Heaven and Earth Merit

The black shadow lunged at Wang Ding with the speed of a thunderclap too fast to cover one's ears. In that instant, warning bells screamed in Wang Ding's heart, and he spun around, firing off a Blazing Fire Talisman.

As it turned out, when Wang Ding had seen the disciples of the major sects using yang-strong magical treasures, he had reacted at once and pulled a Blazing Fire Talisman from his robes. The black shadow had run straight into the muzzle.

A flash of fire burst forth and struck the black shadow dead-on, blasting it into flying ash. Then Wang Ding's expression suddenly turned utterly shocked.

In Wang Ding's eyes, after he killed the black shadow, a speck of golden light instantly flew into his body. To Wang Ding, who had obtained the Mysterious Yellow Undying Great Art, this could not have been clearer. This was merit—and moreover, merit of heaven and earth.

According to the information Wang Ding had obtained, he knew merit was divided into two kinds: one was humanitarian merit, and the other was merit of heaven and earth.

Humanitarian merit came from doing things beneficial to living beings, such as enlightening all beings, guiding people toward goodness, resolving karmic cause and effect, and so on.

Merit of heaven and earth, however, required contribution to heaven and earth. For example, during a great calamity of heaven and earth, the more cultivators one slew and the more vital energy one returned to heaven and earth, the more merit one would obtain after the calamity ended—and the merit gained then would be merit of heaven and earth. There were also acts such as regulating imbalances in heaven and earth's five elements, yin and yang, as well as maintaining the cyclical balance of nature's mountains and rivers, lakes and seas, streams and great rivers. Slaying creatures harmful to heaven and earth—Heavenly Demons—could likewise grant merit of heaven and earth.

The Heavenly Demon Wang Ding had killed was the weakest kind among Heavenly Demons, a Formless Shadow Demon. It could only exist in worlds of darkness and was extremely afraid of yang-strong treasures. Every time one killed a Heavenly Demon like this, one could obtain one point of merit of heaven and earth, and one point of merit of heaven and earth was comparable to one hundred points of humanitarian merit.

Wang Ding had once quantified merit. Merit was calculated in points. Every ten thousand points of humanitarian merit could be transformed into one strand of Mysterious Yellow Merit, and every one hundred points of merit of heaven and earth could be transformed into one strand of Mysterious Yellow Merit.

Mysterious Yellow Merit was the amount of merit Wang Ding needed in order to cultivate a strand of Mysterious Yellow Qi.

The Mysterious Yellow Undying Great Art was a peerless, miraculous technique. Cultivating the first layer required nine strands of Mysterious Yellow Merit, and each layer above that required nine times as much, all the way until the tenth layer was mastered. At that point, it would become a matter of purely accumulating Mysterious Yellow Qi until one attained the Dao of Primordial Chaos.

Right now, Wang Ding was lacking merit and fortune. Seeing such benefits from killing them, how could he let the chance slip by? He immediately stopped and turned to face the other three. A glint flashed through his eyes as he said, "Everyone, if you trust me, then do not leave yet. Follow me and slay these black shadows together. When the time comes, there will surely be benefits as vast as the heavens."

Huang Tutian and the other two frowned as they looked at Wang Ding. After exchanging glances, they nodded, and Huang Tutian stepped forward to reply, "Since Senior Brother Wang Ding says so, there must be a reason. Since we came here together, we should naturally advance and retreat together."

Wang Ding nodded in satisfaction and said, "You three, in a moment, we will first move beside the Starlight Passage, then lure a small number of black-shadow Demonic Beasts over and kill them. However, we must act carefully. If we provoke a large number of black-shadow Demonic Beasts into surrounding and attacking us, we will immediately dive into that Starlight Passage and give up the battle."

Long Lingyu took the lead and said, "We will do as Senior Brother Wang Ding says."

The four of them arrived beside the starlight and kept careful guard. At this moment, Wang Ding circulated his energy through his whole body and slowly forced out a trace of qi and blood. Immediately, it was like sharks in the sea smelling blood; the Formless Shadow Demons within a hundred meters around them charged madly toward them. There were fully fifteen Heavenly Demons.

