Earthly Dao Merit

The bonfire burned slowly, until the bright moon hung high in the middle of the sky.

Lin Le suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed the long saber beside him. It was Li Xingzhi's saber.

The Tiger Bone Spear was merely a crude spear he had fashioned with tree resin and other materials. The fact that it had held up in a battle against Li Xingzhi was already quite good.

Against a wolf pack, it was better to have a sturdier weapon in hand.

The moment Lin Le woke, Big Yellow Dog, who had been dozing beside him, abruptly rose to his feet and let out a low growl.

With a running start, Lin Le leaped onto the roof. Sweeping his gaze around, he saw forty or fifty pairs of ghostly green eyes staring at him in unison.

Lin Le was not nervous. Instead, he was considering a question: could ordinary wolves provide karmic sin?

When he cooked, he had killed chickens and fish before, yet he had not gained a single point of karmic sin.

Killing that fierce tiger, however, had earned him two points of karmic sin.

So he could only conclude that demons above the level of intelligence possessed karmic sin.

Let's test it.

Lin Le glanced at the tall Alpha Wolf standing outside the door and sneered. Power surged through his feet, and he shot forward at once.

That leap carried him ten meters, landing him right beside a wild wolf.

Lin Le then raised his saber and slashed. The wild wolf's head immediately hit the ground.

One point of merit gained, but no karmic sin.

That confirms it. Only intelligent living beings possess karmic sin.

Lin Le's gaze swept across the pack as he charged toward a larger wild wolf.

"Awoo!" The Alpha Wolf howled at that moment, and every wild wolf charged toward Lin Le.

Lin Le's expression remained indifferent as he swung his saber upward.

Splurt!

The nearest wild wolf that pounced at him was sliced straight in two.

Like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, none of the surrounding wild wolves could withstand even a single exchange with Lin Le. Even the intelligent wild wolves died with one slash of his saber.

What left Lin Le somewhat stunned, however, was that an intelligent wild wolf had actually provided only one point of karmic sin.

Was there some hidden criterion?

Lin Le looked toward the Alpha Wolf, then suddenly accelerated and charged at it.

Yet the Alpha Wolf fled without even looking back.

It had gained intelligence, not stupidity. The wild wolves second only to it within the pack could not withstand a single exchange with Lin Le, much less itself.

It had to be known that even when it dealt with disobedient wild wolves in the past, it had needed to exert no small amount of effort.

Just then, a yellow figure suddenly darted out and rammed directly into the Alpha Wolf.

The Alpha Wolf, which had been running, inevitably faltered and adjusted its balance to avoid falling.

Once it saw the attacker clearly, the Alpha Wolf let out an angry roar. "Awo!"

For the sake of its intelligence, it had deliberately spared Big Yellow Dog's life back then.

It had originally intended to let Big Yellow Dog recover its wild nature before accepting it into the pack. After all, wolves and dogs were one family.

Who would have thought that Big Yellow Dog would find itself another human master!

The Alpha Wolf charged straight at Big Yellow Dog, intending to slaughter this thing that could not change its shit-eating habits.

But Lin Le had already arrived.

White Ape Cleaves the Sun!

Using his saber in place of a spear, Lin Le slashed downward, and a bloody gleam burst through his body.

The blood-colored blade light streaked through the air and struck the Alpha Wolf across the waist.

"Awoo!" With a mournful cry, the Alpha Wolf was sent flying. By the time it landed, its intestines had spilled all over the ground.

Seeing Lin Le charging toward it, the Alpha Wolf hurriedly cried out, "Human, I am willing to be your dog!"

Lin Le answered with a merciless slash.

The wolf's head fell to the ground. Thirteen points of merit and three points of karmic sin entered his inner realm.

Three points of karmic sin... It seems demons in the intelligence stage may have another hidden transformation.

Lin Le pondered it. Speech Awakening and a second-limit Martial Master both yielded three points of karmic sin, which meant that the two were equal in terms of life level.

Yet the intelligence stage was divided into one and two points. That meant intelligence might not be merely intelligence.

Shaking his head slightly, Lin Le did not dwell on it. He was not a demon, after all. Such questions could be left for wise people to explore.

