Volume 5, Chapter 41 – Shaping

At that thought, Zhao Feng could not help recalling the scene from when Wu Mengzi had explained this part to him.

“Buddha…? Master, are you saying that this ruin itself might actually be the corpse of a Buddha? …A real Buddha of that kind?”

“Mhm.”

“How is that possible…? Do Buddhas really exist in this world?”

“Of course they do.”

Words alone could hardly describe the shock Zhao Feng had felt at the time. Because many people, himself included, had always believed the same thing—myths were myths, reality was reality. Mythic stories were full of exaggerated descriptions and unfounded imaginings that could not be verified. Most of them were not real.

And yet now Wu Mengzi was telling him that Buddhas truly existed?

How could that be possible?

“If I explain it directly, you may not understand, so let me ask you this instead.”

Under the lamplight, Wu Mengzi set down the Buddhist scripture in his hand. His eyes, already aged and clouded yet still holding a hidden sharpness, looked straight at him.

“What do you think Void Tribulation actually is, and what is this ‘Loss of Order’ we keep talking about?”

“Void Tribulation and Loss of Order…” Zhao Feng frowned.

That really was not an easy question to answer.

How was he supposed to answer it?

You could neither see it nor touch it. It belonged to the realm of the metaphysical. Perhaps it could be described as a kind of phenomenon?

“The most common explanation is to regard them as ‘phenomena.’” Wu Mengzi nodded. “Just like the rising and setting of sun and moon, the flourishing and withering of plants, wind and rain, thunder and lightning… all of them are phenomena generated by Heaven’s Dao and the cosmos.”

“And phenomena are not things that can be changed by an individual’s will. What individuals can do is impose wish-force upon the byproducts of those phenomena, and shape them on that basis.”

“Master.” Zhao Feng lowered his head. “Your disciple does not quite understand what you mean.”

“That’s simple.” Wu Mengzi continued, “Do you know why, when the Yao Yu dynasty came to an end, even though its technological power had already fallen behind the surrounding Federation states, the primary order still judged that Heaven’s mandate remained here?”

Zhao Feng replied, “Naturally because Yao Yu still held the sword path, while the other powers lacked any corresponding transcendent means. That does not really count as understanding or submitting to the primary order, so naturally they would not receive its favor.”

“That is part of the reason.” Wu Mengzi nodded. “But another part of the reason is inertia.”

“Inertia?”

“The primary order has already grown used to it…” Wu Mengzi raised his head and looked toward the map of Eastern Xia hanging on the wall.

“It is used to regarding the civilization nurtured by the Jing River… this very river… as its dearest child.”

“In history, the Jing River has changed course many times,” he continued. “Whether by natural redirection or because some great demon in the river manipulated it into turning, in any case, every time this mother river erupted, it produced casualties numbering in the hundreds of millions across the vast land.”

“How do you think civilization was formed?” Wu Mengzi suddenly changed the question again. “Why has it always been this land, from ancient times onward, that nurtured the ‘central dynasties’? Why were the peoples of this land the first to master transcendent power?”

“Was it because the life living on this land was inherently superior? Was that superiority innate?”

“Master.” Zhao Feng narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying that it was precisely because the Jing River had been raging since remote antiquity, even since the primordial age, that this land was the first to form the rudiments of civilization?”

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“Is that not so?” Wu Mengzi countered.

“If you lived in peace and plenty, and all you had to do was scatter seeds over uncultivated land to reap a harvest, perhaps even reaping multiple harvests in a single season, would you ever think of joining with others to solve the problem of survival?”

Of course not.

Zhao Feng answered silently in his heart.

If I could already support myself with ease, then what would the lives or deaths of others—even those of other early primitive tribes—have to do with me?

Naturally, I would have no wish to unite with them, because there would be no factor at all, no powerful ‘external enemy’ capable of forcing us together. We could stay scattered and still survive.

From the sound of Master’s meaning, those foreign peoples and outside nations had lived under exactly such conditions.

