Nuwa's breathing grew somewhat ragged as she stared fixedly into the depths of the layered formations.
Inside the cave abode.
Lu Changsheng watched Nuwa standing motionless in the water mirror, his heart pounding with unease.
"No reaction? Did I lay it on too thick? Does she not believe me?"
"True. In the novels of my previous life, this 'touch me and get struck by lightning' setup would've been the most toxic plot point. Who would believe it?"
Lu Changsheng gritted his teeth, cursing himself for being so absolute just now.
But he'd already said it. He absolutely couldn't back down now.
"Since words alone aren't enough, I'll have to show you the real thing!"
Lu Changsheng sat cross-legged on the white jade bed.
He closed his eyes and sent his divine sense deep into his dantian.
There, a mass of Great Dao Merit, as brilliant as the blazing sun and radiating boundless sacred energy, floated quietly.
"Just a wisp."
Lu Changsheng frantically steeled himself.
"I absolutely can't give her too much. I'll just let a tiny bit of its aura slip out, enough for her to get a whiff."
"This is all to save my life. It's a strategic investment!"
He said that, but when he actually went to manipulate the mass of Great Dao Merit and prepared to peel away a wisp of its aura, his face twisted in pain.
It was his own heart's flesh—the treasure he hadn't even been willing to use while inside the Earth Dragon's belly!
"Psst."
Lu Changsheng fought back the urge to bleed tears.
With extreme caution, he peeled away a wisp of aura, ten thousand times thinner than a spider's thread, from that boundless mass of Great Dao Merit.
This didn't deplete the Origin of Merit. It was merely the escape of a trace of its scent.
But to Lu Changsheng, it was no different from cutting off a piece of his flesh.
"Go on, then. Go open that foul woman's eyes!"
Lu Changsheng formed a hand seal.
Wrapped in his magical power, that wisp of Great Dao Merit's aura, so faint it was almost imperceptible, was sent soundlessly along a hidden passage of spiritual energy left open among the three thousand layers of formations.
At that moment.
Outside, Nuwa was sunk in deep doubt and contemplation.
She couldn't believe that such an absurd existence could be found in this world.
But the lingering aura of Purple Heaven Divine Lightning and the traces of the Old Earth Dragon's total annihilation kept confirming the mad claims of the lunatic inside the formation.
Just as she hesitated over whether to keep testing him.
Suddenly.
A faint, faint fluctuation drifted out from the depths of the formations before her. If she hadn't been at the peak of the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal realm, she would almost have overlooked it.
The moment that wisp of fluctuation touched the air outside.
The spiritual energy around them, which had grown somewhat chaotic from the damage to the formations, fell instantly silent.
It wasn't being suppressed. It was instinctive submission and reverence.
Nuwa abruptly raised her head.
In those eyes, still as an ancient well, unprecedented shock and astonishment burst forth.
She even stumbled half a step backward, as though she'd seen something terrifying enough to shatter her entire worldview.
This aura!
Pure! Boundless! Flawless!
It held not a trace of impurity, nor any emotion belonging to a living being.
It simply lingered lightly in the air, yet seemed to bear the supreme will that had existed ever since the Primordial Land was created.
"G-Great Dao Merit!"
As a top-tier Innate Divine Being born with the mission of creation, Nuwa understood all too well what those four words meant.
In the Primordial Land.
When one saved living beings or tended the Earth Veins, the Heavenly Dao bestowed Heavenly Dao Merit.
It was a reward from the Heavenly Dao for completing the world's laws. It could raise one's cultivation and ward off inner demons. It was a treasure every cultivator dreamed of obtaining.
But Great Dao Merit was different.
It was the supreme Origin left behind by Great God Pangu's magnificent will as he opened heaven and earth and transformed into all things—the will that had opened chaos and nurtured boundless life.
It did not belong to the Heavenly Dao. In a certain sense, it even stood above the Heavenly Dao.
Who in the Primordial Land could possess Great Dao Merit?
Even those mighty figures who had taken part in the Ferocious Beast Tribulation and founded sects—if they had so much as a trace of merit's golden light clinging to them, that alone would be enough to make them overlords of their own territories, worshiped by countless living beings.
And that wisp of aura leaking out from the formation before her.
It was pure and boundless, with not the slightest trace of anything acquired.
