Choices

Cao Ya from [The Return of the Condor Heroes] and Cao Ya from [The Smiling, Proud Wanderer] nodded in deep agreement with the sentiments of Cao Ya from [Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils].

Once the machinery of the state began turning, its power was far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

Cao Ya from [Mysterious Revival] was aloof, even here in System Space, where everyone was "himself."

He was different from the calm Cao Yas from [Naruto] and [The Grave Robbers' Chronicles]. Their personal experiences had cooled their temperaments, but in truth, they still had a mischievous streak.

Only Cao Ya from [Mysterious Revival] had seen his world undergo a sweeping upheaval as malevolent ghosts revived, plunging it into a place like purgatory. Every time a malevolent ghost appeared, untold numbers of people died.

After witnessing so much of that, no matter how lively or playful Cao Ya from [Mysterious Revival] had once been, the oppressive weight would have crushed his temperament into cold indifference.

The world itself was oppressive.

In response to the goodwill of his other selves, Cao Ya from [Mysterious Revival] merely said he understood.

The other Cao Yas did not mind. They knew his temperament. Deep down, he still leaned toward a lawful alignment; otherwise, why would he have chosen to join an official organization?

Perhaps a Cao Ya inclined toward chaos would arrive in the future, but at least there was none yet.

Besides, they were all Cao Ya, and the underlying color of their personalities remained unchanged. It was simply that their different experiences, worlds, and environments after transmigrating inevitably caused their temperaments to diverge.

Overall, though, they might be lawful, neutral, or slightly chaotic, but a thoroughly chaotic and evil Cao Ya probably would not appear.

Well, probably.

None of them felt entirely certain. With their personalities, if they really encountered circumstances extreme enough, there was no guarantee they would not fall into darkness.

Each of them leafed through the other Cao Yas' memories, then returned to his own world.

[The Masters of This World].

Cao Ya stepped out of his meditation chamber, his brows tightly furrowed.

Meng Qi had entered Six Reincarnation Space. The curtain on this world had truly risen. How many peaceful days could possibly remain?

Cao Ya decided to enter seclusion. He swore he would not emerge until he reached Outer Scenery Ninth Heaven!

As it happened, the other Cao Yas had each gained insights. Combining them all, he could forget about attaining a Dharmakaya for now, and even Half-Step Dharmakaya would be difficult. But he reckoned advancing from Outer Scenery Seventh Heaven to Outer Scenery Ninth Heaven would not pose much trouble. He had a seventy to eighty percent chance.

When Kongwen, the abbot of the Shaolin Temple, learned of this, he asked a couple of questions and left it at that.

For one thing, plenty of Shaolin monks entered seclusion, so it did not warrant much attention. Cao Ya merely held a somewhat different position. Moreover, his declaration-"I swear not to emerge until I attain Outer Scenery Ninth Heaven"-made this a kind of death seclusion.

For another, Shaolin had encountered a whole pile of troubles. A visitor from the Profound Heaven Sect had died at Shaolin for no apparent reason, leaving the temple with a terrible headache.

Cao Ya knew, however, that Abbot Kongwen definitely knew the truth behind the Daoist's death. He simply did not dare reveal it.

That was because the current abbot of Shaolin, Kongwen, was actually the Demon Master Han Guang in disguise.

And the Demon Master Han Guang was himself a reincarnator of Six Reincarnation Space. How could he not know what had happened?

"Even the Shaolin Temple isn't safe." With a bitter expression, Cao Ya sighed, settled all his distracting emotions, and focused on cultivating the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art.

This cultivation art led straight to Dharmakaya and could condense the immovable wisdom king dharmakaya.

At this point, if he could reach the Dharmakaya Realm, even if it was only its first stage, human immortal, that would be enough to protect himself.

Provided he behaved himself and did not run around stirring things up, drawing the attention of those powerful figures behind the scenes.

After all, he would only be a minor human immortal with a Dharmakaya.

