Evil Without Cause, Giving Rise to a Spark of Understanding

All people share certain commonalities: hunger leads to the desire for food, cold to the desire for warmth, and exhaustion to the desire for rest; they are drawn to profit and abhor harm...

Qiu Yan wrote this passage in mid-air with flowing strokes, the faint Yang Qi in his soul condensing in mid-air along the tip of the pen. Each character was still full of bone and blood, but because there was no physical body to drive it, it did not emit obvious fluctuations of Qi and Blood.

This sentence is from Sage Sun's "Honor and Disgrace," which describes human instincts and nature. When Qiu Yan confronted the old man at the first trial, he used this sentence to refute him, and as a result, he personally experienced it at the second trial.

Having experienced it firsthand, the experience lingered in my soul, flowed with my thoughts, and fermented at the tip of my pen. Therefore, after these words were written down, the understanding and insights contained within them were so profound that they were embedded in my surroundings!

Snap!

With a crisp sound, a crack appeared out of nowhere!

Then, a violent, chaotic, and disorderly thought surged from the crack, flowing along the pen and into Qiu Yan's heart, impacting his understanding.

But Qiu Yan remained unmoved, his wrist flicking as the Spring and Autumn Brush continued to write in the air.

This was the first time Qiu Yan had used this pen. Holding it in his hand, he felt a touch of melancholy, yet as he wrote, a sense of Qingliang arose within him. The more he wrote, the clearer his mind became, and his thoughts grew increasingly lucid. Memorable passages flowed forth like a spring.

... The eyes distinguish between white and black, beauty and ugliness; the ears distinguish between clear and turbid sounds; the mouth distinguishes between sour, salty, sweet, and bitter; the nose distinguishes between fragrant and fishy smells...

The following sentences describe specific human instincts: the eyes distinguish beauty from ugliness, the ears distinguish between clear and turbid, and the mouth and tongue distinguish between tastes. This is an analysis of the meaning of natural desires.

The ink on the pen tip wasn't ink, but rather the murmuring water from the Jade Basin. This water gave Qiu Yan a sense of vastness, restraint, and weight. The characters he wrote also seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. As an article gradually took shape, the characters pressed down on the Void, and the cracks that appeared out of thin air became more and more numerous and dense, spreading across the surrounding streets.

Click!

The walls and stone steps along the street crumbled and collapsed, turning into a pile of rubble in the blink of an eye.

Rumble!

A muffled, thunderous sound erupted from underground, seemingly caused by tectonic activity. Qiu Yan felt a tremor beneath his feet, but the tremor was quickly suppressed as the Literary Ancestor Paperweight suppressing the air moved.

"After entering this illusion, my soul was restricted, like a weak physical body. I couldn't use my Divine Ability, and even my strength was minimal. Even if I were given a spear or a heavy hammer, I couldn't wield them, let alone break through the illusion. However..."

As Qiu Yan sensed the changes around him, his thoughts became clearer, and he knew he had found the right direction.

"Unable to Fortune Divine Ability and physical strength, all that remains is literary Literary Thought. However, there's no way to stimulate Literary Thought inspiration within the illusion, nor can it be Literary Thought manifest. Therefore, the only option is to write, to express and articulate these Literary Thought through writing. For a beggar like myself, obtaining such an opportunity is not easy. Through normal channels, it would certainly take time, and it would require breaking through the illusion with my writing—it can't be achieved overnight. It inevitably needs to be combined with fame and reputation, allowing my writing to spread throughout the world..."

Thinking of this, Qiu Yan realized how long it would take. Not to mention, when he was in the Mortal Realm, he participated in the Imperial Examinations and received an invitation from the Principle Sect Academy, but his reputation was still limited to one place. In this illusion, his identity was just a beggar. If he wanted to become famous throughout the world, it would take a long time.

"A beggar's rise to power—such a story is legendary enough, but to stage such a legend is not impossible, but it requires too much effort and time. Fortunately, these three items have arrived: the Spring and Autumn Brush, the Literary Ancestor Paperweight, and the Northern Abyss Jade Basin. These are tangible objects; to Scholar Forest, there must be someone pulling the strings behind the scenes. But right now, they are of great help to me. By using the Divine Ability of these three items, I can write articles, reveal my Literary Thought, and thus shatter the illusion, saving a lot of time and energy..."

As Qiu Yan pondered, his essay "Honor and Disgrace" was nearing its end. The lengthy and eloquent piece floated in mid-air, each word carrying immense weight, crushing a vast illusion into fragments. Chaotic thoughts continuously surged from the cracks, assaulting Qiu Yan's heart, but he neutralized them all with his willpower.

They were about to create an exit and leave the illusion.

But then, something unexpected happened!

Whoosh!

Just as this illusion was about to shatter, the entire illusion seemed to sense a threat. It shuddered violently, and endless information converged, surging out from the cracks like a storm, causing Qiu Yan's body to stagger back eight steps.

"What's going on?" Qiu Yan was stunned, then his mind was in turmoil. The violent information was like a torrent, impacting his State of Mind. The information was no longer chaotic thoughts, but filled with intense malice.

Malice stemming from instinct and without any reason!

That was the malice of humans, living beings, demons, and even plants. It was the malice they unleashed in order to survive and for the continuation of their species. There was no room for compromise, no right or wrong, only a fight to the death!

In an instant, Qiu Yan's consciousness was almost completely swallowed up by this raging torrent!

