Parallel Paths

"I do not know."

But Cheng Wei became interested, not even caring about the spirit wine anymore. "Tell me, then. What is your understanding of the Emotionless Dao?"

Perhaps because his master had mentioned his Destiny Pattern, Wen Xu was somewhat predisposed to think this way. "The Emotionless Dao should be the Dao of universal love and equality. It is like an emperor—the First Emperor called himself 'the solitary one,' placing his own emotions on equal footing with all under heaven. No one could stand at his side and become someone special to him. When he cared for all under heaven, the gains and losses of other individuals would no longer catch his eye. Thus, in the eyes of others, he would seem emotionless."

The Emotionless Dao had once also been called the Dao of Gods. The world said that gods severed love and desire, impartial and unbiased, so... Cheng Wei stared at his little disciple in astonishment. Was the influence of an Imperial Destiny truly so immense?

This entire argument spoke of "divinity." "What you mean is, the more one favors the whole, the more heartless one becomes toward individuals?"

So the Emotionless Dao was not viewed from one's own perspective, but from... the eyes of others?!

Parallel Paths

Heaven and earth are unkind; they treat the myriad things as straw dogs.

Nearly every cultivator who stepped onto the path of cultivation had heard these words, yet everyone understood them differently. Some denounced their heartlessness; some wished for the Heavenly Dao to have feelings; some even dreamed of sacrificing themselves for heaven and earth. Cheng Wei, the Divine Venerable, had seen far too many cultivators of every sort throughout his journey. Perhaps because of that, he had already lost his keen perception of the Great Dao.

In an instant,