Lottery Tube

"Immediate Return."

As these gray words appeared, the fire fold in the secret passage went out without wind, and thick darkness once again enveloped the place. With Meng Qi's current senses, he could not hear a single sound or even see his own hand.

Light flared, and the White Jade Plaza, like an Immortal Paradise, appeared before everyone.

"Main Quest complete. Free Treatment begins."

The solemn, indifferent voice of the Lord of Six Paths Samsara rang out, and streams of milky white light enveloped Meng Qi and the others individually.

Wounds squirmed, lungs and viscera cooled. The injuries Meng Qi had accumulated by trading wound for wound healed at a visible rate. The Iron Cloth Shirt, broken by Tang Shun's palm strike, swiftly recovered, and his skin and muscles regained their thick, solid feel.

The treatment light faded. Meng Qi stretched his limbs, feeling refreshed and full of inexhaustible strength. He silently praised: "Without the Lord of Six Paths Samsara's treatment, if I kept trading wounds, it would eventually pile up and leave irreparable hidden injuries."

Over this period, Meng Qi had browsed the lower two floors of the Scripture Depository, reading anecdotes and legends about Iron Body Skills like Iron Cloth Shirt. He found that most martial artists who mastered them died in old age wracked with pain, with only a few able to break through to Orifice Opening.

The reason lay in the fact that Iron Body Skills lacked profound inner cultivation methods for nurturing the body. In battle, they inevitably relied on trading minor injuries for major ones. Though the Iron Cloth Shirt and similar skills reduced these minor injuries, making them not life-threatening or even debilitating, the human body was precious and, at times, fragile. If one fought again before fully recovering, the accumulation of minor injuries would eventually leave hidden damage, becoming irreversible over the years.

Thus, Meng Qi was quite worried about his current fighting style. Fortunately, the Lord of Six Paths Samsara's healing ability, surpassing even a Dharma Body Master, served as his backup.

Among the four, Meng Qi had the lightest injuries. After finishing his stretches, he noticed Jiang Zhiwei, Zhang Yuanshan, and the others still enveloped in milky light. His thoughts drifted to the strange stone door at the end of the secret passage.

"'Righteousness, Kindness, Benevolence, do not enter this door'... It doesn't sound like a good place... The secret passage in the main world should lead to a place suppressing demons and monsters. What about here? This world probably has no demons or monsters..." Meng Qi knew that with his current strength, he absolutely should not try to push open that stone door. Just touching it with his right hand had made him feel as if he were sinking into a Demon Prison, unable to escape.

"Only when I step into Outer Scenery will I go 'see' what's behind the stone door..." With this thought, Meng Qi opened the jade book before him and, as expected, found that by paying a hundred Merit Points and an item called a "Samsara Talisman," he could choose to return to a Reincarnation World he had experienced before, for a month. The more Merit Points he paid, the longer he could stay.

As for the "Samsara Talisman," it was not listed on the exchange menu. It could only be obtained during Reincarnation missions or as a direct reward for achieving an "Excellent" mission rating.

"Mission evaluation: Zhang Yuanshan, Jiang Zhiwei, Qi Zhengyan—'Average,' each rewarded twenty Merit Points. Zhending—'Good,' rewarded thirty Merit Points and a chance to shake the lot. The lottery range covers all items below Outer Scenery."

At this moment, Jiang Zhiwei and the others finished their treatment, and the Lord of Six Paths Samsara gave the mission evaluations.

Meng Qi raised an eyebrow. Just as he thought—exploring secrets was a key criterion for mission evaluation.

"Shake the lot?" Hearing that Meng Qi could participate in this novel activity, Jiang Zhiwei walked over with keen interest.

Meng Qi was a little excited and deliberately rubbed his hands together: "All items below Outer Scenery? That range is too broad. If I shake out something like Arhat Fist or an ordinary iron sword, I'll be happy for nothing."

