Chapter 232: Harvesting Sin and Merit
Chapter 232: Harvesting Sin and Merit
"Eliminate sins? Collect merit? Through this formation? How would that even work?" Xiao Shou asked.
After hearing Tushan Gaoque’s prophetic dream, he had already suspected that the yellow glowing rain was merit. But he had not expected Fu Young to reach the same conclusion even without that information.
He wanted to understand his disciple’s reasoning.
Fu Young glanced at the jade slip in his hand. Knowing his master had little understanding of formations and would not follow complex theory, he simplified his explanation.
"It is through these formations spread across the Sunfall Domain. Based on my deductions, when the formation operates in one direction, it can release the karmic sins stored in the Cycle of Cause and End Relics into the area covered by the formation. When it operates in reverse, it can gather unowned karmic sins within the formation back into the relics."
"You can imagine it this way. If a large amount of karmic sin suddenly appears within the area covered by the formation, it will naturally attach itself to the people living there. Then, when those burdened by karmic sin are killed and their souls are completely destroyed, the karmic sin is collected back into the relics. What do you think happens then?"
"The Heavenly Dao stands above all, granting rewards and punishments based only on vague perception. So in the end, it will reward those who appear to have eliminated beings burdened with immense sin."
"So innocent people bear the sins and have their souls destroyed, while the ones who actually committed those sins gain merit?" Xiao Shou’s expression darkened.
"To commit such cruelty for the sake of merit, no matter who is behind this, it is unforgivable. I will not allow such a tragedy to continue, at least not in the Sunfall Domain."
Thinking about how many people must have suffered this fate over countless years, sorrow welled up uncontrollably within him.
Seeing his master so saddened and angered, and thinking that these people had been acting recklessly in the very world where his master had grown up, Fu Young could not tolerate it at all.
A cold light flashed in his eyes, and a trace of killing intent flickered past.
"Master, aside from eliminating karmic sins and collecting merit, they likely have other objectives. From the fragmented formation covering the Sunfall Domain, one thing is clear. They require a massive amount of spiritual energy over a long period of time. An enormous amount."
"They?" Gou Zhi asked in confusion.
Fu Young pointed upward, indicating the sky. "To have arranged all this tens of thousands of years ago, setting up such a massive formation and gathering so many Cycle of Cause and End Relics, only those above could have done it."
"Those above? The Spirit Realm? No, people from the Spirit Realm would not have such power. Then... the Immortal Realm?" Xiao Shou frowned.
Immortal Realm, merit, sin, karma, the protagonists...
He tried to recall everything from the original story, racking his brain, yet could not find a clear connection.
Every character who had sided with them, every loyal follower, every later subordinate, all seemed unrelated, yet each carried subtle inconsistencies.
Fu Young nodded and shook the jade slip in his hand. "This is the partial formation map of the Sunfall Domain that I reconstructed through deduction, combined with the abilities of the Cycle of Cause and End Relics. However, many aspects are still unclear."
"Based on what we know, this formation extracts spiritual energy from the entire land of the Sunfall Domain without restraint and gathers it into a single location or into a specific entity."
"If it is a location, then the spiritual energy density there should rival that of our Eternal Spirit Stone Peak. Even if the area is not large, over tens of thousands of years, it would be enough to cultivate countless powerful cultivators with pure karma, allowing them to ascend successfully."
"If it is an entity, then it may be some kind of treasure that requires vast amounts of spiritual energy and merit to repair. But in that case, where do the karmic sins inside these Cycle of Cause and End Relics come from? And why do they take several children from each incident site every time? These questions remain unsolved."
"Senior Brother," Gou Guangming said after taking a deep breath, "if your first hypothesis is correct, then they likely have an organization or base even in the Spirit Realm. Only then could they continue cutting off karmic ties for those who ascend."
"As for repairing a treasure, from what I know, across the three realms including the God Realm, Immortal Realm, and Spirit Realm, there is only one merit based supreme treasure."
He carefully recalled the entire plot of the original story and spoke with confidence.
"If it were damaged, it could not be repaired without a merit comparable to the creation of heaven and earth itself. Aside from that, there is only one type of heavenly treasure that grows through merit."
"Both are unique, and both have already disappeared from the Immortal Realm."
"So the first possibility is the only one that makes sense."
Fu Young was slightly surprised that Gou Guangming also knew some of the knowledge from his own inherited memories, but he did not press further and continued focusing on the matter at hand.
"Regardless of which possibility it is, if we allow this to continue unchecked, they will eventually do something even more inhumane."
"Something even worse than those Cycle of Cause and End Relics?" Xiao Shou looked at him in disbelief.
Meeting his gaze, Fu Young nodded. "Even if those relics are filled with sin, they are still innate spirit treasures. Yet those people just leave them at the core of the formation without care. Does that make sense?"
"But even if they wanted to manage them, the spirit veins of the formation have already been drained and turned into dead veins. The formation is abandoned and cannot be activated anymore. So how could they..." Gou Yue began thinking along his line of reasoning.