Chapter 373 - 277: Merit (2)

"There is not much more I can do. If I am still present on the day of your success, I will do everything in my power to help you influence the might of the Bloodline Species during the final battle."

"The rest is up to you."

Li Zhenyuan smiled at Zhao Xuanqi. "It has been an honor to meet you."

Just as Zhao Xuanqi was about to speak, the scene before him suddenly began to distort. Everything blurred, and Li Zhenyuan’s body, like a bubble churned apart by a vortex, vanished completely from his sight.

His consciousness withdrew from the dreamlike scene and returned to his body. This time, however, he was no longer greeted by complete darkness.

A piece of jade, roughly the size of a human head and shaped like an irregular oval, floated within his consciousness. It was like congealed cream, its surface emitting a faint glow that illuminated a patch of darkness within his sea of consciousness.

CRACK!!

Suddenly, a soft crack emanated from the jade. Its faint glow flickered violently, as if something within it had shattered.

Li Zhenyuan had completely severed his connection to his Transformed Creature.

Having lost its master, the Transformed Creature’s faint light diffused, as if searching for something. Ultimately, the glow unerringly locked onto the consciousness closest to it—Zhao Xuanqi’s.

As the faint light flickered, Zhao Xuanqi had the distinct sensation of being seen through completely, sending a chill down his spine.

Then, as if it had recognized his identity as a Reincarnator, he vaguely sensed the jade forging an intimate connection with him.

With a mere thought, he could connect with the Rebirth Jade and access a wealth of information.

The sensation was incredibly strange, reminding him of the legends of Magical Artifacts choosing their own masters.

At this moment, his relationship with the Rebirth Jade felt much the same.

’A Transformed Creature?’

Zhao Xuanqi muttered to himself, observing the wondrous object that existed within his consciousness, wavering between the illusory and the real.

He involuntarily recalled the smile on Li Zhenyuan’s face at their final parting.

"Don’t worry. I will do my best."

Zhao Xuanqi muttered to himself as his consciousness connected with the Rebirth Jade, examining the specifics of this wondrous object.

An indescribable sensation flooded his consciousness. It was hard to put into words—it wasn’t language, nor was it imagery, but a direct transmission of information. It was like Heart-Sealing Heart; no words were necessary for things to become clear. The functions of the Rebirth Jade automatically converted themselves into a state that his cognition could understand.

Merit: Three Merits and Seven Gains.

’Three Merits and Seven Gains?’

Receiving this information, Zhao Xuanqi paused for a moment before he understood. It seemed to be a method for calculating Merit.

’A decimal system? Ten ’gains’ for one ’merit’? There must be even higher tiers above that. According to Li Zhenyuan, eliminating dangers related to the Alien Source grants a corresponding amount of Merit. In this world, that means eliminating Holy Seed creatures or Exotic Beasts. I wonder how much Merit I’d get for taking out a single Holy Seed?’

Zhao Xuanqi mused for a moment. Although he didn’t know the exact rates, he felt that the Merit Li Zhenyuan had left behind was likely a considerable sum in this world.

He didn’t dwell on the question for too long and moved on to testing the Transformed Creature’s other functions.

BOOM!!

At his mental command, the Transformed Creature released a faint glow. The glow transformed into a silken thread, piercing the endless darkness of his consciousness and connecting to some unknown place.

Before long, Zhao Xuanqi’s consciousness jolted. Through the thread extending from the Transformed Creature, he seemed to have formed a faint connection with some vast, unseen power.

In that instant, he sensed the turning of the earth, the shifting of celestial phenomena, and the changing tides of the mortal world. Above it all, a supreme will looked down upon this world, governing Celestial Secrets and manipulating the cosmos.

All things are born by its will, move by its will, grow by its will, and perish by its will.

This will was without emotion, more like a great aggregate of the consciousnesses and laws of all things in this world.

The Celestial Dao.

The concept surfaced in Zhao Xuanqi’s mind.

This vast consciousness was the Celestial Dao of this world. With the Transformed Creature as a medium, he had established a direct connection to it to some degree.

At the same time, through that thread of connection, the Celestial Dao unexpectedly began transmitting fragmented information to him. He could sense that this information was chaotic, disorganized, and profoundly abstruse.

