Chapter 673: Forty Percent

"Trouble the two Emperors to take Taiyin Xingjun back to Huoyun Cave to rest first; I'll go fetch her later," Li Changshou said softly. Behind him, Fuxi and Shennong gently nodded, their figures blending into the chaos aura and slowly vanishing.

They didn't say much, nor did they show much sorrow. Instead, the two Emperors felt a sense of relief, as if they had completed some kind of mission. The Fire Emperor had lived far too hardship, after all.

"Will Senior Brother come?" Li Changshou asked quietly, slowly standing up and carefully placing the small amount of ashes from his palm into a jade bottle, which he stored deep in his treasure pouch.

Xuandu Magus asked in confusion, "Where are we going?"

Li Changshou looked up at the palace ahead and whispered, "Zixiao Palace."

"Does Brother need to come along?"

"It depends on what Senior Brother thinks," Li Changshou said with a bitter smile. "It's best if Senior Brother doesn't come. I need to..."

The Magus laughed. "Then I'll go with you."

"Thank you, Senior Brother."

The Magus patted Li Changshou on the shoulder and said, "I don't know what's on your mind right now, and I don't want to ask too much—for fear I wouldn't understand—but you should try to let others share the burden."

Li Changshou nodded with a smile, glanced at the spot where Suirenshi had dissipated, let out a soft breath, and flew side by side with the Magus toward the nearby Zixiao Palace.

Zixiao Palace was quite peaceful at that moment, as if nothing had happened before. Daozu Hongjun sat quietly at the deepest part of the great hall, surrounded by a serene aura, as if he had known all along that Li Changshou would come and was waiting here.

The Magus took half a step forward, leading Li Changshou in a bow, and addressed him as Grand Master.

Hongjun Daozu nodded with a smile, his calm voice echoing through the hall: "The Heavenly Dao gave birth to private thoughts due to the private desires of the human race; the human race, with its own will, sealed this private thought, thus encompassing the karma of the Great Dao."

Xuandu Magus said, "Grand Master teaches wisely."

"It's fake, though," Li Changshou said calmly.

Hongjun Daozu furrowed his brow slightly, and the Magus turned in surprise to look at Li Changshou. The Magus's expression was one of shock, as if studying whether Li Changshou had lost his senses.

Hongjun Daozu asked, "What do you mean by fake?"

"That Heavenly Dao will," Li Changshou replied indifferently. "Daozu once said there was a remnant will of Pangu that needed me to suppress it. Where is that Pangu will now?"

Hongjun Daozu fell silent.

Li Changshou stepped forward two paces, speaking word by word: "Daozu has merged with the Heavenly Dao, so Daozu is the Heavenly Dao, no longer a living being. The Heavenly Dao is an aggregation of rules; its own will is not akin to that of living beings. Living beings and the Heavenly Dao cannot understand each other because their ways of thinking have fundamental differences and their dimensions of space and time vary, so for living beings, the Heavenly Dao has no will—it is merely natural. After Daozu merged with the Heavenly Dao, the will born from the Heavenly Dao is simply Daozu's own will."

"Daozu, why did the demon race slaughter the human race in ancient times? Why did they drive the human race to the brink of extinction? Where did the human race obtain the remnant soul of Demon Ancestor? In the world, those with the remnant soul of Demon Ancestor, aside from the two saints of Western Teach who used it to repair the Western lands, would only be Daozu. Daozu, what is it that you truly want? Is it because you obtained the Dao Fruit of opening the heavens left by Pangu God in an unjust manner, and thus feel insecure deep down, so you want to control everything in your grasp?"

Xuandu Magus stared blankly, looking at his junior brother's back, suddenly understanding why Li Changshou had shown a hint of hesitation earlier. He wanted his senior brother to come as a witness but didn't want to drag him into the vortex. Well, this was essentially coming to expose Daozu's secrets.

The Magus quickly reacted, seeing Daozu's somewhat helpless expression, and immediately stepped forward half a pace, saying hastily, "Grand Master, is what Changshou says true?" His demeanor was quite convincing.

Daozu sighed: "Changgeng and I seem to have deep misunderstandings. The Great Wilderness—I could suppress it with a flip of my hand. Why would I go to such great lengths?"

