Legend of the Great Sage

ingle person is not enough to control the Dao, then you gather the will of the populace.
Getting the heavenly emperor to confer you godhood is enough.”

He had already experienced that before.
After swallowing the power of belief from the demonfolk, the primordial qilin’s influence had drastically weakened.
After all, how could the will of millions conform to a single path?

If they could not endure the corrosion, then they would strengthen themselves.
If they could not control the tiger, then they would feed the tiger.

Chao Tianjiao immediately stopped worrying.
If she could Forge her Soul back into the Void, being conferred godhood was nothing particularly difficult.

Actually, as long as she wanted to, she could erect many statues of herself right now.
Who knew how many temples devoted to the Zhenwu Emperor there were scattered throughout the world.
As the leader of the Six Ding, she could obviously stand right by his side and accept the worship and offerings from the people.

But it was public knowledge that the path of cultivation was about concentrating on a single aspect, while the will of the people was tremendous and extremely disorderly.
Being influenced too much by the power of belief was not a good thing.

Chao Tianjiao thought, No wonder the True Immortals in the heavens all have some followers to some extent.
I originally thought they wanted to help the world and refused to completely stand aloof from the mortals.
So there’s actually a purpose like this.
Sure enough, nothing is done without reason!

“Master, is this called fighting poison with poison?”

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes smiled.
“You can’t say that, but once you become a True Immortal, you better not copy this little bro and directly use the power of belief as a resource.”

He sighed inside.
He had roamed the heavens for many years and witnessed how his fellow immortals had changed.
Just gathering the power of belief led to a very deep influence already.

It was probably unprecedented for someone to directly devour the power of belief for cultivation like Li Qingshan.
Even the golden immortals of buddhism that placed great emphasis on their followers would never do that.
No one could imagine just how Li Qingshan would turn out in the end.

“Old bro, why don’t you use this method instead of constantly undergoing rebirth?” Li Qingshan had actually guessed the rough answer to the question already.

“Among the books you offered up to the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, there’s this saying—How can you let purity like moonlight be tainted by the dust of the secular world?”

Back then, Li Qingshan had only recently joined the Myriad sect.
In order to quickly gather contribution, he had copied out all of the books he could copy.
One of them was the Fisherman’s Father from the Verses of Chu.
The author of the text had chosen to cast himself into a river to his death in the end.

Chao Tianjiao shuddered inside and gazed over.
This improper-looking master who never acted seriously would actually rather enter rebirth than accept any faith.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes gazed deeply at Li Qingshan.
“I think you understand that kind of mental state, don’t you, little bro?”

Li Qingshan said nothing in response.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes said, “The people make you too human, while the Dao makes you too inhuman.
I am only willing to dwell between the two.”

Li Liehuo asked, “Then why don’t you continue cultivating and Merge the Void with the Dao, master?”

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes pointed at the sky.
“The path I walk is the heavenly emperor’s path.”

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The path already possessed its ruler, so he could only become a subject.

“Why don’t you change your path, master? As long as you pave a path different from the heavenly emperor’s path, wouldn’t you be able to Merge the Void with the Dao?” Chao Tianjiao asked in confusion.

She neither had the choice, nor had she reached that stage.
However, the Elder of Heavenly Tomes had rebirthed before, so what path couldn’t he choose?

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes was slightly angered.
“Insolent brat, you sure say it easy! Do you think the Dao belongs to you and you can merge with it whenever you want to? Since the creation of all to the present day, there have been an immeasurable number of living creatures.
Only around a dozen or two have managed to Merge the Void with the Dao, and probably no less than a hundred True Immortals have perished because of this.
Do you want to send me to my death?”

Chao Tianjiao pouted. Master sure doesn’t have much interest for improvement.

The Elder of Heavenly Tomes blinked his eyes mischievously.
“And if I do that, I won’t be able to undergo rebirth anymore!”