With strength bursting through his legs, Lin Le began pursuing the wolf pack that had scattered after the Alpha Wolf's death. Though ordinary wild wolves gave no karmic sin, they still gave merit.

There was nowhere to spend lotus seeds now, but that did not mean there would be nowhere to spend them in the future. Naturally, the more, the better.

During this time, Lin Le even had Big Yellow Dog act as a hunting dog, tracking down the remaining wild wolves for him.

In the end, they chased them into a blood-soaked forest littered with broken bones.

Looking at the fragments on the ground, Lin Le quickly identified them as human bones.

They should all have belonged to the villagers from earlier.

Big Yellow Dog seemed to catch a scent. It went to a pile of remains and let out a grief-stricken whimper.

Lin Le took one look and knew that those remains should have belonged to its former master.

Without offering comfort, Lin Le began gathering the bones.

Since they were too scattered, Lin Le could only collect them all and pile them together.

After finding several pieces of cloth, Lin Le wrapped Big Yellow Dog's master's broken bones in front of it and placed the bundle before it.

"Find a place you think is good and bury him there," Lin Le said softly. "Let him rest in the earth."

"Woof." Big Yellow Dog nodded, picked up the cloth bundle, and left.

Lin Le also returned to the village to find a cart, then brought back all the bones.

He piled up firewood and lit it. The flames swallowed the bones, while Lin Le used the firelight to dig a large pit nearby.

Not until dawn, when the pit was finished, did Lin Le glance at the still-burning bonfire and smother it with dirt.

His reason for burning them was only to burn away the bloody stench on the bones, so that after he left, no demon would dig up the pile of remains and eat them.

So burning them enough was sufficient.

After pushing all the bones into the pit, Lin Le found a stone slab. Blood qi clung to his saber as he cut the slab into a rectangle and set it upright before the pit.

He carved the words: "Grave of All Villagers of Qiaomu Village."

Then, using his saber to chop off the wolves' heads, Lin Le piled them before the gravestone.

"Consider these burial offerings. You should like them," Lin Le murmured as he looked at the gravestone.

"By decree of the Supreme Lord, I deliver your lonely souls. Ghosts and spirits alike, all beings of the four births receive grace. I command salvation for all—be swiftly reborn. I command salvation for all—be swiftly reborn."

After reciting the Sutra for Rebirth from his previous life, Lin Le suddenly froze. His yang energy had decreased.

When he turned his Inner Vision Divine Ability upon his inner realm, he saw that another lotus seed had grown beside the ten lotus seeds atop the lotus.

But unlike the other golden lotus seeds, this one was earth-yellow.

Earthly Dao merit

Information suddenly entered Lin Le's mind. Merit was also divided into three kinds: Heavenly Dao, Earthly Dao, and Human Dao.

Human Dao was like how Lin Le usually killed evildoers—rewarding good and punishing evil, deeds that could promote the flourishing of humanity.

Earthly Dao was like what Lin Le had done now—deeds that promoted the natural cycle and regulated the earth's qi.

Heavenly Dao consisted of deeds that promoted the perfection of rules and strengthened the world.

After understanding the information, Lin Le looked at the gravestone before him, and a strange look could not help appearing in his eyes. So if he had not buried them or recited the Sutra for Rebirth, ghosts and monsters would have appeared here?

Ghosts were the souls of the dead. Ghost souls should journey to the underworld and reincarnate. Those that remained in the world of the living through baleful qi and resentment became monsters, disrupting yin and yang, and should be delivered onward.

Today, Lin Le had buried all the villagers of Qiaomu Village and killed the wolves to soothe their resentment, eliminating the hidden danger of yin and yang falling into chaos. Only then had he gained these ten points of Earthly Dao merit.

Lin Le looked at Big Yellow Dog beside him. "Have you finished burying him?"

Big Yellow Dog nodded.

Lin Le said, "If you want to stay here, I can still find you another good household."

"Woof." Big Yellow Dog barked toward the gravestone, indicating that it wanted to remain here.

"Then remember to take good care of yourself." Lin Le stroked its head.

"Awoo-woo." Big Yellow Dog nodded.