it repeats endlessly, without end."

True Person Long Yu regarded Fang Shi with approval: "Correct. You still have some insight."

"This is one essence of this world—so all my actions have already been played out within its narrative, repeated countless times."

Fang Shi asked: "Then you must know what comes next."

True Person Long Yu said: "Of course. Do you know that on Anning Long Yu Mountain, every corner is infected by the demon god?"

"For example, my beloved disciple Zhang Cheng is one of them."

"Last night, he killed Zhang Zihui, whom you escorted back."

Fang Shi felt no emotion: "This plot twist is sudden. But given the heart demon's power, it's normal."

True Person Long Yu teased Fang Shi: "You! So cold. That little girl followed you for days."

"You were nearly her pillar of support—yet you're so heartless."

Fang Shi replied calmly: "The sage is unkind, treating the people as straw dogs. Just as the sages in this world, under the rules, all beings—human, demon, spirit, monster—are treated equally."

"Besides, it was her own choice. In this world's cycle, this has happened countless times already."

True Person Long Yu shook his head: "But what about beyond this world?"

"The transcendent's torment has a prototype—Yizhou in reality also had Zhang Zihui and Zhang Cheng."

"They were deeply devoted; their lineage flowed down to the present, and that person is you."

Fang Shi's expression remained calm: "I've already guessed as much."

"Since I learned the Dao script, I understood—the Zhang family's communication jade token was never wrong."

"I am indeed their descendant, yet I am also an orphan."

"The government raised me—I have no connection to their family."

"Let alone take pride in their bloodline."

True Person Long Yu sighed: "The world turns, seas become mulberry fields—a thousand years have passed; all has changed beyond recognition."

"Only the gods and immortals are immortal."

After composing himself slightly, True Person Long Yu continued: "Under normal circumstances, my actions cannot break the heart demon."

"But with you, it's different—you are the variable, the one that escapes."

"Your existence is like injecting vitality into stagnant water."

"The world's trajectory will change."

Fang Shi frowned: "But no matter what, strength decides everything. You must see my cultivation level."

"I'm just an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator—He Deheneng to face the heart demon."

The fate of this world was like a torrent—even if Fang Shi was new flowing water,

he could not alter destiny's course; the end would inevitably be like a mantis trying to stop a cart, dying uselessly.

True Person Long Yu shook his head: "You're no ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator—ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators don't possess Foundation Establishment power."

"Besides, if your strength is insufficient, I can lend you mine."

Fang Shi's confusion deepened: lending power—Fang Shi grows strong, Long Yu grows weak.

True Person Long Yu's move was like transferring from left hand to right.

Neither side's fundamental strength changed.

"True Person, that doesn't make sense—if I'm strong and you're weak, we still can't defeat the enemy."

"No! You can!" True Person Long Yu said firmly.

"I cannot, because the transcendent forbids it."

"In her mind, I can never defeat the heart demon."

"Thus, even if I possessed strength greater than the heart demon, the outcome would still be failure."

Fang Shi probed: "True Person, what is your identity?"

A Spirit Awareness stage cultivator can already know the affairs of Immortals and Gods, and understand the true nature of this world.

Is True Person Long Yu merely at the Spirit Awareness stage?

True Person Long Yu laughed heartily: "As for me, I am just an ordinary mortal who, due to a chance factor, embarked on the path of the Dao."

"Who would have thought that once I set out, I would go so far, forging my own Dao, forging the Dao within myself, and ultimately forging the Great Dao."

"But the further I went, the more I found it difficult to change the world."

"I originally had great ambitions, but a hundred years passed in the mountains, and by the time I re-entered the world, I was already an Immortal."

"The Heavenly Rules of the Sages loom over my head; I sit on pins and needles, yet I cannot change anything."

"Langya Yu Ji is a lesson for our kind; he wanted to save the common people, yet he was beheaded by a mortal king."

"In this, the Heavenly Rules of the Sages played no small part!"

Fang Shi was not surprised by True Person Long Yu's identity.

What shocked him was that an Immortal could die by the hand of a mortal.

"Are the Sages not manifestations of a senior's heart demon? Creating a rule to reasonably restrict the actions of cultivators."

