Above the nine heavens, at the dawn of the primordial chaos.
The Main God Hall stood silently, seeming to span the four corners of heaven and earth, the four poles and four directions, stretching into the past, the present, and the future!
[Mission complete. Beginning settlement!]
Around Wu Ming, air currents stirred and scenes of light and shadow appeared. They showed him traveling to the Great Xia Dynasty during the Hu invasion and struggling to survive in Da Qing Village.
A moment later, a line of text appeared, resembling cloud-script and bronze inscriptions, imbued with a mysterious quality yet somehow instantly understandable:
[Main Quest: Survive!—Complete! Reward: one hundred minor merit!] [Kill five Hu cavalrymen: earn two hundred and fifty minor merit!] [Kill one Tulu Warrior: earn one hundred minor merit!] [Kill the Shaman Witch: earn three hundred minor merit!] [Total merit earned: seven hundred and fifty minor merit!] [Beginner mission complete! Congratulations, Reincarnator Gengshen 69, on passing the beginner trial and becoming a true Reincarnator!] [Detected damage to the three souls and seven spirits of Reincarnator Gengshen 69. Begin treatment? This treatment will cost one thousand minor merit!]
"One thousand? The three souls and seven spirits?"
Wu Ming shuddered. "My soul's injured? How come I didn't know that Shaman Witch could hurt souls..."
His expression suddenly froze as he remembered what the Main God Hall had said. Maybe it wasn't referring to the Shaman Witch, but to the soul he'd brought with him when he crossed over!
"But... one thousand minor merit? I don't have that much even if you sell me! Didn't they say beginner instances were the easiest? How can I not even afford the treatment?"
Wu Ming nearly wept over his penniless state. Then he suddenly asked, "What can minor merit be used for?"
Whoosh!
In an instant, several enormous screens thundered down, pouring out countless lines of glowing text like waterfalls, bright enough to blind him.
Techniques, bloodlines, magical artifacts, miscellaneous items...
Category after category appeared, as dazzling as a supermarket stocked with everything imaginable.
Wu Ming looked first at the techniques section. Though he'd been prepared, he still felt like his 24-karat titanium-alloy eyes were being blinded:
"Chaos Technique: When primordial chaos first opened, did something come into being? Those who cultivate this technique return to their origin and forge a Chaos Golden Body, enduring for all eternity! Exchange cost: one million Heavenly Merit!"
"Heaven and Earth Creation Technique: When cultivated to perfection, it evolves Earth Fire Wind Water, opens heaven and earth, and creates a world! Exchange cost: nine hundred and ninety thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Grand Ultimate Supreme Clarity Profound Technique: The foremost Daoist technique, personally passed down by the Ancestor Venerable. Its highest realm is that of the Supreme Ultimate Saint! Exchange cost: nine hundred thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Buddha Golden Body: The ultimate sacred Buddhist technique. Forge the body of ten thousand Buddhas and become the Buddha of the future! Exchange cost: nine hundred thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Stars Descend Incantation: Gather the power of the stars in the nine heavens, condense the fate of a true Ziwei dragon, and change the heavens and rewrite your destiny! Exchange cost: eight hundred and fifty thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"They all look so amazing..."
Wu Ming casually opened the bloodline section:
"Twelve Ancestral Witch Essence Blood! Exchange cost: five hundred thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Dragon Blood! Exchange cost: two hundred thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Vermilion Bird Blood! Exchange cost: two hundred thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Xuan Gui Blood! Bird's head, turtle's tail; counters wood escape... ten thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Zhu Yan Blood! A fierce beast, a white-haired ape with red claws. Its appearance heralds chaos across the land! Exchange cost: ten thousand Heavenly Merit!"
"Evil Wolf Blood! An ill-omened beast, shaped like a giant fox with a red-and-white tail. Wherever it passes, war and disaster follow! Exchange cost: nine thousand Heavenly Merit!"
There was also a section for magical artifacts:
"Chaos Bead, one million Heavenly Merit! Pangu Axe, one million Heavenly Merit! Xuanyuan Sword, one million Heavenly Merit! Why don't you just rob me?"
Annoyed, Wu Ming turned another page. When he saw the Twelve Heavenly Gods and Demons Array with the same price tag of one million Heavenly Merit, he was completely speechless. "What the hell is Heavenly Merit?"
[Merit in the Main God Hall is divided into Heavenly Merit, Great Merit, and minor merit! The conversion ratio is ten to one! Items marked as requiring Heavenly Merit can only be purchased with Heavenly Merit. Merit may be split or combined, but each operation incurs a ten-percent fee!]
Wu Ming nearly broke into tears. "You even charge a ten-percent fee to combine or split merit? I take it back! You're worse than a bandit. Why not start lending money at outrageous interest rates, too?"
An idea struck him. He opened the magical artifacts section and rapidly flipped backward through it, finally finding the blood drum that looked very much like the one the Shaman Witch had used.
"Human Skin Magic Drum: A magical artifact used exclusively by the Shaman Witch religion. Made from human bones, skin, and blood, it can increase the power of witchcraft! Grade: low-tier magical artifact! Exchange cost: fifty Great Merit!"
Wu Ming tried to exchange for it, and sure enough, a prompt popped up: [Insufficient Great Merit. Convert minor merit? This will cost five hundred and fifty minor merit!]
"No!"
Wu Ming clicked "No" with a bitter look. If he'd known that crappy drum was worth so much, he would've risked trying to take it.
What infuriated him even more was the Main God Hall's shamelessness!
"Five hundred minor merit would've been enough, but you're adding another ten-percent fee! You even charge to split Great Merit into minor merit... The whole process is worse than robbery!"
