The Dao of karma was profoundly mysterious. Li Ling suspected that his recent actions had touched certain unseen laws, forcing him to undergo a tribulation like a high-level cultivator.
According to the experience of cultivators from the Immortal Sects, he now had two choices. The first was to withdraw immediately and distance himself, no longer involving himself in these worldly entanglements and the complexities of human hearts.
As long as the tribulation could not gather, it would never truly take shape. The karma already clinging to him could slowly be worn away by time.
The second was to keep throwing himself into it, forge boldly ahead, and break the deadlock through sheer strength.
This would let him overcome the tribulation faster and emerge renewed, but it also involved greater hardship and danger.
Which path should I take?
Li Ling could not help pondering deeply.
But soon, he held firm to his Dao heart and continued forward.
Li Ling still hurried onward without pause, traveling to the next town to enter dreams and deliver warnings.
The information channels available to him were far beyond anything ordinary people could access. Through knowledge passed down by their elders, they might know which nearby ground was higher and offered temporary refuge, but they would not necessarily know which landlords were wealthier and had larger grain stores, where roads were blocked or bridges washed away, or which places were truly safe enough to hold out for the long term.
Over the past few days, Li Ling had specifically ordered people to study hydrological records from previous years. He notified every high-risk village and town around the Royal City, making targeted plans well in advance.
For several nights in succession, wind and rain battered the land and people trembled with anxiety, while a deity came to them in their dreams.
Countless people compared their experiences after waking and exclaimed that Grandfather River God was truly merciful and compassionate.
Then they hurriedly packed their belongings and fled along the routes to survival revealed in their dreams.
Because he so frequently impersonated the Great Lin River God, Li Ling felt increasingly at ease using this Divine Kingdom domain. Practice was also perfecting his Soul-Possession Dream Transmission and Nightmare-Suppression Arts.
Unfortunately, Lin Rouniang had not slept again, nor had she entered a meditative trance.
She seemed determined to keep holding out until the Dream Spirit dispersed on its own.
Could a full-fledged Demonic Path cultivator really fear dropping dead from lack of sleep?
Meanwhile, the Unusual Events Bureau was also taking action.
Zuo Zhongliang and the others withdrew from the flooded Hundred Bright City. After a brief rest, they resumed striking out in all directions, exterminating band after band of Demonic Path lackeys who were looting amid the chaos.
But several days later, they suddenly received a new intelligence report.
"With large numbers of refugees gathering in the Royal City, the Demonic Path intends to use magic to flood it!"
Everyone was stunned by the news.
Flood the Royal City?
Its population was already far beyond its intended capacity, approaching a million. With the refugees added, it was a full two million.
If their enemies succeeded, the consequences would be unimaginable!
"Why does it keep raining?"
"Exactly. It's been more than ten days already, and it still won't stop. It's driving me mad."
"I heard it's even worse upstream. Almost two months now. Hundred Bright City has been flooded too, and over a hundred thousand people are crammed onto barren mountains outside the city. How pitiful."
"There seem to be more and more refugees in the Royal City. I heard Mother Lin say it's a chaotic crush over by the city walls."
In the inner courtyard of the Prince Consort's Residence, several maidservants had nothing to do. They simply brought stools beneath the eaves to watch the rain, chatting as they cracked melon seeds and ate candied fruit.
Li Ju responded absentmindedly, with White Lion lying across her knees. She deftly trimmed his claws, then picked up Flower Leopard to trim his.
Jie Hua held out her fair, delicate palm and played with the rain dripping from the eaves.
Suddenly, she cried out and flung the rainwater from her hand.
The maidservant embroidering beside her laughed and scolded, "Are you trying to scare me to death? You made me jump!"
But Jie Hua pointed at the ground, too horrified to speak coherently. "Th-this..."
The maidservants looked over curiously, only for the color to drain from their pretty faces as well. "Ah!"
At some unknown point, a reddish-brown color had begun mingling with the rain.
It looked like fresh blood.
Inside the Fragrant Incense Pavilion, Li Ling was fretting over his approaching tribulation. Everything between heaven and earth now gave off a faint rotten stench, and nothing smelled pleasant anymore. When someone suddenly reported this matter, he too was startled.
He hurriedly sent someone to fetch the Ninth Princess and asked whether she knew the cause.
The Ninth Princess said, "I just took a look. It isn't blood, but some kind of mineral."
Li Ling asked, "Minerals are in the earth. How did they get into the sky?"
The Ninth Princess said, "Divine arts are strange and unfathomable. There's always a way. Perhaps they intend to use this opportunity to destroy the soil's fertility, making it difficult to grow crops next year at the very least."
Li Ling froze for a moment, feeling a chill pierce his bones. "How vicious!"
He now recalled that similar incidents had indeed occurred in the history of the Mystic Continent.
Besides terrifying Mortal People, this bloody rain could drastically reduce the following year's harvest.
Even drinking water would become difficult to obtain in the short term, because the rain contained metallic substances resembling rust.