Jiang Zhiwei saw white smoke rising before Meng Qi, supporting a dusty lottery tube, and chuckled: "What's there to fear? It's unexpected fortune anyway."

The inside of the lottery tube was dark and deep, revealing nothing.

Zhang Yuanshan and Qi Zhengyan also drew closer, watching Meng Qi's "lottery shake" with interest. Zhang Yuanshan even encouraged him with a smile: "Junior Brother Zhending, you're a monk. Shaking the lottery tube is your specialty. You should get something good."

Meng Qi's face twitched. You overestimate me. From childhood to now, I've never won a single prize, not even a consolation. The only exception was scratching a few five-yuan wins on receipts.

He picked up the lottery tube and shook it vigorously. The mouth of the tube was covered with a layer of light, and various phantom images of items flashed and shifted, but with Meng Qi's current eyesight, it was hard to make out what they were.

After shaking for a while, Meng Qi saw Jiang Zhiwei shake her head, indicating she couldn't see clearly either. So he gave it two hard shakes and placed the tube on the white smoke before him, which seemed as solid as real objects.

The phantom images spun, slowing down. Meng Qi first saw a cold, gleaming longsword, and his heart leaped with joy—this was likely a Sharp Weapon Grade blade. But it slowly turned away, eventually revealing a dusty manual titled "Thirteen Fatal Sword Strikes."

"This is a good find!" Meng Qi was overjoyed, but the "Thirteen Fatal Sword Strikes" manual eventually disappeared into the tube's mouth at a snail's pace, replaced by three celadon porcelain bottles.

"Lingzhi Qi Replenishing Pills..." Qi Zhengyan recognized at a glance the pills he had exchanged for.

Meng Qi exhaled, neither disappointed nor particularly pleased. This result was middling. Though it couldn't compare to "Thirteen Fatal Sword Strikes" or a Sharp Weapon Grade sword, if he hadn't won the lottery, he would have chosen to exchange for these pills anyway. This time, he didn't want to rely on the Lord of Six Paths Samsara to boost his cultivation again. After all, opening his Dantian had already been done by external means, leaving an unstable foundation. Doing it again might cause serious hidden problems.

So, before re-condensing his Dantian, Meng Qi settled for using pills to help him quickly reach Major Qi Accumulation.

And "Lingzhi Qi Replenishing Pills" were among the best pills for the Qi Accumulation stage. They could replace meat and vegetables to generate True Qi, with less acquired contamination, making them easy to absorb and refine, rapidly increasing internal energy.

The lottery tube vanished, the white smoke dissipated, and three celadon porcelain bottles remained on the ground. Meng Qi bent down to pick them up, opened one, and saw twelve lotus-like pills. A refreshing fragrance hit his nose, invigorating his spirit and lightening his body.

"Truly fine pills." Meng Qi praised, corked the bottle, and tucked it into his bosom, deciding to take one every five days to reach Major Qi Accumulation sooner.

Seeing this, Jiang Zhiwei smiled and said, "Little Monk, you've saved thirty Merit Points. You're getting wealthier."

She guessed that Meng Qi had originally planned to exchange for "Lingzhi Qi Replenishing Pills."

"Of course. If you want to borrow Merit Points, I won't charge nine out of ten and thirteen in return. Hmm, ten out of ten and twelve in return." Meng Qi joked back.

In this Reincarnation mission, he had earned fifty Merit Points for Main Quest One, twenty for participating in killing the "Shapeshifting Scholar," fifty for participating in killing "Palm of the Universe," one hundred for completing Main Quest Two, and thirty for the mission evaluation reward—a total of two hundred and fifty Merit Points.

Jiang Zhiwei laughed: "I earned more Merit Points than you. If anyone's borrowing, it'd be you borrowing from me."

