Chapter 28: The Unwavering Belief to Always March Forward.
Wang Wei enters the Pagoda and finds himself in an empty room with one meditating cushion on it. He sits cross leg on top of it.
As soon as he sits down, a grand and ethereal murmur appears in his mind. The murmur was at first very blurry, but soon, Wang Wei started to understand its meaning.
The voice preaches about this majestic and otherworldly power; he claims that if Wang Wei believes in it, it would grant him wealth, power, and even eternal life.
The words of the ethereal voice seem to contain a deep power of seduction; each word seems to be able to leave an imprint on the core of people’ soul.
Wang Wei tries to ignore the voice with no avail, then he tries to think about different things or memories as a form of distraction. But that tactic also fails.
No matter what action he takes, the only thing left riveting in his mind is the promise and seduction of that voice.
After agonizing and fighting against the ethereal voice for three hours, Wang Wei finds himself believing that he is the devout believer of the All Mighty One Beyond Fate. Only by believing in it can he truly achieve his dreams and goals of being an Emperor and reaching the peak of life.
After becoming a devout believer, someone opens the door of the secret room. He then leads Wang Wei to meet the Pope of the religion, who proclaims to him that a sacrifice is required of him by the All Mighty One Beyond Fate.
Wang Wei--without a shred of hesitation--takes a knife, cuts a hole on his chest, then plunges his hand into his chest cavity and rips out his heart and hands it to the Pope.
During his action there was no pause, no hesitation, no screaming in agony. Only a look of yearning and devotion to the Supreme God that controls the fate of all human beings.
The Pope nods in approval and takes the heart away from Wang Wei’s hand. Soon afterward, Wang Wei dropped dead on the floor and was immediately exiled from the Pagoda due to his failure of the Seventh Trial.
After leaving the trial, Wang Wei had a look of horror in his face. It took him a few minutes to recover a proper mindset, then he set out back home with his head maid.
Wang Wei spends the whole night thinking about how to properly pass this test. The solution he comes up with is to use his strong will to resist.
The next day, he places his idea into practice. He tries to resist the invasion of the ethereal voice with his strong will. Although, this time, he lasted more than twelve hours before he surrendered, Wang Wei knows that this is not the best way to go forward--especially now that he was two months behind the other disciples.
Resisting the sweet seduction of the All Mighty One Beyond Fate with a strong will is a very slow process. Unfortunately, time was not on Wang Wei’ side.
Wang Wei had to try his back up plan: fighting belief with belief. Since the All Mighty One Beyond Fate wants him to believe in him, then why not install into himself a strong belief and fight against the belief of the All Mighty One Beyond Fate.
That way, by fighting the invasion of the other party, Wang Wei can rapidly strengthen his own belief until it turns into a creed or instinct that he will follow his whole life.
As for what belief to follow?
Simple, the belief that he will one day become free and unfettered. One day, he will swim in the River of Fate, go fishing in the River of Time, flirt with the Goddess of Death, bathe in the spring of life from the Eternal Tree.
With this mindset, Wang Wei once again enters the Pagoda for the Seventh Trial. As soon as he sat on the cushion, the seduction and invasion began.
Wang Wei immediately starts to hypnotize himself into believing that one day, he will be a supreme being far greater than this All Mighty One Beyond Fate.
No matter how seductive this voice is, no matter what great things he promises, no matter what benefit he offers, Wang Wei remains blind to it.
Wang Wei constantly installs the idea on his mind that by having an unwavering belief on himself, one day he could achieve his goals and dreams. All he needs to do is slowly and methodically walk on his own predetermined or pre-established path.
He does not need the spiritual soothing or reliance of a higher being. His strong and powerful determination will be his spiritual reliance, and nothing else.
Despite all of this, it took him a total of fifteen days before he reached the standard to pass this trial--or at least the first part of it.
The second part of the trial involves him reading numerous cultivation techniques and scriptures, then Wang Wei had to distinguish which one is secretly tempered with to influence the mind.
The cultivation world can be quite dark and full of malice. Some poor bastard might think that he is lucky by discovering a peerless cultivation sutra, later to discover that this sutra is tempered it by a more powerful cultivator to turn people into their slave, or make them their faithful and devout believer, or to make it easier to take over their body after raising them like fat sheep to be slaughter.
The Seventh Trial of the Pagoda is designed and modified by the Elders to train the disciples on how to recognize these default cultivation sutras and techniques.
Some sutras or scriptures even outline a perfect Dao for cultivators to cultivate. They do not need to have any enlightenment, just cultivate the sutra and they can cultivate the law and Dao. However, the majority of sutra like these are just bait to cultivate the perfect Cauldron for Absorption or Body Possession.
It is true that it is necessary for cultivators to have lucky encounters to grow powerful during their cultivation journey.This is in fact a manifestation of their own Qi Luck. However, if a cultivator is not careful, it will be quite easy to be calculated by other cultivators.
In fact, sometimes, even Heavenly Dao will calculate certain cultivators. Although Heavenly Dao is nothing but an emotionless program, it is in its right to check and balance certain cultivators that he deemed a threat to the world.
Heavenly Dao itself cannot directly attack such people, but he can provoke them in a roundabout way: such as increasing the strength of Heavenly Tribulation, or plot against through lucky encounters.
Wang Wei spends more than ten days before passing the Seventh Trial. And just like he had planned, he is still the first to pass it.
As soon as he passed the trial, the voices of dissonance in the sect were completely gone. The people that are secretly making trouble became silent.
Wang Wei took this opportunity to increase his prestige in the sect. In only a few days, only positive news about him could be heard from the mouth of the sect’s disciples.