Merit

"Ancestor Sui, you flatter me. As a member of the Human Race, it's only right to contribute to them, whether there's a reward or not."

Jiang Yuan spoke earnestly; in terms of attitude, he never let anyone down.

"It's good that you have this heart, but rewards for merit and punishments for faults—these are the rules of the Human Race, and the key to its longevity. They must not be violated."

Ancestor Sui said this very seriously. Jiang Yuan could think that way, but he couldn't act on it. If merits went unrewarded over time, what clansman would still be willing to contribute to the Human Race?

"Yes, Yuan will remember this."

Knowing that Ancestor Sui was teaching him, Jiang Yuan quickly expressed his acceptance.

Seeing this, Ancestor Sui first smiled with satisfaction, then joined Jiang Yuan in setting the standards for creating characters.

With standards in place, they could harness the wisdom of the clan to produce a large number of characters in a short time, then put them into use as soon as possible, benefiting the entire Human Race.

Ancestor Sui had great wisdom, and Jiang Yuan had his cheat. So, working together, creating characters wasn't difficult, and they soon established a set of standards.

According to these standards, the first character they created was "human," the second was "dao," followed by "heaven," "earth," "sun," "moon," "star," "constellation," "mountain," "river," "grass," "tree"...

In one go, the two of them created one hundred and eight common characters, all written on the ground with tree branches.

The moment they stopped, the heavens and earth suddenly changed color. A torrential rain poured down, and the wails of ghosts and gods echoed all around.

This was a leak of Heavenly secrets!

Writing carries the Dao. The characters the two had created held no power, but precisely because of that, their learning threshold was extremely low.

Anyone with intelligence could master them with ease, unlike the Demon Script, Dragon Script, and other Acquired Divine Scripts, which required a certain level of cultivation to learn.

Such a low threshold meant that most beings in the Primordial World could gain wisdom through them, learn to think, and thereby understand all kinds of principles, giving rise to diverse civilizations.

If this wasn't a leak of Heavenly secrets, what was?

The Heavenly Dao sensed this and thus sent down portents to destroy these characters that had leaked the secrets.

But before the rain could fall, and before Ancestor Sui could act to block it, a brilliant golden light gathered in the sky, scattering all the portents.

Merit Golden Light!

This was teaching merit!

The emergence of the Pictographic Script, though it leaked Heavenly secrets, also served to teach all living beings. And clearly, the cost of leaking secrets was far outweighed by the merit of teaching the masses.

Thus, Jiang Yuan and Ancestor Sui, in creating the characters, had not committed a fault but had earned merit instead.

"Creating characters also brings merit?"

Ancestor Sui was surprised, while Jiang Yuan found it absurd. He had just said that novels weren't reliable and that gaining merit in the Primordial World was hard. Yet, turning around, he'd landed a share of merit—this slap in the face came way too fast.

The merit from creating characters wasn't much, and it was split into four parts. Jiang Yuan and Ancestor Sui each got one.

The remaining two parts merged with the writing branch and the characters on the ground, transforming into two lower-grade Acquired Merit Spirit Treasures: the Writing Brush of Creation and the Book of Creation.

Treasures in the Primordial World were broadly divided into four categories: Acquired Spirit Treasures, Acquired Supreme Treasures, Innate Spirit Treasures, and Innate Supreme Treasures, each further divided into supreme, upper, middle, and lower grades.

Among them, Acquired Spirit Treasures were the weakest, and Innate Supreme Treasures the strongest. Acquired Supreme Treasures matched Innate Spirit Treasures in power.

The difference was that Innate Spirit Treasures were unique and indestructible—even if shattered, they would slowly recover over time.

Acquired Supreme Treasures, on the other hand, were not unique; several could exist simultaneously. And once shattered, they were shattered, requiring reforging, with no self-healing.

"Creating characters was your idea. These two Merit Spirit Treasures should rightfully be yours." Glancing at the Writing Brush of Creation and the Book of Creation, Ancestor Sui said.

Jiang Yuan instinctively wanted to decline. But before he could speak, Ancestor Sui continued: "Don't think they're weak just because they're lower-grade Merit Spirit Treasures."

"This is only temporary. In the future, for every new character created, you, I, and these treasures will each gain a share of creation merit."

"Beyond that, for every being in the Primordial World influenced by this Pictographic Script, you, I, and these treasures will also gain a share of teaching merit."

"By that calculation, these two treasures have the potential to eventually advance to Acquired Merit Supreme Treasures. They're hardly weak."

At these words, Jiang Yuan was stunned. He had thought this was a one-time deal, but it turned out to be just the beginning, with an endless stream of income to follow.

He knew all too well the influence and vitality of pictographic characters. They had become part of Human Race civilization, coexisting with the Human Race.

By that measure, the merit was immense—nearly inexhaustible.

"If the Human Race flourishes in the future and becomes the protagonist of the world, wouldn't that mean the merit from this alone could push me to the Quasi-Saint Realm?"

It took a long while for Jiang Yuan to come back to his senses. The Quasi-Saint fruit that all beings dreamed of—was he just casually pre-ordering it like this?

"As expected, the young dare to think and act. I'd be satisfied if the Human Race could rank in the top fifty of the Primordial World. Replacing the Wu-Yao and becoming the new protagonist of the world—that's something I wouldn't even dare to dream of."

Ancestor Sui was also taken aback, thinking to himself that Jiang Yuan really dared to imagine. The Wu and Yao clans were so powerful—what did the Human Race have to replace them? Their mouths?

"Things are achieved through effort!"

"I have faith in the Human Race!"

When it came to confidence, Jiang Yuan definitely surpassed Ancestor Sui. He came from the future and knew all too well how strong the Human Race would become.

Wu-Yao?

Ancient history!

"I hope so!"

Ancestor Sui sighed, taking the young man's words as nothing more than youthful arrogance.

Jiang Yuan had never even left the Human Race—how could he possibly understand the might of the Wu-Yao? If he did, he wouldn't think this way.

The two races had truly grown invincible. Other races couldn't even approach them, let alone match them.

Seeing Ancestor Sui like this, Jiang Yuan didn't argue.

It was only natural for Ancestor Sui to think this way. Given the current state of the Human Race, if Jiang Yuan hadn't come from a later era, he wouldn't have believed that humanity could one day replace the Wu-Yao as the eternal protagonists of heaven and earth.

It was like back in the seventies and eighties—who would have dared to believe that China could catch up to and surpass the West in just a few short decades?

Once the character-creation standards were set, the rest was no longer Jiang Yuan's responsibility. Ancestor Sui would handle it. So Jiang Yuan took his two newly acquired Merit Spirit Treasures and returned to the Sacred Temple, ready to go into seclusion and break through.

The merit he had gained from creating the characters wasn't much—by Ancestor Sui's standards. But for Jiang Yuan, a cultivator who had just entered the Pre-Heaven Realm, it was still considerable.

If he didn't care about combat strength, he could use this merit to ascend directly to the Heavenly Immortal realm.

But while that wouldn't hinder his future progress, his combat power would drop to an ordinary level, and he would lose his invincibility within the same realm.

Jiang Yuan couldn't accept that outcome. So unless absolutely necessary, he would never use merit to directly boost his cultivation—only to assist it, as he was doing now.