Chapter 1748: Possession

"A world in which Zhang Ji’s ideology is the standard?" Great Sage Qi pondered. For a moment, he felt this was how things should have been; the Sage had a feeling that the future of the Literary Way would be as those exact words described. However, rationality took over him, and he sighed.

"Tell me, what are your views on good and evil? Do you think humans are innately good or innately evil?"

"Neither," Emperor Kong replied. "All sentient beings are born with a blank slate. Our actions, experiences, and environment determine what is good and what is evil. Isn’t that the purpose of reincarnation? To wipe out all the slate and start over."

"Is it that simple, though? An Asura is a creature born that way because of their past life’s endless sins. So, aren’t they innately evil?"

"Sins that they mostly pay for through Hell," Emperor Kong countered. "The new Asura is born with a clean slate; their birth is the result of Heaven and Earth’s rules, not their sins."

"It’s a common practice in the Asura Race to kill their parents after birth," Great Sage Qi argued. "If their parents are too strong, they will be granted access to someone else to kill after birth. You want me to believe such a race is not innately evil?"

"I do. Such practice is the custom of the Asura Race — in other words, a result of their environment," Emperor Kong calmly stated. "Buddhism has a long practice of adapting young Asura Race members and raising them into meritorious monks. Although these young Asuras retain traces of evil from their past life, by the time they are capable of thinking and have emotions, most of them are no different than normal humans."

"What you’re talking about is these monks forcefully altering the innate evil of the young Asuras, not a process of nurturing the good nature of a blank slate individual."

"Forcefully altering? What do you think a parent or teacher is doing when teaching their children about virtues, justice, and good and evil? Isn’t that a form of altering their perspective on the world?"

"Your argument is a bit flimsy," Great Sage Qi shook his head. "You said it yourself: a young Asura still retains a bit of evil from their past life. Isn’t it proof of them being born innately evil?"

"I can use the same logic. Deva are born innately good, and humans are born karmically neutral, meeting not good or evil — in other words, a blank slate. Do you see how complicated things get when you start using technicality?"

The argument intensified, and everything boiled down to Great Sage Qi’s core value that knowledge and goodness are the key to achieving virtue. He believed in both innate good and innate evil, arguing that some children display altruistic behavior at a young age. In contrast, others show selfish and even psychopathic tendencies, even without outside influences.

Great Sage Qi has admitted he cannot control the innate good or evil of anyone, but he can control the other key to achieving virtue: knowledge. Through knowledge, the innate good individuals can become virtuous men, while the innate individuals will have their nature detected and eliminated by society.

Emperor Kong agreed with the concept of a [Virtuous Man] since it’s similar to this theory of a [Capable Individual]. However, Kong argues that innate good and evil are not that important. In his [Golden Society], which he described as the epitome of order, innately evil people will have no choice but to hide themselves and contribute to society. Because if they don’t, capable individuals who are full of justice and virtue (innately good) will contribute to society by hunting them down.

The argument lasted for years, each learning from the other while rebutting the other’s theories. Emperor Kong was so entrenched that for a moment, he almost lost sight of the mission. None of the blame can be placed on Kong. In the Eternal Ascension World, the Literary Way has lost its place among the top 3 schools of thought since even before the Golden Age. Kong could be considered the pinnacle of the Literary Way back home, with only people like Glass Pen Sage above him, but he has never had the opportunity to discuss/debate with someone like Glass Pen.

"It’s truly a shame for a talent of your caliber," Zhang Ji suddenly said, puzzling Great Sage Qi. However, Emperor Kong did not explain. The next moment, the world changed, and the Sage found himself inside his spiritual world. His expression turned ugly as he realized that an unknown force had already occupied ninety percent of it.

"You’re..."

"One of the Otherworld Primordial Demons? You would be correct," Emperor Kong calmly nodded.

Great Sage looked at him with his mouth agape. A few seconds later, he sighed: "Do you have to do this? There is still time to turn back."

"Do you think that’s possible?"

