Chương 26: Zhou Yangmei

Leo had asked Shen Tianyi to teach him about karma and mysticism. Shen Tianyi tilted his head.

"Tell me. What do you think karma is?"

"Maybe something like if I do good things, I get good fortune. Evil things, I get bad juju?"

"A simple answer. Understandable. It is what most people believe. It is also wrong." He settled into a more comfortable position, his voice taking on the cadence of a teacher.

"What you describe is transaction. A merchant's understanding. You believe the Heavenly Dao sits upon a golden throne with a ledger book, tallying your virtues, subtracting your sins, dispensing rewards accordingly. Save a village, gain a talisman. Kill a man, receive a lightning bolt." He shook his head slowly.

"If this were true, the wicked would prosper only briefly. The righteous would suffer only rarely. You have eyes. Look at the world. Tell me: does it function this way?" Leo lowered his head.

"The Heavenly Dao is not a judge. It is not a king. It is not, in any sense you would recognize, aware. You can think of it like a formation."

"An infinite, self-sustaining array that encompasses all existence. Every living being is a node within this formation. All are points in an endless web. With sufficient cultivation and knowledge of karma, one can see the threads connecting every living being in existence."

"Every action you take creates a thread connecting you to other nodes. Every word, every deed, every breath. We call these threads Causal Lines. The common term is karma. Karma is connection. It is the record of your interactions with existence itself, written into the fabric of reality."

"The ways to interact with and study karma are commonly referred to as mysticism. Most forms of mysticism are bizarre rituals performed with no understanding of the underlying theory, thus the name. Most people stumble through the dark and call themselves enlightened. So meeting me is a great fortune for you. Perhaps the two of us share deep future karma, and that karma has drawn us together today."

"Our family has learned two primary ways karma manifests."

"The first is Merit. Some call it Virtue. When you preserve life, maintain order, protect those weaker than yourself, you generate Merit. Merit strengthens your Dao Heart."

"Merit is resonance, rather than a reward or payment for good behavior. Using the formation analogy, your actions align with the formation's natural flow, and the formation recognizes you as part of itself. Your mind becomes clearer. Your cultivation becomes smoother. Heart Demons cease to be a concern."

"To speak honestly, if Heart Demons were absent from existence, there would be no way to confirm the value of a Dao Heart."

"However Merit cannot be purchased like armor. The Heavenly Dao perceives intent."

"If you save a drowning child because you calculated the Merit value of the action, if you weighed cost and benefit and decided virtue was profitable, your Merit will be thin. Brittle. The formation recognizes transaction. It rewards only those who act from transformed nature, from genuine alignment."

"The second manifestation is Slaughter Qi. Some call it Wickedness. When you kill, especially indiscriminately, especially the innocent, you generate this energy. It is consequence woven into reality itself, rather than punishment delivered from above."

"When you end a life, you sever a node from the formation. The threads connecting that node to others do not simply vanish. They recoil. They attach to you, the point of severance. You inherit the echoes of every connection that person possessed."

"Kill a farmer. You inherit his connection to his wife, who will weep for forty years. To his children, who will grow up fatherless. To the village that will slowly starve for lack of his labor. These threads seek nothing. They desire nothing. They simply are. They wrap around your soul like iron chains, and they accumulate." Shen Tianyi's voice dropped lower.

"And here is what the martial sects refuse to teach their young sword cultivators, because they fear the knowledge would make them hesitate:""Slaughter Qi corrodes."

"Given enough accumulation, it begins to overwrite you."

"It starts slowly. You forget small things. A childhood memory. A friend's name. The face of someone you loved. You tell yourself it's natural. You are old. You have seen much. The mind releases what it does not need."

"But it continues."

"You lose your Dao Heart. You forget why you began cultivating. You forget who you were before you first drew your sword. You forget your own name."

"And when the last thread of your original self has been consumed, you become what we call a Demonic Being. A creature of pure killing instinct wearing your face. Your body still walks. Your cultivation still functions. But you are gone. Erased. The Slaughter Qi has overwritten your consciousness entirely."

