Crack.
With a crisp sound, the Jade Slip crumbled to powder in Daoist Duobao's hand.
Fine powder slipped through his fingers like a silent mockery.
The Registered Disciple before him trembled, lowering his head even further until he seemed to stop breathing.
"Leave room for mercy in all things?"
Daoist Duobao spoke softly, but suppressed fury filled his voice, seeming to freeze the very air around him.
"The foundation of the Interception Sect is to seize a sliver of life for all things between Heaven and Earth! That chance of survival is fought for, seized by force—not gained through retreat!"
"Please calm your anger, Master!"
The disciple was terrified out of his wits and repeatedly kowtowed.
Daoist Duobao did not look at him again. He abruptly turned toward the depths of the sea of clouds where the Outer Sect Disciples resided.
A vast, overwhelming aura surged into the sky.
With one step, he vanished from where he stood.
On the Outer Sect's Dharma Transmission Platform, several hundred disciples stood in small groups, enthusiastically discussing something.
Almost every face bore an expression mixed with excitement and agreement.
"Don't you think Article Thirty-Seven of the Guidebook is brilliant? 'Beware of fellow disciples who try to call you brother while making grand promises. They either want to swindle you out of your magical treasures or have you take disaster in their place.' It spoke straight to my heart!"
"I think Article Fifty-Two is more useful. 'Never speak ill of any Inner Sect senior brother or sister behind their back, because you never know whether that rock or cloud might be one of their magical treasures in disguise.' Just thinking about it gives me chills."
"The first rule of the general principles is the truest saying of all! Staying alive is everything!"
Just as the discussion was reaching a fever pitch, a terrifying pressure suddenly descended from the heavens.
That pressure was like an invisible mountain, instantly weighing upon everyone's hearts.
The clamor of thousands on the Dharma Transmission Platform vanished within a single breath.
Every disciple felt a tightness in their chest, and even circulating their spiritual power became difficult.
They looked up in horror.
A figure hovered in midair, clad in the Myriad Treasure Daoist Robe. His expression was cold as he looked down upon the crowd below, like a deity examining ants.
"Greetings, Senior Disciple Duobao!"
Someone was the first to react, calling out with a trembling voice.
Rustle!
Every Outer Sect Disciple on the Dharma Transmission Platform dropped to their knees, silent as cicadas in winter.
Daoist Duobao.
The Interception Sect's foremost Inner Sect disciple, the greatest beneath the Sage, overseeing many affairs within the sect and renowned far and wide.
Why had he suddenly come to the Outer Sect?
Daoist Duobao ignored their salute. His gaze swept like a sharp sword across every frightened face below.
"Who wrote this so-called Guidebook?"
His voice pierced the clouds and entered everyone's ears with perfect clarity.
"Step forward."
The entire place fell silent.
The disciples knelt with their heads deeply lowered. No one dared raise their head, much less make a sound.
Though they regarded the Guidebook as their guiding creed, everyone knew that its ideas of "avoiding the world" and "fearing battle" ran contrary to the Interception Sect's long-standing teachings.
Now that Senior Disciple Brother had come looking for its author, who would dare admit it?
Seeing no response, Daoist Duobao frowned slightly, and the pressure grew heavier.
Some disciples with lower cultivation had already turned pale, their bodies beginning to tremble uncontrollably.
"No one will admit it?"
Daoist Duobao's voice turned cold.
"This kind of crooked heresy that disrupts our sect's Dao heart is like a plague! Not only did you fail to reject it, you rushed to circulate it and treated it as sacred doctrine. What kind of conduct is that!"
"Today, if no one steps forward, everyone who has read this thing will go meditate in front of the wall at Repentance Cliff for ten years!"
The moment those words fell, a suppressed commotion arose from the crowd below.
Ten years!
For Outer Sect Disciples like them, ten years of wall-facing meditation would be enough to cut off their path of cultivation!
Yet even so, no one dared step forward.
Amid that suffocating silence, soft footsteps sounded.
They were faint, yet exceptionally clear upon the utterly silent Dharma Transmission Platform.
Everyone followed the sound.
A somewhat thin young man slowly stepped out from behind the crowd.
His face was slightly pale, and his aura was unsteady. He looked like an ordinary mortal recovering from a serious illness, as though a gust of wind could knock him over.
It was Chen Changsheng.
He passed through the crowd that automatically parted for him, came to the front, and respectfully bowed to Daoist Duobao in the sky.
"Outer Sect Disciple Chen Changsheng greets Senior Disciple Brother."
His voice was calm, without the slightest fear before authority or the least hint of provocation. There was only pure respect.
Daoist Duobao looked down at him with scrutiny in his eyes.
"Did you write it?"
Chen Changsheng shook his head.
"This disciple does not know who wrote it."
"Then why did you step forward?"
There was a trace of displeasure in Daoist Duobao's tone.
Chen Changsheng straightened up. Facing the pressure powerful enough to shake even a Golden Immortal's mind, a perfectly measured look of confusion appeared on his face.
"This disciple merely feels that although what the Guidebook says does not conform to our sect's great Dao of pressing ever onward, it... does make some sense."
