The Difference Between Merits! The One Yuan Number Nearing Completion!

In the Primordial World, what all living beings valued most was Cause and Effect.

And among countless karmic ties, Heaven and Earth Merit was the one thing least to be provoked.

If one attacked without cause, or even killed someone bearing Heaven and Earth Merit,

not only would they be abandoned by heaven and earth, but they would also be hunted down by them, their Fortune plummeting to rock bottom.

Encountering danger while walking, suffering disasters for no reason, and being hunted by enemies were merely the lightest punishments.

If the person attacked possessed boundless Merit, it might even draw down Heaven and Earth Thunder Punishment that would not rest until death.

After all, anyone who could obtain Heaven and Earth Merit was a "treasure" who had made outstanding contributions to heaven and earth and advanced the world's perfection.

Every person of great Merit was someone heaven and earth would protect with all its strength.

Of course, this referred to those who, after obtaining Merit, had not refined it to improve their cultivation.

It was like heaven and earth giving you a death-exemption token because of your accomplishments, only for you to trade it away for something else.

When you later committed a misdeed or ran into trouble, it would most likely still shelter you out of consideration for the past.

But it would offer you no additional help.

Yang Mei, Shi Chen, Yin Yang...

The Demon God Reincarnations were exactly like this.

Had they not refined all their Heaven and Earth Merit, leaving some behind as a safeguard,

Hong Jun would not have dared to openly set traps for them, much less scheme them to death.

As for why he wanted Heaven and Earth Merit rather than Heavenly Dao Merit,

it was entirely because he did not dare.

At the end of the Three Races Calamity, when the Dao-Devil Conflict came to an end,

the Heavenly Dao gradually completed its gestation and began governing the Primordial Wilderness. Hong Jun's plan for Dao Integration also quietly began.

Under the influence of his thoughts, the Heavenly Dao was no longer wholly impartial and just, developing the selfish desire to rule heaven and earth alone.

From then on, Heaven and Earth Merit became Heavenly Dao Merit bearing the imprint of the Heavenly Dao.

Normally, there might not appear to be any issue.

But if one harbored the ambition to defy heaven and threatened the Heavenly Dao's ruling position, who knew whether a backlash would occur?

At any rate, judging from how Hong Jun easily subdued Taishang, Yuanshi, and Tong Tian at the end of the later Investiture of the Gods Calamity, intimidating Nuwa and the two Western Region Sages,

a large part of the reason was likely

that, after merging with the Heavenly Dao, he gained control over Heavenly Dao Merit.

Only then could he make the Three Pure Ones and the others, who had become saints through Merit, swallow their anger and let him manipulate them as he pleased.

And he would never do something like handing his life over to another's control.

"Since I want to create a written inheritance, I must gather the foundations of countless races into one."

"I truly have my work cut out for me now."

As Di Tian's thoughts turned, he immediately called for Wang Shu. Following the maps they had obtained during their earlier travels and comparing them with the Mountains and Rivers State Diagram,

they embarked upon the long road of creating written characters.

And once he set out, he traveled for a full thirty-six thousand five hundred years.

He crossed the North Sea, the Extremely West Land, the South Sea Various Continents, and more than half of the Central Primordial Wilderness!

In total, he gathered the written inheritances of one hundred and twenty-nine thousand five hundred and ninety-seven races.

Only the written inheritances of the final three races remained before the One Yuan Number could be completed.

Thanks to his identity as the Star God of the Ziwei Emperor Star, the orthodox ruler of the Primordial Wilderness and Master of Heaven, Earth, and Man, he encountered almost no obstacles while gathering written inheritances.

Except at the very beginning, when several fools believed his strength did not match his status

and wanted to join forces to eliminate him.

After he earnestly taught them benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and what it meant to convince others through virtue with the Hongmeng Measuring Ruler,

every race afterward looked at him with much clearer eyes.

Moreover, he did not take their inheritances for free. Instead, he exchanged sermons for the written inheritances of the Ten Thousand Races.

As for whether they understood them or could gain any enlightenment,

that depended on their own comprehension.

In any case, he had given them what was due, and Cause and Effect had already been severed.

If their brains were not up to the task, they could not blame him for lacking courtesy.

"Fellow Daoist Di Tian, these pine nuts from the Five Needle Pine must have formed more than several dozen Eons ago."

"Just digesting the three pine nuts of water, fire, and earth took more than thirty thousand years."

Wang Shu held the Five Needle Pine fruit allocated to her. Though she sounded as if she were complaining, her eyes and brows brimmed with delight and excitement.

When she had been cultivating in seclusion on the Ziwei Emperor Star,

she had relied on the divine might of the All Heavens Stars Fruit Tree and the Sun Star to transform the Water Element Qi in her body into Fire Element Qi.

Then, using the Ziwei Star, she had transformed the Fire Element Qi in her body into Earth Element Qi.

Thus, she broke through into the Great Luo Later Stage.

Yet the borrowed power had ultimately been impure. Though her cultivation had risen, her actual combat strength was not among the best of those at the same realm.

After obtaining the Five Needle Pine, she had conceived the idea of using the Five Elements Source within its pine nuts to temper the Five Chest Qi.

Now, more than thirty thousand years had passed. Her realm remained at the Great Luo Later Stage, that was true.

But in terms of actual combat strength, she had already reached the peak of her realm.

Even without a powerful treasure in hand, somewhat weaker Great Luo Perfection cultivators might not necessarily be her match.

"Using time to make up for shortcomings in one's foundation is something countless people dream of."

"And yet you are complaining."

Hearing Wang Shu's words, Di Tian could not help chuckling as he teased her.

His own cultivation was likewise at the Great Luo Golden Immortal Later Stage.

However, because his innate foundation was simply too heaven-defying, the Five Elements Source contained within a single pine nut was nowhere near enough for him to nurture the Five Chest Qi to completion.

Simply completing the Earth Element and Metal Element, then producing the Wood Element, had consumed fifteen pine nuts of three different attributes.

He was now digesting water-element pine nuts. If nothing unexpected happened,

then even with the Five Needle Pine's help,

he would still need several tens of thousands of years before he could cultivate the Five Chest Qi to perfection.

"As the saying goes, excess is as bad as deficiency."

"Only the final three written inheritances remain before the One Yuan Number is complete."

"And these final three must come from the three races with the most flourishing Fortune in the current Primordial World!"

Upon hearing this, a trace of concern arose in Wang Shu's eyes.

"Fellow Daoist Di Tian, the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Three Races are at the height of their power. Obtaining their written inheritances will likely not be as easy as before, will it?"

"Put your mind at ease."

"All I want is their written inheritances, not some core secret."

Di Tian looked at the unsettled Wang Shu, his gaze gentle as he reassured her.

"My status is right there. No matter how muddled Ancestor Dragon, Yuan Feng, and Ancestor Qilin may be, they would not dare attack me openly."

"Besides, I am not taking anything for free. Hasn't the Five Needle Pine produced another batch of pine nuts?"

"Wouldn't it be enough to trade with them?"

"But what if they do not want pine nuts and demand the Five Needle Pine instead?"

At Wang Shu's concern, a trace of coldness gradually rose in Di Tian's eyes.

"No one is a fool. Trading pine nuts for written inheritances is already more than fair."

"If they insist on taking the Five Needle Pine, then they should not blame me for overturning the table."

"After all, even without counting those with impure bloodlines, the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Three Races still have more than a billion members."

"Finding one or two among them who possess complete written inheritances would undoubtedly be effortless!"