"Slaughter Qi accumulates," Leo said carefully.

"Can it be cleansed through sufficient Merit? What if I dedicated myself to charitable works, or I took care of their descendants..."

"No." Shen Tianyi's response came without hesitation.

"This is the error that has destroyed the Dao Hearts of countless cultivators. They believe karma is a ledger. Kill ten, save twenty, net positive. The mathematics of virtue. They believe they can settle this debt sometime in the future."

"The Heavenly Dao only adds. It never subtracts. Every thread you create remains. Every ghost you generate still screams within the formation. Saving a thousand lives does not erase the hundred you took. The Merit exists alongside the Slaughter Qi. Both are real. Both are permanent. Both are yours."

"You cannot outwork your own karma. You cannot balance the scales through sufficient virtue. The scales do not exist. There is only the accumulation of everything you have ever done, woven into the fabric of your soul forever." Leo's hands had closed into fists.

"If you cannot erase it, if every kill stays with you forever, then anyone who has ever killed is just... waiting to become a demon? What's the point of trying to do better? What's the point of anything?" Shen Tianyi said, "That is the question that plagues all karma cultivators. Mysticism practitioners have attempted many methods. Transference, displacement, ritual purging. Nothing can permanently shift your karma elsewhere. We are not Saints. Avoiding Slaughter Qi entirely is impossible."

"Most people simply do not care. They believe they can resolve Dao Heart issues when they arise, as long as they refrain from wanton slaughter and avoid becoming demons. And that approach does seem to work. As far as we know, it causes no lasting harm." Leo asked, "So why did you tell me this?" Shen Tianyi answered, "It depends on how heavily you weigh the importance of Dao Heart cultivation. My family believes it is, at the very least, significant. The fact that karma exists at all suggests it serves a purpose.

We believe a stronger Dao Heart paves a longer, smoother road toward immortality. Whether you walk that road carefully or recklessly is your own affair." Leo asked, "But what about wars? What if I have to fight to defend my home and family?" Shen Tianyi answered, "I alluded to it before but you cannot transfer your karma to someone else. The great karma of a war you are dragged into is not your own karma.

As long as you are not one of the great beings or forces pushing and expanding or taking advantage of the war, none of the karma is yours to bear." Leo thought for a moment and asked another question that had been weighing on him.

"Does robbery give you bad karma?" Shen Tianyi laughed.

"Spiritstones themselves carry no karma. But those spiritstones belonged to someone, and those people carry karma of their own. However, do not trouble yourself over it. Your little adventure will bring no great karma for you to bear." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"But that's one reason why Profundities are so interesting. Great treasures that are ripe for the taking, from an era that has long since turned to dust. The dead can no longer form additional karma with the living."

"You can calculate with almost complete certainty the maximum realm anyone can reach by knowing their family and spirit roots; that is the great fate that binds us all. Yet these Profundities are treasures that exist outside the calculation. They are the easiest way to change our fates, and will burden you with no new karma at all. Is that not a great opportunity?" Leo asked, "So how can I tell if something brings good karma or bad karma? Is there a compass I can buy?" Shen Tianyi said, "You already have one.

In fact, everyone has one." He pointed at Leo's heart.

"It's right there."

It took Kevin an embarrassingly long time to find the lead. Or rather, for the lead to find him. Kevin had tried his luck with basically every girl in the sect. Only after ruining his chances with everyone, feeling incredibly lonely and sad, did Zhou Yangmei come to him. Leo knew something was about to happen when Kevin texted the group excitedly, claiming he found a girl who changed his life. Leo immediately shared Yangmei's name with Tianyi, and they began observing her.

Unfortunately for Kevin, he received far less time than Liu Heng's two weeks of love. Kevin lasted two days before he showed up in the group chat offline, moping about how all women can't be trusted. Extracting information from Kevin proved difficult given his devastation. Mike helped calm him down with reassurances.

"You did a great job finding the bad guy."

