Chapter 410: People Precede Heaven
“Immortal Elder, you’ve grown younger,” Yu Yin remarked in surprise.
The three of them had known Immortal Elder Changcun since childhood, when he always appeared as an elderly man on the verge of death. Now that he had regained hope, both his mindset and appearance had transformed.
Immortal Elder Changcun finally felt relieved.
Previously, he believed the destruction of the Nine Provinces was merely a matter of time, and all he could do was delay the inevitable. But today’s news from Jiang Li had given him genuine hope.
Though he couldn’t return to his appearance from nine thousand years ago, he had indeed become significantly younger.
“You’ve witnessed my shameful moment,” the elder said calmly after crying, feeling deeply embarrassed about weeping in front of his juniors.
Bai Hongtu suddenly asked, “I know Jiang Li is powerful, but how could he surpass Dao Ancestor?”
“Isn’t Jiang Li at the Mahayana Stage? That corresponds to Earthly Immortal realm—no matter how exceptional, he shouldn’t reach Dao Ancestor’s level.”
Jiang Li quietly observed Immortal Elder Changcun, making the elder extremely uncomfortable.
“Elder, please explain. You must know more about this Mahayana Stage than I do.”
The elder truthfully explained how he had fabricated the Mahayana Stage concept.
“So you’re saying you invented the Mahayana Stage?” Bai Hongtu stared wide-eyed. He considered himself quite the trickster, but this surpassed even his deceptions.
Compared to their ancestor’s lies, Jiang Li’s and his own fabrications seemed trivial. Truly worthy of being their founder.
Immortal Elder Changcun remembered his shock when Jiang Li broke through to the Mahayana Stage—he thought he must be dreaming.
How could someone actually achieve a made-up cultivation stage?
While doubts about the Mahayana Stage’s existence had circulated before, Jiang Li’s success silenced all skeptics.
Now it was the elder questioning reality instead.
If he invented more stages, would Jiang Li achieve those too?
For a while, the elder wondered if he had unknowingly mastered the Word as Law ability.
“Why didn’t you tell Jiang Li the truth after his breakthrough?” Yu Yin questioned.
The elder glanced at her. “What good would that do? Could he explain how to reach Mahayana Stage to you?”
He left unsaid another reason—he had imagined the Mahayana Stage’s power to its limits, yet Jiang Li’s version surpassed even those wild expectations. Admitting the truth would be too embarrassing.
Yu Yin fell silent. Indeed, after Jiang Li’s lectures, all she could think was: Where am I? Who am I? What’s happening? How did we get here so fast?
Reading celestial scriptures would be easier than comprehending his teachings.
Creating spiritual energy from nothing? Using infinite energy to break through? Achieving Mahayana Stage effortlessly?
What kind of nonsense was this?
“So all your previous claims about Outer Realm Demons cultivating with negative emotions, the various theories about their origins in the immortal realm, how easily immortals handle them, the difficulty locating their base, their own deities, and only Earthly Immortal-level and Celestial Immortal-level demons…”
The elder said expressionlessly, “All fabrications.”
“Thankfully Jiang Li exposed everything today. You don’t know how he kept asking for new intelligence about Outer Realm Demons—I had to improvise each time while maintaining consistency.”
The elder suddenly grew agitated: “I wasn’t this nervous even when my teacher tested my Daoist knowledge!”
Today, Immortal Elder Changcun decided to come clean completely.
Damn those Outer Realm Demons—he knew nothing about them! Finally, no more making up demon-related intelligence.
Any longer and he might have started believing his own lies.
“Jiang Li’s Mahayana Stage isn’t so much a new cultivation realm as a new species,” Bai Hongtu analyzed.
“Consider how immortals and mortals are fundamentally different species.”
“Mortals range from ordinary people to Tribulation Transcendence Stage. Immortals have Earthly Immortal, Celestial Immortal and so on.”
“Mahayana Stage corresponds to immortals—minimum Earthly Immortal level, maximum… well, surpassing even Dao Ancestor.”
“So Jiang Li is neither human nor immortal.”
Bai Hongtu continued provocatively: “Since you’re the only Mahayana cultivator, we can still rename the stage. How about ‘Jiang Li Stage’?”
“You could even create subdivisions using our names.”
“Early Jiang Li Stage could be Bai Hongtu Stage, middle phase as Yu Yin Stage, late phase as Jingxin Stage, and the peak as Changcun… oh, we should save a spot for you. Then the peak can remain Jiang Li Stage Peak.”
“What nonsense.” Jiang Li slapped the Nine Revolutions Immortal Pill on the table, silencing Bai Hongtu immediately.
Turning to the elder, Jiang Li asked: “We always said Outer Realm Demons feared dying beings’ collective will—but actually it’s the immortals who fear this. Why would immortals be afraid?”
Both Bai Hongtu and Yu Yin grew curious too.
Given the immortal realm’s power, destroying all worlds would be effortless—why go through such elaborate schemes?
“I couldn’t understand initially either,” the elder said. “Until recently, when you obtained intelligence from the martial arts world—”
“That was ten years ago,” Bai Hongtu interjected.
The elder glared at him.
“Tell me—which came first, people or the Heavenly Dao?”
“Obviously the Heavenly Dao,” they replied.
The elder shook his head. “Wrong. People came first. The Heavenly Dao is the collective will of all living beings. Without people, there would be no Heavenly Dao. People precede heaven—this is what my teacher said.”
“The more worlds and lives the Heavenly Dao governs, the stronger it becomes. The Celestial Ladder was a tool to strengthen this governance.”
“When teacher destroyed the Celestial Ladder, it wasn’t just to make worlds harder for immortals to find—it also weakened the Heavenly Dao’s control.”
“Without complete control, new Heavenly Daos might emerge from these worlds.”
“I suspect immortals want these worlds to die slowly precisely because they fear new Heavenly Daos appearing.”
“The immortal realm’s Heavenly Dao would never tolerate competitors.”
“What puzzles me is why an awakened Heavenly Dao would insist on destroying life. What does it gain?”
“The Heavenly Dao should desire more subjects, not fewer.”
“Moreover, as the collective will of beings, shouldn’t it reflect their desire to survive?”
“This behavior seems illogical—I can’t explain it.”
“Personally, I’m more curious how the Heavenly Dao gained sentience. Was it truly just from excessive spiritual energy?”
The elder looked peculiar. “You know my teacher specialized in sentience research—the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal is prime evidence.”
“Of course we know that.”
“So what follows isn’t a bad joke, but his serious hypothesis.”
“Teacher said because countless people pointed at the sky begging ‘Oh Heaven, open your eyes!’—the Heavenly Dao obeyed their wishes and awakened.”
“…Had you not warned us, I’d have thought Dao Ancestor was telling a terrible joke.”