I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 490Book 2: : Designing the Dao Body, the Merit Golden Wheel

Book 2: Chapter 490: Designing the Dao Body, the Merit Golden Wheel

Vol 2 Chapter 490: Designing the Dao Body, the Merit Golden Wheel

Waves crashed against the shore in a continuous, rustling roar—mirroring Zheng Fa’s turbulent thoughts.

It was as if he had opened an answer booklet and read: easily attainable—the answer is to create humans.

Then he looked at the question itself, which glaringly stated: Please discuss in detail why one should create humans.

Seeing his surprise, Nüwa turned and smiled lightly. “You find it unexpected.”

“A little,” Zheng Fa admitted.

He studied Nüwa’s composed face and said sincerely, “Your Majesty is more—” he paused, then used a word that had suddenly popped into his head, “decisive than I imagined.”

Nüwa’s expression was indifferent. She flicked the shell in her hand and started walking forward;Zheng Fa followed behind.

They walked a bit further before Nüwa finally spoke.

“Because the key today is not me. It is you—your generation.”

Nüwa stopped.

“There are things I have figured out. And you?” She looked at Zheng Fa;her eyes were deep, as if they could peer into the very soul. “Do you know why I created a new race?”

“Why specifically humans?”

“Can you tell me...” Nüwa chuckled softly, “whether my creating humans was right or wrong?”

Suddenly Zheng Fa understood. “This is Your Majesty’s test?”

Nüwa only gave a light laugh;she didn’t answer whether the idea was right or wrong. Instead she said, “You might think of it this way: merits, or the Hongmeng Purple Qi—none of it is easy.”

“I understand,” Zheng Fa murmured.

Nüwa nodded gently, then reached out and pressed her hand toward the sea. A palm print appeared on the water;beneath it the sea was compressed and surged outward, revealing a magnificent underwater Dragon Palace.

“Hail to Nüwa!” a man leapt from the palace and prostrated himself before her, trembling with fear.

“Do not be afraid. I am merely curious about the true forms of the dragon clan,” Nüwa said.

The man’s devotion surged. He rolled on the water and transformed into a blue dragon.

Nüwa examined him for a moment before saying, “Go.”

The blue dragon bowed again, dove into the sea, and did not return.

“Your Majesty—is this...?”

“I wish to create a new species,” Nüwa explained. “But I do not yet know what this new species should be like.”

She added, “Not until I met you.”

Zheng Fa nodded faintly.

“So I observed the myriad beings of heaven and earth—shaman tribes, demon clans, innate divine races—trying to find the most suitable species.”

She smiled as she continued, “Part of the reason I joined the demon clan was for this.”

“I see...”

According to Nüwa’s words, her involvement with the demon clan resembled gathering experimental data.

That also explained why, in legends, although Nüwa was associated with demons, she remained aloof and acted differently—until finally she created humans. Human and demon, while often competing, might originally have been intended to cooperate.

Nüwa continued, “I compiled seventy-two top lifeform blueprints—dragons, phoenixes, qilin, shamans, demons, and many strange beings—hoping to synthesize each lineage’s strengths and create a perfect race.”

The ambition was colossal.

She raised her right hand, extended her index finger, and pressed it to Zheng Fa’s forehead.

Zheng Fa felt a torrent of information explode within his sea of consciousness—countless divine beast totems, intricate runes—containing the life mysteries of numerous innate creatures.

“Your Majesty?”

“Tell me why I should choose weak humans instead of these mighty species.”

Only then did Zheng Fa understand why Nüwa would reveal such precious data to him.

He nodded, then suddenly recalled something and asked, “Your Majesty, do you know the Qian Kun Tripod?”

“It is one of my artifacts.” Nüwa was surprised, then sudden comprehension crossed her face. “It’s in your possession?”

Zheng Fa’s heart leaped with joy. He hurried on, “May I ask, Your Majesty, the inscriptions on that Qian Kun Tripod—many later names might differ;please instruct me.”

Nüwa glanced at him. “You want to know?”

Zheng Fa cupped his hands in respect.

“Answer my question first.”

...

Jiushan Realm, Black Tortoise Dormitory, a conference room in Jiushan University.

