Tiangong Pavilion, an inconspicuous fairy palace is wrapped in the rich power of heaven.
Li Pingan stood on a three-foot-wide podium;
Dozens of white-haired old men and women sat neatly cross-legged from below, with fairy fruits and fairy wine placed on each low table.
The people responsible for serving here are not Fairy Yaochi, but some young 'craftsmen' who are the disciples of these old masters.
After the salutes and a few pleasantries, Li Pingan began to get to the point.
He walked with his hands behind his hands, pacing slowly from the podium. Several scrolls appeared on the wall behind him, and the scrolls contained complex patterns.
"Everyone must already know that the world we live in will face a series of disasters in the future."
Li Ping'an's voice was very calm.
Underneath the calmness, there is some kind of inexhaustible power.
He said slowly:
"The Great Tribulation of the Gods is the process, and the Final Tribulation is the result. We don't need to discuss the Great Tribulation of the Gods. This is not the purpose of me creating the art of inanimateness.
"As a supplement to the current fairy magic civilization, the art of soullessness is a means to fight against the final catastrophe, and I hope that through our efforts, it can become an effective means.
"The final catastrophe will occur in two situations.
"First, the original objects of heaven and earth cannot support the influence of the sea of Dao on heaven and earth. Dao collapses, the origin of heaven and earth collapses, and heaven and earth move toward their natural end.
"According to my calculations, this end point will be about 30,000 years later.
“Second, the original matter of heaven and earth was taken away.
"Looking at it now, this situation is very likely to happen, and the person who takes away the origin of heaven and earth is probably my transcendent teacher.
"It's hard to determine the time. It should be two to three thousand years ago."
All the immortals nodded, looking thoughtful.
Li Ping'an explained more: "You don't have to doubt my position. I have made a gentleman's agreement with Teacher Transcendent. I will give it a go to protect the world, and he will not destroy the world considering my existence."
Xu Xuntian raised his hand to indicate, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, you are a gentleman and an upright person, but as a teacher, I am afraid that you have too many conspiracies and calculations."
"So I always base my assumptions on the worst-case scenario."
Li Pingan smiled and said:
"We also have six heavenly saints now. Although two of them are not very reliable, if the transcendent wants to swallow the origin of heaven and earth, he must first solve the Three Purities, the Holy Mother and the Heavenly Court.
"This is all a process.
"The question now is, what can our soulless art do, and to what extent can it be achieved."
Yun Zhongzi stroked his beard and whispered: "The time left for us to study is too short, but doing something is better than doing nothing."
"The teacher is right, there is not much time left for us."
Li Pingan sighed:
"Although we have achieved a lot in the past few hundred years, we have given a new look to the ancient world. Dongzhou and all the major realms that have been built have fully developed.
“Our most significant achievement now is that we can feed ten times the number of mortals we could have a thousand years ago.
"As long as you give time to living beings, the vigorous development of this kind of productivity, combined with the Six Paths of Reincarnation Disk to allow a true soul to reincarnate repeatedly, can promote a substantial increase in the number of living beings.
“This will eventually feed back into the increase in the power of heaven.
"In two thousand years, the power of heaven will increase by at least five times. This is the meaning of your previous efforts."
Most of the old immortals were in high spirits.
Li Pingan's voice changed:
"But the development of new production tools no longer requires the top craftsmen in the world, it is enough to leave it to your disciples.
"Next, I will show you a new energy source and open up a new path.
"But before this, I want to share my thoughts on the final catastrophe."
Most of the immortals were surprised.
Many old men had already taken out their jade talismans, fearing that they would miss Li Ping'an's words. If Li Ping'an said something, they would quickly write it down.
Just listen to Li Pingan say slowly:
"The final catastrophe is itself a catastrophe that is bound to happen, and the world will gradually come to the end of its life.
"Nothing is perfect, and the same is true for heaven and earth.
"Our world is divided into three levels. Please take a look."
Lines of fairy light flew out from the palm of Li Ping'an's left hand, and the fairy lights intertwined back and forth to form a huge 'fishing net'.
"This is the lowest level, the land of great avenues, also known as the Sea of Dao. In the Sea of Dao, the three thousand avenues are arranged according to the ax marks left by God Pangu, forming a sea of Dao that is interrelated and mutually supportive.
"On the basis of the Sea of Dao, as well as the intervention and resonance of the Great Dao, we have the current world."
The sky and the earth appeared on the outer layer of the fishing net, and the ancient heaven and earth took shape.
A thin film wraps the entire heaven and earth.
Wisps of gray mist appeared outside.
Li Ping'an said: "The third level is actually the sea of chaos, which is the entire tangible world. To be precise, outside the world is the breath of chaos, order is accidental, and chaos is the norm."
Most of the immortals here are not weak in cultivation, so it is easy to understand this truth.
