The Programmer Cultivator

”The Celestial Heart... A heart that cares for all living beings, feels the suffering of the masses, and establishes a Celestial Heart for all. This path was originally the purest and most virtuous of ways.

If the Five Elements Blessed Land had succeeded back then, everyone in Hongmeng might have become as mighty as a dragon.

However, the ascension of a Grotto Heaven to a Holy Land has never been about bringing great boons to the people of Hongmeng. What truly matters is whether the Blessed Land’s methods are powerful enough to stand out from the rest.

If they failed, it was already considered fortunate just to retain their status as a Blessed Land and not fall completely.

The Celestial Heart Path, however, was too pure. And because it was so pure, it became a case of extremes breeding their own opposites.

Due to his Dao injuries and the suppression he faced from all sides, the Five Elements Ancestor fell from a pure Cultivator who cared for all living beings into the Demon Path, turning to the Devouring Dao instead.

If supreme good wouldn’t work, he would use supreme evil to nurture a Celestial Heart. It was a method of extremes breeding their own opposites—to birth supreme sanctity from the depths of supreme filth.

This led to the subsequent Five Elements chaos: Cultivators devouring mortals, unspeakable evil plaguing Hongmeng, and disasters spreading across the land.

No matter how carefully they acted, something like this was bound to be discovered eventually. After all, to devour people, you have to go out and find sufficient Resources. They couldn’t just ’farm’ like the Spirit Nurturing Holy Land, only emerging after their power was already consolidated.

They couldn’t just stay in their Grotto Heaven and eat their own people, right?

For this reason, the Five Elements Blessed Land was driven to a dead end. How could a single Blessed Land—a half-crippled one, at that—possibly contend with the entirety of Hongmeng?

The Holy Lands didn’t even have to intervene. By that point, the Five Elements Blessed Land had already fallen to the lowest ranks.

The Devouring Dao and the Great Aspiration Dao are, strictly speaking, deeply intertwined as polar opposites. Therefore, the three great Blessed Land Grotto Heavens under Spirit Mountain—Leiyin Temple, Jinshan Temple, and Xuande Temple—were the first to sense the change.

Because of this, Wish Cultivators stood to gain significant benefits from the situation. Thus, the three Blessed Lands joined forces and utterly ended the Five Elements chaos.

Under the Great Aspiration of Pu Xian Bodhisattva from Leiyin Temple, the Five Elements Blessed Land was shattered, the Five Elements Ancestor perished, and the aspiration even spread to engulf the entire Five Elements Five Races, causing them to dissipate into Sumeru.

The Buddhist Sect, in turn, received a tremendous amount of Merit and witnessed the ascension of several new Bodhisattvas. Pu Xian, in particular, stabilized his Great Aspiration and attained Buddhahood.

However, while their actions were considered righteous, they still committed a monstrous sin of slaughter and accumulated significant negative karma.

Therefore, to protect their reputation, Spirit Mountain took measures to suppress all stories about the Five Elements Blessed Land. Gradually, fewer and fewer people in all of Hongmeng came to know of it.

As for our Celestial Spirit Sect, we were just an obscure little Sect within the domain of the Five Elements Blessed Land back then.

We managed to gain quite a few boons from the aftermath of the Five Elements Blessed Land’s collapse. After tens of millions of years of development, we finally leaped to the status of an Upper Sect.

To put it bluntly, we were one of the vultures who picked at the corpse of the Five Elements Blessed Land. For that reason, and coupled with the gag order from Spirit Mountain, the Sect simply took the opportunity to bury the matter entirely.”

Zhang Deming’s brow furrowed as he listened. ’Although this account matches most of what I know,’ he thought, ’it feels like something is missing. Some pieces just don’t fit.’

’Wait. If the fall of the Five Elements Blessed Land happened even before the Spirit Nurturing Holy Land incident, at least ten thousand years ago... then what about that old specter in Turtle Water?’

”If the Five Elements Blessed Land vanished so long ago, then the person I saw in the Turtle Water Secret Realm... was he not from the Blessed Land?” Zhang Deming asked, puzzled.

”Yes and no, I suppose,” Dang Xiangjun began. ”How could a great Blessed Land vanish so easily? Besides, the Five Elements Ancestor had already turned to the Devouring Dao.

The Buddhist Sect’s Great Aspiration only eliminated the core Five Elements Disciples—those within the Grotto Heaven and at their main sect gates outside it.

There were always some disciples traveling abroad, some peripheral clans, and others who, through opportune marriages and twists of fate, escaped the annihilating power of the Great Aspiration and survived.

Fueled by the hatred of their near-extermination, and with most of them having already taken up the Devouring Dao, they became what is known as the Five Elements Remnants.

Over the years, we’d still encounter some of them every now and then. But they were always promptly eliminated by the disciples of the three temples. The Buddhist Sect is incredibly proactive about this, like cats that have smelled fish.

Under such relentless crackdowns, the Five Elements Remnants have become increasingly rare over the years. I haven’t heard of any large-scale outbreaks in a long time. I imagine they must be all but wiped out by now.

The last major incident, I believe, was several thousand years ago. It even involved some sordid drama from another Blessed Land.”

Zhang Deming, Yuee Mengsheng, and Gan Zili all paused, giving Dang Xiangjun a strange look. ’Who is he to call someone else’s story sordid drama?’ they thought. ’His own thousand-year affair is the very definition of it!’

Guk Liancai’s eyes, however, lit up. His gossipy nature instantly took over, and forgetting his place, he blurted out almost instinctively, ”Oh? There’s a story even Master Dang considers sordid drama? I’m quite curious, what could it be?”

Zhang Deming: ”...”

Gan Zili: ”...”

Yuee Mengsheng: ”...”

Gan Zili shot Guk Liancai a look of silent condolence, while Yuee Mengsheng’s face was filled with outright pity.

Zhang Deming also looked at Guk Liancai sympathetically. ’Did your contrarian nature make you forget where you are?’ he wondered. ’Or have you just grown a spine, to dare say something so bold?’

Startled by the three of them staring at him, Guk Liancai immediately clamped his mouth shut, acting as if he hadn’t been the one to speak.

Hearing the pointed remark, Dang Xiangjun’s face darkened. He shot a glare at Guk Liancai, but since they were in the middle of a serious discussion, he didn’t immediately use a Silence spell on him.