Good heavens, his merit was being deducted!
Li Ling had never imagined that his well-intentioned efforts to free these souls would lead to such a result.
Yet once he realized he had touched upon a principle of the Heavenly Dao, delight rose in his heart, along with a measure of excitement.
That was right: rather than alarm, he felt joy!
Great cultivators found merit golden clouds hard to obtain and regarded them as trump cards for surviving future heavenly tribulations. Whenever they were lucky enough to obtain one, they guarded it with their lives, striving to take in more without ever spending any.
Li Ling, however, knew that understanding the principles of the Heavenly Dao mattered more than momentary gains and losses.
This was his capital for trial and error, something that gave him more chances to experiment.
Once he truly mastered those principles, the gates to the Dao of merit would open before him.
"Does making these innocent souls disappear count as killing, too? Or were there some utterly vicious villains among them whose unresolved sins have been transferred to me?"
Li Ling quickly arrived at these two possibilities.
People said Heaven's will was unfathomable, but its broad outlines had always been perfectly clear.
He leaned toward both explanations being true. Although he had not killed those mortals, once he cleansed their impurities and restored them to pure human souls, their dispersal at his hands amounted to indirect killing.
The Ghost Path was also part of the cycle between Heaven and humanity, serving a certain function.
Li Ling immediately activated the Myriad Wonders Incense Transformation Art, trying to release Life-Cherishing Incense. Sure enough, there was no response whatsoever.
He had truly established the first principle!
Another thought quickly occurred to Li Ling: if the Heavenly Dao was fair, what