True Person Long Yu sighed: "If the Sages were manifestations of a heart demon, where would the method for forging spiritual roots come from?"

"The Sages indeed possess great virtue, but their mindset is too detached."

"Heaven and Earth are unkind, treating the myriad things as straw dogs."

"But I do not; I see the suffering of the world, and it pierces my heart with pain."

"A single spell could clearly cause heavenly dew to descend, making wheat and rice piles high."

"Yet because of the Heavenly Rules of the Sages, nothing is done."

"The Heavenly Rules of the Sages are a greater shackle for an immortal existence, not merely a matter of a heart demon."

"That is a punishment that shears off the three flowers atop the head and the five qi in the chest."

"Even the most powerful Immortal, suffering this, would degenerate into a mortal."

"And without the power of an Immortal, one cannot change the world."

"A single Spirit Awareness stage cultivator from a great family is already more than one person can handle."

Fang Shi was shocked in his heart; he finally understood where the heart demon came from.

Great Venerable Hong Zhen Da Miao Ci Hui possessed great compassion and wished for universal harmony under heaven.

To ensure the elderly have an end, the strong have a use, the young have growth, and the widowed, widowers, orphans, childless, and disabled are all cared for.

And the Great Venerable indeed possessed such ability, for an Immortal like her.

A single spell could change all manner of things in the world.

Any injustice could be resolved.

But the Heavenly Rules of the Sages loom over the Heavenly Dao.

If the Great Venerable dares to take action, she will suffer heavenly punishment.

Therefore, the Great Venerable's heart was not at ease, and thus a heart demon sprang forth.

But a heart demon is, after all, the dwelling of negative emotions; the Great Venerable's beautiful vision was easily twisted by the heart demon.

That is why this world has become this ghostly state.

"The Sages must already be immortal, yet are they so rigid, unable to listen to the opinions of later generations?"

True Person Long Yu sighed: "The Sages, the Sages... long ago, no one knows where they have gone."

"They have vanished from the multiverse; how could they hear any opinions?"

"And you need not address me as 'senior'; 'senior' is me, but I am not her."

"I am merely the regret remaining in this world."

Fang Shi continued asking: "Then the jade bone from the outside world is the senior's remains, but who is that golden corpse?"

True Person Long Yu sneered: "Naturally, it is my unfilial disciple, your cheap ancestor, Zhang Cheng."

"When I took him as a disciple back then, it was because I pitied him; the Zhang family had destroyed his family and caused his death."

"However, he was also somewhat capable, managing to get the Zhang family's legitimate daughter into his hands."

"Unfortunately, after that, he did not walk the right path."

"After becoming an official, he oppressed the people, even more so than before."

"He even built an underground city for himself, waiting to become an Immortal in the future."

"After you go out, do not hold back; if you should kill, then kill."

Fang Shi asked again: "Then what about the senior? Will the senior not act? My hometown is also the senior's hometown; does the senior also wish to watch their hometown's people suffer?"

"Where is the senior's great compassion from back then?"

Fang Shi knew this would easily offend the Immortal before him.

But the situation on Blue Star forced him to act this way.

If there were the protection of an Immortal, the future situation of Huaguo would become better.

As for the Heavenly Rules of the Sages, Fang Shi had a premonition that they would not exist forever.

Moreover, Lady Luck had clearly told Fang Shi back then.

Gods cannot be bullied, and the laws are not eternal.

Although the relationship between the Heavenly Rules and the laws is unknown, the Sages are not fools.

They only forbid Immortals, not Deities.

There is a high probability that the Heavenly Rules and the laws are the same thing.

True Person Long Yu shook his head: "Since the Great Venerable cut off her heart demon, she is only the Great Venerable, no longer an Immortal."

"And I am merely a single obsession; I understand nothing, I can do nothing, that is all."

A wave of disappointment rose in Fang Shi's heart, but in an instant he rallied himself.

Rely on a mountain, and the mountain falls; rely on a person, and the person runs; better to rely on oneself.

Heaven moves with vigor; the superior man strives unceasingly.

"This junior understands. Then, Senior, next is to dispel the heart-demon. I have reached the time to leave this world."