Because their land was better and their conditions of survival were more favorable, they disdained forming complete civilizations. Nor had anything ever pressured them—pressured them to form, from the marrow of their bones, a yearning for power.

But this land was different.

Zhao Feng likewise looked toward the map.

And was it only the Jing River that ravaged this land?

Floods, droughts, locust plagues, demonic disasters.

Endless ordeals. Endless ‘phenomena.’

Taken together, those things were enough to annihilate every tribe. It was precisely under the threat of such disasters that primitive tribes yearned to merge with or even swallow up other tribes, to gain their population and their strength, so that they themselves might survive on this brutal land.

Over time, war and fusion formed states, and from them emerged the earliest feudal dynasties in recorded history—the so-called rudiments of civilization.

I understand the principle in that now.

But what exactly is Master trying to illustrate with this example…?

Zhao Feng looked at Wu Mengzi once more.

What did this have to do with Void Tribulation and Loss of Order?

“How do you tame floodwaters?” Wu Mengzi suddenly asked him.

“By redirecting them.” Zhao Feng answered reflexively. “By digging channels and guiding the water into the proper course.”

“Then can the water itself be eliminated?”

Hm?

Zhao Feng’s eyes widened.

“Master… what are you saying? How could the water itself—the Jing River itself—possibly be eliminated?”

“It comes from melted snowwater flowing down from all the mountains… and the amount of water in heaven and earth is in fact fixed. Even if every mountain and river were destroyed, that water would not disappear. It would only flow somewhere else. At most, it would simply change places!”

“Exactly.” Wu Mengzi turned to him and smiled.

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“The Jing River cannot be eliminated.”

“As a phenomenon, Void Tribulation cannot be eliminated either.”

Crack!

Like lightning streaking across his mind, Zhao Feng finally understood the crucial point.

That was it… they were both ‘phenomena.’

[Phenomena themselves cannot be changed by an individual’s will. What individuals can do is impose wish-force upon the byproducts of those phenomena, and shape them on that basis.]

Those were words Wu Mengzi had spoken earlier, and now Zhao Feng recalled them once again.

The Jing River was a phenomenon.

Void Tribulation was too.

Then the ‘byproducts of phenomena’… the byproduct of the Jing River must necessarily be the ‘river channel.’ The ancients shaped the river channel to affect the course of the Jing River. By that means, they guided the phenomenon and turned the power of the phenomenon to their own use.

And as for Void Tribulation…

Void Tribulation, Loss of Order.

Their byproducts were… Demon Pools and Void Demons?

If Demon Pools and Void Demons could be shaped—if, according to Master’s meaning, they could be guided by human wishes—then the forms they might ultimately take… could it be—

Ancient immortals?

Gods and Buddhas?

So all the myths passed down from antiquity had come about this way?

The shock was immense. Gooseflesh broke out all over Zhao Feng’s body.

He was completely stunned, because the truth hidden behind this line of reasoning was utterly horrifying!

If it were true, then it meant that all the gods and Buddhas worshipped by ancient civilizations had in fact been shaped out of the power of Void Tribulation and Loss of Order. Their essence had never changed. They were no different from Demon Pools and Void Demons!

It was merely that wish-force—the naive wish-force of the sapient beings of antiquity—had attached itself to them, causing them, in the process of endlessly devouring and destroying one civilization after another, to absorb those wishes and thoughts as well. And thus they themselves were gradually influenced, step by step becoming the forms all living beings wished them to be!

Then gods and Buddhas had indeed truly existed.

It was only that they were nothing like the bright and glorious figures of myth, and far from so compassionate-hearted…

“Feng’er.”

Returning to the present, Wu Mengzi turned to look at his disciple.

“Your heart is unsettled.”

“Did recalling something disturb you?”

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“Yes, Master.” Zhao Feng lowered his head. “Your disciple recalled once more your teaching from back then about gods and Buddhas.”

No matter how many times he recalled the feelings he had then, his heart could never help but be shaken.

“I was only repeating what I had been told.” Wu Mengzi shook his head.

