Chapter 601 - 273: What Is the Demonic Dao? (Part 2)
"At the same time, based on the rule that you can ascend through merit after death, there should also be corresponding punishments, such as not having children being considered a sin, and not raising them properly also being a sin, which leads to Hell after death."
"To increase the subjective initiative of the believers, one must use all kinds of embellishments to depict how beautiful and happy the Divine Country is after death. And once in Hell, life will be many times more painful than it is now, subjected to severe punishments, and so on."
"In daily life, rely on the biographies you’ve written to guide the believers’ spirit, use decrees to control the believers’ actions, and offer grand promises to increase the believers’ work efficiency."
"After completing all this, a religion is basically taking shape."
The Blood River Demon Venerable pondered for a moment, then nodded seriously: "Your thoughts are like enlightenment to me. If we use this ’religion’ to control those mortals, the effect would surely be excellent, and they would be more obedient. But there’s one thing I don’t understand, what does this have to do with war?"
Lu Wenwu smiled slightly: "Then let me ask you, if you create a religion with decrees that are exactly opposite, but the persona of the Immortal Gods is very similar, or even brothers or father and son, and both encourage having children. If two countries each believe in a different religion, what do you think will happen?"
"For example, this side stipulates that every meal must have pork, and every charcoal-grilled pork belly is an homage to God, but eating beef is blasphemy because the cow is an embodiment of God, and the pig is an enemy of God."
"Whereas the other side stipulates that eating beef is showing respect to God, the pig is an embodiment of God, and the cow is an enemy of God..."
Lu Wenwu did not continue, but the expression on Blood River Demon Venerable’s face became very animated.
He instinctively replied: "They would certainly view each other as enemies, mutually declaring the other as heretics, and frantically launch wars to decide who is the rightful one!"
"Moreover, to win the war, for decrees and merit, they will frantically have children and even more frantically eliminate heretics! The hatred on both sides will continue to grow during the years-long war until one side is completely wiped out!"
"Clap, clap, clap... "
"Congratulations, you have already grasped the essence of religious war."
Lu Wenwu applauded him.
"Once you successfully incite a war between two countries through religion, it’s almost impossible to stop the clash. At this time, you just need to help a little when one side is about to lose, to keep the struggle going..."
Blood River Demon Venerable swallowed, his voice trembling, and said: "Then this will turn into a war that will never stop, and all mortals will be perpetually grinding in the meat grinder of natural laws."
"To avoid being wiped out and to wipe out the other side, they must endlessly reproduce and strengthen their race and country day and night, until ’I’ leave, or until some external force causes one side to completely disappear..."
"Very good, a teachable child."
Lu Wenwu finally revealed a satisfied smile.
Religious wars have indeed occurred on the Blue Star for two thousand years without end, but they could never be perpetually sustained.
This is because, on the Blue Star, there are no real Divine Spirits, no absolutely equal two countries, nor unreasonable cultivators.
Even with this, the religious fanatics still openly and secretly fight, even after countries have disappeared.
Not to mention if it were in the Cultivation Realm, with Demon Cultivators guiding and interfering, the battle would be much more intense.
The Mortal Realm in the Cultivation Realm, that’s even more than on the Blue Star!
Too many to count, at least a thousand!
If every country were to create a religion and trigger inter-religious wars, the entire Cultivation Realm would forever be engulfed in flames.
Such a world-devastating religious war on a continental scale, once ignited, could absolutely not be stopped.
Given the ancient technological level, it’s impossible to have a great emperor or a great nation that could unite the entire world and eliminate all the conflicts arising from different cultural beliefs.
Every moment a country perishes, every moment a country is established anew.
Once the trend is established, even if all righteous cultivators unite, it’s impossible to drag this quagmire back on track.
This is not merely warfare anymore.
It’s the Dao struggle between mortals!
Unless all countries could achieve divine-right monarchy like ancient Huaxia, rather than monarchy by divine right.
Otherwise, this world religious war is an unsolvable open plot!
Everyone is fighting for the faith in their hearts, dying with a noble spirit.
The unstoppable torrent surges forward, beyond the power of any individual to halt it.
Oh, if the term "world religious war" sounds unfamiliar, then... does the term "quantitative tribulation" sound more familiar?
This method of leveraging global trends through religion or other series of means to trigger large-scale world wars is precisely a common technique used by the "Saints" in classic desolate fantasy web novels!
Using war to comprehend ’destiny’ and ’tribulation’ for cultivation, can this really be called a Saint?
Haha...
Saint my foot, more like celestial demon.
For a moment, the room was engulfed in an eerie silence.
After ten minutes, Blood River Demon Venerable’s body shook violently.
He nearly stumbled to the ground.
He held onto a nearby table, gasping heavily, sweat dripped continuously from his forehead, soaking him as if he had just been fished out from water.
In Lu Wenwu’s detailed explanation, Blood River Demon Venerable finally understood what truly is Demonic Dao!
His path was wrong!
The entire Demonic Dao path was wrong!
This couldn’t be called Demonic Dao at all.
At best, it could only be called the bad guys among the Immortal Cultivators.
It’s not a matter of how many you kill or how ruthlessly you kill that defines you as a demon.
In ten minutes of intense brainstorming, Blood River Demon Venerable’s Dao Heart, forged over millennia, was nearly shattered.
If he wasn’t a person of firm will, Lu Wenwu’s words could have caused his thousand years of cultivation to be wasted into the East Sea in an instant.
To be precise, his Dao Heart was already nearly shattered into pieces.
But Lu Wenwu’s words were like adhesive, continuously filling these cracks.
With the Blood River Demon Venerable’s own will acting as binding glue, he reassembled the nearly broken Dao Heart.
Seeing his current state, Lu Wenwu’s smile grew increasingly sunny and bright: "Seems you’ve figured out a lot."
Blood River Demon Venerable, with deep regret and reluctance, nodded heavily.
"Although I’m unwilling to admit it, through your guidance, I’ve reevaluated my own heart. I’m afraid I can never truly tread the path of Demonic Dao; all my life I’ve been circling around the Immortal Dao."
"You’re right; my title as Demon Venerable is exaggerated. I’m not worthy to be called Demon Venerable. I can’t become the kind of demon you talked about, nor can I become that kind of demon. I only know cultivation, only know killing."
"I might... never ascend..."
By the end, Blood River Demon Venerable lowered his head in desolation, his voice growing softer.
But who could have thought, Lu Wenwu instead laughed heartily: "Haha... You’re pursuing the Immortal Dao, striving for the Immortal Realm, what does not becoming a demon have to do with ascension? You think too highly of yourself. Not only you, but no one in this whole wide under heaven can truly become a demon! Including me."
Blood River Demon Venerable lifted his head in astonishment, somewhat at a loss.
After saying so much, almost breaking my Dao Heart, now you tell me that no one in the world can become a demon?
You’re toying with me!
Lu Wenwu chuckled: "Whether it’s you or me, before stepping onto the Path of Cultivation, we are first and foremost human. As long as we’re human, we still have the shackles in our own hearts, at worst maybe chaotically evil, but still in the Order Faction."
"Since you’ve already examined your own heart and realized you can’t become a true demon, why not adjust yourself and return to the Immortal Dao? You Demonic Dao folks study lots of interesting magic techniques, only using them for evil is a bit wasteful."
Join the Righteous Dao?
That’s not important!
More than that, Blood River Demon Venerable was concerned about another matter.
"You said you’re human?"
Lu Wenwu grinned as he unleashed the Dragon Emperor’s Crown of Light: "Why, can’t a human become the Dragon Emperor? Is the human body such an inconvenient thing?"