Unfortunately, no matter how much Wu Ming protested, the Main God Hall remained unmoved.
Wu Ming understood perfectly well that there was no point arguing with this unreasonable monopolist. He returned to the techniques section and looked around until he finally found what he wanted:
"Hmm, Turtle Breath Technique! This is the method I used to train the qi in my internal organs when I was in the Inner Strength Realm. My older sister went to great lengths to get it, and it's worth one hundred minor merit! Now that I'm in the True Qi Realm, I should be cultivating the higher-level Spirit Turtle Qi Cultivation Technique! It costs three hundred minor merit... Never mind... I'll try asking my older sister for the follow-up technique first. No need to waste merit..."
With a pang of regret, Wu Ming closed the exchange screen. He looked at the assessment saying his three souls and seven spirits were damaged and shook his head. "Better to get rid of the hidden danger first..."
He didn't want his soul to be left with any lasting problems. But he was still incredibly frustrated by the shortfall of two hundred and fifty minor merit.
"Main God Hall, do you buy techniques and items here?"
Wu Ming tried asking.
[Yes! But they must first be appraised and confirmed to have value!]
Clearly, Wu Ming had nothing of value on him. The Main God Hall already had a record of his techniques, so he could forget about getting anything out of those.
"You won't even take gold or silver... Sigh, if I still had my ring, I might've been able to try..."
Frowning, Wu Ming suddenly had an idea. He reached into his clothes and pulled out the jade pendant that had landed him in the Main God Hall.
He'd entered the instance with nothing but the clothes on his back, yet this jade pendant had come with him. Clearly, it was no ordinary thing.
[Jade pendant (unknown wondrous object; appraisal required)]
The pendant's surface now seemed more translucent than before, and the golden stars within it swirled faster.
Perhaps it was only Wu Ming's imagination, but when he took out the pendant, the entire primordial space seemed to tremble.
"Appraise!"
Wu Ming spoke nervously, his heart uneasy. Will this appraisal cost me money, too? I hope the fee isn't too high, or I'll be left completely broke...
Fortunately, this time the Main God Hall didn't charge him. If anything, it seemed more impatient than Wu Ming and immediately took action.
Boom!
An immensely powerful pillar of light descended from the Main God Hall in the celestial palace, sweeping down with overwhelming force and enveloping the jade pendant.
"What's going on?"
Wu Ming hurried backward. Seeing the Main God Hall tremble, his expression shifted. "Could it be..."
Within the pillar of light, the pendant's surface shimmered and transformed into countless projections. It even gave Wu Ming the illusion that its interior was boundlessly vast, as if it contained a world.
After a long while, the pillar of light withdrew. The jade pendant drifted down, and Wu Ming eagerly looked at the result:
[???: Suspected wondrous object that is the origin of a world; a lost fragment of the Main God Hall! Contribute it to the Main God Hall?]
"Huh? What's the reward? How much merit will I get?"
Wu Ming asked in surprise.
[Insufficient authority. Unable to answer!]
"Then just exchange it for any technique or bloodline you want and give it to me. I'm not greedy. The top ten items on the Heavenly Merit Ranking will do..."
[Insufficient authority. Unable to answer!]
After asking a few more times, a smile suddenly appeared on Wu Ming's face. "So it's a lost fragment of the Main God Hall? And... it won't forcibly take it, or even try to tempt me into handing it over... So the Main God Hall at this point is just a dead thing with rigid thoughts—or perhaps... just a passive program with restrictions?"
"I choose to contribute it!"
Wu Ming gritted his teeth and made his decision.
After all, a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.
At his current level, there was no way he could study the object. And his experience in the previous instance had made it clear that the object was no use to Reincarnators inside an instance, either.
Even if he took it back to the outside world, given his status and position, by the time he'd climbed high enough to see through its disguise and study the origin of a world, he'd probably have gone through countless instances and reincarnations—and been reduced to bones long ago.
He'd also have to be extremely careful not to let the slightest hint slip.
Wu Ming understood all too well that a man's crime lay in possessing a treasure.
"Besides, it wasn't mine to begin with. If this gamble goes wrong, I won't be too upset!"
Grinding his teeth, Wu Ming confirmed his choice.
Boom!
In an instant, heaven and earth were turned upside down. The jade pendant became a streak of light and shot into the Main God Hall above the primordial chaos.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
Primordial energy swirled, and the entire world seemed to undergo a tremendous transformation.
The Main God Hall thundered, becoming even more magnificent and imposing, radiating endless light. Suddenly, a streak of light shot down and entered Wu Ming's body.
[Ding! Reincarnator Gengshen 69 has made an outstanding contribution to the Main God Hall! Basic authority greatly increased! You have obtained the exclusive title—Main God Apostle!]
"Main God Apostle? What does that do?"
Wu Ming looked utterly confused.
[The Main God Apostle is one who has made an exceptional contribution to the Main God Hall. The Main God Hall looks forward to growing alongside its Main God Apostle!] [Reincarnators equipped with the Main God Apostle title gain the following privileges: A. Learn the details of reincarnation missions three days in advance! B. Receive five thousand minor merit worth of free treatment after every mission! C. Gain True Sight and have merit conversion fees waived! D. For every three reincarnation missions completed, gain one chance to avoid the punishment for failing a Main Quest!]
"I... I... I..."
Wu Ming was utterly stunned.
"This... this is just..."
Deep down, he understood that even if the Main God Hall gave him peerless techniques and top-tier bloodlines, their relationship would still be one of a keeper and his dependent. But now, it was practically like he was turning the tables and becoming the master!
Before you continue