“With my realm, I cannot perceive a truth of this level.”

“All of this was told to me by that gentleman.”

This… had actually been spoken by that gentleman?

Zhao Feng was startled at first, then found that it made perfect sense.

Of course.

That gentleman.

The Sage of legend who gathered the strengths of a hundred schools and in the end created the Dao-Void Methods.

Only when this theory came from his mouth did it not feel abrupt.

“Void Tribulation contains inexhaustible power within it.”

Wu Mengzi let out a heavy sigh.

“Dao-Void Methods and Great Yu Sword Dao were both born with Void Tribulation as their reference, and with its byproduct, ‘demonic power,’ as their root.”

“Do you know what that means, Feng’er?”

“It means that we who cultivate these root methods are, in essence, no different from the gods and Buddhas of myth.”

Without waiting for Zhao Feng to answer, he continued on his own, “It means we have a chance to obtain power from these god-and-Buddha corpses!”

Would that too count as a kind of ‘shaping’?

Zhao Feng pondered in silence.

By today, he had in fact already seen clearly what that returned Sage wanted to do.

It was nothing more than the belief that the fragments of the heavens were all returning to the main world, and that as places like this ruin were restored to completion, some ancient gods, Buddhas, and great demons might awaken.

As for saying that the man felt compassion for all under heaven and wanted to unite every force to save humanity—Zhao Feng did not believe that.

Otherwise, he would not have chosen to settle on Pilgrimage Mountain. He should have gone straight to the Eastern Xia imperial palace.

So then… was it for self-preservation?

Did he not wish his status as a Sage to be threatened? Did he not wish for more Sages to appear upon the earth?

Or was it that he, in truth, sought the same thing as Master and the Yao Yu demon clan—namely, to use these god-and-Buddha corpses as references, to obtain better ‘methods of shaping,’ and thereby advance one step further on the Dao path…?

Was there really a path forward even above the level of Sage…?

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In the midst of his thoughts, Zhao Feng heard angry shouting from the distance.

“He Chuan? Why did you take so long getting back?”

“Where are the materials you collected?”

“Forget it. No need to go to the laboratory today. Go get some tools. The area up ahead will be yours!”

Looking up, he saw a cramped and awkward fish-headed man hurrying over with tools, then squatting down in front to start excavating the ruins.

Zhao Feng paid him little attention. He took two steps forward to catch up with Wu Mengzi, and together they walked to the very front of the ruins, to the centralmost position.

Standing there and looking up, a gigantic Buddha relief came into view.

Unlike the other reliefs, this Buddha was terrifyingly grotesque, a monster formed from fifty-four bodies and fifty-four faces twisted together into one.

Across those fifty-four Buddha faces, every eyeball had been gouged out, forming a total of one hundred and eight sunken hollows, and whatever had once been inlaid within them had vanished without a trace.

Wu Mengzi did not even dare to look closely at the relief. He walked beneath it and stopped beside a coffin carved from black stone.

Rumble…

The lid shifted aside, revealing an old woman in Buddhist robes lying inside.

In her hands she held a string of Buddhist beads. Each bead was extremely large, but the middle section was missing one segment—one Buddhist bead was absent from the strand.

She suddenly opened her eyes and sat up, looking at the two of them in surprise. “What is it now?”

“According to the scouts’ report, there has been no sign of Di Xiang returning.”

“Isn’t that perfectly normal?” The old woman frowned. “Those trash would never be able to discover her movements if she did not wish it.”

“It is that gentleman’s intention that you go and take a look personally,” Wu Mengzi said.

“After all, if we want to observe her like this without alerting her, only you can do it.”

“Hmph…” The old woman let out a cold laugh, but said no more.

Although having her cultivation interrupted made her very displeased, since it was that person’s intention…

“Where is that Buddhist bead?”

Suddenly, as if recalling something, her gaze fell upon the fish-headed man crouching not far ahead.

“Boy.”

“Have you forgotten what I told you before?”

“Get over here!”

“Give me the Buddhist bead.”