Li Ping'an asked: "So, what is the origin of heaven and earth?"
There are many immortals who want to speak but are unable to speak when the words come to their lips.
Li Dazhi said: "The original thing should be a kind of special spiritual power."
"No," Li Ping'an said with a smile, "This is the great path that can only be felt and understood by the quasi-sage. This question has troubled me for a long time before, but now, I think I should have found the answer. Please take a look .”
The three-dimensional image of Li Ping'an's palm changed again.
The sea of chaos disappeared, the ancient world became translucent, and the countless avenues within it continued to shine brightly.
When these avenues shine, a little bit of golden dust flows from here, is absorbed by the avenues, and shakes out.
Li Ping'an gently tapped his right hand, and the 'fishing net' began to shrink continuously. The golden dust became more and more abundant, became more and more obvious, and then turned into broken pieces...
Xu Xuntian blurted out: "Eggshell?"
"Yes, the eggshell is just the eggshell that gave birth to the god Pangu."
Li Pingan said slowly:
"This was actually pointed out by Taoist Hongjun unintentionally.
"Before, he showed my father the worlds one by one. Hongjun observed the creation and destruction of many worlds similar to ours at the edge of our tangible world. They seemed to be parallel worlds to ours.
"Such a wonderful sight was also seen by the transcendent person who guided Hongjun.
“I won’t go into details here, there are still a few issues here that I haven’t been able to reach a definite conclusion on.
"But it also inspired me to know what the origin of heaven and earth is.
"It's actually very simple... they are corpses."
"Corpse?"
The immortals don't know why.
Li Pingan explained simply and clearly:
"To be precise, it is a little bit of material left after the true spirit disappears, the corpse of the true spirit."
All the immortals looked thoughtful, and jade talismans shone brightly everywhere.
"There is no need to explain too much about what a true spirit is. Everyone who has practiced so far has understood the meaning of a true spirit. The true spirit is the source of all living things. It is at the same level as the breath of chaos.
"The true spirits gather from the sea of chaos and blend with the fragments of Tao in the sea of chaos to become innate gods and demons. These are chaotic creatures.
"The true spirit enters the world and meets the rules of heaven and earth and becomes a living soul. This is the foundation of you and me.
"The six paths of reincarnation are based on the true spirit, which allows the true spirit to reincarnate back and forth between heaven and earth until the true spirit's power is exhausted.
"True spirits are constantly infiltrating from chaos into the wild world, and this process is extremely long.
"The reason why I came to this conclusion is...it has only been a few hundred years since the establishment of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, but traces of the original objects of heaven and earth have already been produced inside the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
"Its amount is very small. Only by increasing its amount ten times can a living being enter the Golden Fairyland and enjoy immortality.
"But its appearance has been able to prove what the original objects of heaven and earth are, and why we can increase the original objects of heaven and earth by hunting innate gods and demons. Think about it, what are innate gods and demons?"
Xu Xuntian immediately replied: "The aggregation of countless true spirits and Taoist fragments in the sea of chaos is the innate gods and demons!"
"good."
Li Pingan manually liked it:
"Then think about it again, what is Pangu God?"
"Pangu God is a type of innate gods and demons," an old immortal analyzed calmly, "Only in the sea of chaos, ignoring the years and absorbing enough true spirits, can Pangu God's eggshell appear."
"good."
Li Pingan said:
"The so-called order is actually a state of chaos.
"We can regard God Pangu as the aggregation of countless true spirits and the embodiment of the overall will of the true spirits.
"You can also think of this as an accident.
"Heaven and earth were born from this accident.
“Our self-impressed understanding is that God Pangu created the world with only one purpose in nature, which is to allow true spirits to live more colorfully and freely.
"To explain it objectively, this is actually an example of the true spirit movement transforming the sea of chaos.
"So now everyone understands what the origin of heaven and earth is?"
All the immortals nodded.
Senior Xu Sheng asked: "But Your Majesty, if you understand what the origin of heaven and earth is, how can you avoid the final catastrophe?"
Several old immortals spoke one after another:
"It took hundreds of years of reincarnation in the Six Paths to form such a small amount of original objects. If we want to increase the number of original objects in the world, isn't it the only way to hunt down the innate gods and demons?"
"Our world is just a small corner of the Chaos Sea, and those chaotic beasts are also a huge threat to us. If we hunt the innate gods and demons, we are likely to attract their revenge."
"I have known before that the origin of heaven and earth can be absorbed by the avenue. After cultivating a golden immortal, it is equivalent to becoming a part of this avenue. Through the avenue, the origin of heaven and earth can be absorbed into the body. From this, one can gain immortality and become a golden immortal among living beings.
The more there are, the less the origin of heaven and earth is between heaven and earth... No wonder Heaven is going to launch a catastrophe..."
