"Hurry and return."
As the gray words appeared, the lit match in the secret passage went out by itself and pitch darkness overwhelmed the White Jade Square again. Even with his current senses, Meng Qi could not hear anything or see his own palms.
When the light came on again, the immortal-like White Jade Square appeared in front of everyone.
"The main task is complete. The free treatment begins now."
The distant, placid voice of the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms resounded. Rays of milky light enveloped each of them.
His wound quivered and cold air seeped into his lungs. His injuries, accumulated over time, were healed so quickly that his eyes could not catch up. The Iron Shirt broken by Tang Shun was also recovering. His skin and muscles regained its thickness and tightness.
Meng Qi stretched his limbs after the treatment light disappeared, feeling refreshed as if he had endless strength. Without treatment from the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms, his injuries would turn into damage and the growing number of injuries would eventually create endless hidden troubles in the future.
He had recently looked through the anecdotes and stories about Iron Shirt and other Heng-practice Kung Fu on the first two floors of the Sutras Depository. He found that most who specialized in Horizontal Kungfu died in their old age full of injuries. Only a few of them reached the Enlightenment stage with the help of the Iron Shirt.
The reason was the lack of heart sutras and Qi-harmonizing methods in Heng-practice Kung Fu. Those specialized in it would choose to exchange small injuries for great damages in a fight. The small injuries did not impact much after the buffering from the Iron Shirt. Not only were they not life-threatening, they did not even reduce the fighter's strength. But the human body was precious and exceptionally fragile at times. If one did not wait for full recovery and fought again and again, the injuries would accumulate. They would eventually leave many hidden injuries in their bodies year after year, causing irreversible issues and after-effects.
So Meng Qi was anxious about his present fighting methods. Luckily he had a powerful patron, the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms, whose healing ability was even more formidable than masters of the Dharmakaya level.
His injuries were the lightest among the four of them. After stretching for a little, he discovered they were still shrouded by the white light. His thoughts fleeted towards the strange stone door at the end of the secret passage.
"'He who is loyal and kind should not enter this door'... Doesn't sound like a good place... The secret passage of the main world should be the channel to the place where demons and ghosts are suppressed. But what about this place? There should not be any demons and ghosts… " Meng Qi knew he should absolutely not open the stone door with his current strength. After all, he had only just touched it with his hand when he felt like he had fallen into a deep demon prison, unable to extricate himself.
"I'll go to the back door to take a look when I go into the Exterior in the future... " After this idea formed in his mind, he opened the jade-slip scroll in front of him. Per his expectations, he found he could get an item called the Reincarnation Charm with 100 Karma points. That item will allow him to return to the reincarnated world he has once experienced for a month. The more Karma points he paid, the longer he could stay.
But it was not available in the Samsara or the Exchange List. He could only find an opportunity while doing his task or directly get it as a reward for doing 'excellent' on his task.
"Task evaluation: 'medium' for Zhang Yuanshan, Jiang Zhiwei, and Qi Zhengyan. Each is rewarded 20 Karma points. 'Good' for Zhen Ding. He will have a lottery chance in addition to 30 Karma points. The range of his lottery rewards is items belonging to the Exterior."
The evaluation was done by the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms after everyone's treatment was complete.
Meng Qi lifted an eyebrow. Sure enough, exploring secrets was one of the important criteria for the task evaluation.
"Fortune stick lottery?" When he heard Meng Qi could participate in this interesting, new thing, Jiang Zhiwei came over with great interest.
Meng Qi was pretty excited and deliberately rubbed his hands together. "Exterior items? The range is too wide. If I shake and get the Arhat Fists or some ordinary iron sword, I'd happy in vain."
Jiang Zhiwei saw Meng Qi holding up a gray pot with rising white smoke and laughed gently. "What are you afraid of? Take it easy. It's an unexpected fortune anyway."
The pot was so deep and dark that he could not see anything.
Zhang Yuanshan and Qi Zhengyan also joined them, watching Meng Qi shake the pot with great interest. Zhang Yuanshan even encouraged him with a big smile, saying, "Junior Brother Zhen Ding, you're a monk. Shaking the fortune stick lot pot is your forte, so I think you should be able to get a good item out of it."
Meng Qi's face twitched a bit. "You're overestimating me. When I was growing up, I have never managed to get a prize, not even a consolation one, except for a few five-yuan rewards from scraping receipts."
He picked up the pot and shook it hard. The mouth of the pot was covered with a curtain of light, where phantoms of various items were constantly in shift. With his current eyesight, it was hard for him to see anything clearly.
After shaking the pot for a while, Jiang Zhiwei shook her head at him, indicating that she could not see anything either. So he fiercely shook the pot twice and placed his stick on the seemingly opaque white smoke in front of him.
The shift of light and shadow gradually slowed. When he first saw a long shining sword, his heart leaped with joy. He thought it might be one of the Refined Weapon level available. The sword slowly turned over and transferred a gray scripture to him, with the words Thirteen Sword Killing Strategies written on it.
"This is something good!" Meng Qi was overjoyed but the scripture eventually disappeared back into the pot at a snail-like speed and three blue-white porcelains appeared in its place.
"Ganoderma Elixir of Restoration... " Qi Zhengyan recognized it to be an elixir he had once exchanged for.
Meng Qi exhaled, neither disappointed nor happy. What was more, this result was quite fair. Though it could not equal the Thirteen Sword Killing Strategies or the Refined Weapon level sword, he would have chosen to exchange for this elixir if not for this lottery chance. This time, he did not want to rely on the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms to enhance his skills. After all, he had used it once to open his Dantian, making his foundation an unstable one. If he used it again, there could be hidden troubles.
