Infinite Slaughter System: I Kill, Therefore I Ascend!-Chapter 194: Interlude: The Path of Supremacy

While the Divine Deva Overseer prepped the stage for the Test of Karma, Li Ling stood aside from the rest of the competitors, a slight smile on his face as he thought back to the events of the previous test.

Initially, he didn’t have any confidence in himself. He knew himself best. When pushed to the limit by this cruel world and lacking the necessary power to thrive, he had opted to turtle himself like a coward, preserving his life first.

Someone like that, how could they possibly have a tough Dao Heart that could withstand scrutiny?

But Li Ling had truly learned something about himself too.

Because he did indeed intend to cheat using the Infinite Slaughter System and some of his tricks. He had witnessed many system holders do so in fiction from his time on Earth, so he felt he could do the same, and indeed, that was the case.

The cultivation world split the essence of a being into body, mind, soul, and spirit.

The body was the physical shell one inhabited, which could be flesh, stone, or any other medium, as races in Firmament Heaven were diverse.

The mind was the Sea of Consciousness all beings possessed, which varied in size and quality depending on various factors, most linked to biological inheritance and mental cultivation.

The soul was the core of a being, their main aspect that was unique and irreplaceable. That was why it was used in the fourth realm and above to distinguish cultivators from one another and could house so many esoteric Daoist arts.

The spirit, though, while commonly believed to be the same as the soul, was actually a different thing. It was more akin to the religious and spiritual idea of the soul, the vessel that carried one’s remnant essence after death to the afterlife.

After all, it was a fact that upon death, mortals would have their "souls" sent to the afterlife, but that was rather their spirits. The same happened to cultivators of all levels, but one had to first ask: if Nascent Soul and above involved condensing and cultivating the soul, then what happened if they died?

If an enemy destroyed your body and extinguished your Nascent Soul, were you gone forever, disappearing between heaven and earth for good?

Usually, one would expect such a consequence for the pursuit of power, but if that was the case, then cultivators would not make any sense in their actions. The fear of death stemmed from two things: the fear of the pain of death and the fear of the uncertainty of life after death.

But unlike Earth, Firmament Heaven had a confirmed afterlife process that was relatively verifiable and even well known among mortals. With that in mind, it was understandable that most mortals and cultivators up to the third realm didn’t fear death as much, because they knew their fate after it.

But for Nascent Soul and above cultivators, if one knew that death would lead to complete erasure of existence, confirmed by the officers of the afterlife, then who would dare to fight at that realm? Some might even be discouraged from continuing upwards, instead opting to stay in the third realm, where they would reincarnate after death and start again with the same existence, just without memories of the past life.

And this was why cultivators were notorious on Earth for being dysfunctional. You’d look at someone with Nihility-level cultivation who had lived for ten thousand years, and their actions and mannerisms would not seem a day higher than thirty years old.

Some, despite their age, experiences, and power, behaved even worse than teenagers, and they could afford to do so because of this lack of consequence.

Regardless of that, this split between body, soul, and mind was important to Li Ling because these aspects had a hierarchy. The spirit, as the "escape vessel" into the afterlife which carried remnant essence, was at the top, hidden and secretive in a way that few could find.

Next came the soul, which was the core of the active existence of a person, usually undiscoverable unless one was of special descent, practiced soul-related methods, or had obviously reached the threshold of the fourth realm.

Then came the mind, which was the repository of knowledge, the source of consciousness, and the machine of thought that guided the body.

Finally, there was the body, which was controlled by the mind and often caused problems due to weakness, hunger, lust, and all other impulses borne of hormones and the like.

Li Ling initially intended to activate the Dao-Seeking Eye when entering the Test of Dao Heart so that he would be able to see through the illusion, but he was surprised to note that the target of the illusion had been his mind, which was merely at the third realm and susceptible to its influences.

But his soul was strong, empowered by the Blessed Augury, the Dao Soldier Technique, and the Memory Archive Extraction, so he was able to remain "lucid" in a way.

You could say that his mind was in the illusion, but his soul was standing above the clouds, watching the proceedings like a third party.

So Li Ling witnessed it all. Andrew Han waking up, heading to the diner, chatting with his friends, hearing himself brought up in the abstract, and then being used to test Andrew from the moral perspective of Earth that he remembered.

Li Ling tsked, because he admitted inwardly that this test was legitimate, for the way it tested him was perfect. On Earth, how many dared to beat their chests and say a character like him was fine? There were real social consequences that could even affect one’s way of life for doing such a thing, so even if one secretly supported such a character, they usually wouldn’t say it out loud.

So Li Ling expected to fail, because although Andrew Han wasn’t cowardly like he had originally been, he was still the blueprint for his current self, and so he should theoretically back down when pressed hard, because who was Li Ling to him in the illusion?

Just another character. Meanwhile, he could lose favor with his colleagues and even his job, which was about to shoot through the roof with the recent government contract.

The choice to make here was obvious to anyone with common sense.

That was why Li Ling was shocked... because Andrew Han made the choice on his own!

Li Ling had many times thought about stepping in to interfere and drop his consciousness in, but each time, Andrew surprised him by hesitating and not giving in, until the very end, where he exploded with malice and affirmed his true Dao Heart.

Li Ling had not directly experienced the test as Andrew, but he had gained more insight into himself than ever before and into the essence of who he was, which was why, when he awoke, he immediately made a natural breakthrough in the Rule of Infinite Slaughter.

After all, the Infinite Slaughter System never put a limit on his own natural growth outside of it, encouraging him to kill for growth.

From this, Li Ling gleaned a new way of life. Adaptability was fine, being able to worm his way out of situations and make the most of circumstances, which was especially useful in the Black Heaven Sect War of Annihilation, as the various choices he made out of adaptability were the direct reason why he could survive along with Zhen Xueren when everything went to shit.

If he had still been impulsive and not adaptable, he would have killed Jian Chen in their first meeting, which would have set him back when he later handled the rank-four sword hilt. If he had been thoughtless, he would have killed Majin Three and kept the True Dragon Ball for himself rather than leaving it there, which later became the way he could bargain for his and Zhen Xueren’s lives.

But while this sounded great, was it actually?

Being impulsive would have led to short-term gains, but he would have paid the price in the end, likely either dying or being forced to flee with half his life.

However, being adaptable only allowed him to walk away unscathed, gaining nothing and losing nothing, returning the slate to equal. He lost the True Dragon Ball, which could have given him an absolutely broken bloodline to enhance with the system, but gained a seventh-realm backer in the form of Zhen Xueren.

Still, the value of the latter was worse and was only barely equal to the True Dragon Ball when one considered the reputation gain Li Ling enjoyed from his various actions, which granted him benefits in the sect that were felt in this tournament.

But there was another way that Li Ling could have gone, which would have allowed him to retain the True Dragon Ball, gain Zhen Xueren’s favor, gain reputation, and even enslave or slaughter the Four Jiao Brothers, reaping all rewards for himself!

And that was the path of Supremacy!

To be the strongest, the most feared, and the most notorious!