A Mountain Apart, Never to Meet

Verdant mountains hung suspended in the air.

From far away, a streak of light flew toward them, stopping in midair beyond the mountain peak.

Gu Qingshan appeared.

He gazed at the mountain, quietly sensing the immense power that filled it.

Every flower and blade of grass, every leaf and stone.

It seemed to be autumn in the Freely Transforming Heaven Realm.

Autumn hues spread across the mountain. Layer upon layer of leaves danced in the wind, making for a captivating sight.

Every corner of the mountain was filled with a mysterious power.

As a cultivator in the Empty Wheel Realm, Gu Qingshan could sense this force perfectly well, but he couldn't understand what it was.

He casually caught a drifting leaf between his fingers.

The withered yellow leaf slowly faded away.

"Is this what good karma is?" he murmured in puzzlement.

Zhi Luo's voice came from within the mountain. "Yes. I helped save the Six Paths World and played a major role in it, so I was able to gather this merit into a mountain."

Gu Qingshan looked at the pockmarked patches on the mountain and quickly understood.

Those were the marks left by the cultivators' attacks.

The good karma had absorbed those attacks. Their effects on the mountain were the death of many trees and the withering of its leaves.

"Zhi Luo, you can come out now. Those people won't come back to destroy the mountain," Gu Qingshan said.

"Where did they go?" Zhi Luo asked.

"They decided to go tell jokes in other worlds together, so they all left just now," Gu Qingshan replied.

"...You're amazing. You broke through again and made it here in such a short time," Zhi Luo said admiringly.

"I wasn't actually that fast. Mostly, I took some pills."

"That was still your good