What was King Wu of Wu trying to do on Mount Modu back then?" JIETOU couldn't help but ask with some confusion after hearing my conversation with Chi Qingshuai.
At this point, I had already guessed roughly what had happened back then. Emperors in ancient times were concerned with only two major events: life and death. However, although I had figured out the general idea, I did not say it out loud. It was easy to guess the general idea, but understanding the specific details required more than just imagination.
I wanted to leave room for Chi Qingshuai to develop his own ideas at this time, so I continued to pretend that I didn't know anything.
"Do you know how Mount Modu came about?" Upon hearing JIETOU's words, Chi Qingshuai swayed the wine jug in his hand and asked us while looking at us.
"How else could it have come about? It must have been formed by geological movements," JIETOU frowned and said.
Chi Qingshuai smiled and said: "According to legend, during ancient times Yin and Yang energies were intertwined causing chaos throughout the world. At first Pangu created everything; impure energy settled as earth while pure energy rose up as sky. The spirits of all creatures lived between heaven and earth which is what we see today."
"At the beginning of creation there were many connections between Heaven Realm (Tian), Earthly Realm (Ren) & Ghost Realm (Gui). The entire world was a mix of gods & ghosts where six paths were unclear. Later on after countless years of effort from many great gods they established three realms - Tian Ren Gui - which began reincarnation without end; Heavenly Dao hidden within blue skies; Human Dao spread across vast lands; Ghost Dao concealed within darkness."
"There are many connections between Gui realm & human realm since ancient times when these great gods established three realms however there were inevitably some omissions. Therefore, many stories such as Nüwa Mends the Heavens appeared afterwards. In fact, Nüwa Mending the Heavens cut off the spatial connection between Heaven Realm and Human Realm. Since then, there has been a clear boundary between Heaven and Earthly Realms; even if people in Heavenly Realm have strong power they cannot easily disturb human realm. Creatures in human realm want to ascend to Heavenly Realm but it is extremely difficult because they must rely solely on their own strength to break through space turbulence obstacles."
"Since ancient times, very few people have been able to achieve this feat and even if someone did manage it, most of them never returned. Most of those who ascended probably perished in space turbulence while only a small number of people who forcibly broke through turbulence managed to survive but due to exhaustion of their vitality could only hide in desolate corners of Heavenly Realm struggling for survival hoping one day they can recover their strength again."
"The time flow rate in Heavenly Realm is much slower than that on Earth so when these ascending gods recover from exhaustion it's likely that thousands or tens of thousands years would have passed on earth.
Chiqing Shuai paused for a moment and continued, 'Moreover, even if these gods of ascension regain their power, they will never risk their lives to return to the human world. That's why we only hear about immortal gods ascending but rarely see them returning to the mortal world. To tell you the truth, Buddha, demon and fairy gods may indeed exist, but if they want to reach our world, it would come at the cost of their lives. That's why our world is so peaceful.'
'Are you off-topic?' Jietou frowned at Chiqing Shuai.
Seeing Jietou's sarcastic tone, I patted his arm and explained for Chiqing Shuai: 'Master Chi is actually giving us a hint with these things he talked about. If I'm not mistaken, the relationship between heaven realm, human realm and ghost realm is like three parallel boxes stacked together. The six paths are intertwined among them; as its name suggests Tian Dao (Heavenly Path) exists in Heaven Realm while Ren Dao (Human Path) and Chu Sheng Dao (Animal Path) exist in Human Realm; Xiu Luo Dao (Asura Path), Evil Ghosts Dao and Di Yu Dao (Hellish Path) are located in Ghost Realm. Under normal circumstances all life can only follow the rules of reincarnation within these three realms according to Six Paths cycle law. However this cycle comes at a price - once life enters into it they will endlessly repeat birth and death across Six Paths until finally becoming just one grain of sand that maintains balance within Six Paths.'
'Your comprehension is good,' said Chiqing Shuai happily nodding his head towards me.
'From looking at how Six Paths are distributed among Three Realms we can make some bold speculations.' I looked at Chiqing Shuai and Jietou before continuing on from my previous point.
'Firstly, Three Realms are definitely not the entirety of the world. There is still a world and space outside of Three Realms, but as ordinary life within Three Realms we cannot explore beyond it nor know what's happening there. If I'm not mistaken, those ancient gods who established Six Paths cycle law and determined the fate of Three Realms should be located in that space outside of Three Realms. They continue to control the cycle law until now and manage reincarnation for all life within these three realms.' I said.
Secondly, the three realms of heaven, human and ghost are not equal in status but rather divided into different levels. This can be seen from the distribution of the six paths of life within the three realms. Assuming that there is a constant total number of lives in the three realms evenly distributed among the six paths, it becomes clear that there are fewer lives in heaven than in human realm and more lives in ghost realm. Therefore, if we assume that each realm contains an equal amount of spiritual energy, then it follows that heavenly beings have access to more resources than those in human or ghost realms and thus possess longer lifespans and greater power.
Of course, this assumption may not hold true as each realm may contain varying amounts of spiritual energy with heaven having more while human and ghost realms have less. In such a case, heavenly beings would possess even greater resources which is unimaginable for us humans. From this perspective, heavenly beings truly exist like gods compared to us humans due to their immense strength.
However, despite their strength they are still just specks of dust compared to ancient deities who directly control the three realms and establish reincarnation laws. They may be able to overpower us with their strength but breaking through reincarnation barriers remains difficult for them so ultimately they do not have much impact on our lives.
"Good job," said Chiqing Shuai impressed by my insightfulness. "Continue speaking."
"In general most life forms within these three realms are ordinary specks of dust but some flying sand particles exist which condense tremendous power," I continued looking at Chiqing Shuai before explaining how quantum science could explain such phenomena based on some extracurricular books I had read earlier.