Chapter 265: The catastrophe of Conferred Gods?
"More than 7,000 years ago, when I was a local immortal in Guanjiangkou, I swore an oath to the Heavenly Dao. When I swore the oath, it was as if a sword was approaching me. The restraining power of the Heavenly Dao was extremely strong."
"But now, I have made two oaths in succession, but I have never felt the slightest bit of restraint. The influence of the Way of Heaven on the Three Realms and the Way of Humanity is almost non-existent..."
As Yang Jian told the story, Li Anran and Nezha finally understood why he swore oaths to the Heaven one after another.
The first reason is that Yang Jian really did not think of breaking his oath and was not afraid that the oath would come true.
The second is that Yang Jian wanted to test how much control the Heavenly Dao had over the Three Realms and the Human Dao.
It turns out that today the constraints of heaven’s laws on humanity are almost zero.
This means that the strength of the Way of Heaven and the Way of Man has been completely reversed, and the various rules established by Hongjun Daozu when he merged with the Dao will no longer exist!
To put it simply, although merit, luck, cause and effect karma still exist in the Three Realms today, their influence on the sentient beings in the Three Realms has become extremely weak!
The most fundamental and core rules of the Three Realms have changed from the law of heaven, reincarnation, cause and effect, to the naked conspiracy and calculation of human nature and the rule of the strong being respected.
As long as you are strong enough and your plan is deep enough, you can do anything you want without any worries!
Nezha's face changed when he heard this, and he cried out: "If this is the case, then the three realms will be in chaos!"
Yang Jian nodded, looking solemn.
In the past, there was a God above all else, and everyone, whether mortals, monsters, gods or Buddhas, had a sense of awe in their hearts.
All the good and evil deeds done in one's lifetime will be recorded in the Book of Life and Death. Even if one is lucky enough not to suffer retribution while alive, he or she will be punished in the underworld after death, and it will also affect one's reincarnation in the next life.
Gods and Buddhas are immortal, but they are subject to greater constraints. Once they act recklessly and are entangled by karma, they will suffer divine punishment and encounter all kinds of disasters.
The laws of the mortal world and the rules of heaven are merely supplements to the way of heaven, targeting those who slip through the net.
But now, the laws of nature can no longer influence the laws of humanity.
The merits and sins of mortals will no longer be recorded in the Book of Life and Death, and gods and Buddhas will no longer have to worry about merits and karma.
This is equivalent to taking down the sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head.
Once the news gets out, everyone will lose their most basic sense of awe, and the three realms will inevitably be in chaos!
Li Anran noticed another point: "If merit and karma have no effect on the Three Realms, then wouldn't all the things that Tathagata, Taishang Laojun and others have been doing over the years be in vain?"
"It's more than just a waste of effort."
Yang Jian shook his head and said, "This catastrophe is different from the previous ones. It is no longer a catastrophe of heaven or karma, but a catastrophe of humanity and human hearts. They use the heaven and earth as a chessboard and the common people as chess pieces. They have made careful calculations. It seems that their methods are clever, but in fact they have already fallen into the catastrophe. They just haven't realized it yet."
There are many things in this world that are like being separated by a layer of veil. Once you pierce it, everything inside will be visible at a glance. If you can't pierce it, you will never be able to see through it!
After Yang Jian said this, Li Anran and Nezha compared what he said with what they had understood, and they could easily judge that what Yang Jian said was true.
"This is really interesting!"
Li Anran felt somewhat gloating.
After experiencing the initial calamity of the dragon and phoenix, the great calamity of the wizards and liches, and the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods, the gods and Buddhas of the three realms have become wise and actively draw lessons from them, unwilling to follow the old path of the ancient great clans and sects that resulted in mutual destruction.
As a result, the rules of this catastrophe of heaven and earth changed directly!
They worked so hard and put so much effort into sacrificing a large number of humans, demons, aquatic creatures, and remnants of the ancient heaven in an attempt to delay the arrival of the calamity, but in the end they ended up sending themselves into the calamity.
It's really ridiculous!
Yang Jian also revealed a hint of sarcasm at the corner of his mouth, and said: "From the moment they started planning, the gods and Buddhas in the sky are no longer gods and Buddhas in the sky, but the countless living beings who have fallen into the human world and whose minds are blinded by the seven emotions and six desires and greed and desires."
"The only difference between them and mortal monsters is that they are stronger, standing higher, and have greater advantages. However, this is only at this moment, and it is hard to say what will happen in the future."
At this moment, Li Anran suddenly had an idea and said, "Second brother, do you think this catastrophe has been postponed?"
Yang Jian was slightly startled, but soon understood what Li Anran meant. His pupils suddenly shrank, and his face, which usually showed no emotion, first showed a look of shock and disbelief, and then he frowned, fell into deep thought, and said nothing.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand!" Nezha said dissatisfiedly.