So, before he focused on Dantian again, Meng Qi chose to use the elixir to help himself reach the advanced success of Qi-cultivation as soon as possible.
But the pill was one of the best elixirs to accumulate the genuine Qi. It could replace genuine Qi coming from fleshy fruits and vegetables, and it had a bit less acquired pollution. In addition, it was easy to absorb and breathe in. It could help his inner force growing at full speed.
The pot and the white smoke disappeared, leaving three blue-white porcelains in place. Meng Qi bent to pick them up. He opened one of the porcelain bottles and saw twelve lotus seed-like pills inside. A fragrant odor came from the bottle, making him full of energy and light-footed.
"These are some really good elixirs," Meng Qi praised, fixing the mouth of the bottle and hiding it into his sleeves. He decided to take an elixir every five days to succeed his Qi-cultivation as soon as possible.
Upon seeing this, Jiang Zhiwei smiled earnestly and said, "little monk, you've saved 30 Karma points. You're a rich guy now."
She guessed that Meng Qi had intended to exchange Karma points for the Ganoderma Elixir of Restoration.
"Of course. If you borrow Karma points again, you'll have to pay back 13 yuan if you borrow nine, maybe 12 yuan for 10." Meng Qi had also started joking.
For his Samsara mission this time, he gained 50 Karma points for finishing the main task one, 20 for participating in killing the Hundred Face Bookster, and 50 for killing the Cosmos Juggler. With the completion of the second main task, he achieved 100 Karma points and accepted 30 as a reward of the tasks evaluation. That was to say, he earned a total of 250 Karma points.
Jiang Zhiwei could not help laughing. "I have more Karma points than you. If anyone's lending points, it's me lending to you."
Since her first main task had earned her 50 Karma points, 30 for participating in killing the Hundred Face Bookster, 20 for killing the Cosmos Juggler, and 100 for taking part in killing General Duo Ercha. She was also rewarded 100 Karma points for finishing the second main task and accepted 20 as the reward from the tasks evaluation. In other words, she had gained 320 Karma points in all.
Meng Qi thought to himself that the impartation of Gist of Trueness was a priceless object, though he had no way of retelling and exchanging it with the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms at the moment.
Looking at Zhang Yuanshan and Qi Zhengyan, he grinned. "Senior Brother Zhang and Senior Brother Qi, I'm sure you both got more Karma points than me."
After recovering from his injuries, Qi Zhengyan had also returned to his unsmiling state. He gave a slight nod and said, "I got 260 Karma points. Including the points from before, I have 280 in total."
He only had 20 Karma points remaining after exchanging for the Double-Killing Dart. His first main task earned him 50 Karma points, the participation in the Hundred Face Bookster's murder added 10, and the participation in slaughtering the Cosmos Juggler gave him 80. The completion of the second main task gave him 100 Karma points and he got 20 more as the reward from the task evaluation.
"I'm afraid I have the most Karma points. After all, I have 20 more with Junior Sister Jiang," Zhang Yuanshan said humorously. "I have 310 in all."
He himself acquired 150 Karma points in his main tasks. For everything else, he obtained 50, 50, 20, and 20 Karma points respectively. He also earned 20 as the reward for the task evaluation.
After everyone honestly shared the sum of their Karma points, Zhang Yuanshan dropped his smile and seriously said, "Let's think about what items we should get. We may not have an ally like Master Xin Ji in the next task, or some strange person interfering with our battle like Gu Xiaosang. We must rely on ourselves."
"I first have to rebuild Sword of the Sun-Penetrating Rainbow, otherwise I wouldn't know how to explain myself," said Jiang Zhiwei as she stroked her beloved sword.
General Duo Ercha's slap had resulted in many small cracks on her sword.
The rest nodded, seemingly without any intentions of interfering with her decision. Though they were discussing what items to get, it was more like they were airing their views. There was no intention to force anyone. On the other hand, Jiang Zhiwei was a born swordswoman, so a good sword would make her even more powerful. There was absolutely no problem for her to repair her sword first.
"I can't use my sword either; Tang Shun has rendered it unusable. But mine is just an ordinary steel sword. I'll get another one when I return home." Zhang Yunshan looked at Jiang Zhiwei with a smile. "Junior Sister Jiang, what else do you want?"
There seemed to be a soft glow on Jiang Zhiwei's beautiful face. She said, "Last time I roughly browsed the swordsmanship available on the Exchange List. Putting aside those that I won't be able to afford shortly, there's one that is pretty interesting. Its first 22 sword methods belong to the Enlightenment level. In this book, the Merciful sword art is only worth 200 Karma points and the Merciless sword art not more than 60.
"However, when it comes to the 23rd sword method, it develops to a fairly high level of the sword art of the Exterior. According to the Dominator of Samsara of Six Realms, you need thousands of Karma points for it according to the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms. I think my master will marvel at this sword art when he sees it. It's hard to imagine there would be such a massive leap between the front and the latter of the sword art."
When it came to sword art, her beauty was so brilliant that one would not dare to look at her closely.
"Lady Jiang, which sword art is that?" When Meng Qi heard what she said, he seemed to have thought of something and was quite surprised.
When she saw his expression, she understood that he had read the introduction of these swordsmanship kills and gave a slight nod. With a smile, she said, "It's what you're thinking of, the 'Sacred Spirit Sword Art'."