Soon, heaven and earth returned to normal.
Sisui smiled and waved his hand. The rooms within the pavilion immediately reassembled. Xiu Zhen was placed into another room, leaving only him and Lu Yang in place.
The atmosphere abruptly turned tranquil.
Lu Yang looked at Sisui before him, his thoughts spinning rapidly. Up until this moment, he still couldn't accurately grasp exactly what Sisui's personality was like.
However, one thing could be confirmed: this person was absolutely not someone without scheming. At the very least, during their first meeting, he instantly realized his hint and played along. If he had no scheming whatsoever, he probably would have just been confused about what he was doing at the time.
So, what should he say?
Thinking of this, Lu Yang lowered his eyelids and remained silent for a long time. On the other side, Sisui didn't speak first either, similarly sizing him up seriously.
A moment passed just like that.
"...The [Method of Traversing the Mortal Dust]."
Lu Yang finally took a deep breath and said slowly: "Could Senior tell me a bit about this Primordial Spirit method? This junior has recently been seeking the path to the Primordial Spirit."
"You want to learn?"
Sisui's eyes brightened slightly upon hearing this, and then he smiled: "Of course you can. The [Method of Traversing the Mortal Dust] is primarily based on good and evil. It extracts the True Self from amidst good and evil..."
Yes, it was about the same as what the Great Sword Ancestor had said.
It was impossible for these two to be colluding. So either Sisui had scammed the Great Sword Ancestor as well, or he truly hadn't hidden anything for his own benefit and had taught everything he knew.
Lu Yang analyzed it out of habit.
And when Sisui talked about the Good Consciousness and Evil Consciousness part, he suddenly asked: "If one cultivates like this, the vast majority of people would choose the Evil Consciousness as the primary, right?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Sisui's face stiffened slightly.
After a moment's pause, he finally let out a sigh: "Indeed it is so. Back then, Du Xuan... sigh, I was too hasty. I shouldn't have spread the method first."
"Oh?" Lu Yang raised an eyebrow: "What does this mean?"
"When the granaries are full, the people know propriety and etiquette; when clothing and food are sufficient, they know honor and disgrace."
Sisui spoke frankly: "I believe that the human heart changes along with the environment. When the environment is good, the human heart will naturally become good as well."
"My thought at the time was to lead by example, and then have my disciples run around to shape a relatively stable and benevolent cultivation environment in the sea of light to the best of their abilities. By doing so, when cultivating my [Method of Traversing the Mortal Dust] in such an environment, they would naturally lean towards good, thus forming a virtuous cycle."
"But Senior failed."
Speaking of this, Sisui's sigh grew heavier: "Even though I had made arrangements, Du Xuan ultimately still chose the Evil Consciousness as his primary."
"I have also heard about this matter."
Hearing this, Lu Yang frowned deeply: "In the end, it seems Senior only had a huge argument with that person, then did nothing and simply parted on bad terms."
Hearing this, Sisui raised his eyebrows, catching the hidden meaning behind Lu Yang's words. He shook his head and said: "It seems you still don't have a concrete concept of my Primordial Spirit method... The so-called good and evil are actually completely subjective matters; they are not absolute. Even if one takes the Evil Consciousness as the primary, the resulting change isn't necessarily undesirable."
"How can you tell?" Lu Yang asked in return.
"Take me, for example."
Sisui pointed at himself: "Fellow Daoist, as the one who created the Primordial Spirit method, which consciousness do you think I chose back then to forge my Primordial Spirit?"
Did that even need to be thought about?
As the widely acknowledged Great Saint of the sea of light, Sisui definitely...
'Wait, no way?'
In an instant, Lu Yang's pupils contracted sharply. An unbelievable thought suddenly leaped into his mind. Immediately after, Sisui confirmed this guess of his.
"That's right, I also chose the Evil Consciousness."
Speaking of this, a hint of nostalgia surfaced in the depths of Sisui's eyes: "Does Fellow Daoist know what the name of the first cultivator to sense the Dharma Body Dao was back then?"
Lu Yang shook his head.
"Actually, I don't know either."
Sisui laughed heartily: "The records are too ancient. The specific given name has been buried in the passage of time. Only the surname was passed down through the bloodline."