The moment he said that, the hearts of the thousand kneeling disciples behind him leaped into their throats.
He had gone mad!
Had Chen Changsheng gone mad?
He actually dared say that such crooked heresy made sense right in front of Senior Disciple Brother?
"Oh?"
Daoist Duobao laughed from extreme anger. With a flicker of his body, he silently landed before Chen Changsheng. Only three steps separated them.
"It makes sense? Then tell me, what sense does it make?"
Staring at Chen Changsheng, he asked word by word, "Does teaching people to flee from battle make sense? Or does teaching people to cling to life and fear death make sense?"
"We disciples of the Interception Sect cultivate to defy Heaven and change our fate, seeking transcendence and freedom! If everyone followed that Guidebook, hiding whenever trouble arose and fleeing whenever calamity came, how would our Interception Sect be any different from head-shrinking turtles? How could we still speak of the great Dao?"
His voice boomed like thunder, containing the Dao Charm of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal. The surrounding disciples' souls shook, and their blood churned.
Yet Chen Changsheng seemed unaffected. He merely bowed again.
"Please calm your anger, Senior Disciple Brother."
He raised his head, his tone still steady.
"This disciple is dull-witted and does not understand any great Dao. This disciple only knows that to cultivate the Dao, one must first stay alive."
He paused, then shifted the subject.
"May I ask Senior Disciple Brother: half a month ago, Senior Brother Zhang Feng led a hundred Outer Sect disciples down the mountain to protect the human race. Could that be considered courageous progress, worthy of the Interception Sect's reputation?"
Daoist Duobao was taken aback. He did not know why Chen Changsheng had suddenly brought up this matter, but he still snorted coldly.
"Of course."
"Then may this disciple ask again: where are those hundred senior brothers and sisters now?"
Chen Changsheng's voice was not loud, yet it struck Daoist Duobao's heart like a heavy hammer.
It also struck the hearts of every disciple present.
Daoist Duobao's expression immediately became somewhat unpleasant.
As the foremost Inner Sect disciple, he naturally knew of that incident.
Nearly a hundred spirited disciples had gone down the mountain. In the end, only thirteen battered survivors returned. Everyone else had fallen, without even their true spirits escaping.
It was the Outer Sect's greatest loss in recent years.
It was also an unhealed scar in the hearts of every Outer Sect Disciple.
Chen Changsheng gave him no time to think. He continued, his voice clear and calm as he laid a set of cold figures before everyone.
"One hundred departed. Thirteen returned. Casualties exceeded ninety percent."
"This disciple dares to ask a question on behalf of the nearly ninety percent of senior brothers and sisters."
"What did their deaths win? What sliver of life did they seize for our Interception Sect?"
"If they had also read that Guidebook, understood how to assess risks, and known how to preserve themselves, might they still be standing on this Dharma Transmission Platform today, listening to Senior Disciple Brother's teachings?"
The string of questions was like a series of sharp blades stabbing straight into everyone's hearts.
Daoist Duobao was completely stunned.
His lips moved, but he found himself unable to say a single word.
That was right.
He could denounce Chen Changsheng's words as the conduct of a coward.
But could he denounce the nearly ninety fellow disciples who had already become ashes?
Could he tell those surviving disciples, who were still recovering in their abodes, that they should have died?
He could not.
The great Dao of the Interception Sect that he took such pride in seemed so pale and powerless before the bloody reality of "ninety percent casualties."
The entire Dharma Transmission Platform was silent enough to hear a needle drop.
Every Outer Sect Disciple raised their heads and looked at Chen Changsheng's thin back, their eyes filled with shock and fervor.
He had spoken the words all of them wanted to say but did not dare to.
Chen Changsheng gave the silent Daoist Duobao a third deep bow.
"Senior Disciple Brother, only by staying alive can one speak of the great Dao. This disciple believes that this is the greatest truth of the Guidebook."
After saying that, he stood quietly to one side and spoke no more.
Daoist Duobao stared fixedly at Chen Changsheng. For the first time, his eyes showed something called hesitation as he looked at this Outer Sect Disciple whose aura was unsteady and who seemed as though he might fall at any moment.
After a long while.
He forced out a sentence through clenched teeth.
"Clever words and a pleasing tongue."
He flicked his sleeve, turned away, transformed into a streak of light, and shot into the sky without leaving another word.
The pressure weighing on everyone's hearts also vanished with him.
Only after Daoist Duobao's figure had completely disappeared beyond the horizon did the Dharma Transmission Platform erupt into thunderous discussion.
Everyone's gaze was fixed upon Chen Changsheng.
Awe, worship, gratitude.
A cold system prompt sounded in Chen Changsheng's mind.
[Ding! Detected that the host has used the Dao of Survival philosophy to directly shake the Dao heart of a core disciple of the Interception Sect, successfully sparking the Interception Sect's first dispute over ideological direction!] [The Dao of Survival's influence has greatly spread. Main quest progress has increased!] [Reward obtained: Three Thousand Years of Cultivation! Initial comprehension of the Divine Ability Sever Causality!]
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