She had earned fifty Merit Points for Main Quest One, thirty for participating in killing the "Shapeshifting Scholar," twenty for participating in killing "Palm of the Universe," one hundred for participating in killing the Great General Du'er Cha, one hundred for Main Quest Two, and twenty for the mission evaluation reward—a total of three hundred and twenty Merit Points.

Meng Qi thought to himself, "The 'True Intent Inheritance' is worth a lot, but I can't recite it now to exchange with the Lord of Six Paths Samsara."

He looked at Zhang Yuanshan and Qi Zhengyan and said cheerfully, "Senior Brother Zhang, Senior Brother Qi, you must have earned more Merit Points than me, right?"

After recovering from his injuries, Qi Zhengyan had also returned to his usual unsmiling demeanor. He nodded slightly: "I got two hundred and sixty Merit Points. Adding the leftover from before, I have two hundred and eighty in total."

After exchanging for the "Child-Mother Soul Separation Dart," he had twenty Merit Points left. In this mission, he earned fifty for Main Quest One, ten for participating in killing the "Shapeshifting Scholar," eighty for participating in killing "Palm of the Universe," one hundred for Main Quest Two, and twenty for the mission evaluation reward.

"I'm probably the one with the most Merit Points, since Junior Sister Jiang still owes me twenty." Zhang Yuanshan said humorously. "I currently have three hundred and ten Merit Points."

He earned a total of one hundred and fifty Merit Points from the main quests, fifty for killing "Town River Luo" Guan Haoran, fifty for participating in killing the Great General Du'er Cha, twenty for participating in killing the "Shapeshifting Scholar," twenty for participating in killing "Palm of the Universe," and another twenty for the mission evaluation reward.

After they openly shared their Merit Point totals, Zhang Yuanshan's smile faded, and he said seriously, "We need to discuss what to exchange. The next mission might not have a helper like Master Xinji, and probably won't have someone like Gu Xiaosang who entered inexplicably. So we have to rely on ourselves as much as possible."

"First, I need to repair the 'White Rainbow Piercing Sun Sword.' I can't explain it otherwise." Jiang Zhiwei stroked her beloved sword in her hand.

It had been cracked with many fine lines by the Great General Du'er Cha's palm strike.

Meng Qi and the others nodded, not intending to interfere with Jiang Zhiwei's decision. They said they'd discuss it together, but it was only exchanging opinions, not forcing anything. Besides, Jiang Zhiwei was a natural swordswoman; a good sword would make her even more formidable. Prioritizing the sword's repair was perfectly fine.

"My longsword was also broken by Tang Shun's palm, but it's just an ordinary hundred-refined steel sword. I'll get a new one when I return to the mountain." Zhang Yuanshan smiled at Jiang Zhiwei. "Junior Sister Jiang, besides that, what else have you set your sights on?"

Jiang Zhiwei's delicate face seemed to be veiled in a layer of radiance: "Last time I roughly browsed through the sword techniques on the 'Exchange List.' Aside from those I won't be able to afford for a long time, there was one sword technique that was very interesting. Its first twenty-two swords only belong to the Orifice Opening level. The Sentimental Sword portion is worth just two hundred Merit Points, and the Ruthless Sword portion is only six hundred."

"But when it comes to the Twenty-Three Swords, it suddenly leaps to a level that is quite impressive even among Outer Scenery sword techniques, requiring several thousand Merit Points to exchange. Based on the description from the Lord of Six Paths Samsara, I think even my Master would be full of praise upon seeing this sword move. It's hard to imagine such an essential leap in quality between the earlier and later moves of a single sword technique."

When talking about sword techniques, her entire being was so beautiful it was hard to look directly at her.

"Miss Jiang, what sword technique?" Hearing the Twenty-Three Swords, Meng Qi suddenly thought of something and asked in shock and surprise.

Seeing Meng Qi's expression, Jiang Zhiwei understood that he had read the introduction to this sword technique. She nodded gently, a smile brimming in her eyes: "As you guessed, the 'Sacred Spirit Sword Technique.'"