A Great Harvest of Mental Insights!

Li Yuan moved with incredible speed.

Orders streamed out from the estate.

No one understood why he was doing this.

Li Yuan offered no explanation.

He merely sat by the bed, clutching his daughter's icy hand, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the phone and dealt with one matter after another.

His heart, filled with despair, now held only one conviction.

Give away all his wealth.

Save the suffering masses.

This was the path the immortal master had shown him, and the path he had shown his daughter.

He had to keep walking it.

On the first day.

The first enormous sum of money arrived.

Li Yuan did not hesitate in the slightest.

In the most rundown slum in the western part of the city, dozens of enormous porridge stations were erected overnight.

Steaming bowls of plain congee, pickled vegetables, and steamed buns were supplied without limit to anyone going hungry.

The homeless and the poor stared at this surreal scene in utter disbelief.

The first person's hands shook violently as he accepted a bowl of piping-hot congee from a man in a suit, unable to believe his own eyes.

"It's free? Really free?"

"It's free."

That executive, who normally looked down on everyone, was now clumsily learning how to serve porridge, his tone carrying a reverence even he had not noticed.

The news quickly spread through every dark corner of the city.

Countless people struggling on the brink of starvation poured in.

As they drank the life-saving porridge, tears streamed down their faces, and they repeatedly asked who had provided it.

"It was Li Yuan—the richest man in the city, the benevolent Li!"

On the second day.

Several private clinics in the city that were on the verge of closing were bought outright by a mysterious foundation.

New signs were hung outside.

"Free Medical Care! For three days, all poor citizens may receive treatment and medicine free of charge."

Countless people tormented by illness but unable to afford medical care entered the clinics with their families supporting them, half doubtful and half hopeful.

When they truly received medicine for free and were carefully treated by doctors, their pent-up suffering turned into heart-wrenching sobs.

On the third day.

The city government's education department received an anonymous donation of an astronomical amount.

The donation had only one condition: establish a special fund to support every orphan and child from an impoverished family in the city until they graduated from university.

On the fourth day, then the fifth.

Li Yuan's business empire was collapsing at an astonishing pace.

Yet the streets and alleys of the city had gained many more smiling faces.

Over tea and meals, everyone talked about Li Yuan, the wealthy man who had suddenly gone mad.

People no longer called him President Li or Boss Li.

They called him "Great Benefactor Li."

Some secretly called him a "living bodhisattva."

This "living bodhisattva" was no longer the wealthy merchant in silk pajamas.

He changed into the plainest roughspun clothes and appeared before one of the porridge stations.

He did not direct anyone. He merely picked up a ladle in silence and personally served porridge to those waiting in line.

His movements went from awkward to practiced, while his face became covered in steam and dust.

Those hands, once used only to sign documents and hold wineglasses, were blistered several times by the edge of the pot.

He had grown thinner and darker.

He looked ten years older.

Yet those hollow eyes gradually began to shine.

Each time he saw someone who had gone hungry smile because of a bowl of porridge.

Each time he heard a heartfelt, "Thank you, Great Benefactor."

Li Yuan's heart felt an unprecedented sense of peace.

This was not atonement.

It was redemption.

Redemption for those souls struggling amid suffering, and redemption for himself.

In the villa's guest room, Lin Xuan sat cross-legged.

He had not gone out, yet the changes throughout the city were clearly reflected in his mind.

He "saw" Li Yuan's actions.

He also "saw" the gratitude of those who had received help.

The corner of Lin Xuan's mouth lifted slightly.

"So this is what 'merit' truly is."

In the past, he had earned merit by slaying demons and eliminating evil, by upholding justice on Heaven's behalf.

That was subtraction.

Erasing the "evil" in the world.

What he was doing with Li Yuan now was addition.

He was having him create "good," using his own money to kindle hope in countless hearts.

Seeing things unfold according to his plan, he mobilized his divine sense and began using the methods he had comprehended from the texts over the past few days to tend to the girl's mind and body in the hospital room.

A trace of color began to return to her pale cheeks.

As Lin Xuan tended to her, he contemplated.

Now, he finally understood the line from the general outline of Nine Tribulations of the Divine Soul: "The mortal world is the finest furnace for tempering the heart."

Tempering the heart did not mean locking oneself away.

It meant entering the world, experiencing it, and changing it.

Planting good causes with one's own hands and witnessing good results with one's own eyes.

Lin Xuan felt the warm, gentle goodwill thoroughly wash over his somewhat restless state of mind.

His state of mind rose once more.

On the seventh day, at dusk.

The shares in the last company under Li Yuan's name were successfully sold.

His business empire became history.

Other than this estate and an amount of money barely enough to keep himself alive, he had nothing left.

Dragging his exhausted body, Li Yuan returned to his daughter's hospital room.

He sat by her bed, as he had for the past six days, holding his daughter's hand and softly telling her about what he had seen and heard that day.

His voice was hoarse, yet gentle.

As he spoke, he leaned against the bedside and fell asleep.

Over the past seven days, he had barely closed his eyes.

At the very instant he sank into sleep.

The little hand he held suddenly twitched, one finger moving ever so slightly.