In the torrent, only a small Soul Aperture rises and falls, drifting with the current.

The violent malice is essentially a thought. With such an impact, even if Qiu Yan has a firm will, perseverance will not change anything. Even an iron rod can be ground into a needle. A person's tenacious will, when constantly impacted by an endless torrent, can only have its self-awareness extinguished and its soul filled with malice.

At this critical moment, the Soul Aperture suddenly expanded, like a giant mouth, opening wide and swallowing a portion of the surging torrent!

"Although Qiu Yan is talented and has a resolute will, he is too impatient. He hastily put pen to paper without fully comprehending the essence of the illusion. Because his words are substantial, they have triggered a backlash from the entire illusion. Unless he can fully grasp the true meaning of the illusion within a few breaths, otherwise..."

Within the world Qiu Yan had left in his palm, the old man sat in his thatched hut, closed his eyes again, and murmured to himself, a look of enlightenment on his face. As he spoke, he shook his head again.

"It should have taken several years to comprehend this, how could it be understood in such a short time? It seems that Qiu Yan's fate is not much different from mine."

The old man failed to pass the first test, but took on the responsibility of guarding it. He had a faint sense of the second test. Although he could not see it as if he were witnessing it, he could sense the general process, which is how he learned about Qiu Yan's experience.

His seemingly spontaneous words, spoken to himself, did indeed have an audience—

Zhao You.

However, at this moment, Zhao You's face was as pale as paper, his soul was dim and trembling slightly, swaying unsteadily. He exuded an aura of weakness, listlessness, and despair, yet his Literary Thought continued to flow—

Qiu Yan's previous smash, though seemingly simple, shattered Zhao You's foundation. Although it did not destroy his soul, it shattered his Literary Heart!

Once the Literary Heart is broken, the Literary Thought vanishes!

Now, his Literary Thought is constantly slipping away, and there is no way to reverse it, which makes Zhao You increasingly desperate. He is trapped in the Palm Heaven-and-Earth Realm, and his will has become distorted. His desperate struggle just now failed, and he has already suffered a huge blow. Now he can't even keep his Literary Thought, which is a source of comfort, and he can only watch it dissipate. This is undoubtedly a torment.

The dissipation of his Literary Thought also caused his soul to lose the ability to speak and communicate. He wanted to ask the old man for help, but he found it difficult to speak. In addition, he knew the old man's secret, so he held back.

The old man seemed completely oblivious, muttering to himself without even glancing at Zhao You.

But it was precisely this attitude that fueled Zhao You's fear, plunging him into an abyss of despair and terror, causing his mind to tremble more and his Literary Thought to dissipate even more rapidly.

A vicious cycle.

"The malice originates from the illusion, and since the illusion simulates the Mortal World, it is also naturally formed. After I grasped part of the meaning of the illusion, I put pen to paper and wrote it down. I never expected that one move would affect the whole thing, causing the entire illusion's consciousness to surge and resist!"

His Divine Soul was filled with malice. Although Qiu Yan's will was firm, it was almost destroyed in the face of the raging torrent. However, he was originally a three-part being, and his other two bodies would not lose their ability to think. With a change of mind, he immediately understood the reason.

"To prevent your Divine Soul from succumbing to illusion, you must thoroughly comprehend the illusion in the shortest possible time!"

With this in mind, Qiu Yan had already made up his mind. There was a change in the Divine Power Space of his Divine Spirit Body. A gale howled out from the Divine Pool, which was the malice coming from the Soul Aperture!

Although the torrent of malice can erode the Divine Soul and will, it is blocked by countless Incense Faith in the Divine Power Space, making it difficult to succeed. Instead, it is suppressed and forced to fall!

Around the Divine Pool is a phantom projection, with mountains, water, cities, and farmland. It is the place where believers worshipping the Kitchen God reside, a projection within the spirit's body. Faintly visible within it are individual points of light, each representing a believer.

Now, the boundless malice transformed into a raging wind that fell down, also appearing as figures in the projection. These figures, like people who had been abducted to a strange land, appeared somewhat flustered. This was instinct, Transcendence, and thought.

Before they could react, dense divine power descended from the stars in the sky, enveloping the projection on the edge of the pool.

Immediately afterwards, the insights gained from the Yin-Yang Pagoda were integrated into it, and in the next moment, time in the projected world was separated from the outside world and began to change rapidly!

In just a few breaths, the Divine Power Stars extinguished one by one.

Driven and simulated by divine power, in the illusory landscapes and cities, figures and points of light, like real believers and living beings, live and multiply, enacting scenes of joy and sorrow...

Human nature and instincts unfold within this process, undergoing constant changes, and soon converge into a profound understanding.

This insight was complex and intense, mixed with a kind of evil, restless and uneasy, with the potential to erupt at any moment. After manifesting, it spun in mid-air and fell into the Divine Pool, entering the Divine Soul Aperture bottom of the pool!

At the same time, Masters Section Bookshelf appeared deep within the Divine Soul, from which wisps of Sage Spirit flew out, combining with the enlightenment that came from the Soul Aperture, restraining the restless trend, and then controlling the enlightenment to spread and integrate into the heart!

The next moment, light emanated from the depths of his heart, sweeping away and shattering the malice that filled his Divine Soul!

This ray of light is a pure manifestation of "consciousness"!

Outside, Qiu Yan's body stood frozen in place, then with a flick of his wrist, words appeared on his brush!