The residence's drinking water came from the Western Mountain, where dedicated guards watched over the source. Failing that, there were underground springs. If necessary, they could draw water from below ground and filter it through multiple layers, producing water even better than that of Snow Mountain Lake. Li Ling was not worried about that.
But the vast numbers of refugees gathered inside and outside the Royal City would suffer.
Li Ling could not help cursing, "These Demonic Path villains have committed every evil imaginable. Aren't they afraid of heaven's punishment?"
But he also knew how powerless those words were. He was merely venting.
Every evil imaginable? Heaven's punishment?
If the Heavenly Dao possessed awareness, it would only say that this was a trivial matter, unworthy of mention.
Never mind a mere million people-even tens of millions or a hundred million were only numbers that could grow back in a dozen-odd years.
On a greater scale, let alone the rise and fall of a nation or a people-even the extinction of stars and the remaking of heaven and earth amounted to little in the universe.
Human lives were matters of heavenly importance only in human eyes. One should not constantly trouble Heaven with such trifles.
After calming down, Li Ling asked, "Qing Si, do you know anything about karma and tribulations?"
The Ninth Princess said, "I studied in a blessed grotto-heaven from childhood. Of course I do."
Li Ling beckoned her over to sit beside him and said earnestly, "I'd like to understand. Tell me how it works."
Knowing that Li Ling had always been interested in the affairs of the Immortal Sects, the Ninth Princess began explaining.
Only then did Li Ling learn that Thunder Tribulation ranked highest among all tribulations. It generally descended once every thousand years, specifically striking nonhuman beings taking human form and ancient creatures that had lived too long. Only by perceiving one's true nature, illuminating the heart, and remaining serene and free of striving could one evade it. Those unable to evade it had to withstand it head-on and could easily be reduced to ashes.
Below it were the calamities of wind and fire. The wind calamity was called Bì Wind: it entered through the crown of the head into the six bowels, passed through the dantian and pierced the nine apertures, wasting away flesh and bone until the body unraveled of its own accord. The fire calamity was called yin fire: it burned upward from beneath the Yongquan points, pierced straight into the Niwan Palace, turned the five organs to ash, and rotted all four limbs.
These three were Heavenly Tribulations, mostly related to a cultivator's lifespan, realm, and cultivation. None could escape them, whether immortal or demonic, righteous or wicked.
Before ascension, they were also called Minor Heavenly Tribulations. The trial of ascension itself was called the Major Heavenly Tribulation and would be an unprecedented test.
More common, however, were Human Tribulations-the eight hardships and seven injuries.
These mostly arose from grudges, love and hatred, and conflicts of the Dao heart.
Some cultivators used them to temper themselves and gain more trump cards against the Major and Minor Heavenly Tribulations. Others substituted a plum tree for a peach, finding someone to face the tribulation in their stead, or used merit and blessings to avert calamity. The specifics depended on their Dao Path and personal choices.
The Ninth Princess said, "The Immortal Sects advise their disciples to stay away from conflict and preferably not interfere too much with the workings of the mortal world. That is the proper path to avoiding calamity and hardship."
Li Ling said, "In other words, maintain a detached attitude?"
The Ninth Princess's eyes brightened, and she smiled. "You've summed it up perfectly, husband. Exactly-remain detached and don't lightly step into the fray to interfere. Mortal affairs are tangled and tumultuous, and often, the more you do, the more mistakes you make."
Li Ling nodded. He now understood exactly where his tribulation had come from.
His efforts to save people everywhere might have begun with good intentions, but no matter how good those intentions were, they could still produce bitter consequences.
Perhaps, in traveling around to issue warnings and save refugees, he had preserved the lives of people who should originally have died.
Or perhaps he had cut off the chance of survival for people who might otherwise have lived.
These were indeed not matters that could be untangled merely by showing kindness and acting heroically. The natural order and cultivation paths of this world had their own unique laws.
If good and evil karma were easy to distinguish, the immortal masters would long since have come out to rack up merit to their hearts' content. Why would he ever have needed to worry about it?
Yet Li Ling remained unmoved, because he believed that Heaven cherished life.
Preserving the people earns merit. That's a fundamental law. It cannot be wrong.
If things appear contradictory, the Dynastic Cycle Law is very likely at work.
The Dynastic Cycle Law of this world is malformed and incomplete. The descendants of immortal masters rule its nations, and mortal karma is hard to dispel. Could there also be a tacit understanding behind their standing by while the Demonic Path causes trouble?
Some matters truly could not bear close examination. The more he considered them, the more terrifying they became, and Li Ling hurriedly stopped himself.
After discussing the teachings of the Immortal Sects with the Ninth Princess, he learned that tribulations took many forms. The most direct and dangerous among them were Heavenly Tribulations.
But aside from Heavenly Tribulations, Human Tribulations were equally difficult to handle.
For instance, invisible inner demons could bewilder all five senses the moment one fell prey to them.
Some cultivators inexplicably encountered a lifelong enemy, spending their entire lives entangled with that person, suppressed and countered at every turn. That too was a form of tribulation.
