Chapter 411 Eve 3
After thinking for a while, Yuchi said, "First of all, you have a misunderstanding. The Great Impermanence does not necessarily have more karmic connections the longer it lives. Because the Great Impermanence is a solitary and sacred being, there are not many people who are qualified to form karmic connections with it."
"This is just like those in positions of power in secular society. The higher the position and the greater the power, the more difficult it is to make true friends. Power can distort the feelings of those around you like a whirlpool. Even if connections are formed in this state, they are likely to be shallow and fragile, and are unlikely to become a force that anchors the self in the face of great uncertainty."
"In fact, as time goes by, the Great Impermanence's karmic connections become fewer and fewer. Precisely because of its long lifespan, the people around it cannot keep up with it, so the deep karmic connections that the Great Impermanence formed during its growth will gradually disappear. After all worldly ties are severed, the Great Impermanence will become a lonely person."
Old Master Zhu never told me about this... But that makes sense. Although the Zhu family had produced a Great Impermanence in their ancestry, Zhu Yi didn't live for very long. Not long after becoming the Great Impermanence, he and other successors of the Two Elements challenged the Two Elements Mountain together, and then he was defeated and died.
I then asked, "Then... what about a divine marriage ceremony? I've heard that a divine marriage allows the deceased to form a bond with their spouse and share the blessings they have... Is this also not allowed?"
“In a divine marriage ceremony, the one offered to the gods is less a consort and more a living sacrifice, often with a huge rift between them. Of course, your situation might be different.” Yu Chi looked at me curiously. “Do you want to marry Zhu Shi from the Zhu family? If you see him as an equal, then the divine marriage ceremony will be very useful. But the other Great Impermanences may not share your mindset.”
"So, does that mean that ordinary impermanent beings will eventually fall into a situation where they have no connections to form?" I felt that this statement was unreliable. "But don't impermanent beings still have a strong connection with believers? Even if the anchor provided by believers is somewhat unreliable, impermanent beings should still have a few reliable connections, right? For example, offspring or something."
"Furthermore, the great impermanent beings in history probably didn't rely entirely on the power of fate to anchor themselves. Regarding their anchoring state, I think they must have found more ways to anchor themselves in this world. It's impossible that so many great impermanent beings in history were lost because they had no karmic connections to form, right?"
Yu Chi sighed, "You're right, but as the saying goes, 'You can guard against a thousand things, but it's hard to guard against a thief within your own family.' No matter how many methods Da Wuchang uses to anchor himself, he can't prevent Da Wuchang from voluntarily entering a state of despair."
His words stunned me: "What did you say?"
Actively entering a state of despair... Would the Great Impermanence do that? And judging from his tone, it wasn't just one or two Great Impermanences who did it... but many Great Impermanences did it?
I couldn't help but look again at the dark mass of Tallinn in the distance.
"Have you ever heard of the concept of 'aversion to the environment'?" Yu Chi asked.
I nodded, and at the same time, I realized.
Yuchi used a Buddhist term, "disdain," which refers to a feeling of aversion and indifference towards worldly affairs. Buddhism emphasizes detachment from the world, requiring believers to give up material desires in the mundane world, and disdain is considered the first stage in the pursuit of enlightenment.
To stimulate believers' aversion to worldly things, some Buddhist scriptures attempt to depict the ugliness of material possessions. If believers harbor desires for beauty, they are told the lesson of "beauty is but a skeleton." Others reveal the ugliness of the physical body not through words, but through pictures, showing the horrific process of the body decaying into bones after death. The famous "Nine Aspects of the Body" is an example of this. After viewing these images, believers will naturally develop aversion to their own physical bodies and yearn for a higher spiritual realm.
Only with aversion to worldly desires can renunciation arise, and only with renunciation can Bodhicitta arise. This is a gradual process of spiritual practice and seeking the path.
Through this hint, I may have understood what it means for the Great Impermanence to actively enter a state of loss.
The Great Impermanence is a supreme being residing at the pinnacle of this world, possessing an endless lifespan. Violence, power, wealth, fame... most things that mortals dream of are readily available to the Great Impermanence.
According to legend, before becoming a monk, Shakyamuni Buddha was a prince of the Kshatriya caste in ancient India. After witnessing the cycle of birth, old age, sickness, and death, he developed a disillusionment with the world and felt the urge to renounce worldly life. Another interpretation suggests that Shakyamuni was able to relinquish his status and power without hesitation because he had enjoyed immense wealth and luxury and had long since lost any attachment to material desires.
After desires are repeatedly satisfied, the Great Impermanence (a concept in Chinese mythology associated with impermanence) naturally develops a sense of weariness towards the external world. Few can truly be considered equals, and most enjoyable things have been experienced. The world becomes like a single-player game that has been largely explored, and it's time to graduate. While there may still be a few things one hasn't accomplished, the external world's allure is undoubtedly diminishing dramatically.