"Then go ahead and suppress me." Li Changshou looked up at Daozu: "I've spoken out of turn; please punish me, Daozu."

"Changshou!" The Magus blocked Li Changshou and whispered, "Have you gone mad or lost your mind? Grand Master, please don't blame him. My junior brother must have lost his balance due to Senior Suirenshi's death."

"Please punish me, Daozu!" Li Changshou shouted firmly, his gaze fixed on Hongjun Daozu.

But Daozu only sighed gently.

"You can't do it anymore, can you?" Li Changshou tilted his head back and exhaled lightly: "To suppress that senior, Daozu paid too high a price. It's more accurate to say that Daozu stole the Heavenly Dao and used the Great Wilderness to suppress that senior, rather than Daozu and the Heavenly Dao acting together. If the Heavenly Dao is a great tree, the power of the Six Saints is its root, but the Six Saints' Great Dao as the root would have been enough. Daozu became the trunk and grew the Heavenly Court as its crown. What Daozu can use is only the power of the Heavenly Dao; he no longer has his own realm or magical power, so Daozu cannot eliminate me, right? Because the Heavenly Dao cannot eliminate the greatest variable of an era."

"In the Great Wilderness, the strongest living being is actually our teacher, so when Senior Suirenshi led the heroic spirits here, Daozu didn't care, because the Heavenly Dao's power could suppress them. But when our teacher and the two uncles came, Daozu had to yield and brought out the last will of Pangu God, already tainted by private desires, to be suppressed by the human way. From beginning to end, the great calamity and its fate are orchestrated by Daozu; my master Qiyuan was burned to death, and when I was recuperating in the Hunyuan Jindou, the one who looked at me was Daozu. Arranging all this in the Great Wilderness and coercing Saintess Nüwa from behind was also Daozu. The only will of the Heavenly Dao is Daozu."

Silence fell in Zixiao Palace.

Daozu said slowly, "Is that truly what you think?"

Li Changshou's eyes were full of reluctance as he stared at Daozu.

Daozu countered, "Why would you rather believe a wandering daoist who sneaks into the demon court to steal people than trust me more?"

"I don't believe any of you!" Li Changshou stared at Daozu and sneered: "That senior pulled me into the Great Wilderness with an obvious purpose. Daozu gave me many benefits, letting me sail smoothly in the Heavenly Dao's order, but his purpose isn't purely for the beings of heaven and earth. You're all scheming, revolving around the Great Wilderness, for the legacy of Pangu God. This heaven and earth ultimately belong to all living beings. Whoever tries to control it will become its puppet."

"Now, I'm standing right here. Daozu can reclaim the Heavenly Dao sequence and take back my divine authority."

"What a pity." Daozu sighed softly: "Changgeng, don't be so obstinate."

Li Changshou took a light breath, bowed with a daoist salute, and said, "Today I still call you Grand Master, but Grand Master, I'm laying down my bottom line today. The human race, my loved ones, the Jade Emperor. I'll continue to oversee the great calamity and do what needs to be done. As long as the Heavenly Dao's private desires remain hidden, the Heavenly Court will prosper. The order of the Heavenly Court is a blueprint I drew myself. If I rebel against heaven, the Great Wilderness will fall apart in a very short time and return to chaos. I've said my piece. If I've offended you today, Grand Master, please forgive me."

With that, Li Changshou bowed again and turned toward the gates of Zixiao Palace.

Xuandu Magus hurriedly bowed to Daozu: "Grand Master, please don't take it to heart. My junior brother has gone mad with obsession." Then he quickly chased after Li Changshou. What's gotten into you, junior brother? Directly threatening Daozu—that's too reckless! Is being extremely steady just a path to losing control?

Once outside Zixiao Palace, the Magus grabbed Li Changshou's arm and fled straight into the Chaos Sea, wrapping the two of them in the Taiji Diagram's aura, hurrying away without stopping.

Zixiao Palace was enveloped in thunder, like the wrath of heaven.

Once they were beyond the range the Heavenly Dao could influence, Xuandu Magus activated the full power of the Taiji Diagram to envelop them both and stared at Li Changshou. "Are you insane? What if Grand Master really strikes?"

