Chapter 104 The Heavenly Gate Opens, the Heavenly Ladder is Found, and We Reach the Center of the Universe...
"Shen Chunrong, the freedom you want is just your freedom."
Humans are social animals. They feel safe when surrounded by the same voices, so they want to make those voices louder and change the world for them.
However, there is no right or wrong in one's stance, nor is there a distinction between superior and inferior doctrines.
Wan Qianzhong frowned: "So you think I was blinded by my desires and that's why I couldn't see the benefits of the Kunlun Daoist methods?"
Shen Cangyu said, "Kunlun did not deprive other Daoist practices of their right to exist. All Daoist practices have always existed; it's just that you think Kunlun has taken their place. It's not that if Kunlun falls, other Daoist practices will flourish."
Just like when Lu Yuan attacked other disciples during the disciple assessment, causing them to be eliminated on the spot, those disciples were especially angry. They felt that Lu Yuan was able to achieve good results because they were not there. If they had stayed in the secret realm and everyone had competed fairly, how could Lu Yuan have had a chance to beat them?
But reality doesn't allow for "what ifs." Competition is brutal, and attacking disciples is a permitted tactic within the secret realm; there's no such thing as an absolutely fair chance. Even if Lu Yuan hadn't attacked the other disciples, they might not have been able to defeat him. Now that they've failed, they can only attribute their defeat entirely to Lu Yuan, thus convincing themselves that they are still incredibly powerful cultivators, and that they are simply unlucky and destined for misfortune.
Just like Shen Chunrong felt that everyone loved reading stories with a lazy protagonist, which is why her previous stories didn't get any clicks. It was the emergence of lazy protagonists that deprived her of her right to survive. If she wanted to make money, she could only follow the market and write things that everyone loved to read, but that she herself didn't like.
Therefore, she hated formulaic writing even more, and she hated this world and this era.
“No one has ever trapped you. All the constraints are self-imposed, aren’t they?” Shen Cangyu said. “Instead of destroying other Dao methods and changing the world, you should think about how to make yourself compatible with this world. Everyone tends to choose those who are ‘like me.’ The more Dao methods you acquire, the more like me there will be in the world, and the fewer non-like me there will be. You can then become one of the ‘like me’ for everyone in the world.”
"So, what do you suggest we do?"
"Embrace all rivers, listen to all voices, open your eyes to the world, and unite all things into one."
Wan Qianzhong was stunned: "You want me to learn all the Daoist arts in the world? How is that possible? A person can only master one Daoist art..."
Shen Cangyu raised his wrist and said, "A person can master more than one kind of Daoist technique. I possess greed and arrogance, two of the Five Evils. In addition, I have mastered the Daoist techniques of Returning to the Heart of All Things, Carving Dragons with a Literary Mind, and Wandering Freely. We can learn all Daoist techniques as long as you trust them enough. Moreover, you have already mastered so many mental techniques. What are you still afraid of?"
The art of the mind and the principles of Taoism share the same origin; the art of the mind is skill, while the principles of Taoism are thought.
Shen Cangyu has found a way to establish himself in this world: to integrate all the Daoist arts under heaven into a unified whole, making each Daoist art a different manifestation of this unified whole. When the Dao is unified, all things return to the heart.
Try different writing styles, and then combine them all together?
“Yes, instead of stubbornly sticking to one place, it’s better to cast aside all prejudices, observe, learn, and analyze the characteristics of all novels, explore and build a more complete self, ultimately find more facets of yourself, try more themes and more writing styles, establish new styles on top of established styles, and find a way to both adapt to the times and express yourself within the context of the times. You will always find a path that suits you, and there won’t be only one path that suits you,” Shen Cangyu said.
Rather than changing the times and letting them create more companions, it's better to change yourself and proactively become a companion to more people.
"So, instead of eliminating Kunlun, why not turn Kunlun into our own and merge Kunlun with us?" Wan Qianzhong pondered for a moment, "Interesting, a very arrogant statement."
Shen Cangyu smiled and said, "I not only want to integrate the Daoist methods of Kunlun, but I also want to integrate all the Five Evils." She wants to integrate the entire world into a whole and build a perfect system that can grow freely.
Outside the door, Pei Wenjing stood with his back against the wall for a long time. Finally, as their voices gradually faded, he straightened up and walked out.
Pei Wenjing has been reborn countless times, and he understands this world better than they do.
This is a short-lived world; once a certain time has passed, it will automatically collapse. Pei Wenjing once spoke of hiding in a corner where no one knows him, living out his life in anonymity. But before long, this world will crumble, turning into clumps of data that fly into the sky, and everything will cease to exist. When he opened his eyes again, he was back on the day he was born.
The world created by the author is born when the background story begins to be serialized, and it will disintegrate when the story ends. Once the world loses its meaning, it will automatically disappear, and the people who exist in this world will also disappear along with the ending of the plot.