The Great Sage Qi was silent. People of their level have immense willpower, and it’s to the point that they can be described as stubborn or obstinate. Not to mention their confrontation went beyond ideologies, but the survival of entire timelines.

"Can I ask you something?"

"I can show you that much respect," Emperor Kong nodded.

"All your theories — are they truly yours or things you said just to get close to me?"

"They are mine."

The complexity in the Sage’s eyes did not diminish the slightest. "I don’t know whether to feel relieved or sad."

"I will use your body to make my ideologies come true. Once I succeed, you will be a true Sage forever remembered in the history of the Literary Way. Maybe you can use this as a form of comfort."

"I won’t."

"It’s also good to die with your pride intact," Emperor Kong nodded before fully activating the [Life Stealing Technique] to its fullest effect.

The Great Sage Qi resisted. As a Primal, he was more than enough to compete with Kong. Unfortunately, he was only a D-Class Primal, while Kong was C-Class, meaning he had multiple Ultimate Skills. Furthermore, the Sage was ambushed, which left him at a severe disadvantage.

Boom!

A golden lotus materialized on the side of the Great Sage Qi, bathing the Spiritual Realm in its glory. Soon, a golden version of the Sage materialized on the lotus, further enhancing its glory. In this world, people who have perfected their philosophies and received widespread recognition are called [Sages]. However, only the ones who have condensed a Golden Body of Merit can bear the title of [Great Sage].

Emperor Kong calmly watched this change. With this golden body, the defense of the remaining ten percent of this Spiritual Realm became as solid as pure steel; it could even be said it now had the strength to fight back. Unfortunately, Great Sage Qi was dealing with an opponent slightly more powerful than him, and one who had thoroughly studied him.

"I have one of those, too," Emperor Kong calmly stated as he summoned his Golden Body of Merit. With this reinforcement, the Great Sage had no power to resist. As he watched more and more of his spiritual realm being assimilated, the old man realized he had two ways to save himself: try to appeal to his opponent’s sense as a Sage, or try to contact the Nine Council.

However, as Great Sage Qi glanced at this Otherworldly Demon’s eyes, he knew he only had one option. So, after a small sigh to himself, the pedantic scholar started chanting a spell. As one of the candidates for a Lord Position, the sage was under strict watch of the Nine Council, allowing him to directly contact them in case of an emergency.

"Don’t waste your time," Emperor Kong calmly stated. He has been laying traps since his conversation with Chen Yi for that reason. Currently, they were inside his Pavilion, which was Sage Qi’s Proving Dao Artifact. However, since that unpleasant conversation, Emperor Kong has been laying millions of invisible arrays into the artifact to prepare for today’s event.

A look of despair flashed in Great Sage’s eyes as he sensed the failure of his spell. ’Is this really the end?’ he thought. Death did not scare him, but he refused to give his body to those mad Otherworldly Demons who only know killing and slaughter. As a Sage, he cannot allow this to happen. A chaotic fluctuation started to emanate from Qi’s soul.

"Please, do not kill your last remnant of a soul," Emperor Kong calmly stated. "I plan to use a non-violent goal to achieve my goal. If you use the mutual destruction approach to stop me, I will start slaughtering people. And believe, their deaths will be your fault — I will ensure they know that before they die."

Great Sage Qi’s eyes turned red: "You wouldn’t dare."

"Try me." Kong knew that true sages such as this man cared about two things: people’s lives and their legacy. If he started massacring people and telling everybody it was because of Great Sage Qi, the old man’s posthumous legacy would be ruined.

"You’re also someone with great merit. Don’t you care about killing innocent people?"

"Have you forgotten my status? The rules of Grand Dao in this timeline do not apply to me," Emperor Kong calmly stated. He killed trillions of lives during the first battle. Wang Wei — the person responsible for the plan — has even more blood in his hands. Yet, the two still have their Golden Body of Merit.

Great Sage Qi took one last glance at him: "Fine, fine, fine. You win."

—-

[AN: After reading the comments, the majority consensus is to continue this POV, but speed up things. In that case, I’ll try to finish Kong’s POV by the end of this week, which should be doable with the 2 extra Chapters.]

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