Chương 116: Chapter 113 – Left Holding the Baggage

"Greetings from beyond the grave, young Ren!" The cheerful greeting was so incongruous with the implied significance, Ren was completely thrown. But the message proceeded without giving him much time to think. The tone remained inexplicably cheerful.

"First, allow me to apologize for the manner in which this message was delivered to you. I didn't have a lot of time and calculated that this method would have the highest chance of success. But you wouldn't come seeking reparations for lost reputations from someone who's dead, would you?" Ren couldn't believe this cheerful voice belonged to that solemn Elder Yun Peng.

'But there were always facets of his personality that I had only glimpsed in passing, so is this demeanor closer to his true self? He sounds completely unburdened and relaxed.' Ren felt a pang of envy. Would he ever be able to experience being so utterly carefree? Not likely, at least in the near future.

"Secondly, this message is intended as a courtesy only. If I was unwilling to be your master when alive, then you can have no doubt there is nothing vital about this message now that I am gone. As such, you may choose not to listen to my ramblings and return to enjoying the fine adventures of Lady Frozen Tear. Aah… such a shame that I won't be able to read the next volume. And it promised to be such a diverting tale too!" There was absolutely no chance Ren would stop there just because the old fart teased him so.

He owed him far too much. Even if much of their relationship had been shrouded and unknown to him, Ren repaid the favors he had been granted.

"Are you still there? If so, then allow me to make one more apology. I may be freed of my karmic burdens and no longer concerned with strictly maintaining balance, but as a karmic cultivator yourself, you should know. Karma transcends life and death." Ren felt a chill at those words. Mei Ling had only just informed him about the odd mixture of qi, the excess amounts of life and death qi present throughout his new home, and to hear something similar as a warning from the netherworld seemed far too coincidental.

He had time to think, 'Am I reading too much into this?' before the message continued.

"A few days after the storm calamity began, I suspect you encountered some misfortune. I know not its nature, but I am certain it was a consequence of my actions." Ren's thoughts immediately jumped to that unlucky encounter where he stumbled into the secret meeting between the vice sect leader and Jiao Yue.

'Could it be?'

"I expect that the timing shall likely coincide with the moment of my death. My final stand to protect the sect promises to be a stupendous event, and the consequent dispersal of the cosmic destiny I've garnered throughout my life will surely drag in those connected to me. I did my best to unravel our bond before you left but failed to sever it entirely. Haah… Heavenly tribulations are extraordinarily troublesome events even without so many uncertain variables.

"This is just to head into the afterlife with a clean conscience, but let me say it anyway. I'm sorry." Ren felt a prickle in his eyes.

"The trouble I've caused may not be small, but just because I'm sorry doesn't mean I regret anything. If anything, a lightweight brat like you should be thanking me. Cosmic destiny isn't such an easy thing to come by. Wahaha! Just be glad I wasn't a true Heaven's Chosen or you might have never slept peacefully again!

"So let me finish by wishing you good fortune in the days to come and an untroubled breakthrough to the core formation realm. May you ascend beyond the Heavens!" Ren's eyes shimmered with unshed tears when he finally opened them. Sensing the dissipation of faint qi, his eyes fell to the book open in his lap. The last trace of an enigmatic old man. His benefactor in every way that mattered. Unconsciously he began to read.

"The fires of the forge had melted her frozen veneer. Like a river of stars, sweat studded her heaving bosom…" Ren closed the book sharply with a snap. An uncontrollable laugh bubbled out of him. His emotions a riotous mix, he stood and exited his cave, still laughing. He faced south, the closest approximation of where the Heavenly Sword Sect had once existed. He clasped his hands in a martial salute and bowed deeply with a smile on his face.

A few days later, Ren was sitting in meditation, Yu Ran snoozing limply around his neck. His dantian had healed enough in the past few weeks that he felt comfortable taking action. The longer he let the unfavorable situation persist, the more reckless it was. He had already firmed his intent and dissolved two of the reinforced karmic strand constructs connected to the dark sun and was in the process of eliminating a third.

Ren had become exceedingly concerned about the consequences of all those reinforced karmic strands that brought him karmic sin. Breaking the constructs he had manually formed in the past was far easier than the three that formed spontaneously during his last breakthrough. Those three were far more stable, and he lacked the knowledge of whom they represented.

By focusing on his intent to end the relationship and sacrificing some of the speed of his progress in exchange for balancing debts, the 3rd of the older karmic strands soon crumbled. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Thus, Ren brought the number of connections bringing him sin down to 8 darkly shining strands.

The small sun orbiting the other larger Fire of Life wouldn't be able to handle him breaking any more strands, so Ren had to stop there. With 31 positive strands, 4 gold strands for each dark strand was much better than 3 for 1. Keeping a few connections to bring him negative karma was arguably even good for his cultivation, giving him trials to overcome and grow stronger from.

'It will have to suffice until I can make more connections to balance the two types better.' He thought. Satisfied, Ren ended his cultivation session and stretched his stiff muscles. His thoughts once again drifted to Elder Yun's message.