Li Changshou lowered his head, exhaled, and beads of cold sweat formed on his back and forehead. "Well, he didn't, did he?" Li Changshou muttered, glancing at his palm and steadying his dao heart. It's done.

The Magus frowned and scrutinized Li Changshou up and down, puzzled. "What are you scheming?"

"The great fortune of the Great Wilderness." Li Changshou smiled helplessly and gestured invitingly to the Magus. "We can't stay in the Chaos Sea too long, or the Heavenly Dao will assume we're evading the great calamity, and that would be real trouble."

"Was what the three Human Emperors suppressed truly the last will of Pangu God?"

"No, there was never any last will of Pangu God to begin with. Pangu God's last will went to our teacher," Li Changshou said. "Otherwise, why would our teacher be trapped in the Great Wilderness? He would have left long ago."

The Magus was full of questions, baffled. "What's really going on?"

"This is a long story; it starts from a long time ago."

"Make it concise," the Magus said, hooking his left arm around Li Changshou's neck. "If you don't explain clearly, I won't let you go today. Or is it that you don't trust even me?"

"How could that be? Our teacher and senior brother are my only supports, and everything I have now is thanks to the opportunity you gave me. I dared to speak to Daozu like that because our teacher gave me the courage."

Li Changshou sighed softly: "Senior Brother, do you remember the first time I came to Zixiao Palace, when Grand Master kept me behind?"

"Mm..."

"Grand Master told me a story about Pangu God's last will." Li Changshou explained: "You can think of it as Grand Master patiently guiding me, constantly hinting, making me formulate a series of plans to absorb the variables of heaven and earth, turning me into the greatest variable."

"I told our teacher about this, but he didn't care because it's the rule of the Heavenly Dao, not his dao."

The Magus said bitterly, "Our teacher doesn't care about anything."

"Because our teacher represents Pangu God's carefree nature. Back then, Pangu God could sacrifice himself for all things..."

"Figure Senior is listening—watch your words!" The Magus tightened his grip on Li Changshou: "Get to the point. What did Daozu scheme?"

Li Changshou said: "Daozu wants to promote the Heavenly Court, strengthen the Heavenly Dao, suppress the Six Saints, and control the power of living beings. The matter of the Saintess's temple was already in his calculations. Also, Maitreya couldn't enter this world not because of my order—the Jade Emperor couldn't do that either. Normally, if Maitreya entered, the Jade Emperor and I could impose heavenly punishment on him, but we couldn't bar him from the world entirely."

"It was all part of our Grand Master's scheme."

"Why do that?"

"I can't tell you the answer yet," Li Changshou said seriously, "because it involves basic concepts that wouldn't benefit your cultivation."

"Oh? Let's hear it. I'm one of the smarter ones from the early human race."

"The second law of thermodynamics: the entropy of an isolated system does not decrease."

The Magus: ...

"Let's stick to the schemes. Did Daozu scheme against Emperor Suirenshi?"

"Yes," Li Changshou said. "Daozu is maintaining a script for the great calamity. Why maintain it? There are two answers: first, the script itself meets Daozu's expectations; second, Daozu has already made too many arrangements based on this script, so pulling one thread would unravel everything."

"Consolidating the power of living beings is probably something Daozu started from ancient times."

Xuandu Magus pondered for a moment and asked, "Why?"

Li Changshou smiled: "That points to the fundamental question: what's the relationship between the Heavenly Dao and Daozu?"

"What relationship?"

"I can't say," Li Changshou sighed. "Because I can't be completely sure yet, but what Daozu wants me to believe about their relationship, I already said in Zixiao Palace."

"Senior Suirenshi understood this, so he chose to die at the end to lower Daozu's guard."

"What I did in Zixiao Palace was also to make Senior Suirenshi's death worthwhile."

The Magus: ...

"You've really got me confused." The Magus tried to sort out his thoughts and said: "So, meaning Daozu used his hand to consolidate the power of living beings, prepared the Saintess's temple to directly interfere with the Human Emperors and insult the Saintess, then used it to stir up the human race's foundations and exhaust that part."

"Then, with Emperor Suirenshi, they put on a show where the emperor willingly went to his death to threaten Daozu, making Daozu think it's nothing serious and thus drop his guard against you?"

"Part of his guard," Li Changshou said. "He and I are alike—we can never fully trust each other."