The Dharmakaya Realm in [The Masters of This World] consisted of human immortal, earth immortal, and heavenly immortal. The gaps between these three stages were enormous-almost as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth.

Even so, the initial human immortal stage could still be called powerful!

At this point, only a dozen or so Dharmakaya experts were active in the Real World. It would take another few decades, when the plot spiraled wildly out of control, before Dharmakaya experts became worth less than dogs.

"Dharmakaya... Dharmakaya..."

[Mysterious Revival]

Great Sun City.

Cao Ya walked out of his golden safe house with an indifferent expression. It was an empty villa, with no one living there besides him.

In the world of [Mysterious Revival], malevolent ghosts were reviving.

Ghosts could not be killed, and only ghosts could deal with other ghosts. If ordinary people wanted to confront a ghost, they had to discern its patterns and find a weakness to survive.

However, a ghost's power could not affect gold. Thus, a house made of gold was an absolutely safe place.

Such houses were called safe houses.

Gold was also the only material that could serve as a container for imprisoning malevolent ghosts.

Several malevolent ghosts were imprisoned in Cao Ya's residence.

He had not taken control of a malevolent ghost and become a Ghost Controller. Instead, he relied on the powers of the other Cao Yas to deal with the malevolent ghosts of this world.

Outer Scenery power was enough to affect an area spanning several or even dozens of li.

Though quite a few of the malevolent ghosts in [Mysterious Revival] could do that as well.

For instance, once Yang Jian's Ghost Eye opened five or six layers of its ghost domain, it could easily accomplish that.

And that Ghost Eye could open a full nine layers of its ghost domain!

Before Cao Ya transmigrated, the story had not even updated far enough to reveal what would happen when all nine layers opened at once.

With seven layers of the ghost domain, he could already reset himself!

This was an extraordinarily terrifying ability, no different from turning back time. Even if it only affected the Ghost Controller himself, it was still frightening enough.

Besides malevolent ghosts like that, some ghosts disregarded space, such as the Door-Knocking Ghost.

The Ghost Post Office counted too.

That was why Cao Ya had said the malevolent ghosts in [Mysterious Revival] were products of rules.

To oppose those rules without wielding power on the same level was to seek death.

Perhaps there were one-in-ten-thousand chances of survival. Many powerful Ghost Controllers, for example, had walked paths that could not be replicated. Even if they themselves walked those paths again, they would most likely fail.

Moreover, even when a malevolent ghost crashed, it still carried the risk of reviving and eroding the human body.

Even someone like Elder Qin at headquarters, who had been born a Ghost Controller and was practically a malevolent ghost himself while retaining a normal person's mind, still could not escape dying of old age after living for decades.

No matter how unusual or powerful his abilities were.

With so many examples laid out before him, Cao Ya certainly had no intention of controlling malevolent ghosts.

His goal was to dissect and study malevolent ghosts, just as Wang Xiaoming at headquarters did.

He even intended to take it further and study the rules behind these malevolent ghosts.

Rules made manifest were not something one could easily encounter.

If he thoroughly understood the malevolent ghosts of [Mysterious Revival], he could definitely reach an unimaginable realm.

But that was still far away.

At present, Cao Ya could rely on the power of the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art to imprison some ordinary malevolent ghosts, but he could not do the same with the more terrifying ones.

For instance, malevolent ghosts that existed in dreams, invaded memories, or altered time and space.

When Cao Ya encountered those, his best choice was still to keep a respectful distance.

For the supreme Dharmakaya arts of [The Masters of This World], breaking through Outer Scenery and attaining a Dharmakaya brought a series of exceptionally unusual transformations. Even one's inner scenery would begin evolving toward a real world.

At that level, his words would become law, and he would wield the Great Dao. Naturally, he could quell the malevolent ghosts of [Mysterious Revival] without so much as the effort of blowing away dust.

The problem was that Cao Ya was not even at Half-Step Dharmakaya, let alone Dharmakaya. He was only at Outer Scenery Seventh Heaven, nowhere near that formidable.

"I still have to be cautious, cautious, and more cautious!"