Favorite Children.

—

[Five years later.]

Looking at both Yelena and Ying Yue, who had literal smoke coming out of their ears from the stress of their Jing and Qi energy, Tian Xing chuckled, knowing this scene would occur more often, considering this was the only thing he wanted from them. Not to sacrifice themselves by attacking his enemies or anything like that, but to help him research new sciences or the new Dao of this world to make his work easier.

Anything else with a different motivation had never crossed his mind to begin with. Even their lust for the body was, at the end of the day, just an initial and secondary motivation to him; if they wanted to please him, that was fine, and if not, it was no problem for him. He could control his desires with his calm state.

Shaking his head at the sight of their smoking ears, Tian Xing then focused his attention on the enormous city surrounding him, which spanned from one horizon to the next. Whistling to himself and adapting to the mindset of modern person variants, Tian Xing couldn't help but admire the ancient people's way of doing things. Everything seemed gigantic and magnificent, to the point that the concept of a city was no longer suitable because of its immense size.

Even after using flying boats for a week straight, he still could not see the end of the capital city of the Celestial Phoenix Kingdom by the time he entered it. It was as if the concept of famine and rebellion had never occurred in this city, given how well the cultivators managed their subjects, all gathered in one place without ever becoming a burden.

This was what he appreciated most about the ancient ways of Xianxia civilization: the fact that they could maintain a gigantic city, spanning from one horizon to the next, running smoothly like any other city without issues of insufficient resources to feed their subjects, was an accomplishment that no other society had ever achieved.

Even in technologically advanced or cyberpunk civilizations with relatively large population problems, they cannot achieve what the ancient people did to ensure the survival and contentment of their citizens. Nothing compares to how these cultivators handled things when it comes to mortals.

As for why he said that the ancient people were better at ensuring the survival of mortal subjects, it's because he experienced firsthand how bleak life could be in such a futuristic technologically advanced or cyberpunk society as a normal citizen. Just to have enough food to survive day-to-day, he had to work extremely hard to be able to eat twice a day.

What made him even angrier was that these technologically advanced civilizations had means to produce food freely, similar to the cultivators' mystical methods of using Qi to speed up the process of grain production.

But the difference was that while the ancient people still respected the Dao and kept their subjects happy to prevent famine, those futuristic bastards were so selfish that even for cheap processed food, they still charged hard-working normal people, driven by their simple philosophy of capitalism.

That's why Tian Xing, at the end of the day, still chose to align himself with the ancient people. Even though they were ruthless and seemed to only benefit one another as cultivators, when it came to normal mortals, they still had the kindness to follow the way of the heavens and care for them.

Even if their motivation was simply to earn heavenly merit or to harvest mortals instantly for their blood essence, it was still better than those futuristic parasites who slowly drained people's true spirits away with slow, agonizing deaths for just a bit of money.

A slow, agonizing death that tortured their subconscious mind, and in a sense, their true souls, which would later be brought into their next life, changing someone's character entirely, making them think only negative thoughts.

So, looking at this majestic capital city that spanned from one distance to the next, and seeing the citizens living a normal life with normal day-to-day issues, Tian Xing nodded and decided to side with the cultivators and immortals when there was a need to choose who should lead all of creation.

Because he knew that, at the end of the day, even though cultivators' conscious minds might want to go against the way of the heavens, their subconscious minds still adored and respected the Dao in everything they did. This is why, when it comes to mortals with no cultivation, they generally want to ensure their subjects lead content lives, which later leads to prosperous kingdoms due to the blessings granted by the Dao.

Maybe that's why the Tao spoiled and loved the cultivators so much, to the point that even without deep comprehension, they could still perform many mystical feats through cultivation. By making cultivators his favorite children because they respected her, the Tao granted them whatever they desired, resulting in many ingenious ideas and concepts that futuristic people had to struggle to replicate.

So, because he always wanted to be spoiled by the Tao, as it gave him easy access to comprehension and cultivation without having to work very hard, Tian Xing had already decided who he should vote to become the true Heaven Chosen to lead this generation's term of service.

Calculating that Asura was still in these heavens, probably wanting to create a force to go to war from one world to the next until reaching the highest currently known heavens, Tian Xing nodded, knowing he still had some time to gather his many concubines in this world to form his personal force of comprehenders.

As for what he would contribute later to ensure Asura's victory in the election of presidency, Tian Xing would let fate decide, knowing there would be many opportunities in the future. For now, he would be just a spectator riding the Heaven Chosen's coattails, allowing him to easily enter the next world and subsequently receive the easy cultivation levels he was too lazy to achieve on his own, as he played the long game of comprehension.

"Master! Look! You recognize her, don't you?!"

—