Deducing Godhood from the Fetal Stage

Chapter 5 My Daoist Grandmother

Half an hour later, Jiang Yun was increasingly astonished by the achievements of her great-grandmother.

Her real name is Ling Caixin, and she was born 130,000 years ago.

At that time, humans had been exploring the stars and practicing martial arts for 240,000 years, but it was not a prosperous and thriving world. Instead, it was a very extreme world.

Of all professions, only martial arts are of the highest rank.

All professions except martial arts practitioners were deemed "inferior," so no geniuses were willing to engage in research and development, leading to technological stagnation; no one was willing to learn management, resulting in social chaos; and no one was willing to engage in entertainment creation, so everyone became a martial arts training machine with extreme behaviors.

The entire population practices martial arts, neglecting production. Technology and resources are entirely derived from plunder or the excavation of ancestors' graves, and the acquired resources are used to exchange with the outside world for new technologies.

Humanity has lost its own creativity.

At first, when faced with survival pressures and invasions from external enemies, things were alright, and there was a thriving scene. However, as humanity became the overlord of the fifth star realm and one of the top ten strongest races in the multiverse, no one dared to invade anymore.

The situation has changed.

All their resources, weapons and elixirs, came from plundering others and digging up the graves of their predecessors... until finally, they had nothing left to plunder and nothing left to dig up.

then,

From the initial lack of willingness to work as production workers, to the subsequent technological stagnation, and then to the depletion of resources in the Fifth Astral Plane, which rendered the conglomerate factories unable to produce pills and weapons...

People themselves become a resource.

In their pursuit of further advancement, the powerful have established companies to exploit those below them, promoting extreme rhetoric such as "a new era of martial arts training for all," "those who cannot practice martial arts are useless," and "marriage must be with a martial artist." They instill anxiety about power and class among the public, using martial arts tutoring classes, gene-enhancing drugs, and new weapons as tools to exploit those in lower positions.

Limb loans, Qi pills, cultivation techniques, internal organs, souls—all are tradable commodities. If your family is poor, you should work for my Ten Thousand Soul Banner; if you are insolvent, your entire family should become my Qi pills.

What? You're saying it's our chaebol's fault?

It's because you didn't try hard enough!!

How come they succeeded?!

Then the encyclopedia posted a picture of a newspaper published 180,000 years ago by a well-known newspaper in the old days, with the title—

On the Lack of Ambition Among Latecomers to Martial Arts

Jiang Yun glanced at it briefly. Inside, reporters and experts were criticizing the new generation of martial artists for not being as hardworking as their older generation, for not daring to face difficulties, and for only complaining about the environment, which led to the decline of the entire country, country, and society.

"Hmm..." Jiang Yun touched his chin. Why did those words sound so familiar...?

Never mind, I'll keep watching.

He swiped the mouse and continued scrolling down the encyclopedia entry for that era.

That's roughly how it went. After tens of thousands of years of martial arts practice in the old era, the people of the Fifth Star Realm suddenly realized that something seemed wrong... Why was it that the more they practiced martial arts, the more debt they owed to the tycoons?

As he practiced, his body and soul ceased to belong to him; the techniques and insights he had painstakingly created no longer belonged to him; and even his wife and children were taken away by the tycoon through "debt inheritance."

In short, they simply cannot survive without loans, let alone practice martial arts. And if they borrow money and cannot repay it, even if it is only a few days overdue, everything they own will be taken away by the tycoons, body and soul.

On the contrary, those chaebols who were already more powerful than them were all their creditors.

The subject of the debt is everything they have worked hard for: their soaring strength, the weapons and armor they bought with loans, and the martial arts techniques and sword skills they have cultivated and refined over generations.

Despite their efforts, all their hard work and struggles became fuel for the wealthy to increase their power, and the entire human race was transformed into a slave society disguised as civilization.

In the last tens of thousands of years of the old era, the lower classes finally realized that without the help of destiny and a strong background, the so-called martial arts training to change fate and hard work were nothing more than cultivating韭菜 (a metaphor for exploiting those in power).

Practicing martial arts can't change your fate at all!

Further down, there's another screenshot of the dark web from 100,000 years ago, filled with extreme rhetoric:

[Practicing martial arts is a scam! The moment I said I wouldn't practice anymore, they stole my soul!]

[More than that, I said I was worthless, and they could take my life to pay off their debts if they wanted, but they wouldn't let me get married and have children. To make me pay back my money, they actually forcibly extracted my genes to breed offspring and then gave me a child!]

"Hmm..." Jiang Yun looked at this historical background and gradually became interested in what happened later.

He casually clicked on a few old-era images attached to the encyclopedia, such as a planet shattered by a slap and a giant hand that ruled over the galaxy.

In short, several attempts at bottom-up struggles were easily suppressed before they could even ignite.

Just as he thought. Jiang Yun nodded.

So, in this fantasy world, even if people realize that power is ultimately in the hands of the wealthy, what can they change, no matter how many people are awake?

Keep watching.

Later, the people of the old era realized that they had no ability to change the rules, so they simply began to abandon their rule on a large scale.

"Open the door and give me a baby? I just cut it off myself, including the baby."

I won't practice.

He even made the boastful statement, "Don't like it? Then kill me and extract my soul. You don't even bother with soul extraction, just destroy my soul too, whatever you want."

As a result, the strong were stuck at a bottleneck due to insufficient resources and insights, while the younger generation was unwilling to sacrifice themselves for others, leading to the complete decline of human civilization to its lowest point.

"Shouldn't Huairou make concessions?"

Jiang Yun sighed softly, after all, these incompetent tycoons still need the support of the lower classes.

He continued to slide the mouse.

Sure enough, some chaebols began to waver, after all, they still needed ordinary people.