"Finding love in the Pond Gazing Sect was always impossible. You share nothing in common with them. No shared cultural background. Connecting with any girls there was never going to happen." Kevin begrudgingly accepted that explanation, believing the failure to be situational rather than personal. The good news was his water spirit root increased by a full forty points. An enormous profit. Leo rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I could try the same approach. Get close to Yangmei myself. Gain the forty points." Tianyi stared at him for a long moment.

"You wish to replicate Kevin's method?"

"It worked, didn't it? Forty points is forty points."

"His method," Tianyi said slowly, "was to be so thoroughly repulsive to every woman in the sect that the literal monster felt confident he posed no threat." Leo opened his mouth. Closed it.

"Can you approach every eligible woman in the Pond Gazing Sect and make each one reject you? Can you project such overwhelming desperation that an ancient evil decides you are beneath suspicion?" Leo sighed.

"Probably not."

"Kevin possesses a rare gift. A talent honed through years of practice. Do not attempt to underestimate a true master."

"Alright, alright. Bad idea. We'll do it the direct way. We'll crush her directly." Leo suggested"There is a problem with that approach as well." Tianyi's expression grew serious.

"She never leaves the sect. Kevin's account indicates their entire 'relationship' occurred in public. Only when she was certain he was completely harmless did she bring him to the lake."

"What if we just rushed in and killed her in the sect?" Leo suggested. Tianyi nodded slowly.

"That creates its own complications. She likely possesses Nascent Soul level power. Any fight would cause collateral damage. Incur great karma."

"We'll kidnap her first."

"There is another concern." Tianyi's voice dropped.

"I believe the sect itself is a cage. I believe the Pond Gazers plan to let us bumble around like headless flies until we trigger the Profundity. Then they will activate a hidden formation, trap everyone inside, and harvest the rewards. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware the oriole waits behind." Tianyi continued, "But there is a way to draw Yangmei away from the sect. We could host a funeral for Kevin."

"A funeral. For someone who is not dead." Leo blinked.

"And you believe Zhou Yangmei will simply... attend this funeral? For a man she killed, held in secret, that no one will tell her about?" Tianyi smiled.

"Great karma exists between Zhou Yangmei and Kevin. Great karma also exists between her and the lake. By holding last rites next to the water, however fake, the karma naturally pulls them together. Water flows downhill whether you command it or not." Leo gave him an incredulous look. Tianyi smirked.

"Besides, the hardest part of the plan is not drawing her out. It is how you plan on killing a Nascent Soul cultivator with a group of Qi Refinering and Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Only people with a death wish would attempt such a thing."

"I think you're just trying to bait me into trying."

Arthur had called a meeting. He said he had a plan to kill Yangmei. Leo didn't know what to make of that. Yangmei was a Nascent Soul Lord. He was Qi Refining, and the other three were Foundation Establishment cultivators. They hadn't even killed a Gold Core yet, and now Arthur wanted to jump two realms and assassinate a Lord. But if they died, it was just a game. A couple hours of waiting out a respawn timer and they'd be back. Might as well try. Leo logged in.

The rest of the team was already there, waiting for him. A map of the Pond Gazing Sect lay spread across the central table, weighted at the corners by spiritstones. Mike stood in the corner pulling the safeties from the two flak cannons he'd constructed for Leo's Flying Aces training. The designs came from old Earth military databases. He'd been rewiring them for live fire since they'd gotten back. Arthur tapped the lake on the map.

"Here's the deal. The Pond Gazing Sect brought us in to do a job. But it was a trap. We were supposed to go in, die in the process, and they collect whatever pops out." He spread his hands.

"Classic bait and switch. I ran a dealership for decades, kid. I know what it looks like when somebody's trying to sell you a clunker." Arthur's grin spread slow and ugly across his face.

"So here's what we do. We steal the heart first. We kill the Nascent Soul ourselves, take the prize, and leave the Pond Gazing Sect holding nothing but a corpse they can't explain." He rubbed his hands together. Leo's chest tightened. But this was a Nascent Soul Lord.

"I've felt a domain before," he said.

