The First Immortal of Destiny

When stepping into the perspective of ”The Heavens,” Shen Mo discovered that the will of ”it,” or ”Heaven’s Will,” is formed by the collective intentions of all things in the world. This will encompassed not only cultivators and sentient beings but also plants, microorganisms, and even the intentions of mountains and rivers, stones and tiles, and natural phenomena like wind, rain, and thunder—all things in the world!

All living things in the world need to eat, drink, excrete, and proliferate. Every creature is like this. Even a weed yearns for sunshine and rain, wishing to grow strong. Even a microorganism requires nutrients and energy, hoping to spread its colony all over the world. Even a grain of sand, a droplet of rainwater, a river, a mountain, a cloud, or a breeze has its unique intention; it’s just not as vehement or blatant as those of extraordinary beings and other sentient creatures!

All things combine to construct the entire world. The intentions of all things, gathering little by little, formed the ”Heart of the Heaven and Earth,” which is ”The Heavens” of this world!

The intentions of inanimate things like gravel, rainwater, mountains, and rivers, though extremely weak, are exceedingly numerous. Thus, they dominate the will of The Heavens. The intentions of cultivators and extraordinary creatures account for less than one ten-thousandth of all beings. All creatures account for less than one ten-thousandth of sentient beings, and all sentient beings account for less than one ten-thousandth of all things!

Therefore, the overall influence of cultivators and exceptional entities like demonic beasts on the will of The Heavens does not exceed one trillionth. Because of this, the vast and profound ”Heavens” of a world, silent through the ages, does not manifest in the same manner as the consciousness of living beings, flying birds and running beasts, Artifact Spirits, or other creatures.

However, when the entire world begins to wither, decay, and sink, all things will unleash torrents of similarly vehement intentions! Fear, unwillingness, resentment, curses, struggle, resistance, the will to survive... When all things produce such vehement intentions, even the lofty, indifferent ”Will of The Heavens” will distort in response.

The apocalyptic catastrophe in the world Shen Mo witnessed was a gigantic flood. All things—whether human and immortal, flying birds and running beasts, plants and trees, microorganisms, or inanimate objects like land strata, mountains and rivers, wind, rain, and thunder—were churned into a chaotic slurry, sinking endlessly into the terrifying deluge!

Perhaps it was because of this that the ”Heart of the Heaven and Earth” became twisted and distorted, filled with malevolent curses. These curses damned all creatures to endure the pain of being swallowed by a flood, ultimately drowning in endless despair.

The Water Ghost Evil Spirit is a fragment of ”Heaven’s Will” that disintegrated after that world fully withered. It is the lingering resentment of an entire world; thus, it can drift unrestrictedly through the cosmos. Even before the drastic changes in Heaven and Earth, when the leaf of the Primordial Realm still hung on a branch of the Universe Tree, it could not prevent the arrival of Evil Spirits, like filth and dust! By the time the Primordial Realm fell from the Universe Tree and became entangled with other, already withered and decaying worlds, Evil Spirits grew even more numerous.

If it is as I suspect… the Suspended Fairy Mountain must also have a similar origin!

After the merciful Buddhist cultivator and the Big Heavenly Demon perished together, they left behind the Pure Land cultivated from the Great Sun Tathagata Heart Scripture. This Pure Land was then corrupted by demonic primality, transforming it into a strange land that was both pure and defiled. However, this place, embodying both the sanctity of Buddha and the impurity of demons, much like the Sword Washing Pool of the Heaven Sword Sect, is merely a medium.

Because of its peculiar nature, it attracted the resentment of a Withering Realm, which descended upon the Suspended Fairy Mountain and transformed it into an Evil Spirit!

Thinking about it carefully… This must be the residual consciousness of Heaven’s Will, born after a world where the Buddha Path flourished had utterly decayed and collapsed. Initially, it aimed to relieve all beings from their suffering, but it had already become twisted and distorted.

Thus, it gave rise to various anomalies: ’upon sight,’ it would abduct beings and forcibly ’transform’ and ’convert’ them into a part of the Buddha’s Pure Land...

It wasn’t just the Suspended Fairy Mountain. The Heaven Patrolling Boat House filled with spectral attendants and the Longevity Flesh Evil Spirit—an amalgamation of myriad cultivators from the Jade Flower Sect—also contained a hint of ”overcoming disasters” and ”beyond life and death.” However, these meanings were all twisted and abnormal.

As for why these ”Remnants of the Resentment of Withering Realms” only transformed into Evil Spirits to torment the creatures of the world, rather than damaging the mountains, rivers, soil, and vegetation in the Primordial Realm… Shen Mo believed that, ultimately, there was still an influence. However, being a sentient creature, he could not become the ”Heaven’s Will” of the Primordial Realm. Therefore, he was unable to personally experience the ”curse” and ”poison” that all things in the Primordial Realm endured!

Moreover, while the Evil Spirits that descended upon the Primordial Realm appeared numerous, the number of cultivators they harmed seemed insignificant compared to the myriad creatures. Similarly, the twisted and distorted ”will of heaven and earth” originating from other decaying worlds wouldn’t impact the Primordial Realm so severely that even cultivators could detect it.

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Having understood the truth about Evil Spirits, Shen Mo’s comprehension of ”Heaven’s Will” and ”Becoming a Heavenly Monarch” deepened.

Treating a world as a whole, the sum of the intentions of all its things gathered to form that world’s ”Will of The Heavens.” The influence of cultivators and extraordinary creatures on ”The Heavens” is less than one trillionth. Yet, powerful cultivators, demonic beasts, and other exceptional beings, once they cultivate to a certain stage, can possess terrifying powers capable of moving mountains, boiling seas, and cracking continents. Compared to plants, mountains, and rivers, their impact on this world is undoubtedly significant.

However, the very existence of cultivators and extraordinary creatures damages all other things and the natural world. For instance, cultivators need to mine spirit gold and Spirit Stones, and gather spiritual medicines. When they fight, they can easily destroy mountain ranges and rivers, damage earth veins, and even shatter the heavens! This severely contradicts the intentions of all other things. Therefore, ”Heaven’s Will” imposes limitations on cultivators and extraordinary beings.

When Shen Mo tried to upgrade his Talent and vitality—his most basic aptitudes—to Gold, The Heavens would unleash terrifying tribulations like rolling Heavenly Thunder and the Demonic Killing Field to stop him. Similarly, whenever a being with heaven-defying talent and physique is born, terrifying disasters befall them at birth to annihilate them. The purpose is obvious: to prevent this world from birthing overly powerful, heaven-defying existences. This is the common wish of all sentient beings and nature, a desire to prevent destructive impacts on this world and all other things within it.

Thus, erecting the Divine Bridge to establish a connection with Heaven and Earth, in essence, becomes easier to understand.

The ”Dao” of enlightenment…

It is both a path and a principle—the principle espoused by Heaven and Earth, and all beings.