Even if the Heavenly Dao did something that suited Niu Chang's preferences better, he would still feel the same way.
This was the price for those who had expectations; they would be disappointed when they discovered that what they had hoped for was far from what they wanted.
"Will you ever cease your childish rambling?" The Heavenly Dao spoke for the first time. Its voice was genderless and carried traces of the greatest strength.
It didn't attempt to appear superior, but that was a characteristic of those on the God level.
They had already condensed their truths into their beings, elevating their lifeform level. Only cases like Niu Chang's, who deliberately suppressed his traits as an achiever.
It was not without reason; he was indeed not actively suppressing his true level, but the ban on increasing his strength independently kept him from doing so.
Speaking of his ban from cultivation, he found it a bit exaggerated. Somehow, he was still unable to lift this ban.
There was speculation that this was the price he paid for having such an overbearing system.
"Oh, you can actually speak?" Niu Chang teased.
The battle had already begun from the moment both of them stepped into this arena.
They were waiting for their scales to render their verdict, which would, in turn, decide what kind of powers and disadvantages they would have.
This indirect method was to evade the profound domain of karma by the Heavenly Dao.
Learning from his mistakes, Niu Chang employed various new and improved skills and techniques to enhance his karma protection, making any alteration of his karma nearly impossible.
"What you seek will never be within your reach. You can dream and hope for it, but you will still be unable to attain it," the Heavenly Dao spoke in a neutral tone, avoiding any exaggeration within its control.
"Hah," Niu Chang scoffed with a nasal sound. He understood that the Heavenly Dao's words referred to two things.
However, its speech remained ambiguous.
"Why are they so mysterious to me? Just speak plainly like a normal human."
"I am, but you interpret it in your way, leading to such misunderstandings," the Heavenly Dao replied truthfully.
Only then did Niu Chang pay attention to his second thoughts. He didn't want to admit his mistake, so he brushed it off by giving his shoulder a little shake.
"So what? What are you going to do now?"
"There's nothing left to do. Haven't the conclusions already been reached?"
"You talk as if you already know the outcome of this fight."
"It's not difficult to predict the outcome when we are in this place. No outsider can influence the battle's result."
The battle between the two scales intensified, and their hands began to tremble under the weight of their desired outcomes.
"The battle of words and reasoning for the scales has reached a level of human cognition. This will result in a partial judgment," Niu Chang said as he saw his scale leaning towards the losing side.
The reason was simple: this space was not balanced, and his lower power and level compared to the Heavenly Dao were evident.
He shook his head and spoke. "Do you know when the law and order fail to arrive at a fair judgment, only then do you realize that even in the domain of justice, you will never find peace."
"Once I felt that way, I created this technique to establish a fair and impartial judgment on everything. I truly don't see any meaningful justification for the conflicts that exist out there. Don't you think the world would be a better place if everyone followed the law and minded their own business?"
Niu Chang, who had read many books, believed that a slow-life fantasy story where the main character focused on increasing their strength while avoiding meaningless conflicts would be enough for him.
Though it sounded simple, he hadn't found one to read even before his reincarnation.
"Your idea is indeed not bad, or rather, it's too good to be true. Don't humans always say that if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is just a story?"
"Such a world wouldn't be as perfect as you want it to be. With a powerful law enforcement capable of upholding every law, its peace would be only partial. The other half would consist of people being too afraid to commit crimes."
"Isn't that good? Strong punishment wasn't meant to be used often, but rather as a stern warning to others, a test of the law."
The Heavenly Dao shook its head; the conversation was within the realm of theoretical approaches. It was believed that Niu Chang should already understand everything.
"I don't understand why you've chosen to play the role of a clown, acting like a fool?"
"Are you insulting me now?" Niu Chang raised his voice.
"If I were insulting you, then why are you smiling?"
It was true that the corner of Niu Chang's mouth was slightly curved.
"Hahaha," Niu Chang brushed it off with light laughter. "I thought you would be a boring person."
"You're no different from ordinary people. Although your aspirations are grand, they were borrowed, right? What you wanted to do is to prove your existence."