Just as some conglomerates began discussing whether to use appeasement strategies and who should sacrifice their interests, the Imperial Road opened...

Jiang Yun clicked on the introduction to the Imperial Road and learned that it was a battlefield where powerful beings from all races competed to verify the achievements of their own civilizations.

As one of the top ten strongest races in the universe, not a single human was qualified to enter the Emperor's Path. The myriad races of the starry sky were stunned and then rushed to descend, intending to divide this behemoth.

And the human tycoons...

Faced with pressure from foreign tribes and amidst a general atmosphere of laziness and cheers from the populace, and seeing that the population could not grow in the short term, they decided to fight to the death and began to sacrifice living beings to force a breakthrough in order to resist the crisis of extinction.

"Outrageous..."

After reading the introduction to the old era, Jiang Yun sighed, wanting to complain, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed there was nothing to complain about.

In short, his great-grandmother, Ling Caixin, was born in such an era.

Born into a first-class wealthy family, she herself was a person who controlled the power of the Fifth Star Realm. She was precocious and knowledgeable from a young age.

During the interstellar war at the end of the Third Era, her family was destroyed and she was forced to wander in the outer space, where she witnessed many advanced civilizations.

Her tragic experiences and observations in outer space made her realize that a civilization without an internal life cycle is destined to be short-lived. Humanity must revitalize the entire society in order for civilization to endure.

Therefore, she drew upon the strengths of all civilizations and borrowed the authority of the gods from other realms to gather the remnants of the human race and create a new martial arts system in which the strong must rely on society for survival—the Five Paths and Five Followers of the Mysterious Law of All Trades.

This is a new martial arts system that incorporates the mysteries of literature, martial arts, philosophy, art, and education, and can be understood by those in politics, business, industry, education, and service.

It forcibly links the advancement path of human powerhouses to their contributions in a certain industry of society. Without meritorious achievements, even the most gifted genius cannot break through the barriers of their realm. This is used to regulate the behavior of the powerful and restore production and social stability.

She then used the experimental results of this system as capital to secure investment from two of the world's top civilizations. She successfully attained the Dao Fruit, repaired the collapsing Heavenly Dao of the Fifth Star Realm, and drove away the invading alien races.

After that, the stars changed their orbits, the universe changed, the human race's society was stabilized, and thus flourished.

……

I can finally catch my breath.

Jiang Yun stared at the brilliant summary on the screen, her fingertips hovering over the keyboard, speechless for a long time.

The world he loved reading most in his previous life—the martial arts novels—and which he had been eagerly anticipating would come to him, now truly shattered his illusions.

The powerful human being Ling Caixin, whom he had worked so hard to reincarnate 80,000 times to gain, was not the kind of transcendent being he had imagined, the kind who "doesn't eat beef."

On the contrary, it is the reformers who can bring a distorted civilization back on track.

Daoist Lord, Goddess, Daoist Master, Shareholder, Director, Commander-in-Chief... these long and illustrious titles shone brightly through the screen.

It really is a thigh.

But this sense of awe did not last long. He thought of what Ling Wanshu and Ling Kuo had said before: "The imperial road is about to begin."

The encyclopedia clearly states that the so-called Emperor's Path, also known as the Path of the Supreme Ruler, refers to a Dao Monarch-level powerhouse proving the absolute uniqueness of their Dao Fruit within a corresponding concept in an absolute domain. This requires defeating all the powerhouses from the past and future of the multiverse who are vying for the uniqueness of this concept.

At the same time, they will temporarily lose control of reality, because this is also part of the verification of their "Tao," namely, whether the system they created is stable.

Success in the verification process leads to becoming an emperor or an immortal; failure results in death and the dissipation of one's spiritual energy.

Ling Caixin, his great-grandmother, attained enlightenment using this "Five Paths and Five Followers of the Mysterious Way of All Trades". When she went to compete on the Imperial Road, would someone try to interfere with her by disrupting this system?

As her fourth-generation direct descendant, even if I am successfully born, will I be purged by her peers in an attempt to influence her through bloodline karma?

There probably would be, otherwise the biological mother wouldn't be so alarmed by the "sudden pregnancy" disrupting the arranged marriage.

He looked at the creation process of the "Five Paths and Five Followers: The Mysterious Method of All Trades," which clearly stated "borrowing the authority of gods from other realms" and "gathering the remnants of the human race."

She traveled among all races, and those gods from other realms who borrowed her authority must have invested in her because they valued her mastery of Taoist arts.

But what if she suddenly performs poorly in the Imperial Road? Would they withdraw their investment?

Who are the remnants of humanity that have been gathered together? Are they the powerful clans of the old era, or the slaughtered populace?

The two sides cooperated because of the common interests of the human race. Now that the human race is prosperous again, will they try to interfere when she goes to the Emperor's Road in order to steal the final fruits of victory?

Thinking about these thoughts, Jiang Yun suddenly felt that being born into a very good family might not be all good.

But without a doubt, he must have sufficient self-protection capabilities before the Emperor's Road opens.

However, all of that is too far off for him right now; his primary goal is to be born safely.

And, Shenji Tianyan actually collected 20 points of computing power this time!

When you first stood on solid ground again, you neither chose to satisfy your physical desires nor act blindly, but instead chose to "seek stability and prudence," understanding your surroundings.

[Evaluation: Steady progress]

[Computing power +20]

When the call came through, he immediately activated 'Hidden Perception'.

"Yanzi, please help me calculate the probability of me being defeated after Daojun emerges from seclusion, and how to prevent the risk of being defeated?"

[Okay, calculating for you... The difference between you and the other party is too great to be calculated normally, but because you are a fourth-generation blood relative of the other party, we are forcibly calculating...]