Chapter 77: Merit

In the following days, Li Mochen lived a routine life: attending classes during the day, and meditating or working out in the evening.

The drugs provided by Nathan Group, derived from the flesh of beasts from the dark world, along with his past life experience, all played a role. Li Mochen's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds every day, and everything went smoothly.

Yet there were also things that annoyed, frustrated, and embarrassed him. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he had inappropriate dreams twice in a row, waking up with his underwear wet. So on Wednesday night, he had to make a special trip to the commercial street and buy dozens of pairs of underwear.

By Thursday, Li Mochen had lost interest in the teacher's lectures; he had already fully mastered the textbook knowledge. He began to devote his main energy to the books he had borrowed from the internal library. Only when the teacher's lecture went beyond the textbook did he listen attentively.

—This made little difference to Li Mochen. Now that his primordial spirit power had slightly recovered, he could easily multitask, reading and listening to the lecture simultaneously without any problem.

At noon that day, he went to find Hancock again, but Li Mochen still came up empty, unable to find any trace of the guy on campus.

A few of Hancock's followers had returned to school after recovering from their injuries, but when Li Mochen pressed them for answers, they knew nothing. Even when he threatened them with force, it was useless; these guys were scared to the point of tears but still couldn't say anything substantial.

However, Li Mochen did learn from them that the situation outside the school was chaotic. Several major battles had broken out in a few blocks, and even two Outlaws from the Bloodfang Gang had died. So their boss was likely involved.

Li Mochen was surprised; he thought that if Outlaws were fighting, he should have sensed it. Such a commotion would inevitably affect the surroundings.

But then he realized it was probably due to the 'Dark Realm Talisman Stone.'

That was an artifact that appeared after World War II. It could pull people into the dark world during battle, minimizing damage to the real world.

However, due to its high cost, it was still not widespread. Only powerful Outlaws with strong magical power could use it. Moreover, the impact and pressure from being forcibly pulled into the dark world by the 'Dark Realm Talisman Stone' could only be withstood by magic energy professionals with bodies far stronger than ordinary people.

It was also said that the 'Dark Realm Talisman Stone' was an invention of the Eastern cultivation world, but Li Mochen had never seen the real thing, so he didn't know the actual situation.

He also incidentally learned why the police hadn't come looking for him. Those guys whose legs he had broken were all on drugs at the time, carrying guns and a large amount of narcotics.

As a result, none of them dared to stay at the scene; after hearing the sirens, they scrambled away.

Li Mochen guessed that the reason these guys didn't dare to stay was probably not just because of drug use and possession. Most likely, they had done something else immoral and were afraid to enter the police station.

After hesitating for a while, Li Mochen decided to meddle and ask for the truth.

Wenjian Taoran of the Yuanqiong Realm had always been labeled as 'hating evil as much as an enemy' in public opinion. But this was not due to his inherent nature; it was because the 'Divine Xia Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Tower' required the accumulation of 'merit.'

If it were only Wenjian Taoran's indifferent nature, he would at most take care of those close to him. Unless the world was in chaos, he would be too lazy to move.

But the existence of the 'Divine Xia Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Tower' made him crave 'merit' greatly.

One shortcut to gathering 'merit' power was to slay demons and monsters. Especially those great demons who had killed countless people; each one slain brought huge gains.

Just think: if these top demons were left unchecked, how many people would die because of them in the future? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? Preventing these tragedies in advance—what great good karma would that be? Of course, it would also accumulate evil karma.

Saving one person is a good deed, but how much meat does a person consume in a lifetime? How many living creatures are killed for that?

Fortunately, this world has its own rules: as long as one does not kill or torture beyond what is necessary for survival, no evil karma is incurred.

The problem is that those we save are not all good people. Some evil ones escape their original fate of death and continue to do evil in the world, and the evil karma they cause naturally falls partly on those who slay demons and monsters.

Thus, the Daoist school is inferior to the Buddhist school in this regard. The great monks of the Yuanqiong Realm最喜欢 to seek out great demons to convert. Each successful conversion yields a large amount of good karma. In the process, there is no killing, no karmic entanglement, and the converted 'monks' will continue to do good deeds and accumulate merit in the future, making it much safer and more secure.

Fortunately, those great demons are all strong-willed individuals, and the Buddhist school's success rate is not very high; otherwise, in the Yuanqiong Realm, the immortal Daoist schools might have no place to stand.

Li Mochen did not know whether 'good karma' and 'evil karma' were natural laws of the universe or rules set by some great power. He even suspected that what the 'Divine Xia Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Tower' accumulated was not merit but feedback from interfering with the river of fate.

However, Li Mochen was unable to delve deeper and had no intention of analyzing the mystery for now. He could only follow the rules of the 'Divine Xia Spiritual Fortune Purple Gold Tower.'

But although Li Mochen intended to meddle in this 'trivial matter,' these few thugs seemed to have changed; no matter how much he pressured or threatened them, they clenched their teeth and refused to say more.

If this were the Yuanqiong Realm, Li Mochen would have subjected them to severe torture, even using soul-extraction interrogation methods.

In his view, this group of drug-dealing scum would surely harm the world in the future, and any means used against them would yield more merit than evil karma.

And his meddling today might help some people in need.

But the problem was that the original host couldn't accept it. After merging with the original Li Mochen's soul, he was somewhat influenced by the original.

On one hand, he had a stronger sense of justice and couldn't stand injustices around him; on the other hand, he was deeply influenced by American morals and values.

The laws and social norms here were completely different and incompatible with those of the Yuanqiong Realm. They emphasized humanity, and even criminals had rights that must be respected.

So Li Mochen had no choice but to give up and let these guys, whom he considered unforgivable, go unscathed. At the same time, he temporarily abandoned the idea of finding trouble with Hancock, mainly because he had no time or resources to track him down.

For now, the most important thing for him was to improve his strength and accumulate wealth; everything else was secondary.

On Friday, Li Mochen only went to the Storm Gymnasium at noon on the school bus. He reported to the competition committee in charge of the matches, signed in, and then left hastily.

Half an hour later, Li Mochen entered the dark world for the second time.

This time, Alisa still didn't dare to stray too far from Ghost City. She chose 'Thunder Gorge,' about 120 kilometers from Ghost City, and they stayed there until 10 p.m. before heading back.

This harvest was slightly worse than the previous time; Li Mochen only got a share of 12,000 gold shields.

But the next day, Alisa, now full of confidence in Li Mochen, took him to the Blazing Wasteland, 220 kilometers away.

This was a place dense with fire elements, with flames even rising from the ground, turning the entire sky red and attracting countless fire-type monsters to gather.

Li Mochen's Ice Cold Princess was suppressed to the extreme here, but the ice-type ammunition they carried was also highly lethal against these fire-type monsters.

Moreover, due to the vast plains, they didn't need to deliberately search for dark creatures or fire elements; they could simply find suitable targets through binoculars and shoot.

When they returned in the evening, the hides, horns, beast crystals, and elemental cores they brought back sold for a total of 32,000 gold shields, meaning Li Mochen earned 22,000 gold shields in just one day.

On the third day, Alisa's ambition grew even stronger, and they ventured deeper into the Blazing Wasteland.

But this time, shortly after they entered, Li Mochen looked solemnly toward a certain direction in the south.