That meant the foul-mouthed, furtive fellow hiding in the formation, who kept going on about being framed, wasn't some lucky fool who had stumbled upon an opportunity.
H-He was a living being formed from Great Dao Merit itself!
"How can this be..."
Nuwa felt her breathing stop.
A being formed from Great Dao Merit?
That was billions of times more unbelievable than an ordinary stone gaining sentience!
The purer merit was, the heavier the karmic burden of heaven and earth it carried. For it to give birth to independent intelligence was practically defying the heavens.
It was like demanding that a ruler representing absolute justice suddenly possess the seven emotions and six desires. It was absurd.
And yet reality was laid out before her, plain as day.
Recalling the things Lu Changsheng had shouted earlier—
"Crash into someone, and the Heavenly Dao will bring down the highest level of heavenly punishment."
Before, Nuwa had thought those words were a lunatic's ravings. But now that she had confirmed his identity, hearing them again...
How could that be a madman's ravings?
It was plainly a statement of fact!
Harming an incarnation of Great Dao Merit?
That wasn't merely defying the heavens. It was like kicking Great God Pangu's coffin with both feet, hard enough to make the whole world quake!
Forget Purple Heaven Divine Lightning. Even if the Heavenly Dao had directly brought down the World-Destroying Millstone and ground the Old Earth Dragon into nothingness, Nuwa wouldn't have found it strange.
"No wonder..."
Nuwa looked at the outer formations she had broken through more than a hundred layers of. A trace of lingering fear flickered in her eyes.
"No wonder all these formations he set up are meant to defend and annoy people, with barely any power to attack."
"It's not that he doesn't want to kill his enemies. He doesn't need to. As long as someone breaks through his defenses and touches him, the Heavenly Dao will take care of the rest."
"He's a monster with an absolute damage-reflection shield."
If she hadn't stopped earlier, if she had really relied on her Primordial Unity Golden Immortal cultivation to force her way through these three thousand layers of formations and rush inside to see what was going on...
What if she accidentally touched one of his feathers?
At the thought, even Nuwa, who had one foot in the Great Luo realm, couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat.
"Gulp."
Inside the cave abode, Lu Changsheng stared intently at the water mirror.
He saw the bewilderment and shock on Nuwa's face, followed by a fleeting trace of lingering fear.
"It worked! This trick really worked!"
The heart lodged in Lu Changsheng's throat finally settled halfway back into his chest.
But his miserly nature immediately took over again.
"Got a good look? Had your fill? Now that you know my trump card, hurry up and back off!"
As he grumbled to himself, Lu Changsheng quickly opened his mouth and sucked in sharply.
"Whoosh—"
That wisp of Great Dao Merit's aura, which had finally managed to drift out through the passage, seemed to be tugged by an invisible thread. In an instant, Lu Changsheng sucked it back into his dantian and suppressed it firmly.
"Phew... Good thing I was quick. If it had drifted away into the world, I'd have lost ten years of cultivation."
Lu Changsheng patted his chest, his face full of heartache.
Outside.
The merit aura vanished, and the spiritual energy that had been suppressed around them began to flow again.
Nuwa came back to her senses from her deep shock.
An existence formed from Great Dao Merit.
To someone like her, who cultivated the Dao of Creation, he was the perfect subject to observe!
She wanted to understand how a life form so contrary to common sense had come into being in the Primordial Land.
More than that, she wanted to know whether the utterly pure aura of the Great Dao on him could complete the final piece of her comprehension of the Law of Creation and let her push open the door to the Daluo Golden Immortal realm.
"I see."
Nuwa took a deep breath, and a smile as gentle as a spring breeze caressing willow branches bloomed once more on her exquisite face.
She didn't call herself "I, this one" as she had before, nor did she mention destroying the formations again.
She folded her hands before her, bowed slightly, and made an extremely respectful Daoist salute toward the pile of ramshackle formations before her.
"Fellow Daoist, your fortune is profound, and your origins are truly rare in the Primordial Land. Just now, this poor Daoist was blind and gave offense."
Nuwa's voice turned incredibly gentle, carrying an unmistakable note of goodwill.
"Still, given your heaven-defying foundation, why have you shut yourself away here in this desolate place, using these... these rather crude materials to lay such a complicated formation around yourself?"
"With your status, even if you went to Mount Buzhou, you would be welcomed as an honored guest in the abodes of those mighty figures."
Before you continue