Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 304: Chapter 167: Who are you, and why do you not kneel before me?

The path of the Martial Dao is long and winding; the further one walks, the more boundless it seems.

According to Li Chang’an’s own understanding, there was strictly no inherent superiority or inferiority between the two Evolution Paths of Martial Artists and Cultivators.

Martial Artists could tear through the heavens and suppress space-time with their physical bodies alone.

As for Cultivators, it went without saying. A single Sect could control dozens, even hundreds, of smaller worlds.

The only real difference between them lay in the specific upper and lower limits of their respective Evolution Paths.

For example, in some worlds, Martial Artists had an insufficient understanding of how to hone and develop their bodies, allowing them to contain only a small amount of power.

The Martial Artists from such worlds were naturally no match for powerful Cultivators who followed well-established and comprehensive doctrines.

Conversely, in worlds where Spiritual Qi was scarce, Cultivators were pitifully weak. A so-called ’Nascent Soul’ grandmaster might live for three to five hundred years at most. If they encountered a powerful Martial Artist who had completed their foundational training, they could be crushed to death with a single hand.

In other words, the relative strength of individuals did not determine the superiority of their respective paths.

The Evolution Path of the *Martial Scripture*, which Li Chang’an had created, was a Martial Dao progression that was in no way inferior to any path of Cultivation.

The reason why most Cultivators Li Chang’an had encountered in the Rebirth Worlds were stronger, consistently suppressing Martial Artists to the point of suffocation, was actually quite simple.

—Cultivators, who relied on pure Energy for their Cultivation, had a much higher baseline of power than Martial Artists, who relied on their own physical metamorphosis.

Although some paths within the Martial Dao Evolution Path involved absorbing Energy, the core power that Martial Artists truly relied upon had to be unlocked by developing the Human Body Treasure.

So, the question was…

How difficult was it to develop the Human Body Treasure?

Li Chang’an himself had traveled through numerous Martial Dao worlds, collecting a vast sea of knowledge just to painstakingly devise the *Martial Scripture*. This alone showed the sheer difficulty of the task.

In many Martial Dao worlds, even those with thriving martial cultures, it would take thousands, even tens of thousands, of years to formulate a mature and stable Martial Arts Cultivation System.

Furthermore, in the early stages of their training, Martial Artists gained no increase in lifespan. In fact, certain extreme cultivation Techniques could even damage the Cultivator’s lifespan.

Cultivators, on the other hand, generally had much longer lifespans.

As one side waxed and the other waned, it was a simple fact that Cultivators were, on average, stronger than Martial Artists.

Whenever a powerful, evolving race appeared near a world, they would inevitably expand aggressively and find ways to plunder and exploit the weaker peoples around them.

It was just like the Li Yang World, where Li Chang’an had been before.

The Cultivators had not only plundered the Li Yang Continent of all its treasures, but they had also deliberately corrupted the Martial Dao practiced by its Martial Artists, stripping away its essence and leaving only the dregs.

This was all done to better control the Martial Artists of the Li Yang Continent.

Having been systematically crippled in this way, the Martial Artists of the Li Yang Continent were naturally no match for the Cultivators.

If Li Chang’an hadn’t used his Heaven-defying Comprehension to forcibly free the Li Yang Continent from its fate as a breeding ground for Cultivators, its Martial Dao likely would have never advanced, even given tens of thousands of years.

Stagnation would have been a blessing; regression would have been the most likely outcome.

Now, the Jiuzhou Continent was facing a similar danger, and the Cultivators’ control here was even more severe than it had been on the Li Yang Continent.

After all, the Cultivators on the Li Yang Continent practiced a scorched-earth harvest, leaving only a few “sprouts” behind as seeds. They would return one or two thousand years later, once the “crop” had regrown.

The Cultivators ruling the Jiuzhou Continent, however, preferred a slow bleeding. Every twenty years or so, they would use war as an excuse to perform another bloodletting.

The twelve nations currently standing on the Jiuzhou Continent were nothing more than twelve hounds left behind by the Cultivators. They kept the continent’s millions of Martial Artists and common people shackled and immobile, ready to be bled periodically and refined into Elixirs.

To Li Chang’an, this behavior was utterly unacceptable.

The Cultivators wore the veneer of civilization, yet their actions were no different from those of bandits and barbarians.

Li Chang’an sat in the carriage, merging the *Soul Technique* with the *Martial Scripture* as they traveled. Once he finished, he immediately resumed his training without a moment’s rest.

Lu Shang, meanwhile, sat watching Li Chang’an with a look of pure indignation.

When he saw Li Chang’an begin to practice the *Soul Technique*—his own creation—and unleash a power even greater than what he, the creator, could currently wield, Lu Shang’s eyes widened in astonishment. He nearly fainted on the spot.

’Good heavens, does he have any idea how much I suffered to create and practice the *Soul Technique*?’

’I went through hell and back, groping in the dark to find this heaven-defying path. It’s the proudest achievement of my entire life!’

’But now, in the hands of the Crown Prince of Great Zhou… how long has it been? Not only has he learned how to practice it and control the Soul Fire, but the power he’s unleashing is even more terrifying than what I, its creator, can manage…!’

’Is there any justice in this world?’

’Is there any law or order?’

’How can this Crown Prince of Great Zhou be such a monster?’

After training for a while, Li Chang’an emerged from his meditative state. He opened his eyes, saw Lu Shang’s ghost-white face, and couldn’t help but laugh. “This Cultivation System of yours is actually quite powerful. It’s a shame that in your hands, it’s like a caveman holding a peerless sword and using it to pull weeds. What a complete and utter waste!”