“Why create humans?” Xie Qingxue opened her mouth and asked somewhat bewildered. “Isn’t it obvious...?”

Uncle Pang’s expression showed curiosity. “How obvious?”

“Humans now control the Xuanyi Realm.”

The Heavenly Emperor Body slowly nodded at that, smiling. “I feel that Nüwa did not refuse to create humans;rather she wanted us to truly comprehend something.”

“What?”

“What does it mean to be human?”

Silence fell across the conference room. Elder Yu clicked his tongue and sighed, “That question is far too vast.”

“No—Nüwa already gave some hints,” the Heavenly Emperor Body shook his head. “First, she asked me why she should create a new species.”

“Why?”

“In other words, what problem could this new species solve?”

At that remark everyone understood. Elder Yu nodded. “So that’s what she meant.”

There were things the Heavenly Emperor Body had not voiced.

After meeting Nüwa, Zheng Fa had been contemplating the true meaning of the Fusang Wood illusion and had been reorganizing some primordial legends. He now had certain conjectures.

The Heavenly Emperor Body said to Elder Yu, “Since the Purple Heaven Palace lecture began, the central theme of the ancient epoch is actually only one thing.”

“What?”

“The spread and evolution of the Dao.”

“Spreading the Dao? Does that require a new species?”

The Heavenly Emperor Body shook his head and explained, “The species is not the essence;the essence is what kind of species can better deduce Dao techniques.”

Elder Yu was stunned and murmured, “Deduce? Are you saying humans were created just to deduce Dao techniques?”

“It seems that way from Nüwa’s perspective,” the Heavenly Emperor Body replied.

From Zheng Fa’s vantage, since Nüwa did not know what humans were initially, she naturally felt no innate affection for them. She did not set out to create humans because of fate;she created humans because the heavenly Dao taught by Hongjun Daoist needed a better carrier.

A crude analogy: Nüwa creating humans is like humans creating computers—the purpose is surprisingly similar.

The conference room fell silent. “So we are... just tools?”

Reluctantly the Heavenly Emperor Body nodded. “From Nüwa’s viewpoint, that may well be true.”

Seeing the silence in the room, Zheng Fa spoke again. “If Nüwa has a destiny, it is to magnify the Dao. Humans are the means for her to achieve that destiny.”

Zheng Fa had already learned from the Tianhe Venerable that cultivation is the universe reproducing itself—magnifying the Dao is part of that reproductive process.

...

After a long time, a light laugh finally cut through the deadened silence.

“No matter what Nüwa thought,” Xie Qingxue said with a bright smile, “regardless of the origins of our people, aren’t we today standing at the peak of the heavens?”

Seeing Xie Qingxue’s radiant smile, Uncle Pang let out a chuckle. “I don’t see it as clearly as Fairy Xie does.”

The Heavenly Emperor Body agreed, “This is Nüwa’s second question: why humans? Or rather, why are humans the best carriers of Dao techniques?”

“That’s a huge question,” Senior Sister Zhang shook her head. “It’s hard even to answer.”

“I have an idea,” the Heavenly Emperor Body began. “Or rather, a proposal.”

“What?”

“Let us abandon the assumption of humans and deduce a new species from scratch.”

Everyone in the room was stunned. Senior Sister Zhang reacted first. “You mean deduce which carrier would best hold Dao techniques—see whether it ends up being humans?”

“Exactly.” The Heavenly Emperor Body nodded lightly. “As Senior Sister said, answering that question directly is too difficult and too vague.”

“I propose a new subject called Dao Body Design.”

“Dao body?”

“This Dao body is not that Dao body,” the Heavenly Emperor Body explained. “Here Dao body means a vessel for the Great Dao. Or simply, suppose we are Nüwa.”

Now everyone understood and nodded.

“There are two crucial principles when designing a Dao body.”

“What are they?”

“First, does the new Dao body aid the inheritance of the Dao?” 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“Second, does this Dao body aid the development of the Dao?”

The Heavenly Emperor Body shared some of Zheng Fa’s ideas and continued: “To inherit, one needs compatibility, learning capability, and stability.”

“To develop, one needs calculation, derivation, and iteration.”

