Chapter 137 – The Weight of Misfortune

It was pure coincidence that Ren had discovered the torn half page folded into one of the books on karma he had been reading. He had almost ignored it except for the fact it was so old it looked like leather. Most of the words had further faded and washed out, and all he could make out was a few excerpts, but of them, one caught his eye.

“-carn was surely one the world must have been watching most keenly. Despite being caught up in the middle of three of the most significant events of his generation, the weight of the great cosmic destiny he bore kept him from fl-”

The other legible sentences made no sense without context, but that one line had captured Ren’s imagination. It had correlated the vague term of cosmic destiny with the concept of weight, giving new meaning to the words left to him by Elder Yun Peng.

“If anything, a lightweight brat like you should be thanking me! Cosmic destiny isn’t such an easy thing to come by," he had said. Lightweight.

As the fluctuations of the two Fire of Will constructs reached their zenith, their weight started increasing. Ren couldn’t verify his theories, but somehow, his karmic cultivation manual, Causality of Karma, was accumulating this strange resource, which presented as weight inside his Fire of Life. The weight then attracted qi into his dantian. The greater the weight, the faster the qi flowed in.

It had to be the reason why he had seen a dip in the rate he gathered qi ever since he had split his lone Fire of Life construct into two. While he had become more capable of bearing greater quantities of karmic sin and merit now, he had harmed his foundations slightly by splitting the weight. He looked on as one of the two constructs slowly recovered to its previous levels, while the newer, black sun still had a long way to go.

‘At least this breakthrough is progressing smoothly without hiccups!’ he thought as he awaited the inevitable next stage.

As the two suns stabilized, the karmic sin and merit were refined within them. But this time, Ren received a small surprise. Because the constructs were specialized, both the merit and sin were a little more refined than before. It was an unexpected development.

As the refined merit of a higher order began to flow outwards along the karmic strands, Ren observed carefully as it was distributed to his various connections. Those who provided merit were returned the refined version. Those who gave neither merit nor sin were also sent an equal amount solely because their karmic strands were attached to the golden sun.

His suspicions were confirmed as he realized that the fortune he was returning to those who had actually contributed was indeed being diluted. Whether the four strands were siphoning enough to actually change people's fate remained to be seen. Internally, Ren resolved to harden his heart and sever such connections for the short term. Perhaps when he was a great cultivator overflowing with merit, he could be charitable, but he was currently too poor to support without fate.

His gaze turned to the black sun, which had only increased its reserves of refined karmic sin. He suppressed a shudder, because even if his theory was right, it meant he was facing a troubled future. His other theory about why his cultivation kept that dangerous resource was based on the part of the excerpt that referred to the 'world’s' attention and the significant events.

Every time he broke through, he faced a period of increased misfortune, which, if he overcame, he was rewarded for. It was the same principle as overcoming a heavenly tribulation, where the heavens tested the worth of a cultivator. If he was right, the refined sin was meant to attract tribulations to him, a poison pill that would harm him a bit but make him stronger if he survived. Ren had begun to fear for his future. Could the increased pull of cosmic destiny mean he too would be forced into significant events?

An irrational part of him had also wondered if the fall of the Heavenly Sword Sect was his doing. A branch sect that stood for untold millennia had fallen a few years after he joined. But he concluded that he was only a small foundation establishment realm cultivator, and it wasn’t his fault because the events surrounding the fall had been in motion longer than he had been a karmic cultivator. Still a doubt remained no matter how hard he tried to force it out.

In either case, there was little he could do about it, as his cultivation manual was too profound for him to change lightly. He might have pieced together sections, but if he attempted to change the sections themselves, he might get into unfathomable peril because of the high-tier concepts involved.

Ren let his worries wash away in the bliss of a successful breakthrough. He was a 9th layer foundation realm cultivator now. To reach the peak of the foundation realm, he just needed to fill his dantian with qi one last time, as the breakthrough following it would push him into core formation. He surveyed his dantian with satisfaction.

His spiritual sea consisted entirely of the condensed liquid golden qi, not a speck of blue to be found. He had finally grown his qi reserves and addressed his weakness caused by his qi-hungry techniques, but it was already too late. Unlike his current ones, the new techniques he had bought from the outer sect were far more qi intensive, neutralizing his advantage instantly.