"Disappearance" is the inevitable fate of these fictional characters. The reason they haven't completely disappeared is simply because the author has never written a complete ending. As soon as the ending appears and the story ends, this world will crumble again, just like it has done thousands of times before.
However, this acceptance marks a permanent end; this world will never repeat itself. Because Shen Cangyu has found the best ending; she has convinced Wan Qianzhong and the author. The story will be concluded by Shen Cangyu herself, and their lives will come to an end with the story's conclusion.
His time is running out.
*
Pei Wenjing pushed open the door to the Suijinlou library. A damp, musty smell hit him. He took down the water-repelling talisman that was stained with ink on the wall and replaced it with a new paper talisman.
Wan Qianzhong stored all the books she had collected over the years in the library, but since the Broken Gold Pavilion was near the sea and the air was humid, the books would lose their lifespan if not handled properly. But Wan Qianzhong didn't care about that; she just collected the books and made sure others could read them.
Pei Wenjing was the one who affixed the water-repelling talisman to the library. If the books can be well preserved, they can be passed down for thousands of years. Even if this world only has a few decades of lifespan, Pei Wenjing will still take good care of the books.
He prefers to spend his time reading rather than interacting with people.
He flipped through the books on the shelf, one by one. He had already read all the books in the Kunlun Scripture Pavilion. Besides Kunlun, he had been to many other places and read many books, all in an attempt to find a way to break through time and space.
In the past, he read books in an attempt to cross the yin and yang realms to find Shen Cangyu.
He's reading now in order to find a way to break through time and space and leave this world with Shen Cangyu. If the story is going to end, the characters in it will die along with it. If he wants to live, he can only escape this world and leave this novel.
Pei Wenjing didn't want to see Shen Cangyu exhaust herself to integrate all the Daoist arts of the world, build a new system, and then disappear along with this broken story. This was the author's story, not Shen Cangyu's story. He didn't want to see Shen Cangyu stop here. She clearly could have done so much more; she had a better life ahead of her. This world didn't deserve her ending like this.
Pei Wenjing saw the books that he had pushed onto the table. These books were collected by Wan Qianzhong from different places. He had visited Wan Qianzhong's Broken Gold Pavilion in several past lives, but in his memory, there were far fewer books in the Broken Gold Pavilion back then than there are now.
Too many things have changed in this life, and Pei Wenjing is unsure whether his memories of the future are still reliable. All he can do is find a way to leave this world as soon as possible.
In his memory, every time the world collapsed, the last piece of the puzzle to disappear was Blind Mountain, so he always considered Blind Mountain his final resting place. That place was very different. It was both the last place to disappear and the last clue pointing to the legendary Penglai Immortal Island. He guessed that if he could really find the clue that tore through time and space, its final resting place might be Blind Mountain.
Pei Wenjing flipped through the book in his hand, searching for clues about Blind Mountain, but unexpectedly, he saw Kunlun in the book.
He knew that the Kunlun of mythology was different from the Kunlun of their current sect. The Kunlun of legend was rich in spiritual energy, the abode of gods, and the boundary between the human world and the fairyland. There was a ladder to heaven on Kunlun that connected to the universe.
If one can truly ascend to Kunlun, one can ascend to immortality.
If it's really as the book says, perhaps this legendary Kunlun is the key to leaving this world. But the Kunlun in the book can't possibly be the Kunlun of today. After all, he's been in Kunlun for so many years. If there really was a ladder to heaven, he would have discovered it long ago. Why wait until now?
Just as Penglai is not Penglai, Kunlun cannot be Kunlun.
Pei Wenjing pondered the words in the book, looking at the description of the black mountain and white snow. The more he read, the more suspicious he became. This legendary Kunlun was actually Blind Mountain. Blind Mountain was the real Kunlun, but in the past, he had searched Blind Mountain repeatedly but had never seen the so-called ladder to heaven.
Could it be that the Heavenly Ladder is hidden somewhere, like the Heavenly Gate, requiring a special key to open?
"The land of gods, riding dragons and phoenixes, elixirs and miraculous medicines..." Pei Wenjing flipped through the book, only grasping a moment's information. He tossed the book aside and started searching on the bookshelf again.
Legend has it that the Queen Mother of the West possesses a magical elixir; whoever consumes it can fly to the heavens.
Thinking of this, Pei Wenjing's heart skipped a beat. For some reason, he suddenly remembered the spiritual pearl he had taken out of the statue of the Goddess Tianxiang.
What if Kunlun isn't Kunlun, and the elixir isn't just medicine, but a spiritual pearl? If he obtains that pearl, does it mean he's found the way to unlock the ladder to heaven?
Author's note: The time has come for me to mutate. From today onward, I am the evil black goat.
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