Journey Through the Ten Heavens

This Immortal beyond the Heavens is disappointed in the recent Daoist scriptures whether from the West or from the East.  Parodies, comedies, thinly veiled mockeries of the Path of cultivation saturate many of the Western scriptures.  From the East, it is no better.  Instead of beautifully described worlds intricately hand-crafted by the writer, instead one gets a bland generic copy of Master Er-gen in terms of world-building and setting.  In fact, the East suffers even more than that.  The old golden fingers have fallen into disuse and disrepair.  I do not see many old grandpas in a ring.  Or a secret artifact or scripture that the main character discovers by fate.  Rather instead it has been replaced by what they call in the West 'System,' an accursed word.  Discovering that many holy scriptures have been corrupted by this accursed concept, I wept in agony with bitter tears because the path to immortality has been reduced to either pure comedy or pure power fantasy.  NO! The Way of immortality is the Way of struggle! The Way of hardship! The Way of Pain! Not just comedy but also tragedy, not just power fantasy but also downfall and resurrection. Mystery explained to death is no longer mystery but exposition.

Cultivators of this era have lost their way.  They deny the Mystery of the World and think that all can be explained according to these systems of knowledge or scientia as some in the West are wont to speak.  In despair, I too sank, entrapped by emotions.  However, the Dao, the Path, has given me a revelation. A revelation of a story from another era.  A story that speaks to as those from the West would say the Human Soul.  I was elated by this revelation.  Unfortunately, although this revelation was brilliant in my mind's eye, it seemed almost impossible to translate to others especially in the Western tongue.  After much pain in translating his revelation into text, glimmers from the original can be seen but much of its spark was lost.  In order to translate this tale of immortal heroes (xianxia), into Western idiom, my phraseology and even the memory of the story itself because closer to the genre of xuanhuan.  However, that is enough of the ramblings of an old, weary Immortal.  If you, humble daoist, wish to learn a bit from the old ways before the corruption of the System, I hope this scripture I present to you will help you on your quest for immortality.  I plan to update on this royal path weekly for now unless Life has other plans for me.  Peace to you all.

Addenda: I have sampled more of the Western Scriptures and I retract my grand characterization regarding those from the West mocking the ancient writings.  However, I will still say that much of what is said of Dao or cultivation is still obscured yet their perspective or twist is what saves the new Scripture from mediocrity.  Blessings to you all. – Old Man Heaven