Li Ping'an raised his hand and made a gesture, and the immortals immediately became as quiet as chickens.
He smiled and said: "Don't be too busy discussing. There will be a discussion session for you later. I will finish my findings first."
He looked around, pondered for a moment, and then said:
"Knowing the nature of the origin of heaven and earth, we can restore the process of creation of heaven and earth in this way.
"The main body of the tangible world is the sea of chaos, and there are three types of matter in the sea of chaos.
"The first type is the breath of chaos, which is the original basic energy.
"Kong Xuan's five-color divine light can decompose the chaotic atmosphere into the innate five elements of energy. This decomposition process is very mysterious.
"The second type is true spirit.
"The third type is the power of Tao.
"After endless years of accumulation, a special aggregation of true spirit and Tao fragments appeared in the sea of chaos.
"There is a bold guess here, that is, Pangu God was originally a chaotic beast, and it was the ultimate form of the evolution of the chaotic beast.
"After this aggregate completed its own evolution, it chose to open up a world and allowed the true spirits that constituted it to become living creatures in this world. This is how Pangu transformed into all things.
“The process of creating the world is the process of the great road building the sea of principles.
"God Pangu fought against three thousand innate gods and demons, plundered the fragments of the Tao and pieced them together into great avenues, forming the foundation of the Sea of Tao. He also relied on the true spirit corpses and the origins of heaven and earth left behind after the death of the innate gods and demons to make way for the Tao.
Then the sea remains stable.
"To a certain extent, God Pangu is not dead, and heaven and earth are his next form.
"You and I are both Pangu."
Xu Xuntian said: "I probably understand these principles, but Your Majesty, you have laid so much groundwork, what do you want to elicit?"
"Only by explaining these clearly can everyone understand what I am going to say next."
Li Ping'an turned around and raised his hand a little. The four canvases behind him surged with light at the same time, and the scrolls on them changed.
In the first painting, countless heavenly soldiers and generals appeared, marching outward from the base of Xuandu City, relying on huge, land-like warships to hunt down the innate gods and demons.
"This is the last resort and the most practical way. Hunting down the innate gods and demons will help our world extend its longevity."
A huge eggshell appears in the second painting.
"This is the middle strategy, a strategy that can be achieved based on the current strength of our world.
"To put it simply, we need a Chaos Behemoth, cultivate the Chaos Behemoth, let it reach the realm of Pangu God, and then form an egg.
"We continuously collect eggshell material from the side, which is the true spirit corpse.
"There is no place in the deep sea of chaos where the rules of heaven and earth interfere. This plan can be implemented. Of course, the premise is that we can defeat these giant beasts of chaos after we reach the depths of the sea of chaos and lose the protection of the rules of heaven and earth."
Many of the immortals showed a little smile.
The third scroll is amazing. The three-dimensional pattern that Li Ping'an just revealed in his palm appears in it - the ancient heaven and earth and the sea of Taoism.
"This is the best policy, and it is also the main topic we want to discuss today.
"This picture is not very vivid."
Li Pingan said seriously:
"We have to think about two questions.
"One is why the origin of heaven and earth can make the sea of dao stable. There is an inspiration here, and that is the secret of the immortal volcano.
"The second question is how to create more origins of heaven and earth.
"It may be difficult for us to hunt down the innate gods and demons, but if we can find an efficient way to capture the true spirit and transform it into the original matter of heaven and earth, the difficulty will be much lower.
"This is also a plan that we can actually explore backward now, which is the best policy.
"Also, please look at the last picture."
The eyes of all the immortals focused on the fourth scroll.
There is a Yin-Yang Tai Chi diagram drawn on it.
Li Pingan smiled and said:
"This is not a big deal.
"If all the previous efforts we have made have failed, or to be precise, the previous efforts will only delay the arrival of the final catastrophe, but cannot completely solve the problem of the final catastrophe.
“At this time, we need to introduce a new idea.
"This is also an idea that I have been thinking about for a long time."
Li Dazhi asked in confusion: "What's the idea?"
Li Pingan said:
"Jump out of the sea of chaos and use simpler and more stable rules to construct a new order of heaven and earth.
"We don't need to pursue the eternal sublimation of heaven and earth. The original materials of heaven and earth we need may not be enough to evaporate the sea of chaos, but we can give more creatures a more stable place to live.
"You may not understand what it means. To put it simply, it means moving towards the opposite of detachment and eternity, so that the avenue of time will no longer be revealed, greatly reducing the complexity of the Sea of Dao, thereby increasing the stability of the Sea of Dao and finding an alternative world.
The deep energy of the original thing.
"I have a more intuitive name for this idea!"
Li Pingan opened his hands and his voice became extremely sacred.
"World, dimensionality reduction."
All the immortals looked confused.
Several powerful creatures who peeked at this place also looked confused.