The will of heaven is inscrutable. How could information passed down by the Celestial Dao from the great unseen be so easily fathomed? Even a master proficient in Destiny Techniques would find it difficult to penetrate the vastness of the Celestial Secret.

But for Zhao Xuanqi, at this moment, that was not the case.

Passing through the Rebirth Jade, the information seemed to undergo an unknown transformation, converting into a form his consciousness could understand.

Bloodline Species... eliminate... one virtue... Merit... can reincarnate...

The information was fragmented and scattered, but by piecing it together, Zhao Xuanqi understood the meaning of the message from this world’s Celestial Dao.

It wished for someone to eliminate the invading Bloodline Species from this world. In return for eliminating the Bloodline Species, one would be rewarded with a Merit of one virtue, and with the Celestial Dao’s aid, could reincarnate and leave this world.

’Is this an instinctual plea from the Celestial Dao in response to the invasion?’

A sense of realization dawned on Zhao Xuanqi. It reminded him of the "great trend"—by aligning with the great trend and bearing its weight, one could gain its aid. But the great trend itself was difficult to grasp, and the Celestial Dao represented the great trend of this world in its entirety.

With the Transformed Creature, a Reincarnator could communicate with the Celestial Dao. There was no longer a need for speculation; instead, they could form a sort of contractual relationship with this world’s Celestial Dao. If one could fulfill the Celestial Dao’s request, one would naturally earn its favor and receive the corresponding "payment."

’So this is the "mission" Li Zhenyuan spoke of?’

Zhao Xuanqi nodded slightly. Moreover, he sensed that the Rebirth Jade’s perception and connection seemed to transcend this world’s Celestial Dao, reaching for a higher existence beyond this world. This connection, however, seemed to be obstructed by some kind of barrier, rendering it indistinct and elusive.

’The connection can’t extend beyond this world... Does that mean I can’t connect with the so-called "Divine Court" or obtain any information from outside this world?’

Zhao Xuanqi grew thoughtful.

Now, after these simple experiments, he had a general understanding of the purpose of this so-called Transformed Creature.

It was a medium for communication between an individual and the world’s Celestial Dao, much like the computer networks on Blue Star in his past life. A personal terminal required a medium to connect to the network and exchange information.

Having understood this, he moved on to testing its other functions—specifically, the one that was most critical to him at the moment.

The use of Merit.

This would determine whether he could turn his current situation around.

He focused his intent, activating the Rebirth Jade to communicate with this world’s Celestial Dao.

Instantly, a deluge of information descended from the Celestial Dao, converted by the Rebirth Jade into language he could understand.

In that moment, he finally understood the uses of Merit.

A world’s Celestial Dao is the convergence of all information within that world from past to present; it is the sum total of all the "Qi" that governs the workings of heaven and earth.

And what one could exchange Merit for with this world’s Celestial Dao was related to these two aspects.

First, information.

The information one could redeem with Merit could be a forgotten piece of this world’s history; the more significant the history, the more massive the amount of Merit required to obtain it.

Furthermore, due to the passage of time, the more ancient the historical information, the more general it tended to be.

Beyond that, there was also information and coordinates for special locations and terrain, as well as for unique celestial phenomena and cosmic alignments.

’Wait, isn’t this just so-called Feng Shui, Destiny Techniques, and the art of astrology and topography?’

Zhao Xuanqi was slightly taken aback, but it made sense that these arts were disciplines dedicated to studying the workings of the Celestial Dao. He just couldn’t use Merit to predict the future; at most, he could only obtain information about the past.

Moreover, acquiring this information was not without limits. For example, anything involving the Alien Source was unviewable, as it existed outside the Celestial Dao. From this, Zhao Xuanqi inferred that if there were truly a method to muddle the Celestial Secret, the corresponding information would likely not be recorded by the Celestial Dao at all—or if it was, it would be extremely vague and incomplete, requiring a drastically higher expenditure of Merit to access.

’The limitations are significant. It can only be used as a supplementary tool, and I have no idea what the cost in Merit for this kind of information would be...’

Since his Merit had other, more important uses, Zhao Xuanqi didn’t dare waste any on experimentation.

However, aside from this kind of supplementary information, there was one category of information that deeply intrigued Zhao Xuanqi.

He discovered that, through this world’s Celestial Dao, he could actually exchange Merit for information on every Martial Arts Secret Transmission that had ever existed in this world’s history.