This time his dantian had no large cracks, and with all the violet qi further reinforcing its walls, it would be able to withstand greater force in the future. During core formation, he would have to condense the liquid of his spiritual sea into a solid core, which would exert immense pressure on the walls of his dantian, but Ren was sure he was already up to the task. With the core, he would also finally become capable of producing his own qi, not just absorbing it from his environment. He did have concerns, though.

Floating at the bottom of the golden sea, the demonic thumb had once again released a small cloud of crimson threads. He would have to cultivate his heart using the Reflected Moon of Desire manual to endure the visions of temptations caused by the destruction of those threads, but he couldn’t afford to let them accumulate. Though the thumb showed no signs of activity like it had in the Forbidden Region, Ren was starting to grow more suspicious of it.

‘Shouldn’t it have at least started to recover by now? This lack of activity is ominous!’ Ren had to admit it was extremely useful in accelerating his heart cultivation, but it wasn’t worth the potential repercussions if it were ever discovered. So he had tried his best to discreetly find a solution to rid himself of this headache to no avail. The thought of attempting to form a core and enduring the accompanying tribulation with a small fragment of an ancient demon inside his dantian was surely courting death!

And that was only if it was actually a demon and not a devil, which were the evolved forms of demons. He had recently learned just how much more intelligent and deadly the evolved versions were. Given the circumstances under which he first encountered that hand, suppressed by the four statues and the dharmic chains, it was far more likely that the clawed arm belonged to an ancient devil. Devils were creatures that only grew more terrifying with age and power, and even a thumb was enough to cause him no end of problems. Hopefully, he managed to find a solution before it was too late.

He slowly opened his eyes to witness his arrays vanishing, the last of the smelly black gunk his body had secreted from the breakthrough. Yet somehow, a foul smell lingered. Wrinkling his nose, Ren got up and stretched, feeling the increased power contained in his body. He looked around and immediately identified the source of the smell, his bed. A large yet neat pile of animal droppings resting on his pillow.

“That brat!! You can really hold grudges, can’t you?!” He let out a few curses. The vindictive red panda had waited until he had let down his guard before taking revenge for its ignominious capture at his hands. Given how old the pile was, it had most likely seized the first available chance after he departed to soil his bedding.

He let out a heavy sigh. His misfortunes had already begun. But was overcoming this one really going to bring him any benefits? Ren found himself doubting his own theories.

PoV Change:

The old servant felt intense relief and delight when the report reached his ears that the Young Lord had finally returned. With all haste, he rushed to intercept the Young Lord to ward off a potentially calamitous meeting with the Young Lady. He shuddered to think what might happen if he didn’t inform his Young Lord first.

“Ah, Old Ji! What took you so long? Where’s my pocket money? I need it!”

The old man skidded to a halt before a handsome young man. His cheerful voice filled the old man with dread.

‘This is not the usual bored tone the Young Lord uses when returning from his playful pastimes! And why would he need his allowance? He only asks for it before long excursions.’ Despite his concerns, he didn’t even dream of refusal as he pulled out the sealed spatial ring to hand over.

“Did Young Lord have a fruitful journey and find what you were searching for? Your master must be eagerly awaiting your return…” he attempted to remind the young man of his duties but was cut off before he could finish.

“Stop worrying, Old Ji, I have my cultivation well in hand, and Master knows it! She’ll call me if it were really vital. And forget that smelly thing; I found something much more interesting! Or should I say someone? Heheh!”

Old Ji felt his stomach cramping once more from the stress. The Young Lord always returned bored.

‘This is not good! How will I inform Lord Yuan?!’ Then an even more terrifying thought entered his mind. ‘Never mind the Young Lord’s father; what will Young Lady Tian say?! She’s been waiting all this time! If she finds out Young Lord returned only to leave again without seeing her… the tantrums!! Oooh, my stomach…’ Old Ji felt weak in his knees.

"Please, Young Lord, at least…” he attempted meekly.

“The report on the Heavenfall Legions, right? You did well to remind me, but I’ve already sent it. I’ll be back… sometime!”

The willful ignorance made Old Ji almost cough up blood.

PoV Change:

It stirred. Thoughts bubbled up once again. “Curses! Why does our venerable self feel so weak? Our consciousness is still enfeebled and can’t surface for long. The healing cocoon should have formed by now! If this venerable were to get another taste of that delicious death again, recovery should be augmented. Yet our patience is legendary. Our enemies will rue the day when this venerable will rise again!” The presence sank and returned to slumber.