"Everyone, ever since I set foot on the path of cultivation, everything I have seen and heard, all the myriad lives I have witnessed, has revealed one truth: all living beings suffer, and none escape..."
As mind-reading flowed among them, everyone seemed to follow Li Chen through his adventures, reliving the journeys he had undertaken more than a hundred years ago, when he first ventured out into the world.
Li Chen had not endured life in deep water and scorching fire, nor borne bitter suffering and hatred. Yet unlike ordinary people, he had used his intelligence and insight to discern many problems.
"We Puppet Masters call ourselves practitioners of the hundred crafts and advocate everyday tools for the people, yet many among us remain wanderers, making a living by hunting demon beasts and seeking treasures-livelihoods that have fallen behind the times. They live the lives of ancient fishers and hunters."
"Only after reaching Crouching Tiger Hill did I learn that powerful aristocratic clans occupied spirit peak blessed lands, while the yields of ore veins remained beyond the public's reach."
"Later, when I encountered Mirage and Sky City, I saw even greater disparities caused by uneven regional development."
"Yet the advances there never became a developed force that could lead the people on the ground forward, hand in hand. Vast as Sky City and the Immortal Mountain and Blessed Land were, they could never accommodate trillions of people. They could only settle for the next best thing, selecting the most outstanding to admit as citizens."
"Over time, this readily breeds people like Zuo Hao and the Centipede Daoist, who disregard their fellow beings and imagine themselves high above everyone else, transcendent and beyond the mundane..."
"And this goes far beyond Zuo Hao and the Centipede Daoist. Every person seated here, including