"Lord Astor demonstrated his at Exeter. We're supposed to fight that?" Arthur waved a hand.

"Astor's a real Nascent Soul Lord. This is different. Yangmei's been stuck here for centuries. She's been bleeding power the whole time."

"She's still a Nascent Soul." Mike looked up.

"Don't let Arthur undersell it. A weakened Nascent Soul can still kill all four of us before we know what happened. But her response time will be slower. Her domain will be smaller. And she won't have the qi reserves for sustained combat."

"Which is why we're not doing sustained combat." Arthur produced a second map. The lake's western shore dominated the center. A red X sat fifty yards from the waterline.

"We're doing an ambush."

"Ambush site." Arthur tapped the X.

"Opposite side of the lake from the sect. Close enough that Yangmei will feel compelled to investigate." He placed a small figurine on the X.

"Kevin's coffin goes here. Hopefully it's close enough for Tianyi's voodoo karma magic to work or whatever." Arthur placed two more figurines, forming a triangle with the coffin.

"Kid, you log off here." He pointed to a cluster of rocks thirty yards east.

"Mike, here." A depression in the terrain forty yards northeast.

"I'll be airborne, circling. When she shows, I start the group call. Everyone materializes already in position. She's surrounded before she knows we're there."

"Plan A, she dies before she knows what hit her." Arthur's finger traced lines from each position toward the center.

"Plan B, it goes sideways. Kevin and Mike fall back to the flak positions. Overlapping fire on the kill zone. You and I keep her busy." Mike stood and walked Leo over to the cannons. They were massive, their barrels thick with layered formations.

"Let me walk you through the hardware." Mike opened one of the ammunition feeds. Shells the size of Leo's fist sat in neat rows, each one glowing faintly.

"Each round is a genuine Tier Three treasure. On impact it self-destructs." Mike pointed at the formations on the barrels.

"Standard artillery has an output limitation. Heat. Sustained fire warps the barrel. These formations are cooling arrays. Combined with constant Dao Spells to vent heat, these cannons can cycle as fast as Kevin and I can feed them." Leo checked the ammo feeds. Hundreds of T3 spiritual rounds were inside.

"How did we afford all this?" Arthur grinned.

"We've been digging while you were away."

"The vast majority was acquired legitimately," Mike corrected quickly.

"Tier Two and Tier Three spiritual beast carcasses. The Eclipses make hunting remarkably easy. Having the ability to fly is just free money." Mike gestured at the ammunition.

"This represents months of work. But even though it seems like a lot, it will all run out in minutes of sustained fire."

"So everything points to finishing this fast," Arthur said.

"Minutes of ammo. Minutes before the Glazers figure out what's happening and come running. And your Third Person Perspective lasts, what, five minutes?" Leo had achieved five minutes in training. But not against a Nascent Soul Lord. Five minutes was optimistic.

"Here's the plan." Arthur continued.

"You create openings. Mike and Kevin lay down the flak. I keep her away from the lake. Sounds easy, but the problem is the domain. She probably will have a water domain, and anything inside that domain will be drowning. Get in, strike, get out. Don't linger." Leo stood in silence for a moment, absorbing the plan.

"You'll fly into a sphere of Nascent Soul power," Mike added.

"Three tiers above your personal cultivation. Repeatedly. Even with Third Person Perspective, it's going to be brutal." Leo studied the map. The plan was solid. He hadn't expected Arthur to be capable of this level of work. Where was this preparation when they went to rob the Iron Rhinoceros Sect?

"What about Tianyi?" Leo asked.

"What about him."

"Do we tell him?" Arthur didn't hesitate.

"No. Tell him to stay in the sect. Continue the investigation. Keep Yangmei's guard down. By the time he figures out something's happening, it'll already be over."

"And if he shows up during the fight?"

"Then we'll all be dead and back on Earth waiting to respawn." Arthur gathered the maps and rolled them up.

"This works through speed and violence, kid. We hit Yangmei before she adapts. Either we kill her in five minutes, or nobody does."