Jieyin: This Leak Isn't Easy to Pick Up

By now, Haotian, after flying for a long time using his divine abilities, had finally arrived at his destination.

Looking into the distance, the North Sea was completely shrouded in Grievance and Fiendish Energy.

Thick black qi had turned nearly everything within sight into a realm of darkness.

Within this dark realm, vitality was almost entirely severed.

Just as Haotian was about to investigate further, an enraged beastly roar came from within the black mist.

Hearing this roar, Haotian realized he had somewhat underestimated the danger of this place.

From the sound of the roar alone, Haotian could judge.

If he got too close to the Black Tortoise's physical body, a bitter battle would likely erupt immediately.

If it were merely a bitter battle, Haotian wouldn't find it troublesome.

But the problem was the Black Tortoise's true spirit, clouded by resentment and madness.

If it decided to fight to the death, then he, Haotian, would be in real trouble.

After pondering for a moment, Haotian abandoned his original plan.

How much merit was enough, anyway?

There was no need to turn a perfectly good meritorious deed into a burden of karma for the sake of more merit.

He spread out his Spiritual Sense, searching for a suitable spot.

Haotian then teleported over.

Gazing at the pitch-black seawater, he thought it over for a while.

With a flicker of his mind, dozens of small bottles shot toward the seabed.

Using his Spiritual Sense to guide their trajectory, he directed them to land in the positions he needed.

After a few breaths, all the bottles were in place.

Haotian formed hand seals and began activating the Array Formations.

In an instant.

The dozens of small bottles blazed with brilliant light.

The bright radiance illuminated the surrounding dark seawater, giving it a hint of translucence.

The appearance of the light signaled that the formation, covering an area of hundreds of thousands of li, was complete.

Then Haotian changed his hand seals, and the light from the bottles faded away.

Looking again at the dozens of bottles, they had now all sunk into the seabed.

Only the Grievance and Fiendish Energy continuously flowing into the ground indicated that the bottles still existed.

The moment the formation was completed.

A beam of merit light descended from the heavens.

This was because Haotian's actions had improved the environment of the Primordial World.

And this was only a single installment.

Once the matter was fully resolved, another batch of merit would fall.

That second batch was the true reward for Haotian's efforts in devising a solution.

When the merit descended upon him, Haotian, having anticipated it, didn't even spare it a glance. He calmly accepted it.

He quietly waited as the merit coalesced behind his head into the Golden Wheel of Merit.

Soon.

The merit finished descending. Haotian swept his Spiritual Sense over the now somewhat illusory Golden Wheel of Merit.

Then he concealed it within his Cloud of Celebration.

Afterward, he sensed the speed at which the Grievance and Fiendish Energy was flowing into the bottles.

Haotian made a quick calculation in his mind and reached a conclusion.

At most, within a hundred years, the bottles would be filled with the converted spiritual liquid.

When that happened, the excess liquid would naturally overflow outward.

Making room for the new Grievance and Fiendish Energy entering the bottles.

And the overflowing liquid would slowly transform the hundreds of thousands of li covered by the formation into a Blessed Land-like existence.

This was also Haotian's deliberate design.

After all, he, Haotian, deeply understood the principle: to take, one must first give.

For now, he would maximize the benefits for the living beings of the Northern Region.

Until, not long from now.

When he, Haotian, made his move to conscript labor in the North.

Then I can only say I'm sorry.

We drink from the same golden cup, but the naked blade shows no mercy!

To all beings of the Primordial World, I, Haotian, treat everyone equally!

If you find yourself treated differently by me, Haotian, then please reflect on your own problems.

Is your karmic sin too heavy?

Did you fail to calculate your fortune before stepping out?

After setting up one Array Formation, Haotian did not linger there.

He immediately employed his divine powers and rushed toward the next location.

According to Haotian's plan, around the Black Tortoise's corpse, eight major formations would each be placed at the eight directions.

From the root, this would first weaken a wave of the Grievance and Fiendish Energy's spread.

Whatever residual overflow remained unhandled would then be left to the outer formations.

In this way, the Grievance and Fiendish Energy formed by the Black Tortoise could be greatly weakened.

Haotian was busy setting up the formations on his end.

But the myriad great powers of the Primordial World were already stunned watching Haotian's actions.

What the hell is this?

Something everyone had been helpless against, Haotian just solved it so easily?

Refining some spiritual treasures, then setting up some formations.

That simple?

Merit just arrived in his account like that?

So, if I follow along now, could I also snatch a share of Merit?

After pondering for just a moment, the great powers temporarily shelved that thought.

They were all figures with reputations to uphold.

If they wanted to pick up leftovers, they'd have to wait until he was done.

Only then would it be picking up scraps.

Going now would be blatantly snatching Merit.

Such business of snatching Merit from others was best left undone.

Besides, snatching wasn't so easy either.

And on Mount Sumeru.

Watching Haotian, now laden with Merit, Zhunti's eyes turned red with envy.

He envied Haotian for obtaining Merit.

He also envied that the Northern Region of the Primordial World would soon gain thousands of Blessed Lands.

Haotian had already accepted the Merit—that was an unchangeable fact.

What Zhunti was thinking now was also whether to follow suit.

"Senior Brother!

Haotian's method is so simple, should we give it a try?

Given Haotian's preparations, they probably can't cover the entire Northern Region of the Primordial World.

Besides, our Western Region also has many places filled with Sha Qi.

If we could convert that Sha Qi into spiritual liquid, perhaps our Western Region could gain over a hundred Blessed Lands."

Jieyin, hearing Zhunti's words, began to calculate inwardly.

Follow or not?

This definitely had to be followed!

The Primordial World was vast; every time one resolved a place where Sha Qi gathered, one more batch of Merit would come in.

This was a good thing!

But following up would have to wait until Haotian finished.

Moreover, those small bottles Haotian had refined seemed far from simple.

Also.

The several Sages had only just challenged Haotian.

Going now to take advantage of his gains—the deed would be hard to do and even harder to justify.

After a moment's thought, Jieyin replied, "Junior Brother!

We definitely need to follow up on this matter."

But that will have to wait until Haotian finishes his work.

Going now would be somewhat inappropriate.

The beings of the Primordial World already harbor many misunderstandings about our Western Region.

If we were to lose face in such matters, everyone would only grow more unwilling to acknowledge our Western Region.

Besides, the leftovers aren't so easy to pick up either.

Not many cultivators have likely discovered them yet.

Those small bottles Haotian created are far from simple.

Clearly of Acquired Spiritual Treasure grade, yet their power rivals that of a High-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure.

On top of that, resolving Grievance and Fiendish Energy will inevitably stain them with Merit.

Those small bottles will only grow more profound over time.

As for the matter of our Western Region's lands.

Relying on this to form a Blessed Land is probably impossible.

Even if it were possible, it would require an extremely long time.

After all, the Sha Qi in our Western Region cannot compare in scale to the Northern Region of the Primordial World.

Still, given enough time, having a few more places suitable for cultivation is still feasible.

But if we 'borrow' Haotian's methods, we will owe Haotian Karma.

Haotian is not Hongyun.

Hongyun had no background or backing, so we could find ways to 'settle' the Karma.

With Haotian, we can only bear this Karma head-on.