As a native of this world, True Person Miaobao could indeed only imagine the so-called Dharma-Ending Age; he could not truly understand or accept it.
No spiritual energy anywhere in the natural world, no Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, no blessing of the power of law-could such a universe within the Myriad Heavens Universe possibly exist?
It was sheer science fiction!
He glanced at Li Chen with a trace of astonishment. A perfectly respectable Puppet Master Grandmaster, someone even approaching the rank of grandmaster, was actually obsessed with the path of science. It was almost incomprehensible.
Or did mysticism ultimately lead to science, and were the natural truths pursued by the Puppet Dao scientific as well?
True Person Miaobao probably felt much as a great scientist would upon seeing a colleague become obsessed with theology.
Li Chen, however, continued on his own. "If there truly were such a universe, where supernatural powers had never existed, where there was no support from mind-only transformation, and where the workings of nature followed only their material aspect, what would that world be like?"
True Person Miaobao refuted him without ceremony. "That is impossible!"
Li Chen said, "Then why is there talk of Dharma's decline?"
True Person Miaobao said, "It is a deduction based on the trend toward quiescence, an idealized state. As the saying goes, when things reach their extreme, they turn toward their opposite. Once laws pass the limits of their mind-dependent aspect, they become material. But we should simply regard it as an imagined state."
"And imagination has its foundations."
Li Chen said, "Then wouldn't that bring us back to objective materialism?"
True Person Miaobao stiffened, seemingly stumped.
Li Chen understood him, however. Whatever else might be said, he was a native born and raised in this universe, unable to