1014 Mortal Art's Way of Balance
Yu Yan was meditating when she received the talisman.
"It's time," she muttered. She left the room and proceeded with the ceremony. She first bathed carefully and changed her robe to an all-white one. She placed incense for her mother and father before walking to a temple in the back of the Yu Clan's mountain.
The temple was odd. It was relatively small and not luxurious. Additionally, it contained many stones or monuments carved out of pure jade.
With a wave of her hand, Yu Yan brought the temple to the sky.
"Heaven and Earth above, today, I, Yu Yan, have created the Mortal Dao of Art and Crafts to bring balance, peace, and prosperity to the world."
Yu Yan's words did not spread far until a few seconds later when an enormous eye appeared above the world, alerting all the factions and powerhouses. Finally, her voice spread worldwide, making even mortals pay attention.
Yu Yan was momentarily nervous before gaining her bearing as she sensed all the powerful gazes looming over her. Luckily, she also had nerves of steel, so her facial expression did not change much.
So, she continued her ceremony without any issue. The first monument in the temple shone brightly before projecting a vision above the sky. A doctor had finished curing patients in a small village before walking to the next place, trying to aid as many people as he wished.
Upon his arrival, he saw the entire village was just slaughtered, and the culprit, an injured cultivator, had just killed its last victim. It was probably using blood technique to heal.
"How dare you!" yelled the doctor, and the cultivator looked at him with disdain before preparing to add this new visitor to his list of victims. However, things did not proceed as expected as the doctor waved his hand, and an enormous acupuncture needle appeared behind him and stabbed the cultivator to death.
Everyone watching this scenery was shocked because they could tell this doctor was an ordinary mortal without martial arts or spiritual power. Meanwhile, the cultivator was in the Divine Body Realm.
Everyone wanted to know what was happening, but no one answered them, and the ceremony had just begun. A second vision manifested in the sky; this time, it showed a blacksmith.
Another cultivator was refining an artifact that required to be nourished with extreme Yang Blood, but instead of hunting demon race, he chose to prey on mortals, focusing on blacksmiths who have spent most of their lives near flames and thus have a lot of positive energy in their bodies.
Amongst all the blacksmiths that were captured, one in particular was extremely calm. He did not struggle, whine, or cry and obediently followed his captors. However, once he reached the cave where the cultivator's refining furnace was, a giant hammer appeared above his head before crushing the latter into meat paste.
Again, The world was baffled as this person was only a mortal, and the Weapon Refiner was in the early stages of the Primordial Spirit Realm. Some people already had an inkling, while others wondered whether this was a weapon.
The next image was that of a farmer. He was tending to his land when he sensed the shockwave. He looked in the distance, and two cultivators were fighting without any regard for the surroundings, destroying and killing everyone and everything in their path. With anger written all over his face, he waved his hand to materialize a large sickle. Then, he sealed these two Primordial Spirit cultivators.
The vision showed how he did not kill them but sealed them in a nearby mountain.
The following vision was of a painter. He had created a masterpiece that was the talk of his city.
However, one day, a cultivator who was passing by noticed this painting could resonate with the laws of Heaven and Earth. He had been stuck in the early stages of the Void Shattering Realm for a long time and thought this was his opportunity for improvement. So, he asked the painter if he could sell it to him.
The latter refused since it was his life's greatest work. After rejection, the cultivators demanded the painting, even threatening its creator's life and family. As expected, after a second rejection, he used force.
The painter manifested a painting the size of a city and effortlessly killed the cultivator.
Yu Yan did not waste time as the next vision appeared immediately afterward. This time around, it was a beautiful woman playing the guqin. The story was that she was a talented musician with a beauty that would make most immortals feel ashamed.
A passing Saint saw her play, became enamored, and desired to possess her. He immediately deployed his Domain to take her by force when she rejected him. But, she manifested a golden guqin and fought with him by playing it. After battling him for more than three days, the Saint ran away with severe injury.
The world was quiet as their gaze locked on these visions. The next one showed a genius calligrapher who killed a Supreme Powerhouse, followed by a Chess Sage who sealed more than Five Supreme Powerhouses. Lastly, a scholar manifested a brush to deal with a Quasi-Emperor.
After the scholar, the temple projected other visions of others. known mortal-basedprofessions, and even revealed these mortals using this new power to deal with injustice in their own society, which indicates that this power was not totally directed at cultivators.
Finally, everything seemed to end as no vision showed. A golden orb manifested in the sky before splitting into two. 90% of it descended on Yu Yan's arms, while the rest went to the Heavenly Court. The Eye of Heaven Dao disappeared along with the temple, and soon afterward, visions enveloped the entire world.
Yu Yan smiled before disappearing from the sky, and the world boiled. The top powerhouses instantly knew some changes had occurred to Heaven and Earth and searched for answers. They had their guesses but needed confirmation.
As expected, they soon realized the Myriad Emperor World had a new addition-[The Enlightening Temple]. The purpose of this temple was as Yu Yan declared: mortals-who have great achievements in their art, crafts, or profession- can summon a Dao Projection proportioned in strength to their accomplishments.
The Dao Projection granted them powers on par with cultivators: this was a form of balance to restrict the rampant behavior of cultivators. The world was in shock, and people were not happy.
The Heavenly Court had already controlled and restricted them, and they remained silent since they knew the concept that might make right.
Then, mortals acquired the power to limit low-level cultivators through the development of their civilization. Now, they had a direct means to be on par with them.
Some people began to complain and cause trouble. Typically, they would not dare, but the recent news that the Heavenly Emperor wasinjured emboldened some individuals, especially after being used by pawns by others.
Meanwhile, the top Emperor Lineages continued to deduce information about this Enlightening Temple: they wanted to know the rules and restrictions. So, using all their means, they began to record the rules and functions to analyze.
Firstly, this thing was only for mortals. Even a cultivator in the first layer of the Body Refining Realm cannot use it.
Secondly, it did not increase the lifespan of mortals. They were still mortals destined to die after a few hundred years.
Thirdly, this power was not something mortals could use at will. It will only be available to them when in danger or when they see injustices or evil. In other words, they cannot use this power to wage war or attain benefits.
Fourthly, a mortal with karmic sins cannot condense their Dao Projection.
Finally, not every mortal can condense projections on par with powerful cultivators. There is a great divide between the Primordial Spirit Realm and the Void Shattering Realm, and it's the same for the projections.
Only genuinely talented mortals or people who dedicated years to their art or craft can condense such powerful Dao Projections. Such news reassured many people, but then they realized the world was so vast and the mortal population so large that it was easy to give birth to countless geniuses.
These people also realized why the Heavenly Emperor wanted the rise of Mortal Civilizations and the creation of the Dream World. Now, education and communication are so accessible that it's easier for mortals to have some achievement in any art or craft.
After summarizing the rules, the world collectively sighed. Cultivators were officially not the absolute ruler of this world. From now on, only geniuses and Immortal Tier powerhouses can act wildly as they wish. However, even they have to worry about the court above their head.
After arriving at this conclusion, people's ambitions and drive did not diminish but increased. Their desire to prove the Dao or become an Immortal Tier powerhouse intensified because it was the only way for them to get real power in this world.
Heavenly Court:
Wang Wei waited for his mother with a smile.
"After so many years, we finally reached this step."
"Yes, but we still had some way to go."
The Enlightening Temple was not enough for her to condense a Heaven Will. Heavenly Dao placed more emphasis or importance on things related to cultivators, and this temple, at its core, was directed at mortals, hence the lack of merit.
As such, they still needed to wait until the court spread to the Lower Realm and create branch temples in a few more worlds.