"That senior left me a great gift, which trapped Daozu in the Heavenly Dao's snare, making me someone Daozu can't directly eliminate."

"But Daozu holds my weaknesses, so he feels he has the upper hand."

"I have ways to break through and several backup plans, but it's too early to talk about winning now."

"And Yunxiao and the others?"

"Not just them—you too, Senior Brother." Li Changshou took out a treasure pouch from his sleeve, smiled a bit embarrassed, and handed it to the Magus: "Senior Brother, it's not that I'm overstepping, but this..."

"An end-of-days pouch, I get it. I saw you give one to Ao Yi before." The Magus calmly accepted the pouch and laughed: "Then I'll wait for news in Xuandu City... We're almost at the edge of the Heavenly Dao."

Li Changshou looked back at the Chaos Sea and whispered: "From now on, this contest isn't just about me and Daozu winning or losing."

"Oh? Then what is it?"

"The living beings versus heaven and earth." Li Changshou flicked his fingers, and the Taiji Diagram's aura slowly dissipated, their figures returning to the world.

As they neared the boundary, they parted ways, both putting on a performance. The Magus was returning to the Chaos Sea to go back to Xuandu City and rendezvous with Kong Xuan, who had hidden earlier. He earnestly admonished Li Changshou: "Junior Brother, you need to learn to control your anger and emotions. How could you speak to Grand Master like that?"

Li Changshou's face was dark, but he just lowered his head in silence, cupped his hands to the Magus, and turned to fly into the world without causing any disturbance.

The Magus shook his head and returned to the Chaos Sea.

In Zixiao Palace, the burly old daoist opened his eyes and suddenly said, "How much of that was true?"

Behind him, a gray figure slowly materialized and said, "Three parts false, three parts true, four parts indeterminable. The flame has reached him."

"I shouldn't have yielded to Suirenshi back then and allowed him the power of the flame."

"The human race won against heaven and earth; the rules bind me, so I must follow them," the gray-robed old daoist sighed. "In the end, it's that guy who left such a big mess."

Daozu said indifferently: "Fortunately, Li Changgeng thinks he was the one who brought him here."

"Let him leave the Great Wilderness early; he's getting close to being uncontrollable."

"The time isn't right yet; the rules aren't sufficient," the gray-robed old daoist shook his head. "I can't appear anymore; the shackles of heaven still limit my will."

"If he suspects again, I..."

"Opposition."

In Zixiao Palace, Daozu and the old daoist exchanged smiles, and the latter's figure gradually faded, leaving Daozu alone, sitting there in quiet thought.

Half a day later.

In the thatched hut on Xiao Qiong Peak, Li Changshou placed the carved wooden plaque on his desk, with "Suirenshi Zun Wei" written on it and three sticks of clear incense burning in front.

He first bowed with a daoist salute, then lifted the hem of his robe and kowtowed three times to the plaque, kneeling quietly on the ground without moving. Deep in his dao heart, beside his primordial spirit, the character "one" engraved on a stone tablet was slowly erased by him.

Sometimes, he couldn't tell the full truth even to those he trusted. It was the same with his teacher and his senior brother, because their ways of thinking often differed, and mutual understanding could lead to hidden risks. That would be unstable.

His teacher had said to face death and fight for a slim chance of survival. But he had a complete plan and didn't need to rely on something like "justice will prevail."

The primordial spirit's small figure picked up a brush and carved a new large character on the stone tablet. "Four."

Standing up, Li Changshou clasped his hands behind his back and gazed at Suirenshi's plaque. When did he get entangled in all these strange karmas? It was inevitable, determined by his unique origins. Once discovered by Daozu during the heavenly tribulation, he would follow a similar path, and since he didn't want to be at the mercy of fate, he would react accordingly.

It's like a world where the initial disturbances determine its current state. But that's not destiny. So-called destiny is just what the Heavenly Dao wants living beings to believe. The writing on the Book of Life and Death changes every moment; it's all about fixed and variable numbers, ultimately just a mathematical problem.

Li Changshou slowly clenched his left fist, standing there lost in thought. How to further increase the chances of winning? Indeed, the more burdens one carries, the farther one is from true freedom. Senior Suirenshi's final entrustment is quite heavy. But regardless, thank you. Pioneer.