Boom, boom. Explosions rang out nonstop. Wang Ding was continuously using Blazing Fire Talismans to attack the charging Formless Shadow Demons. Because these Shadow Demons were all low-level Demonic Beasts without intelligence and possessed only instinct, they rushed toward the four in clustered groups and became living targets. A few talismans blasted a whole swath of them to death. After some time passed, there were already no cultivators left in this space. They had either charged into the starlight, or had already been drained of essence and blood by the Formless Shadow Demons, their blood energy turning them into dried corpses.

At this moment, only Wang Ding and the other three were still persisting in killing the Shadow Demons. However, as more and more Formless Shadow Demons charged toward them, Wang Ding and the others' talismans were about to run out as well. "All right, everyone, stop killing them. Leave quickly. Now all the Demonic Beasts are charging toward us—go!" Wang Ding shouted.

Everyone lifted their eyes and looked over, only to see a black torrent rushing toward them, countless Demonic Beasts roaring within it.

Everyone was badly startled and hurriedly threw out all their remaining yang-strong talismans, clearing out the Formless Shadow Demons around them in one sweep. Then they plunged headfirst into the Starlight Passage behind them. After a wave of dizziness, the four of them appeared in a tunnel.

"Everyone, do you know where this is?" Wang Ding surveyed the surroundings, and only then did the others realize that they seemed to be in a gigantic tunnel about three zhang high and two zhang wide. Moss giving off a faint fluorescent glow illuminated the entire cave from the ceiling.

Dongfang Riyue examined it for a long while, then suddenly cried out, "This seems to be the Million Earth Abyss. I once heard of this place in my clan. It is a different dimension within Heavenly Void, a world completely made of stone, with countless tunnels extending in all directions and countless monsters within. We must be careful. Those monsters are numerous, and some are comparable to Golden Core cultivators in the Qi Training Realm. But legend says the monsters here are born with a kind of Inner Core. After consuming it, one can accelerate the fusion of divine sense and Innate True Qi, which is an enormous benefit for us in breaking through to the Qi Training Realm."

At this moment, Wang Ding and the other three were in a dead end. At the end of the alley floated a ball of white light—it was precisely the Starlight Passage Wang Ding and the others had passed through.

Long Lingyu suddenly looked at Wang Ding with puzzlement and said, "Brother Wang, you had us kill Demonic Beasts in Heavenly Void and said there would be benefits as vast as the heavens. What exactly are these benefits?"

Seeing the three of them look at him curiously, waiting for his explanation, Wang Ding gave the explanation he had prepared long ago. "Have you ever heard of Heavenly Demons?"

When Long Lingyu and the other two heard this, they were immediately shocked. According to legend, countless years ago in ancient times, there had been a great calamity that affected all heavens and myriad worlds, all time and space, leading to the destruction of the ancient cultivators. Legend said it was caused by Heavenly Demons.

Long Lingyu's lovely face immediately lost color as she said, "Could those black shadows be Heavenly Demons?"

Wang Ding smiled mysteriously and said, "Exactly. However, they should be low-level Heavenly Demons." It was not strange that Wang Ding knew those were Heavenly Demons. In the myths and legends of Earth, Heavenly Demons were Demonic Beasts that devoured people's essence, blood energy, and souls. Moreover, they were formless and without appearance, beings from beyond the heavens, and killing them granted merit. By slightly combining that with his own experiences today, it was not hard for Wang Ding to judge that what he had slain were things like Heavenly Demons. And even if they were not, so what? As long as there were benefits, even if they were not, they were now.

Huang Tutian frowned and said, "Even if they are Heavenly Demons, what benefit does that have for us?"

Wang Ding stared at the three of them and said with a smile, "Have you ever heard of merit?"

"Merit? Could killing Heavenly Demons grant merit?" Dongfang Riyue said in shock.

"I can be one hundred percent certain that killing Heavenly Demons grants merit, and not a small amount either," Wang Ding said with iron nails and chopped steel certainty.

Although the other three did not know why Wang Ding was so confident, they tactfully did not ask further. Everyone had their own secrets, and smart people would not dig to the roots.