Li Ling realized that indeed, the inability to control one’s emotions would be the premier downfall of every powerhouse. After realizing that he was being pursued by a Nascent Soul powerhouse, he had been running around like a headless chicken due to fear and unwillingness to die, but that had rather solidified his eventual outco by precisely doing so.
In truth, this was far from the first hopeless situation of seemingly absolute fatalistic outco he had been through over the years. The gap between his current Foundation Establishnt and Nascent Soul was absolutely humongous indeed, akin to a gap between second form Frieza versus his final form, there was no contention.
However, previously being Qi Refinent level 1, he had also felt this kind of feeling against those in higher levels of Qi Refinent. Even a Qi Refinent level 3 person was like a mountain above him, much less those at level 4 and above, and many of his encounters had faced oppression.
So how did he survive those encounters to be here today? Did he have a system to grant him options or a divination technique to tell him the answer? No, all he had were his wits and a healthy smattering of luck, and this was realistically the only thing one could use in a situation like this.
Why was Li Ling thinking like this right now? Because when he looked through the whitish-gold book, all he saw was one word that would solve his situation according to the will of heaven.
Surrender.
So he laughed.
Not because he was excited to see the answer nor because the answer was simple enough for him to achieve, but naturally due to the absurdity of it.
Did Li Ling not understand that surrendering himself to his pursuer would be a likely thod of survival? Of course he did, it was the nature of cultivators to kneel down and plead for their lives the mont things went awry!
A person in the cultivation world could be unbearably arrogant, beating and kicking you one instant and even threatening all sorts of evil upon you as well as your loved ones, then on their knees the next, pleading to have rcy or entering servitude to you once they identified that you were stronger.
When Li Ling claid himself to be a ’coward’ before, it was because he too had pled for his life many a ti, and the rcy of others, or their disdain, had been what saved him. So naturally, he understood at the back of his mind that he could also opt to plead for his life to end this situation.
However, this went against everything he had beco after the system awoke!
It might seem like a ’smart’ choice, just surrender and suffer so pain as well as humiliation, and he could find multiple angles to escape and survive like he did before. Doing anything else seed ’stupid,’ especially since the majority believed in the concept of survival above all else, willing to exist just so they could exist longer.
But every negative situation was just like this. No matter what situation a person found themselves in, whether in a cultivation world like Firmant Heaven or a technopolitical world like Earth, there were always ’other’ options that guaranteed survival, both for n and for won.
However, just because one could, did not an that one wanted to. Decisions and choices had consequences, so long-lasting beyond the mont, and the more the decision was ’easy’ and ’obvious’ by the standard of objectivity, the more it was laden with Trojan horses.
’Survive at all costs.’
Li Ling had only just abandoned this dao, this way of life, less than a week ago. Really, it hadn’t even been more than seven days since the day of the Chen Couple’s brutality, with his rise from the bottom of the cultivation world’s ladder up into the ’genius’ category of the second realm.
And when confronted with the first unsolvable situation since then, he had to revert right back to it?
A woman had been pimped as a prostitute since the age of 16 in the ghetto of the third world and finally managed to escape that life to start over in a new country with a better economy and laws, but was blocked on all sides by various factors that she could not resolve on her own.
Lacking top-level skills and still in training to acquire new skills that could ensure sufficient employnt, she was out of money with no option for credit, no family or friends in this new domicile to assist, and ti was running out.
So was she going to have to revert back to her ’old trade’ to tide over this crisis after paying blood, sweat, and tears to escape?
Then what was the point of it all, the dramatic escape to restart her life?
If one argued that even if she backtracked, she was in a new location with better prospects, and so the price paid was not as costly or problematic as before, then what about the second crisis that ca her way that was similarly unsolvable?
Would she also backtrack then? What about the third crisis, or the fourth, or the one after that?
Li Ling felt akin to this hypothetical young woman, his mouth full of bitterness, so he couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Inasmuch as he glimpsed the way of survival, verified by the will of heaven itself, he couldn’t help but beco deeply thoughtful.
He felt like he had grasped sothing about the world, and mostly about himself.
In reality, among the entropy of existence that stated that everything one does will beco irrelevant in ti, what constitutes the wisdom and maturity of a person? What exactly makes a person ’wise’ in the sense of not just having experience from having lived life for a long ti, but being able to navigate entropy and existence effectively?
Li Ling had an inkling of understanding of what it was, but the process of getting to that answer was still being actively walked by him ntally right now. With his opened Sea of Consciousness, he could process thoughts at the speed of sound at the very least, if not faster.
So as this question arose, his now easily accessible mories of his entire life collided and clashed together to find the answer, coupled with the extensive background of miraculous worlds and situations experienced vicariously through fiction on Earth, leading to an answer.