"Whether borrowed or not, what does it matter? If I can achieve the end goal, would it still matter?"
"No," the Heavenly Dao agreed.
"Exactly because it was borrowed, you're unable to fully invest your heart and mind in it. That's why you're behaving this way—a comical character torn and worn by short-term joy."
"If you truly wish to prove your dao, then all your actions are betraying the goal you wanted to achieve."
"Get straight to the point. I don't like this critique of yours targeting me."
"This is what you wanted, isn't it?" The Heavenly Dao pointed with its finger. The curve of Niu Chang's lips deepened.
"What you desire in your life isn't immortality, at least not yet. You want to lead a fulfilling life before you actually embark on your path to immortality. Right now, you just want to have fun, searching for something that will be difficult to find because you're looking in the wrong place."
"Don't you like using lighter comparisons? Your actions and thoughts are akin to a fisherman who hopes for a bountiful harvest, yet he never ventures into the sea or any body of water. Instead, he wanders in the most desolate desert in pursuit of such a goal. If this isn't a clown acting like a fool, then what is?"
The comparison the Heavenly Dao made wasn't entirely wrong. Niu Chang did indeed desire a fulfilling second life fantasy. However, his distaste and aversion to ridiculous story developments pull him away from what he truly desires.
Leaving him on a silent path of loneliness, where he could only hope but couldn't hear any sound.
"So what? Isn't this the nature of humans? Hoping for something but acting in the opposite way," he tried to defend his stance.
"Human?" The Heavenly Dao, for the first time, revealed some fluctuation in its intonation, like a curious person asking about a strange question they had received.
"I've already examined all of your traces in this world, and I still find the contradiction between your thoughts and actions to be inherent in humans. It persists regardless of their position."
"The accurate term for it should be compensation, right?"
"The more you do something to prove something, the more it reveals what you lack. It's an intrinsic design for mortal beings like humans. They crave things they don't have."
"The ever-burning desire you possess is to compensate for your lack of love, the playfulness is to compensate for the lack of care, the pursuit of immortality itself is to compensate for your lack of self."
Finally, the Heavenly Dao concluded its words with a smile that was easy to perceive. "The more you act like a human, the more it shows that you are not truly one of them."
"Your obsession with behaving as a human, the flaws that someone might have, the logical reasoning someone might possess—you've displayed them in your journey, haven't you?"
"But if you look back at what you wanted to prove, wasn't it to show that you are human and not merely imitating one?"
"Otherworldly soul from the beyond, were you a human before this life?"
The concept of xianxia and fantasy stories shouldn't be unfamiliar to the Heavenly Dao, but due to its profound background as a spiritual wisdom derived from pure Law, it was challenging to understand Niu Chang's fixation.
It wasn't entirely wrong, but it wasn't completely true either.
What Niu Chang sought to achieve was to live out the story he had been searching for his entire life. Perhaps such stories existed in his previous life, but he had been unable to find them, leading to his current journey.
"What an intriguing argument you present. The concept of compensating for one's lacks is indeed accurate. However, you're mistaken about one thing. In my previous life, I was indeed human, but the experiences I underwent reshaped my understanding of life, or rather, the narrative. Are you familiar with the narrative? The overarching force that wields supreme authority over everything, making someone as lowly as a sow live the life of an emperor and vice versa."
"I no longer perceive this life as being under my control. The hidden narrative always exists somewhere. It's just that most people have rather mundane narratives that render them unable to foresee their future development. I wanted to craft a more fulfilling narrative for myself to witness, but as you can see, I have found nothing that matches what I'm seeking."
"So, is everything driven by your desire to take control after observing countless errors made by others?" The Heavenly Dao finally identified the last piece of Niu Chang's inner workings that it lacked.
"You could say it's more like a perfectionist wanting to rectify certain mistakes but ending up making a mistake in the process," Niu Chang added.
"I understand," The Heavenly Dao acknowledged.
"But this small wish of yours is truly remarkable in its ability to create something that elicits such repulsion from me towards you." The Heavenly Dao's gaze penetrated deep into Niu Chang's body, fixating on the false truth he held.