Chapter 1618

The two tall figures were visibly startled. In their previous impression, the Seven Fiend Shadow Demon was no benevolent being. It usually turned any creature it encountered into a shadow demon and would stop at nothing to turn any lone master it met into a loyal tool, a shadow slave. Furthermore, the Seven Fiend had always appeared as a group of seven, never as a single clone like now, openly provoking forces from so many realms. Also, the current Seven Fiend seemed to be salivating much faster than before...

Chigang chuckled, shaking his head. "Heh, aren't you just jealous that I was born superior to you? It's not my fault; who made me such an excellent specimen? I didn't ask for such monstrous power, but there's nothing I can do. It's innate. No matter how jealous you are, it's not yours to have. Heh heh."

The Venerable on the right, among the two Venerables, said angrily, "A leopard cannot change its spots! Seven Fiend, even now, do you still not repent? Amitabha, what a sin, what a sin."

For the first time, Chigang's expression turned cold, and he scoffed. "Venerable Nine, don't speak so beautifully. What are you? All you do is deceive and mislead the pitiful, weak humans of the mortal realm. When I was just 'born,' you were the first to attack me! Why? On what grounds? Was I born to die? Was I born without the right to exist? Is your so-called 'equality of all beings' just a load of nonsense? Even if I truly wasn't meant to live in this world, it's not your place to interfere arbitrarily! Since this world created me, I also have the right to enjoy life. How can I allow you to slaughter me? You always call me vicious, always say my hands are covered in blood, always call me despicable and shameless. On what grounds do you say this? Since nature endowed me with these abilities, they are my instincts for survival! If you care so much about the equality of life, why don't you call herbivores vicious for eating grass? Why don't you say carnivores have blood on their hands for killing? Humans destroy nature, bully the weak, and act selfishly—why don't you say they are intolerable to the heavens? If others do it, it's right; if I do it, it's unforgivable. Tell me, where is your so-called equality, where is your so-called compassion? Furthermore, I do all these things for no other reason than my own survival. If you hadn't constantly hunted me, would I have casually created these shadow demons? Would I have turned every lone master I encountered into a shadow slave? Am I so bored and well-fed that I have nothing else to do? Don't compare me to lowly humans. So-called fame, fortune, love, and power are all nonsense in my eyes! And so you try to kill me. I know why: because I am different from you! Your ideology simply doesn't allow for the existence of powerful beings unlike yourselves! Since the Buddhist realm is so noble, why do you still speak of Buddhism and Daoism being incompatible? Isn't that just authoritarianism? You don't kill! If you catch a demon and it doesn't obey you, meaning it doesn't 'convert' to your ways, you 'redeem' it. What is this 'redemption'? It's nothing but house arrest! On what grounds do you restrict a being's freedom? Don't you know that freedom is more important than anything? Your disguised house arrest is even more cruel than killing! Yet you make it so no one can say anything is wrong. If someone believes in Buddhism, you help them. If they convert to another religion after believing in Buddhism, you punish them. Is this your so-called compassion? How are you any different from a criminal gang? You're just clever people who've put on a facade of sanctity. In the mortal realm's book *Journey to the West*, Sun Wukong, simply for being direct, was suppressed by you under the Five Finger Mountain for a full five hundred years! Five hundred years! What does that even mean? With a mountain pressing down on him, that's the cruelest torture in history! And finally, you forced him to convert to your ways, to help you achieve your deceptive propaganda—the scripture retrieval—only then would you stop. And fearing his disobedience, you even put a Golden Fillet on his head—another form of disguised house arrest! What do you treat him as? A life? In my opinion, even humans wouldn't treat animals that way! On what grounds do you do this? Just because you possess great power that others lack? If all beings are equal, why do humans kneel to you instead of you kneeling to humans? Hmph, you bully the weak and fear the strong, deceive the world for fame, are arrogant and domineering, hypocritical and affected, outwardly virtuous but inwardly corrupt. No amount of vicious adjectives can fully describe your duplicitous faces! The weak beings of the mortal realm must have been blind to let themselves be deluded by you for so many years!"

"Ah!" Chigang sighed heavily, then chuckled. "You bald monks, every time we meet, you clamor for a fight. You keep saying that I, who am handsome and dashing, elegant and graceful, tall and mighty, known to cause mountains to crumble and rivers to flow backward, a terror to ghosts, a combination of wisdom and beauty, an embodiment of heroism and chivalry, loved by everyone, adored by vehicles, making flowers bloom, willing to go through fire and water for my brothers, and willing to stab my brothers for my girlfriend—am I a monster? I really don't know what you're thinking. Look at my appearance, what part of me looks like a 'demon'? If you don't believe me, let's hold a vote in the mortal realm right now and see who agrees that I am a monster. The eyes of the masses are sharp, you know."

