Chapter 98: The Heart Demon Creates a World; The Sage

Longyu Mountain, inside a guest room.

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

Longyu True Person said: “Before returning, if you wish to leave this realm, you must understand its true nature.”

“This realm is in fact the heart demon of a celestial immortal.”

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

Fang Shi was stunned, recalling the realm’s oddities: “Could this heart demon be the demon god?”

Longyu True Person nodded: “Yes, it is the demon god.”

“The celestial immortal’s honorific title is Hong Zhen Da Miao Ci Hui Tian Zun.”

“The heart demon has seized her manifestation in this world and wields 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?”

Longyu True Person smiled: “Of course they cannot succeed.”

“Since this realm is born of the heart demon, it is merely a tangle of the immortal’s torment.”

“Had you traveled beyond Yizhou early on, you would have found that apart from Yizhou, the other eighteen provinces do not exist.”

“Outside lies a formless, boundless abyss—a chaos without light or shadow.”

“Thus, no earth immortals can arise, nor ever be born.”

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

“You mean this realm cycles.”

“When the immortal is troubled, this realm manifests. When the immortal forgets, this realm vanishes.”

“Thus it repeats endlessly, without end.”

Longyu True Person regarded Fang Shi with approval: “Correct. You still have some insight.”

“This is one essence of this realm—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.”

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

“For instance, 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.”

Longyu True Person teased Fang Shi: “You’re cold. That little girl followed you for days.”

“You were almost her only support—yet you’re so heartless.”

Fang Shi replied calmly: “The sage is not benevolent—he treats the people as straw dogs. Just as the sages of this realm enforce rules that apply equally to all beings, human or monster.”

“Besides, it was her own choice. In this realm’s cycle, this has happened countless times.”

Longyu True Person shook his head: “But what of beyond this realm?”

“The immortal’s torment has a prototype—real Yizhou once had Zhang Zihui and Zhang Cheng.”

“They loved each other deeply; their lineage flowed down to the present, and that person is you.”

Fang Shi remained calm: “I’ve already guessed.”

“Ever since I learned Dao script, I understood the Zhang family’s communication jade token was never wrong.”

“I am indeed their descendant—but I am also an orphan.”

“The government raised me; I have no connection to their family.”

“Let alone take pride in their bloodline.”

Longyu True Person sighed: “The world turns, seas become mulberry fields—a thousand years have passed; all is changed.”

“Only gods and immortals are immortal.”

After composing himself, Longyu True Person 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 strength still decides everything. You must see my cultivation base.”

“I’m just an ordinary Qi Refiner—what merit or ability do I have to confront the heart demon?”

The fate of this realm is like a torrent. Even if Fang Shi is new water,

he cannot alter its course—his end will surely be like a mantis trying to stop a cart, dying pointlessly.

Longyu True Person shook his head: “You’re no ordinary Qi Refiner. What ordinary Qi Refiner possesses Foundation Establishment power?”

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

Fang Shi’s confusion deepened: lending power—when he grows strong, Longyu True Person weakens.

This act is like transferring strength from left hand to right.

Neither side’s fundamental strength changes.

“Master, this doesn’t make sense. If I’m strong and you’re weak, we still can’t defeat the enemy.”

“No—you can!” Longyu True Person declared firmly.

“I cannot, because the immortal herself forbids it.”

“In her mind, I am utterly incapable of defeating the heart demon.”

“Thus, even if I possessed power greater than the heart demon, the outcome would still be failure.”

Fang Shi probed: “Master, what is your true identity?”

A spiritual sense cultivator shouldn’t know celestial matters or the realm’s essence.

Is Longyu True Person truly only a spiritual sense cultivator?

Longyu True Person laughed: “I’m just an ordinary mortal who stumbled onto the Dao by chance.”

“I never imagined I’d go so far—beyond my own Dao, beyond Dao as self, finally beyond the Great Dao.”

“But the farther I went, the more I realized I could not change the world.”

“I once had great ambitions, but a hundred years passed in the mountains; when I returned to the world, I was already an immortal.”

“The sage’s heavenly law loomed above me—I sat on thorns, yet changed nothing.”

