Volume One: A Meeting in Youthful Days, Chapter 121: I Wish to Dissolve into the Dao (3)

Among those present, excluding Cao Xihe of the Imperial Pole Hall, Xie Tong of the Great Sword Green Mountain, Master Liang Hui, and City Lord Zhang Helun, the only ones who did not move against the Daoist were the five spirits of the saints.

Cao Xihe and his companions had never intended to oppose the Daoist, so they certainly would not add insult to injury by attacking him. As for the four spirits of the saints, they had withdrawn their hands in time following Bai Ling’s stern command, but the others had not been so quick to act.

With the Heavenly Gate destroyed, not only had they lost their only passage to ascension, but they had also been bound by an invisible thread of causality. They did not yet know the exact nature of this thread, but no one wished to be bound by such a thing without cause. Thus, beneath their anger over the destruction of the Heavenly Gate lay a deep-seated fear of this tether.

Wang Lian, the ancestor of the Yin Mountain Sect, demanded of the Daoist, "What kind of thread have you bound us with? What exactly do you intend to do?"

The Daoist smiled. "Nothing much. I simply wish to create a Heavenly Gate Town governed by the Dao."

Mo Di, the ancestor of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, asked with bitter resentment, "If you wanted to create a town governed by the Dao, why destroy the Heavenly Gate? And once destroyed, why drag us into this?"

"It’s nothing. I simply could not stand the sight of you living for so long, still harboring thoughts of taking shortcuts to ascend. Since you lacked the resolve to destroy it yourselves, I helped you. I want to settle the minds of those who come after, to have them focus on sincere cultivation rather than chasing shortcuts to ascension." He paused for a moment before adding, "As for dragging you into this, I naturally require your help to build this new town."

Bai Ling looked at the Daoist with a complicated expression. "So this was your plan all along. I fear the Heavenly Gate was only a small part of it; what you have truly wanted all along is to create a place of the Dao."

The Daoist swept his gaze over those surrounding him. "You are the only one who understands. But even so, you likely still do not grasp why I must do this. You think only of your own interests; you have never considered the future of those you trapped within Heavenly Gate Town. You are but fragments of the true spirits left behind by the saints. You know full well why they created this town in the first place, and you are perfectly aware of how the people of this town are viewed by those in the world today."

Bai Ling said with a note of disappointment, "So, for their sake, you intend to force everyone to dissolve their dao along with you?"

This statement sent shockwaves through the crowd. They all knew what it meant to "dissolve one’s dao." To them, the idea that one could drag others into such a fate was absurd, yet because it was the Lin Daoist, they could not help but believe it.

The Star-Gazing Elder of the Heavenly Mystery Sect hurriedly attempted to divine his own fate. The clear thread of his destiny, which had always been visible, was now obscured by a murky, impenetrable haze. His face turned pale—a sight never seen before.

There are only two possibilities when the thread of destiny becomes unclear: either his future now belongs to the mandates of heaven and is beyond human sight, or his future has reached a dead end, frozen at a moment that is beyond his ability to predict. Since the Star-Gazing Elder was the most accomplished diviner in the entire Imperial Continent, if even he could not discern his path, then Bai Ling’s words were almost certainly true. The Lin Daoist, through his own power, had pulled them all into the process of dissolving their dao.

"Daoist," the Elder asked with trepidation, "I concede. Please spare me, and the Heavenly Mystery Sect will never again interfere in the affairs of Heavenly Gate Town."

The Daoist laughed with contempt. "Spare you? And who will spare those in Heavenly Gate Town whom you have driven to their deaths?" He turned his interrogation to the others: "For years, you have treated the people of this town like livestock, squeezing them dry, even plotting to sacrifice their lives to open the Heavenly Gate. In your eyes, are they even human? Or are they merely offerings to satisfy your selfish desires?"

He then addressed the five spirits of the saints: "You fancy yourselves saints, yet once you attained that status, you ceased to value the lives of the townspeople. Since its founding, this place has been a land without the Dao, meaning they were trapped here from birth until death. Even if they managed to leave, if they could not return in time, they would be obliterated by the Great Dao outside. What, in your eyes, are the people of this town?"

He continued to mock them: "You even anticipated that you might need to reopen the gate one day, so you prepared the sacrifices in advance. To you, they were always objects, never people. They never had a choice; they had no power over their own lives or deaths!"

The Daoist’s words tore the veil of sanctity from them, leaving them exposed and without a chance to argue. Many present heard this for the first time, and they were profoundly shocked. They had long wondered why the people of the town were so unique, why they were trapped there, and why those who left often possessed such extraordinary talent. The Daoist had finally solved the mystery: the town’s uniqueness was entirely the result of the saints' machinations.

From a moral standpoint, could they truly be called saints? Yet from the perspective of practitioners, they claimed to be acting for the benefit of future generations, so it seemed a minor transgression—though it was certainly nothing to be proud of.

Bai Ling, a saint born from the spirits of heaven and earth, knew more than the other saints. "We had our reasons back then. If you were in our position, you might have made the same choice. How, then, can you judge our actions with today’s perspective?"

To the Daoist, this explanation was hollow. "Perhaps your actions were born of necessity, but after you made your choice, did you ever consider the descendants of this town? Was their future not important at all?"

His questioning silenced the five saints. Indeed, they had never considered the future of the townspeople, for in their subconscious, sacrificing a few for the sake of the world’s peace was a decision that required no contemplation.

Bai Ling, perhaps hoping to salvage something, asked with lingering resentment, "And what of you? I suspect that the fact they knew all the steps to open the Heavenly Gate is because of you."

The Daoist showed no shame at being exposed. He merely asked with curiosity, "How did you know? Those fools always thought they had uncovered the secrets themselves."

Bai Ling did not hide her reasoning. "I know which Dao you attained sainthood through. The town is saturated with your aura, which happens to overlap with theirs. I cannot think of any other explanation. And given your calm demeanor, it seems everything has been within your grasp. Unless, of course, they never truly escaped your palm."

The Daoist replied proudly, "You are correct. It was all my doing. From the moment I realized they wanted to open the gate, I began leaking information to them, bit by bit, to ensure they would involve themselves. Later, I altered the divine retribution for destroying the gate, replacing it with this thread of causality, so that I could pull them completely into the karmic retribution that follows."

The crowd was stunned. They had lived their entire lives within the Daoist’s design, all the while believing their progress was the result of their own hard work. If this were true, did it not mean the Daoist was indirectly responsible for the loss of a third of the town’s population? How was he any different from the saints?

"The difference is natural," the Daoist replied heavily. "From now on, they, along with the people of Heavenly Gate Town, will no longer be trapped. From birth to death, they will have the power to choose their own paths. This death is the price for their future freedom. It is the greatest measure I could take."

As he spoke, the souls of those sacrificed appeared in the air, led by Shen Tang’s parents. Shen’s father had known the Daoist’s intentions that night and held no grudge. Having heard the Daoist’s explanation, the souls were finally at peace. They understood that this was the best possible outcome—sacrificing themselves to secure the future for their kin and the rest of the town. It was the only remedy the Daoist could offer to correct the sins of the saints.