"The reason the current Aeons are mere tools is not because they are incapable of fighting, nor is it because they simply bestow their power as a gift."
"They wear the mask of philosophy, but in reality, they wield power like feudal emperors."
"Their Emanators are their attack dogs, their Paths are their imperial bureaucracy, and their believers are the frontiers of their empires."
"This universe is a world where 'territory' is defined by ideological hierarchies of thought. At the same time, these territories are rife with conflict. They slaughter, cooperate with, and annex one another, operating in a manner identical to human nations fighting over land."
"Dan Shu, you must cast aside all superficial appearances and see the true essence of the Aeons."
"No matter how Nihilistic an Aeon may be, they cannot erase the path of their own birth. No matter how Destructive an Aeon is, they cannot destroy the circumstances that allowed them to become an Aeon in the first place. The Aeons, on their philosophical paths, cannot deny the fundamental physical law of the material universe: that life can ascend to Aeonhood."
"So don't you worry. Just do as I say—rewrite the scriptures of the Yaoshi and, in doing so, reform the organizational structure of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus."
There were times when Dan Shu was convinced Noldrei was insane, spouting frightening, nonsensical ravings that left her trembling with unease.
"Śāriputra! All Buddhas emerge from the five turbidities of a wicked age—the turbidity of the kalpa, of views, of afflictions, of living beings, and of life. Thus, O Śāriputra! When the kalpa is in a state of chaotic turbidity, living beings are heavily stained by greed, avarice, and jealousy. Having established these unwholesome roots, the Buddhas, by their expedient power, teach the three vehicles as distinct from the one Buddha-vehicle."
"All human language is illusory. Language is the common sense of humanity, and common sense contains the mode of thought of an era, which in turn holds all the prejudices of that time."
Before Copernicus, anyone who claimed the Earth revolved would have been defying common sense.
The reason Noldrei could tell at a glance that these Yaoshi scriptures were borrowing from Buddhist theory was that he could perceive the inherent prejudices of the era embedded within any given doctrine.
For a civilization that had reached for the cosmos and left its home planet to be even more prejudiced and narrow-minded than a nation-state confined to Earth was simply absurd.
It was like a society built on a primary schooler's understanding of social theory trying to venture into space and construct a beautiful new world—a notion as fanciful as an adult fairy tale.
A civilization capable of overcoming interplanetary barriers would be hard-pressed to have such glaring weaknesses. Just as a civilization that can create weapons far superior to others demonstrates that its rulers have a deeper understanding and command of the material world than other rulers. It cannot be simply explained away as a few clever tricks.
The dialectical relationship of the strong overcoming the weak is the essence of materialism. If you perceive the 'weak overcoming the strong,' it's because the old 'rules for discerning strength and weakness' are obscuring your thoughts. The 'prejudices' of a bygone era have triumphed over the 'common sense' of the current one.
"If you want to read the true scriptures, you must first understand why the people of the past wrote them. You hidebound fools, trying to find a lost sword by carving a mark on your boat." [T/N: A Chinese idiom for being stubbornly inflexible.]
Noldrei let out a long sigh, sitting in the seat of honor and sternly reprimanding the assembled alchemists of the Alchemy Commission.
He sat cross-legged on the main throne, as if the entire Alchemy Commission had already become his domain.
And in fact, it had. While the stories of the Yaoshi that Noldrei recounted were the same as those in the scriptures, their meaning and guiding philosophy had been completely inverted.
"Form, sensation, perception, volition, consciousness. You spend your entire lives pursuing the path of the Yaoshi, yet you can never grasp even a sliver of its true meaning. It is precisely because of your rigid, dead-headed actions, which are born from a blindness you cannot even perceive."
"The entire Xianzhou is held captive by 'form,' trapped by the material reality you perceive with your senses. Your society is being ravaged by a structure you yourselves built from greed, desire, and class oppression. And then you heap the blame for your self-made evil karma upon the Yaoshi's head."
"Even if we ignore the profound doctrine of the 'five skandhas being empty,' you should be able to understand this much. Your work should be the salvation of the Xianzhou people, the purification of the evil karma each of you creates. It is not an excuse for you to wallow here, generating even more bad karma!"
"To throw yourselves into evil deeds will only strengthen the power of evil itself. Not only is it useless for the salvation of the Xianzhou, but it also leads you further and further away from the true scriptures of the Yaoshi. You will never receive the Yaoshi's true gaze."
Noldrei spoke with eloquence and conviction, his words landing like a boulder tossed into a puddle.
Immediately, one alchemist grew red-hot with anger and retorted, "What do you know? The great work left by our ancestors, the boon granted by Abundance—all of it concerns the next stage of the Xianzhou people's evolution! And you dare call our ancestors' work an act of evil!"
Noldrei pointed at her and said to the crowd, "See? This is what happens when someone doesn't listen properly."
He asked with a smile, "When did I say your ancestors' evil karma had anything to do with Abundance? The evil karma of the Xianzhou ancestors was clearly a product of the society they created—the inequality between people, the class divisions, the oppression of power. The boon of Abundance merely allowed you to see the root of your internal conflicts, forcing you to gaze upon your own putrid, festering wounds. Yet your ancestors believed that the gift that opened their eyes was the very evil that destroyed their old common sense."
"It's as laughable as someone prattling on to me about 'independent human rights.' What's even funnier is that these people don't even realize that 'rights' are a concept that can only exist within human society; the word itself is inherently social. Therefore, there is no such thing as an 'independent right,' and naturally, no 'independent human rights' either."
"It is merely a concept people use to resist the oppression of those who wield public power for private gain. It's no different from the rebel slogans of every dynasty throughout history; it's no more noble than 'Great Chu shall rise, Chen Sheng shall be king.' [T/N: A famous historical slogan from a rebellion that ended the Qin Dynasty.] I know you don't understand my example. See? You don't even know what I'm talking about, yet you're still stuck pondering the dilemmas your ancestors faced. How many years has it been? The written language of the Xianzhou has changed over countless generations!"
"Your situation right now is exactly the same as theirs. You are trying to interpret the Xianzhou ancestors of that era using the social and linguistic context created by the Xianzhou of today. Tell me, how is that not like climbing a tree to find a fish?"
The female alchemist was instantly at a loss for words, unable to conjure a response to Noldrei's masterful dialectical questioning.
Noldrei shook out his robes and declared in a resonant voice, "As long as you fail to solve the internal problems of the Xianzhou—this world filled with elites, class antagonism, divisions between insiders and outsiders, and conflicts of faith—then any blessing, be it from the Yaoshi of Abundance or Lan of The Hunt, will ultimately become a weapon that harms the Xianzhou people themselves!"
"You think The Hunt is so noble? If I wanted to, I could simply induce Mara-Struck outbreaks among the Xianzhou, tempt your people to test the very limits of their lifespans, and then, at the opportune moment, step forward to pray and make offerings to The Hunt."
"Lan's arrows will fly wherever I command! I can borrow the bow of The Hunt and kill anyone I choose!"
Noldrei's words struck like a sharp blow to the head, a rude awakening that made Dan Shu instantly understand the precarious situation the Alchemy Commission was now in.