“Langxie Yu Ji is our lesson—he sought to save the people, but was beheaded by a mortal king.”

“The sage’s heavenly law played no small part in that!”

Fang Shi was not surprised by Longyu True Person’s identity.

He was horrified that an immortal could die at a mortal’s hands.

“Isn’t the sage just the heart demon’s creation—a rule to restrict cultivators’ actions?”

Longyu True Person sighed: “If the sage were merely the heart demon’s creation, how could there be a method to forge spiritual roots?”

“The sage truly possesses great virtue—but her mindset is too detached.”

“Heaven and earth have no benevolence—they treat all things as straw dogs.”

“But I do not. I see the world’s suffering and am pierced to the heart.”

“A single spell could summon heavenly dew, making wheat and rice pile high.”

“Yet because of the sage’s heavenly law, nothing is done.”

“The sage’s heavenly law is a greater restraint for immortal beings—not merely a heart demon’s trick.”

“It is the punishment that severs the Three Flowers atop the head and the Five Qi within the chest.”

“No matter how powerful an immortal, after this punishment, they become mortal.”

“Without immortal power, one cannot change the world.”

“Even a single spiritual sense cultivator from a great clan is beyond one person to oppose.”

Fang Shi was shaken—he finally understood the origin of the heart demon.

Hong Zhen Da Miao Ci Hui Tian Zun held great compassion, wishing for universal harmony.

That the elderly be cared for, the strong be employed, the young be nurtured, and the widowed, orphaned, lonely, and disabled all be provided for.

And the Tian Zun truly possessed such power—for an immortal like her.

A single spell could alter all worldly ills.

Any injustice could be resolved.

But the sage’s heavenly law dominated the Dao itself.

If the Tian Zun acted, she would face heavenly punishment.

Thus her heart grew blocked—and the heart demon was born.

Yet the heart demon, being the vessel of negative emotion, easily twisted the Tian Zun’s noble vision.

Hence this realm became this monstrous thing.

“The sage must be immortal—but how can she be so rigid, deaf to later voices?”

Longyu True Person sighed: “The sage, the sage—long gone, no one knows where.”

“Her form has vanished from the multiverse—how could she hear any voice?”

“And don’t call me ‘Master’—she is me, yet I am not her.”

“I am merely the lingering regret left behind in this realm.”

Fang Shi continued: “Then the jade bones outside are your remains—but who is that golden corpse?”

Long Yu, the True Person, sneered dismissively: “Naturally, it belongs to my ungrateful disciple—your so-called ancestor, Zhang Cheng.”

“When I took him as my disciple, it was only because I pitied him—his family had been destroyed by the Zhang clan.”

“Still, he had a bit of talent—he managed to win the Zhang clan’s legitimate daughter.”

“But since then, he never walked the right path.”

“After becoming an official, he oppressed the people, and it only grew worse.”

“He even built an underground city for himself, waiting to become an immortal.”

“Once you leave, don’t hold back—kill when you must.”

Fang Shi asked again: “And what of you, Elder? Won’t you act? My homeland is also your homeland—won’t you watch as the lives of your own land are slaughtered?”

“Where is your great compassion, Elder?”

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

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

With an immortal’s protection, China’s future would improve.

As for the sages’ heavenly laws, Fang Shi had a hunch—they wouldn’t last forever.

Besides, the Lady of Luck had plainly told Fang Shi before.

Gods cannot be deceived; decrees are not eternal.

Though he didn’t know the relationship between heavenly law and decree, the sages weren’t fools.

They forbade immortals—but not deities.

It was highly likely that heavenly law and decree were the same thing.

Long Yu, the True Person, shook his head: “Since the Celestial Sovereign severed her heart demon, she is merely the Celestial Sovereign—not an immortal anymore.”

“I am but a lingering obsession—nothing more, nothing less.”

A wave of disappointment rose in Fang Shi’s heart, but he quickly shook it off.

Lean on a mountain, and it falls; lean on a person, and they leave—better to rely on yourself.

Heaven moves strongly; the noble person strives unceasingly.

“Your humble disciple understands. Then, Elder, next is the destruction of the heart demon—I’ve reached the time to leave this world.”