Li Anran said: "What I mean is that the Conferred God Catastrophe may not be a catastrophe of heaven and earth, but a good show arranged by Hongjun Daozu and other saints together or with the tacit approval of other saints."
"How is this possible!"
Nezha opened his eyes wide and blurted out: "How could the Taoist Master and the saints do such a thing!"
Li Anran said: "How could the Tathagata Buddha, the Jade Emperor, the Supreme Daoist Ancestor, the Taiyi Tianzun and all the gods and Buddhas in the sky do such a thing as sacrificing the common people to eliminate the karma of cause and effect!"
Nezha: “…”
Nezha opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word.
Hongjun Daozu and the six saints have high status, but if converted to the three realms today, they are only equal to the Jade Emperor, Tathagata, Taiyi Tianzun, and Taishang Laojun.
If the Jade Emperor and Tathagata can do such a thing, then Hongjun Daozu and the six saints may also do the same!
And if he had not known in advance that the gods and Buddhas of the three realms would join forces to deal with the catastrophe, he would not have imagined that the journey to the West to obtain the scriptures and the gathering of the Eight Immortals, which affected the three realms, were actually man-made arrangements.
only……
When Nezha thought about the catastrophe of Conferred Gods, which affected the three religions and all living beings in the world, and countless righteous people including himself who sacrificed their lives, he felt a sense of suffocation and thought that it might be just a good show with a predetermined ending.
"I'm just guessing, it's not necessarily true."
Li Anran noticed Nezha's confusion and unwillingness to believe, and shook his head secretly.
If this was the case for Nezha during the Conferred Gods Tribulation, then weren’t the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Journey to the West, and the Gathering of the Eight Immortals the same for the people involved?
It’s just that in the former case, Nezha was involved, while in the latter case, he was out of it, so !
Yang Jian is much calmer and more rational than Nezha.
Although what Li Anran said was just a guess, but if we look at the cause and effect, it may not be impossible!
To the sentient beings in the three realms, Xuanmen and Buddhism are completely different, but to the Taoist ancestor, they are both the Taoist traditions passed down by him, and there is no difference between them!
From the perspective of catastrophes, in the initial catastrophe of dragons and phoenixes and the great catastrophe of wizards and liches before the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods, the three tribes of dragons, phoenixes, and unicorns, as well as the two tribes of wizards and liches were all killed or injured, and almost withdrew from the stage of the prehistoric world.
Only the Conferred Gods Catastrophe seemed tragic, but in fact the one who suffered the most casualties was the human race, not the Jiejiao as the world saw it!
It seemed that all the disciples of Jiejiao had been killed or injured, and their lineage was almost cut off, but in fact many of them had converted to Western religions, and those elite disciples were only included in the List of Gods!
Now, the Conferred God List has been shattered, and they have regained their freedom to reincarnate and cultivate again. The price they paid was only the loss of their previous cultivation and the delay of ten thousand years of cultivation time. What they gained was the enlightenment of luck brought by the tribulation, the freedom to choose their own footsteps, and better qualifications.
Most of the disciples of Jiejiao were born in the demon tribe, and their aptitude was not very good.
Nowadays, Xuanmen and Buddhism are in charge of the reincarnation tunnel, and their reincarnation is very feasible. Although the qualifications of the reincarnated beings are not as good as those of the innate creatures, most of them are stronger than their previous qualifications!
And a few innate creatures, such as Sanxiao, Zhao Gongming, and the Golden Spirit Mother!
Patriarch Tongtian had already made a backup plan. They didn't need to reincarnate and cultivate again. They could directly reshape their bodies, and their qualifications would be the same as before!
Calculating it this way, the disciples of Jiejiao not only did not lose money, but made a huge profit!
Rather than saying that the Conferred Gods catastrophe nearly destroyed Jie Religion, it would be more accurate to say that it transformed Jie Religion by removing the dross and retaining the essence, and those who remained were the elites among the elites!
Not to mention the orthodox teachings and human teachings!
After the catastrophe of Conferred Gods, they spread their Taoism throughout the Three Realms. Although they have shown signs of decline in the past thousand years, they are still the most powerful force in the Three Realms.
The Western religion absorbed a large number of disciples from the Chan and Jie sects, and changed its name to Buddhism after the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods. It is now on par with the Xuanmen sect.
The Heavenly Court gained a number of gods on the list as its subordinates, which made up for the previous problem of lack of manpower. It has developed rapidly in the past ten thousand years, and spread its tentacles to all parts of the Three Realms through the gods of mountains, land, rivers and cities. It has truly ruled the Three Realms, which is far more worthy of the name than the ancient Heavenly Court.
Only the human race suffered heavy casualties in the catastrophe of Conferred Gods.
The Human Emperor became the Son of Heaven.
The Qi-refining masters who once came to the human dynasty to seek official positions have now become high-ranking immortals, looking down on the human kings in the mortal world but worshipping the gods in heaven.