'The old man said the message was nothing vital but managed to slip in plenty of hints and warnings regardless. I absolutely would have regretted not listening to him. Cosmic Destiny, a new direction of study to pursue. He also made allusions to its dispersal and connection to true Heaven's Chosen. That means it is not something I can ignore.' Ren also couldn't bring himself to ignore the last remark about an untroubled breakthrough to the core formation realm.

The books that the old man had given him were all about the experiences of other cultivators forming their cores. And with all the misfortune the message mentioned, Ren chose to look at it as a warning or reminder that core formation was accompanied by a heavenly tribulation. Those three books all mentioned different types of tests that the Heavens sent those cultivators. Add to that the fourth kind, the lightning tribulation the heavens sent to the Lightning Monarch, the cause of the calamity.

The form of these tribulations was utterly unpredictable and depended on one's affinity and cultivation. It depended on one's fate. It was why he had chosen to slow his cultivation and trim away certain connections. His fate would be tainted by too much karmic sin if he allowed those strands to exist. His core formation breakthrough was still a year or two away, but if he attempted it while weighed down by such sin, then he would doubtless fail and be extinguished by the heavens.

In the past month or so, Ren had also experimented lightly with the second Fire of Life construct to uncover its possible abilities. He was still too weak to drag out refined karmic sin from inside it, but he could still sense it. Ren envisioned a day would come when he could send out the refined sin to someone else and let them face the misfortune for once.

Ren felt a little guilty when he thought in terms of actively harming someone in this manner, but he had seen enough of life to know that some people deserved it. When the thought occurred to him to disperse it widely among all his connections regardless of whether they sent him merit or sin, Ren discarded it at once. Spreading it out would significantly dilute the impact, but Ren disliked the idea of bringing misery to the undeserving.

And that was without considering the sin he would possibly be incurring on his own Fire of Merit with such actions!

'To take their merit and return sin?! Where was the balance?! No. It is too malicious. Demonic even!' he thought. It was preferable to think of the refined sin as a weapon to wield against a select few. If he managed to send the refined sin back only to the sinners, even better. That was him punishing them on the heavens' behalf! The last possibility Ren could think of was to destroy the refined sin. Such an action would surely earn him merit.

Instead of depending on others for the embers of their merit, the idea of personally improving his imperceptible Fire of Merit was much more appealing. The problem with this approach was that he didn't know of anything that could destroy the higher-order energy that was the refined sin. There was another perspective to consider with that approach. He was effectively absolving sinners from their earned punishment.

Knowing that no one is without fault, Ren had no compunctions about giving someone a second chance, but only if they deserved it. Ren didn't want to bear sin on the behalf of terrible sinners. According to the Causality of Karma, bearing the sin for others was a complicated endeavor. To an extent a martyr earned merit for shouldering the sin of others, but where was the line? Those who commit atrocities drew karmic retribution.

By protecting them from the righteous wrath of the heavens, he would actually earn negative karma! Even if he were powerful enough to force his intent to affect karma, it wouldn't matter because Ren personally found it morally reprehensible to allow true sinners to go free. Without any obvious answers coming to mind, he would have to judge each case individually.

"Whether to give second chances, punish, or even callously choose not to save, I am placing myself in a position of judgement. I must not allow myself to succumb to pride or the lure of power. I must prove myself and remain worthy." Ren felt he had discovered another aspect of his dao. Good judgement was required when it came to choosing inheritors. If he had been a qi gathering realm cultivator, such a discovery might have even been enough to force another epiphany.

Now, it was just another step, though not an insignificant one. He would have to slowly build his foundations until it was time for another such revelation to descend.

'Hopefully the sect has more resources on all these obscure concepts to help me improve my understanding.' He thought as he jumped on his flying sword and slowly circled his territory. He had decided that it was time to utilize the sect's abundant theoretical and material resources. He couldn't accomplish much more by staying here. In the month or so that Ren had stayed to recover on his mountain, he had been carefully exploring the numerous flows of qi.

He had discovered 19 points around the mountains where the qi from the sacred grounds and the forbidden regions leaked in. Through some correlation, there were 9 points each from both sides where dense qi rushed in. The 19th point was from somewhere deep underground. He still hadn't explored the caves below, but enough qi flowed out that it was an incontrovertible fact. No matter what plan he came up with, it would need to incorporate these points.

Unlike the first time, when Ren had picked the mountain with the impure spirit spring, he hadn't come to this mountain with a plan in mind. Nor did he have any treasures powerful enough to split apart the intricately bound life and death qi until they became independently useful. This time he was truly starting from nothing. And Ren couldn't be more excited. He had come up with and discarded many plans.

He considered a few to be viable approaches, but without more information on his neighboring lands, he couldn't decide on a permanent course of action. Then he could obtain the needed materials, which would take more of his precious few spirit stones. That was another concern. His solutions couldn't only focus on future development of his abode but also on quickly earning enough wealth so that his movement around the sect wasn't so restricted.

After all, in this massive new sect, there were just so many things to experience and discover! So many people to meet, things to learn, and places to visit! There was absolutely no possibility that Ren could remain secluded on his mountain, ignoring the world outside! After completing his inspection patrol, Ren flew down to the node of the Sword Phase Formation at the foot of the 1st mountain, almost vibrating with eagerness to get started!