Take Shenzhao as an example. Although he is still pursuing the opening of the third door, it's more of a process of struggling with himself. The external world can offer him negligible help, and fate cannot make him stronger. Therefore, he doesn't care about transcendence or worldly governance, and he lacks a sense of camaraderie. He doesn't care how many demon hunters die alongside him on the battlefield. He has most likely developed a sense of aversion to the external world and is showing signs of disillusionment.
“The Great Impermanence can change the people and things around it with just its thoughts. Therefore, once the Great Impermanence itself develops aversion, no matter how many measures it has taken to prevent loss, it is difficult to stop this process,” Yuchi said. “Moreover, some Great Impermanence may not have even thought of stopping it.”
"Under different value systems, the same thing can be interpreted in different ways. In secular society, aversion to world-weariness may be interpreted by psychology as a pessimistic attitude, a negative and escapist emotion; from a mystical perspective, aversion to world-weariness is the beginning of enlightenment and Buddhahood, a positive and clear state of mind."
"However, many believers in the Great Impermanence believe that the loss of the Great Impermanence is not necessarily a bad thing. In ancient times, the Great Impermanence was also called a 'human god,' and the process of becoming the lost Great Impermanence was regarded as a sublimation from a personal god to a nature god, a sacred evolution, or deification. They also believe that the disappearance of the Great Impermanence is entering a mysterious dimension, and that it is a transformation from a 'human god' into a true 'immortal god.'"
Towards the end, his voice sounded somewhat sarcastic.
Lu Chan previously emphasized that "the anchoring of karmic connections provided by the believer group is problematic," and perhaps this is one of the factors at play. How could a believer group, which provides the anchoring of karmic connections to the impermanence of existence, expect the impermanence of existence to lose its anchor?
The Divination Master said that he was a Great Impermanence who had survived from ancient times to the present. He must have witnessed the loss and death of many Great Impermanences. However, he himself did not feel disgusted or lost with the world. Presumably, he still had an extremely strong attachment to the external world.
Seeing Yuchi's attitude, I asked, "Do you have different ideas from them?"
“I had the same thought a long time ago. However, my wife became a Great Impermanence, and of course I wouldn't want her to become a Lost Great Impermanence…” Yu Chi looked towards the distant Great Impermanence cemetery, “But, who knows…”
Sadness and hatred appeared in his eyes.
After that, the funeral ceremony began.
Perhaps because the phenomenon of zombies truly exists in the supernatural world, cremation is the basic form of funeral culture in Luoshan. However, considering that most of the war dead did not even have their remains recovered, the funeral ceremony also changed the farewell ceremony for the deceased. One mini coffin after another was carried over, most of which contained the personal belongings of the war dead, and only a few contained ashes.
The divination master praised the fallen soldiers who participated in the battle for the Humanitarian Division's main stronghold, and everyone paid their respects and mourned them. Then, the urns containing their ashes were placed under the tombstone.
Although the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau has been destroyed, Luoshan still faces three major threats. Previously, these were the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau, Peach Blossom Spring, and the Xuanming Believers; now, they are the Void Realm, Peach Blossom Spring, and the Xuanming Believers.
After the ceremony ended, the divination master left the venue, and everyone else gradually left as well. Yu Chi privately remarked to me, "...Who would have thought that nearly half of the Void Realm Apostles would have infiltrated this funeral ceremony?"
As he spoke, he glanced in the direction of Shenzhao. Shenzhao had already left without him noticing.
"The Virtual Realm Conference should be starting soon. See you then," he said.
"See you then," I said.
After bidding farewell to Fazheng and Jian Feixian, I headed towards the distant Dark Tower Forest, wanting to see the tombstones of the Great Impermanences of past generations. The Great Impermanence cemetery holds supreme sanctity in Luoshan; even Great Completion level Impermanences do not normally have the right to freely enter or leave. However, I am a Great Impermanence, and I can enter as I please.
Beneath these massive tombstones, resembling skyscrapers, are generally no actual remains or ashes of the Great Impermanence (a type of powerful spirit). Lost Great Impermanence would naturally not leave behind any remains, and the few Great Impermanence who died in battle generally did not leave any behind either.
Among the tombstones, I also saw the familiar tombstone of the Great Impermanence. Fu Hongchen, who was burned to death by Xuanming, and Qilin, who was killed by the Old Fist God... all these tombstones were empty. On the battlefield of the Great Impermanence, those who died in battle often did not even leave behind their ashes.
Some tombstones are still unclaimed, and it seems that Luoshan will erect tombstones for those who are not yet dead, just like how ancient emperors would build their mausoleums before they died.
Building tombstones for the immortal Great Impermanence in advance might sound like a curse, but Luoshan is a power steeped in death culture, its headquarters once located in the afterlife, and the Great Impermanence was considered a god of the afterlife. Therefore, the tombstones built for them in advance are not considered curses in Luoshan's culture, but rather carry sacred and sublime symbolic meaning.
Amidst the dense mass of tombstones, I spotted a familiar figure. Shenzhao stood there, gazing at the enormous, blank tombstones with a cryptic expression.
He seemed to notice my gaze, so he turned his head and looked at me from a distance, but didn't say a word. He just glanced at the tombstones one last time, and then disappeared.
(End of this chapter)
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