Judging from the final result, the three religions of Chan, Jie and Dao, the Western Religion and the Heavenly Court that inherited from the Taoist Ancestor all made huge profits, but the human race was the only one that suffered the most losses, with nothing left.
"Nuwa may not know about this, at least she probably didn't know about it beforehand." Yang Jian thought secretly.
From a purely interest perspective, the human race was created by Nuwa and is closely connected to Nuwa's destiny.
Before the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods, the Human Emperor, apart from offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, only worshipped the Three Ancient Emperors and Nuwa.
During the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods, not only did Nuwa not gain much benefit, she was also desecrated by King Zhou in obscene poems, greatly losing face.
Yang Jian suspected that Nuwa was unaware of the plans of the other five saints and sent the nine-tailed fox to confuse King Zhou. She was only targeting King Zhou and wanted to change the dynasty at most, but she had no intention of doing anything to the human race.
As a result, they fell into the scheme of the other five saints, which led to the complete decline of the human race, and they themselves were also affected.
By the time Nuwa realized what had happened, it was already too late. She was so angry and humiliated that she took her anger out on Daji and allowed her to be killed by the Flying Sword instead of saving her as she had promised.
As the god of justice, Yang Jian knows many secrets of the three realms.
He had awakened Li Anran before, and now he was awakened by Li Anran again.
After some thought, he felt more and more that Li Anran's guess was very likely. The catastrophe of the Conferred Gods was probably different from the initial catastrophe of the Dragon and Phoenix and the great catastrophe of the Lich. Instead, it was planned and controlled secretly by humans throughout the process!
Suddenly, Yang Jian was stunned.
From a purely profit perspective...
He had said before that the Jade Emperor, Tathagata and others were in disaster, so why not him too?
In the past, he would never have thought about the saint in this way, but now...
Yang Jian couldn't help but reveal a bitter smile, but his thoughts still followed Li Anran's guess and continued to speculate.
"If brother Li Anran's guess is true, Tathagata should know about this matter."
Yang Jian had always been puzzled as to why Taoist Duobao, with his character, would listen to the advice of his enemy, the Supreme Sage, and transform himself into a Buddhist and convert to the Western religion.
If the purpose was simply to divide Western religion into Mahayana Buddhism and Hinayana Buddhism, and to split the fortune of Western religion into two, the two saints Jie Yin and Zhunti were not fools, so how could they let Duobao convert to Lingshan and let him become the leader of Mahayana Buddhism and the new master of Lingshan.
However, if Taoist Duobao knew that the catastrophe of Conferred Gods was a man-made calamity, and that his conversion to Western religion to divide the fortune of Western religion was a condition set long ago by the saints, then everything would be easy to understand!
After Duobao Taoist knew the truth, he naturally would not hate Yuanshi Tianzun, Taishang Shengsheng and Jieyin Zhunti. With Tongtian Jiaozhu's order, it was reasonable for him to willingly transform from a barbarian to a Buddha!
Later, Tathagata joined hands with the gods and Buddhas of the three realms to arrange four man-made disasters in the four continents to eliminate the cause and effect karma between heaven and earth and prevent the great disaster from coming.
It is also because of the catastrophe of Conferred Gods that Tathagata followed suit!
After the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods, Daozu Hongjun and the six saints left the Three Realms and disappeared, which might be related to this incident!
But I still don’t know what the reason is!
"Second brother, do you think so too?" Nezha looked at Yang Jian as if asking for help.
Yang Jian didn't say anything.
But, not saying anything already showed his attitude.
"Why is this happening?"
Nezha leaned back in his chair somewhat dejectedly, feeling as if the whole world was fake and about to collapse.
"Brother Nezha, you don't have to worry about this. How can you tell the truth from the false in this world? No matter what caused these things, you just need to stick to your heart when facing them."
Yang Jian comforted Nezha, but he sighed secretly in his heart.
This is different from Li Anran's view that the catastrophe of the Conferred Gods was caused by the saints who had a premonition of the coming of the catastrophe and sacrificed the destiny and lives of the human race to delay the arrival of the catastrophe.
He actually had a darker and more malicious speculation - the five saints were not trying to deal with the catastrophe, but were simply plotting against the human race.
The Jiejiao is known as "the sect of ten thousand immortals coming to pay homage", which sounds very powerful and far surpasses the Chan and Renjiao and the Western religion. However, compared with the human race that is spread all over the prehistoric world, it is far inferior!
In the beginning, the six saints joined forces to plot against the two races of wizards and liches in order to promote the development of Taoism.
The Saint Jie Yin even appeared in person to persuade Kunpeng, which accelerated the arrival of the decisive battle between the wizard and the lich.
It is not impossible for them to join forces to plot against the once-powerful human race, allowing Taoism to flourish and become the only dominant force today.
If he told Nezha about this guess, he would probably be even more unable to accept it!