As everyone pondered, the Heavenly Emperor Body added, “These are my initial thoughts. If anyone has differing views, speak freely.”

Senior Sister Zhang fell silent for a while before nodding. “That gives us a starting point.”

“Compatibility...” Zheng Fa’s senior disciple Gu Chang suddenly interjected, “Isn’t that spiritual roots?”

“Spiritual roots?”

“Spiritual roots are not present in every species. You could say they are uniquely human.”

At this Gu Wuji nodded. “Most demon clans rely on bloodlines;they don’t have the concept of spiritual roots.”

“Spiritual roots...” Gu Chang continued enthusiastically, “I used to wonder why only humans have spiritual roots, why there are so many types, and why many humans have complete sets of elemental roots. When Master mentioned compatibility I realized: spiritual roots aren’t about making cultivation faster, but about enabling one to cultivate a greater variety of techniques.”

Everyone in the room felt persuaded. Uncle Pang nodded repeatedly. “This theory is persuasive. If I were designing a Dao body, my first consideration wouldn’t be speed of cultivation, but how many techniques it could learn. Human techniques are the most numerous among all races.”

Even the Heavenly Emperor Body felt enlightened. He had always regarded the multiplicity of spiritual root types as the origin of inequality among cultivators—single-root cultivators had huge advantages, and multi-root cultivators found cultivation hard. Countless disputes had sprung up across the Xuanyi Realm because of this.

But Gu Chang’s words offered a new perspective: perhaps spiritual roots, though imperfect, give humans the most possibilities.

Seeing the others lost in thought, the Heavenly Emperor Body said, “Research into Dao body design relates to the Hongmeng Purple Qi, and it may reveal the essence of cultivator bodies. This is of great significance.”

Senior Sister Zhang’s face turned serious. “We will select disciples quickly and form a project team.”

The Heavenly Emperor Body nodded.

Zheng Fa did not place all his hopes on Jiushan Realm alone. In the modern world he had arranged similar projects.

In his view, compatibility corresponds to spiritual roots, while literacy, calculation, and derivation abilities correlate with human intelligence. Modernity surpassed Jiushan Realm tremendously in these areas.

In short, Dao body design studies the relationship between biological structure and Dao techniques.

Jiushan Realm excels in Dao;the modern world excels in biological structure—on this project the two are almost complementary.

Both Jiushan Realm and the modern world became busy because of the Dao body design project. People in the Nine Luminaries Heaven also gained insights.

In the Five Organs Pavilion, the Creation Daoist and others gathered around Bailian, murmuring in astonishment.

“Is this condensed from merits?”

Bailian no longer wore his usual calm expression;he smiled as a radiant golden wheel floated behind his head.

Zheng Fa walked over as well.

“This method was taught to me by two patriarchs and is called the Merit Golden Wheel,” Bailian explained. “There’s actually nothing extraordinary about it;in this world, merits inherently possess various divine powers.”

Everyone grew more curious. The Great Elder of the Lu Clan asked, “What is special about this Merit Golden Wheel?”

“I have only just begun to practice it,” Bailian said. “For now it helps with enlightenment and driving away evil. If I accumulate enough merits, the wheel can manifest physically and rival a spirit treasure—useful for defense and transport.”

Those words provoked envy.

The Merit Golden Wheel was impressive enough, but Bailian’s situation made others even more jealous—he had obtained significant benefits from two patriarchs.

The Great Elder of the Lu Clan seemed to recall something and added, “Then Brother Bailian has a chance to sit on that seventh cushion?”

Everyone paused, then realized the implication. Bailian had accumulated much merit;the Merit Golden Wheel aided enlightenment, and he also possessed a Bodhi seed. He seemed to have both great merits and great capacity for insight!

“To receive guidance from two patriarchs is already a blessing;I dare not hope for more,” Bailian said humbly. “But the two Patriarchs urged me earnestly, so I dare not be negligent.”

At those words, everyone sighed inwardly: with powerful patrons, one could achieve so much.

Zheng Fa felt a twinge of envy too, and noticed the Great Elder of the Lu Clan glancing his way with obvious scheming in his eyes.

When Zheng Fa returned the look, the Great Elder turned his head and resumed flattering Bailian with devoted attention.