"So it's closer to a leftover imprint than an actual resurrection?" Guanming asked.
"A little, yes," Alex said. "When beasts die, they have so spiritual impression left over in their beast core, and I am able to use that to give a semblance of a spirit to the new puppets I create."
"That's... a sha," Tianyan said. "I was hoping for a true resurrection."
"A true resurrection would an going against the normal flow of life," the Azure Dragon patriarch said. "That can only be a demonic practice, don't you think?"
The other Celestials couldn't argue right away.
Seeing as the conversation had moved on, Alex decided that it was ti to leave.
The Azure Dragons gave so thought to what Alex said and didn't follow up on the topic either. They thanked him for what he had helped them with and let him go.
Alex said his goodbyes to the Azure Dragons, ntioning that this would be the last ti he would see them for a really long ti, as he would soon be leaving this realm.
He then t up with Pearl and Bai Jingshen again and left the palace.
"The Celestials asked about the Blood Beasts," Alex said as they waited for the teleportation formation to be used. "They wanted to know how I could bring soone back to life."
Pearl paled a little. "I'm sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut."
Bai Jingshen narrowed his eyes. "What did they say? What did you say?"
"Well, I explained partially how I did it. I didn't ntion that I used my blood, just that I use beast cores. The patriarch, however, said it was a
demonic practice," Alex said. "Do you think that's the case?"
Bai Jingshen didn't answer imdiately, taking so ti to think through his answer.
"Well, there are two things you have to first consider when it cos to what it ans for sothing to be demonic," he said. "The term 'demon' used to be applied to things and people that were considered evil or just harmful to life. That sa term was then used to refer to the species that we now call the demons."
"So, when soone calls sothing demonic, you have to first understand if they an it's sothing bad, or if it's sothing belonging to the race of the demons."
Alex nodded. "This was definitely the first one. The patriarch called it a desecration of life and death."
Bai Jingshen seed to agree. "He's not wrong, but at the sa ti, who defines what's demonic? Things aren't just evil or good. There is a degree to these things, and how much people are willing to accept changes based on their own experiences."
He turned toward Alex. "Let ask you this-are you evil?"
Alex was taken aback. "Absolutely not. I see no reason why I would ever be called that."
The White Tiger gave a small smile. "Now, think back to long before you were a cultivator. Back when you were still in your ho on the tiny island where cultivators didn't exist. If I were to tell you that there was soone out there who had killed hundreds and thousands of people, would you have considered that person evil?"
Alex paused for a mont. It was a difficult thing to bring his mind back to that ti when he had changed so much. But he was able to, and the answer was obvious.
"I would. I would definitely have called that man evil."
"And yet," Bai Jingshen continued, "that person is you. And you just
told that you aren't evil."
"I've changed," Alex said with a nod. "I've experienced more, and I know the world isn't fair or kind. You're right, there is a degree to good and evil, and for , evil now lies much further up on the threshold. And I imagine demonic techniques are the sa."
Bai Jingshen nodded. "What is demonic and what is not depends on the collective experience of the society. Perhaps if the war hadn't been a thing, many of your own techniques could've been called demonic. But after the war, people are used to death. They are used to techniques that aren't necessarily good, but have helped people in
the long run."
"Description-wise, your Blood Beasts are demonic. That entire technique to make use of soone else's blood is, at face value, demonic. And yet, the owner of that technique was made a God, wasn't he? The humans made the Blood God a god."
Alex narrowed his eyes, never having thought about it that way.
"Demonic practices have been more or less eradicated from the world, so you don't have to worry about it. There may be a few here and there, but mostly they're all gone."
Alex scratched his chin. "That makes quite unlucky then," he said with a dry laugh. "The very first sect I joined upon coming to the Immortal Realm was a demonic sect."
Bai Jingshen thought for a mont. "The poison one? What were they doing again?"
"They fed their disciples poison with the facade of helping them
improve by absorbing the poison. Then, once in a while, they would feed so of them poison that was far too strong for them, and then reabsorb the Qi in their bodies to help their cultivation base." "The three sect masters and several of their sect elders were like that."
Bai Jingshen chuckled. "See? That's an example of a demonic sect. They hurt many innocent people to get ahead. A technique itself can
never be demonic, only its user. So long as what you're doing isn't hurting anyone else, you're not demonic."
Alex took a deep breath. "Thank you. That was exactly what I needed to hear."
The teleportation formation was finally made available for them to go
to the Black Tortoise Palace, so Alex and the rest climbed onto it.
As they did, Alex couldn't help but think about the Poison Fighters Sect, and then the Blue Silk Sect.
The elders there had said they had problems fighting many demonic sects on the continent.
He couldn't help but wonder if things there had gotten better, or sohow worse.
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