The Heavenly Dao's failure to provide any warning during a tribulation was itself a form of tribulation. Those unable to recognize this might lose their lives for no apparent reason without ever understanding why.
His proud talent was Incense Perception, and he believed it allowed him to distinguish good from evil, beauty from ugliness. Yet now he smelled a rotten stench filling heaven and earth. It might be closely connected to his Dao heart.
No person or thing in the world existed outside karma, and tribulation power accumulated at every moment. Time itself, however, possessed the mighty power to erode all things, slowly dissipating anything that had not reached the conditions necessary to manifest.
With this understanding, he could also begin to unravel the reasoning behind some of the immortal masters' actions.
"Only now do I understand why I could trade fairly with the Skycloud Sect despite our clearly unequal standing. Righteous immortal masters value promises over profit-or rather, fair trade itself is the greatest profit."
The Ninth Princess smiled. "Yes. The more righteous someone is, the less willing they are to take things for nothing. Taking certain things means shouldering karma."
Li Ling frowned inwardly. He had slain plenty of demons and monsters and taken their spoils.
Still, killing tribulations could be dispelled through killing. If slaying demons and monsters meant shouldering karma too, then let it come.
Suddenly remembering something, he asked the Ninth Princess curiously, "Then what karma is involved in your marrying an ordinary mortal like me as a cultivator? Are you laying the groundwork to dispel a tribulation of love?"
The Ninth Princess admitted it openly. "By entering into a romantic bond and facing it proactively, I won't have to be troubled by love again in the future. Back then, you wished for a virtuous wife and beautiful companion, and all the wealth and honor of the mortal world. Old Ancestor used my opportunity for tempering to grant your wish."
"The time for me to face my tribulation should come after your passing, husband. I only hope you too can obtain an immortal opportunity. Then we could nest and fly together, cultivating the Great Dao side by side. Wouldn't everyone envy us?"
There was no need to conceal that Old Ancestor had betrothed the Ninth Princess to Li Ling to achieve several ends at once. But this was no sinister scheme; it was an entirely open arrangement.
If Li Ling could not withstand the passage of time, the Ninth Princess could sever the root of her romantic attachments completely and focus on Foundation Establishment.
If Li Ling defied heaven and changed his fate, he and the Ninth Princess could support and watch over each other.
It was simply because of the Ninth Princess's temperament. To put it less kindly, she was somewhat lovestruck by nature. With the right husband, she would be very happy, but with the wrong man, things could easily end in tragedy.
Old Ancestor had long since seen through her character and chosen a husband for her, preemptively avoiding a tribulation of love and even, intentionally or otherwise, binding Li Ling to the Skycloud Sect.
This was how righteous experts dealt with karma and calamity. They followed the current without leaving a trace, quietly averting disasters and making all the right choices, while also arranging the futures of their descendants and disciples and laying plans for what lay ahead.
The principle of fairness was the Dao, while all those calculations were the arts. Li Ling suddenly felt that there was much in this approach worth learning.
Just then, the residence's chief steward, Eunuch Xu, hurried in with exceedingly unusual haste. Bowing, he reported, "Your Highnesses, something terrible has happened!"
"What has happened?" Li Ling asked.
Eunuch Xu said, "A secret report from the Unusual Events Bureau says the Demonic Path may release water to flood the city. They want us to prepare in advance!"
"What?"
Li Ling and the Ninth Princess were both shocked.
But they were shocked by different things.
Li Ling was concerned about the enormous number of people gathered inside and outside the city. They were all living human beings-and his karma was involved as well.
The Ninth Princess, however, was concerned about whether the Prince Consort's Residence would be flooded. She hurriedly ordered, "Quickly check the hydrological records and see whether any previous flood reached this place. Find someone knowledgeable to inspect it."
Li Ling said gravely, "There's no need. These past few days, I happened to consult Vice Minister Yin, who oversees the Royal City's waterworks. He explicitly told me that even a once-in-a-thousand-years flood would not reach the residence."
"The Great Lin River God is not the Great Lin Sea God, after all. Unless we're being specifically targeted, the flood can reach only the lower city at most."
This district had been specially chosen by royalty and nobility as a residential area. The several steep slopes they had to climb on their way home were not there to make their lives miserable, but to shelter them from disaster when it mattered.
The Ninth Princess breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good, then."
Li Ling murmured, "It isn't good at all."
For both public and personal reasons, he had to save those refugees and thoroughly thwart the Demonic Path's plot.
Soon afterward, the Ninth Princess went out to inspect supplies and reassure everyone, while also preparing boats, hide rafts, and similar items in advance.
Li Ling leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, pondering for a long time. Then he suddenly smiled.
The refugees now faced imminent disaster, and he too bore the immense pressure of karmic entanglement. Yet instead, he smiled as though a great burden had been lifted.
His brows curved slightly, but his eyes shone with an inexplicable brilliance, as though a flame danced within them.
"Since you intend to wipe them all out, don't blame me..."
"I don't care about your sects' schemes or your ten-thousand-year grudges. Push me far enough, and I'll stop at nothing. I'll do whatever it takes!"