The ultimate goal of the Human Path was "Man replacing Heaven."
So-called Man replacing Heaven meant that the thing called "man" would replace everything and become the "absolute substance."
Then what was absolute substance?
It referred to the ultimate nature of all reality.
The fundamental cause behind the birth, existence, development, and transformation of Heaven, Earth, and all things.
An object was "red" because we understood it as red. To a creature without red vision, it was not red.
Then what color was it really?
Or rather, what exactly was it? What lay behind this object? What lay behind red?
From this perspective, the demonic path was an obstacle. Think carefully: so long as I thought, no matter what I thought about, the "I" already necessarily existed beforehand. Therefore, they could not cross the limits of the "I" and investigate the true "substance."
Any proof one could present had inevitably passed through the sensations of the "I." The true substance seemed not to exist, or at the very least, could not be perceived.
This "I" was something every cultivator would inevitably perceive.
But if one accepted it and sank into it, that was "entering demonic deviation." One no longer pursued what lay behind it, only one's own interpretation, and thus naturally entered the demonic path.
Therefore, this obstacle was called a "demonic barrier." The demonic path thus parasitized all Dao Paths, drawing upon them as nourishment.
But... the "substance" beyond the demonic barrier ought to exist, shouldn't it?
At least, the Human Path and the Shaman Path believed it did.
Both the human and shaman sides believed that Heaven, Earth, and all things possessed an ultimate foundation. This ultimate substance, which transcended everything, became everything, and explained everything, was what they regarded as the "ultimate of the Dao."
The Shaman