"They were called the [Sitian Clan]."
"I came from precisely such a large family. The characteristics of the Dharma Body Dao dictated the importance of bloodlines. At that time, there were actually many similar families."
"Although I had some talent, the Three Foundations were incompatible like fire and water back then. Everyone was secretly dealing with the geniuses of other families to weaken their younger generation. So, if not for the protection of the elders in the family, the possibility of me dying prematurely was very high. Even today, I remain grateful to them."
"Therefore..."
Speaking of this, Sisui looked at Lu Yang: "Fellow Daoist, when I extracted my Primordial Spirit, what do you think the condensed Good Consciousness and Evil Consciousness were respectively?"
Lu Yang pondered for a moment, and then suddenly saw the light.
As everyone knew, after Sisui attained the Dao, he spread his Dao across the sea of light, making no distinction between the noble and the lowly, and ignoring backgrounds. Aside from the Dharma Body Dao, he treated the Dao Arts and Spiritual Power equally.
"The Good Consciousness... was exclusively honoring the Dharma Body?"
"Fellow Daoist understands at a single hint."
Sisui nodded: "At that time, based on my cognition from the first half of my life and my bloodline ties, my Good Consciousness hoped to exclusively honor the Dharma Body and eradicate Spiritual Power and Dao Arts!"
"And my Evil Consciousness was to spread the Dao across the sea of light."
If doing so was evil, then I am willing to be unforgiven.
In an instant, looking at the calm Sisui, Lu Yang suddenly felt a bit terrified. He couldn't help but say in a low voice: "Then what about your Good Consciousness? Could it be that now..."
"Ah, Fellow Daoist does not need to worry about this."
Sisui immediately smiled: "After so many years have passed, I have ultimately made some progress. The current me only has the True Self remaining. Whether good or evil, it is all me."
Only then did Lu Yang breathe a sigh of relief.
However, doubts still lingered in his heart. Ultimately unable to hold back, he continued: "Then what about Xiu Zhen? Was the birth of that person also Fellow Daoist's handiwork?"
He asked directly. If it were anyone else, he would have thought of a way to probe. But with Sisui, for some unknown reason, he didn't want to make arbitrary guesses.
This was a rare moment of honesty for Lu Yang.
And what responded to him was equal honesty.
"It was indeed me."
Sisui's face was calm as he stated indifferently: "I taught the specific method to Myriad Treasure. However, he himself likely intentionally forgot it."
"As for the reason, it's actually very simple."
"Back then, after the Primordial Saint snatched the [Heavenly Scripture] from my hands, it wasn't long before Myriad Treasure successfully forged a Primordial Spirit. I knew he must have taken a shortcut."
"So I met with him privately. After discovering that he had taken the Good Consciousness as the primary, I provided him with a method to resolve the hidden dangers of his Primordial Spirit... At that time, I had already decided to fight the Primordial Saint. However, victory and defeat are common in battle. Although I had some cultivation, I couldn't guarantee I could defeat the Primordial Saint."
"And if I were to die."
"Du Xuan would definitely have a problem. Back then, it was because of me that he took control of the Spiritual Power Dao; his foundation was not solid. I worried that his cultivation would waver as a result."
"It's very difficult for me to die, but he is different."
"Therefore, I specifically prepared this method and taught it to Myriad Treasure. Myriad Treasure would naturally help him on my behalf, preventing him from suffering an accident due to my death."
"At the same time, this method was also beneficial to Myriad Treasure."
"I could tell that he was actually dissatisfied with the Primordial Saint as well. The only reason he didn't turn hostile was because his cultivation was insufficient. So I gave him a hand."
"Furthermore, if everything went smoothly, the birth of a brand new Primordial Spirit might even fight for a sliver of hope for survival for me... Killing three birds with one stone, why not do it?"
Sisui's tone was very calm.
It wasn't until this moment that Lu Yang finally got an initial impression of this Great Saint, whom everyone in the sea of light revered and ranked number one in credibility:
Sisui was different from Dao Tianqi.
Perhaps he equally harbored goodwill, but his goodwill was fully laden with sharp edges. Beneath the exterior of a Great Saint of the sea of light, he did not lack scheming calculations and thunderous methods.