Wisdom, true wisdom, and even the concept of ’maturity,’ were only truly achieved—or rather, one had taken the first step to them—when a person, at any point in their lives, stopped to take self-awareness of the nature of reality and the rules and regulations governing its various aspects.
Then from this revelation, they would realize that based on the objective rules and regulations of existence, they either had a set of beliefs and characteristics that fit with the objective rules, or they did not have such a thing.
So in that case, they would be faced with the critical choice that every being that has achieved maturity and wisdom would make, the choice of whether to change the world to fit with the nature of oneself or whether to change oneself to fit with the nature of the world.
Every single point of conflict was based on this question, especially for sapient species. It was inevitable that at so point during existence, one would eventually beco aware of this question and would have to find the answer that suited them and walk down that path.
That was why almost every political movent or ideology in a civilized state would be split into two major factions no matter how many others existed, because there were only two choices or factions: the Change the World faction and the Change Yourself faction.
One could always identify which one was which when they examined the details of any political or sociological dyad throughout history, regardless of world or circumstance.
Li Ling had sowhat grasped this question upon coming to Firmant Heaven, where his experience led him to grasp the objective rules rather quickly. In that situation, he decided to change himself to fit with the world, following the norms and trends as well as being receptive to the enforcent of these rules and regulations.
After the Infinite Slaughter System awoke, he completely shattered and cast aside his ’change yourself’ ideology and switched to the Change the World faction, opting to do what he wanted when he wanted, an impulsive lifestyle of desire as and when necessary.
Minimal thought went into his choices, simply doing what he felt like at the ti with the highest degree of efficiency he could realistically achieve, which was actually an intoxicating form of existence.
But such a way couldn’t last long, it wasn’t equipped to stand the test of ti.
Shockingly, so too was the opposite, his previous lifestyle of submission and careful consideration of the rules in every one of his actions, making sure he conford. That had been shattered a week ago, and he was still fortunate to this day that he hadn’t been the target of that abuse back then, allowing him to realize all this without personal suffering.
Li Ling was unaware that the Spiritual Milk that remained after his initial consumption, which was still more than 99% of it, was beginning to bubble and boil as his body temperature rose, with his forehead especially becoming red hot like a forge’s furnace.
He was still seated in a ditative pose of the San Cai-Yin, the daoist posture of connecting Heaven, Earth, and Man, which allowed him to access the Blessed Augury technique’s special space.
As the Spiritual Milk boiled and bubbled around him, Li Ling’s thoughts seed to reach a fever pitch.
After walking both paths, the Change Himself path for more than a decade and the Change the World path for slightly under a week, he finally understood that neither alone was good enough to truly encapsulate the wisdom he believed himself to possess.
Rather, the answer lay in a balance of the two, in the essence of moderation.
The answer to his question of entropic existence versus sapient wisdom boiled down to one word, one concept that was actually sothing that everyone knew of but took for granted.
Adaptability!
Nature already understood this, which was why evolution existed. The background of biological existence understood that in order for a species to grow, it must not rigidly stick to one path, but mix and match, even pulling characteristics from the enemy—like viruses and harmful bacteria—in order to survive.
To grow, to ascend higher, one cannot simply maintain a stubborn one-sided outlook, but must adapt and achieve a layered and complex execution of action and thought in order to reach their perfect self.
Realizing this now, Li Ling seed to have changed as his previously overheating mind and body cooled down rapidly while his outward expression went from solemnity to casual relaxation. He opened his eyes upon leaving the Blessed Augury state to see that a pink palanquin had entered the special cavern of the Spiritual Milk.
With a raised eyebrow, he saw the Core Formation slaves exert a bit of pressure from their cultivation bases as they lowered the palanquin down, allowing those within to dismount at their leisure.
And so they did, with Wen Caiyi, elegantly dressed and with an imperious manner, taking the lead. At the sa ti, Bai Ruyi, with a deceptively inviting deanor that seed to promise mischievous fun, also ca out, first inspecting Li Ling with her crimson pupils.
"Well, well, well. We finally et after such a long chase, huh? What’s your na, itinerant cultivator?" Bai Ruyi asked with a hint of playful curiosity, smiling widely.
Wen Caiyi behind her frowned deeply, because her Purple Mansion which was only vague in construction was giving her a very strange feedback.
It was as if, looking at this scene of a handso young man with a casual smile seated cross-legged within the pool of Spiritual Milk opposite the foxy young woman in blue hanfu wearing an interested smile, she was witnessing a mont that would change the fate of the heavens themselves!
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Volu 1: Impulse has co to an end.
Volu 2: Adaptability, begins now!
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