Not only were the two from the Buddhist realm stunned, but people from other factions were also slightly taken aback for a moment. Even Jialan, who had always maintained a solemn demeanor, showed a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

After Chigang's speech, even a powerful immortal like Yaoguang couldn't help but feel bewildered. "Am I really that self-serving, that selfish?" Reflecting carefully on the situation in the Celestial Realm, it seemed to be exactly as Chigang described. "Why did we want to kill Chigang? Because his existence threatened our safety. Why did I pledge allegiance to the Three Heavenly Monarchs? Because they helped me improve my cultivation. Could it be that, as Chigang said, my cultivation has transformed me into a heartless, unrighteous, lowly being?"

"Amitabha!" As if two suns had suddenly appeared in the sky, with the chanting of the Buddhist name, two tall figures radiating immense light materialized in the air. As before, it was unclear how they concealed themselves, but they were certainly different from the other groups.

The two Buddhist Venerables recovered the fastest; after all, the primary training in the Buddhist realm was to guard one's mind. The Venerable on the left shook his head slightly, saying regretfully, "It seems Benefactor Seven Fiend is greatly different from before. However, Benefactor's past actions were indeed too bloody, intolerable to the heavens. Amitabha."

Everyone was dumbfounded by his speech, and upon closer thought, it indeed made a lot of sense. The mouths of the Buddhist Venerables Three and Nine had opened and closed more than a dozen times, yet they couldn't find words to refute him. While everyone was still absorbed in Chigang's fiery words, he turned his attack towards Yaoguang and the other two. "And you! Daoists, hmph, you truly fit the description of outwardly virtuous but inwardly corrupt, yet you are also authoritarian! I truly don't understand how humans, with their intelligence, could have been deceived by you for so long. The Buddhist realm represents the hidden, ugly side of human nature, but your Celestial Realm is entirely comprised of greedy opportunists! You respect, obey, and are grateful to those who can benefit you, but to those who cannot, you are arrogant, conceited, cold-blooded, and heartless! Whoever can benefit you, whoever can help you improve your cultivation, you become their humble servants, filled with gratitude. Ordinary mortals cannot help you, so you treat them with cold indifference. No matter how miserable or sorrowful they are, it's none of your business, and you absolutely ignore them. I truly admire you; within the same race, there exists such great discrimination. What do you consider humans? Nothing but pigs or dogs. In your eyes, being banished to the mortal realm is the most painful thing. Why? Because you don't treat it as your former home; you treat it as a place where animals are kept! Just as humans don't like living in pigsties, you call it blasphemy for immortals and mortals to coexist, and you say immortals must be emotionless and desireless. Do you know what you call that? That is what truly constitutes blasphemy; it's practically going against the will of heaven! Nature created emotions and desires. Regardless of whether it's right or wrong, as children of nature, you have no right to deny them. Because you desire great power, you betray your former race and even fear contact with them, afraid that what you've deeply suppressed will be reawakened by instinct. You are a bunch of opportunistic scoundrels who abandon righteousness for gain! Why do you cultivate Dao? Immortality, superhuman power, the adoration of others, the reverence of mortals—these are your goals! To obtain these things, you can even abandon what your innate parents bestowed upon you. You are beyond description! Parents give birth to children hoping to create a sentient and emotional life, not a cold-blooded robot that abandons everything for its own power! That's unfilial! Oh, I almost forgot, you are very taboo about such innate instincts. For you, there's no such thing as filial piety. You betray your own race—that's disloyalty! You alienate your own kind, treat your weaker kin with cold indifference—that's inhumanity! Since you possess such great power, yet fail to collectively help your own kind improve their shortcomings—that's unrighteousness! You are low-level beings who embody disloyalty, unrighteousness, inhumanity, and unfilial conduct! Furthermore, since you aspire so much to become immortals, why don't you help others achieve immortality? Instead, people have to grope their own way. According to you, it requires 'destiny,' 'coincidence,' 'fate.' Nonsense! Don't you just want to maintain this superior posture? If all mortals in the human realm became immortals, what would you have left to brag about? The moment I appeared, you, like those monks, insisted on killing me immediately. Why? Isn't it because I am not one of you, yet I am far more powerful than you? Hmph, selfish, treacherous, despicable beings!"

Chigang coldly surveyed the surroundings, his frosty expression gradually softening. Finally, he said languidly, "After coming out this time, I've decided to stop creating shadow demons and shadow slaves. The reason is Caofeng. Unlike the Celestial Realm, he didn't seek to kill me quickly, nor did he indirectly imprison me like the Buddhist realm. He merely sealed off my violent side, allowing my innocent side to live freely within a barrier. I truly wish I could be my old self again. From now on, I am no longer the Seven Fiend Shadow Demon. If you still intend to cause trouble, please call me Chigang next time we meet!" With that, a red light flashed around Chigang, and he, along with the leaders of the Heavenly Saint Corps beside him, vanished without a trace, leaving behind only the elites from various realms still deep in thought.